River King moored on the Severn

Life has been quite crazy lately. Weeks back I acquired a pretty bad cold type illness. It knocked me out pretty good and put a stop to training for a week. Nearly 30 days later I still have a slight sniffle and cough. Initially after the 7 days I began running again but just building back up to normal as one does. Then the kids were off school for a week, so as I built back up my time then was limited which was annoying. Finally as soon as the kids went back to school my daughter then went into hospital for testing for her epilepsy for five days, a good thing but very stressful. 

Post flood riverside path in Worcester

Now here I am with a slight sniff and cough attempting to shake off the crazy stress from the hospital attempting to get back on track with training for the Arc of Attrition. But I’m consumed by an odd overall exhaustion. I tried a long run Monday, and was psyched to have the time again, but after a few miles I stopped and walked it in. Just exhausted. The effects of life stress have wiped me out. I’m sleeping well, eating well, things are positive around the house, but it continues to linger. I really want to get back to consistent training! 

Showing off my new test shoes: 361 Lynx

I’m writing this from the airport. I’m flying to Glasgow and tomorrow driving my mother in law and her husband back to Worcestershire as they are moving. Easy 6 hours of driving probably, no big deal. Maybe the downtime of flight travel with help me relax and a shake this exhausted feeling.

Fast forward to returning from Scotland. House moves are never fun. Travel there was alright, trains, plane, taxi, and train all flowed smoothly but did take nearly 6 hours. I slept ok. Then the move commenced. Despite having two hired movers it took from 8am until 7pm. From 7 until 8pm we cleaned, fortunately it wasn’t too bad! From about 830 until 430 am we drove. Yes. It took 8 hours! Of course we stopped a couple times but we also had two highway closures with diversions. Also some pretty dense fog. Traffic flowed and was basically big trucks. But that was one hell of a long day.

Colby running with me

I slept for two hours until the kids woke me, I doubt I’d have slept in anyway, and my day was on. I did have the day off to see my son’s primary school cross country race, but it was still a miserable day. I was hoping for 10 miles, but now, I’m pretty sure it will be zero running today. 

It was fun trucking around watching cross country. It’s through the school PE programs they have this inter school meet. I believe the top 7 go on to the next higher bracket. 

Grades 5 and 6, boys and girls cross country 

Colby

He had fun. I’m not sure he’s truly an endurance kid, which is just fine, you don’t need to be fast to enjoy it! 

Been a while, seems I say that every post! Not much to write about so here are some photos! 

Did my first ever “beer mile.” Super fun! Here’s how it goes: 

“Go!”

Chug a beer. Run 400m.

Chug a beer. Run 400m.

Chug a beer. Run 400m.

Chug a beer. Run 400m.

That’s a mile! The clock never stops. I’m not sure what my official time was but my running time was a 5:05 mile! I’m a fast chugger but set my watch wrong so it only tracked the laps. Oh well. I won, out-drinking a bunch of 20 somethings! Still got it!  

I grew my own oyster mushrooms! Bought a kit a few months back and it finally arrived. So after a few weeks I had mushrooms! Fun project, wish I knew more about it. 

We got a new cat! Sadly bc after Rose was run over my wife soon after adopted “Birdie.” She has settled in nicely and is more of an inside cat which we are happy with. 

Brought Annabelle to an inclusive cycling day at the sports club where Colby trains. They have a bunch of recumbents, hand cycles, electric assist, trikes etc for folks with disabilities. It was super fun. 

I started officially training for the Arc of Attrition in January. And as expected the weather has turned into perpetual November, the snow never arrives. On a positive note this makes for ideal Arc training. 

Running has become boring dropping back into ultramarathon training. I want to do more speed work like I had been doing over summer. Maybe it’s time to change up the routine to see what happens. I know I can finish a 100 miler, but what happens if I add in faster marathon pace training? Hmmmmm.

I love running but really enjoyed that faster paced training. Maybe it’s time for a marathon, I love the consistency of the pace and the harder effort involved. 

