A bit of a stall

After a few good weeks with the winter weather being kind and managing to avoid any nasty winter cold viruses, it was inevitable that something was going to go, and maybe a blessing in disguise both came at the same time! After planning on running the Long Mynd Valleys race last weekend and opting out due to a heavy snowfall locally i wanted to do the Winter Hill race this morning near Horwich, but the ice and a dose of man flu put paid to that.

Found out this morning that i have got a place in the Ben Nevis race on September 1st, which is very pleasing as i haven't raced it for two years and in my view is the finest race in the UK, not the route as such (although there is something about racing up and down the highest mountain in Britain) but more about the history and atmosphere, that's not even mentioning the great night on the beer afterwards. This also confirms my travel plans for the summer, seeing as i can fly from Geneva to Edinburgh for 40 quid there doesn't seem much point in going home until after the Ben so i will extend my trip by another week and head up to Fort William straight from Chamonix. My main racing aims now being the British Championships , Sierre - Zinal and Ben Nevis, I will be playing it by ear as to any other races i run this year.

This gives me a bit of a focus now and i hope to get as much ascent in as possible locally throughout the week and then races or long runs at the weekends aswell as pushing on with the climbing. I have a great route i can run from my front door that is all off road to the top of Alphin pike and back, it works out at around 9 miles with 2200ft ascent that is mostly runnable all the way and usually takes between 1:25 to 1:35 at a steady pace depedning on conditions,it is such an enjoyable run in that it has everything apart from any flat!! Nice fast tracks, bogs, steep climbs, gentle climbs, and really good descent as you can see from the picture below.  I hope to run this route a few times a week for the next few months to get a good solid base in for going to the alps. And maybe i'll finally get a race in at some point as it's been 4 months now. The pictures below show my favourite local hill, Alphin.                                                     

                  (Photos from wildaboutbritain.co.uk and geograph.org)