Training log · Shropshire Hills

The Long Mynd Hike
78 days out

80km, 2,990m of climbing, starting and finishing at Church Stretton on 3 October 2026 — tracked from every run, walk and ride logged on Strava since 6 April.

6 APR — training window opens 3 OCT — Long Mynd Hike, 80km / 2,990m

78DAYS

To race day

1,019km

Covered since 6 Apr

20,973m climbed

≈ 7× the race's ascent

51.7km

Longest run — Sandstone 50K

Weekly training load

15 weeks · run / walk / ride, with elevation overlay

Run + trail run Walk Ride Elevation gain (line)

Two soft weeks stand out: w/c 11 May, easing off after the Sandstone 50K and Terrex Half Marathon Trail back-to-back, and w/c 8–15 Jun, an all-walking block while an ankle niggle settled — running resumed in full at the Lawley Leap on 5 Jul.

Longest run per week, vs race distance

target: 80km on the day

The Sandstone Trail Challenge 50K (10 May) remains the longest single effort to date at 65% of race distance. The LDWA Tour des Marches on 12 Sep is pencilled in as the peak training effort before a taper into race day on 3 Oct.

Candidate training hikes

self-guided, Aug/Sep — not race entries

Route	Terrain	Distance	Climb	Timing
Stretton Skyline route Ragleth, Caer Caradoc, The Lawley, back up the Long Mynd — again, with Emily HOME TURF	Follows the FRA fell race course, 5 major climbs	~19mi / 30km	~1,370m	Self-guided, whenever suits — no need to chase a race entry
LDWA Tour des Marches Wistanstow → Clun → Bishop's Castle → Wistanstow PEAK WEEK	Undulating, runnable — distance over climb	26mi / 42km (18 or 12mi options)	modest	12 Sep — the long day already pencilled in as peak training effort, 3 weeks before race day
Edale Skyline route Lose Hill, Mam Tor, Brown Knoll, Kinder Low, Win Hill AWAY DAY	Peak District — rougher, boggier than Shropshire	~21mi / 34km	~1,300m	The race runs in March anyway — good excuse for a self-guided long day, worth an early alarm from Ironbridge

Between them these cover the two things still missing from the log: a genuinely long day (Tour des Marches, ~26mi) and back-to-back steep climbing that mirrors the Mynd itself (Stretton Skyline, Edale Skyline). Stretton Skyline is the obvious one to slot in soonest since it's on home ground, doubles as a dry run for the final climb of race day, and gets a repeat outing with Emily.

Standout sessions

by distance

Date	Session	Dist.	Climb
10 May	Sandstone Trail Challenge Lifetime 50K PR RACE	51.7km	1,020m
25 Apr	Corvedale Cake Run Lilywood Hill	35.7km	943m
10 Apr	Stretton Summits Round Nine summits, including Long Mynd — Pole Bank itself	29.4km	1,274m
16 May	Adidas Terrex Half Marathon Trail Six days after the 50K RACE	25.8km	681m
5 Jul	Lawley Leap Six summits, 9 PRs — running back at full tilt	21.5km	950m
17 Apr	Morning Trail Run Steady mid-week long run	22.2km	534m

Open decisions

Footwear, still undecided

Two contenders for 80km on the Shropshire Hills' boggiest, rockiest ridgeline. Worth settling well before the Tour des Marches so there's time to break them in on a long run.

Terrex Agravic Ultra Built for the distance, less cushion over 12+ hours grip-first

Free Hiker SL More underfoot protection, hiking-boot support comfort-first

Pacing zones & gear on record

from Strava's current settings

Heart rate zones (estimated from age — not lab-tested)

Zone	BPM	For the Hike
Z1	<121	Recovery — most of the back half of an 80km day
Z2	122–151	All-day aerobic — the target zone for climbing sections
Z3	152–166	Tempo — fine in short bursts, not sustainable at km 60
Z4	167–180	Threshold
Z5	181+	Max

Worth a real lab or field test before race day — an age-estimated max heart rate can be well off, and it's the number the whole pacing plan for a 12+ hour day would hang off.

Run pace zones

From recent performance predictions (best effort: 5K in 20:52, estimated).

Z1 Easy	slower than 5:49/km
Z2	5:00–5:49/km
Z3	4:29–5:00/km
Z4	4:12–4:29/km
Z5+	faster than 4:12/km

Shoes on record

Both pairs currently logged in Strava are retired — neither the Agravic Ultra nor the Free Hiker SL has any tracked mileage yet, so that decision is still wide open with zero data pull either way.

Brooks Cascadia 16 471.6km retired

Brooks Caldera 6 325.1km retired