31/03/2012 - Training Walk #11 - Croker Strikes Back

The weather had certainly broken as we drove to Rushton Spencer this morning. A misty gloom with slight drizzle had descended and had us wondering what conditions may be like at the top of Croker Hill. Martin met us at the car park at the back of the Knot Inn which given he would be driving to Cambridge after our walk to pick his son up from University certainly showed commitment.

Approaching Golden Hill

We were heading up a route Lee and Mark had walked previously to the top of Croker Hill and then descending it and coming back a different way. On our previous outing, it had taken us 1hour and 50minutes to the top of Croker Hill so with that in mind we set off at a brisk pace. We found it a lot easier this time as the mist wasn't as bad as before, it had begun to clear and the route was familiar from a month ago.

The Cloud in er....cloud.

As we climbed steadily from the Dane Valley we could see other local hilltop landmarks coming into view. One of our regular favourites, The Cloud was shrouded with mist and as we looked around we could see The Roaches and Hen Cloud, somewhere we have yet to experience and agreed that it would have to be part of a future training walk at some point. As we cleared the top of Golden Hill heading for Croker Hill, we identified Tegg's Nose and Macclesfield Forest in the distance and thought that would be another good walk extension to have at some point.

The Roaches and Hen Cloud imposing in the distance

 We ascended Croker Hill and touched the gates to the BT tower after 1hour and 35minutes - a good 15minutes quicker than our previous attempt. At an average 5.0km/h we were pleased with this, so we broke out the energy bars and started our descent back and into unfamiliar territory.

As we descended through a field we came upon our first group of Scouts heading towards us, the first of many groups we would see as they navigated with map and compass. 

Croker Hill - we can see it this time!

 It was heartwarming to see so many kids doing this. Realising that Trailwalker has a minimum age of 18 we decided we couldn't recruit any of them for our 4th member and besides, they would probably only show us up.

The only slight confusion on the walk back was where a footpath ran through a farmyard and the farmer appeared to have done as much as possible to remove markers and make the route as uncomfortable as possible. Once off the Gritstone Trail,we ran out of the steady stream of Scouts and the path became very scenic, taking us up and downhill, through fields and woodland back towards Rushton Spencer.

We arrived back at the cars in 3hours and 50minutes, a good 30minutes faster than we had expected overall. A celebratory pint was called for in the Knot Inn, though Martin with the drive to Cambridge to follow restricted himself to a quick Coke. Salivating at the pies being served up, a plan was hatched for future, longer training walks where a small break might be in order - sorted.

Lee and Martin contemplate carrying on to Tegg's Nose

The total climb today was 497m which was less than was expected with a total distance of 17.88m at an average speed of 4.7km/h but at 27.8m/km this was one of our toughest yet. The stats for this walk are here.

Total team distance walked so far in training (not including some individual stuff by Lee and Martin) is 471km with 9521m of climb (Everest weighs in at 8850m) and we've been walking for 7 days 3hours and 28minutes.....and counting! There's still a long way to go - but we're happy with the way the training is going so far. Now, about that 4th member......

28/03/2012 Training Walk #10 - Rhubarb, Rhubarb and The Hound of The Red Harrows

Following our theme of training on the Sandstone Trail, we arranged to do another 14km loop taking us a bit further South from the loop we did two weeks ago. This loop was to start in Manley, take us through Delamere Forest to Kelsall and back. Lee having fallen asleep for 7 hours after our walk on Sunday (apparently it was the refreshing post walk pint that did it) was fully awake for this evenings walk and was even ready on time at the Rendezvous Point. This is more than could be said for Support Team Leader Simon who was joining us and managed to get lost en-route from the office. No chance he was going to do the evening's navigation in the dark then.

One of the trails through Delamere

We set off at a decent pace into Delamere Forest on a well used and popular route and noted the number of people out for an evening stroll and the mountain bikers tearing down the trails. As one biker passed with a shovel in his backpack Martin and Mark looked at each other and joked that perhaps he'd been burying a body in the woods somewhere. The team conversation soon deteriorated from here to the nocturnal habits of certain people given the number of parked vehicles in the woodland, a subject which one member of the team (who shall remain nameless) seemed know a little too much about so we moved rapidly on and changed the subject.

Descending the trail into the Forest

Delamere Forest is criss-crossed with a myriad of trails so it was a bonus that it was still not yet dark given that the clocks had gone forward at the weekend making navigation a bit easier. We eventually came to the busy A556, which after a bit of careful judgement was successfully crossed with no loss of life.

Another descent and climb had us emerging by a useful little tea-room at the top of Kelsall where a sign stated 'Muddy Boots - Welcome'. Handy to know for future reference. Descending into Kelsall, the views across Cheshire with the setting sun were stunning and photos do not do it justice.

The sun setting over Cheshire from above Kelsall

As darkness began to set in, we perched by a sign declaring we were at 'Kelsborrow Castle' a prehistoric promontory fort and removed our sunglasses replacing them with headtorches. Unfortunately there wasn't much of the hillfort to see particularly as it was rapidly getting dark so we pressed on given that we'd managed to get well over half way in a little over an hour and a half on what was the hillier bit of the trail.

We entered Kelsall village itself which meant navigating down streets and through alleyways which had been fenced out.


This wasn't the most pleasant section of the walk but soon had us out of Kelsall and back to once again cross the A556 dual carriageway which was negotiated successfully in the dark, without dazzling oncoming drivers.

Educational this walking lark

We crossed through fields of crops and noted a whole field full of rhubarb and then realised Martin was somewhat of a rhubarb connosieur, describing the many different ways rhubarb could be enjoyed. At this point we'd lost Simon and looking back up the trail saw him stuffing something into his backpack though he categorically denies it was anything to do with rhubarb.

A short section of road later, we were once again into fields though the path across it wasn't clear. It was quickly noted the field was planted with spiky gooseberry bushes which was a problem for those of us walking in shorts so a diversion was proposed and as we walked along the field boundary there came a distant barking which got steadily closer with our headtorches picking out a pair of eyes int he darkness. Thinking this was a dog constrained within a property we continued towards it only to find it was roaming free and not at all happy we were there. Dutifully, Simon sacrificed himself for the sake of the team and shall be hereforward known as 'The Dog Whisperer' after successfully placating it.

After negotiating the gooseberry plantation and the hound of the Red Harrows, we entered a field where the path ran diagonally through it. Helpfully (or so we thought), the farmer had taped the route across it only for us to realise it was an electric fence and actually blocked the path. Testing the insulation of the handle of his aluminium walking pole, Martin bravely pressed the wire down so the team could step over it with no ill effects. Thankfully apart from a small navigational error and missing the point where the path left the road, this was the last of the evening's events as we trekked across the fields full of sheep to the cars and the waiting pint at the The Goshawk in Mouldsworth.

The walked finished as 14.6km long and we managed it ahead of our expectations in 2hrs and 53 minutes with an average speed of 5.1km/h. The stats for this evenng's walk are here.

This weekend's Training Walk is scheduled for Saturday morning. We're going to have a go at Croker Hill in the Peak District again and come down a slightly different way. We think it should be about 18km long with 600m of climb and expect it to take us about 4hrs and 20minutes. This is the route.

25/03/2012 Training Walk #9 - Sandstone, Castles and a Rope Swing?

One of the many sandstone outcrops on the trail

We had agreed to meet up at the Pheasant Inn at Burwardsley at 8.30am. This prompted an early start given that Mark and Lee were a good 50minutes away and with the clocks going forward this perhaps wasn't the best of ideas. Given the weather forecast, we had decided it was definitely shorts weather though we were somewhat taken aback to see the car's thermometer read 4 degrees as we drove through Nantwich.
 
Amazingly we all managed to get to the pub on time though sadly they weren't open yet so we'd have to go training instead.


Our first hill of the day was Willow Hill though it probably ranks at 'molehill' compared to some we've been up recently. Descending and crossing a field full of cows (yes, these had udders - we checked) and passing a house with several ferocious sounding dogs, we started the gradual ascent to the top of Raw Head part of Bickerton Hill.

Lee and Martin looking imposing at Raw Head

This was a relatively gentle gradient to the summit which having touched the trig point noted the sign which informed us that at 227m, this is the highest point on the Sandstone Trail - useful to know given this trail will feature heavily in our training.

As we continued along the top and onto the gradual descent we noted the steep sided gorge disappearing away to our right and ideas of a night walk up here were soon put to bed.

Leslie Wheeldon's wife Kitty

We were soon ascending Bickerton Hill (Part 2), an area of land acquired for the National Trust with the help of funding from a Mr. Leslie Wheeldon in memory of his wife Kitty so that everyone could enjoy it.The stone has poems written about her on each side. Quite something.