Finally had a clear night to see the northern lights! This is out our front door. So cool, but probably more special in the backcountry or the middle of no where. 

I’m going to try to write more and get more photos, time is tight. 

The other day I posted that I had quit martial arts, possibly for a short few months until life hopefully normalizes, if that even happens. After a day or two  I changed my mind. I felt stupid for stopping, all that practice to give up? It’s not that I need a break and need to be around my family, I needed to go and have a break from my family. I have few friends here, the only social life I have outside of work is martial arts. A strong social life is key to happiness. So, martial arts it is. 

It’s actually become a huge motivator to train more. I attended class on Thursday. It was quiet, as many people are out of town, and for some reason Thursdays have been quiet in general. It was great though and I’m excited to be back after my hiatus. 

An old one playing with knives (yellow phase 4)

A new one playing with knives (2nd degree black, phase 11)

And "summer" is here, only in the sense that the kids are out of school, the weather has been more like October it seems, cool and cloudy. That being said  we had a spike into the upper 70's which was enough motivation for me to get out the kid's pool. When it's in the 60's they'll swim because they are crazy so I figured it's a great way to keep them off ipads even though it's guaranteed to kill the grass. 

L

So with kids out of school comes me being home more which really sucks. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy spending time with the kids, despite how frustrating it can be some days, but I make no money if I don't work. My boss is extremely flexible and I'm able to have off whatever I need when school is out. It really is great but when my paycheck comes in £400 is a tough pill to swallow so my stress levels go way up money-wise. 

My opportunity to run long on Mondays goes away with kids off school too. I normally go for a long run for 20 plus miles since kids are in school and my wife is working. I still can likely sneak this in but I do feel bad leaving the kids to be occupied by screens so the overwhelming guilt stops me. Once again the treadmill saves the fitness! I can more easily manage two 8 milers in a day versus being gone for 3 plus hours so treadmill it is! I choose to run at times the kids are destined to be on their ipads, morning and then night so the guilt is less. I figure if everyone is watching whatever they want on their screens I'll do the same but in motion! 

So here we are, a treadmilling fool but perfectly happy for now. 

2nd degree black belt JKD

1st degree black belt eskrima 

I quit martial arts today. Been doing it for a long long time, about 10 years. I haven’t been in class for probably 8 weeks. With the stress around my daughter’s situation high I felt it necessary to be at home. I wasn’t out much anyway, two nights per week, but more and more it seemed the best thing to do would be to stay at home. It feels weird. I told my instructor about the situation and he understood of course. Am I done? I hope not. I’ll continue to practice on my own and hopefully return in the future. It does feel strange. The conversation with my instructor was odd, I felt like I’d given up, my community is now gone. I have few if any friends here but at class I always had people to talk to and joke around with. Yeah, I’ll be back. Hopefully better than before, a sabbatical of sorts. 

Final news is we lost a cat the other night. Rose was about 4 years old and seemed to have been hit by a car. She came limping in, hid in the litter box lying on her side. She spontaneously pooped and then wretched a few times. That was it. I’m assuming spinal injury with those presentations. The vet said to look at her claws, they’ll be damaged if it was a car. Cats try to get away and grab the pavement, sure enough hers were. We are all sad. Rosie was the cat who always meowed at me. I had my morning coffee with her every day, she relentlessly bothered me for scratches. I probably talked to her the most out of anyone! 

So a lot of negatives here, but I guess that’s good to write about. 

Rose

My final photo of Rose

Running the Cumbria Way

Last week I had the opportunity to run The Cumbria Way with my friend Greg who I met during the Cotswold Century 100 miler. He lives in Cornwall and also helped crew me at the Arc of Attrition. I hadn't spent much time in the Lake District National Park other than a miserable Lakeland 100 in 2014 and then a couple runs around Ullswater. The place is beautiful and I actually fit in there being more of an outdoorsy type person. The Cumbria Way is a "national trail" that runs from Ulverston in the south straight through the middle of The Lakes and finishes about 75 miles later in Carlisle. We planned to split it up between three days with possible higher elevation deviations from the traditional route bagging some bigger fells depending on how the weather was and how we felt. We had two hotels booked and planned to take the train back to the start where the car was.   

