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.

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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

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

What's in a date (and this week's progress)

What's in a date?

So why June 21st 2014 for the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge? There are two good reasons:

1. It is my birthday - and +Beccy Fairbank thought it would be nice to spend the day with her dad, doing something we both enjoy (obviously referring to having a few beers at the end of the day, not the grueling 25 mile trek around Yorkshire!)

2. It is the longest day of the year. To be more precise, the day is 24 hours just like any other of the 364 (or 365 days in a leap year), but the amount of daylight is the longest. A little research on the old Google determines that sunrise is at 04:34 and sunset at 21:36. Add to this that there is some light from about 30 mins before sunrise and total darkness is not reached until around 30 mins after sunset we should have 18 hours of light to tackle the challenge - a full 50% above our target time of 12 hours. Game on!

This week's progress

In terms of exercise we have just done week 3 of the Couch to 5k. I had decided after day 2 of the three days that I would continue to do week 3 for another week, as I have struggled with it. During last night's run I hurt my calf, and so am hobbling around today - so definitely not going to try to progress to wk 4 just yet. I'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Weight - was 79.2 last Sunday, now 79.0 kg. So going in the right direction.


M