Plenty doing

Thursday I jogged with Scamp in  Gelt. Very slow and with lots of stops to play in the river.
Friday again just jogging - hottest day of the year so far - about 5 miles very easy, untimed

Me and Scamp up some fell or other

Saturday I was keen to run 10 miles hard, possibly even intervals. But then a massage came through from Penrith Stu about 'garn up fells' at noon. It was a grand day up top - T shirt weather as long as you kept moving along. 2 hours we spent with scarcely a stop. Near the end I was very tired but once the final descent to the car was in sight I pushed hard to test Stu. He passed the test and even had me mildly concerned at one point. Turned out he was doing an interval though and soon had to slow up  again.

Sunday I went back to more or less the same place and ran the circuit to be followed later in June when I compete in the Day In The Lakes Triathlon. In 2010 I was second fastest runner with 1hr 31. This year I am determined to beat 1:30.

By Monday I had developed a bit of a cough and was silly to do my intervals as planned. A poor performance was guaranteed and indeed achieved.

Tuesday I decided it better NOT to train so I could get over my irritating "illness", but then by Wednesday I was keen to do some worthwhile running and tootled around the 10 mile loop in 63:50 - not a bad time considering I never "tried hard" - just a nice steady effort throughout.

Thursday was a washout. I had never planned to run as I was intending to go to Newcastle to photograph the 4000 competitors running the Blaydon Race. I couldn't get anyone to help me with this and a long tiring day at work saw me spend the evening mooching round the house instead of any training or earning.

Nick with 20  hours still to go

Friday was a BIG NIGHT OUT. No not at a pub or nightclub - that would be ridiculous. An evening of fellrunning was on the cards accompanying Nick, an Ellenborough lad who was attempting the Bob Graham Round. I'm pleased to report that he completed the round in 21hrs. I was not one of his official helpers and was just tagging along really but hopefully I made myself useful by taking some photos that will become momentoes for Nick to remind him of his great achievement.

Setting sun over Scottish Hills and Solway coast - Taken from the ascent of Blencathra

Getting home late from the fells I was in bed by about 1230 then up again at 0730 as the skip wagon arrived to deliver a skip for my old kitchen which I am having replaced. Most of the day was spent ripping things off walls and dodging the rain showers as the skip grew ever fuller. Saturday night was another late one as I helped celebrate my old mans 65th birthday with one can of guinness and 3 cups of tea.

Just 7 hours in bed and I was up to prepare for another  "fellrun". We were to visit once again the DITL run route from Pooley Bridge. I was of a mind to run this much harder this week than I had the previous Sunday. In the end it was a bit of a mixed up run with easy parts, hard parts, and even stationary parts waiting for lads to catch up. In the end it was faster than last week, but I think I may return one more time. Penrith Stu joined us for this run - I'm not sure he was too impressed about a fellrun with no fell summits visited - but possibly just as well as I think he was rather shocked by the fitness/ability/determination/ of his City cousins!