Calderdale mk3

With legs still slightly aching from the Hull Marathon less than 6 days ago I once again found myself getting kit-checked in the now familiar Sowerby Cricket club. For what is always one of the best trail events of the year. It's almost a unique event in my calender as its the only event I regularly do with no set route. You just get a list of coordinates for checkpoints and plan your own route. A great little challenge, especially for those like me who don't regularly run the area.

I'd first been here in 2008. On a moody day, Calderdale made an impression on me I've never quite forgotten. I tackled just my second ultra, the first running around with usual running partner Mark. As we climbed to Top Withins the rain of the day turned to sleet and snow and it got very cold for awhile. I distinctly remember having to double up my thin gloves on the way down. Lots of rain beforehand also meant lots of mud too! I was knackered at this point from my average 5mph pace, only just over halfway and I reckon I held Mark up a good deal this day. The crossing of Hoof Stones Moor also provided a first as I mid-judged a jump over a muddy stream and sank in nearly to my waist. I was glad I wasn't alone as getting out wasn't a doddle. Then the sun came out and the last section of our 9hr 7min round was a lot more pleasurable.

I returned in 2010 to run around with Claire, expecting the worst of conditions again. Convinced that Calderdale moorland must be some of the boggiest and harshest around. Thankfully my negativity didn't scare Claire off and we had a very different day on a changed route. The sun shone, the air was still if anything some complained it was too hot on this day. And the moorland sections on route were amazingly dry. I though this must be a one off and my lucky day. The route was also a joy with climbs up Thievely Pike and Sttodley Pike contributing to make it one of my favourite routes ever.

2011 and the "mk2" route again - well for me. This time I ran around with Mark and - for much of the route - Dave. Conditions were as last year, if anything even warmer and we had a great round in 7:14.

So what would my "Calderdale route mk3" experiance be like? Much chat on the fellrunner forum beforehand related to the routes over Hoof Stones and surrounding moors, that had been reintroduced to the route following a 3 year absence. Following late winter warnings of a drought around much of England, it rained quite a lot in the week before the event. And when I'd last been in the area, during March, for the Wuthering Hike, the local reservoirs - unlike those almost everywhere else - were showing no signs of drought. Would I be in mud to my waist again sometime during the day?

Going well from the off and this year we leave Sowerby on a western bearing, with this years route being an clockwise loop. The previous route had finished from this direction which is the only way to approach Sowerby without climbing a hill immeadiately beforehand. A steady run walk and we were passed CP1 quickly and hit the trails as we crossed a valley south of Mytholmroyd. I got talking to another local of Hull, Simon, who had also been posting about the event on the fellrunner forum. So the early miles went quickly discussing our various events and our approach to training for hills being from such a flat city.

On the way back up the other side of the valley we somehow got dettached from the rest of the field..... Ok, I'll admit it, Mark, Simon and I were busy gassing and must have missed a turn without others around at the time to correct us. No big issue though, funnily enough this often happens to me and Mark, perhaps we talk too much and should put more energy into navigation..... probably not ;)

No big issue though. Checked map and GPS and we turned north and saw the path running below along the hillside so we followed a parallel path at higher level rather than descend again and add distance. The path did run out though and we had to hop a wall, barbed wire fence and then "commando roll" beneath more barbed wire, but we kept a direct approach and joined CP2 (Erringden Grange), just from a different direction to others.

Onwards and the next target was Stoodley Pike, should be easy today, with an apprach from its shallow, east flank rather than a trudge up from the west. Stoodley pike (CP3) bagged and all is well so I try and keep a good pace down the west-side, dodging walkers, joining the road at Mankinholes to soon reach Lumbutts and CP4 at the church. First full-food CP and I gobbled down a cheese slice sandwich, I do love a sandwich to break up sugary snacks on the longer runs and the Calderdale Hike always provides!

Now after our, almost, frantic round of early CP they started to space out from here on and the route options also started to explode for some sections. Considering we'd been lost..... no off the optimum route once already, maybe I needed to pay better attention to the map. I had a GPS breadcrumb line to follow, but this wouldn't be much help if I'd mapped my route onto a naff path or something.

