1 week to go

Weeks until BG – 1

Weeks until Lakeland 100 - 18

Monday – Nothing

Tuesday – 9 miles around Bowes Moor with 400m of ascent

Wednesday – climb

Thursday – 8 miles Hamsterley with 500m of ascent

Friday – Nothing

Saturday – 10 miles, 1000m of ascent, Newlands Valley, BG L5 hills.

Sunday – Dig out old fence posts.

Total of 27 miles and 1900m of ascent.

Cracking week, lovely weather and some steady miles, no injury worries, just winding down for my BG attempt on Saturday, 6am start, 31^st March.

The reason for the 6am start are two fold. Firstly I don't cope well with lack of sleep, I think that one of the things that went wrong last year (11pm start) was just that I got tired and my body had a bit of a fit. Perhaps that wasn't an issue, but I would like to change the start time so I set off fresh and see if it makes a difference. Secondly I have 2 great men supporting L4 which is the tricky night section with a 6am start. Jim Mann and Simon Noble, I couldn't wish for a stronger support crew for L4, I understand I am giving them a hell of a task to get me round L4 in the dark but if it goes wrong and we don't find the right lines I hope we will have a couple of hours spare so it won't be a major problem.

The team I have got in place is phenomenal considering I only gave myself 3 weeks notice to get things in place.

L1 – Dave Swift (Seasoned BGer) and Fiona Blackett (Wife and top 10 in English Chaps race) + Dave's mate

L2 – Andy Kirkup (very strong BG aspirant) and friend plus Roger Taylor (hero drummer from Queen), or perhaps it is another Roger Taylor, I have no idea?

L3 – Duncan Archer (OMM and LAMM winner)

L4 – Jim Mann (Double BG completer and strong contender for this years ultra series) Simon Noble (Local all round BG encyclopedia)

L5 – Clive King (BG completer who is insistent enough to keep me moving on L5) and Patrick Bonnett (who got round the BG route last year in horrid conditions)

So as you can see a fantastic bunch of runner, so if I don't get round it will be because something went wrong or because I did something wrong.

Fingers crossed. Weather looks good so lets see what happens next Saturday.

If I can I will update on twitter during the day I will #andyblackettBG @AndyBlackett.

2 weeks to go

Weeks until BG – 2.

Weeks until Lakeland 100 – 19.

Mon – 2 miles to loosen the legs

Tuesday – 10 miles, 500m ascent – cockfield Fell.

Wed – climb

Thurs – 6 miles, 700m ascent, Hamsterley

Friday – nothing

Saturday – 16 miles, 1000 ascent, Pennine way to Bleaklow, then 6 miles, 600m ascent, Lads Leap race.

Sunday – rested sore achilles.

Total of 40 miles, 2800m ascent.

With 2 weeks to go till I plan to have a crack at the Bob Graham I didn't want to exhaust myself this week or make my achilles any worse. I have concentrated entirely on steady miles and not done anything super long. Last weeks long run gave me a lot of confidence for 2 weeks time and I don't want to blow it by going off too fast in the race that I had entered on Saturday.

The race was the first in the English Championships, I entered to keep Fiona company and thought I would have a crack at the race, but really enjoyed just trotting round - taking chunks out of the field on every climb and loosing dozens of places as I took it easy on the descents made for an entertaining race, finished well outside the points in about 130th place.  

I did as much as I wanted to do this week. Take it easy for the next 2 weeks and if the weather is good I will try to get the BG done. If not I will do the Allendale challenge race and try to win back my big grouse trophy that I have had for the last 12 months.

Achilles feels better today, it's not right but I reckon it is right enough to keep me going for 24 hours in 2 weeks time.

Fingers crossed for the weather.

Spanked the schedule and slapped by a grouse.

Weeks until BG – 3.

Weeks until Lakeland 100 – 20.

Monday – nothing

Tuesday – 15 miles, 400m ascent, Bowes moor and along A66.

