and this is what happens when you don't put your gear away afterwards....

2 day camping run - the run

Dent Station

This weekend was the weekend set for my run. I'll start by saying that I didn't do the full distance - I cut short sunday and used the bail out options. More about that later.

Up at 5:15 to get the 6:37, arriving at Dent Station at 7:40 or thereabouts. The journey up was slightly troubling - I was counting on fair, temperate weather so the thick fog was a bit of a worry. Still, I'm nothing if not safety conscious, so I knew I had gear to cover every eventuality. In the event the fog cleared somewhere around Settle.

Setting off from Dent Station, I ran down the hill on the road, losing a lot of height, then gradually started to put it on again. I saw this sign outside the Sportsman, which gave me a chuckle:

I picked up the Blea Moor Tunnel path at Bridge End, and started the climb up through the woods. You get a good view of the tunnel from the path:

Blea Moor Tunnel

The plantation here has been recently felled, and I spotted a deer in the scrub just ahead.

Spot the deer

Blea Moor plantation, looking down Dentdale

Once over Blea Moor and onto the track up Whernside I was in amongst 3 Peaks walkers. It was the longest day of course, so several charities had arranged sponsored walks. A brief halt on top of Whernside to consume a family size malt loaf, and then down the horrible rocky descent of Whernside.









Crossing the wall at the Hill Inn, I found this lying on the ground:

not knowing what it was, I left it there. Shortly afterwards I encountered a couple of marshals from one of the charity walks trying to figure out where they'd lost their 'stake'. Oh-ho! It struck me (not before one of them had set off back to get it - I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes) that I wasn't in any crashing hurry, whereas they needed to get to their assigned position ahead of the members of their event, so I popped back for it.

I caught them up at the bottom of the scramble, and (along with a couple of runners who were doing peaks events) took a steady, glycogen sparing climb to the top. I did a fair amount of cheering peaks walkers on yesterday - I've done the 3 peaks several times at varying speeds.

Another break to text people and eat some food on the top of Ingleborough, and then back down the other side to Horton, chatting briefly with a geordie lad who looked completely broken, but came into Horton not far behind me.

Very welcome tea and fruit cake at the fantastic Pen Y Gent cafe in Horton.

Tea and cake at the Pen Y Gent cafe

I've been stopping off in there a good few years, and it's always nice to be recognised and welcomed. They do a fine veggie fried breakfast, which sadly wasn't on my agenda for today. They very kindly filled up my totally drained 2 litre platypus though.

Pen Y Gent itself proved to be hard work - the heat was starting to tell a bit. I was still maintaining the glycogen saving climb speed though, and got to the top in pretty good order.

The layered grit & limestone cap of Pen Y Gent

Tiny flowers growing in the limestone scramble

A pleasant chat with a lady and her grandchildren on the top, and then off over Plover Hill and down into Littondale, passing a group of DofE-ers on the way down the back of Plover Hill, picking my way fairly steadily down the exposed path above the crag.

The top of Littondale

From here it was just a trog down Littondale. The field paths should have been easy going, but the grass and clover is high enough at the moment to grab at your feet and make running hard work. A brief bit of navigational trouble at Nether Hesleden caused by slowly depleting blood sugar, and then familiar paths to Arncliffe. The last few km's along the road from Arncliffe to Hawkswick seemed to take forever - it was very hot and close, and I'd run out of water again at Litton.

Towards Litton

Belted Galloway bullock in Littondale

Finally though, I made it, and managed to sort out with the staff at Hawkswick Cote that I'd made a reservation. Sadly, Hawkswick Cote aren't taking any more bookings - they're moving over to owned statics only.  More and more campsites are refusing to take tents or even touring caravans. I guess they make more money that way.

Hawkswick Cote campsite

End of a long hot day

After a short, very minor dehydration wobble which I spent huddled in my bivi bag, I went and showered. All evening I was asked by people why I was walking funny, and why I chose to run a long way with camping gear. It's a fair question....

Mushroom cheesy porridge - just add water

I'd been worried about being too cold overnight, but in the end the reverse was the problem - it was a hot, close night with lots of midgies. To get away from the midgies I had to take refuge inside my sleeping bag (which has a midge net), but that meant I was far too warm. Add to that the constant shouting of some obnoxious teenager nearby and it wasn't a restful night. Once things went quiet I was just.....wide awake. No reason, just wide awake. That was frustrating. I did get to sleep eventually, probably getting 3 or 4 hours. Around 5 all the groups of kids started waking up and moving around. I ignored it for a while, but I was awake again. So I had a cuppa, packed up, recharged my gps *again* having carelessly left it switched on overnight, and got going.

Recharging the GPS

Overnight camp

Day 2:

A very steady run to Hawkswick village and then a climb up and over the end of the fell. At this point I was getting very painful stomach cramps (which had started during the night) and was fairly decided that I was going to sack it at Kettlewell. I farted around indecisively for a while at Kettlewell, intending to sit outside the cafe until 12:30 to catch the bus. Midgies found me though, and my stomach started to behave, and it was 8am, so the bus would be another 4 1/2 hours, so I set off for Grassington.

Narrow bridge at Hawkswick

Looking back down Littondale

Dropping into Kettlewell

I had a lovely run to Grassington. It was still early enough to be cool, but sunny and the moor was a joy to run on. This stretch of moor is a wonderful place to run. The views over Wharfedale are breathtaking, the terrain is gentle and rolling, and there's a feeling of spaciousness without exposure.

Conistone Pie

Conistone Dib

Once I got to Grassington though, I'd decided I was going no further. I'd had enough, I was too hot, sunburned and tired. I could have kept going, but I'd have ended up with much worse sunburn and wouldn't have enjoyed it. So I settled outside CoffeeEco for twenty minutes with a very nice pot of loose leaf tea, and a chocolate muffin.

TEA!

A bus to Skipton, a walk to the station, a train and a run home, and that was that. Now I'm sitting indoors enjoying the cool and drinking tea. The final tally was 54km and 1700m ascent on the saturday, then about 20km and 400m today (the track file shows the 16km run as far as Grassington, with some fartarsing around in Kettlewell - I'm factoring in the run home from the station too).

Lessons learned:

• Cater for weather that's hotter than you expect, as well as colder.
• Tents don't just keep out rain, they keep out midgies as well. Plus being closely wrapped in a bivi bag is very warm. An ultra-lightweight solution to that problem would be a necessity if I was going to do this more often.
• Hence I'd skimp more on sleeping bag than tent next time.
• Even without much sleep, a nights rest allows more recuperation than you might expect.
• If everything is in boil bags, there's no need for a plate.

Things that worked well:

• pacing - 11.5mins per km overall average works well - I can keep that up for hours.
• Montane featherlight ultra gilet: thin pertex shield gilet. I wasn't sure it'd add much warmth, but for it's packed size and weight it's amazing.
• Stove - I was right to take the meths stove, I know what to expect of it, and it's totally reliable
• Shoving a thermarest prolite in the hole for the duomat in an OMM pack. You have to get the fold right, but it does fit and it cushions the pack.
• Using a campsite for an overnight on a run. I was tempted to wild camp, but after running and sweating heavily for hours, a shower is a necessity to avoid discomfort later. A two day wild camping run would be ok, but would need to be much shorter.
• Little electronic thingy for charging my GPS from 4 AA batteries. Very effective.
• Boil a bags - Lakeland sell them. I've tried making porridge in freezer bags before, they go floppy and spill your food. These heavier gauge bags don't.
• Pack weight - it'd be worth reducing it, but it was very manageable to run with
• Running hat with neck flap (present from Martin for my birthday last year :-)). Without that my neck would have burned horribly.

Things that worked much less well:

• my stomach

Update: got the GPS tracks now:

Day 1

Day 2

2 day camping run - kit list part 2

In the finest traditions of Bushcraft UK (who inspired this set of posts) here's my kit semi-finalised for the run:

Left to right, top to bottom

• Bivi bag, snugpak single season sleeping bag, thermarest
• ziploc bag with a book, my gps charger & some batteries.
• warm clothes bag (containing long sleeve base layer, socks, dry shorts, buff, gloves, small first aid kit),
• mug & plate,
• stove, 100g gas & titanium pan,
• Map & compass
• loo roll & lighter in a drysack,
• toothbrush, toothpaste & contact lens stuff, handcleaner & skinsosoft
• 2litre platypus,
• headtorch & knife
• Waterproof jacket,
• food for saturday evening and sunday morning in a plastic box. This includes mushroom cheesy porridge, semolina porridge with raisins for dessert (just this side of not-very-nice), and porridge with raisins for breakfast. The plastic box will keep rodents out of my food overnight, hopefully.
• GPS watch

things left to go in:

• spare lighter,
• a few extra bits of warm clothes
• Cash, 
• mobile phone
• camera
• more food & water. 

Here's the pack ready for the off, all that's not in is water. Total weight 6.5kg without water, but including some chocolate, chocolate drink (to make the semolina nicer), 2 large soreen malt loaves, 50g of chia seeds, some teabags. I'm pretty pleased with that as a base weight for 2 days of hard distance covering. It could be reduced significantly, but probably only by spending money.

Comments on individual bits of kit below:

• The thermarest is, by dint of cunning folding, rammed into the space left by taking the duomat out of the pack. It was worth making the effort - the OMM pack is way more comfortable to run with than the Pod.
• The red bag in the side is a dry sack containing gloves and buff. I tend to find that just those 2 things make a huge difference to sensation of warmth, so I keep them on hand even in summer.
• Snugpak single season bag: this is one of those minimal bags for sleeping in hot climates. With clothes on as well it's pretty warm, and it has an integrated insect net.
• Rab Alpine bivi: 600g, just big enough for me in my sleeping bag. It's an eVent bag, very breathable, and I've slept very comfortably with the storm zip almost shut. No room for gear inside - the rucksack has to lie on the grass. This is somewhere where, if I was doing this a lot, I'd try to save some weight and bulk. I reckon the Snugpak paratex sleeping back liner at 50g would make an adequate bivi bag when washed in Nikwax, especially if the seams were taped. I've certainly used one successfully as a water resistant sleeping bag cover in the single skin tent in a horrendous rainstorm. One to try another time I think.
• Skinsosoft dry oil: it really does seem to keep the midgies off, and since the midgies really like me it's a bit of a necessity.
• GPS charger - my Garmin GPS watch has a battery life of approximately 20hrs, all being well. Since the planned distance over the 2 days could take longer, I've included a AA->USB charger and a set of batteries so I keep a record of distance, route, time etc.
• I swapped the gas stove for the whitebox again - while the gas stove will probably give me more boiling time, I just don't know it like I know the whitebox. It's only a 100g gain.
• chia seeds - something of an experiment. They're very calorie dense for a veggie food - 400kcal per 100g. That's almost as much as dried porridge oats, but they don't need to be rehydrated so they can be eaten on the run.
• map:

The 1:40000 are fantastic for relatively unpopulated areas like the highlands of Scotland, but aren't great for micronavigating through settlements in the Dales. The whole route is on paths I know well though, so the map is just in case.

Wharfedale Half Marathon

I entered this one by mistake. I'd been after running the full marathon for a couple of years, having heard it's a really nice course. As soon as entry opened this year I was there with my SIEntries login, clicking through the process and thinking 'any minute now it's going to ask if I want the half or the full'. It never did. When I looked at the first page again, it told me the full had been cancelled - I'd just been in too much of a hurry to read it properly.

Since there are no refunds, I asked around a few times if anyone wanted to take my place, and by the end of May no one had. So last week I thought 'sod it, I'll run it'.

Since it was about 22km, which is about normal for my training routine friday/saturday, I decided to just slot it in rather than trying to prepare for it. So wednesday I did my usual "10km/200m in the morning, 25km/600m in the evening", but as I'm trying to con my body into burning fat more easily, I didn't nosh loads of carbs wednesday, as a result of which I ran out of steam on the final ascent of wednesday evening.

Back to the Wharfedale. I'd thought fairly major glycogen depletion 2 days earlier might have been a problem, but it didn't cause me any bother. I've noticed this before - pushing myself hard on alternate days (with cycling on the other days) seems to make me feel stronger when running, especially on the ascent.

The weather forecast was shocking - thunderstorms and heavy rain. I was carrying:

• gloves,
• buff, 
• waterproof jacket
• map
• route description
• drysac with my van keys in

I'd thought about running with my waterproof on, but was glad I didn't - it was sweltering, just wet. I started right at the back, with a vague idea of trying to keep below 6mins per km throughout. By halfway I was doing sub 5:30 kms and it was obvious I could keep that pace up comfortably. Apologies to anyone who was labouring uphill, only to be passed by me barely breathing heavily - I really didn't know what pace I could do on a half.

The course grinds slowly uphill from Threshfield, onto the moors above Conistone, then plunges fast down through Conistone, across the river, and up Mastiles Lane. I managed to run most of the way up Mastiles, dropping to a fast walk for about a 100m steep stretch. Tough going though. Then down to Bordley and straight back up to Height Laithe.

Crossing the bridge at Conistone, photo courtesy of Woodentops

As it turned out, the rain didn't really get going until I reached Bordley - about 7km before the end. It did make the stile before checkpoint 3 at Height Laithe very slippy though, and I fell heavily, leaving a large bruise on my thigh. The marshal helped me up, bleeped my SI card, and off I went again, across Boss Moor (where a blister started to make itself known, but with 5km to go, who cares) and down the lane to Threshfield, finishing in 1:54 - about ten minutes faster than I expected :-)

Putting some effort into the last kilometre, photo courtesy of Woodentops

It was a very different atmosphere to the various marathons, LDWAs etc I've done. Faster running, less talking, a bit more competitive. An excellent and extremely well organised run though.

 Many thanks to the organisers and marshalls for putting on such a good event.

GPS track here:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/516971873

2 day camping run - food!

One of the biggest difficulties in long distance running is food. The human body, when accustomed to running, appears to have enough glycogen to run about 30-35km. After that you hit what marathon runners call 'the wall'. For anyone fortunate enough not to have experienced this, it's no fun at all. I'll post more on the topic of runners nutrition another time.

The body also stores huge amounts of energy in the form of body fat (at 9kcal per gram, I reckon I have around 50 thousand calories of safely usable body fat, and I'm on the lean side). But it needs glycogen, or some other carbohydrate, to be able to burn the body fat (and not keel over from hypoglycaemia).

So I don't need to carry enough food to replace all the calories I burn, just enough to keep the fires burning. Just as well. My quick rule of thumb calorie calculation for day 1 would be:

(80kg [me] + 10kg [my pack]) * ( 50km + 18 [hundreds of metres of ascent])  = 6120kcal

plus base, which is about 2500 - so 8600kcal for the day. Day 2 doesn't matter so much, since I'll be at home at the end of it, and able to eat my own body weight in fruit cake or something.

A more stingy calculation based on doubling a GPS calculation of 25km/500m would be 5000 + base, so that's still 7500kcal. That's over a kilo of neat ethanol, not that I could drink a kilo of neat ethanol, especially on an empty stomach.

So I need to carry as many calories as I sensibly can, preferably a mix of carbs & fats (more on that topic another time). Preferably starches in my case, since high GI foods tend to make me feel like crap. But really what I'm doing is making sure I have enough calories to keep the fat burning, and to feel reasonably comfortable and not hungry. Trying to carry enough to cover depletion is a waste of time (unless you're talking about much longer trips extending to a week or more).

Mushroom Cheesy Porridge

• 125g porridge oats
• 25g dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 stock cube
• up to 50g of dried parmesan
• dried onion & dried vegetables to taste

place in a 'boil in the bag' bag, and pack. To use, add 750ml of boiling water and stir for ten minutes or so. It's pretty palatable, and very energy rich. I tend to take a few tortillas to have with it.

The planned food list is:

daytime food day 1

• 1 soreen malt loaf
• a couple of hard boiled eggs
• a loaf cake on the train up to Dent

evening food day 1

• mushroom cheesy porridge & tortillas
• a malt loaf
• 250ml of port (calorific, muscle relaxant, sleep inducing and delicious)
• tea. lots of tea. I carry ceylon teabags, because they make palatable tea without having to carry milk

breakfast day 2

• 125g porridge with some drinking chocolate powder added

daytime food day 2

• yet another soreen
• chocolate

I'll probably take some small quantities of chia seeds to try out too. They're very energy dense (almost as much so as dried oats) and can be eaten without rehydration.

I expect to spend the last 20km fantasising about food. Ho hum.

Time, food and distance the simple way

One of my most useful tools for planning routes out is a very simple rule of thumb for working out distance and ascent:

metres of ascent/100 is equivalent to additional kilometres.

So, if your route is 25km, and 800m of ascent, it's equivalent to 33km on the flat. This is a lot quicker to do in your head than Naismiths, particularly if you're tired and hungry. I worked out a range of different routes the Naismith way, the simple way, and how long it actually took me, and they all came pretty close, even the 100km/3500m one.

It also fits reasonably well into the calorie calculation.

Calories burned very roughly = Body weight + pack weight (in kg) * distance (in km).

This is nowhere near as accurate as my Garmin calculates using heart rate, but it's close enough for planning out food intake for 2 or 3 days. So for example, my regular wednesday training run is

(80 [me] +2 [pack]) * (24.5 [distance] + 5.8 [580m ascent/100]) = 2484.6kcal

my Garmin makes the same route 1919kcal. There's a significant difference between them, but both are subject to some error, so it's near enough as a rough guide