Happening in Haxby: the hills are alive….

FOUR weeks in, and I’d not even SEEN a hill, apart from the small bump where the footpath crosses the A64 while out with Michael and the babe in the pram. So yesterday I set off in search of inclines, and found myself in the Howardian Hills at Yearsley Woods. It’s rather lovely, mostly pine trees, with lots of little and big paths, a bit like Whinlatter Forest only less steep, with fewer people and no cafe.

I have been running, honestly, three or four times a week, but always on the flat, sometimes wading through thick clarty clay on paths which will be lovely in spring and summer, sometimes on the pavement (the roads round here are really quiet). So I thought I had a basic level of fitness, and indeed I managed to run – very slowly – for 90 minutes even though everything seemed to hurt. Was this because of my dear, neglected Innov-8s after several weeks of being a wuss in comfy, cushioned Hokas (of which I now have TWO pairs)? The hills were runnable, at least at my pace which, as some of you will know, is slower than that of a fast walker, on Loughrigg Brow anyway.

But then I woke in the night with pain EVERYWHERE but especially calves and quads. The very bits that remained unscathed when my feet and knees moaned about weekly jaunts up Loughrigg.

I only did Loughrigg once a week, but thinking about my other runs in and around Ambleside, they were all steep (Lily Tarn, High Sweden Bridge) apart from the Wednesday morning jolly trot along the lakeshore with the fabulous team from Wray Runners. Ooops, sorry Alison Dixon, Robin HillTracey ThornleyHelen BradleyPeta Rowand and co, I meant “flat out hard session” not jolly trot.

So this is the effect of just four weeks without hills, and never was “use it or lose it” more apt. I’m determined now to get out and find hills once a week, and there’s a delight in spreading maps all over the sitting room floor, maps of unknown territory waiting to be explored. And there’s always parkrun; so where am I heading this Saturday? Goole. Which has an elevation deficit of 7ft, allegedly. Suggestions, please, if you know north and east Yorkshire, of places with hills, big or small.

Here’s the respective elevations for Yearsley Woods, Lily Tarn and Loughrigg.