Winter Virtual Ultra - Day 11

Today's run was over two minutes per mile faster than my average pace for the first 88 miles of this challenge. The joy of having such a short distance to cover, and a rest scheduled for tomorrow! Mick joined me for the mile and a half around the block, although I stopped my watch at about the point where I crossed the virtual finish line. My certificate thus only has an extra 100m recorded on it:

At the end, I asked Mick to snap my official finish photo, and he suggested I should do one of those jumping photos. He had me jump in the air three times, took three snaps and put his phone away. Only when I asked to see the photos when we got home did he say that he hadn't actually looked at what he'd snapped. This was the result (Mick claims the one on the right isn't as hilarious as I find it):

Sack the photographer!

Back at home it was coffee time, coupled with the treat of a pastry, both of which were enjoyed whilst wearing my well-earned medal*...

...and my pyjama trousers, which may not have been reasonable given the time of day.

(*It may have been well-earned, but I'd always prefer to have the option of not receiving a medal. I neither want nor need one, acknowledging that it is now going to get put in a drawer for a number of years until I throw it away. Moreover, as this event (in common with the summer one) was a charitable fundraiser,  the cost of buying and posting the medal could have gone towards the charity. That's my only gripe about this event, which has otherwise been an excellent challenge, and (almost entirely) good fun.)

Winter Virtual Ultra - Days 9 & 10

Saturday 19 December – Day 9/12; 75/89 miles completed (10.1 today)

I was again dressed as an elf (but without Santa’s hat; at 11 degrees it was far too warm for furry polyester headwear) as I stepped out of the door into the dark of pre-dawn. I’d told Mick what route I was taking (around the local streets until it started getting light, then along the canal), then I did something completely different, making my route up as I went along. On the plus side, far more people got to smile at my ridiculous outfit on the route I took.

A grumbling tendon in my foot had me unsure how far I was going to run, but I’d given Mick the bracket of between 5 and 13 miles. Five would have been less than ideal, putting me behind, rather than ahead of myself. The final result of 10 miles was good enough, and didn’t seem to aggravate the foot too much.

 

Obligatory selfie

 

A bit waterlogged in places around the ponds

 

High water in the ponds too (not quite daylight yet)

Sunday 20 December – Day 10/12; 88.2/89 miles completed (13.2 today)

By yesterday afternoon my mildly grumbling foot felt absolutely fine and it seemed like an excellent and entirely sensible* idea to follow yesterday’s 10-miler with a half-marathon today. The obvious place to do this was back on the Tissington Trail, which has the benefits of requiring absolutely no route choices or navigation and involving no road crossings or traffic.

So, once again it was a 6am alarm and before 7 we were driving northwards. Light was only just seeping into the day as we set out onto the trail, with Mick joining me for the first couple of miles.

It was a surprise to then see him running towards me a few miles later; having finished his run he’d stopped in a layby on his way down to Ashbourne and thought he would intercept me to see if there was anything I needed. There wasn’t, so he peeled off to meet me again at the end of the trail.

In between his leaving me the first time and that unexpected encounter, just 3.5km into my intended 21.1+, my mind had revolted, trying hard to convince me that I couldn’t possibly run this distance today. I had to give myself a bit of a mental slap and focus on the end rather than the getting there … then the trail, which had been running along an exposed embankment direct into the wind, went into a sheltered cutting and suddenly everything seemed so much more achievable. Alas, I didn’t stay sheltered for long and the biting headwind had me wearing my jacket and gloves for the duration, but at least my mind ceased its revolt.

Given that I didn’t have to worry about the state of my legs tomorrow, I allowed my pace to pick up as I went along and whilst 2:06 is a way behind my half-marathon PB, given what I’ve been doing lately, I was rather chuffed at achieving that time today.  

So, with 48 hours left before the end of this Virtual Ultra, I have just three-quarters of a mile remaining to run, which sounds eminently achievable to me. Who'd have thought, two weeks ago, that I could as good as get this done with two days to spare? Certainly not me!