A view of Raw Head from Bickerton Hill

Descending the hill we passed a point marked 'Mad Allen's Hole'. Unfortunately there was no sign of 'Mad Allen' or his 'Hole' so we pressed on towards Park Wood, another molehill before crossing back on our 'figure of eight' and ascending Bulkeley Hill which is a bit more than a molehill.

The Old Tramway

As we reached the top of Bulkeley Hill there were a lot more people about enjoying the views and one of the points of interest is the old tramway. On top of Bulkeley Hill is a covered reservoir used to store water abstracted from the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer. 

Apparently the old tramway dates back to before the Second World War and it was used to carry construction materials for the reservoir and the 27 inch aqueduct linking it to Audley. 

Lads the GPS definitely says this way

The old tramway now seems to be used as a makeshift set of steps for ambitious runners. Rising 100m over a 250m length with the last section rising 60m over 90m it clearly would present a challenge to any nutcase wishing to attempt it. It was at this point that Lee decided this tramway would feature in a future training walk. Its always nice when he shares his ideas - even if they are going to inevitably result in pain. 

Pleased with himself, Lee decided to enjoy a nearby rope swing after the team joined in with other passers by, traversing a fallen tree - well we are supposed to be having fun after all.

After the brief respite we descended the hill and crossed through the Peckforton estate and then skirted Peckforton Castle a beautiful and popular wedding venue which has re-opened following a devastating fire caused by disgruntled groom. Not the best way to start your marriage with a 6 year prison sentence.

Beeston Castle

Continuing round the edge of Peckforton Castle, the stunning hilltop of Beeston Castle came into view.

The castle is looked after by English Heritage and no doubt will form part of a future training walk.

A quick hill climb later and we dropped down to the Pheasant and the waiting pint of liquid refreshment.

The stats for this training walk are here. 

22/03/2012 - Proper Training, A Man Down and Lies, Damn Lies and Statisitics

Proper Training

This week marks the start of 'Proper' Training for the Red Harrows. A bit like the FA Cup for which earlier rounds don't really matter (given Liverpool are in the semi-finals after knocking out Man Utd some time ago) and while this would suggest that we've merely been playing at it for the weeks since January, this time has been used usefully to equip ourselves, test kit and get us to a point where we are comfortable walking 4-5 hours with out really stopping other than to briefly take photos and grab an energy bar.

Our training plan from here on in, is to walk for about 1.5 hours twice in the week on a Tuesday and Thursday evening and alternate this every other week with a 3 hour night walk on a Wednesday with our long walk at the weekend. The plan is to walk for 4-5 hours at the weekend on varying terrain (more on this later) for the first six weeks and gradually increase this to a couple of weeks before Trailwalker where we plan to walk the entire length of the Sandstone Trail non-stop (55km and 1200m of climb/descent) with our support team meeting us at checkpoints along the route as practice for the event.

On Tuesday night Mark and Lee kicked off the schedule and set off on a local flat walk of 8.5km completing this bang on the expected 1.5 hours. The route took us across level fields in the dark (getting spooked by a low flying military transport plane in the process) and onto the Trent & Mersey Canal before joining the Macclesfield Canal and then home. Most of this was completed in the dark though as we get lighter evenings this should be an enjoyable quick training walk. The stats for this one are here.

Tonight's walk was the hill training walk for which Mow Cop and its famed 'Killer Mile' is ideally suited. At 200m from bottom to top it is ideal for the worst elevation change Trailwalker can throw at us (see Stage 7). We were hoping to complete the estimated 7km in 1 hour 30 minutes but managed to shave off 10 minutes for what turned out to be 7.2km so we were pretty pleased with that albeit a bit breathless at the top. The stats are here.

The proposed training route for this weekend is a scenic walk around the hills of Beeston and Peckforton along a section of the Sandstone Trail which will give us 19km and about 480m of elevation change. The planned route is here. It will be Lee, Martin and Mark tackling this one, speaking of which......

A Man Down

Sadly we report that we have lost a team member. No, we didn't leave him behind somewhere and forget to go back for him, he didn't get abducted by aliens or fall off a cliff during a night walk and shuffle off to the great Trailwalker route in the sky. After long hard consideration, Julian has decided to stand down from the team as he felt he could not commit fully to the training programme that Trailwalker demands and felt this would not be fair on his teammates. We want to thank Julian for his contribution (and forthcoming donation!) to the team to date and no doubt his continued support.

