Ralph's Health

I did the Skyline race last weekend, very tough, and very sore at the end of it. Today is the first day I've not felt pain and soreness in my knees and ankle. I turned my ankle over at mile 3, which was then a problem for the rest of the race, and I turned it again a couple more times. This left me with a sore and swollen ankle. Overall I was pleased with my result, I came in 4:31. The day was hot and sunny, very different to anything else we have been training in over the last few months. Here is a photo of me at the start climbing up onto Ringing Roger: Now that this race is out of the way, I'll start to focus more on speed and shorter runs again, to generally keep my fitness levels up. I also need to keep up my diet changes. I've been slipping slowly back into bad habits with the focus on eating for the race.

Weight dropped again which is good, aiming to be 81kg on race day. Sore knees from kneeling down and running, need to get them sorted out. Also very tired after late night.

Dave and I did another recce around Edale on Saturday, only covered half the course but found some good lines over Brown Knoll. the weather was much better this weekend, without a howling gale., good running. I tried out my new backpack, it is okay but I'm not happy about not being able to get at my food, might need to do something different for the race. As there are two water stops I might not take water with me. This week I need to rest up so I'm not running, at least that is what I'm planning at present. I will research the best thing to do later. Here is the route detail from the weekend:

Dave and I ran the Edale circuit on Saturday in reasonably good weather conditions, except for the wind on the top. Here are the details: At almost 5 hours this was a long run, and would put us low down on the field compared to 2010. I'm aiming to do the race a bit faster, perhaps as much as half an hour faster? Here is a summary of the elevation:

It seems I sprained my ankle at the weekend, so no running at the moment. As it is my birthday I've not weighed myself and I had a Twirl!

I think one of the reasons I did well in the Cloud 9 race is that I rested all last week, as a result of a hamstring injury. the previous Sunday SDave and I ran the Windgather Race route, we finished it in 2:21, which is about 10 mins faster than my best race time. But following that I developed a sore left left at the back so decided to rest it for the week. No signs today of injury (apart from tiredness and a niggle where I banged my ankle and knee falling over) so hopefully will do two runs this week. I'll be resting again from Wednesday onwards though as we are planning 21 mile run round the Edale race circuit on Saturday.

Dave and I ran in the Cloud 9 'Fell' race yesterday morning. Both of us did well, I beat Dave for first time ever. 406 runners took part, I cam 126th at 1:14:29, Dave came 140th at 1:15:35. Here is a graph showing our times compared to the rest of the field: I just squeezed into the top 1/3 of the field. This is by far my best ever race result. Here is a photo at mile 2.75. No hills have been run yet: