We did it!

On Saturday 21st June 2014, me and Beccy were up and out by 4.30 am, to set off on the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge. Looking at our recent pace on slightly hilly ground, we set ourselves a realistic target of 14 hours - a little slower than the official target time of 12 hours.

We set off up Pen-y-ghent at a decent pace, with just a couple of short breaks to catch our breath. It took us 1 hour 40 to reach the top - spot on for our target. After a quick break and a photo we continued down the first peak and headed towards Ribblehead. The weather forecast for the day was cloudy with the occasional sunshine, and as we walked the sun began to shine through the clouds.

Top of Pen-y-ghent

We arrived at Ribblehead at around 9.30, which was slightly ahead of target. By this time the sun was beating down and the soles of my feet were sore, so we stopped of a sock change and a bite to eat.

Refreshed we set off on the long hard slog up Whernside. Initially the going was good, but after about an hour I was exhausted and needed to stop every 15 mins or so. But eventually we got to the top - slightly behind schedule and after a long break we set off roughly 30 mins behind our planned time. The mid day sun was beating down and it was hot - even 736 meters on top of the peak.

View looking back as we walked up Whernside

Force Gill

Beccy at the top of Whernside

Coming off of the top of Whernside is very steep, and my dodgy knee and lack of balance made this a slow and scary process - good job I had a walking pole or I'd probably have had to come down on my bum!

The steep steps off Whernside - a lot worse than this photo shows!

We got to the bottom of Whernside and made our way to the Old Hill Inn - to have a cold drink, shelter from the sun and top up our water supply. We left the pub about an hour behind schedule.

By this time we where exhausted and the slow initial climb up Ingleborough seemed never ending. Finally we could see the final fairly short but very steep scramble to the top and with a last push of energy struggled up the zig-zag stone steps.

About half way up the steep section to Ingleborough.

As we reached the top of the steps we realised that we still had more distance and climbing before we finally reached the summit. At the top a final walk on flat, rocky ground to reach the Trig Point.

Trig point on Ingleborough

The initial descent from Ingleborough is a bit steep and tricky, but not too bad, and then what seems like a never ending slight downhill walk back to Horton that goes on and on and on. By this time we'd run out of water, were sunburned and every step I took on the stony ground was agony to the soles of my feet.

We eventually arrived back at our start point 15 hours and 7 mins after setting off. Some way off the official target and an hour behind our own target. But we were still very happy that we had completed this challenge and at the same time raised money for a worthwhile cause.

Would I do it again - NEVER.

Oh but wait a minute. I arranged with a couple of friends months ago that I would do the Y3P with them in the summer. And one of them has done this walk several times, in as quick as ten and a half hours.

As James May would say - 'Oh cock!'


Our route/timings are below. I think the GPS on my phone is not accurate as the total distance for this walk should be 25 miles.

THERE IS STILL TIME TO DONATE TO WHIZZ-KIDZ
JUST CLICK ON THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
THANK YOU!

3 days and 12 hours...

So according to my phone in 3 days and 12 hours I'll be starting to walk

The final week

Please sponsor us - in aid of Whizz Kidz, a UK charity that provides mobility devices for disabled children. A very worthy cause!

Click the link below to go to our fundraising page

6 Days to go!

So in 6 days time we'll be up in the Yorkshire Dales, walking/climbing/crawling around the three highest peaks in Yorkshire. 

We've certainly prepared for it with lots of regular 3 and 8 mile walks and the occasional 15+ mile walk. We also did 25 miles around Rutland Water.

I did my last 'long' walk today, 10 miles of mostly road walking around the Fens as a final wear in for my new boots that I bought a couple of weeks ago.

I plan to do a couple of 3 mile circuits, probably Tuesday and Thursday, just to keep the muscles awake, but no more real activity now until the big day!

M

Practice walk - Charnwood Peaks, Leicester

So yesterday myself and Beccy went to Leicestershire to climb some hills - admittedly a lot smaller than the Yorkshire 3 Peaks, but much bigger then anything available in the Fens.

The first hill was in Bradgate Park, Newton Linford. At what initially appears to be the top is a war memorial - The Prince Albert's Own Leicestershire Yeomanry Regiment. Probably not the most respectful thing to do, but here's a picture of Beccy and the monument.

From the monument there is a short downhill walk to a walled copse which hides the true summit of the hill. After a short climb back up we got the summit. At the summit is a building called "Old John Tower, again modeled by Beccy.

From there we proceeded down hill, initially in the totally wrong direction, to the bottom of the hill.

After a short rest we did some road walking, then across the greens of a golf course, some more road, a track and finally a long uphill track to the top of Beacon Hill (248m / 814ft).

We headed downhill, over the countryside, rather than the road at the other side of the hill. One short part was quite steep and needed careful descent, but apart from that it was easy going.

 (Does not look steep here, but it seemed it coming down!)

We continues on the route, but due to low battery and rain I only took one more photo. We walked through Wetton Wood, a nice little wood that runs alongside the M1, As you can see in the photo we were very close to the road. The sound pollution spoiled what should have been a nice tranquil woods.