So currently that leaves us with a gap in our foursome. We currently have a couple of options from people who are interested and we hope to announce soon who our new team member is so we can happily train as a full group once again but for the moment it's just the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (we'll leave you to work out who is who) in training.


Lee, Martin and Mark - not necessarily in that order.

 Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

Mark being a bit of self-confessed spreadsheet geek has been assessing the team's performance, the Trailwalker stages and our training routes. The initial purpose of this was to replicate as far as possible the likely terrain on Trailwalker given that geographically we aren't exactly well located for a quick jaunt down the South Downs Way.

The simple way of doing this is to look at Trailwalker, the distance of 100km and the climb of 2500m divide the one by the other and get 25m of elevation change per km or what we're calling 'elevation change rate'. Taking each stage separately gives us anything between 19m/km and 35m/km so quite some variance along the trail. This has led us to a form of classification for our training routes:

Green - any route less than 10m/km - single climbs no bigger than 50m
Yellow - any route between 10m/km and 20m/km - single climbs between 50m and 150m
Red - any route above 20m/km - single climbs above 150m (Trailwalker-esque)

Using this as a tool has given us some idea of ranking the difficulty of Trailwalker Stages:

Stage	Ascent	Descent	Distance	Ave m/km	Biggest
7	330	-130	9.4	35.11	200
10	136	-80	4	34.00	125
1	300	-210	9.6	31.25	93
6	210	-270	10	21.00	170
5	280	-220	12.5	22.40	140
3	190	-175	8.3	22.89	120
11	130	-90	5.8	22.41	105
8	190	-230	6.9	27.54	85
2	290	-390	10.4	27.88	75
4	180	-300	9.3	19.35	105
9	264	-325	13.8	19.13	50

It's easy to see why stages 5,6 and 7 claim most victims and force people out of Trailwalker. These three stages are beyond where most teams will have walked in training so you'll be fatigued, will more than likely get tackled during the night when your body wants to sleep and they rank highly in terms of difficulty. This where teams will need their teammates support the most.

To add to this, we've also been comparing our average speed with 'elevation change rate'. This is a measure of how well the team is improving through training. It stands to reason that on flat level terrain where the elevation change rate is near zero, you can really go for it in terms of speed but when you hit an incline this will be tempered somewhat.

So, comparing speed with elevation change rate, we get this relationship:

The points are added from our table as a scatter graph and Excel kindly drops in a linear 'line of best fit'. The intention is add each new training walk and hopefully the points will fall above the line to show we are infact improving. It is interesting to see that the points below the line are earlier training walks so the expectation is that the line will move gradually upwards as we improve and ultimately we'll remove the earlier walks to give us a more accurate prediction of how long the Trailwaker stages should take us given distance and elevation - at least that's the theory!

14/03/2012 - Training Walk#8 - The Night Walkers

On account of a dose of man-flu (or is it mouse-flu?), Julian was unable to attend the night walk planned around the top of Frodsham so it was left to Lee, Martin, Mark and Simon to experience our first night walk.

Lee, Martin and Mark ready to face the dark

After a quick change after work (and a wait in the car park while Red Leader did his hair) we left the office for nearby Frodsham and parked up near the Belle Mont Hotel above the town. It was already approaching dusk so armed with the Garmin programmed with our route and Mark with his new Leki Jasper walking poles we set of heading south around Beacon Hill (not that one the other one).

Skirting the edge of the golf course we made good progress as twilight set in and as we hit Delamere Way, Mark was the first to fire up his headtorch and on full beam resembled a lighthouse. Out of fear for an overhead Easyjet flight mistaking us for Liverpool Airport, the beam was soon reduced in intensity and Mark's beam was quickly joined by Simon's but still a passing car flashed us to dip our headlamps mistaking us for a car on the wrong side of the road (impressive!). Lee and Martin continued to lead using their night vision before eventually conceding defeat to the increasing darkness.

Mark getting up close and personal with a gate

As we approached Birch Hill, the team started to negotiate the stile at the side of the farm gate. Assessing the structural stability of the gate, Mark handed his walking poles to Martin to attempt a gate vault. Now, bearing in mind this is something that Mark has not done since he was about 13 years old and probably 8 stone lighter, this was no mean feat. The teammates watched the demonstration with interest awarding an '8' for the take off, '9' for the vault and a less than flattering '2' for the resultant landing. Suitably impressed with the attempt and after regaining their composure from their fits of laughter, the team continued towards the pitch darkness of Delamere Forest.

