So I’ve been a bit rubbish at updating this blog over the past months not for any specific reason except with all the Running we’ve been doing and the festive period in the middle we’ve not done any fishing or even been out for a ‘proper’ walk. But it’s not all been about sitting in front of the Log Burner and eating cake, although there has been quiet a lot of that as the wind howled during December and January.

October started with Wendy doing the Rivington Half Trail Marathon which I’d done last year, we had a few friends running it as well so it was good to support them as well as Wendy. Unlike last year the conditions were exceptionally muddy, making some sections almost un-runnable but everyone finished and its always good to catch up with friends.

We spend a long weekend in a cottage in Maentwrog, Snowdonia where we had a few sunny days as well as the obligatory mist and rain that seems to occur every day in Snowdonia unless it’s the height of summer. Although it was more of a relax and do nothing type of break we still Managed to get a trail run in at Coed-y-Brenin and I managed a long(ish) run in preparation for my marathon later in the month.

Hearing the sound of the steam engines as they meandered up through the valley towards Ffestiniog we also visited the station close to where we were staying for tea and cake only to find it was a ‘Victorian’ themed day so as well as having a bite to eat we got to watch a lot of trains going up and down the tracks manned by people in period costume, it was great.

The last weekend of October saw me and a few friends doing the Montane Trail 26 Rivington Trail Marathon which although I’d run bits of the route before was still fairly brutal, but I enjoyed it and learned a few things about distance running in the process.

A Couple of fancy dress runs at the end of the month to celebrate Halloween. One with SRC Chorley, the other our local Cuerden Valley parkrun and it was on with November.

November was a fairly quiet month. We did the usual parkruns as well as a couple of trail runs one of which we managed to start (and finish) at The Chocolate Rooms, our favourite local coffee, cake and lunch stop, which was very popular with our friends. The major event of November was picking up a new Bike for Wendy from All Terrain Bikes over in Saltaire, it’s a Liv Invite 1 cyclocross bike and it’s fantastic even if it does have pink handlebar tape.

With Christmas approaching, December was a time to not spend anything, although we still managed to buy enough bits and pieces to keep ourselves happy. I almost managed to run every day in advent for the #adventrunning challenge but messed it up with two days to go when I pushed to far to try and get 1000 miles in for the year. Decembers runs were short, the weather was awful, which was a bit of a pain for Wendy as she was trying to train for a duathlon (run, bike, then run again), but the homemade ginger biscuits were great and the log burner was warm. Christmas was Great.

The new year started with an icy trail run with Chorley SRC but it was also dominated once more by the wind as Wendy tried desperately to get out on the bike. I managed some good longer runs around the local river bank and half way through January saw the first lambs of the year! I’m not sure who was more shocked, me to see them or them to be outside in the horizontal hail. A couple of easy runs and some fast ones as training set us both up for our next race, Southport Maddog 2015, A Game of Bones.