Time

ok blog following people. while i have got a little time, as its early morning, i can take you through what i have been up too...

no running... now seriously bad tooth ache i have been in for the last week, almost the worst pain i have ever encountered, and i tried running a few times to get through the hard times but come out anew and strengthened in some way, but my attempts at this failed... because i called it quits.

one of the days (my 8 miler) i just literally was in too much pain to even focus nevermind run. the 4 miler i did, the 6 i nearly finished but the pain went from my jaw an into my head. the strength of the pain i thought didn't need to be pushed, becuase by running i was stimulating blood flow to my pain which made it a whole lot worse for when i finished the run i would be putting up with 5x more pain... and i tell you something! no matter what pain killer i could find, non surpressed it! but all the pills i were taking gave me the (shit's) real bad... on my 16 mile attempt on saturday, i spent 1hr of it in the toilets at the YEW TREE in Sheffield. got running again, as did my arse! i had to call it off, but i tell you what, i felt stong  in my body. i did the first 6 mile very sharpish, with no aches and pains, hot feet, blisters, nothing. it felt easy, until my stomach made that noise like the scene in dumb and dumber when 'larry' (after being fed laxitives) needs the toilet suddenly and just goes ha-ha.

yea, so in the mean time i put up with the pain until wednesday, when i got it pulled out! i also ordered a camelbak bladder, Inov-8 Race Elite 25 Pack - Camo- http://inov-8.com/Products-Detail.asp?PG=PG2&P=5050973037&L=26 , the Silva Expedition 4 Compass (AMAZING)-http://www.raymears.com/Bushcraft_Product/414-Silva-Expedition-4-Compass/  and a PETZL MYO RXP light. which is AWESOME if i must say so myself.- http://www.facewest.co.uk/Petzl-Myo-RXP.html which can bee seen for yourself in the reviews by these mainly fell running crowds.  ill post some photos in the next post.

some other items bought recently if interested are a survival bivvi (foil lined) one item which is compulsory for the run, and some nikwax spray to rewaterproof my old army gortex jacket, after my last trek out, and noticing it isn't quite so water repellent, etc.

Saturday Fell run

the other day (saturday) i ran ten miles. i ran from checkpoint 'finish' to fourteen and back. i realised on the day i was going to set off that i had not planned nearly as much as i should have. i thought. doh, how will i camp, what bag shall i take and omg i forgot to get camp food... anyway to cut a long tory short (im quite ready for bed), i ended up riding my motorbike 40 odd mile to Coniston, getting changed in the public toilets, chaining my helmet to my bike and strapping the very heavy motorcycle jacket to my bag, off i went p the mountain. the shoes were very comfy and got loppy in no time at all but dried almost instantly. i handled it very well, it was very fun and i can compare it to mountain bike riding as you have to pick lines because of the speed at which your traveling over slippy, unstable, rocky ground.

i found the track way too easy to run from, only stopping a couple of times to make sure i was on the correct paths (i was). i realised when i hit the first real hill that wow, i was i need of more training. my lungs couldn't get enough air and my body aching alover. i found stopping helped alot, but i cant be stopping every other few minutes in the 100 miler can i, therefore im glad i started this early. my body is adapting very well, very well to say its only my third official week...

i must've looked like a guy on ecstasy earlier when i was running in the dark by the canal, dancing to my bassline album -jamie duggan haha. you should see what i'm like dancing to Canned Heat's Going up the Country ha-ha

by the way i realise the very sloppy language and grammar in these recent posts. its the end of VERY LONG days...

Alive!!

Holy shit, I will tell you something. I am FULL of energy and life! Seriously, I realise, running through Lancaster, that I have had literally the THREE BEST YEARS of my life. I know this city intricately, I have had so many amazing experiences, met so many amazing people, I’ve worked here, I’ve partied here, I have camped here, ran, walked, sang, danced. I have made this city my own!  I have developed in myself so massively here and I will never forget my time here. I will soon be leaving university, soon I will be in the land of ????? 

