My week off...

It's that time of year when I get the luxury of 'using up' my annual leave that I didn't take during the previous year. I've decided to turn this blog into my regular blog for photos and updated. I took my phone (off about 6 years, from 2015 to 2022) running recently and it got wet and died. So, this has reiterated the point to me about recording things online to prevent them being lost.

Saturday

Another named storm had arrived overnight, this time storm 'Corrie'. I went into Leeds to do Woodhouse Moor parkrun and get some bread from the bakery. Kathryn went for lunch with Laila, although they had to change their plans because the train line was suspended as a tree had fallen on powerlines.

Sunday

I got up early to go for a run with Luke. We did the last part of Rombalds Stride route, which involved going up and over the Chevin. We just about made it up to the Chevin for the sunrise.

We went across to Baildon, and then came back over through Hawksworth and Menston. High pressure had arrived after the storm and it was a beautiful morning to be out. 

Monday

Today was my Mum's birthday. I Skyped my parents in the afternoon after getting back from a short walk. This was also the day that I experience some banking fraud when someone tried to get me to transfer money pretending to be the bank's fraud department. It spoilt an otherwise nice walk where I saw a dipper along the river.

Tuesday

We needed some more coffee during my week off. So I decided to order some from North Star who are based in Armley. And use that is an excuse to go out exploring a bit. Something which I had not done in a while. I got the train into Leeds and cycled back, via the roastery.

I grabbed a quick coffee at La Botega before setting off.

It was a short journey along the canal, before turning off to get to the roastery.

Unfortunately, the roastery wasn't much to see. I just pressed a button and someone came to the hatch. They disappeared for about a minute and came back with my bag of coffee and that was it.

We have had high pressure to the south of the UK, and low pressure to the north. Meaning we have had quite significant winds for the past week or so. The cycle back along the canal was very windy at times. It was quite tiring and felt like it lasted for ages.

Wednesday

Chris was free Wednesday morning, so we went on a short bike ride together. We went on our usual route, which was around the reservoir and back. We stopped off at the cafe in the village.

Thursday

I went for a walk with Teresa which was about all I did today. Kathryn was at work.

Friday

I went out in the morning to wash the car, collect some Threadlock from Halfords to sort my mudguards out, and collect some clear plastic boxes for the loft.

Kathryn took a half day and we went to Ilkley for lunch in the afternoon. We were going to go for a short walk, but we got really cold and wet walking to the cafe. And so, we decided to head home and have a quiet afternoon at home.

Saturday

Today was the big day of the week, the day of the Rombalds Stride event. I was up early, eating my porridge as usually on 'race days'. You had to register by 8:30, so I parked up by the station by 8am and made the short walk down Guiseley High St to find the Scout HQ which had a marque pitched at the back for registration.

It was nice that I bumped into quite a few people I knew. Karl and Dan from the triathlon club. Kathryn from XC and Helen from Otley AC. Plus another lady I couldn't remember her name from parkrun.

We didn't have to wait too long until the start. We were set off, basically a main road, at 9am.

The first hour or so was really nice. It was sunny and dry still. It didn't feel too windy running east along the valley. We passed the bucket drop and made it to the first checkpoint in no time. I was a bit surprised about how fast some people were running, but as we headed over Baildon moor and then up to Weston reservoir, I slowly started to pass them.

When we got over Burley moor, the wind started to be very noticeable and strong from the west. We reached the high point and turned west which is when conditions became very bad as it started raining too. I just tucked in behind a runner in front and just followed him the whole way to the checkpoint at the top of Ilkley moor. From then, there was a little bit more wet and muddy running before dropping down into Ilkley. This got easier as the wind was behind us. And by now, there was just.a small group of three or four of us running closely together.

After Ilkley, we ran over Burley moor, which had a vicious cross wind. I took a tumble coming down into Burley Woodhead. But thankfully, I did a bit of a roll and the mud was quite soft so it didn't actually hurt me at all.

The last section through Menston was fast, but my legs were really starting to hurt, especially my handspring's. It felt like my stride length was about half of what it usually is! then came the last ascent up over the Chevin. By then, it was impossible to do anything other than walk it. Which actually wasn't too bad, it just took about 15 minutes to get to the top. It was quite sheltered too. It was only getting to the top and running over to the finish that we were exposed again.

I finished in 3hr20m which was 22nd place, I was really happy with that for my first attempt at the course. I was expecting it to take me closer to 4 hours. I had a very painful walk back to the car, but Kathryn had ran me a bath for then I got home.

Stuart also arrived to spend the day with us. We went back over to Ilkley to visit a new brewery that has been set up. The food was just what I needed.

Sunday

We didn't do much on Sunday. Stuart stayed for quite a while, so we had a good catch up with him. He bought these cakes across from Manchester that were delicious.