Busy weekend

It's been a hectic weekend (maybe epic is the word), though I'm safely back in my flat (and exhausted with it) now. Headed up North to my parent's house on Friday evening, getting there at 11. A swift bite to eat and bed, in preparation for a comfortable 2 hour bike ride on Saturday. Perfect.

Or not. Saturday morning comes, and there's snow eveyrwhere. The road outside my parents house looks impassable, but I pop on my cycling kit (not snow-specification) and head out. 30 minutes later and I'm dying. Every part of me is cold - my hands and feet especially. I struggle on for another 45 minutes, reaching Stokesley, before I call it a day, for the sake of my fingers if nothing else. Still a good 40k ride in total, at a very slow pace (ice everywhere); I was in the saddle for 90 minutes, so it's decent endurance work despite the problems.

Back home, and its a quick changearound, a slice of chocolate cake (another winner from mum) before heading to the pool. 1800m is the session - a 400m warm up, 6 x 100m technique work on 1:50 second intervals, finishing with a 750m TT and a 50m warm down. Didn't have any energy - due to the lack of a real meal between cycling and swimming. So I was relying on technique alone. Enough to get semi decent times, but nothing to write home about. My 750m TT was 15 seconds off a PB mind, so hardly a shocker.

Back home again, and a proper meal (chicke and ostrich - it works, trust me, and potatos). I stuffed myself - say one thing for my parent's house, say I'm never underfed! I went to town on the carbohydrate, knowing I'd be burning a lot of calories on Sunday morning...

At 6pm I loaded my car and headed across the North Pennines to the Lake District. A clear and cold night hinted at good conditions for hiking the next morning - running on the ice would be less fun. The Youth Hostel was decent, though the room was a little onthe warm side, and my sleep patterns weren't helped by a front runner for the year's loudest snorer awards. I woke at four, and slipped out of the bedroom and into my running gear. A quick breakfast went down well, and then I stepped out into the night. And boy was it cold. Well into minus figures even at 900ft, and dropping faster the higher I ran. I did a steady 75 minutes, and felt pretty comfortable, although some of the steeper sections towards Red Tarn at 2000ft were punishing. Back to the Youth Hostel, and there were a couple of climbers heading up Helvellyn's gully's, so I gave them a condition report based on what I'd seen. Then it was out into the hills. Long story short - four mountains, two over 2800ft, one over 2900ft and one over 3000ft. All of them were completed without too much trouble - navigation was absolutely fine, even in cloud cover. Great views. The picture above is of Catsycam - first peak up, taken from the flank of the fourth peak, Raise.

Good weekend - time to catch my breath now.

31/01/2010