Mincing

Saturday, as many will know, was Lad's Leap, first English champs counter of the year.

I wasn't happy with my run. Needless to say my pre-race fears were realised - I'm not hill or fell fit. However, I managed to finish in the top 100 and my descending was pretty epic - even in my old worn shoes (my 'good' shoes were left home. oops) - as I gained a lot of time on the first descent and gained 4/5 places I had no right to gain on the last descent due to being so far back on the group ahead at the top. I'd love a downhill-only race...

There were also some cracking runs from fellow Pennine runners. Everyone seems to have come on over the winter and it's looking to be a tough season of racing amongst the guys (well, behind Daz at least!) in the battle for club champs points - and Relay positions!

Apart from the lack of fitness and dodgy knee the 'main worry' is my descending style. I mean, just look at it:

 (from Bryan Mills)

It makes the Winskill Arm look Manly! Still works though!

Also, I'll never see a result like this again:
92 Nicholas Barber Pennine 00:54:09
93 Rob Jebb           Bingley  00:54:10
It's early season and I wasn't the worst sufferer.

Anyway I've finally realised that Edale + Dodgy knee is asking for trouble. Throwing in poor fell fitness made the decision to drop out even easier so I've given my entry to a friend. I'm actually not that fussed about missing it at the moment, which is surprising me. The plan now is to get the leg sorted and enjoy the JK in Scotland and Coledale (well, after Grizedale pike anyway!) in April. After that I'll try and get towards where I wanted to be last weekend!

Painkiller

Knee injury of late, so I had to miss Black Combe and some Lakes O the other weekend - oh well, I had a swanky new pad to move in to.
My knee wasn't completely fixed but I was getting antsy from the lack of running (I even considered joining a gym. For all of 15 minutes) and headed down to Great Malvern with the intention of running the 2 Orienteering events down there - I was seeing Uni friends and helping out, but the lure of 2 UKCup races was too much to resist.

Saturday - Great Malvern Urban Race after several hours marshalling. Tired, leggy but knee held up OK. Made a few daft mistakes and it felt like a struggle all the way round. Off the pace but I know I'm better than this.

Sunday - Midland Champs, Foxley and Garnstone. Brambly, some silly silly mistakes due partly to tiredness and partly to getting back into 1:15k maps. A lesson.

Click for bigger images. The results for both can be found here.

 Lads Leap next week. I'm going into it with no form and very low expectations. There's (at least) 4 other English Champs races I'm doing in which I hope I can show myself what I can do.