Better Mountain Run Time but Downhill, Knee Complains

Location: The Wrekin, Telford, UK
Date: 24th January

Ran to the top, then walked down.

Total Time (to top): 17:02

Post Workout Nutrition: none - fasting until the evening meal.

The snow and ice from last week's Wrekin run had vanished today, so I was able to have a crack at a decent time. 17:02 is slower than my best, which is around 15:45, but it's close enough under the circumstances, which are:

- I was operating at about 8/10 effort level, where 10 is the level of effort I would employ if a sabre-toothed tiger was chasing me up the hill.

- whilst the knee felt good on the way up, over the few bits of terrain that are flat or decline slightly I detected a weakness that felt like it would lead to damage over longer stretches. Thus, my physiotherapist's prediction that I would initially struggle except when going uphill was borne out.

So in terms of raw fitness, I feel reasonably comfortable with the time.

We took a few photos on the top. The first has given me a messiah-like appearance thanks to the sun breaking through the clouds in the background and the second has given Lightning the appearance of a man recently deprived of two rolls of carpet.



Finally, there is the obligatory footwear shot:


The Five Fingers you see me wearing are actually 'Flow Treks' - they have the neoprene upper of the Flow, but the tread of the Treks. I did not even know these existed - I stumbled across them in a shop in London recently, and they seemed like the perfect solution for fell running and a way to protect my Kangaroo-skin Treks from the rigours of running.

This is good news, because the Kangaroo-skin Treks are about as close to a 'normal-looking' pair of Five Fingers as it gets, to the extent that I have actually worn them to a couple of business meetings. Well, if Sergey Brin can do it, then so can I ;-)