Birthday weekend

Excellent weekend, seemed to fit a lot in! It was a rest weekend, though I still got a fair bit of exercise in. Headed into the Lakes on Saturday morning to do a few mountains with Sarah. We did the first part of the Kentmere Horseshoe, eight miles in total, with three 2500ft-ish mountains into the mix. Stunning views of Windemere and the Eastern Lake District, and plenty of snow on the top. We ascended from Kentmere up the Gaburn pass, then followed the ridge route across the summits of Yoke, Ill Bell and Froswick. The only problem with the day was the descent from the final mountain, Froswick. It was a very steep descent into Kentmere valley, and Sarah ended up coming down it far too fast, through no fault of her own. She hammered into me, but I couldn’t break the fall much, and we eventually came to a rest about 200 metres down the slope, with Sarah having taken a hell of a knock on her arm from a rock. Fortunately a trip to A&E subsequently confirmed it was just bad bruising as opposed to a break. Still, quite a hairy moment, especially once a rock had jarred by ice axe from my hand as I tried to self arrest us both.

I got some great photographs from the day, and will load a few of the best up when I get a moment. Leicester seems more than usually ugly when you’ve recently spent a day staring at views from over 2000ft up in the sky. Didn’t do a big run on Sunday as it was my rest week, though I did go for a short 30 minute steady run through the snow in York at just over 7 minute mile pace. Felt fine, probably due to the slow pace.

This week is much more of an epic. The weekend in particular should be a good test. 2 hours of cycling in the Charnwood Hills on Saturday morning, followed by a 1800m swim in the afternoon. In the evening I’m heading to Capel Curig in Snowdonia for a kip at the youth hostel. Up bright and early (5 o’clock) on Sunday morning for a 90:00 fell run, and a 6 hour hike up the 3200ft+ Glyder Fach (with a couple of 2500+ peaks thrown in for good measure), before returning back to Leicester for food and a huge, huge sleep. All good.

22/02/2010