Up and down - (Saturday 28 June)

What a full week !

Tuesdays session was short hills, but on tired legs they felt like long hills. Wednesday was the long awaited trip up onto Kinder to find the 1940's and 50's aircraft wrecks. It was a hard run, very hilly and energy sapping through the peat of Kinder - it was a great run but also erie being on the sites of so many tragic deaths. Thursday turned into a rest day as did Friday to give my legs some recovery time before Saturdays Cotswold relay.

Friday was always going to be a long day with the relay team heading down to Stratford which would be our base for the weekend - three cars, 10 athletes, one goal !

Eventually everyone got to the Youth Hostel and met just in time for the evening meal at The Crown pub - result ! Saturday was going to be early starts for half the team with the first leg going off at 7:00am - a good nights sleep was needed but was difficult with half the local girls school also staying on our floor and obviously drinking red bull and vodka.

Stave Maclean took the first leg and Steve Vernon the second - both with great performances finshing 4th and 2nd overall and leaving our mixed team in the lead overall.

Jackie third, James 4th and Sam 5th and we were still in with a shout but had dropped down to 2nd overall due to some time delays by Sam getting lost (!).

Despite valiant attempts Stockport were soundly beaten into 2nd place but had a great welcome at Bath by all the other clubs - and what great facilities at the finish at Bath Rugby Club - fantastic.

Do you think we might win ? - (Monday 23rd June)

Next weekend we are taking a 10 man (well 7 men and three ladies) to The Cotswold relays. Its a 120 mile race split into 10 legs and runs from Chipping Sodbury and finishes in Bath - to say the course is undulating is a bit of an understatement !

The team is looking good and the talk over recent days is perhaps we might even win the mixed team category - how good will that be - and even if we dont we have two nights team building at the Stratford upon Avon Youth Hostel.

Tonights session was a real cruncher - 16 x 300m with 100m jog/walk recovery (approx 1 min) - although the legs were slightly tired from yesterday these are the sessions that count for altering the way your body works in races, gradually changing your lactic threshold and also your VO2max.

Out of the 16 reps the fast was the last in 52s, the rest were grouped from 54-56s with the exception of the 14th were I had a little muscle spasm in my back and it ended up being about 60s - all in all a really good session.

Horwich 5km - Its a bit windy ! - (Sunday 22/06)

Talk about blowing the cobwebs away !

Near gale force winds on a hilly three lap course in the Northern 5km Championships - I didn't PB but was about 10s quicker then last year on the same course and finished 2nd MV40.

Its a great race with teh carnival parade before and cycle races afterwards.

Legs feel great still and the mile splits were pretty constant given the hills and the heart rate graph looks good.

Found two great pictures (above and below) from the Kinder Trogg of fellow runners lee and Brian - Brian has perfected the art of flying whilst lee is in some form of Kung Fu pose !

Short and sweet - (Saturday 21/06)

Well summer is over, its chucking it down in New Mills which is a shame as today is the New Mills One World Festival - which is typical New Mills event where every minority group known to man sets up a stand in High Lea Park to tell the World of their concerns.

Its good that its a 'running' rest day as well as trying to find time to squeeze in any sort of run today would have been a challenge.

For the most part the days centred around the OWF with manning the Torrs Hydro stand, organising tours and generally doing a lot of meeting and greeting to what seemed like hundreds of visitors.

Tomorrow is my first 5km race for a couple of months up at Horwich - I think my last one would have been at the Isle of Man around Easter - the weather forecast tomorrow is really poor with gale force winds (not bad if they are behind you, but with it being a three lap circuit I doubt it). So 18:54 to beat if I am to set a new PB.

Amber ran for Derbyshire yesterday in an Inter County event in Leamington Spa - she raced well, but was disappointed to be pipped on the last lap and finished second - now her exams are out of the way she can hopefully find time to get back to some serious training.

Fast track - (Thursday 19/06)

A nice fast pyramid session on Thursday - 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000 and back down again with 2min recovery between each rep - a really good session and good groupings to help each other along - 2:48 for the 800's and 3:35 for the 1000m. The old legs still feel tired from last Sundays efforts and probably need a massage.

Racing over the weekend in the Northern 5km Championships at Horwich its a hilly course but I managed to PB on it last year - so roll on Sunday and lets see if we can do it again.

Time to recover - (Tuesday 18/06)

Toms favourite fruit is an apple

Well Monday said a recovery run and it felt more like an effort - I met Jackie and Steve in Lyme Park for a run up to Bow Stones and back through the park - 7 miles at an easy pace still had me sweating buckets !


Earlier in the day on Monday I was dressed as a woman, yes really !


I'll do most things for charity and this was no exception - to find out more look at our charity blog or if you are really nice you can always donate


Its all for a great cause and I really enjoyed the photo shoots and the TV coverage !

Kinder Trogg - (Sunday 15/06)

It was a great weeks training last week, the long hills on Tuesday, followed by a steady 4 miles and core stability session on Wednesday and the weeks hard sessions rounded off with a track session on Thursday with 5 x 1000m.