I left the house after dropping the kids at school on Friday, plan was to pick Greg up at Manchester Airport (he was flying from Newquay Cornwall), then drive to Ulverston and start running. Travel went well with only a bit of bad traffic, took a few wrong turns, etc but we made it in the end although a bit later than planned. We payed for parking for the weekend and were shortly on our way. 

 We initially planned on having our baggage transported from hotel to hotel but in the end it would've been logistically a pain so we opted to run with everything. Everything being pretty much nothing! It was our usual required race kit but I added a pair of boxers, socks, toothpaste in a ziploc, brush, sudocreme in a ziploc(for chafing), watch and phone chargers, a couple extra softflasks, and a water filter just in case. Keep in mind normal race kit requires waterproof jacket/pants, windproof jacket/pants, spare long sleeve, hat, gloves, and a few emergency items we were pretty set with very little and it was awesome! Reminded me of my backpacking days. We could always dry things out and wash things at the hotels if need be. Greg thought I was nuts only bringing one pair of running shorts, the ones I was wearing, and only one spare pair of socks! In the end it was actually perfect! 

The start in Ulverston

 Light and fast we took our time, this wasn't a race and we were in no hurry. Probably took it too slow actually especially with our late 330pm start, we did have light on our side though. Greg wasn't feeling the greatest, I knew he had some health issues last year and today I got the full low down. He had had an intense chest pain which ended up being a blood clot in his chest. It took a long time to find out what it actually was but now he was on a cancer drug/blood thinner. He was administered it the other day and it can dusrupt his sleep initially so he was not 100% he wasn't about to stop though so we just took it easy. 

 We worked our way through fields as we left the low elevation and the seaside and progressed into the fells. The cool thing was we'd pass through villages and towns and were able to get food etc. if we needed it. This was great considering we definitely wouldn't make it to the hotel before the pub closed! 

 The terrain changed drastically as we ran alongside Beacon Tarn, the hills grew bigger, steeper, and the terrain more mountain-like. That being said the fells are such a unique environment. I still can't wrap my head around them. It's rocky and rugged, and crystal clear creeks seemed to flow from no where (referred here as becks and gills I believe), but all the trees are hardwoods. No pines. I always expect conifers after living in the western USA and also everything is so green; mosses, trees, grassy hills. Also sheep everywhere! 

As we descended to Coniston Water (one of the long and narrow lakes) we had our first high route option to make at Torver. We decided to keep to the standard route because it would've added significant time to our day with a lot more vert and maybe a few more miles. Already running late best not to let it get dark as we opted to leave headlamps behind. We saw more and more walkers (hikers) as we got closer to the town of Coniston, the start of the Lakeland 100. We called the hotel to inform them we indeed were coming but would be in about 9pm or so and had "dinner" from a corner shop; coke, chips, a vegetable samosa. The odd thing was I wasn't actually that hungry despite travelling all day and having run about 13 miles.

After a short break we headed out towards Great Langdale, a giant meadow where our hotel was. Into the fells we went, Greg pointing out high peaks as we ran along. Fells are very different from mountains. They are relatively low elevation but can be very rocky and steep or covered in grass and bogs. Any "trail" is more of a route, I'd guess rarely maintained as compared to trails in the US, and many times go straight up, no switchbacks! The Cumbria Way was a trail that went from roadsides and lanes to narrow singletrack paths, sometimes maintained others not. It also is somewhat signed. We were expecting it to be better signed in all honesty but with a map and two GPS watches we only took a few wrong turns! The closer we got to Langdale the more people we saw, much like Coniston. Langdale though was only a few small villages and bunch of camping it seemed surrounded by towering fells.

