So the LAMM training keeps on coming – this afternoon I was in the Hope valley, doing a mini Edale Skyline.

I parked at Nether Booth and hit the steep incline up to Hollins Cross, before following the obvious route over Mam Tor and round as far as Brown Knoll, then back across to the top of Grindsbrook Clough. From there I took my own advice from last year and carried on to descend Ringing Roger rather than the steep rock-fest of Grindsbrook.

I’d put sun cream on when I left the car, but grey cloud had started blowing in along Rushup Edge, the wind picked up at Brown Knoll, and as I came down from Ringing Roger I could see things taking a turn for the worse. Fortunately from Ollerbrook Booth it was just a few hundred yards back to the car. Total distance was 20.2km with ~700m of ascent, done in two and a half hours (thank God for Ascent for the iPhone!). Sat in the car sorting out gear I was accosted by the local farmyard fauna, which practically got into the foot well at one point.

I seem to have accidentally ended up training quite hard for LAMM this year – by my standards at least – and it looks like it’s paying off. Although I was beginning to tire by 14km in, there were no big rest stops and it certainly felt a lot easier than last year (when I had to walk a sizeable portion of the last two or three kilometres and had many more breaks from Brown Knoll onwards). Although much shorter than a LAMM day, I’m still taking days like this as an indicator that my performance is continuing to improve. Last year’s LAMM was a walk rather than a run, due to my partner sustaining an injury, but I have a sneaking suspicion I would have been destroyed if we had run it. This year holds no such fears, and I’m already getting excited. Five weeks to go!