 

Not quite daylight when I took this snap but look: clear views! This is the third time I’ve run down the Tissington Trail, and the first time I’ve had good weather (I’ve also run up it a couple of times but have no recollection of the weather conditions on those occasions)

 

I even caught a few rays of sunshine!

(*Okay, so maybe I could see a few flaws and risk factors in suddenly throwing in this mileage when I’ve already been stressing my body with abnormal training loads for a week and a half, but I didn’t let it put me off.)

Winter Virtual Ultra - Days 6-8

Wednesday 16 December – Day 6/12; 54.7/89 miles (6.7 today)

It was raining as I stepped out the door on the dot of 7am, and it stayed wet for the duration. It was also fully dark, so the first half of my route was on street-lit roads. I seldom run in the dark these days, although back in my working days it was the norm. I have no recollection of having problems seeing where I was going under streetlights back then, but I struggled today. Either one’s eyes become unaccustomed to the condition, or modern streetlights are just not as bright.

The second half of my route was more interesting and I grabbed a quick selfie at one of the ponds. Two passing women paused whilst I took it, apparently not realising that they were behind the camera, not in front of it; I thanked them anyway before I trotted on.

After Tuesday’s efforts on the Tissington Trail my thighs had felt just a little bit ‘exercised’ as I set out on this run. They were making their feelings known rather more vocally by the end. Hopefully they would recover before the morrow.

Thursday 17 December – Day 7/12; 59.6/89 miles (4.9 today)

That husband of mine is a star! Once again he hauled himself out of bed before dawn to act as chauffeur and photographer for this morning’s outing, which was in Halifax as we'd needed to nip back up to Ma-in-Law's for a couple of days. He also saved the day by providing me with a pair of socks when I realised the one’s I’d packed wouldn’t work well with the rest of my outfit*.

To Ogden Water we went and it was a lovely morning in a lovely location. As I rounded the top end of the reservoir on my second lap, the sky over the dam was turning a glorious orange. By the third time I rounded that point a golden orb had appeared in that orange sky. It was a pity I didn’t have my phone with me for some illustrative snaps.

Thus the only photos I have are those taken by Mick as I crossed the dam on my first lap. It was the first airing of this mismatched outfit and I’m happy that it performed its job – it put smiles on the faces of passers-by.

When I called it a day at 4.9 miles (Mick’s socks were rubbing slightly under my right foot; his feet are three sizes bigger than mine!), I had good intentions (that didn't come to fruition) of going out for another couple of miles once we got home late that afternoon. I did, however, spend the rest of the day grumbling about sore thighs. 

Friday 18 December – Day 8/12; 64.9/89 miles (5.3 today)

An early trip to the supermarket, with the intention of being home and out for a run by 9am. The plan was scuppered when, in leaving Lidl’s car park, I noticed that Erica had a headlight out. So, to Halfords we went where I furtled around in her engine bay then decided that paying £8 for Halfords to do the job sounded like a good deal.

On the way home I was surprised at how lit up reflective signs on the nearside were (it was that bulb that had gone). Then we got home, looked at the lights and saw that the nearside was much brighter than the offside. A closer look and I could see that the new bulb had been fitted upside down. Mick and Erica headed back into town whilst I stowed groceries and started getting changed.

The problem was that I was cold, so getting changed involved ridiculous levels of procrastination (on the plus side, I got some admin done in between donning clothing items). I’d only managed to get my tights and socks on before Mick got home, which reintroduced the option of running together. That gave me the shove I needed to finish getting changed and we stepped out into a dull, grey, breezy, mizzly late-morning. We stayed together for the first half an hour, at which point I decided I couldn’t bear to listen to any more of the interview on the Podcast I had playing (I listen to a lot of Podcasts; it’s extremely rare that I find an interview unlisten-to-able. Last time it happened it was because the interviewee used the word ‘like’ approximately eighty times in every sentence), whereupon I stopped for a few moments to fiddle with my phone and Mick went on ahead. Our routes soon diverged anyway, as I needed to cover a mile or so more than Mick, so I did a little out-and-back to one of the canal bridges. Goodness, the ‘out’ was unpleasant, with the mizzle that had been in the air throughout being blown full into my face. The ‘back’ was better, with the wind pushing me along. 