The target was 3:42-3:46 and the result was 3:38-3:42 - each rep was steady but not difficult, we had a good group with me Steve, Tom and Kevan in a tight bunch.

Friday was a rest day and Saturday was a short run after a mad dash to Moorways Stadium in Derby - Amber had qualified to run for High Peak in the 3000m schools championship and was supposed to be at New Mills School for 8:15am to catch the team bus to Derby for the Derbyshire Championships, being a 16 year old girl she missed the bus - being a 16 year old girls Dad I then drove her the hour and a half journey to Derby so she wouldn't miss her race.

She repayed the favour by winning her race and is now Derbyshire Schools 3000m Champion for the second year running - well done Amber, next week she runs against other local counties down in Leamington Spa - I wont be driving there if she misses that one !

The whole weeks focus was about the Kinder Trogg race on Saturday - its a great race and one of my favourites. I ran it well last year and dipped just under 2:20, just missing out on a top 50 place, so was determined this year to beat that time - and beat it I did by nearly 10 minutes and finishing 26th.

Its a great feeling running a race well and especially a long hard race like the Trogg.

My legs deserve a rest this week and perhaps a massage !

Long hills - (10/06)

Woodbank and Vernon Parks where Stockport Harriers are based are great for all different types of training sessions. As well as the great facilities at the club the parks have a multitude of places to hold different sessions - a 1km flat loop for speed endurance sessions, wooded trails for cross country and an abundance of different hills - one of which we used on Tuesday for our 'long hills' session.

Started of with a 2 mile warm up which was plodding along so being a smart arse I decided to go off on my own at a quicker pace and managed to lose the group of about 15 runners - great start. Fortunately I knew which hill the group would be using so headed back there just as they were finishing their second rep - that gave me a bit of a goal to see how many I could pull back during the eight reps - it did however mean doing an effort on the downhill as well as the uphill - it did make for a great session to set the legs fizzing (does anyone elses legs 'fizz' after a real hard session ?)

Lyme Park - (Monday 09/06)

Mousley Bottom

Whilst Helen and Tom (my triathlete friends) have been getting cold and wet in Canada New Mills has been basking in tropical sunshine for the last few days.

Although its nice running in the sun it can be hostile if your pan is to do efforts or anything endurance related.

After yesterdays success with the Big Lift I was looking forward to a good session - on paper it says 9 miles including some fast efforts, but I really wanted to get out into the hills so I combined the two so as to avoid dusty traffic ridden roads.

Through the Torrs, out past Mousley Bottom, up the hill onto the canal, cut through Disley and into Lyme Park, long climb up to The Cage and then down to Lyme Hall and back to New Mills the same way - its over 1000m of climb in total and average pace was just over 8min mile, with a couple of sub 7 min miles in and 3 or 4 burst of between 400 and 800m that were round about 5min 30's (admittedly I probably did these whilst on a downhill!) - and a reasonably steady heart rate just moving into the 160's on the efforts.

I missed my race ! - (Sunday 08/06)

Well the Big lift went really well although it was slightly delayed as the driver took an extremely scenic route. Because of the delay I ended up missing the fell race at Stacksteads.

Instead went with Amber to test out the new Inov8 fell shoes we bought on Saturday - a nice little route up to the shooting cabin, down to William Clough and then loop round back to the bottom of Lantern Pike - finished off with a very fast 800m back to the car.

Off over to my mum and dads for a couple of hours - they have become real 'silver surfers' recently and I seem to be continually sorting out email or Internet problems for them.

The Big Lift - (Saturday 07/06)

A big part of my life over the past few months has been taken up by getting involved with a renewable energy project in New Mills (my home town).

My initial involvement was just by buying some shares, but I soon started to help the team involved and a few months ago became a Director. I've also become involved in the construction side of the project spending a day a week on site in the Torrs in New Mills - lots of pics and details can be found on one of my other blogs dedicated to the project - Torrs Hydro New Mills.

This Sunday sees a big milestone in the project when a 12 tonne Archimedes screw is lowered 200ft from Union Road bridge towards the construction site - cant wait !

On Thursday I did an easy 7 mile run after Wednesdays hard fell race with Steve at track through the trails towards Reddish Vale, followed by a full rest day on Friday and then this morning a 'breakfast' run at Sweatshop in Hyde. The runs are arranged by Jackie Newton from Puma and are a good get together. Myself Lee, James and Brian headed from the shop up to Werneth Low - my legs felt tired and I was glad to get to the summit, from there it was comfortable trail, road and then canal back to the shop in Hyde for a nice healthy fruit and bagel breakfast - total of about 8 miles.

Rainow fell race - (Wednesday 4th June)

One of my favourite races and always appears to be a sunny evening.

My goal was to PB from last years time and position and also to beat Brian and attempt a proper race against Lee.

Its a fastish start on road and then trail before cutting across fields and through three stiles, where if your not swift enough you end up queueing to get through.

Because of this I decided to go off quickly to get a clean run - first mile was approximately 5:45 and then it was up the tough climb to The White Nancy which is a local land mark and about a 500ft near vertical climb. From the top it is undulating but a difficult last three miles because of the exertions going up the hill.

