Cabeza de Juan Robre

We ascended from the village, Arenas de Cabrales, onto the hill to the northeast. The was little respite before reaching the promontory at 876m. That was an ascent of 720m with an amazingly low average speed of 1.5km/h.On our first day we were pleased to have lovely weather and views back into the valley making our effort so clear.

The ridge from Cabrales to lunch

The descent was far more gradual and led through farming land and secluded pastures. It was a bit harsh on my knees even though the gradient was reasonable.

After a snack at the hotel I tested the swimming pool. I had to start with dangling my legs in the water as it was unexpectedly cool. It's considered good practice to ice tired legs but does merely chilly count? I eventually managed 10 scrappy lengths before running for a hot shower.

Today's walk: 12.7km 1008m

A look around before dinner

We arrived in Cabrales early afternoon and after a short snooze I needed to take to the tracks and see a little of the area. I planned a 6km loop through the next village in the valley including tracks and country road. It was a good choice.

The weather was fairly warm even late in the afternoon which would indicate what to expect from the climate.

Back to Porter Clough

For the first time in at least 4 months I ran up Porter Clough this morning. I let my heart rate rise to 150 on this run as I'm hopjng to start a few 'tempo' activities soon. Nonetheless the ascent took me 4 minutes longer than my PB. It didn't feel that slow! Of course what goes up must come down.

I tried hard with my gait on the dscents focussing on heel lifting, a high cadence and small steps. On shallow gradients it felt good but where the path steepened I couldn't find a comfortable pattern. I'm hoping that I'll gradually rise the comfortable angle as I practice.

Glide again

My second lesson with Emma included some drills. I had to catch-up for a few lengths. I found a great temptation to windmill my arms. Whdn I succeeded in doing it my lead arm tended to sink a little. I also did one arm stroke. My legs sank a little but with a leg float they sank a lot! I don't know if I was pulling them down subconsciously or whether they are dense. Also we chatted about reach /glide after the lead hand enters the water but before the pull.

This has been a problem for me at the Monday session as I feel I've received contradictory advice. I had been 'spearing' but gradually my angle had been going deeper until I was told to pull immediately. Most online coaching advises a short reach even where a long slow glide is depecated.

A round walk

Bank holiday was forecast to be thoroughly wet and when we looked out of the window this morning it seemed that the forecast was going to be accurate. On a whim I suggested that we walk a circle around the house based on the #microadventure idea. We didn't plan to be spending the night out though, so perhaps that doesn't count?

A 3km radius was chosen to generate a 24km trip. A few minutes with the map showed that a pretty good loop could be achieved. The eastern two thirds would be urban, the western third more rural.

The unknown urban streets were rewarding as we didn't know them and they afforded surprise views and "ooh, I see where we are" moments. The least rewarding sections were streets that we knew but had little to recommend them. We reached them when we were tiring and the whole exercise felt a bit futile. We found numerous closed cafes and eventually had a cold drink in a pub where they couldn't serve hot drinks due to an absence of cups. Mush of the route was deserted, I assume the foul weather had encouraged people to stay indoors.

Fairly circular

The route approximated fairly well to a circle and for a 3km radius the walk should be just over 24km. With my rather indifferent GPS the distance was recorded as 33km. There are 'twiddly bits' on the loop so I suppose that it makes sense to be a bit longer than the geometry implies. It certainly felt pretty hard work considering that the terrain was straight forward.

I think it's going to take a week for our kit to dry out. The rain wan't especially heavy but it was continuous and a bit humid so there was also the issue of condensation inside wet cagoules.

My knees coped adequately with the day although a steep stepped descent was hard on my left patellar ligament and my right knee is a bit sore laterally. The physio has wondered in the past if that is caused by a slight twist. My boot soles show some wear at the heels, as do all my shoes that have done any distance, but the right is less affected than the left. Hopefully it will settle after some pre-bedtime stretches and a day of relative rest.

First drilling

I popped out for half an hour into the woods to practice the drills I learnt last friday. After a 1km warm up I went through the ankling, heel/hamstring curls and finally the pawing. The latter left two denuded areas adjacent to the 'easy going trail'. On  the runs I felt that the drills had helped by gait and pace. I commented on friday that I did feel to be running more than shuffling quickly. I flew,  relatively speaking, down a  couple of short descents by thinking of lifting my feet but above a certain gradient I couldn't find a comfortable gait. My recorded pace doesn't show these speedy sections so maybe it was just my imagination?

Anyway, the session worked well and so I need to repeat something similar a few times per week to gain more benefit from the drills.

Annoyed with swimming

I was irritated by this morning's swim as once again the effort seemed to be greater than the preceding week but the outcome worse. I tried to go a little slower and go a little faster; gentle leg action or faster and looser as recommended by the coach; regardless I reached the end of a length breathless. I'll have to see what is recommended to me at the next coaching session.