Been a warm one this weekend. A sensible person would have stayed in the shade with a beer. On Saturday, I had an hours run to do, and what better time than 3pm, the hottest part of the day. Went for a nip out over the fields. Felt great, so I went a bit further and set off a bit faster than planned. Heat hit me after 45 minutes or so, became quite hard work. Made it round, but legs felt a bit leaden, which they shouldn't do after 8.5 miles/1 hour. Still, all valuable training, especially if race day is a bit warm.
Sunday. Up very early as we (Kieran Davis and I) were planning on running from Hope in the Peak District at 7:30am. We started running at 8am or so, and already it was a bit hot. Saw some extremely tired/ruined looking people while we were heading up to the roman road between Kinder and Win Hill. Followed the Roman Road to Upper Ashop, where we left the road and followed the fence line to Blackden Brook. Still moving ok, and getting lots of fluids down - 500ml from Hope to the Brook.
We turned up Blackden Brook, and had a really nice run (until it got steep, then walk) up to the Kinder Plateau. Still feeling great, really enjoyed the climb. Along to the Seal Stones (about 300m), then down to the sheep fold at the bottom of Fair Brook.
Restocked the bottle (1l drunk so far) and headed up Fair Brook. Felt like the temperature jumped up about 10 degrees, really getting hot and sheltered from the wind. About half way up here, my head fell off. Went dizzy, lost a bit of coordination, legs felt dead. Walked a bit, sucked an extra gel (was trying to keep to 1 per hour) and walked the rest of the way up to the plateau, even the flat bits.
At this point, we had a bit of a discussion as to which way to go (around the plateau,or back) and we decided the better option was back. We had been out for 2 hours already, and were nowhere near as far along as I thought we would be. Also, if we headed back we would be running into a nice cooling breeze. Amazing how your body picks up when it perceives you are heading home! Cracking trot back along the plateau to the 5 Minute Crossing, over there to the more popular side of Kinder. Could see Grindsbrook, and the conga-line of people heading up it. Snuck left, then Ringing Roger and The Nab, to Edale. Saw absolutely loads of people, in comparison to the 5 we saws on the other side.
Filled water bottle again (1.5L drunk), and headed across to start climbing to Hollins Cross. Sheltered over this side, and even hotter. Was a slow walk to the top, couldn't even raise a jog up the hill. Stopped to "admire the view" a couple of times on the way up, was just so hard to keep going. Finally made it to the top, took a photo of a group of D of E's for them. We were going to nip up Back Tor, then on to Lose Hill, but it was just so hot, we contoured round the side, until we hit the pine forest. Walked through that, trying to get my core temperature back to normal.
We then trotted down the side of Lose Hill, back to Hope in the car. 17.5 miles, 3.5 hours and 3624 feet of climb. Also, drank 2 litres of water.
Really enjoyed the run, but was so hard in the heat. Having said that, I am a lot more confident in doing well in the Lakeland 100, regardless of the weather.
Also,a special mention to my X-Bionic underpants. Quite possibly the only part of my body that was not overheating, these pants are amazing and will be my weapon of pants-choice on the day. Awesome stuff X-Bionic, am really tempted to try out some of your other clothing items now!
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