Wednesday – climb

Thursday – steady hill work at Hamsterley, 9 miles, 500m

Friday – rest

Saturday – L2 and L3 of BG, 35 miles, 4000m of ascent.

Sunday – sore achilles.

Total of 59 miles, 4900m of ascent.

Last 4 weeks have been an average of 52miles and 4800m of ascent.

Tuesday was supposed to be the first evening run I had done in daylight this year, but I got held up at work, so got the head torch on and went out on Bowes Moor. Running 4 miles of known ground and then 3.5 miles along the A66 rather than faff around with unknown ground north of the A66. A grouse obviously didn't expect to see me there as he got a fright, flew up and hit me in the face. Other than that and falling into a ditch on the way back an uneventful run.

Thursday I decided not to put in the fast hill reps and save myself for a long run on Saturday.

Saturday was a big day, 11 hours, nearly 60km (sounds further than 35 miles) and 4000m of ascent, all in about half a BG. I got tired on the run back from Scafell Pike to Borrowdale down the breathtakingly beautiful Langstrath Beck, but this was to be expected as I stopped eating properly thinking the day was over.

Saturday was a great day, L2 solo faster than 20 hour pace and L3 with Andy Kirkup on 22 hour pace. It was great to run with Andy whom I met on Gable a few weeks ago, he is a quality runner, with an apparently photographic memory for the route and he seems to understand what he is getting into so I have no doubt he can get round and look forward to helping out on his support crew if I can fit it in.

The only downside of the run on Saturday was a sore right achiles – a bit of me that hasn't been sore before. I had planned to walk up Scafell Pike with some workmates on Sunday, but they bailed on me and rather than push the injury I drove home for a well deserved day off.

Timings from Saturday for the record.

(24 hour schedule in brackets)

Clough Head	50	(59)
Great Dodd	26	(30)
Watson Dodd	10	(9)
Stybarrow Dodd	9	(9)
Raise	15	(18)
White Side	7	(8)
Helvellyn Lower Man	13	(18)
Helvellyn	5	(6)
Nethermost Pike	7	(10)
Dollywaggon Pike	10	(12)
Fairfield	38	(42)
Seat Sandal	23	(25)
Dunmail Raise - Arrive	16	(25)
Steel Fell	24	(25)
Calf Crag	21	(20)
Sergeant Man	32	(35)
High Raise	8	(9)
Thunacar Knott	15	(15)
Harrison Stickle	9	(10)
Pike o Stickle	13	(12)
Rossett Pike	39	(45)
Bowfell	32	(35)
Esk Pike	21	(25)
Great End	25	(25)
Ill Crag	15	(15)
Broad Crag	10	(10)
Scafell Pike	12	(12)

As you can see, I stormed almost all the splits, especially pleasing are the climb of Clough Head, and Fairfield – where I tried a new line and ended up climbing a travellator of scree for the top 50m. I am struggling to believe I took nearly 10m out of the 24 hour schedule on a steady descent of Seat Sandal, perhaps this has got easier as the BG path has developed over the past couple of years.

Another positive was finding the lines on and off Great End (on – follow the first sign of a path up, off due south and follow a line of cairns).

I have an outline of a team for an attempt in 3 weeks time, fingers crossed for the weather!

A great run to Brandreth.

Weeks until BG – 4?

Weeks until Lakeland 100 - 21

Mon – 1.5 miles, 150m of ascent – cockfield fell, nice loosener after last sunday.

Tue - Climb

Wed – 18 miles, 500m of ascent, Hamsterley

Thurs – Parents evening

Fri - Nothing

Sat – 18 miles, 2300 ascent 7:21, BG Leg 3

Sun – 11.5 miles, 1500m ascent 5:30, BG Leg 4

Total of 48 miles, 4450m ascent. A good week, but with no long day of over 8 hours.

I reckon that with another 3 good weeks of training and a good weather window I might be ready for a crack at the BG at the start of my Easter holidays in 4 weeks time if the weather is right.

