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As if it wasn’t hard enough to keep track of what day it is. This week we had a Bank Holiday on a Friday to celebrate VE day, which for most of us involved socially distanced street parties, but Will Mather had something else in mind. More about that later.
Friday was lovely, Saturday was Gorgeous and Sunday was appalling. I’ve often heard it said, “if you don’t like the weather in Glossop, just wait 5 minutes”. Whilst this perhaps represents unrealistic changeability, the sentiment holds up.
Many of us have now mastered the fine art of shoehorning our run between the fading hangover, and starting drinking again. But joking aside, whilst some of us are lucky enough to make opportunities in the current situation, whilst this is not our own choice I would add, front and centre of our minds should be the sterling work of all front line workers. From supermarkets to hospitals and everything in between, we salute you! (and applaud you)!
Great to see people out and about, and yet again some brilliant report fodder this week. Whilst we appear to have hit “challenge overload” this week, I’d like to think there’s more of this to come, keeping many of us sane in these strange times.
I’ll round off the intro with another cutting quote from the long suffering Mrs Crutchley. “What exactly are you training for Ian?”. “To be the best fell runner in the world” was my tongue in cheek reply. “Huh, you’ll never be the best fell runner in this house”!
GDH Team Relays
The second, or is it third week of our team relays, even orchestrator Marie Williamson was losing track towards the end of the week. With the simple and successful aim of getting us out, this time 6 teams were formed, with fresh runners nominated each day. The amiable Guy Riddell acted as substitute for seemingly anyone, on any team, every day as far as I could make out.
Below are the final numbers, and well done everyone again!
1st- team 6 with 118.15 miles & 21:21:59 hours of running.
2nd- team 2 with 110.8 miles & 19:03:27 hours of running
3rd- team 1 with 93.88 miles & 14:44:21 hours of running
4th- team 3 with 87.86 miles & 13:32:17 hours of running
5th- team 4 with 69.2 miles & 10:56:53 hours of running
6th- team 5 with 62.55 miles & 10:08:25 hours of running
Strava Leaderboard
So who’s been banging out the miles and vert this week? Some big numbers as always.
| Ladies Biggest Distance | Kirsty Sharp (60 Miles) |
| Jessica Camp (47.4 Miles) | |
| Emma Rettig (27.3 Miles) | |
| Mens Biggest Distance | Riccardo Guissani (96.6 Miles) |
| Paul Peters (75.1 Miles) | |
| Will Mather (57 Miles) | |
| Ladies Biggest Climb | Cheryl Stitt (4,756 ft) |
| Emma Rettig (3,435 ft) | |
| Jessica Camp (3,532 ft) | |
| Mens Biggest Climb | Robin Hoffman (10,176 ft) |
| Chris Webb ( 9,327 ft) | |
| Luke Holme (9,226 ft) |
Coaches Corner
Coach Jeroen’s insatiable appetite for you to achieve perfection continues….
NOT Coached Session Week 7 of Lockdown 11-17 May
In a kind of reversal from last week’s set where you started each rep fast and finished a little slower at the end, this week starts slower and speeds up as you progress through the set. Hence the phrase “progression” set 😲.
Also taking into account the difficulty that some runners had in programming their expensive, fancy GPS-enabled gadgets, this week is a really simple set of instructions 😃.
5/6 x 1000m starting at your 5K (race) pace + 30 seconds. After each rep, you take a 30-second, passive, break before the next 1K. You run each rep 5 seconds faster than the previous one. So, for example, if your 5K time is 22m15s or ~4m25s per kilometer, you run the first rep at 4m55s, the next one 4m50s etc.
If you do this on the Running Track it is easy as the markers give you an accurate 1000m section. However, you can easily adapt the set by running between 2 fixed points, about 1K apart. Google Earth has a valuable “Ruler” tool (use the “path” setting) that can help you find 2 points where you intend to complete this set.
As always, do not forget to warm up properly before you start, incorporating some drills such as:
* Skips
* High knees
* Butt kicks
* Toy soldiers (stretch hands out in front of you and try to kick your hands with a straight leg) while walking
* Walking lunges
As usual, provide feedback and share with others, how much you “enjoyed” the set 😁
Coach J
Covid-19 Haircut of the Week
With Tim Budd being permanently inducted into the Covid-19 Haircut Hall of Fame, we needed to look elsewhere for this weeks candidate. Fortunately we didn’t need to look far….
Predictably though, this feature is totally contrived in order to incorporate the below photographic gold, where the caption options were literally endless. Steve Crossman hit the nail on the head….
Other Stuff, and Spotted Out and About
I’ve spent half the day stalking you all on Strava and Facebook, and here follows a few selfies, cracking views, and just plain strange behavior.
More fancy dress running this week from Ben Roberson and Sikobe Litaba, and I am hard pressed to say which is the most disturbing / homoerotic image.
Wow. I love this outfit! 
Sikobe and the Moon
Ian and Ben Crutchley were caught red handed by Lance Hamilton Griffiths in Shittern Clough this week, doing a bit of “gardening” on the ludicrously steep direct line. I tried to explain that this was purely a safety measure, having nearly had my eyes out a few times on the overhanging dead branches. Lance didn’t believe a word, and whilst there is some truth here, the Strava segment happened to get just a little easier, and the Crown has since fallen. Ahem, guess who? Wait a minute, haven’t I just made it a bit easier for everyone else too? Doh!
Stevie Knowles continues his rich form. Since joining Strava at the start of lockdown, he is systematically stealing every crown in Glossop! Watch out!
The weekly GDH virtual quiz just gets better every week. The service at the Covid Arms, less so. The Wrens Nest Rebels host this week, having stole last weeks win based on impressive knowledge of Ancient Greece, the Eurovision Song Contest, and identifying running shoes from their soles. Can’t wait to see what obscure categories will be covered this week!
The Swan Rainbow on James Thorn 
Jess at Mellor Cross
John at Hough Hill. He’s been at the Bronzing Oil again 
Wormstones view by Lucy
Torside Ponies by Pete 
Guy on Werneth Low
Bottom of Doctiors Gate by Ree 
Far out man. Dan ventured to Grinah.
Loving the Race Number bunting – The Wasinski Homestead. 
Top o Combes by Sikobe
Resident nutcase Will Mather spent the best part of VE day doing some hill reps, raising a few more quid for Mummys Star in the process. When I say “some”, I mean, aptly, 75 of them, and outside his house on Tavern Road. Whilst I can only imagine the bemusement of the onlooking street party, Will achieved the target, amassing 29 miles and over 5,000ft in the process.
Finally, Josh Southall spotted that the FRA have published Martin Bagness’ excellent booklet on “Mountain Navigation for Runners”. At 19 pages with pictures, even navigational guru’s like Luke Holme can learn something. Seriously, this is an excellent and digestible summary of techniques involving map, compass and eyes. Have a read, be inspired, get your kit on, and get out on the hill!
Well, that’s about it for this week. Please, please keep posting what your up to. Stay sensible, stay safe, stay respectful. Look after yourselves and be kind to others! You are never alone!