A lesson in geology

Entering the forest became even more disorientating in the complete darkness. After experimenting with light settings on the head torch, Mark flicked off the diffuser to provide more of a spot beam 2-3 metres in front to provide enough early warning of tripping over a tree root or stepping in a pile of dung. This worked well though removed all feel for what was being passed to the side. 

It is probably also worth noting that despite Martin and Simon having done the route in daylight, it became very easy to take a wrong turn. Thankfully with the Garmin set to provide an 'Off-Course Alarm' and with a quick glance, only a few yards would be lost before regaining the correct route. 

Err...good choice for a nigh walk then!

Once out of the 'Deep Dark Wood' we reached civilisation again and a short distance down the road we turned back along a field near Manley Common only to be greeted by the loud 'Baa-ing' sounds of a flock of sheep and dozens of pairs of green eyes watching us intently in the darkness (clearly they knew a Welshman was among us and they felt frisky).

Rocksavage Works by night.

After picking up the Sandstone Trail (and after a short comfort break with full headtorch illumination) we headed on up Alvanley Cliff where the nigh views of Frodsham and beyond came into view notably the illuminated Stanlow Oil Refinery and Rocksavage works. Descending from here into the blackness with sheer cliffs off the path to the left made us grateful it wasn't a windy evening.

Lest we forget.

 We then climbed back up to skirt the cliffs along Beacon Hill where the war memorial is located something which is visible when passing on the M56 motorway but less often visited. It felt appropriate to take a moment here before pressing on to where the cars were parked and the fish, chips and pint of real ale which awaited us.

Overall the walk was 14.6km with 235m of climb and descent which we did in just under 3 hours at an average speed of 4.9km/h. This was about 7 minutes slower than Simon and Martin did it in daylight so we are reasonably happy with our first night attempt and look forward to the next one. The stats for this walk are here.

10 Things we learned on this walk:

1. A spot beam setting on the headtorch helps find your feet
2. It is very easy to become disorientated even on a familiar route as you lose all points of reference.
3. Hills come out of nowhere in the dark and start to sap your legs unexpectedly.
4. Having the Garmin programmed with the route is a lot easier than fiddling with a map
5. Mark has not lost his gate vaulting skills but they need refinement
6. Martin isn't comfortable in the dark but sheep like him
7.The darkness doesn't seem to affect our pace to any significant degree
8. Cow pats, tree roots and rocks are less easily avoided in the dark
9. Hiding behind a tree and jumping out on your teammates is not big or clever
10. Fish and chips taste so good after a decent walk.

12/03/2012 Target Reached and Raised, Cheshire's Only Team and The Night Walk

As a team we haven't ceased to be amazed by the generosity of the people we know and work with and this has culminated today in our target of £1500 getting blown out of the water in less than seven weeks since our Virgin Money Giving Page went live. After discussion with the team and given we've still got some time to go before sponsorship ends, we have raised our target to £2000.

We would like to thank the following recent sponsors that have helped towards smashing our target: Ceirwen and Roger, Marc Fawcett at the Betts Geo Team, Julian Harbottle, Malcolm Hamer (Julian's Dad), Richard Osborn, Anonymous (you know who you are), Richard Swinden, Fell Runner (again!), Chris Haslam, Peter Thorn at Atkins, Karen, Gareth, Sue and Spence (whio hopefully all made it home form Mark's 40th), Orna at the NHBC and Andy Costello and the team at NIC - a big thank you to all of you.

Our donations currently stand at £1742.14 before Gift Aid thanks to the 44 people and companies who have sponsored us so far. You can see how we're doing in the Trailwalker Fundraising Leaderboard here.

Following a recent update from Oxfam, it would appear that we're the only team in Cheshire taking part in this year's Trailwalker - so we definitely need to put up a good show!

With that in mind, we have scheduled the night walk for this coming Wednesday evening after work. The intention is to walk the route Simon and Martin did over the top of Frodsham on a circular route using the Sandstone Trail towards Delamere Forest and back. The planned route is here though this will depend on the weather, how quickly we can navigate in the dark and whether we lose anyone over the edge in the dark.