Leaving the CP we followed others through the car park of a tempting looking inn. And at ultra-plod speed we had adequate chance to even check out the beers on offer. Wonder if I could sell a night away in an inn near "Mankinholes" to the missus..... on second thoughts I'll probably just say its in the more, attractive-sounding, Calderdale.

We descended to and navigated through Millwood and up the bank, sometimes following those little Calderdale low key paths, that could equally be into somebodies back garden. I was confused approaching the Cross Stones checkpoint (near Golf Course) as people were running back towards us and onto the road. At the time this confused me, but looking at the map now I can see how the road route might have been faster underfoot, but it looks a bit longer and can't have been as much fun.

Perhaps the road-following folk knew what was coming next though. A multitude of route choices awaited. At first there were two paths running alongside each other, just seperated by a wall, which made me nervous. The other path peeled off downhill soon though, so I was briefly confident again that we were on route. Then we hit a route choice and I persuaded Mark and another to follow me down a path I mistakenly thought was the Calderdale Way.

We were soon off route again and opted to climb up, slip down, choose a new route and then recommence our climb up a slippery muddy bank up to East Whirlaw. As we edged around a field the farmer came out of the house, "has he got a gun?", "no", "good, keep going".

Back on track and nav got easier again, a decent, sometimes paved path allowed Mark and I to catch a few people who'd got ahead of us on route choice. Soon we were at Mount Cross (CP6) and our next destination loomed into view north. Soon it would be the time for the big route decision.

We headed up the road and joined th track onto the moor. It quickly got a bit damp underfoot and as we steadily climbed we had to navigate around a few water obstacles. The face wind increased and almost within site of the Hoof Stone heights trig and CP the came hail started. This was one of those times where you think, if this continues for the whole moor crossing its going to be horrible! Visions of 8 hours of wind and rain running at Hardmoors 2010 entered my mind. But, thankfully it was brief and ended almost as quickly as it begun.

Big decision time - we asked the CP staff which way people were crossing the moor. The options here are; north along a boggy fence line onto a good eastward trail, east along a possible boggy permissive path to hit a possibly boggy path north, or go as straight as possible diagonally across the moor. It turns out all options had been taken that day so we decided to be bold and cut diagonally across using a lone tree and then Gorple Lower reservoir as our lines.

This went pretty well, suprisingly runnable, not as wet as the alternative routes it seems (we worked around a few pools of standing water and easily jumped cloughs), and the tussocks were confined to thin stretches. I'm not saying it was easy running, but not as tough as I'd prepared for. The only slight disadvantage is we had to drop a fair bit of height to Gorple Upper reservoir dam wall and then it was a trudge back up through some heather to get to the path leading to Widdop reservoir. I reckon we even over took a few people on other routes using this less-distance option.

One thing never changes with this event and that is a well stocked CP at Widdop, here I snacked while mark mixed up some more energy drink - I wasn't through first bottle yet as had been taking on water in one bottle at other CP. We got back on the brief downhill road section before a climb on the Calder/Aire link to meet the lower of the three Walshaw Dean reservoirs.

The next section was fairly tough as we climbed away from the reservoir to Top Withins. I was pushing a good run/walk pace and Mark and I overtook and made good ground on a few others - including a local who told us he was knackered, which didn't sound good at barely over halfway (I've been there in 2008!). The near constant headwind since the climb to Hoof Stone heights was wearing people down. I still felt pretty good though and confident I was well within myself despite the marathon less than a week ago.

We topped out and dropped slightly to Top Withins where people were sheltering behind the ruin or the marshalls tent (obviously drew the short straw). We ran into Nick here who was taking pictures, he's wrote an event report here, which is of his usual high quality and has some bits about feeding slugs you donm't want to read about whilst eating. he was debating route and trying to find the high-level path marked on maps over Haworth moor.

After a quick tuna sandwich we were off again, persuing a small number of people just ahead. We mad good pace and caught a few at the Bronte Bridge, where we spotted the aforementioned 'knackered guy' trudging up a hillside path rather than taking the undulating tourist path like others. After a quick consult of map, we decided to follow as it looked like a brief climb would then lead to a straight track downhill and less distance than the around Haworth moor route that others were taking.

