Fell-'running'...

well sort of...

two lovely weekends here in the Lakes; last Sunday at least was fantastic and Claire and I made the most of it by walking and running around the hills around Hesket Newmarket. We walked up High Pike and then ran/walked around the rest of the circuit - mainly walking the uphills (although I did manage to jog two of them) and running the downs.

Poor Claire's hip hurt on the last leg - so she missed out on some of the flying 1 mile descent of Willy Knot which is the highlight of the round!! However no major damage was done as we were back out this morning.

This weekend has been SERIOUSLY hot - more like June than late March. Yesterday we went for a walk up the Beacon and today we elected to do a run around (and over!) Souther Fell.

The lay-bys under Blencathra were busy and we only got parked with difficulty. Once there, we jogged along to Mousethwaite Combe and walked (rather rapidly!) up it. Once there, we wandered (a little more sedately it must be said!) up to Souther Fell before picking up the descent path and running down to Mungrisedale. Both of us are getting fitter - however uphill running does not yet seem to be within range; especially of Claire who (coming from a country with zero hills) has (probably quite sensibly) never been that keen on the idea.

That being said - I doubt very much that I could have run much in that heat either; it was a very hot day and the valley that runs behind Souther Fell didn't get much wind. We walked nice and quickly up the valley and then ran all the way down Mousethwaite Combe and back to the car - which was excellent indeed.

Next weekend we are away - maybe Scotland or maybe North Wales - hoping the weather holds.

Back on the hills...

I know I haven't posted for a long time - I have simply being so busy to do much out on the hills at all. However, spring has hit Cumbria this weekend; with spring like temperatures to boot.

Claire and I took the opportunity to do a quick walk/run on the fells around Mungrisedale. Neither of us (especially me) is remotely  fit enough to run up Bowscale Fell yet; however we still managed a fast walk. The weather was so good that it was just base layer weather and I could have gone in shorts rather than Ron Hills. From the top, we ran most of the way down the path that drops from near the summit and took us back to the car - it was really good to be running again and hopefully this is the precursor of a good spring/summer,