I realised one thing whilst running just now… I really did make Lancaster what I wanted to make it… ok, it’s a city, it still has cars and churches, mixed cultured people etc, but I chose/ learned to only focus on what I wanted, and I made them massive. The shops without shutters, the Christmas trees on the buildings, the smiling people, the rivers and sea nearby. I chose to listen to the birds, walk through the beautiful parks, appreciating life. I learned to appreciate all that I have, my forks and knives etc…

Im going to dedicate this run to my time at Lancaster. Almost a finale, so I can take a bow and leave knowing that I made it. I got where I wanted and now am… and am also now beginning new adventures for after uni. I got an exciting life ahead of me…

Maybe none of you guys reading can feel how I feel and have felt but believe me its everything you would ever want! Seriously, know when you’ve had sex ha-ha, remember that feeling? Now imagine feeling like that at just being alive!!!

I will make whatever in the future special, and I won’t cope with doing anything I don’t want e.g. job. Maybe I will be making it ‘tougher’ (whatever that means) for myself, but it will be worth it.

Emotional statement over, take what you want from it J

p.s, I could bang anyone of you out with my calf muscles ha-ha,  I feel SOLID and extremely healthy, I just ran 4 mile in 40 minutes… 1hr and half last week…..

wes

My Psychological Experiences

Now guys I want to talk about some little psychological tips and tricks that have allowed me to experience such intense good feelings over the last three years, and are what I believe will REALLY be the keys to my success in this run…

So, I spoke before about moving to Lancaster and then went on to feel good for no reason etc… but when somebody says to you, you just have to learn to feel good, you just have to learn to get your head in the right state, bla bla bla. What exactly do they mean?

See I have learned over the last few years that the things inside your head can literally change your life instantly, but as soon as you stop doing the things in your mind that you were doing to feel that way, they instantly also, change back…

I am speaking from experience here, both from what I have learned from speaking to amazing people , to playing about in my own life… and you know what, I don’t think it always has to be trial and error.  Ok take this for instance… your walking down a cold dark path through a little wooded area, and you hear a cracking in the forest floor behind you; your hairs instantly stand on end, trying to rationalize, you convince yourself rather poorly that it was probably just an animal… then suddenly the wind starts blowing, your cold and beginning to spook yourself out, suddenly that ghost at the end of the corridor where the boy in the Sixth Sense had his tent shows up, the ghost stories your dad used to tell you about seeing someone stood staring in front, etc, whatever it is that might creep you out, then the crack happens again, this time you start speeding up, then you convince yourself there might be someone chasing you, your too scared to look back, you think you hear a footstep!, now sprint! Ah, at last your out of the woods… but are you really. Because that mentality, towards life is a bad habit that you have got yourself in, however emphasized my idea may seem. If you unconsciously put those kinds of thoughts in your head, you’re always going to succumb to such kinds of things…

Now its ok to theorize, so long as I back up what im saying. I have personally found such things going off in my life, bad things used to happen in my home in Sheffield, and I used to find myself, no matter how good of a day I might have had, thinking bad thoughts as soon as I hit the long road I lived on… I used to do it without even sometimes realizing I was doing it, but I used to be arguing in my brain with my parents, it would be crystal clear, shouting, buts of spit rolling down the side of their face cause they’re shouting so loud. I would feel the hatred; I’d be sticking up for myself! Crazy you might say… and I don’t think it helps to tell someone it’s not real either, or tell yourself, it is! Because as long as you’re building up all those bad thoughts, you’re tensing, putting your body under stress, your giving out an atmosphere no matter whether such a thing can be proved or not; its real because you feel shit! And people can make themselves feel so bad, they would rather kill themselves than to go on living… they would rather die, than try to change… that is just a true fact that often happens! Why did I used to do this before we move on? Because it was a negative pattern of thought that I had learned very well without being consciously aware that I was always practicing. Ok that sounds vague to you? The stuff that used to go on in that house required me to have a hardened attitude to life, I was strong because I wouldn’t go down without a fight mentally, and in the end when I ‘did go down’, it was through my mind…

How can all this be related to my run? To my life? How can I turn this around, so that I can feel good for no reason, after all I learned to feel bad for no reason, because sometimes I would go in that house and they’d be no one in, so I made myself feel pants for no reason.

