We are all Stars

This weekend was spent out on the water, for the adidas TERREX, anyone choosing to paddle an elite boat is required to have at least 2 paddlers holding a 3 star Kayak British Canoe Union certificate.  Windemere Canoe and Kayak organised a coaching and assessment weekend for the 4 of us plus 3 other guests, and I arranged the weather.  Hard call to make a call on what was best the coaching or the weather, both were fantastic. 


Steve Styan was our tutor and very much tailored the weekend to our needs, so we managed to brush up on the skills we don't usually use when we have our heads in race mode and also get some tips to helping us conserve energy on longer paddling stages.  We also had chance to use a variety of boats including, Playboats, Single Sea Kayak, Tandem Sea Kayaks (including our own super sleek and fast Tahe Marine Wind Duo and the rather more beefy, rounded and slower Neky Amruk), Canadian Canoes and a rather tippy surf ski.  The superb weather gave us plenty of chances to brush up on our rescues without getting cold.

During the weekend we even got to see Paul (Haglöfs) without his usual style wearing some more relaxed clothing, I better add this was not his own personal wetsuit!
The weekend was a massive success and to top it all we all got our 3stars!  A big thank you to Steve for the coaching and the fun weekend.

Steve  is running a 3 star white water course later in the year with the weather promising to be just as good

Back to Basics

Well the weekend has passed with another race or 2 under our belts.  With Alex away with work and Karen on family duties it was left to Mick and Paul to fly the Haglöfs flag. The great thing about doing lots of races is that you learn from every race you do......or that is the theory.  Last weekend we decided that we would ignore all the basics and every rule in the book and do our thing!   The event was Open 5+ and the location around the North of Coniston in the Lake District.  We knew the area relatively well (or thought we did).  The race was made up of a trail run with optional orienteering, mountain biking, with optional special stages and short kayak stage on sit on tops. We had arrived at the event centre slightly late and this gave us little time to prepare and study the maps (1st lesson to be learnt - arrive early). We then listened to the briefing and more or less went straight to the start of the trail race.  We decided to the run and skip the orienteering totally (worth 120 points) so we could get a good start on the MTB and get through the special stages before any queues built up. (lesson 2 never miss a special stage, we skipped pass the orienteering section without even looking at the map, which turned out to be short and relatively easy and we threw away easy points). The mountain biking started well and we were ahead of schedule when we got to the Special Stage 1, this was a water jump into freezing cold water and a small climb to exit the old mine workings through a tunnel.  On to Special Stage 2 and a very easy scramble and again through the tunnels of the mine workings hunting down a Checkpoint (CP) in a dead end tunnel.  The Special stages had not taken us as long as we thought it might take and we now were confident of clearing the MTB stage.  We continued and made good progress but there was one CP that was causing us concern, there appeared to be only one route up and over  Tarn Howes dropping into the steep valley and back out again the same way (it was a big pointer and we felt it had to be done).  If only we had looked on the more detailed map used on the run, although all the roads leading to the CP were out of bounds there was a permissive bridleway that we had not picked up on the 1:50k map (lesson 3 - check the detailed map if you have one).  This cost us very dearly meaning we took a much longer detour up and over the energy sapping hill.  We were then racing the clock to get back in time to get to the kayak stage and in our rush went straight past a valuable 25 point CP, it was too late before we realised and we conceded it was not to be our day.  We carried on and cleared the 2.5km kayak at good speed (1 minute late back).  It was a good day out but racing we made some really basic and stupid mistakes and one we should remember to make sure we don't repeat!  Saturday night was spent winding down from the race with a few beers watching a Reggae band.


Sunday Paul and Mick joined other racers for a social paddle, plenty of time to discuss their mistakes and go through "if's and but's" whilst paddling 23 miles(up and down Windemere). Can't wait to get the next race done so we can put these demons to rest.

BG training

Well having announced my weekend for my BG, Alex (my Run Like a Girl running partner) and I went out on the Kinder Dozen for the weekend to get some good downhills in our legs before our attempt in 3 weeks time and to plan a bit of our attempt weekend. We ran for 5 and a half hours on saturday in very gusty gale winds, froze and then went out for a further 3 hours today (sunday) - slightly warmer today!

Mick has asked to help us out on our attempt and hopefully both Paul and Alex from Team Haglof can too??? Next May Bank Holiday weekend. Hopefully see you on the hills boys...

Fellsman Pictures 2010

Saturday 8 May, The legendary  Fellsman took place (62 mile fell race), although I did not enter this year I ran up a couple of the hills with my camera.... see the photos Fellsman 2010 pictures here>>>

Karen's Alps Trip

Just come back from an extremely good trip to the Alps, finishing off a Haute Route I started last year but had to cut short with bad weather and then climbing the Breithorn near Zermat and then over to Chamonix to climb Mont Blanc. We had a supperb time (Alex, a girl friend I run and ski mountaineer with) and myself in excellent weather getting all our goals for the the trip done. We started a Haute Route last year and finished it off this year by climbing up from Arolla to the Vignettes Hut above 3000m the day we arrived, hot and hard work, then ski'd over 3 big passes all above 3000m into Zermat and then a quick ascent of the Briethorn at 4165m before heading back to Chamonix to make our attempt on Mont Blanc.

We decided we needed one more acclimatisation night above 3000m so we phoned the huts but the one we wanted was full so we satyed at the Cosmique hut at 3613m for a first night and ski'd the Valley Blanche and back up again for a second night - well half a night as we breakfasted at 1am and started climbing at 2am up a really serrac'd face, over Mont Blanc du Tacul, Col Maudit, Col de la Brenva and Petit Rochers Rouges to the summit of Mont Blanc by 10am.  We then booted off North Ridge to Col du Dome Gouter and Ski'd down to the Grand Mulets Hut and through some big avalanche debris from 2 weeks ago to the midi station and a glass of celebration wine. Then we spent a few days doing some rock climbing and some running in the valley. As you can see from the pictures we had supperb trip which has proved to be good training for the next adventure with Team Haglof. I can't do the Open5+ but will be really ready for the Open12 and Open24 as warm ups to the big one in August - the Terrex

Malhamdale Meander LDWA challenge run

Just got home after the 23mile Malamdale Meander. I had a really good run, in the sunshine. The route is a real dream. Long grassy runs, a scramble up Goredale Scar and a fast finish from Weets top. It took me 4 hours at a pretty gentle pace. These events really are a great way of getting some good millage in and keeping the pace up. Check out the LDWA web site here. The challenge events welcome runners.