A lovely wander with the boys

After a lovely day in the hills with Hannah yesterday she was a little broken and Ali is still struggling with her ankle that she sprained a couple of months ago so we decided to go to the yonderman and have one of their amazing breakfasts for lunch. While the other two went in the car I walked there with Cybi and George (George is a foster dog who has been with us a week). It was a lovely day and only right at the end did we end up going through a field of sheep. The three of us were loving it. After food I decided to walk back as it was such a nice day, since George had seemed fine (trying to build his exercise up slowly) both the boys walked back with me.

Spring Showdown

At Easter it was the Canicross Midlands Spring Showdown which was four days of racing at Catton Park. We were going to be camping as it's just a little too far to head down everyday. Unfortunately Ali sprained her ankle quite badly the week before and Cybi and I had to go on our own, I have to admit I was worried about camping with Cybi on my own as he can be a bit of a handful.

As it turned out he was fine, settled best if I wasn't there and once popped in my sleeping bag at night so lights didn't disturb him slept fine, one morning we both slept till 8am!

The racing itself was fun and muddy. I had entered us unto the 10k in Sunday, turns out only ten of us were crazy enough to run the longer route, and we loved it even though it was a little warm for cybi.

It was a great weekend but I really missed Ali as she'd have loved it.

A bit of practise for Saunders

We were meant to be at the Welsh Ride Thing this weekend but Ali has a sprained ankle and would like me about, she'd also really struggle to walk the dogs. So Hannah and I planned a little adventure, which went from biking and bivvying in the Peak, to a training walk (with maybe a bit of running) but sleeping in beds since the weather overnight wasn't meant to be that great.

We choose four points on the map, the plan being to navigate between them and hence practise our navigation as well. Ali dropped us off at Great Hucklow so we were a little closer to the first point. We got very close to the first point, a trip point, but it wasn't assessible without climbing over walls and walking on gliding club land so we had to make do with a wave. Onto our next point and that was easily ticked off before dropping into Hathersage, we had quite a steep down where Cybi wanted me to go faster than I could! I think Hannah was glad she didn't have a dog attached to her at that point.

Our next point was a Fort in the hills outside Hathersage, well being a Fort on the top of a hill. It was brilliant up there though and worth the climb. We then descended to longshaw Estate, planning on grabbing a drink at the cafe, which was shut meaning it was later than we had realised. It also started to rain so we made a quick call to Ali and arranged for her to collect us at Grindleford Station, which was a lovely walk through Padley Gorge to finish the walk.

14.5miles in total.

A weekend in Wales

I'd seen an 8.5miles trail race for canicrossers at coed brenin mentioned on the Canicross Angelsey Facebook page and realised it was a weekend Ali was down in Cambridge. A little persuasion and I had entered and booked camping in Wales so cybi and I could go on a social run on the Sunday as well.

 

Friday, feeling more than a little nervous,  I packed the car and headed to Wales. Arriving at the campsite I discovered we were the only ones on the tent field so could choose a pitch, which meant I could put the tent up away from the road and any headlights passing to disturb cybi. I also discovered they did breakfast rolls which they delivered to the tent. The place was very dog friendly and has an enclosed field for exercise, I even let cybi have some off lead time.

 

Saturday and the day of the race turned out to be warmer than was ideal for cybi and he was overexcited from us getting up, think he knew we were running as we've only camped before running recently. This meant he was barking lots in the car on the way, we were also early but that made parking easy. Registration was easy and the race number had our names printed on, a nice touch. We had our own briefing quarter of an hour after the main race had set off and then it was time for our first mass start. Cybi had been shadow chasing all day with the sun and he's been very excited recently at the start of races so I was a little concerned but as soon as we were off he was completely focused and trying to get past everyone, impossible with me attached! Soon the race settled down and we were swapping places in a group of four, mainly running with Buster and his human. Apparently Cybi was a good influence and really encouraged Buster to pull. The race was hilly and the trails technical but there were only two downhills I walked. Any bit of water and Cybi would stop, it really was a bit too hot for him. At the halfway drinks station I checked his paws as there were a lot of gravel tracks but they seemed okay, I was carrying boots just in case. My feet were a bit sore, maybe I should have put paw wax on as well.  The finish was uphill but cybi still had enough in him for a finish sprint! Being in Wales everyone knew how to say his name so calling him was very effective. Once we finished he was back to shadow chasing, obviously not tired.