What I did when I cam to Lancaster, is I had my ‘enemy’ taken away… I wanted to feel so good, so bad, I did this portrait around the time I am speaking of. Ill let you work it out for yourselves. I saw smiling happy people, I wanted to feel like that. I learned, believe me I learned big time!!!

Heres my simplified process without going to the story of it all.

You wake up feeling numb, wanting to feel good. So what you do is you have to literally go out of your way to focus on the things that make you feel good. For me it was having my own food in the fridge! My own knives and forks! I had an amazing bed that was so comfy, so warm, I had a window I could open all the way so I could hang out of it and listen to those absolutely amazing sounds of the bell ringing that went off in the cathedral, where people would play with making different patterns etc, I’d think of myself looking out of this window in the 17^th century, people dressed in these old interesting items of clothing on the city square, pulling milk carts, laughing… you have to go out your way to feel good, deliberately, making yourself think things you enjoy and not even paying the slightest bit of attention to anything you dislike…

Eventually you start feeling better, but at first you really make it hard for yourself, constantly as soon as you switch off, slipping back into the negative mental rut you were in before, it taught me to be more conscious.

You go to sleep feeling that bit better. Then wake up, and then again, think of the things you enjoy, I would go out in the city center and smell the great Lancaster air, smells that I hadn’t smelled in years! I smelled a Twirl and was INSTANTLY little again, with the flake in my ice cream, the eggs at Easter, the smell… that smell, blew me away because it was a realization at how little I had sniffed over the last few years, when you starting living and thinking deliberately, choosing thoughts that ring to true to how you want to feel, surprises like this start appearing everywhere, so insignificant to someone else, but so massive for yourself. Now you’ve spent long choosing these thoughts, you just start to do it instinctively, it gets easier and easier, the more good thoughts you think of/ feel, the better you feel, the better you feel, the easier it gets.

You wake after another comfy night, you now feel lighter, good, for no reason, but wait, you can feel even better! Wow, how much I really love these photos I’m looking at, I had such a good time, you strangely seem to have separated the negative that might have gone on in your life and for maybe the first time you’re looking at the situation with a clear realization. Then honestly, I can vouch for this myself, THIS is where things begin getting ‘weird’? You will go out and strangely something might happen that seems… other worldly… a miracle?  Maybe the perfect song came on at the right moment, you have been wanting something and it just appears right at your feet… once I went down the canal just for a nice ride on my bike. I had been wanting to hear some live music for a while, and suddenly I see this man (I didn’t quite realize this until I left him), he has a old guitar stuck to his back, a purple shirt, old shoes and ragged curly hair, I get closer and see he has dark circular sun glasses on held together all over the place with tape, a real interesting character!! I knew where I was going, I’d never been but im like a homing pigeon when it comes to finding my way around the country without any problems or maps!, but anyway, I decided to ask him for directions to galgate, I didn’t do much thinking, I didn’t think ooh I would like to talk to this guy, I know ill ask him blab la.. I just did it, and he told me, and I just got off my bike and started walking with him, uninvited… we started chatting, he was an AWESOME GUY. He gave me some of his music on cd, and before I knew it, we were having philosophical conversations and sat in the heat of the summer afternoon, beside the canal, ducks quacking, blue skies, golden fields behind me, hair whishing in the breeze, and there he was, playing music on his guitar… live music… ha-ha, he was awesome, very inspirational, he really felt what he was singing, and he his the strings with such passion, playing such songs as Dear Prudence by John Lennon… as we were leaving our separate ways, he said I had the biggest smile he’d ever seen and I should keep on, he thanked me for being such good company, off I went… I got directions, a cd, an amazing chat, warmed by the sun, offered drinks, told I had the biggest smile an be played to by his guitar… talk about inspirational!

I could honestly speak of such experiences all night but I have to get to my point ha-ha

When you choose your thoughts and live deliberately, life awakens, you realize how asleep you have been.

As my friend Dorian Iten says, never become dull!

