I’m not very good at resting and even worse at doing nothing – so it was lucky that the past two frustrating weeks resting my ankle have coincided with moving house, which has kept me fairly busy, to say the least!
The initial plan for my weekend in the Lakes was to run the main ridges of the Lakes Sky Ultra course, however, due to the ankle injury, I decided to adapt this to try and avoid pushing things too far too fast. Plus having just entered the LSU training weekend on the 1st and 2nd August I know I will get a bit of a preview of the course then.
So after a good breakfast, we headed to Ambleside – where, like a kid in a sweet shop, I managed to get a little distracted by all the kit shops. There is so much I would like to be saving for on the wishlist at the moment. For my own good, I was reluctantly dragged away and reminded of the primary purpose of the day – hills!
The route began with one of the steepest 5km I have ever done heading straight up from Grasmere to the Seat of Sandal. From here it was straight down and then up Helm Crag to see the Lion and the Lamb before looping back to the car. The route was just over 1o miles, which despite being under the distance I had initially planned gained 3136ft elevation, so I was pretty pleased I got some good hills in. Plus most importantly of all my ankle seemed to hold up okay – my legs, however, were certainly feeling it!
The next day it was time for – you guessed it – more hills! This time not quite as steep and on the road bike. I felt slightly nervous about this as it has been an age since I have taken the roadie out (mountain bike tends to get priority!) and was a bit concerned I would have forgotten how to stay on board with my clip in shoes.
As it happened, surprisingly it came back to me fairly quickly! The 30-mile route headed over Hutton Roof towards Silverdale through some beautiful areas around Lancashire, plus riding as a group of seven (part of the elite Team Kingston peloton!) was great fun and made the uphill sections pass much easier. We ended the ride stopping at Wolfhouse Kitchen for some cracking cake (gingerbread with ginger beer icing) and a bit of a relax in the sun.
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