June 2014

[Charliecat5]

This is getting to be a regular thing this running with Sweder and I am really enjoying it... BUT, and I believe this is quite deliberate, he is really starting to push my limits, not just in terms of distance – distance is just a number – but in terms of hill climbing and the mental challenge this involves.

I am starting to realise that as a newbie I have fallen for the oldest trick in the book… it appears that the rest of you have slunk off with wry smiles on your faces leaving me to the mercies of the Animal, safe in the knowledge that someone else is suffering the pain.

Having mentioned that I might be going out this weekend for a ‘long-one’, Sweder kindly suggested he join me and that he already had a route in mind.

It went like this: my pad, up the W (Kingston Ridge), Castle Hill, the Snake and Heartbreak Ridge, before heading north back to home. I ran the furthest I have ever run this morning – we clocked 12.25 miles on the old GPS; but to be honest I am not that bothered about distance… what I am more interested in – and my legs are particularly interested in – is that we climbed 1,621 feet this morning. This is a far more satisfying record for me.

Interestingly, I am now finding my ability to run up steep slopes really improving. Running up the W was relatively easy (when I say 'easy' I mean less hard than some of the other bits), and Heartbreak Ridge was almost enjoyable. But hills like the Snake are really difficult. There are, I believe, two reasons for this. When I run up steep hills my running style changes, I run on my toes pushing hard with the muscles I have built up over many years biking these hills. On a lesser slope I run it as though I am on the flat which is challenging. He tells me that this will improve.

I think the second reason is more psychological; at the point we set off up the Snake I was geographically speaking in unknown territory – I wasn’t sure where we were going and more importantly, how far we were going. Out of the whole run, the few miles up and over the Snake to the bottom of Heartbreak Ridge were the most difficult.

Having said that, by the time we got back down to Kingston Village he had broken me… I walked the last quarter of the last mile home arriving buggered, but happy.