A good run on Wednesday evening this week, loop around Hamsterley common, via elephant trees, west to the road and then back along the valley, a bit of messing around with the nav, but the SatNav iphone got me round!

After my blog post of a couple of weeks ago, when I realised I wasn't doing enough ascent or enough long training days I focussed my efforts around both of these and decided I wanted to look at BG leg 3 and 4 this weekend. Fortuitously I saw on the BG FRA forum that Andy Gibson was planning just such a reccy, so I contacted him, booked into Wasdale YHA and set off on Saturday morning. It was a great run, very steady pace, but with some atrocious weather, which I can say with some confidence was the worst I have ever been out in, when hail storm hit on Great End and we had to hunker down behind a rock to avoid having the skin sand blasted off our face.

Some nav deliberation, lots of positives such as finding a great line on the climbers traverse to Foxes Tarn route and a good line up to Broad Crag, couple of negatives such as finding the worst line possible off Great End but a very successful day.

Things cleared up beautifully after “the storm” and we got some amazing views off Scafell, to run into Wasdale in the spring sunshine. Special mention to Andy Gibson and Chris Baynham-Hughes for having me along all weekend. Hopefully some photos to follow.

Sunday was to be L4, we planned to meet “Keswick” Simon Noble at the start of the leg, but snow meant he couldn't park at Honister as planned so didn't make it until near Pillar. It was great to have him along to show us some L4 short cuts, the snow made it heavy going but another good day was had.

Split times. (23 hour splits)

Steel Fell -24 (24)

Calf Crag – 25 (20)

Sergeant Man – 46 (34)

High Raise – 11 (9)

Thunacar Knott – 16 (15)

Harrison Stickle – 20 (10)

Pike O Stickle – 14 (12)

Rossett Pike – 47 (44)

BowFell – 39 (34)

Esk Pike - 23(24)

Great End – 35 (24)

Ill Crag – 25 (15)

Broad Crag – 11 (10)

Scafell Pike – 16 (12)

Scafell – 43 (31)

Wasdale – 46 (34)

Yewbarrow – 46 (49)

Red Pike – 51 (49)

Steeple – 26 (23)

Pillar – 38 (33)

Kirk Fell – 65 (49)

Great Gable – 47 (42)

Green Gable – 17 (15)

Brandreth – 14 (18)

Grey Knotts – 8 (8)

Honister – 13 (13)

So you can see that we had a great run to Brandreth! I'm not concerned about the slow splits, a combination of factors weather, nav, pissing about and general chit chat slowed things down a lot.

Next week a big day of Saturday and perhaps a walk with work mates up Scafell Pike on Sunday.

Another good week.

? Weeks until BG

22 weeks until lakeland 100

Mon – Nothing

Tues – 5 miles and 200m of ascent, on cockfield fell.

Wed – Nothing

Thurs – 12 miles, 800m of ascent, Hamsterley forest then home.

Friday – Nothing

Saturday – 5 miles 250m of ascent, Kinder Scout

Sunday – 27 miles, 3500m of ascent, BG leg 1 and 2.

Total of 49 miles and 4750m of ascent.

After giving myself a stern talking to last week I felt that I had to meet 2 targets this week. 3000m of ascent and 1 day over 8 hours of running. Both of which were achieved.

Ran home on the road from Hamsterley on Thursday and had a sore right foot on friday and sunday, hurt to walk, but not to run. I believe it was mild plantar fasciitis, didn't hurt to run so ran on Saturday with no obvious ill effects and on sunday it felt fine again. Lesson learnt though – don't do anything different, such as road running it will lead to problems!

Sunday Jim Mann took me out on BG leg 1 and 2, I find it hard to motivate myself for such a long run on my own, so it was good to have Jim along. Andy Charles came along for L2 and although he won't mind me saying he struggled with the first 2 climbs (courtesy of 2 silly direct lines pioneered by Jim) he coped very well considering it was his first time doing a full BG leg.