 

Another night camping, another night walking up on the floor of the tent with Cybi stretched out on the sleeping mat! I packed up and drove us over to Newborough Beach for the Canicross Angelsey social run. We were there early enough for a walk along the beach, nice as we are about as far from the sea as you can get where we live. The run was lovely, round the forest and along the beach. Cybi wanted to be at the front the whole time! On the beach we let the dogs cool off in the sea, cybi being a silly boy decided to drink the sea. Near the end of the run her stopped pulling and was sick. Sea water didn't agree with him at all. He was sick a few times so I got him back to the  car and got him some fresh water. While I was worrying about him he was soon back to normal!

Then it was time for the long drive home. Fortunately a tired Cybi slept the whole way. We had a fab weekend, just wish Ali could have joined us.

Mini adventures

Yesterday Ali was off to the football so Cybi and I had a couple of mini adventures. The first one was when we walked to Spar picked up lunch then walked the long way back, stopping by the river to eat lunch.

Then in the evening we walked over to Hassop Station, it was a lovely evening for a walk and we even saw hairy coos. I had pizza and then we walked home, the last part of the walk was in the dark. We were home just before Ali and all three of us were ready for bed.

A morning run

Cybi and I have a race in Wales next week so I need some miles in my legs otherwise it's going to hurt a lot. I also want Saunders to hurt a bit less this year so need to do some hills and get used to wearing a rucksack. Since its now getting busy out here at the weekends I drove us up to Cubar Gap for 730am and we set off along Cubar Edge. It was a lovely morning and we were just jogging along, with lots of stops for photos. We continued along Froggatt Edge and then up to White Edge, here we saw deer. We finished off with Baslow Edge getting back to the car just as people seemed to be arriving, we saw about four people the whole run and had a great time easily doing the distance, maybe next time I'll try and move a bit faster.

Monyash Audax

A while ago I suggested to Hannah that we did the Wednesday audax over Easter, we had enjoyed it last year when we rode with Sarah, Al, Ros and Julie. Hannah suggested we did the hilly one for a change this year. Although I hadnt done much riding since last summer I thought why not, anyway it would motivate me to do some riding. But before I knew it it was Easter and I hadn't done much riding.

After some bike fettling in the car park and a second breakfast at Costa we were on our way. The weather was stunning and I was glad I had put sun cream on. The route was brilliant but definetly hilly with some steep steep hills. Hannah has been riding more and so she was powering up the hills while I plodded along. By the end I was sore but happy after a great day in the saddle.

Just over 100k with over 2000m climbing was a brutal reintroduction to riding.

Running in the hills

Although we live surrounded by hills I've mainly avoided going up or downhills with Cybi, mainly as I'm rubbish at descending even without a dog attached to me. But I'm only get better at hills if I do it so out we went today and straight up the hill to Eyam. I count it as running although Cybi decided it was too slow even to trot and walked! The downhills I was just a wimp but I don't think I was any slower than when I used to run without him and it's more fun running with him though and I can always walk the more scary downhills.

Norfolk

I've got really behind with this blog! Back I'm February we went to Norfolk for the week. I had found a cabin nestled in the sand dunes for us to stay in for the week. It was a perfect week, long walks along the beach, pub lunches, seals on the beach and time with Cybi and Ali. We're already planning a return.

A Wednesday wander

The other Wednesday we had lovely weather here so cybi and I parked at Cressbrook and walked over to Tideswell to meet Ali for lunch. I hadn't been along the path between Cressbrook and Litton Mill before but it's stunning, as well as very muddy. You can see that it floods easily, lots of signs warning about this. Then through the lovely Tideswell Dale before picking up sandwiches for lunch with Ali.

On the way back we found one geocache and had one we didn't find. Lovely day and so lucky to live here.