Pavane

So here is a peaceful song for a peaceful run. On Sunday I ran a slow 40 minute recovery run. Usually for my recovery run I just run slowly for the set time, but this time I used the heart rate monitor on my Garmin to set my pace... If I'm correct, and I could be wrong because I'm still getting to grips with using a HRM for training, recovery runs should be at 50%-60% of the max heart rate and I found out for me that's slightly faster than a brisk walk/jog (omg embarassing!) and I have been running too quickly on my recovery runs to fully benefit from them. So I ran slower and it was a lot harder than I thought to keep my heart rate down. And today was a rest day so there's little more to report on the training front.

But going back to hiking in the Peak District. On the first day we walked in the Hope Valley up Losehill, along the Great Ridge to Mam Tor and back down to Castleton and it was beautiful.

The second day we did one of the most famous Peak District walks - Kinder Scout from Edale. The route we followed can be found here.

We started around lunchtime, having had a lazy breakfast of American pancakes and general faffage.

Grindsbrook, near the start of the walk. In this little valley we were met with two ways around a steep hillock at the side of Grindsbrook - along the rocky beck or over the top of the hillock - and a very kind man all in green told us they both met up after it, but the way scrambling over the rocks in Grindsbrook was more fun so we followed that.

After following Grindsbrook Clough for a while you come to the last ascent onto the Kinder Plateau, a scramble that looks formadible but which is easier than it looks with lots of well-rooted boulders to climb up. This site has much better pictures than I of tha part of the walk in much better weather too! We overtook a family who were climbing it with their children. One of the girls was just 6 years old and she was bouncing up it, how amazing is that?

After that we headed across the Kinder Plateau for Kinder Downfall. On the map it looks fairly straightforward - follow the path across a flat bit. Only we lost the path. And had to scramble around peat bogs intercut by gullies where streams flowed in order to find the path again.

On Kinder Plateau

After that we headed for Kinder Downfall - a waterfall that plunges off the edge of the Kinder Plateau and down into the valley below. Only it would if it wasn't so windy it was being blown back up onto the plateau.

Kinder Downfall.

Sheep sheltering at the top of Kinder Downfall.

The sheep around Kinder Downfall were among the friendliest I've ever met, in fact they're the only friendly sheep I've ever met - they must be used to walkers feeding them sandwiches.

We were dog tired by the time we got back to the farm, but ready to walk through the Manifold Valley to Thor's Cave on the Sunday.