After the excitment of the Stanage Stumble I got back out for a recovery run at work at dinner time. I started quickly which was a mistake but I did 4.something miles in a reasonable time and picked up again toward the end. It did me a lot of good to stretch my pins out. I've been waiting to post on here for a while but I've been waiting on pics from Brian Smith who photographs more of the athletics stuff. I also think Chris has some photos of me climbing at Llanymynech. If they turn up I'll post em as I know it more interesting to look at photos than read my gumpf!
On to Llanymynech: I managed to wangle leaving work early after working through my lunch. It's a complete pain in the arse to drive from Coventry to anywhere further than Shrewsbury and given half the Tuesday meets are at Llanymynech, Trevor or World's end it rare I get to go. Enough ranting. I got to the crag early and warmed up on 'Foreign Muck' Fr6a+ which didn't seem technically so hard but more psychologically. I think getting some indoor falls leading in might help. I don't have any photos of this but essentially it scoots up to an overhang which you work underneath and then round the side. It took me a while to "man up" and get under the overhang but it felt good and at least in terms of technique and strength I'm well within my grade. After this I belayed Phil (from the WMC) up on a top rope and then me and Chris made our way over to cul-de-sac to do some trad leading. Chris did a VDiff called Ca Va! and I followed up. I abseiled back down and then lead Merde (HS 4a). What can I say, well..... Merde! This route is very easy but so hard to protect! I got gear in half way up but then it ran out! I then had to top out onto a horrible slope which was covered in loose scree and dry mud! Pretty nerve racking stuff as I'd of taken a big fall! It got dark by the time I got chris up and I abbed back down and we left. All in all I was very pleased with the routes I lead (both sport and trad) and I'm progressing nicely!
On Wednesday it was time for my weekly fell/short race and so I headed to Dawley for the Phoenix Flyer a "5km fast flat grass route". It wasn't complete flat but near as damn it! I started modestly almost right at the back but soon overtook a large number of people and settled into a good pace.
I tired a bit and needed to slow down but picked it back up to finish. I finished in 23:05 which is a personal best for 5km beating a previous treadmill time so I was well chuffed! I think given the slowing down at about 2.5 mile I must of been moving really well as the average pace was 7:24/miles :)
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