Now back to running. I have found that I can have absolute feelings that are so intense that your body almost feels in orgasm, just by altering the way you think… you have to work out these things for yourself, but I tell you now! Its about simplifying and doing as I have mentioned above. I have found that its easier to get into such states when there is a mixture of music and images and feelings you put in your mind… do you ever find yourself flicking through songs, like, no, no, no, this one will do etc… that’s not the state. It is (I would say) then trying to fit the world to match you mood, but it’s not about that, you have to let go, and become the world! Alter the images in your head to the music.

Here are three examples that I want you to try, you only have to do it once with one song if you want. But do this… shut your eyes. You’re doing something worthwhile. Whatever that may be to you, making a cup of tea, rebuilding a motorbike, i.e (scrubbing up old parts ;) for me its running (that’s what I was doing). The song comes on and your there, for me, when Louis Armstrong’s playing, ill be there, in front of him! Today I was running down the road and I imagined him there in the back of a van, egging me on, laughing and playing La Vie en Rose out the back of the truck, you hear the music rebounding off the streets, you feel the music, the vibe. I would usually imagine being there at one of those old 40’s bars where they would play. With Oasis I’m always one of the band members, bashing the drums, I feel the sticks in my hand, the weather is always very windy, making my hair go wild, feeling it all over my body, adrenaline pumping as you sing the song, band members winking at you, the audience going wild for you! Screaming, you laugh inside, this is awesome!.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/iul4SBlHIf8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SzJY96m3lkg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

try this one, imagine riding away from the police on a mountain bike ha, ha, jumping down steps, skidding round corners ha ha, not something i've done but we can imagine how exciting it might be haha, feel your pulse rise, adrenaline ha, weaving round the corners, fast pedalling

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QyU3oytRNeQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

try it with what ever! all are good exercises! 

Or you can run down a quite road in the middle of the pitch black and imagine I’ve got my baby sister with me, holding my hand and trying her hardest to keep up with my slow pace but big steps. The determination in her face, the funny half proud smile as you look down at her and she’s please with herself… making you psychology work for you, be like grass, bending in the strongest winds. That can b a unintended castoff sometimes also, that you realise how much you love the people in your life, and they’re not even there!!!

I’m gonna stop now, before my fingers fall of ha-ha.

Hope you have enjoyed

wes

Sunday's Run (15 Mile) and today's (8 mile)

ok so above is the 8 mile and 15. in the fifteen, you can see ecclesfield, chapletown, highgreen, grenoside, rotherham, shire green, hillsborough, parson cross, wadsley bridge, fox hill ha-ha and more but im to tired to think. you can see i go right down to the wednesday ground. it was an incredible achievement for me i wont lie. its one i will remember.

Night time, is the right time (Ray Charles)

well i must say guys. i am proud of myself. i have gone so far since i began uni. even just last year, i would have been bricking myself doing what i just did... enough to have risked injury and sprinted away... the roads i have just been on were. DARK. to my left was the start of the Forest of Bowland, sky's filled with fine pelts of rain, covering me with a blanket of wet, barely able to see my feet or hear my footsteps over the wind. eyes glare at me, mysteriously through the fields... all the time, im trying to focus on the fact that im not A person running on this world, but i AM the world, im the same as a sheep, the wind, the grass, bits of universe dust ha-ha. seriously though, people such as Jack Kerouac in On the Road speak of it, Robert Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance, Thoreau, Emmerson and so on. talking about being at one with it all. i notice in older tribes and cultures of the world, the people thank the ground they walk on, the weather, they thank their bodies even for allowing themselves to travel and live in the world. as far as im concerned, a little mouse in the fields beside which i ran, have souls, they're amazing! they're alive, with little bodies, emitting little specks of heat, eyes that see and noses that smell. now i have been all romantic on your asses, i want to speak about the run i just did... though i could romanticise all day, the true facts are, that running in the fells at night is practically suicide without company! safety really IS in numbers out there. the reality doesn't hit you while your at home comfortable reading this on your screens, tea in hand. we can KNOW in theory how tough the going really is, but as soon as you get out there, you realise how vulnerable to the elements etc you really are. the blackness engulfs your entire perimeter... i find the hills scarier than the forests, by far, it seems nothing lives there, it feels barren and empty, like everyone has left.