The route should have been 15 miles long. We got lost a couple of times and had to double back, but when Endomondo (tracker app) told us we were at 15 miles, we still had another 6 or 7 miles left. Due to this we took a few shortcuts from the route we were following. Not really sure how far we walked as Endomondo stopped at one point, but pretty sure we did well over 15 miles (probably nearer 20!)

We plan to go back again in a couple of weeks and do the 'prescribed' route.

Here is the recorded route (a 3-4 mile section missing due to app crashing)

47 Days and counting...

...and today is nearly over.

So in less than 7 weeks me and +Beccy Fairbank  are doing the Yorkshire 3 Peaks. Yikes!

Preparation, preparation, preparation!

So back in November we decided that on my birthday this year we were going to climb the Yorkshire 3 peaks. Now at the time it seemed like a lifetime away (one of my first posts was titled "222 days to go") but now it is getting close. Very close. Too close.

We have been building fitness and stamina by jogging 3 times a week and walking every couple of weeks through the winter months. I've had several 'injuries' on the way - see previous blogs - but keep bouncing back. However at the moment I have not done a good jog for nearly 2 weeks - lots of aches and pains preventing this. And after an 8 mile walk on flat ground yesterday, my knee is giving me great pain today.

Part of me wants to go back to November and start again, knowing what I do now about doing too much exercise, not having the right trainers, warming up / cooling down etc. But its too late. We're here and the day is approaching rapidly.

My current plan is to try jogging again this week with the goal of reaching 5k a couple of weeks before we go (I was up to around 4.5k just before Easter, but it has been nearly 3 weeks since I've run anything more than about 2k)

Plan B, if jogging is still hurting too much in a week, is to give up!

Not the whole thing, just the jogging. But I really think the stamina of running 5k on the flat will help us getting up those 3 peaks.

We're still looking for more sponsorship - whatever you can afford. Please click the link below.

Bye for now

M

105 Days to go!

OK, so things are starting to get real, serious, scary! 105 days, only 105 days.

It does not seem like a week ago that I was talking about 222 Days and making fun of Mathematicians. But whilst on the subject, Wikipedia has this to say about the number 105.

105 is a triangular number, a dodecagonal number and a Zeisel number. It is a sphenic number, and is the product of three consecutive prime numbers. 105 is the double factorial of 7. It is also the sum of the first five square pyramidal numbers.105 comes in the middle of the prime quadruplet (101, 103, 107, 109). The only other such odd numbers less than a thousand are 15, 195 and 825. 105 is also a pseudoprime to the prime bases 13, 29, 41, 43, 71, 83 and 97. The distinct prime factors of 105 add up to 15, and so do those of 104, hence the two numbers form a Ruth-Aaron pair under the first definition.105 is also a number n for which  is prime, for . (This even works up to , ignoring the negative sign.)105 is the smallest integer such that the factorization of  over Q includes coefficients other than .

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy as this to say* about Mathematicians "Like physicists, but slightly less interesting, and on no circumstances should you talk to one whilst operating machinery or driving".

Despite the mild panic, preparation is going well. We're jogging 3 times a week (I'm currently running for 20 mins, but aiming to get to 30 mins and then 5k in the next few weeks) and we're doing short/medium walks on a weekly basis.

Fundraising is a bit slow at the moment. +Beccy Fairbank wants to rasie at least £500, and at the moment were well under £100. But we'll keep trying. (If you can spare £1, $1 or 1 whatever, please click the button below)

M

*This is in fact apocryphal or at least wildly inaccurate.

Practice Walk - 20 Miles

So yesterday myself and Beccy decided to do a longish walk around the Fens in preparation for our Y3P challenge in the summer. A couple of points to note:

• Walking on the flat of the Fens is no comparison to the peaks
• We walked 20 miles, but the Y3P route is 25 plus miles
• But we still have 123 days to go, so time to improve.

This was planned as a 'stepping stone' to our final goal, and as such I think we did very well.

The Route

(if you cannot see details above, or want to look at more detail, click here to go to the Endomondo website)


Quick overview with photos

We set off at 7.30am in very thick fog. This photo was taken as we walked down the main road out of the village, looking over the fields.

The intrepid walkers. Don't be fooled by the sunglasses, it is still very foggy and cold.

Beccy walking along the flood defence into the fog. (Heading North East out of Eldernell)

Here you can see the flood defence in action. The water to the left should be fields, but have flooded. Thankfully, the grass to the right is still grass, as that is the side our village is on.

 Listening to music (as well as Endomondo sports tracker for an update on progress every quarter of a mile)

After a couple of miles on the flood barrier, we head 'inland' for some serious road walking.

Looking back, we've just walked from the windmills you can see in the distance.

Yes, another waterway - this is the Fens!

Beccy the horse whisperer.

Back onto the flood defence, this time heading towards Eldernell from the south-west. Again the water to the left is flooded fields.

A picture from the flood defence looking over the 'fields' towards Peterborough. Again this photo shows why we need these defences.

Nearly sever hours after starting we returned home tired and weary. 

Overall an enjoyable day, with some important lessons learned:

1) Waterprrof does always mean waterproof (my boots leaked)

2) Spare socks and talc are 'heaven'

3) We've got a hell of a lot of training still to do before we attempt the y3P!

Speak soon,

M