"Brereton Heath"

It's been a packed last three weeks of running and racing including "pyramid " track sessions (3x300/6x600/3x33 off 60 seconds recovery), long runs (over two hours) in the hills and steady recovery runs across the Cheshire Plain discovering new lunchtime routes from my office in Sandbach.

All of this was held together by the annual club track & field championships held over two nights replacing the normal training sessions. In session one I ran the 400, 1500 and 3000m all in the space of an hour and a quarter! Not recommended if you want season's best times but that was what I got at least in the 400m, but more importantly I defeated one of the junior men who at the start of the race had complained that he had to compete against the "old timers". A quick shout of "is that all you have" coming off the last bend put him firmly in his place! On the second evening of the champs I concentrated purely on the 800m and whilst posting season's best of 2.36.4 was pipped on the line for the vet men's title by a guest from the local triathlon club!

It's always nice to run somewhere new and last weekend I visited Brereton Heath Local Nature Reserve for an interval session. This is one of a series of sites I am responsible for as part of my day job so it was great to see lots of visitors enjoying the country park particulalry the lake a former silica sand quarry pit On a scorching hot day & after a steady warm up I managed 3 x1500m sets using the path round the lake with a three minute recovery with progessive splits of 5.20/5.05/5.02. A short but very tough session.

The other highlight of the week, and again part of my job was a guided visit around the Olympic and Paralympic Park at Greenwich to see the incredible progress being made towards the 2012 Games. The scale of the construction work is astounishing and makes me want to attend more than ever (subject to getting tickets through the ballot of course!). It was certainly quite a contrast to the quiet of Brereton!

Weekly mileage 25. Annual mileage 704 (week 26)

"Oakenbank Lane"

After a couple weeks of constant racing it was back to putting some training miles in the tank. Regular racing, particularly over the fells has highlighted what happens when you ignore regular hill rep sessions (and also the track) both of which I "avoided" these last few weeks and paid the price. Although my race times were no worse than last year and in some cases faster I really lost out on both short and long climbs. So this week has included a sprint session of 19 x 1 min (30 secs recovery) and earlier today a hill session on the 300 metre steady incline of Stoneyfold Lane including 5 x full hill (70 secs), 5 x half hill (35 secs) and 5 x one third hill (23 secs) all at increasing pace and with 90 seconds recovery between sets for a totally knackering 30 minutes of work!

Glorious weather yesterday saw me out on the mountain bike for some cross training and a couple of hours over the local hills, but disaster struck on the fast technical descent of the boulder strewn Oakenbank Lane in Rainow where first the rear tyre shredded followed by the wheel deciding to change shape! With no mobile phone signal it was a long walk home with the bike over my shoulder but the sunset made it worth the effort. Thank heavens for lightweight aluminium frames!

Weekly mileage 28. Annual mileage 625 (week 23)

"Wincle Trout Race"

Having recovered with some easy running after the Shutlingsloe Fell Race on Bank Holiday Monday the weather picked up again over the weekend for the second race of the week, the Wincle Trout Run with the finishers prize of a fresh trout from the local trout farm!

I have been racing this event for many years and such is its popularity that from an annual entry of around 30 runners the race has grown and now attracts athletes from all over the north west and the 300 limit is reached weeks beforehand.

With the temperature again over 25c this run over six tough country miles and with over 1800 feet of ascent this race has it all - a fast start, murderous early climb, river crossing, drop round the famous Hanging Stone and fast last mile descent (where I have previously broken my collar bone in an argument with a dry stone wall!) completed by a run in supported by several hundred visitors to the local fete which the race forms one of the main attractions.

Although I suffered again with poor climbing over the Staffordshire Moorlands I knocked over five minutes off last years time coming in 109th (293 finishers) in 49.57. The trout was delicious, which made for a really good end to a great day!

Weekly mileage 22. Annual mileage 597 (week 22)

"Shutlingsloe Fell Race"

It's only 1.9 miles long but with an ascent of over 900 feet this short local village fete race deserves its reputation as one of the toughest of the summer season. Every year now for over 30 years I have rolled up and paid my money and tried to tell myself that this year it will be different, that I will run as much of the hill as I can (usually around 20%!) and that the final ascent from the river will see me pick off competitors one by one as I climb back up to Crag Hall in front of a cheering crowd. Then I wake up from my dream!