i dont think i will attempt to run in the lakes alone at night, it just seems i will be taking way too much of a risk, and believe me, i take them, im not one to usually take myself up on the self delusion of scaring yourself out of ever doing anything, thats the sort of attitude that keeps us in the house where we feel safe, watching telly and surfing the net, but in this case... i realise and did before i started this training, that Fell running can be suicidal. after all, people always speak of running as being primal and the like, but is it in our nature to run at night on mountains? can you imagine a cave man out running on the mountains at night? no... it goes against our instincts that have served us extremely well over the last few hundred thousand years...

so how will i practice in the dark for the 100 miler? i think i got it sussed... join a fell running club, do it in groups. after all, i will have to do it, as its included in the race... and just because i find it dangerous and scary, doesn't mean i don't enjoy it, i just had an awesome run in my swanky Lycra bottoms, i did, i enjoyed every minute of it, and even more so did i enjoy getting through it!

my muscles are growing, tougher and stronger, ligaments strengthening, back feeling amazing and arse feeling sexy as hell... joke ha-ha. im coming on well! im more alert than i have been in the last few years, im full of energy, and feel strong.

im enjoying training at the end of the day also. its 2.00am at the minute and i have just finished. i have been getting up early, going to uni all day doing art, then working until 11.30pm then going running.
and im not taking any short cuts!

the Lycra really, REALLY do help, they're so comfortable.

Bought Equipment

so ok, i know i am posting quite regularly on here and quite un-ordered, but i just wanted to write that i had been out and bought some fell running shoes and shorts...

The fell running shoes ar Adidas Swoop's, which to be honest look beasty but in other peoples eyes they didnt like them ha, ha, maybe they will like them more when they're covered in muck! but i like them, they felt snug and cushioned. i have read quite a few reviews on these shoes before i decided on the inov8 rocklite 295's, but what determined my decision not to get them was based on two factors, one, they were not in the shop i went to, and two, the reason they wern't there is that the manager said they had 15! people bring them back for rubbing the back of their feet after a few times running. he mentioned the swoops have never been returned... i knew what he was trying to do, he didn't have what i wanted and was trying to pursuade me to buy the stuff he did have, but i had already made my mind up as soon as he mentioned the name.

very funnily, i bought some ronhill lycra shorts, ha-ha, which only a couple of weeks ago, were the main sourch of laughter after my camp on Stanage Edge ha. we met some army dudes wearing them, and to be honest they may as well have been bollock naked as you could see the 'button mushrooms' an all... i have however noticed quite how much my legs can chafe when i run, and instantly wanted them for that reason... i tried them on, i can see why they like them so much, very comfy ha-ha. i will however wear shorts over mine...

Possible training races

Calderdale Hike/ Run- http://www.calderdalehike.org.uk/inform.html- both close to lancaster enough to travel on my bike, and quite cheap at £13 to enter. would be a pretty decent practice run at 36 miles in April.

Hardmoors 30 -http://hardmoors110.org.uk/cms/?q=node/141 - Again, pretty decent mileage, but at £20, it would begin to add up in my already tight budget.

Haworth Hobble- http://kcac.co.uk/kcac-events/haworth-hobble/ - looks like a decent enough training run at 32 miles and only £11 solo. also not too far from home

Marlborough Trail race- http://www.marlboroughrunningclub.co.uk/downchallenge.shtm - £20 20 mile. so quite pricey.

A few good 'may contain nuts' runs in Wales http://www.mightcontainnuts.com/store/index.php?main_page=page&id=16&zenid=702e13346d8d0b706ffb6cfb494962af

     other than these 'official' training runs, i will also be participating in a 24hour run or two of my own, just because, i believe it will be really important that i condition my body in a way that will not necessarily be able to cope with the breathing side to my running but i will focus more on long exposure to the use of my body... after all this will be an endurance challenge... its all good being able to run 6 mile in 30 mins (not me) but how about running for 24 hours... or 40 hours!
so eventually when i get my body used to doing longer distances on roads, i will then switch to almost completely fell running. you may wonder why i haven't already done this from the start, but to be honest, my tendons and joints will be weak, bones not quite as flexible. muscles, they're ok, but the parts of my body that help make it work, need work themselves, therefore, making it easier for me in the begining to acclimatize before i run off road is quite the must.

on the run last night i felt quite great to say i had run 15 miles, which i did in 3 and a half hours, but i was closely reaching my limit, i was tiring, not mental wise, or with my cardiovasular system? but my joints and muscles.