The good news: my thighs had ceased (even if only temporarily) their recent complaining.

Three and half days to go … the end is within sight!

(*Not a vanity issue. I’d taken ‘trainer socks’ but needed some taller ones in order to stop my leggings from riding up. (When I say ‘leggings’ I mean a pair of stripy tights off which I cut the toes and hemmed the edge, because I wasn’t convinced that it would be comfortable to run with cheap tights on my feet.)

Winter Virtual Ultra (Days 3-5)

Sunday 13 December; Day 3/12; 29.3/89 miles completed (7.6 today)

Sunday morning and Mick was scheduled for a 9 mile run. I had initially thought I would join him, but it had become apparent that if I was going to keep my heart rate at a sensible level, our paces were not going to be well matched (by this point my heart rate was notably higher than normal for the pace I was doing – the cost of the abnormally high load with a lack of adequate recovery in between runs). I’d set the alarm for 6am, so that we could avoid the rain that was due to arrive at 10am, yet over bananas and cups of tea we could hear it pattering down. Mick gave thought to deferring until Monday, but I didn’t have that option and in the end Mick headed out the door, into the dark wet morning, with me.

My Garmin has not been impressed by my training load lately. It would like me to stay in the green zone.

We both had waterproof jackets on (indeed, we were Howard & Hilda in matching jackets and tights), but by 6 miles I was wet through and not moving fast enough to keep warm. I took the shortest route home from there (whilst Mick continued on to complete his longer distance) and within 2 minutes of walking through the door I had the shower running. It was a quick shower, such was my urgent need for a hot bowl of porridge, but by the time I’d had both I was warm again and I set about spending the rest of the day doing precisely nothing physical.   

Monday 14 December; Day 4/12; 36.7/89 miles completed (7.3 today)

Negative point: my heart rate was way too high for my pace.

Positive point: I visited the newly installed tow-path to the south and rejoiced in the ease of the all-season surface. It’s the only surfaced bit of tow-path in the vicinity and it goes on long enough to make it worthwhile. I spent most Sunday mornings last winter slithering through the mud along that section.

Negative point: Getting to the surfaced tow-path involves a few miles of mud-fest.

Puddly on the track between home and the canal

Mud-fest on the canal

Bit flooded on the flood plain by the river, but it gets far worse than this in the course of an ordinary winter.

A gloriously unmuddy section of brand new tow-path.

A bush unconvincingly disguised as Santa

Day 5/12; 48/89 miles completed (11.3 today)

I decided that I wanted to get ahead of myself and chose an easy way of doing that: by taking a linear route DOWN the Tissington Trail, from Heathcote to Ashbourne.

I was able to justify this as the notional route across Lapland, that is the basis for the event, also threw in a largely downhill day with 500’ of descent at this point.

Another 6am alarm and we were breakfasted and on the road before dawn. As light started seeping into the day we could see the sky was clear and all promise was for a lovely run, on easy terrain, through the Derbyshire countryside. Then we drove the last 10 miles in fog and that set the tone for the run.

I’m doing a bad job of getting my layering right this week and as I ran south along the Tissington Trail into a headwind, I came to appreciate that I wasn’t going to be warm enough (surely a southerly wind shouldn’t be that biting?!). Happily Mick had joined me for the first 2 miles, and he was wearing a windshirt. I stole it off his back at the point that he turned back to the car, knowing that he’d be okay without it, what with a tailwind and a relatively short distance to cover.

Blurred action selfie, with Mick wearing his own jacket

Not the clear day I’d been expecting (but remarkably similar to conditions when I ran the Tissington Trail Half Marathon in 2018)

Selfie with a Christmas Tree along the route, by now wearing Mick’s jacket

The cloud did clear for a few minutes, before descending again

Unsurprisingly given the time of day and the weather, I didn’t encounter many people. Mainly a couple of dog walkers in the vicinity of each car park that I passed. One person I did encounter by luck was Mick, just as he emerged from the public toilets about half a kilometre before I reached the car park where I was to be meeting him. Good timing – if I’d been 10 seconds ahead of myself there could have been one of those unfortunate incidents where he was loitering waiting for me to appear, whilst I was standing next to the car wondering where he was (although at least we both had phone signal here, unlike a memorable day of losing each other on the Wales Coast Path!).

