THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT
Training goes on, but there's been nowt to report on the racing front other than actual intention to do some in the weeks to come. More than anything, the geography and logistics of races which interested me lately have scuppered realistic hopes of pinning a number on. In the last week an underlying cold or virus of some description hasn't exactly knocked me out of action as such, but made it clear that running hard is not a good idea just at the moment. So, tentatively I continue to just cruise out some daily mileage.
One race forthcoming that is most definitely on my agenda is Dunnerdale. I remember the veteran Chorley Harriers fell runner Pete Starkey recommending this one to me probably ten years ago and so it's one of those to-do's that I might finally tick off. It's a bit of a trek, deep in to the South Western fells of Cumbria, but seeing as it's my birthday weekend a great excuse for a stopover perhaps? I planted the seed with Sara and she's up for it! (Based on the promise that I don't send her driving over Wrynose and Hardknott Pass again which I deceptively played down as just a scenic route a couple of weeks ago) After the unfortunate cancellation of Wasdale Show, hopefully this next mini-break over that way will at least incorporate the fell race and thus satisfy my more purely selfish needs.
I don't understand fishing - a diverse and sudden subject twist there, but I'm no fan of sticking a hook in a creature's mouth that has a similar nervous system to ourselves, even if the hook is removed and the fish chucked back in the water. But I don't get it as a pass time either. Peace and quiet, yes, but sat there just waiting for something to happen? I'm sceptical. I distinctly remember a moment at work some twenty years ago now when I asked my then Head Chef, Barry Williams, ''What do you think about when you are fishing Chef?''. The answer, with a very serious look and assuring nods of the head was, ''Fish. I think about fish.'' Of course he did, what a stupid question.
When I'm out running, what do I think about mostly? Well, running. Other stuff as well, but mainly running. Perhaps I am of a similar weird psyche to anglers I concede, minus the thrills at the expense of pain and discomfort to a living creature I hasten to add.
During this current period of damage-limitation-but-legs-ticking-over-ness until feeling fully well again, I have indeed thought a hell of a lot about running and made some very official decisions. Mainly that it really is time to forget the long stuff and stick to the medium and shorter distances. It's never been my bag and my body just doesn't want to play, certainly not any more. Three Peaks next year? No. A proper ''no'', not a ''no'' but actually ''yes'' nearer the time. It's an absolute ''NO''. That way, I carry on doing what seems to be working and I might just hit the ground running for next year's Spring and Summer season. Even the Tour of Pendle next month - it's a ''no''. The clash with Podium 5K on the same day had me deliberating, but even though the latter is on the dreaded tarmac, based on current training volume and a decent clip at speed sessions, I have to pick the one that I can go in to with confidence and despite the tarmac, Podium it is. The long and short of it is that shorter will be better than longer and road running avoided as much as possible. The idea of even just a 10K race on the road sounds horrible and too far these days, but anything up to fourteen miles on the fells I will gladly take and feel I can do myself justice in. Aside from maybe tackling a Lakeland Classic race next Summer such as Borrowdale which I've always wanted to do but found convenient excuses not to, I think it's a wise move in knocking long distance on the head for the foreseeable. I'm sure the temptation will come back to haunt me at some point, but for now it's well and truly off the agenda.
Also on the forefront of my running mind for a while has been the ever decreasing fell running fraternity at my club over recent years. It's never bothered me to be the only Blackburn Harrier at many a fell race, in fact I've quite enjoyed the notoriety sometimes. But it's the lack of team event participation and particularly at the national fell relays over the past couple of years that has been a dormant disappointment ready to spark some sort of reaction. I've raised it with the guys concerned but it boils down to numbers and the lack of them that are genuinely interested in the fells to form teams with any sort of strength in depth required to cover injuries and unavailability. It is what it is. Harriers remain a force to be reckoned with on the road, cross country, track and field. But, despite Blackburn's distinguished history being inclusive of some great fell runners, a fell running club it never was and also over recent years the amount of individuals interested or actively engaged in this discipline has diminished. In 2015 I had a go at managing teams myself for a year and started out with drive and ambition, but it was tough to keep on top of and in fairness to my own misgivings, I didn't have the management tools or the patience for the job.
Was it not for breaking in to a bit of decent form at the end of Summer, I wouldn't be getting itchy feet. But realising that the transition to Crown Green bowling would have to wait whilst the realistic belief of plenty more years of fell racing returned, this got me thinking that I don't want to waste a minute. I love the fell relays and there are other distinguished team competitions I've yet to get under my belt. I don't want to miss many more whilst I'm still fit and able.
The feeling amongst others at the club with off-road intentions on this matter is generally as consolidating as mine. All in all, this leaves me seeking a new club or a second club, at least as far as fell running is concerned. It's truly regretful in many ways, but instinctively it's just something I have to do.                         

