UPHILL STRUGGLE
SOREEN STANBURY SPLASH
Yesterday's Stanbury Splash on the Bronte Moors completed 84 miles for the year so far and the first weeks of back-to-back forty milers since the tail end of last Winter. Not bad mileage for me. That was the good news. The bad news was that it surmounted to nothing in my first race of 2017. I seek only small increments of improvement, enough to satisfy my appetite which in turn justifies the commitment made. But this performance has done nothing but cast doubt and insecurity, reminding me that there is still time to step aside and practice for the forthcoming Crown Green season instead. The big problem at Stanbury was my lack of speed and strength on the hills. Upon virtually every incline, I might as well have had that highway code sign attached to my backside of two white arrows in a blue circle stating 'pass either side'. Sticking to highway analogies, I felt like a chugging heavy goods vehicle hogging the middle lane every time I hit a gradient of note. I can easily suspect reasons for this weakness; I don't knuckle down to hill rep sessions and for all the miles ticked off in recent times, there has been a substantial lack of proper tough ascent. So it's about incorporating more climbing now and trying to race with more regularity. This will hopefully squeeze out that much sought after positive increment and toughen up the competitive edge. Compared with my last visit to the home of Woodentops back in October at Withins Skyline, this was a step backwards and a bit of a dampener in one of my favourite Winter fell races. Crawling out of Ponden Valley from the last climb, I was a spent force over the final mile or so back to Penistone Hill and couldn't pick up any leg speed. Nothing there at all apart from an outpouring of ludicrous breathing noises. At least from that point I did enough to lose only one more place to a young pup from Skipton. But the harsh reality was that a minute or more ahead were a cluster of guys, including the usual suspects like Fishwick and Barnes, whom I felt I ought to have been mixing it with. It's clear that to go onwards in 2017, things must go upwards, literally.

Sunday 15th January 2017
SOREEN STANBURY SPLASH (7.5m/1300ft)  Penistone Hill, Haworth, West Yorks.  
1st Man - Tom Adams 43:52 (Ilkley)
1st Lady - Louisa Powell-Smith 52:40 (Clayton)
My Stats - 55:27   32/330