The clock was ticking and we strolled through the valley anxiously awaiting the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel. We had wanted to stay the Old Dungeon Ghyll but it was booked. It's the classic old school climbers pub and Greg's girlfriend's dad has a tankard behind the bar! The place was and is a hub of history for climbing and fell running. The New Dungeon Ghyll was from I believe 1862 and the Old Dungeon Ghyll referred to them as "the interlopers" being a newer pub when it was first built ha ha ha!!!! 

We arrived shortly before 10 pm, checked in, showered, and slept. 27 miles. 

We woke and I had a big full english breakfast with veggie sausages, I actually had eggs for the frst time in a long time, we were on our way by 9am I think. No rush once again. We had decent weather so far, cloudy and 50's. Cool enough that if you stopped and were sweaty you'd get a chill but not too hot when moving. Temps were great and we didn't need to be too concerned about dehydration. At the end of Great Langdale we came to a dead end and the only way was up. We had a pass to get over and then a long descent to Derwentwater, another lake, and at the head of it Keswick, a much bigger town about half way in the day's run where we planned to have lunch, stop at an outdoor store, and then continue on. 

Stake Pass top right corner 

Looking back down Great Langdale

Climb up Stake Pass

Up Stake Pass

We climbed fern lined singletrack and uneven rock slab stairs up to Stake Pass, then through grassy hills the single track snaked around the topography until a steep switchbacked descent down Stake Beck. We passed a couple backpackers as we took short quick steps down the steep rocky trail. Looking back up Stake Beck transformed into a huge cascading waterfall until it joined with Langstrath Beck, a much wider water flow at the base of the valley. We missed a bridge and had to backtrack a bit through boggy terrain getting wet feet for the first time. Rocky mellow trail with streams running sthrough it now descended the valley as we ran by walkers and wild swimmers. 

Stake Pass

Down into Langstrath

Down, down, down we ran admiring the high fells above us. Soon we were running into Stonethwaite, Rosthwaite, and into Borrowdale the heart of fell running in the Lakes. We ran along narrow lanes and more built up paths, then into the hardwood forest as we approached Derwentwater. High up you could see walkers lining up hiking Catbells, a shorter and easily accessible fell overlooking Keswick. 

 Into Keswick we arrived buzzing with traffic, buses, tourists. It was busy with walkers and sightseers. We went to the grocery store cafe and had baked potatoes for lunch and refilled our water. Then on to Kong Running, a running and climbing shop in town that Greg said I had to see. It had an insane amount of trail and fell running shoes, not to mention all the race vests and accessories you could dream of. This was where I dream of working. Not that my current shop is inferior this place was a mountain shop. We ooood and ahhhhd at the shoes you only see online, I poked and prodded, flexed and bent different models. I've always wanted a pair of fell shoes but really don't have the terrain to warrant them. Fell specific shoes have a very aggressive tread, up to 8mm lugs, and usually have minimal cushioning with a snug precise fit; fell running terrain is usually steep, many times no trail, can be boggy and wet, ankle deep grass, slippery rocky scree. So, a precise fit with maximum traction is crucial. 

Kong Running

On we went after buying a few energy bars. We still had another 15 plus miles to run to Caldbeck with a high route option. Shortly we were out of the city and going up. Greg's ankle had been bothering him but he kept on going. This was a short section I remembered from the Lakeland 100. We came to the cut off for the climb up Skiddaw, one of the bigger fells in the area. He insisted we go up it because the views are epic and we'd had decent weather so far. The route switchbacked heavily and ascended into a cloud, aka the clag. Clag is the term used for limited visibility, possible rain/sleet/snow/drizzle, wind, etc. You never what you're going to get! 

Looking up Skiddaw’s first of many false summits

Looking down on Keswick


Last views of Keswick and Derwentwater

Photo does the gradient zero justice! 