LOST THE EDGE BUT NOT THE LOVE
WITHINS SKYLINE
October. Golden leaves, mulching earth, crisp air, super moons at dawn and of course Woodentops. For fear of waxing lyrical again to worryingly obsessive levels about the fell racing institution that is Dave and Eileen Woodhead, all I will add is that I ended up telling Dave that I love them both... again.
In the bustling rooms of Haworth West End cricket club's modest pavilion where race registration takes place, I am immediately 'outed' by Wayne Macintosh who, along with his Trawden AC travelling partner, caught me having a wee behind a stone wall somewhere along the road near the county borders. I was desperate. It was an emergency stop, I was done trying to find the perfect spot.
Thankfully it was then back to anonymity, merging in to the masses at the base of the disused quarry where the Woodhead barks the orders to get things started like only he does. Six weeks since my last taste of competition, I was nonetheless off to a decent start last Sunday at Withins, feeling pretty comfortable until we hit the bogs. Even by the usual standards of bogsville upon the Bronte Moors, this was as boggy as I have known it to be. I was all over the place. I cast my mind back a few weeks to a training run when I boasted to be bounding over bog like never before. Well, it wasn't bog like this was bog. This was proper bog. The boggy climb to the summit of Oxenholme Stoop seemed to be going great at first but then began to take it's toll and it was hard graft from there trudging across the moor towards Withins ruins. Then the stone slabs along that section were lethally slippy in a relatively new pair of x-talons, but after that I got myself back in to gear. I lost out to a young Dark Peak lad with a mile and a half to go and couldn't quite get back at him, but with a couple of hundred yards left I did at least manage to pass the Barlick vest that I had set my long term sights on. I was rightfully relatively pleased with fourteenth place and only half a minute behind my carrot from the Summer races that is Peter Coates. Although I got the better of Peter last time we met at the Golf Ball, in fairness he had been out for a couple of weeks with that all too familiar setback for fellrunners - a trampolining injury. But this is as near as I have got to him all year without excuses on the table. Not a bad result at all. I felt I didn't quite have the racing edge to dig that little bit deeper that I had ending August, but I'm not sure if that would have made much difference on the day.
This week, and more specifically tomorrow, I was really looking forward to the fell race at Wasdale Show. However, recent wet weather has flooded the show field and so the whole shebang has had to be cancelled which I'm sure is a massive disappointment to the many and certainly myself included. With accommodation already booked, Sara, Connie the dog and I will still be heading over that way for some sort of adventure, so all is not lost.

Sunday 8th October 2017
WITHINS SKYLINE   7m/1000ft   Penistone Hill, Haworth. West Yorkshire
1st Man - Harry Holmes (Pudsey & Bramley) 42:40
1st Lady - Emma Clayton (Leeds City) 49:01
My Stats - 48:20   14/357

FAREWELL HALLOWED TURF, HELLO AGAIN TRACK
Reluctantly I've been forced to make the inevitable seasonal switch with the weekly speed session routine and reverted back to track training with the club on a Tuesday evening. My grass circuit on Worden Park has been a weekend religion of running off-road repetitions which has served me well this Summer. But, with all the wet weather, it's starting to cut up in places and with a view to some weekend races approaching I decided to phase it out last Sunday with a sort of half-session really. But it felt like enough, conscious of keeping something in the bank for Tuesday and rounding off a great week in which an increase of quality running and also mileage had naturally released itself. So a Monday recovery plod would set me up for Tuesday evening and the session went even better than expected. Sparing the tedium of statistics which I will nevertheless detail elsewhere in smaller type, let's just say that it was my best track session since back in my late thirties and, certainly as a forty-something, nothing has come near it. The track at Witton Park Arena felt fast and smooth after a few months of solo slogs upon my favourite grassy loop. I've been fortunate in finding the almost perfect set up in a corner of my local park which at home we call 'Buttercup Meadow'. My very own theatre of dreams. So it's just a field surrounded by mature trees where coarse grasses (and buttercups!) grow wild in the summer. But within this acreage is a perimeter loop of lusher grass that the mowers regularly go over and keep short as a walkway, or should I say, runway.
It's almost as if the park maintenance team has purposely mowed an elongated oval around it specifically for the use of some idiot to run along as fast as he can. The bends are a little tighter and the straights a bit longer than the dimensions of an athletics track and a lap also falls a little shorter at 395 metres, but there is a gradual incline to get stuck in to on the back straight. It's an idyllic place for lonely interval sessions. Some days even the main car park can be heaving but you might not see a soul in this tucked away corner of Worden. I made this discovery some years ago but it's only this Summer that I have done it justice with regular sessions on there. If last Tuesday was owt to go by, they have been paying off.

Sunday Buttercup Reps: 6 x 790m (off 90 sec rec)-av. 2:55, 1 x 395m - 78 secs
Tuesday Witton Park Track: 2 x 1200m(2 min rec)- 2:57/2:52, 3 x 800m (90 sec rec)- av. 2:34, 4 x 400m(1 min rec)- av. 74 secs