We'll hopefully report back later in the week (assuming we all survive)

10/03/2012 - Training Walk #7 - Electric Stiles, Udderless Cows and a Frog Chorus

For this training walk, Mark was trying out a touch of lemon juice in his Camelbak. Camelbak suggest its use to give more of a refreshing taste, remove the plastic taste and for anti-bacterial reasons.

Lee arrived at Mark's house for 8.30am and was on time for a change (there you go Red Leader - I said I would let everyone know). For this training walk, Mark was trying out a touch of lemon juice in his Camelbak. Camelbak suggest its use to give more of a refreshing taste, remove the plastic taste and for anti-bacterial reasons. The MapMyHike app was also being given another try as we were in a good mobile reception area.

Shocking.

We set off on our usual route to Mow Cop at a decent pace. The 3.6km, 200m ascent to the Folly at the top was managed in 46minutes which is about as fast as we did it with the full team. Having got our passports stamped to cross the border into Staffordshire, we then descended into unknown territory, weaving our way down streets and across fields. There was a bit of confusion where the public footpath left a street and all evidence of said footpath through a farm had been removed. We carried on regardless and soon found that there were stiles present albeit we got the impression we weren't wanted there given they had been electrified with a cattle fencing wire!

Biddulph.

Once through the electric fence and across "No Mans Land" which had been badly churned by livestock, the town of Biddulph came into view. Crossing further fields, we came to a another farmyard where the footpath went through it, though the marker was pointing across the field. Realising the marker had been removed and replaced with a single nail allowing it to be spun, we carried on to the farmyard. We were greeted by a friendly farmer who told us we were just in time as they were about to let the cows back out and often they divert people around the farm into the field (hence the marker). Directing us through the farmyard, we hastily made our exit as the thought of charging cows didn't appeal.

An old platform on the BVW. We apologise for the delay....

A short distance later we joined the Biddulph Valley Way (BVW). The BVW is a former railtrack which was once used to carry coal from The Potteries to Congleton and sand on the return journey back (more info can be found here). The route is now part of Cycle Route 55 and is heavily used by local walkers and cyclists young and old. The section we were on is a gradual descent towards Congleton so we set a good pace along it. 

As we got further down, we approached a group of people who were looking at something at the side of the track. The surface of the water seemed to be alive and it turned out to be a myriad of frogs who were spawning. A local lady explained that they return to this same spot to spawn every year. If you listen carefully in the video, you can just about hear them.

This stile has seen better days.

A short distance later we veered off the BVW onto a seldom walked public footpath. The stiles were in poor condition and livestock had turned the field into something more reminiscent of The Somme making it heavy going. We then realised we could have stayed on the BVW a bit longer adnd descended onto out intended route which probably explains why it is seldom used and the look of puzzlement on a lady's face who saw us on it (D'oh!). Well, we'll know better for next time. A quick delve into the backpack for an energy bar and a check of the watch suggested we were well ahead of schedule and making good time.

From this point, it was uphill through fields and woodland towards Congleton Edge. This turned out to be a very pleasant route through woodland though again boggy in places and eventually we emerged at a familiar junction at the top of the ridge. Once on the ridge we headed towards the mast at Mow Cop at which point Mark realised his Camelbak was empty, the full 2litres had gone in 3hrs which was either down to the lemon juice or the fact it was a warmer day. Instead of going straight on, we headed down the South Cheshire Way across the fields and through woodland. Again the woodland conditions weren't great with Mark narrowly managing to keep his footing on two occasions.

We ended up entering a field full of cows, at least we thought they were all cows until we approached to find one had a ring through his nose and a quick glance clarified he didn't have an udder. Hastily we edged along the field with half an eye on our curious friend and exited onto the road which took us towards the Start Line for the infamous Mow Cop Killer Mile.

Following the road back, another glance at the watch suggested we might manage our route in under 4hours so with that in mind we cracked on reaching the finish in 3hrs 50minutes having covered 18.5km with 383m of climb and descent a good 40minutes faster than we expected at an average speed of 4.8km/h. The stats for this walk are here.

The MapMyHike info is here (though I forgot to turn it off after the walk had finished!) Not a bad test for it though the elevation data is questionable.

