What Snow...???

With the rest of the country gripped by something approaching an Ice Age, and whole swathes of the country cut off from civilisation, perhaps forever (if half of what is written in the Popular Press is to be believed), I did the old fashioned thing...

I looked up the Mountain Weather Forecast....

And I phoned a friend.

Both of which told me that Lakeland was NOT buried under a newly formed glacier,
and the Saturday would be coolish,
and Sunday would also be coolish, with weather arriving sometime in the afternoon.

Good enough for me!

Once the Training Weekend had been cancelled, Lorna and I simultaneously said,
"Well, if the roads to the Lake District are clear - we're going up anyway"

They were

We did!

The journey up was extraordinary in the amount of Green we saw
It was everywhere.
Our country is a truly beautiful place.
Indeed there was hardly any evidence of ANY snow between home and the Southern Lakes - and once we could see the Fells, it was clear that the volume of snow even there was quite small - and quite high!

The plans for the weekend were that we would meet up with Alyson - who's also doing the 10-in-10 and accompany her on a run in her back yard.

Then make our way to a hastily booked B&B in Windermere with the intention of running the whole Windermere Marathon course on Sunday.

We arrived at Aly's at 11:30 having battled our way North on relatively quiet, dry, clear roads.
A quick cuppa and a chat and we set off for a 7 and a bit mile off-road run that was simply delicious.

Some mud (a bit frozen on the way out - less so on the way back);
Some gentle hills;
trails through a couple of woods;
and back to Aly's for some rather excellent soup.

It was a PEACH of a run.

And really fantastic to meet Aly and spent a short time with her.
Some pictures from that run:










And so to today...
Following a marvellous sleep and breakfast provided by the very welcoming Dave and Debbie at Cambridge House in Windermere.....

Lorna has already told you about the details of the run from her perspective....
Here is mine.

I lost count of the number of times I said "I LOVE this course"
Running conditions were perfect.
Running got stronger as we went.
I LOVE running with Lorna!

Today capped of an 86 mile week. Which is by far the longest training week I've ever had.
The mileage has crept up on me almost unnoticed, and I did less than Lorna because I had a complete rest day on Monday as I was suffering the edges of a virus that was giving me a slightly grumblesome bowel.
I also strained a calf muscle very slightly last week doing a Tempo run with inadequate warm up. So all the miles THIS week have been low intensity, allowing me to get the miles in, while my calf sorted itself out.
It was a very successful strategy, and the last remnants of said strain appear to have Left The Building.

A few pictures from today: