The solitude of the medium distance runner

 One song I've not been singing along to in my running this week has been..."climb every mountain"....so today the main ingredient would have to be  some hills.  Being Sunday, fancying a bit of a drive and looking for a run away from the maddening crowd and their canine friends...


 I went onto gmap-pedometer and found a route which looked  quite isolated , promisingly runnable and knowing the area,  likely to face me with some testing climbing. Driving north on a road to the left of Thruscoss reservoir which I had run along last week I soon discovered the "route" would be  out and back on fairly wide trail along the eastern boundary of the Bolton Abbey  Estate,with Barden fell to my right.
Barden Fell which becomes Barden Moor further to the west.
 With temperatures dipping and black clouds gathering overhead,  I did meet one lone walker almost immediately. His 2 young terriers peeked their heads out of the drainage ditch to my left but showed little interest as I ran downhill in the first mile.  But that was it for company this morning except for one lone mountain biker who raced towrds me downhill on the way back.  A ex- runner friend from nearby me in Ilkley who must have been surprised to see me coming towards him so many miles from home.
 The out and back 10 was really "just what the doctor  coach ordered".   Undulating with a capital "U".
Evidenced by the mile splits 
                    11.05   11.03   9.07   10.24   9.33   10.06   10.42   10.29   8.34   9.42
Yielding underfoot but not generally  too soft or muddy,  hilly but not severe.  Purists would criticise the few gates blocking the trail. But stopping at these gave me a chance to record the varying weather and scenery!
  Weather which at first looked threatening brightened up to give me some fantastic views on the return journey of the U.S. Memwith Hill base and the Thruscross and Fewston reservoirs which would have been very busy at this time with walking groups.
  I had measured the route  roughly  on gmap-pedometer last night and calculated I would be turning as I approached the  B6285 road between Hebden and Greenhow Hill, after about 5 miles.  In fact as I reached a gate within a yard of this road the garmin turned to 5.  A very runnable, undulating 10 miler which was good today but on a warm, sunny day with drier underfoot conditions will make a really great run.
  So a good end to another week of training.  Just 3 mile on the treadmill to start but picked up with some good solid maintenance runs , a good 20 x 300 track session in appalling conditions ending with this undulating 10 mile trail run today. Another 50 miles banked.