Running

I saw that. Utterly bonkers. That's what happens when a park authority deliberately chooses to focus all the tourists and fair weather walkers in one area.

It has a double edge, sacrifice the honeypot location to the masses to protect pretty much all the rest of the surrounding landscape. It is an interesting strategy for sure, and one that benefits folks who're self sufficient and happy to venture onto the other hills, as well as the possible benefits to wildlife in the wider area.

We were supposed to camp near Llanberis, which would offer me exploring chances but it still hasn't happened for one reason or another.

Great time, well run! Bristol Half coming up in a month...

Perfect. I don’t normally take anything with me. But for longer runs a phone would be helpful. Maybe a gel and one of those pouches would be cool.

There are two pockets on the side, one on either hip. There's a big mesh pocket on the front with a smaller pocket inside with a zip, and a big zipped pocket on the back, which has an internal divider bit

😱 that’s a lot of pockets.

I don’t normally listen to music when I run but it makes a nice change. I’ve been listening to the radio and that seems to work well.

any garmin forerunner users lost their split summary details when doing a workout?

Eg i've got a 400m interval workout set-up that I created. I always used to get the time of each 400m effort on my screen at the end each effort, but that no longer happens and it's been like this for a while now. Same issue on other workouts I've made - 600m, 800m etc...

Spoken to garmin (who were suprisingly good on the phone), they've asked me to recreate the workout and try again so will try next time I do one.

Reminds me of the photos of the public spaces (wave pools etc) in china filled shoulder to shoulder with people from before the pandemic.

I went up snowdon a couple of years back, pre-covid, with my 6 year old, and it was totally rammed at the top. It was cold and wet, so the cafe was sardined like the busiest pub you've ever been in. We did the pyg and the miners, and as soon as you turned off the ridge down onto these tracks it was fine, but from that junction to the top was queing.

I hadnt been up Snowdon for, dunno, 20 years, and just hadnt considered it could be anything like that

Im a few months into a very restrained comeback from a torn meniscus, being guided by a sensible physio. I'd been doing the usual thing of too much too early, and while starting at "run 3k slowly" and increase conservatively, while taking a day off between each run was initially very frustrating, it seems to be working.

I'm now doing a 6 mile fairly relaxed (8 min/mil) pace, 3 mile slower with barefoot shoes, and 5 x 1km intervals at a 20-min 5k pace, with a day off between each. No pains in knee or ankle, everything feeling solid.

I can feel the desire to go run 15 miles or try a <40 10k or something though. Something that I'll (probably) achieve, but then set myself up for problems from ramping to quickly.

Its only taken a lifetime to learn that I cant just carry on as I left off when coming back from an injury, although I've had countless opportunities to learn that lesson

Out of interest, what sort of exercises did your physio have you doing?

I'm in the same boat (suspected, at least), but have also opted to stay off running for most of this year, as even walking causes flair ups.

I was already doing a bunch of stuff when I saw him - I had a routine which comprised unweighted squats, deadlifts, split squats with back leg supported (can’t recall what they’re called), step ups bringing my knee up, loads of bent knee calf raises, glutes and adductors, and core stuff like planks.

His view was that it was all fine, but if I wanted to run then it was all a bit of a waste of time and I should work on running, but do so from the most basic level and make very small increases. The rationale being that I could do all that stuff so it wasn’t an inability to hold a plank for 2 mins rather 1 min or 10 deadlifts of 100kg rather than 50kg that would improve matters.

I think (for me) he was spot on and I really just needed someone to keep me in check. I was doing a couple of weeks of restrained running and then, as all was well, pretty much launch back into the same distance and speed as before, and then injure myself a couple of weeks later.

This approach seems to be working so far….

Sad news

https://www.irunfar.com/2021-tds-runner-death

@Arducius looks to be still leading Deadwater. Forgot I'm not at work today so no heckling likely, certainly not in Newton Heath.

My next door neighbour is running this. I need to step up my game.

Interesting interview with Sabrina Verjee -
https://youtu.be/0frYdCLLMio

Lost the lead today, t'other t'Andy stormed off along the canal and built up a good lead. I was gaining on him over the second half of the stage and going well but then had a rather alarming blood red piss so eased back so I could cool down and get more fluids in. Had visions of having to spend the night in hospital and missing the last stage but apparently exercise-induced hematuria is harmless and nothing to worry about if it resolves promptly, which it has after drinking loads this afternoon.

Looking forward to finishing tomorrow and having chips and a beer!

I spotted later that he'd nudged ahead. Hope your piss is sorted now.

Sounds like a sprint to the finish for you both then. Enjoy, I will be dot-watching once more!

Yeah all sorted. Just a bit of a shock as I've not had it before.

First wave just set off so the dots are moving!

Andy #8 has stormed off again, hope you can claw it back. Top performance over the week either way. Been fun dot watching.

Just had nothing in the tank today. Couldn't get temp under control despite drinking loads, probably from overdoing it yesterday and accumulated fatigue. Slogged it out for 26 miles and something suddenly clicked and I found a rhythm and ran the last 4 miles to the finish. Passed a couple of people from the earlier starts and found my way through Chester to the finish. 2nd on the stage and 2nd overall.

Other Andy (#8) got a very well deserved overall win. TBH I could tell from day 1 he was stronger, and has more mountain running experience so I was pleased to stick with him for as long as I did.

Fun fact: out of 21 starters there were 5 Andys!

Well done regardless, it was great to follow although work & life interrupted dotwatching more than I'd have liked.

Andy Cole took the Lantern Rouge (and 5th Andy) I think?

What's next for you?

#fknChapeau

(I'd love to do something like this but sadly my name isn't Andy.)

Andy Cole took the Lantern Rouge (and 5th Andy) I think?

Yes and 1st MV70 at the same time! I think he walked all of it. He's incredibly knowledgeable about the areas we passed through and all the races that go on in the hills.