15 mile run

i have just completed (last night) my first long run of the training season. i set out a run around a few areas of Sheffield that totaled to around 15.5 miles. now still as i know, this is very minute in comparison to 100, it would still require 85 miles, however, this is ONE of the longest runs i have ever done in my life, and i felt good, and i completed it with no shortcuts what-so ever, my mental state was in some strange kind of trance, i didn't at any point feel beaten, my muscles got tired, but my mind was very alive.

anyway, a few notes an reminders for me: My feet are getting tougher, less and less of my body is aching in the same places as where they did at the beginning of the week, with no hot spots at all building up on my feet. i was very shocked that i didn't even get a little repetitive rub mark. i used vasaline on my thigh's and ahem... it worked though ha.
my aims, this week are to tweak my run program as i feel that i may have been a little un-confidant? and put less miles down, than i may need to practice with. also i need to tweak my body. on my run yesterday, i noticed a few things that may be helped in my running. My back, started getting tired and it made me want to collapse forward onto a beautiful springy bed, and my abs really ached. things like my neck and deltoid's from holding up my arm... just general aching and lowering of performance, i don't wish to become sloppy when i get tired, as im still on the road at present which really simplify's my course (no rocks, logs or rivers to cross).
things i could do to train these, press ups, light dead lifts, pull ups, side lateral raises, leg curls and on. i will be writing a plan out about these, i am familiure with training my body and it feels quite a natural understanding for me to work on what i want to boost its performance where i want. however, i will also be looking at long distance trainers advice etc.
something else i will be looking at will be what i eat before a long run. yesterday i felt no belly aches and no needs to dump a load ha-ha, thats quite rare for me. what i ate was a few sun dried tomatoes, full English breakfast and a sandwich. the day before i had a Chinese...
to be continued..............

Kit

     Gear I want to try and get funding for, is quite essential to the success of my run. If I wear cheap badly designed footwear, I could get blisters in minutes. The shoes im wearing at present are some very cheap rip offs of asics, as far as I can tell) http://www.debenhams.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prod_10001_10001_283010267097_-1?CMP=OTC-GOOGLEPS, that are not the most comfy pair of trainers ive ever worn. They will be no good what so ever for fell running as I can feel the cracks in the pavement through the extra soft sole. Ok, so the cheap trainers are good, they’re allowing me to do this training and I really appreciate having them. And for gym training, circuit training, etc they are excellent and all you would require, but for the run I will need something a little more specialist, due to the very nature of the course and its length, and so if I have any chance of completing it, then it will require just a couple of essential items. Footwear, Bag and Headlight. The shorts and t-shirts are secondary, and I already have most of the first aid kits, bivvi survival bags, wet gear etc that I have with me while I do my proper camping…

     The pair of trainers I have read on, researching how effective they are at gripping wet rocks in the lakes, at keeping your feet dry/ish, comfy, Long lasting/ build quality and reputation. The pair I have found are called ‘inov8 Roclite 295’. As you can see they appear well built and I have tried these on in my local outdoors shop and they were very comfy in comparison to my cheap rip-off trainers.  http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/roclite-295-p153418- as you can see they’re around £75 - £90.

The headlight I have researched, well a few, are Myo XP by PETZL- £45 – £60 - http://www.arco.co.uk/1/1/2858-petzl-myo-xp-led-headlamp.html

     The Silva X-trail - £50 - £90. http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&xhr=t&q=silva+x-trail&cp=7&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=nNxLTdSmD4OohAf13uyLDw&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCEQrQQwAA

     Lenser H7 with 160 lumens and adjustable beam £40 - £60 http://www.thetorchsite.co.uk/LED_Lenser_H7_Head_Torch.html

And for the bags, I really could do with something light but more importantly, one that wont jump around all over my back as im running, which will chaffe my back and become increasingly sore.

http://www.theendurancestore.com/product.php/229/inov-8-race-elite-25-pack - was looking at this…

anyway, there  will be more about kit in up-coming posts.

Week 1 (officially) nearly completed

     Ok, well, last night I completed the longest run I have done in about 6 years… those years went by fast. I ran six miles; I took no shortcuts and have been very pleasantly surprised with my progress. So it goes like this… Tuesday I ran 3.5 miles; it was a beautiful starry night as I head up into the Forest of Bowland, pitch black, big… I look out at clougha pike’s black silhouette against the stars, and lighter clouds and I thought to myself… that’s about 4 miles away, that is only thee very, very beginning of my run and I had already run 2 mile by this point. It was good to see, to realise quite what I’m taking on. Anyway, onm the way back from this run, I stopped in the gym, and went on the rowing machine, and did some leg curls and pull ups then off I went to finish.

below is the 4mile run, then the 6 mile run and then the 3.5. all around the Lancaster area, still on roads, i don't want to push myself to early to break. the 6 miler if you have noticed is in orange, that's because its getting harder, its one of my longer runs. the others will be green, and the runs on Saturday will be red.

     Second day, I made a man nearly dump himself as I had again been running in the pitch black , this time of the canal, he could just here my footsteps and breathing, I imagine his hair stood on the back of his neck, suddenly transformed into a primitive man, instincts firing up, like they may have done when we had our natural predators.

     Now on to last night… I thought I would challenge myself. I realised a bit back that I will be doing most of this run when I’m shattered, so I thought it would be good practice to go to uni, work all day, then go to work (at the Penny Street Bridge-http://www.pennystreetbridge-hotel.co.uk/), finish at 23.30 then come home get dressed and go on my longest run yet.

     I must say I was surprised. My feet kept getting hot spots (beginning of the blister process) during my first two runs, but this one, they were non-existent. I have noticed, right away, that my knees have started feeling strong again. They have been weak for so long and the tendons etc. died away because they were not being used, so my knees always felt tired, now they feel lubricated and alive again! To be honest though my Feet, feel like they’re flat ha-ha, the have this dull ache and feel flat.  My endurance from my passed creeped up on me, as I was not out of breath, not in the slightest, I was breathing just as I am sat at this pc typing this, my body acclimatized to the change, I wasn’t sweating like a mad man, it took me 2 hours.

‘Hot footed camping at night in the jungle’ was actually something I tried to picture in my head on the run to be able to remember all the little details… it seems to have worked.

Now I thought about a tent to run with, I could take my tarp, however those Lakeland winds can be extremely strong and could catch the entrance and lift off would commence. I was thinking of asking a friend too see if I could perhaps borrow his very small bivvi tent as it weighs about half a kilogram if I remember correctly. See I would be riding my motorbike up so the big bag wouldn’t be very good for the bike, and definitely not good for running with, I could just take my usual uni bag and strap it to my waist with some funky knot, which will be my only option should my mate idea fail.

lots of mindless typing here, quite journal like, so thanks for putting up with this. 

Links - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clougha_Pike - Clougha Pike 

Planned Trip Saturday after next (Marsden Imbolic Fire Festival this sat)

Wow, ok, so I have just roughly marked out on Google Earth, two of the checkpoints which I have got on my course guide map. The reason for this is to get an estimate mileage of these points and for you guys to see, what I am talking about.

Anyway, the distance between checkpoint 13 and the finish is around the ten mile mark which is a good beginning practice mileage, there and back, I think. What I plan to do is go to the start/finish line on my motorbike and run to checkpoint thirteen and back (around 20 miles), which will then allow me to get two clear uncompetitive views of the track, and to make mistakes now rather than later… the reason I am going backwards from the finish line (and will carry on that way in the coming weeks), is because I know that that’s when I would be at my most tired, most clumsy, weak and mentally dull. And if its night time, then that will make navigating the track even harder, but if I learn now, I will if I get this far, know where to go.

