Beautiful 50k lake run this weekend followed by the most amazing poppies in a local native nursery.

A nice view down to Lago di Lugano, where I've been staying to visit my sister since Friday. A very lovely place, and also perfect for #TrailRunning, but that's another story

It was more hike than a run today, most of today's climb was done at the start, boy did that go UP. The whole outing was done in a fantastic forest, I did now and would have as a kid enjoyed this place, need to come back. Had to stop many times to take it in and just feel this glorious wood. But also to navigate as it was a very dense with the path(s) covered in a thick layer of chutney (aka fallen leaves that makes anything below very slippery) be that either sharp limestone rocks, narly tree roots or deep muddy mulch. Which made running impossible since I would like to keep my ankles in working order.

It is clearly a threchous place as I arrived back to HQ, the mountain rescue were heading up into the mountain and forest, hope it was just a training and nobody was hurt.

No RAAAD today as I had two podcasts episodes of Never Stray Far to catch up with, it's the Giro (tour de Italy)

Today's #trailRunning programme: #Zweilütschinen - #Grütschalp - #Mürren

23km
2220m
1215m
05h 23 min

Séance salle du soir, express en 1h
– 2 km run échauffement (5:23/km)
– 1006 marches – 67 étages
– 8 séries presse à cuisses (14 280 kg)
– 6 km vélo à 90 RPM pour finir
Résistance, souffle, récupération active :
660 kcal brûlés, jambes solides, esprit clair.
Prépa trail : on continue à tracer la route !
#Running #Trail #PrépaTrail #Salle #CardioRenfo #workout #runnersofmastodon #run #sport #evening #trailrunning

Popped out to support a friend supporting another on a #BobGraham attempt. Andy, who already has the 24 hours Lakes record, definitely had a chance but wasn't to be. 4th fastest of all time though with a 13h 32m. #FellRunning #TrailRunning #running

FINITO: SkyTrail 2025

“That was easy” - absolutely not! Very tough!! Insane elevation. All muscle groups in my legs were struggling from loop 4 to 6 (the last one). Cramp threats… I barely managed by stuffing myself with salt tablets, effort control etc . None of the threats fully erupted … so that was ok. But shows that I hit my absolute muscular endurance limit (again). Everything else ok . In fact: fantastic

https://strava.app.link/RCbt1BDhgTb

T-30 minutes | SkyTrail 2025

Getting ready … heart rate increasing

Had a long weekend in southern #Eryri and tried to squeeze in some training (i.e. drag people up mountains with me).

- Climbed Aran Fawddwy from Cwm Cywarch, pleased with this as it was the only "Welsh Major"/P600 peak I didn't climb last year
- Did a social run in the hills around Machynlleth, some good climbing/descending practice (not technically Eryri, but adjacent)
- Had an easy day walking around Harlech, paddling in the sea, with views of Yr Wyddfa from the castle battlements
- Hiked around Rhinog Fawr, but didn't summit as the ascent was a bit scrambly and some of the party weren't confident reversing it. Will come back for it!

In cycling you do have a training focus area called "Sweetspot". It sits just below (80-90%) your Functional Threshold Power(FTP) .
It looks like the term Sweetspot is not being used in running so I am introducing it today

I proudly present my Sweetspot run training for today.

#Trailrunning #runnersofmastodon #UltraRunner #mastorunNL #running

https://www.strava.com/activities/14425423517

Set out into the misty, damp, clacky Basque country side. First 2-3km was a farm/forest track, which then turned into a forest trail into the deep forest, that slowly went up and got steeper and steeper as the next 2-3km went on.

Then it turned around and went UP, glutes screamed as we reached the peak, where between the clouds we could see other peaks across the valley. Then a long the ridge to two more peaks, before we went down, at time fairly slippery, back to the farm/forest track, into the mist again and back to HQ, just over 12 brilliant kilometers.

Arrived back just as it started to rain heavily, not that I could be any more wet.

RAAAD was a double today with first a band I was sure only was a one hit wonder, so their album was totally new to me and definitely needs a re-listen - Anarchy by Chumbawamba.

And then the ever so fantastic original sound track of the movie that is also fantastic - Conan The Barbarian.

After a week of conference travel and treadmill running, and a half week of downtime taper I am getting ready for running the Sly Park 50k in NorCal.

This will only be my second ever 50k and first “official” one, put on by race organizers vs self organized.

I’m only slightly nervous? But still excited?
#TrailRunning #ultrarunning

On today's run I visited an art installation in the woods. At various view points you can align the painted trees up to make a drawing.

Asian Dub Foundation and their brilliant album Access Denied, which helped me through the Brexit chaos. With tracks with Stewart Lee and Greta Thunberg and other banging tunes. You can get it here https://asiandubfoundation.bandcamp.com/album/access-denied

Turn the volume down a bit and enjoy some #waterfall. Heavy rain overnight stirred up a lot of mud.

Have a good day.

So after masterfully avoiding the glorious Spanish mud yesterday, today I didn't. This snap is from just before it got worse. At least I didn't drop and there was long wet grass to run through to "wash" our legs afterwards.

I only thought of you @Wen after I had washed down the mutt ;)

Today's RAAAD was the brilliant Danish band Gasolin there was some bad singing and a lot of air guitar ;)

Attention all personnel. Tomorrow's office attendance has been cancelled due to somewhat leaky knees following a slight trip whilst out running this evening. That is all.