Yet again the event was part of the English Fell Championship calendar and attracted some of the best hill racers around. Won by international Simon Bailey in 15.15 (only 4 seconds off his course record), I was still coming off the top when he touched the finishing wall at Crag Hall! I managed 26.49 only 3 seconds slower than last year but despite some reasonable climbing my descent off the hill was far too cautious, and my reflexes to react to changes under my feet are definitely slowing down! It was great to have the family there though to cheer me in at the finish. Well sat on Lord Derby's lawn eating ice cream actually!

Weekly mileage 26. Annual mileage 575 (week 21)

"A Five and a Half"

Within four days of the tough Bollington Three Peaks Hill Race it was back to the same hills and trails for the Rainow 5.

A much shorter and "runnable" event it still covers over 800ft of climbing. Once again overall I had a good run of 45.30 knocking 16 seconds off last year, but my achilles heal still remains the long climbing element of the race showing a definite lack of hill work. It was also unseasonally cold.


Not so last Saturday's race, the reasonably flat and fast High Peak Swift Half run in 25c heat! Once again it was the chance to get together with the eurobloggers who make up the net running community and a good time was had by all. Despite the heat we all got round. I was looking for a really quick time for me (sub 1.33) for a change but after hitting a less than steady 70 minutes for the first 9 miles I knew it was crazy to try and hold the pace and ended up ten minutes slower than last year in 1.45.30. I was just happy to finish in one piece without too much damage.

Weekly mileage 34. Annual mileage 549

"When I'm 64......"

Its the start of May and what usually turns out to be the busiest racing month of the year so far. This year will be no exception with six races planned in over the next four weeks.

The first race was last Saturday which saw the second ever running of the Bollington Festival Three Peaks Fell Race covering the three highest points (two of them trigs) in the Bollington area and with just over 1200ft of climb for the six mile plus circuit this is always going to be one which pushes the very limits of your fitness. Although only a low key village race it still managed to attract a couple of international mountain runners!

Having had very little sleep over the days preceding the race (having worked through the night on the Thursday for the general election and then gone straight into the office the next day) it was always going to be a "run and see" what happens. I didn't have long to wait to find out! Whistling the tune to match my race number (64) over the first flat mile I hit the red line on the very first climb of the day to Kerridge Ridge which was closely followed by a rapid descent & ascent back up to White Nancy followed by a further rapid drop to the final hands on knees climb of the day up Nab Head, where on a clear day you can apparently see the Welsh mountains. All I saw was blurred vision as I dropped off the hill for the final fast two miles to the finish at the local village fete in a time of 56.02, ten seconds faster than last year but certainly in a far worse state!

The next race is a mid week return to the same hills for the Rainow 5 which hopefully is slightly quicker and runnable, we'll see!

Weekly mileage only 18. Annual mileage 485

"Out on the Gritstone Trail"

One of the great things about running is that it often only takes one good session or race and you are right back to where you want to be. This happened to me this week, where after a couple of weeks of niggling injury and low key training, a tough track session on Tuesday (including 5 x 800m with 1 minute recoveries) and Open Track meet on Wednesday did exactly that.

With the Tuesday session I held back on doing 1k's in favour of 800's in the hope that it would leave something for the following evening's Open Meet! I had intended to run the 1500 and 800 but opted for the latter only. My target for the season is a sub 2.30 so I was delighted with a 2.37 dead (off a 74 sec first 400). I finished really strongly and with some more solid speed work behind me through the summer hopefully i will get close to this time.

Yesterrday I managed a 12 miler which included several along the Gritsone Trail. Out for over two hours, this is the longest time on my feet for quite a while. On a beautifuuly mild and sunny day it was great to put the watch away and just run and I covered quite a few of the trails that I will be racing on over the next few weeks. All in all a great week of training and racing. Let's hope it continues!

Weekly mileage 30. Annual mileage 467.