Johnny Hall's Travels and Travails

Saturday dawned sunny and breezy, unlike the previous couple of days. I knew it was going to be a hot days racing. I took my time clearing the camp and then drove over to Blaenau Ffestiniog for the Ras y Moelwyn (the Moelwyn 3 Peaks). The distance and ascent was similar to Clachnaben last weekend but I was hoping to be a lot quicker. The terrain should suit me better since the descents were a lot more runnable, without the horrible high heather and bogs of Deeside, and I wasn't ill, which made a big difference. I felt I was about 10 or more minutes behind where I should have been last week (at 2:02), so I was hoping for a sub-1:50 time here, and hopefully, I'd be in the top half of the field as well. There were 104 starters and I was halfway down the field after a very conservative start as we gained height along the tracks up into the slate mines below the hills. A bunch of folks had overtaken me up to this point but I knew I'd need all the energy I could muster at the end and took it very easily to start. At the first major climb up a slate road, once everyone started to walk, I started to re-pass everyone since I have a natural advantage of very long legs and fast walking pace uphill. Indeed, up every climb up to the first of the 3 peaks, I overtook a lot of people, probably about 20 all in all. I expected to see some of the them again but I never did. I kept pace down the descents, which suited me, being slow-ish and technical, and even overtook another couple of runners. I kept the pressure on up the second climb and kept descending well. Now I was with runners moving at the same speed and up and over the final hill, I lost touch a bit with the 2 folks in front. I was still feeling ok, so I gritted my teeth and got down to the road for the last run in, which was a lot further than I remembered on the way out. I overtook one more runner before the end but I couldn't muster the finishing endurance to hold him off and another chap came past at the end as well. Not to worry, no point killing myself for a couple of places in a training race. The results aren't out yet but I believe I was about 35th out of 104 and finished in 1:44ish. All in all, very pleasing and showed that Clachnaben was an aberration. In 2 weeks, it's Stuc a' Chroin, which is going to be a lot longer but a good test before Jura.

The second day of my trip was designed to be a shorter day, with some hill running combined with more micro-navigation work. Sarah led me over the route of the Moel Eilio hill race, Moel Eilio itself, then Foel Goch.  This was a shorter run, with less ascent and easier, more runnable terrain.  My legs were tired, so we walked the major climbs and discussed map work.  Again, the cloud was down a bit low which deprived us of any decent views.  That meant we had plenty of time to discuss navigation and training. After a cup of tea at Pete's Eats in Llanberis, we drove back up Pen y Pass and spent an hour or so micro-navigating.  It was very useful to be given pointers to improve my navigation.  Mostly, my issues seem to have been about confidence and observation.  I've been navigating for years but it's very easy to become lazy and not pay full attention.  If I want to improve, I need to practise until it become second nature to keep track of the road travelled and keep an eye on the map. In the afternoon, I went back for lunch at Pete's and then spent a lazy time reading the paper and eating, taking a trip to Betws y Coed for outdoor shop browsing and a cream tea.  All very pleasant.

