UKH

Just thought I'd post to say that on Friday I "ran" the Welsh 3000s, after much posting looking for advice on training, kit, route and every other aspect of it! Thanks to everyone who gave advice.

I set off at 4:30am from Pen Y Pas, got to Snowdon at 6am, got to Foel Fras about 5pm so 11 hours "peak to peak", took several more hours to get back to the car at the Aber car park next to the A55, so 14 hours all in door to door. The whole route was about 52.8km with 3,944m of ascent.

Weather was mainly cloudy with relatively little visibility, but there were some points where it cleared and you got a nice view and a bit of sunshine to break it up.

It definitely felt like a run of two halves - gruelling up-hill trudges but then pleasant running across the Carneddau. A lot of the first part of the route was scrambling or too rocky to run on as well. I can't begin to imagine how the record times are set that are sub 5 hours!

I carried all my food, spare layers etc. in my running pack, re-filled water twice from streams. Was very fed up with gels and Clif bloks by the end of it.

Legs were getting cramps by the ascent up to Glyder Fawr so I had to be careful not doing too big steps up from then on because I got cramps several times which stopped me in my tracks.

I was still running by the end so it was definitely the height gain not the distance that killed me, but I probably only ran 1/4 of it.

I can't say the experience has made me desperate to do more mountain ultras, but my legs are still very sore so maybe I'll feel differently when they're better!

Now I've finished my goal (and training programme) I'm wondering what to do with my new found fitness before it ebbs away, or wondering how to maintain it without such a demanding training programme. I thought I might go for a flat marathon PB, or try some longer routes in the Peak District like the Derwent watershed etc.

Annoyingly I was using my Garmin Fenix 6x for navigation and after less than 1/3rd of the way in the watch had gone from 100% charge to about 65% charge... but it's advertised as having something like 60hours + GPS battery life. So I had to watch it the whole rest of the route and every time there was an obvious path or I knew the exact way I was switching it to ultra trac mode with longer battery life, by the time I finished the watch had about 14% battery life. Really annoying and a clear lesson not to rely 100% on technology.

Bravo !

Fantastic,  well done.

Nice one. I'd followed your posts in the run up as I was thinking of walking it this summer but I've not managed to find the time yet. 

Interesting about the Fenix 6 too. That's what I wear and had assumed it would be fine for the whole duration of the Welsh 3000.

Great effort  

Nice one.I walked the W3000's 20 years ago and I still remember my knees being inexplicably buggered at the end.

Re your fenix...

https://gadgetsandwearables.com/2022/05/19/garmin-fenix-6-battery-drain/

I think the issue is not solved yet.

Great effort Elliot.

Give it a few days of recovery and I'm sure you'll be planning your next mountain ultra

Look forward to hearing about whatever that is, as/when you decide.

Good work! I think I chipped in a couple of bits of dubious advice, glad we collectively got you round ...oh and a contribution from your legs too

Well done lad. Looks as if you got it done just in time - wouldn't fancy it today! Have a look at some of these, many can be cut down to suit.  https://www.gofar.org.uk/

Good job!

With regards to your watch... I find it saves battery life by not staying on the map screen constantly as its quite battery intensive to update. Switch to another data screen when you arent specifically looking at the map and that should help with the battery drain. The figures they advertise are for just looking at the data screens, not the map constantly hence the difference!

Good effort.

You can charge the watch up on the go. Just take it off and plug into a power pack. You lose the HR stats for that bit, but you can still save the entire route and use other functions such as maps.

Well done! Was a bit concerned about the amount of food you expected to eat, now you know why.

My Fenix 6 pro seems to drain at a higher than expected rate, about 60% in 12 hours, and I suspected map use was the main culprit - plus the backlight every time you switch screens. I have the TalkyToaster map but have now started to turn all maps off and just used saved locations for the summits and look at OS maps on the phone if necessary. My old Garmin 920xt was saying 'battery low' all along the Carneddau, it finally went blank as I pressed stop on Foel Fras! It had managed to save everything though... I shall use at least two Garmins when I finally get round to the JNLC next year (fingers crossed).

Recommend the Derwent Watershed, especially clockwise and after this heat has dried all the bogs up - might have a go myself, with a sub-12hr target.

Congratulations that's a big achievement.

I did the WK3 in 1 day whilst at university c.20 years ago....keep meaning to do it again, maybe when my kids get older and probably over two days!

Congrats!

Well done, great run !

There are a couple of things you can do to help preserve battery whilst using maps for navigation :-

a) North Up v True Up - if you use True Up ( which most people do ) then every time you change direction slightly it has to re-draw the map screen ( so your direction of travel is straight ahead ). So if you just stop, turn round to look at the view, then turn back again, it will have re-drawn the screen twice - this uses a fair bit of juice, and is doing this constantly if you're not moving in a straight line. You can change to North Up, but most don't like this option, so a more acceptable option is only have the map screen showing when you actually need to use it to navigate. If you're on a section when you don't need it, switch to another screen. You'll still get the turn ahead arrow alert if coming to a junction.

b) there are Display options, where the display just comes on for a few seconds when you press any button, then goes blank again. If you consider you probably only look at the watch face <5% of the time you're running, do you need it to be constantly in display mode ? If battery running low, is it too much effort to tap one of the buttons each time? A slight inconvenience, yes, but maybe acceptable ?

Well done, I did it many, many years ago before metrication so didn't bother going over Garnedd Uchaf, the 200m diversion from the main path (which used to cut the slight corner) seemed like a long way and unnecessary right near the end - it still bugs me a bit ☹️

The biggest muscular problem I had was that the downhill running destroyed my quads, had to alternate jogging and walking down to Aber falls.

Your next challenge is surely the Lakes 3000's, flatter but further, less rough terrain overall I think so more opportunity for running.

Edit: was pre metrication so actually a 219 yard diversion 😁