Returning to hills...again

 So we are slowly coming back out of lockdown; work has calmed down a bit and rather than 'stay at home' the wonderfully vague message is 'stay local'.  I have managed to keep a bit fit through lock down, but my plan to do regular hill practice fell by the wayside so not in great shape. On Tuesday, Bilberry fields (a new race I believe), took the honour of being the first fell race to go after lock down, and club runs restarted (though sadly without me). 

But today I am off for the Bank Holiday (a rarity for me!) so I got up early and took the dog for a recce of the route for CR blacksheep's first outing on Wednesday. The route is over a Millbrook which is the otherside of Greater Manchester but is still Greater Manchester so I figured it was okay. 

The route starts at Stalybridge Country park which was distressingly litter strewn. The dog is just getting in to running a bit further and he wasn't really on his game this morning so I let him run off the lead where possible. We reached the main reservoir without too much issues and started to climb up the otherside towards Wild Bank. The full route climbs the opposite hill first but the lamb route cuts it short. As we climbed out of cock wood suddenly the view opened up and we could see across the edge of the Peaks and Pennines, then as we climbed a bit further, over to Manchester's urban skyline. I enjoyed plodding this section, intermittently walking and jogging. 

The route then kicked up toward the trig point, following a fence line. It was quite steep so I walked and the dog tried to walk under my feet. It is quite 'technical' with lots of loose stones and I have my concerns taking a group up there so will need to warn them about this section. Its perfectly doable, but needs the brain engaging. 

Then we were at the trig, and having a chat with two other runners who looked like they were doing a much longer run than I. The dog had some treats, I had some water and then we started a glorious down hill on lovely paths ( a mixture of hard packed trail and the odd grass slope). Having the dog meant it was intermittently on and off the lead depending on restrictions but it was fab to just fly down without too much concentration. 

 

In other news, I have booked two 'A' races for the year, the first of which is the Half Peaks Skyline which is 14ish miles from Buxton. I hope to do the full in future, but for now I will stick with the doable after a year of having to put other things first. Time to start getting back out in this hills!