Happy New Year! What is everyone promising themselves they will do/not do this year? My list includes lose weight, strength train, race harder, stretch after running and sort my professional life out among others lofty ideal of which little is likely to happen. I have also signed up to Run Every Day in January with my 'Zwift meet up' group but only a mile minimum (excepting possible ski holiday) so that it fits around work and doesn't impact my recovery times.
The first hurdle is not to catch Covid before out ski holiday (or indeed, at any point) so that we can actually get skiing. Its a complete phaff but hoping we make it. Already I am having stress dreams about positive PCR tests on the way out!
The year actually started with a very nice surprise when Martin decided to come to Lyme Park Parkrun with me! Yes, the man who does not run actually agreed to do not only a parkrun, but one of the hardest parkruns in the region! It is on our club ,champs this year, and so there were a few Blacksheep there to chat too. Oscar dog came on his harness too, which caused chaos on the quite busy (for Lyme) route as he tried to dive between legs on the first hill until the crowd thinned out. Martin nearly died (his heart rate hit over 200!) and we came last of the Blacksheep but it was nice to have him there running. I persist in trying to drag him out running with me in the dream he learns to love it, but I know it will never happen.
So what then for the rest of the year?
Life is a little different from when I was last racing regularly, mainly because we have Oscar now, and so I can't just disappear off for the day. However, the Blacksheep challenge is back, so there will be points up for grabs at various events even if they haven't been published yet. I never make many, but I will try make a few. They are good for a social if nothing else, and there may even be someone to hold the dog at some of them (maybe). I don't know how before lock down i was doing my long run Saturday then racing a fell race on the Sunday! To be that fit again is a dream!
Otherwise, I seem to be focusing long. The start of the year I have already put in a selection of LDWA type events; the Anglezarke Amble, Two Crosses and 5 Trigs (the last is actually a Cragg Runner event but similar set up). They are all relatively local and at 24 miles, 17 miles and 18.5 miles, should give me a good reason to get my endurance up over winter. They are also self navigating so that adds to the challenge. This takes us up to April and the end of my current rota, and then things get messy.....
This year is my Dad's 60th, my sister's wedding (plus hen do which I am supposed to be organising), and two other friends' weddings, so lots to look forward too. I am also potentially finishing my training program and need to find a consultant job. Plus I have to work one or two weekends a month, possibly more if I am on ICU. In short, there isn't a lot of time for the events I thought I would be doing, that is the Lakeland Trails 55K Ultra and a Abraham's/George Fisher Tea round. Pretty much all this, plus the events, falls within June and July. I don't even know where I will be working at this point so its not even possible to guess. I am tying to ignore the problem and put my head in the sand.....
One thing I am addressing is my shoe situation. After the incident at the moors the merrier where my shoe fell apart, I decided I needed some new shoes. I had invested in a pair of Innov8 G270 Terraultras but I didn't on with them, as I felt unstable in the heel and kept slipping of medially resulting in a posterior tibialis niggle. They turned in to very expensive dog walking shoes..... But I wanted something a bit more padded for longer distances than my (previously) reliable Roclites.
I am actually rubbish at trawling through reviews and everyone's feet at very different. In the end, I plumped for the Scott Supertrac Ultra RC on the basis I have had some Scott's for work and they didn't seem too crazily anything (minimal, cushioned, rigid,etc). They were about mid range price too, which helped me decide!
The colour scheme on the women's shoe is fine. I am not one for aesthetics in trail shoes as once the mud starts, that is the end of it, so it didn't matter too much. On first try, I noticed they had the same rub point across the base of my toes as the ones I bought for work; the upper sort of digs in in a curved line across the toe box. A few wears in , this is starting to settle. The shoes also don't have the widest toe box and I get a bit of crowding with my wide duck feet. But the toe box does have a rubber reinforcement which I like.
The lacing system and mid sole hold the foot well though it can be a battle to get in there initially and I had to unlace and relace the shoe to get my feet in, and the laces don't pull through the eye system easily. Unlike the innov8's however, once laces, they stay laced. The tongue is minimal but I didn't feel much cutting through it on the runs I have done in it.
Grip wise, they seem okay. They tend to collect mud more than other shoes I have run in, but they coped okay with rocky paths. I wasn't completely convinced of them on rock slaps but then what shoes are reliable on that? They have a bit more cushioning than some but nothing too much; you still get a sense of the ground. For an 8mm drop, its very stable.
Its a more substantial shoe than the roclite, which was probably what I needed. So far so good, and definitely worth giving a go if you are fed up with gimmicks in the market.
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