I'm just back from 3 days of running in Snowdonia - the first 2 with Snowdonia Running Guides (Iain and Sarah Ridgway), and the 3rd, racing the Moelwyn 3 Peaks hill race. The idea was to get some quality running accomplished in the mountains and brush up on some navigation skills, ready for the meat of the hill running season. We travelled down to Leek on Wednesday and I left Becky and the girls with Pat and John on Thursday, driving over to the campsite at Nant Peris, near Llanberis. Thursday afternoon, I met Iain and we run over the Glyders from Llanberis to Ogwen, over one of the legs of the Paddy Buckley Round. I had been hoping that I'd be in possession of a bit more endurance but after my 3 week layoff, I was a bit behind where I should be. Still, I knew I could run over the hills, albeit a little slower than I might have wished. We pushed on up through the slate quarries to gain the ridge over Elider Fawr where we headed into the clouds. It had been warm and sunny in the valley but in the clag it was a bit grim. The idea was for me to navigate but it didn't take much more than holding the map, since I knew the route reasonably well. Over Y Garn and down to the steep pull onto Glyder Fawr, which is never pleasant. We were making good time up to this point but the plateau over to Fach is very rocky and I'm not a huge fan of running over this sort of terrain. Turns out I'm far too clumsy and nearing the second summit, I caught my right foot whilst moving at speed and went headlong into a rock, taking the full brunt on my left shoulder. I was very lucky - no broken bones. It bloody hurt though - my left arm was completely dead for a full minute and it still hurts now, 3 days later. So, we slowed down a bit after that. It took a while to find the descent to the col below Tryfan and it was a bit tricky to negotiate with my useless arm dangling by my side. My legs were tired on the pull up to the final summit and then the descent, which should be relatively simple in the dry was a pain in the neck and very slow going, even on the final steps down to the road, since my shoes wouldn't grip them at all. We were back at the car after 4 and a half hours, which wasn't too bad, particularly since I had 2 more hard days to come. Iain is one of the best hill runners in Wales and his knowledge of the mountains in the area is excellent. If you are looking to get to know Snowdonia, want to brush up on your navigation or are taking part in one of the many mountain-based challenges, then I can recommend you give Snowdonia Running Guides a call. Lovely, friendly people too.

Between January the 1st and the middle of March, I ran over 450 miles in training and was beginning to get into some decent shape. Unfortunately, it all went downhill there for a couple of weeks and I'm going to have to rebuild a bit. First, I get the flu, which destroyed my lungs and sinuses for a week and then, just as I'm getting back to it again, I managed to get food poisoning, which has been a lot more debilitating.

So, lining up for one of the hardest hill races in Scotland after most of the last 3 weeks out of action and with a lingering illness, wasn't probably the best of ideas. Still, I needed to get back into it again, since Jura isn't too far away.

I travelled up with a clubmate, Russell, early on Saturday morning, and we made good time. The weather was perfect, sunny, warm, with a cool, strong breeze. We were informed on the start line that the heather was particularly high this year and the going would be a bit slower as a result. I wasn't feeling too great, so I decided to take it easy at the beginning. We started out for a couple of miles on a track before striking up the first hill through the heather. I managed to keep the effort level constant up the first hill and went past a few people. Down the first descent, I started to grasp the difficulties ahead - there was a narrow muddy track through the heather which was very difficult to run down, so I took to the heather at the side. It wasn't too deep and was fairly runnable.

Then, another big climb up Clachnaben itself, which went ok. I hit the summit, which I judged to be about halfway at about 55 minutes. There was a stiff breeze round the summit tor and then we charged down the backside. Although we were maybe about halfway, we hadn't hit any of the difficulties yet. The run down the back of the hill was very difficult. The track was narrow, boggy and rough and the heather was too high and uneven to run easily. Runners came passed me and disappeared into the distance - my legs were too weak to keep a decent pace going. Then we hit some level, boggy, wet ground which was, again, hard to run on, and then another descent down some very high heather, which I had to resort to walking down. My ankles turned a few times and I hit the ground on more than one occasion because I lost my footing.

Finally, I got onto level ground and then started up the last climb back over Shade Hill. I figured after that, the run in would be easier but not a bit of it - the heather was high and uneven and I lost more ground. It was also boggy and I plunged into knee deep mud on a couple of occasions. Then a run through shin high heather, which flayed my legs and a last little climb before a couple of miles on the track.

I had no strength all the way around the second half and couldn't defend my position at the end, and lost several places. I finished in just under 2:02. If I was in the top half, I'd be very surprised. Still, it was good training, my legs aren't too trashed today (apart from a sore left ankle, which I turned badly) due to not being able to run hard downhill and this morning was the first morning I woke up not feeling terrible in the last 3 weeks. Maybe I've turned the corner.

Next week, I'm going to Wales for 3 days of hard training in Snowdonia, finishing with the Moelwyn 3 Peaks race.