49 days to go
Training update: another week closer to 62@62 and I’ve a couple more solid training and recce days in my legs. There have been lows and one humungous high.
It’s been a slightly fraught week as I’ve been plagued with sinusitis and also managed to upset one of my knees on a steep and unpleasant descent when I slipped and fell and it twisted awkwardly beneath me. A bit of rest and tlc and strapping it for support and we were good to go again today.
I’ve mentioned before that I have some demons to slay if I have any hope of achieving my challenge and that’s aside from the elevation and the distance. Several sections of my route require me to deal with areas which I perceive to be exposed and I freeze.
One of these sections has been causing me more angst than most and that is getting out onto this little lump of rock behind me in the photo. It’s called Steeple and I have tried it multiple times only to get to a point where the drop to the left paralyses my progress.
Today’s mission was to recce the part of my route that includes this peak. It’s not exactly the most accessible of places, necessitating a long hike and climb whichever approach you make.
Today became my longest training day so far but my greatest achievement was finally making it out to Steeple. I was with Joe @nav4adventure and with his encouragement and support I managed to follow his lead and pass the scariest point. I won’t pretend it was easy and I did have a little wobble. It takes a lot of mental energy focusing hard on making the small steps I was taking to follow the feet in front of me but I did it……all the while knowing that as this is a ‘there and back again’ peak, I was going to have to do it all again in about fifteen minutes. It won’t be easy the next time I do it but at least I now know that I can. Huge thanks to Joe for making it happen.
Other tops we covered today were High Stile, Haycock, Red Pike (Wasdale), Scoat Fell and Pillar 😊
Never let others put limits on what you can achieve