A weekend in the lakes

This weekend, I decided to avoid the temptation of running Great Hucklow to complete the gritstone series and risk damaging my ankle more....however my avoidance tactic involved going to the lakes and on Friday I found myself at the start of the montane 100mile race cheering on Shelf and his crazy racing. There was some free physio to be had and afterward my ankle felt much looser!
So when Lingmell Dash was suggested on Saturday I was there! A quick 4.5mile race straight up and down Lingmell from the Wasdale Head Inn. I figured I could always race up and see how downhill went, I could always walk. The cloud was right down and it was quite wet and windy on top.... I felt really strong on the climb (I deffinately like what cycling has done to me) but even so, it was a relief when Joe Symonds ran past on his way down, closely followed by Jethro Lennox dressed as a fairy (stag do). I reached the top not long after in 41mins. I headed off downhill, the first part was quite gentle, although I couldnt really see where I was going, so I maintained a reasonable pace. Half way down I looked at my watch and realised I could get the record if I was lucky. The last bit of downhill got very steep! And slippy! I was sensible and had to go quite slowly at this bit so when I hit the bottom I sprinted for home (well until my watch went over 60mins), and ran into the finish (which was a lot further along the road than I remembered) in 61:17, 1min 17 off the record. I love this race! Straight up, straight down, perfect! Will have to have another go (in the sun?) next year!
As my ankle felt fine before/after and on most of the descent, and there was a sign to Kentmere from Wheelbase (where I spent money on shiney bike parts), we happened to end up in Kentmere on Sunday for the Kentmere Horseshoe. This 12mile loop looked tempting as I hadn't run around many of the hills before. I set off without my usual speed but warmed up about 1 or 2 miles in and started pushing hard up the steeper bits of climb. I felt comfortable up Ill Bell and on to high street, then there was the first bit of downhill and I lost a few places. Up to Kentmere Pike went ok, then there was a long descent and it all went to pot! I ran slowly down the first bit which was soft and bog like, then it got more rocky and I basically walked to the bottom. I expected to have to walk at some point and it wasn't a disaster as I hadn't seen another woman for the entire race, so I ran into the finish as 2nd lady (a bit further off the record this time) which I don't think would have been any different after racing Saturday as well!
It seems my ankle is quite strong as it got twisted all over the place this weekend and coped with that well, but it is still sore on hard downhill impacts. Hopefully I'll get a bit more physio and it'll be fixed in no time!