On the one hand I regret a little that I didn’t set out from one car park further up the trail, to extend the distance to a half marathon. On the other hand, I don’t know what my legs will feel like tomorrow, so maybe the 11.3 was the wise choice. Either way, this run felt good and easy and  whilst I’ve no illusions that tomorrow will feel the same, I’m now a day ahead of myself (in terms of average daily mileage), with seven days left to cover the final 41 miles.

In September 2019 I did a run up and back along the Tissington Trail, then had the challenge of changing out of all of my sweaty running clothes in the back of a Skoda Fabia without indecently exposing myself to any passers-by. It was the moment that convinced me that having a campervan as our daily car would be a mighty fine thing. This snap (pork pie in one hand, mug of coffee in the other, wearing entirely sweat-free clothes) was taken within minutes of getting back to Erica.

To be continued…

Winter Virtual Ultra (Days 0 - 2)

It was Thursday 10 December and it was time to embark on the folly of running half way across Lapland (virtually; in reality running 89 miles anywhere of my choosing). Here’s how it’s been going so far:

Thursday 10th December; Day 0/12; 7.1/89 miles complete

Setting off with Mick, I had company for the first 15 minutes before he pulled steadily ahead, whilst I concentrated on plodding. Given my current lack of fitness and endurance, my speed aspirations for this endeavour are tempered from what I achieved in July’s event.

As I joined the canal I was surprised to see that Mick had also gone that way, although he left at the first opportunity whilst I foolhardily continued on another couple of miles before peeling off homewards. We agreed later that the tow-path is currently too muddy for running. There were places where I had to slow to a careful walk for fear of slipping into the cut.

Mentally I prefer running first thing in the morning, but I needed to start in the afternoon of Day 0 and finish in the morning of Day 12 in order to complete within 12 days, so this run was timed to finish just before dark. Fortunately I find it physically easier to run in the afternoon (lower heart rate), so this first outing was pleasantly untaxing, but how would I feel on the morrow?

Friday 11 December; Day 1/12; 14.3/89 miles complete (7.2 today)

It had rained a lot in between the previous run and this one, yet when I got to the point where I had to choose the tow-path or road, I (ridiculously!) opted for the former. Almost immediately I acknowledged my error and I should have turned back. It was a hideous mile of slip-sliding around before I left at the first bridge and did a little out-and-back along a lane to make up the distance.

It was another afternoon run and another good one, although was that a bit too much tightness I was feeling in my right calf?

(Slight aside: Within a mile it had become apparent that I was overdressed. The problem was that my long-sleeved layer (the only item I could tie around my waist) was under my t-shirt, so I had to strip off down to my bra to remove it. I managed that without anyone seeing me, but then I rounded a corner and realised I’d only been too hot because until that point I’d been in the sun with the wind behind me. I didn’t have the opportunity to re-layer, so it was a chilly time the rest of the way.)

Saturday 12 December; Day 2/12 Run 1; 18.6/89 miles complete (4.3 this morning)

Mick and I have both long agreed that the third day of any long walk is the hardest. It’s the point where your body is wondering what you think you’re playing at, before, on day 4, deciding that protestation is fruitless and it may as well just get on with it. It seems that the same may apply to long runs (although I don’t remember that being the case in July). My right calf was tight, my limbs were heavy, my mind was protesting and I was in danger of convincing myself that I *couldn’t* do this.

My solution was to split the day’s miles into two, covering over half in the morning, then heading out again just before dusk.

Saturday 12 December; Day 2/12 Run 2 –21.7/89 miles completed (3.1 this afternoon)

This tightness in my calf had me declaring defeat on my intention to run every mile of this event* and conceding that I was going to have to walk this one. Even so, I put on running gear (my warmest running gear) just in case I felt like I could trot a bit of it.

I ran all of it, my calf felt fine and my positivity climbed a little.

 

Heading back homewards just as the sun dipped over the horizon

 

To be continued...

 

(*Other than completing within the 12-day window, there’s no other time requirements, so I could have walked the whole thing, but that wouldn’t have been a challenge. I know that I can walk 7 miles a day. The whole point of entering was to run it.)

 

Winter Virtual Ultra Run

In July I wrote a series of posts charting my progress as I took part in the Virtual Lakeland 50 event, running 50 miles in set stages over the course of 7 days. I enjoyed it so much (both the running and the on-line social side) that when another similar event was announced for December I immediately entered.

What I perhaps didn’t think through in my enthusiasm were the key differences between July and December. It was summer in July. It was mainly warm, there was a lot of sunshine and I could go out in daylight at 5am. It was also still very quiet on the roads after the end of the spring lockdown, so I had lots of options for running along pavementless roads that I would usually avoid.

There are also a couple of key differences between the events. This one is longer. I’ve opted for the half distance, but that’s still 89 miles to be covered over the course of 12 days (13 days really; it’s 12 days in terms of hours, but spread over 13 days. I started at 2pm on Day 0 and will finish before noon on Day 12). On the plus side, there are no set stages this time, so I can split the distances as I please (strictly I could have done this in July too, but I liked the idea of so many people running the same distances each day).

Then there’s the key difference in me: in July I was pretty fit. I’d run a lot in the first half of the year, including every day from mid-March to the end of May. My mileages suffered in August and September as focus turned to building Erica, then October saw me sidelined three times with non-running injuries. The miles picked up again in November, but then in late November/early December I had 11 days off whilst I was fettling the rental house (I had good intentions of doing full days of hard manual labour AND running too, but they went out of the window after Day 1).

Miles per month, illustrating that in July I was in good shape for 50 miles in 7 days and also illustrating that the same couldn't be said (much less 89 miles in 12 days) in early December.

 Illustrating the same point again with different data.

So, as I set out for my first run on Thursday it was with a low level of confidence that this would go well and with the knowledge that this is the most ill-advised physical challenge on which I’ve ever embarked.   

To be continued... 

 

Random Witterings from Home(ish) (Series 2, Part 1)

We’d finished building Erica, been for our first trip and Lockdown2 had started. Much sitting around at home ensued, with the cool, grey weather making me disinclined to do anything outdoors, bar my daily exercise. The garden largely continued to be neglected and far too much of nothing was done, although I did stir myself to conduct several crumpet-making experiments:

Massive crumpets because until yesterday I didn’t have any ring moulds to make smaller ones

Then our nice leisurely lives became slightly disrupted, swiftly followed, in my case, by full-on manic. It all started with a phone call that informed us of a problem with Mick's mum's leg that had us sufficiently alarmed to throw belongings into bags and dash off to stay with her for an unknown period.  

Removing our lives to Halifax was of no great inconvenience. What was inconvenient was that Erica’s windscreen got fatally damaged en-route and the most expeditious way of getting it replaced involved taking it to a depot lying three-quarters of the way back towards home. As the replacement date approached, it was clear that Ma-in-Law wasn’t fit to be left, so I abandoned Mick without transport and tootled back off home for a couple of weeks.

Yes, the windscreen replacement was only going to take an hour, but with remarkably inconvenient timing, we had a rental house becoming vacant at the end of that week and, with the previous tenants having been in residence for 7.5 years, it was inevitable that work was going to be required before the new tenants moved in a week later.

With Mick out of action I was going to have my work cut out to get everything done. By good fortune, the tenants left early extending my window to 10 days … except that an appointment for which I have been waiting for months came through right slap in the middle of that period. It doesn’t rain but it pours, eh?

So, by the end of November, Mick was living with his mum in Halifax and I was living in an empty house in Wolverhampton (the foam from Erica’s sofa/bed being the only ‘furniture’ I had).

Not for the first time when working on a house, I forgot to pack a can opener, but where there’s a will there’s a way.

