Hurry up again Harri's Blog by Hat

Can’t believe it is nearly two weeks since my return from the fantastically funky French Alps. My little beating (but oh so fit) heart is still there though...And I’m trying my darndest to get back. May even go and run a little undulating 26k race called ‘Le Belier’ over the August Bank Holiday. Decision to be taken shortly. Details here.... https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=243877838969581&set=a.24387


A week’s training with the Yellings has made such a difference. I know I haven’t raced yet but I certainly feel stronger and very motivated - it’s them hills!  On Sunday I decided to have  a go at the first 19k of the Chiltern Ridgeway using the Trailblaze route as my guide and to log it on their website...And got lost. I had to ring ‘him indoors’ to come and collect. The silly thing is, my running partner and I spent bloomin’ ages studying her iPhone GPS alongside my crinkled, sweaty map and we wandered round and round Wendover trying to find the Ridgeway route, but to no avail.

We even bumped into some walkers with their guidebook open at a map of the area and they were just as stumped as we were. So.

We arranged to meet our ‘rescuer’ outside the station. As we were sitting there (Facebooking on our iPhones - as you do!) A continuous stream of dogs and their owners trotted by. The lolling tongues and huffy puffy sound effects  evidence that they’d been somewhere exhausting Ridgway-ish for a long walk. The dogs, that is.... Anyway, this should have given us a very, very...very big clue as to the closeness of our route. And indeed it was close, the Ridgeway was just behind us. Hey ho. So I shall be trying again on Saturday with Pauline (Wiggy blogger) and hopefully we will make the very undulating 19k plus a bit beyond. Great fun exploring new territory though. If you’re interested in Trail running and Ultra running (some of these routes go on up to 100k and beyond should you fancy the challenge) then take a look: www.trail-blaze.com

Meanwhile, we had a ‘girls wot run and blog’ meet up in Westfield last Saturday. These meet-ups are such good fun and a great way to put names to bloggy faces. We tend to meet in and around the London area but everyone is welcome to join us, so if you would like to come next time, give us a shout.

And finally, I better talk about my current running I ‘spose - this being a running blog ‘n’ all! For the next few weeks I plan to sustain the weekly mileage at around 35/40 to include hill reps and interval tempo sessions a la Yellings - then at the  beginning of August I shall start my Dublin Marathon Training in earnest.  But thanks to Jenny Cass Ultra marathoner extraordinaire who is running a 50 mile Ultra this weekend - 50 bleedin' miles!!! Good luck Jenny! ...I am looking into running the London 50k Ultra (that's K not M! Unlike Jen!) next February....And it would be nice to have company - any takers?

Happy running!

Hx