No time for training!

Summertime means mid-week races - on top of weekend events!! What this means in practice is that I don't train much in the Summer, I just go to races!

Following the Darlington 10k on the Wednesday, there was the CLOK evening event at Silton Woods on the Thursday (6 July), a 3 hour Bike-O from Lordstones between Carlton Bank and Cringle Moor on the Saturday, then the CLOK Team Score event at Catterick on the Sunday, and the Gribdale Gallop on the following Tuesday (11 July)!

The Silton event went OK, apart from a giant banana route early on, where I crossed an overgrown ride, and did a big loop back when the map didn't fit!!

My Bike-O route was partly determined by the strong winds, but also by the possibilities of some big climbs! I took a westerly loop, finishing by climbing over the length of Cold Moor and traversing the face of Cringle Moor. Given that I was 3rd Vet, it must have been a reasoonable route, and made it back with 1 1/2 minutes to spare.

The team score at Catterick was something different. Running with my two eldest daughters, we had to split the 30 controls up between us, depending on distance and technical difficulty. We all did quite well and won the short course - unfortunately not too much competition. The day finished with the CLOK BBQ, which apart from a couple of showers was a nice sociable occasion.

The Tuesday saw another of Dave P's series of fell races, and quite a long one to boot. I set off fairly steadily, up Coate Moor, through Gribdale and along Percy Rigg. I started to push it along approaching Hanging Stone, where better route choices meant I passed quite a few runners on the descent to Roseberry Common, the crossing to Roseberry Topping and the recrossing to Little Roseberry. I even managed to get the descent to the finish at Gribdale Gate right this year, and didn't lose any places!

So, 5 races/competitions in 7 days - who needs to train!

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