Ten days later, having put in 100 hours of effort, I had done days’ worth of cleaning, painted every single wall (plus a couple of ceilings) in the house, replaced some taps and traps, dismantled and reinstated the toilet, fixed various other items and done a bit of fettling in the garden. I locked the front door behind me last Thursday evening, happy that it was in a fit state for new tenants.

Given the level of damage caused by the previous tenants’ leaking washing machine, I was particularly pleased with how much better I managed to make this corner look.

The left hand snap is 'during' not 'before'. I was impressed at how well it came up with a bit of scrubbing.

Friday was the day of my intended return to Halifax and I was within five minutes of leaving home when a snow-report from Mick had me decide that travelling on Saturday morning would be a much better idea.

View out of Ma-in-Law's window at 7am; by the time I was due to leave home at 1pm it still hadn’t stopped snowing and was getting heavier.

I’m here now and very much hope that nothing of any significance happens between now and Christmas!

From Sunday morning’s run. Taken just before we ascended to a level where there was still snow on the pavement, causing us to have to take to the road.

Project Erica: Part 17 - How Much Did She Cost?

A few weeks ago I set about recording the final video in the Project Erica series, on the subject of budget versus actual cost. Out to Erica I went and spoke at length to the camera, stopping, swearing at my inability to string together a sentence and starting again any number of times. Once I’d managed to get to the end of what I wanted to say, I watched some of it back and decided I could do a better job of it, so I started over again.

I edited the resultant footage into a video, but I wasn’t at all happy with the camera angle and the whole thing was longer than I wanted it to be, plus on the second recording I’d omitted some key points that I wanted to include. Again, I thought I could do better, so I worked on an improved way of mounting my phone (stick the mount on the bottom of a plastic tub, stand the inverted tub on the kitchen worktop; sophisticated equipment that I work with, you know…) and took myself and Erica off to an attractive location for re-shoot number 3.

After another hour of recording a couple of dozen snippets that I hoped I could edit into something coherent, much swearing and far too much starting and stopping the camera, I was beginning to despair. Then I gave myself a mental slap, and decided to give it just one more try.

Success. Kinda. I managed to record the whole thing in one take, but at the expense of forgetting to say stuff that I’d included in earlier attempts. With one take, you might think that the editing would be easy, but unsurprisingly I’d wittered on too long, so my task then became one of choosing what nonsense to cut out. It’s definitely much harder both recording and editing footage that is entirely me talking to the camera, than footage that is a mix of ‘doing’ and ‘explaining’.

I had the final edit almost ready to go by mid-November, but then life suddenly threw some unexpected events our way, involving a lack of internet access (I’ll soon restart my ‘Random Witterings’ series and touch on some of the events that contributed). It was only thanks to snow in West Yorkshire yesterday afternoon and the resultant cancellation of a journey about 5 minutes before it was due to start that I finally got this last video uploaded.

So, if you want to know how much Erica cost to buy and to convert into a campervan, this is the video to watch. I get to the headline numbers quite early, so only those who are particularly interested in the detailed budget need watch all the way through, although there is a little bonus in the last minute or so, where I popped in an example of the sort of wittering that I have to contend with in the editing process.

 

 

 

Project Erica: Part 16 - Grand Tour

I posted a new video on YouTube last weekend, giving a full tour of Erica now that she's as good as finished (really must buy some flooring...). You'll find it here:

By way of a reminder, at the beginning of August we took delivery of Erica, nearly two weeks after we bought her, and having never seen her before. At the time she looked like this:

A few days later and we had her stripped back to this state:

Then the real work began, and continued on until October, when she came to look like this:

Not exactly like that because until a few minutes before I took this snap this afternoon she had three matching sets of curtains and one odd-one-out set. Today I took the odd set apart and remade it, using up every last scrap of the cream fabric and almost all of my black-out material off-cuts. 

There are still a few things that we will do to Erica in due course, aside from fitting some flooring, such as tinting her windows (or having them tinted, or most likely tinting her windows badly, ripping it back off then having them redone professionally), fitting some rain deflectors to her front windows, and re-upholstering the sofa and the head-bumpers, but they're all nice-to-haves, rather than necessities, so I'm in no great rush.