Times weren't quick, but leg times are here for the record. (23 hour schedule in brackets)

Skiddaw – 70 (83)

Great Calva – 44 (44)

Blencathra 64 (69)

Threlkeld 28 (30)

Clough Head 60 – including 4 minutes faff (58)

Great Dodd 36 (29) – silly slow line picked by Jim

Watson Dodd 9 (9)

Stybarrow 10 (9)

Raise 17 (18)

White Side 8 (8)

Lower Mann 14 (18)

Helvellyn 7 (6)

Nethermost 8 (10)

Dollywaggon 14 (12)

Fairfield 47 (41)

Seat Sandal 26 (24)

Dunmail 23 (24)

So Me and Jim ran at 21 hour schedule for L1 including picking a very silly and slow direct line off Skiddaw - my line this one, not Jim's, worth looking at again in the snow or the dry to make the screes more runnable. Jim, Andy Charles and I ran at around 23 hour schedule for L2 if you take off the silly slow line on Great Dodd.

Importantly for me I felt really strong after 2 legs, Jim jokingly suggested we carry on and do the whole round, I honestly think that I would have done if I didn't have to be at work on Monday.

A good week. Feel like I am back on track, next week I will do another 8 hour day and at least 3000m of ascent.

A lot is not enough. Must try harder.

2 weeks of blog this week – I didn't think last week was worth blogging about.

23 weeks till the lakeland 100

? Weeks till BG

Mon – Sat: Nothing, resting sore left heal and recovering from a cold.

Sunday – BG leg 4 reconnaissance with Jim. 13 miles, 1800m of ascent, kept cocking up the nav on the way to Wasdale, see picture. 3 cockups in about 5 miles is going some. But in our defence it was claggy and snowy, good to get a bit of climbing in the legs after a week off.

Total of 13 miles and 1800m of ascent – not enough.

Can you spot the 3 cockups? - prize for anyone who can explain cockup 2 to me - I don't know what we were thinking.

Mon – Nothing

Tue – BG L1 reccy – 13 miles, 1800m of ascent.

Wed – Run with Fiona around Langdale – 9 miles, 1200m of ascent.

Thursday – Clough Head reccy – 7 miles 800m.

Saturday – Kinder Scout run – 22 miles, 1400m.

Langdale running down The Band

Kinder Downfall blowing up.

Total of 51 miles and 5200m of ascent – biggest week for a long time (ever?)

Not a huge about to say this post except the obvious that the first week wasn't enough and the second was big.

I have managed my heal problem by running in my knackered old innov8 X-talons, which seems to have let it settle down despite the big week I have just had.

I thought I would take this week to look back on my highlighted issues from blog post 1.

• Not being prepared for running out of energy.  Sounds silly, but when I hit empty on the way to Bow Fell I collapsed so spectacularly that I must have done something wrong.  More days training on little or no food to get me used to it this time.

Mixed success with this, I have tried several runs on no food and generally bottled out and eaten something when I started to fall apart – I did manage 2.5 hours without food or breakfast a couple of weeks ago, so perhaps progress here – I will keep on with this over the next few weeks.

• Bad weather - don't set off in shit weather next time.  Have a small moveable team.

I reckon I can do a BG with a running team of 3 – L1/2, L3, L4/5 and I hope that I have 3 good enough guys who are reliable and generally available to put this plan in place.

• Pain killers, play around with paracetamol and ibuprofen to get used to how it works with me on long days.

Ibuprofen seems to work well – felt really strong on my 30 after a couple of Ibuprofen half way around, and this has fixed a small pain behind my knee cap on another occasion.

Good progress on all these points I think.

The other thing in blog post 1 was this.