This route choice was just as mapped and no difficulties. We arrived at the Tom Stell's Seat CP near Pensitone hill just after Nick, who we were just behind at Bronte bridge, so it is obviously a much-over-muchness route choice here. After a quick banana and time to refill my energy drink the long trudge over Top o' stairs was on.as we navigated past Leeshaw reservoir and mostly walked up Stairs lane mark and I chatted with Andy who we often see at events. It's not the most inspiring section of an otherwise really good route so it was good to distract ourselves until the fairly steep descent at the other side to the Grain Water Bridge CP.

Here, Mark introduced us to what is possibly a revelation in ultra-runner nutrition, jelly beans which were apparently never the same flavour twice. I'm not so sure about that, but as we marched up the bank along the bridleway to the next CP, I was pleasently suprised my the variety of flavours - including coffee and one that tasted like those 'fiery' gobstoppers I used to get as a kid. Better still, Mark picked these up for a bargain price somewhere, so I'm going to look into getting some of these :)

Soon the bridleway dropped us down to the CP at Horse bridge where I had my third sandwich flavour of the day - ham - and passed on my appreciation to a jovial crowd of marshalls and walkers there. On leaving the CP and starting the pleasent wooded climb to Delf End we passed 'knackered runner' again, who said he was shot, but was keeping going well. He'd passed us at the CP as like many was meandering around at these less then me and Mark. This synchonicity turned out to be a good thing later. Part way up I was suprised to see Andy on an adjacent path across a falling stream from us. He'd been a bit ahead so must have had a delay somewhere and we got to Pecket Well together.

The climb went on after Pecket Well - nearly 900ft in a mile and a half, its quite a long, almost uninterrupted climb you don't really think much about beforehand - and we made a small nav error and detoured a few hundred metres. Back on route and quickly through Delf End CP we grouped with 'knackered runner' again who helped us with a good route over - the potentially very soggy - Midgely Moor. The route followed my map and GPS trace quite closely, but on the ground some of the paths were quite minimal. We got across the moor quickly via a cut corner to a path between the two air shafts. It wasn't until we were comoing off the moor that the ground briefly got quite watery. This was expected from the map and was a necessary evil for the best line.

We then followed the moor edge path at a steady jog, dodging quite a bit of water, but making good time and finding a good track downhill to the indoor CP at Jerusalem Farm. I think there is also a Herod farm on this route or nearby, all very biblical, wonder if there any more references amongst the areas agriculutral residences? We followed our new guide out of the CP who opted for a mostly downhill, if slightly longer than optimum route, but on road which got us moving along well.

Into Luddenden foot and through the last CP. I felt a lot better today than when I got to the same point on the 2008 route. So Mark and I had a good run along the canal path knowing that the climb to Sowerby when it came is quite slow. We were navigationally assisted again as our guardian angel called us back again when we overshot the turn off to Sowerby. After a good solid march up the hill we ran into and through Sowerby and up the drive to the inviting cricket club.

Not a fast time, over an hour slower than last year, but I felt good and well within limits all day. We'd arrived in just behind Nick, Simon, Andy and our reliable navigator for the day. I enjoyed potatoes and chilli sat outside the club house in warming late afternoon sun. Then Mark and I made good on our most constant topic of discussion all day and stopped off at the Kashmir in Bradford before heading home. Some cheap polish lager and a strong, authentic and cheap indian curry topped off a great day.

Another great day out and a good recce for a faster blast at the course next year.

Big three for March - 2: Wuthering Hike/Haworth Hobble

I still don't know why this event has dual names, both are true enough, but I prefer the Wuthering Hike tag, which usually gets a smile from those knowing of the area when I mention it.

