prior to heading off to the lakes for mrs uc's birthday celebration this weekend i thought i had my 2010 plan signed , sealed and waiting delivery. having been to, and come back from , the lakes i'm not so sure about that plan.
the original draft 2010 plan was to consist of periodisation, as mentioned in a previous post, taking me back on the road for a while to get my speed up.
so whats happened?
up in langdale i was faced with a simple option. run the langdale half road route or potter off across the trails and fells on a route unknown to me.
it was a no brainer.
there was no debate. no interrogation. no tossing of coins.
and once i'd finished my run, my feelings totally vindicated my decision.
by now i'm sure you'll know my choice was the latter. favouring my joy of off road running for the 13 miles of tarmac slapping.
and what a lovely run it was. armed with just a route outline (no map) and a bottle of water i headed off on this 9.5m/1500ft route with gay abandon (at 3 something pm , not realising how quickly the light can dissapear these days!)
anyway, this simple trail / low level fell route took me from chapel stile to elterwater to little langdale, over to castle howe, across the bog to blea tarn, down to old dungeon ghyll and back to chapel stile.
even without a map it was relatively straightforward to follow in my head ie keep going clockiwise and you cant go wrong. only once did i stop to ask for reassurance that an out of sight tarn was where i thought it should be.
it was one of those great moody lake district days with dark clouds hovering around the tops, patches of drizzle, and ok visibility on the lower fells. some people might describe that as miserable, to me it something altogether different and inviting.
by 1630 the light was fading quickly and although i only had two miles to go, the route wanted to take me higher up the fell. with no headtorch..in fact with no anything i thought the better of this and decided to drop down to the valley track then the road back into chapel stile.
so ok this was a tiddly 9.5m trail/ lower fell route but...
a. it went a little way to restoring my navigational capbilities, but moreso my confidence
b. i really really enjoyed it..no, in fact i loved it!
c. i like making spur of the moment decisions judging by how i feel
d. i also like a lack of pressure in my running
e. bugger! its made me reasses my 2010 plan..in fact my whole plan from here on in..
do i mainly stick to off road? do i mix it up? short, medium or long? race or dont race? any number of combinations here which i'll try and decide on during the coming days and weeks
so much for my cunning plan eh
lets call it 'decisive indecision' for now