Up, up, up again as the visibility slowly diminished. Greg said the grade was at 30%. Steep and unrunnable we power hiked our way up and our rain jackets came out as the winds and rain increased, so much for the epic views! After a false summit, Skiddaw Little Man, we crested Skiddaw rolling on through to the descent. Going down was just as bad as up; steep loose rock. Runnable yes but we didn't want any injuries so took it easy. The weather soon improved as we left the clag, we could see our next turn and Skiddaw House, a hostel in the middle of nowhere we had considered staying at. 

Descent 

What we came down, at least what’s visible! 

Gravel road way at the bottom 

Onto a gravel road we ran comfortably for a bit until our next off route option presented itself. What looked like a beat up drainage running through boggy grass was our route up to Knott via Little Calva, a fell that cuts the corner of where we wanted to go. Unrunnable boggy, ankle deep soft grass was not fun to say the least. Feet were wet again and we slowly ascended into the clag. Below we could see the sea but not anymore! Tromping through the classic fell bogs soon it transformed to slate like rock, then finally down again, the grass returned and it was slow going. 

Climb up to Knot


Normally you view the sea from here! 


Cloud level


Looking down towards Caldbeck

Lingy Hut

At some point we connected back to the traditional Cumbria Way and ran past the Lingy Hut, a bothy, or rural shelter for anyone to use. Bothies are usually old shepard huts or hunting shacks. Minimal maintenance, no facilities. Basically somewhere to hide from the weather. Sometimes they'll have a fireplace and plywood benches to sleep on. I poked my head in, took a photo, and we continued on. We were running along an obvious path now with one more fell to top out on before descending to Caldbeck where we'd spend the night in hotel. 

Great view from High Pike

Topping out on High Pike the clag was minimal and we could see the cloud line separating the bad from the better. In the distance we could see Caldbeck as well. Watches said we had about 4 miles, all downhill, away we went. Easy smooth sinlgetrack and dirt paths made for comfortable running after a long day. 

Final descent to Caldbeck

Soon we were passing through farm fields and along country lanes. A wrong turn chatting probably added a mile but we were sticking to roads now so no big deal. Soon we rolled into Caldbeck and to the Oddfellows Arms. 

We checked in and immediately sat in the busy Saturday night pub before they stopped serving food. Plant based eating out the door I ordered fish and chips and had a couple beers. We had just finished a 34 mile day. We ate and retired to our rooms to try to relax and get some sleep. I organized my kit, washed my shorts in the sink, and hung any wet stuff up to dry a bit. Fortunately my room had a fan so drying shoes and shorts was easy. I had considered using the hairdryer! I thought about going down for another beer but opted out. Better to try to sleep, the previous night I slept poorly due to our late arrival. 

We met in the pub at 8am in time for breakfast. I had a full english breakfast with veggie sausages and way too much coffee. Greg had the same but with normal sausages. I had gotten up early and my kit was all packed and ready to go, not much of a task when you've got hardly anything! Today we had 15 miles to Carlisle, a bigger city. We were out of the fells and just followed the River Caldew the entire way. 

This last 15 miles was shit. We both agreed if we were to do it all again we'd skip this part! It was all gradual downhill but wet, slippery, muddy, overgrown trails and tracks through fields. No fun. Some so overgrown that it was unrunnable. 

Landslide 

Wet and overgrown 

We did see a couple castles, and the river was very scenic, but the running was miserable. We were happy to hit the outskirts of the city and run on roads. Once in Carlisle we meandered through the city on the formal route finishing at the tourist info building. We were done. 

Done! 

 We sorted our train out, had some food, and the travel began. 2 hours of trains and 3 hours of driving. I dropped Greg at Lancaster train station as he knew I needed to get back. He'd catch a train to Manchester, spend the night, and then catch a flight home the following day.

 All in all a fun adventure. It was different not racing. It was fantastic to finish the day at a hotel and be able to resupply at pubs and shops along the way as needed. Very different from my days backpacking in the USA. As I've gotten older I definitely appreciate going a little less dirt bag! 

The Cumbria Way with a Skiddaw side trip: 

77 miles, 11,000 feet of climbing