•  “Not enough long training days, I didn't get out for over 8 hours enough times, so when I did, it was a shock to my system.  I figured if I could do 55 miles and feel fine, then I could get around the BGR, I was wrong.  More long days this time. “

I count a good training day as 8 hours+, looking back I see the rather disappointing tally of 1 good training day, and 1 day that came in at around 7 hours. Not good enough, I told Jim yesterday that I would be BG ready if I managed 6 good training days in the next 6 weeks and I do believe that. So that's the target. Six 8+ hour days in the next 6 weeks, then I am ready for the first spring weather window that comes up.

Something else that has been nagging away at me is that the BG gold training standard is 3000m of ascent a week. Counting up now I realise that of the last 12 weeks I have only managed 3000m of ascent 4 times. This is a body blow for me to realise this.

I thought things were going well with the training for the BG and writing the last 2 paragraphs makes me realise how I have been kidding myself.

Must try harder. I want to do other things, but feel I need to get round a BG first, I can't explain why, but it is something I need to do.

6 weeks good training and I have a chance.

Should have studied the Currickulum!

Mon – nothing

Tuesday – Sprint reps  on Cockfield Fell. 7 Miles, 200m of ascent.

Wednesday – nothing

Thursday – DFR hill reps, 6 miles, 500m of ascent

Friday – nothing

Saturday – Hamsterley run, 11 miles, 500m of ascent,

Sunday – 21 miles, 1000m of ascent – more on this later.

45 miles, 2200m of ascent.

Really busy with work this week, but managed to get out 4 times, so quite a good week. Not enough ascent, but a good workout on Sunday makes me fell like it was a decent week.

Not convinced by sprint reps, hard work and quite dull. Thursday reps were fun, turned up late so only did 4 sets, but felt strong. Saturday morning was fun to get out on a glorious winters day.

Sunday, I didn't want to drive all the way to the Lakes with the snowy road conditions and the early start, so decided to have a go at a silly idea of mine. A round of all the curricks on Hamsterley Common. For those of you who haven't met Stuart Ferguson, a currick is a pile of stones, the ones I had seen prior to today were like a well constructed cairn, about 5-6 feet tall, after today I think the definition is “a pile of stones, which may or may not have once been a well constructed cairn used by ancient shepherds, and perhaps might just be a couple of rocks on the floor.”

At around 10pm on Saturday night I started planning the route. Quickly realising I didn't know where the boundaries of Hamsterley Common were, I expanded my currick search to cover the whole east sheet of OL31 (Teesdale and Weardale). I found 15 Currick or Curricks marked on and with a bit of string reckoned the route was about 40 miles – see above, I didn't run 40 miles. That was the planning done.

Setting off at 7:30am the weather looked perfect, the ground conditions less so, with thick snow covering all the fells, I realised this was ridiculous, but fancied giving it a go.

Things were going well, at around 13 miles I started to get tired, trying to take a traverse around James's Hill rather than going up and over was a mistake, the running was atrocious, with deep drifts and gullys every few yards some drifts knee deep and some chest deep and requiring a swimming motion to get through. I was knackered, starting to get cold and on my own, 5 miles from the car it wasn't time to get exhausted so I plodded up to the top of James's hill and set off back to the car, disappointed but happy that the day hadn't ended up with a rescue or hyperthermia.

I got back to the car after 21 miles and 5:50 minutes.

It is only now, that I have looked at the second part of the route that I have realised that to pick up the extra curricks I was planning would have only been 5 or 6 miles longer than the direct route back to the car. I had mis-measured my route. Thinking it was 40 miles there was no way I was going to get round, so came home. Had I realised that my route was only 27 miles I would have plodded on through the snow and probably made it.

Bugger.

Anyone who has an interest in this sort of thing, I would appreciate it if you give me a few months to have another crack at this “OL31 (east sheet) Currick Round”, so I can complete the inaugural round and perhaps get rid of some of the disappointment of cocking up the planning so badly today!

Sunrise on the drive over

Currick 1, not in the right place, but looked like a currick

Currick 3, very curricky

The Ewestone currick - not a good currick.

Turning around, James's Hill, feeling pretty tired.