Myself and Lee passed each other 4 or 5 times with him coming out on top by 20s - we both PB'd for the course which was the goal - I finished in 34th.

Easy days - (Tuesday 03/06)

A trip down to track tonight, but the schedule (thankfully) said an easy 5 miles - started off with the main group on their warm up and then did some laps round the banking with Brian and Jackie.

Stayed up far too late and tomorrow I'm spending the day working on site at Torrs Hydro New Mills which will be really hard work for a delicate office boy like me !

Speed work - (Monday 02/06)

With the marathon a distant memory this next meta cycle of training is to help increase my speed - my mileage has reduced considerably and the sessions are designed to be faster rather than endurance.

Monday evening was to be 20 x 200m split into 2 sessions - with my legs and feet still aching from Saturdays efforts in the Lake district I decided to try and do the efforts on grass so used the meadow in New Mills which is flat. It was a hard session : the number of reps, slightly uneven surface, tired legs and running it on my own, still they have to be done !

Easy day tomorrow and then across to Rainow for a five mile fell race on Wednesday.

The Eagle and Child - (Sunday 01/06)

A new month !

They say after a tough race you should refuel well - so I did !

Beef and horse radish sandwiches straight after the race, more beef in the form of a rib eye steak big enough for Desperate Dan in the evening at the Old Brewery in Kendal, washed down with some Jennings Ale and then back to Staveley to watch Supacuba and dance the night away !

On Sunday it was cooked breakfast at the Youth Hostel, a walk round Kendal, then over to Staveley for some more food at a great pub called The Eagle and Child.

Managed to get stuck on the M6 for a couple of hours on the way home - nevertheless it was a great weekend but boy are my legs sore !

Lakeland Trails - (Saturday 31/05)

Well I'd heard all sorts of horror stories about this race - the amount of climb, the tough descents, rocky under foot - and it certainly lived up to the feedback I'd received. Even with Kendal mint cake at the finish, if you've not tried it then the only way I can describe this Cumbrian delicacy is 'minty tasting shit.'

24 kilometres of tough racing, gruelling climbs (over 1200m in total) and mentally tough descents. I'd decided to start off quickly, run the full way up the Garburn Pass and see what I had left after that - my goal was to finish in the top 50 and also try and beat Brian Holland and Tony Lee (I've never beaten Tony in anything more than 5 miles before) - teh start was fine, even had Bashir Hussein in sight until 5km, felt strong going up the Garburn pass and even after 9 miles going down the rocky descent I was able to knock out sub 7min miles. Fuel wise I took one gel about 9 miles and should have maybe had it 10 mins earlier; I ran a bad mile at 11 miles and suspect this is when Tony got sight of me and started to wind me in, eventually passing me with about 2 miles to go.

I finished in 2h:02m (52nd), just a minute behind Tony but nearly 15mins ahead of Brian who was a little disappointed with his race.

The races are perfectly directed, managed and delivered by Graham and Claire at Lakeland Trails with admirable support by a team too numerous to mention but they know who they are !

Youth hostels - (Friday 30/05)

What an institution Youth Hostels are - you either hate them or love them. Initially I disliked them as tehy reminded me of some college trips years ago with crap baeds, crap food and too many rules and regulations.

More recntly though we have become family members and used them about once a month for breaks up in teh Lake District - rooms are reasonably cheap (no longer do you have to sleep in teh same room as a snoring, farting hiker) and the food is remarkably good despite me being a fussy eater..

Today we are off up to stay in the centre of Kendal at a Youth Hostel (see picture) which is part of an old brewery and Arts Centre - hope to get up there sharpish before hitting any traffic.

Met up with Jackie and Bashir for dinner and had a few games of pool, table football and air hockey before calling it a night before tomorrows tough race along the Garburn Pass.

8 x 600m - (Thursday 29/05)

Off to the Garburn Pass tomorrow.

Time to start doing some harder track sessions, but not too hard as Saturday sees a long race up in the Lake District.

With a nice warm up the session was 8x600m with a 200m recovery jog/walk - the target was 2:02-2:06's and I banged them out in 2:00 to 2:04's - had to work, but not eye balls out. The first 400m of each rep was more or less exactly the same 80-81 and then it depended if I had a target in front of me to drag me round the last 200m or not - good session though.

Alton Towers - (Wednesday 28/05)

Off to Alton Towers with my son Declan and a few of his friends as a belated (January !) birthday treat.

The weather forecast wasn't good but thankfully teh rain held off right until teh end of teh day.

I've never really been one for upside down, spinny rides as they just make me want to throw up but I thought I would start off gently and work my way up so it was a cup of coffee as soon as we got there and then straight onto the Squirrel Nutkin ride - would you believe it actually got stuck mid ride for a few minutes, but no worries as it only goes about 10 miles an hour. Then went for a lovely walk around the gardens to calm down before having a lovely meal.

In the afternoon we ventured into Hex and the highlight of the day for me was going on a ride called Air with clamps you in and dangles you precariously upside down, inside out and every which way it can before delivering you safely back to base feeling sick.

Also managed to get home in time to do the gym session at Dialstone.

Alton Towers would I do it again, yes, but not this year !