10 Things we learned on this walk:

1. Adding lemon juice to your Camelbak improves the taste and drinkabilty

2. Warmer weather will make you drink more - today was about 650ml/hour

3. Ibuprofen is a surprising performance enhancer

4. Be wary of electrified stiles

5. Cows who don't have udders might not be too friendly

6. Walking through fields full of cows leaves something undesirable on your boots

7. Walking poles may double usefully as cattle prods

8. Walking poles may conduct electricity

9. Thanks to his new knee support, Lee's dodgy knee didn't kick in after 10 miles

10. Setting a target time and beating it is a great training motivation

09/03/2012 - Preparation for Training Walk #7 - Mow Cop to Biddulph and back

Well, Mark is officially no longer a "thirty-something" and given that Saturday might turn into a messy affair later on, we've decided this week to go for a shorter more local walk with a bit of a variation.

As Martin, Simon and Julian are elsewhere, Mark will be joined by Lee (another soon-to-be-no-longer-thirty-something) for a walk which takes us to the Folly at Mow Cop but this time down the other side towards Biddulph. We will pick up the Biddulph Way a former railtrack now local walking and cycling route and descend gradually towards Congleton where we will pick up the Staffordshire Way and head back upwards along the Congleton Edge back towards Mow Cop. We will drop off the route for a change and head down the South Cheshire Way before heading back towards Scholar Green.

Estimated distance is about 18km with 380m of elevation change. We're looking to complete it under 4.5 hours. The proposed route is here.

Given that whisky is likely to form part of the evenings requirements, it will probably be Sunday before the blog update gets posted.

04/03/2011 - Martin and Simon do Re-Con for the night walk.....

While Mark and Lee were recovering from Saturday's effort, Veteran “Red Harrow”, Martin, and first reserve and support team member, Simon, undertook an impromptu reconnaissance walk on Sunday afternoon to survey the route of the first proposed Red Harrows night walk scheduled for March 14th along the Sandstone Trail between Frodsham and Delamere Forest.

Martin - master of all he surveys...Frodsham in this case

After a round-about route to the start line in Manley Common, the debate over whether to don the waterproofs or not was made for Simon by the sudden hail storm.

Martin, however, decided to stride forth with the minimum of gear - this was a back to basics hard-core trek without the backup of electronic witchery! A Paper map and a water bottle were all the support Martin needed! 

Setting off east up a muddy track we followed the Delamere Way and soon found ourselves skirting the edge of Delamere Forest before crossing farmland and avoiding the local livestock. A short section of road walking took us past Harrol Edge an down Dobbers Lane then more farmland tracks to the radio mast at Beacon Hill, making friends with the local wildlife along the way! 

The industrial side of Runcorn in the distance

The sheer cliffs of Frodsham Edge beckoned, but first we had to dodge the flying balls when crossing downwind, and down shot, of Frodsham Golf Course’s driving range! Passing the Belle Mount Hotel in Frodsham (looking a likely spot to begin, and end, the night walk from…) we continued through the wooded slopes of Frodsham Edge to the war memorial and magnificent views across Cheshire and the Mersey Estuary, including such highlights as Harrow Estates’ offices, Fiddlers Ferry Power Station, the M56 bridge across the River Weaver, the chemical works of Runcorn and in the distance the gleaming chimneys of Stanlow Oil Refinery……industrial Britain at its best and blessed with a certain majesty.

Martin was asked to look ‘intrepid’ for a photo – judge for yourself whether he succeeded or not!


Martin looking intrepid.

After a short water stop we continued and Simon noticed that Martin was leaking……unfortunately the top to Martin’s water bottle (old skool – no camelbaks here!) had come loose and filled the pocket of his jacket!

At least we know the fabric is waterproof, but the wet patch on Martin’s leg pointed to a small hole in the stitching!

The return leg of the walk picked up the Sandstone Trail and was initially a lot more downhill than expected. We must have been climbing significantly on the way to Frodsham without realising it. Passing the New Red Sandstone of the cliffs sparked Simon’s geological interest, and the dune cross bedding was particularly fine……! Alas the walk must continue and the sedimentary inspections must wait for another time. 

Stanlow Oil Refinery and the Mersey Estuary. Scenic!

Cutting back away from the cliffs the route took us through numerous gates, sparking a new game of ‘rate the gate’……yes the afternoon was dragging. The final leg was across more farmland and skirting the village of Manley before reaching the car back at Manley Common.

All-in we took 2hrs 50min and the total walk was about 15km and 240m of elevation change. Should easily be do-able for the night walk on the 14th!