Very brief TR:
In a few weeks I'm taking part in a 55 mile race around my local hills; I did the race last year but wanted to do a bit more recceing of the route, I figured this would make a good exucse for an overnight trip.
I started from home which is about 10 miles and a couple of hills away from the beginning of the race route. The weather was overcast with temperatures in the high teens(C). The ace route can be split roughly into two legs, the outward leg travels more along the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park, taking in a couple of peaks, until the westernmost "proper" peak of the NP. From there you turn around and begin the return leg, a more direct route but with steeper/bigger hills in the way.
I tried to focus on walking fast and only ran the downhills and some of the flats. Day 1 ended up being 42.7 miles with 11,000ft of climbing which I compelted in just over 12 hours (about 3.5mph).
I felt pretty good on the morning of day 2 but I knew I'd be slower and expected an average speed of 3mph. The weather was similar to day 1 and I was going well until 22 miles in when I pulled off my shoes and socks and found some bad blisters on my toes; my right achilles was also very sore so I made it 6 more miles down to the road where I phoned for a lift. I averaged the 28.5 miles (6500ft) at about 3.2mph.
I can't upload pictures at the moment but I'll try to get some up later.
Gear:
I used my UD Fastpack 20 without the framesheet; this worked pretty well and once I had it all cinched down it was very stable. My shoulders did hurt quite alot but I don't know if that's just me or if I was carrying too much weight (6kg+ with full food and water) or if I didn't have it correctly adjusted. Otherwise, very impressed with it.
I used a 2L Camelbak and a 700ml bottle up front. This meant that I didn't have to stop at all during the day to refill water. When I did eventually refill my Camelbak it was very simple to scoop water up from stream and just drop in a couple of ClO2 tabs. I mixed the water in my bottle with flavouring/energy powder, this worked well. Downsides are that it is a bit heavy when full and the water in the Camelbak gets disgustingly warm sitting against my back. Maybe some reflectix inbetween?
Neoair Xlite and Exped UL Air Pillow were super comfortable and I had a great night's sleep.
I took a 1kg tent, couldn't be bothered with trekking poles. I like having an inner too. Lots of condensation, otherwise fine and dandy.
Weather was pretty benign so standard clothing really: shorts and t-shirt during the day, thermals and down jacket at night.
Cookset: Fire Maple gas stove and Toaks 550ml Ti pot, boiled 400ml of water, that's it.
This is a bit rushed but I'll try to add some more later and maybe do a full TR on my blog.
Thanks,
