Fun in the snow

After breaking our streak on Tuesday (I received some sad news in the afternoon and it just didn't feel right running) we went out with the club last night. Above is Farnhill Pinnacle, which is at the top of the first climb most weeks. Tonight I ran (well walked up and ran down) Beamsley Beacon with Dave. Both runs were excellent and I'm hoping there's still plenty of snow around at the weekend 

Gloria Kings

Bowland

Stef and I went over to Bowland again on Sunday and had a great run out (11 miles / 2, 200 feet-ish) with friends from Chipping. The ground was frozen solid (mostly) and there was a fair bit of snow around. Conditions on the higher ground were quite tough and the outing had more of a mountaineering feel to it than normal running. It was none the worse for that!

We all retired to Tillotsons after the run where hot food and several mugs of tea were taken. Stef and I have really enjoyed the last two weekends running with friends and in particular our two trips 'out West' 

Jackie Wilson

Make it funky (parts 1 to 4)

A streaky snowy Hebden

It was the Hebden LDWA yesterday and after some good work by organisers Alan Greenwood and Carole Engels the event went ahead in spite of some snow and ice on the course. It was a cracking day out as ever but I found some of the slippery descents a bit hard work in Mudclaws. Huge tracts of the route being frozen solid helped and I finished with dry feet, almost certainly for the first time in five starts. The traditional pie and peas went down well afterwards,as did home-made apple crumble and custard! There were many people there we know and we had a good hour or so after finishing catching-up with the latest gossip

We were going for a Hebden-Splash double this weekend but the Stanbury Splash course has had to be shortened due to ice so we're going over to Bowland again later instead. My next job is either getting Stef out of bed or tackling a sink full of washing up from having pals round for dinner last night. I also need to resist having some of the left-over tiramisu for breakfast, which is not proving easy

I almost forgot, but yesterday was day 50 of our 'streak'. I'm amazed I've kept going (it was Stef's idea and she was much more determined from the start than me) but we've chugged on again this week with a few three and a half milers round the village and the usual Wednesday club-run from the Lion 

Al Green

Home and away

We managed two great runs over the weekend. On Saturday it was 12 miles or so around the local skyline from home, with our club-mate Richard and yesterday it was 10 miles on the Bowland fells from Fellfoot with pals old and new from Bowland Fellrunners Both runs were brilliant and both were followed by refreshment in a nearby pub! It was the Swan on Saturday evening again with Richard to see Inn Jeopardy, a band who can really play and yesterday it was into Tillotsons Arms in Chipping for Sunday lunch. What a super weekend 

Conscious man

Eddie Cochran

Day 43

Today will be day 43 of our 'streak'. A decent length run is planned with friends over the Beacon and Round Hill, on to Ilkley and back over Addingham Moorside. It'll be interesting to see how we feel because rather than a series of mostly three mile runs around the village this week we have done three longer runs (Bolton Abbey and White Lion headtorchers  Tuesday and Wednesday, and a new route along the 'back road' to Beamsley village and up the steep side of the Beacon on tarmac, on Thursday). We seem to be getting fitter and have lost a bit of weight but this week will be a definite step up

006

Sitting in the park

The dark nights

I hate this time of year. The 'dark nights' as my mum always calls them really get me down and getting going with work again after the Christmas holidays is always difficult. It particularly hard during a winter like this, which has been characterised by damp, gloomy albeit mild weather. I've been running regularly in shorts, even at night and have never been cold in them

We're still going with our 'streak' and this has helped a bit. Tonight's planned run (a headtorcher at Bolton Abbey with friends) will be day 38 and running every day certainly fended off any weight gain due to Christmas excesses.  We've got several challenges / long races coming up and in addition to the Hebden LDWA, which we entered last year, I have forms to fill in for the Wadsworth Trog (me and Stef) and the Fellsman  (just me). After a good run on New years day it'll be interesting to see how we get on 

Twinkle Brothers

Hardmoors 30

The weather forecast was good for New Years Day and so it proved. It was probably the best day of the Christmas holidays and a near perfect day for running Jon Steele's Hardmoors 30 ultra. We did this two years ago and I found it hard going. The long runnable sections, especially the disused railway track, were really not my thing although the coastal path run from Whitby back to the start / finish in Ravenscar was great

This year I think a combination of running every day in December plus sensible eating and drinking (during the race!) led us to have a much better run than in 2011 with us being 20 minutes or so quicker and giving me probably my best ever finish of 35th out of 97 runners. Results are here Oh, did I mention I ran all 199 steps up to the Abbey after around 20 miles of running?

Streakers!

Running every day in December has morphed into 'streaking' i.e. running every day. Yesterday we ran the Hardmoors 30 (more to follow on another post) but tonight (our 33rd run in 33 days) it was back to Farnhill Pinnacle and the White Lion with the Wednesday night KCAC crowd. Both Stef and I were tired and a bit 'tight' after yesterday's outing but we managed around 5 miles at 'social' pace, followed by the usual generous free food at the Lion. We had onion rings, breaded chicken gujons and also chicken 'lollies' on sticks (think kind of small flat fillets on wooden skewers). These were washed down with Copper Dragon North Star which was dark and tasty!

Jackie Wilson