As performances go, not my finest hour, I think I gave up on a fast one early doors. But it's a very nice event, worthy of a mention untarnished by my lacklustre effort. I'm sure somebody out there, who is more organised, will already have an informative and entertaining blog post on it. Here's my highlights and lowlights in 10 bullet points (I'm trying to keep this - reasonably - short):

1. Things you'll probably only see at this event or in this area #1 - Upon getting to event car park, paid my few quid and was told to "Drive over to the guy in a dress...", who would direct me to park. Must be a "Bronte sister" thing, an amusing start to my race day.
2. Earlier start than of late for an 8am mass start - up just the wrong side of 5 - **WARNING DON'T READ ON IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT PRE-RUN BOWEL ACTIVITY** - and out the door too quickly. This had the often experiance effect that I hadn't had that relax time post-breakfast whioch allows bowels to kick in. So I tried to stop at services, some success but not enough. Arrived T-minus 45mins at race start, bit late, loads of people here, long queue for number, seek out toilets - DOH!! Long queue for portaloos. So @ T-minus 8mins to race start made do with a very long pee in a 'quiet' spot around back of race HQ. Which helped a bit by decreasing any bladder pressure on bowel. Does anybody else have issues like this if routine is a bit disturbed?
3. It a grey and overcast start and a lot of very steady uphill onto the famous moors. No great views of this landscape for now.
4. Things you'll probably only see at this event or in this area #2 - In Bronte waterfall area Mark - who I ran around with - pointed out that the usual wooden sign posts as well as a few other languages were written in Japanese. Well I never.
5. CP 1 at the Widdop Reservoir Dam - It was like being at the seaside on a grey winter day. The mist and wind blowing waves into the dam wall from an unknown source creates a strange illusion as we cross the dam.
6. Behind enemy lines - Much like the Calderdale Hike route of the last few years the route of this event took us into Lancashire, carefully evading border controls obviously. Seemingly not impressed, the route soon takes us back into Gods own county.
7. Here comes the sun - Soon after long causeway (CP3) as cloud rises and the route drops the sun comes out. Yeh! But it seemed our goose was already cooked today and the late-winter sun's pleasent rays weren't going to help us. Mark had taken a bang on the knee slipping on wet rock and said he wasn't feeling that fresh today anyway, I felt much the same and Simon - who it has to be said was running a bit better than Mark and I - felt much the same as we slowed during the hilly second half.
8. A string in the tail - Claire warned me about this. I didn't feel great going into the second half and the hills in part 2 weren't going to aid our pace. First a climb to Stoodley pike - a must in this area. Glad of the shot of Jura whisky at the CP before the climb, whisky never tasted so good.
9. Next climb, Hepstonstall. Apparently the pub there last year was offering impromptu refreshments - not of the alcoholic kind - this year we just climbed up to go down - DOH!
10. As we found a "just get around" pace once a 6 hour round had slipped away it was back up again on the muddy track to pass Hollin Hall and down to the last CP before the finish. Then a long tarmac road climb to Top O't Stairs.

From here it has a mostly downhill hobble via Penistone hill - of the great Woodentops fell races - back to th start in Haworth - 6:30 - quite a way off Simon and Mark's great PB's on this route (can't help thinking I cursed us). Over stew, Mark and I decided we'd need an easy week before the - significantly longer - Hardmoors 55 next week.

Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie (TDS) - I'm in!

This is great news for me and I'm lucky not to have opted for the CCC or UTMB, what with the massive oversubscription and massive number of british runners I know not getting a place. While it's still over 7 months away I'm getting organised and have a plan for mileage and long runs each week until then, which means I'm also pretty certain what events I'm doing in the meantime. The main prep-event - a mini-monster in itself will be the Lakeland 50 - I entered ages ok last year as there is no ballot for that yet, but it's started to fill up in no time. Maybe ultra trail running isn't as uncommon a pastime as I at one time thought, or maybe its the dedication of the few that do it?

But, I am starting to think I've got too many runnable events as part of my plan. I heard somebody refer to Lakeland 50/100, UTMB, and other such mountainous events as really being more like "very long power walks". So I'm thinking I need to work on my walking, but I also need the hills to make this worthwhile. So I've been looking at the FRA diary and hope to be slipping a few of the more hilly and lengthy events into my plan.

The way I see it an AL Fell race, especially in the Lake District, is ideal prep in two ways. Firstly it forces me to walk over rough terrain - my understanding is that TDS is rougher than the UTMB trails - and up the steep long climbs. Secondly, I get downtime.... not sleep, descending. I'm sure a major key to these things and perhaps my greatest weakness is being able to tackle massive descents as efficiently and without injury as possible. I can move quite well and at reasonable speed downhill, but speed doesn't necessarily mean endurance.

Time on feet is something I'm better planned at, as per usual it will be gained in other upcoming long trail events. Hardmoors 55, Calderdale Hike (37) and Woldsman (50) are the definates. I'll also do a good mix and mileage of runs midweek. My weekly plan will be something like the below:

Monday - Easy short flat/undulating run (road, trail as nights get lighter)
Tuesday - Mid-length run (6-15m), road at pace and more hilly trails as nights get lighter.
Wednesday - Shorter run, maybe uphill or downhill reps on trail as light improves
Thursday - Club run (7-12m), tempo/intervals/fartlek run at hard effort, incorporating hilly trail sessions from mid-March
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Long run, various length and terrain type
Sunday - Alternate (sometimes additional) long run day, or easy run, or rest
= Usually, 30-80 mpw

I've been enjoying some good short and mid-length hilly runs the last few months. Running in Sicily was great, hills everywhere! Since I've tried to get out to hillier local trails during the week, in light and dark, mud and snow and also the odd event. A steady effort at the Rombalds Stride still equalled my best course time - in quite good moor top conditions I'll admit, but it was barely breaking sweat most the way. I also beat my personal course previous best time in a league XC last Sunday by nearly two minutes. In similar conditions to the last run too: snow, ice, slush - must be winning :¬)

Can't wait to be back in Chamonix!

....well I suppose I can, as I need the training time.

(BTW - The hardest run on the legs so far was the day I opted to run 12.5m from Hull over mostly agricultural land to the coastal town of Hornsea on the Trans-pennine Trail (trial?) - this section was formerly a railway line - and back. 25m of nearly flat and very straight, scenically bland, mostly hard, trail was tough on body and mind. I take a bow to those out there doing ultra-flat events like the Grand Union Canal race.)

Its been awhile

I've struggled a bit for inspration and a lot for time to blog recent events. So here is my summary.

Early March saw what felt like a well earned rest from training and holiday from work. Behind the tourism I learned Tenerife has a lot to offer the hill runner. I didn't run much, but in my jaunts from my hotel in Los Gigantes there was a great climb of about 400ft in less than a mile just to get to the road to the next town, which was itself a tad undulating. My last mornings training run saw me keep heading out of town along the winding road into the hills to the next town. A bracing 1000ft in less than 3.5m and the same descent to follow. So, no trail running, no problem.

The potential of Tenerife doesn't end there. In the centre of this comparatively small Island, ringed by peaks sits the Las Canadas caldera - at over 2000 metres - and somewhere in the middle the highest peak - Mt Teide at about 3718m. Not a little bit impressed? Well remember Ben Nevis only pokes up to 1344 metres and the highest peak in europe - Mt Blanc - is less than 1100 metres higher. Ultra Tour de Tenerife anybody?

Only a few weeks later I was back testing myself in the UK on paths and trails sitting atop the North York Moors. Last years freezing cold, 'clag down', conditions were replaced with quite the opposite this year. Slightly pleasing is that I was faster on nearly every section this year than last. But the full story saw me tired by Osmotherley and haemorraging pace over the tough 20m to Kildale. 12hrs5mins was an improvement on last year, but I felt a bit disapointed with a less than 30min improvement given the conditions and another year of experiance and training.

I got a bit of salvation in my next ultra a few weeks later. Another sunny day - were going to pay big time for all this weather 'luck' soon! - for the Calderdale Hike. 36 or so miles of self navigating along a pleseantly challenging and varied route in Calderdale and the Pennines. I'd enjoyed this one last year and this year I had a good run, keeping a good pace and achieving a 7:14 time for 36.6m. Being not far over the 36m 'advertised' meant some savvy navigating and a few cock-ups too, but overall a good day running. Making good pace in a good group of 4 runners for the latter miles. This route which visits Stoodley Pike, Thievely pike and Sunny bank amongst other climbs will be changed for next years event. A bit of a shame, but who knows, there could be another classic in the pipeline.

Next up came a 5 day Coast to Coast attempt. I'll save this one for the next post.