Maybe I sound like I’m expecting to get to this point… I am… whether I make it or not is another matter, but oh god, I really do want to get to that point very bad.

I have never been to this little bit of the lakes before and might camp there on my run which I’ll probably spend all Saturday (not this) doing. I can then get a feel for what the hell I am really letting myself in for…

I will be running in what I have which will be some cheap trainers, army shorts and a top, until I can get some decent equipment.

Links of interest:

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-global/w-localtoyou/w-northwest/w-lakedistrict-feature/w-northwest-lakedistrict_camping/w-northwest-lakedistrict_camping-langdale.htm- Great Langdale

http://www.martinlawrencephotography.com/gallery/view/12/- Some Photo’s

http://www.stewartsmithphotography.co.uk/shop/langdale-crinkle-crags-and-bowfell/winter-sunburst-great-langdale/ - wow!

Been out running

hi all, just a quick post to say i might (an probably should) go on a trip up to the lakes. to be a little more specific, go on a trip up to the lakes for 5 days, spending four of them running the entire route, broken down into 4 pieces. this wont be till about march (for the proper trip) as i'd like to go up there just on the odd occasion and the rest of the time in The Forest of Bowland and Lancaster first. the reason being that i don't want to jump into the extra long distance untill i have spent my first month or so strengthening my core muscles and my joints/ tendons.

i know all too well (from experience) that rushing into working out, can really hold you back, last year i got pretty muscly in a month, i went to the gym for the first time picking up small weights i could barely lift and a month later i was doing dead lifts with 80kg nearly my bodyweight, and though the muscles could do it, i hadn't allowed my skeletal system, my joints/ cartilage/ nerves to strengthen and settle into place and ended up making me back 'go' for a few weeks, by then i'd lost most of my muscle again...

http://www.forestofbowland.com/walking_routes

p.s if anybody has and idea's for sponsorship for equipment i would really appreciate it

Wes

Initial Notes and Training Schedule

100 mile Marathon training regime

· Kit list

ESSENTIAL

a) Light – Silva x trail £60- 80

b) Compass/ GPS – Ask Jon

c) Clothing

d) Bag

e) Water

f) Footwear

· Navigation

a) Compass and Navigation training – Perhaps with Jon

b) Maps (ordinance Survey [currently on offer 3 for two])

· Course Route

a) Map - £12 Cheque to Lakeland 100

a) Recce Days (Official/ Unofficial)

· Physical practice (SEE BELOW CHART)

· Nutrition

· Fitness

· Car Lifts/ Support

· Running Clubs

· Contacts

· Sponsorships

· Charity

· Health

WEEK	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
1	-	2	4	6	-	14	-	26
2	-	4	8	6	-	16	5	39
3	-	4	8	6	-	16	-	34
4	-	4	8	6	-	18	10	46
5	-	2	4	6	-	14	-	26
6	-	4	8	6	-	18	15	51
7	-	4	8	6	-	18	-	36
8	-	4	8	6	-	20	10	48
9	-	2	4	6	-	14	-	26
10	-	4	8	6	-	20	5	43
11	-	4	10	6	-	23	-	43
12	-	4	10	6	-	23	10	53
13	-	2	4	6	-	14	-	26
14	-	4	12	6	-	25	15	62
15	-	4	12	6	-	25	-	47
16	-	4	12	6	-	25	10	57
17	-	4	8	6	-	10	-	28
18	-	4	12	6	-	28	5	55
19	-	4	12	6	-	28	-	50
20	-	4	12	6	-	28	10	60
21	-	4	8	6	-	10	-	28
22	-	4	15	6	-	30	15	70
23	-	4	15	6	-	30	-	55
24	-	4	15	6	-	30	20	75
25	-	4	8	6	-	10	10	38
26	-	4	15	6	-	30	8	63
27	-	4	15	6	-	30	8	63
28	-	4	10	6	-	10	10	40
29	-	4	-	6	-	10	-	20
30	5	3	2	-	-	35	-	45

1 Mile warm ups + 3 mile tempo work (Tuesday)