Cycle Biggar, Broughton, Dawyck

A nice gentle cycle of around 20 miles from Dawyck to Biggar via Broughton and back again by different quiet roads. A really pleasant route. Stopped for coffee and scones in Biggar.

Deuchary Hill Canter

I missed the hill race last Sunday as my feet were blistered after the race the previous day. So a week later I decided to travel the route as it is one of the nicest most scenic races on the calendar.

Headed out early on Sunday morning to arrive in Dunkeld around 10 am. My aim was for a gentle canter but my legs had no energy at all and it turned out to be a walk for about 90% of the journey. The weather was fantastic and it was a really pleasant outing.

Birnam Hill Race - SHR Champs - Short

First race in 6 race Scottish Championship Series. Today was a short race from Birnam/Dunkeld up to the summit of Birnam Hill and back. The climb up to the top wasn't too bad - just too steep to run so a fast paced walk most of the way to a long muddy plateau at the top. The route continued down the far side of the hill on mud and grass before contouring back around the south side of the hill. A long descent on stony path at pace resulted in blister appearing and the last mile or so over undulating terrain was tough after putting in such a hard effort on previous sections. A good hard effort and was pretty pleased with my performance.

Race time was 48 mins 24 secs and 164% of the winning time. Placed 180 of 241.

SOL 2 - Pitlochry

Out on the blue course today. As always the SOL events prove to be really challenging. Navigation was generally OK this time round but the terrain was so rough with fallen trees everywhere that progress was very slow. Got round in 1 hr 26 minutes.

Risk Minds

A week in Amsterdam at the Risk Minds Insurance Conference. A long time to be sitting listening to talks ! I was presenting on the Thursday with numbers dwindling by that stage of the event.

Hill walk with Max - Crianlarich

We had planned a long munro bagging expedition for a while and headed out to Crianlarich to see what was possible. The cold weather this winter and early spring meant that most of the hills were still covered in snow and we weren't equipped for full on winter walking.

In the end we were able to walk up to about 700 m and with the summit not too far away had to turn back. We also did a short walk at the head of Loch Lomond (pictured).

SOL 1- Gullane Dunes

A day out helping at the Interlopers run orienteering event at Gullane. A lot of standing about and didn't feel like racing at the end so went for a short run along the coast. Nice area and worth planning a walk there at some point.

Scribble

Joined Hannah to watch her short play being performed at the Traverse Theatre. Great stuff.

Spring Fling

Well done Hannah. Awesome drumming at the James Gillespie High School Spring Fling.

Bishop Hill Race

A short sharp hill race in Fife. Hannah joined me to spectate at the run. The weather turned out to be quite nice and the race course was excellent. The climb always feels like its a long was but probably only lasted about 20 minutes before a quick descent. Nice tea and scones afterwards. Running time 29 mins 15 secs.

Gran Canaria

Another winter week in Gran Canaria at our usual and favourite location - the Lopesan Costa Meloneras. It's a nice big 4* hotel with great pools and plenty of pleasant palm tree shaded space around the pools. Also lots of activities every day from crazy golf to shuffleboard. Nice restaurants nearby on the promenade.

We didn't venture very far from the hotel. On our one attempt to escape to the capital city the bus journey was so twisty and windy that Hannah was ill after about 45 minutes and we had to jump off the bus and walk back to the hotel (although we ended up getting a taxi after Cherry twisted her ankle).

A nice easy break and good to get away from the horrible weather.

Walk John Muir Country Park

A walk of around 6 miles from Foxlake through the John Muir Country Park to the Bridge to Nowhere and back. Lovely sunny morning but cold. Had lunch at the Waterside Bistro in Haddington afterwards.

Orienteering at Riccarton and Dalkeith

A busy schedule of orienteering over the weekend. On Saturday there was urban style orienteering at the Heriot Watt university campus. Fast and furious and still confusing even after having run there many times.

A longer event at Dalkeith on Sunday. Relatively straightforward but with quite a lot of running. Did reasonably well.

Happy 50th Birthday Cherry

Cherry is 50 ! We had a nice weekend away in Glasgow. Visited the Kelvingrove Museum to see an Alasdair Gray exhibition, went for a nice tea at the Ox and Finch and then saw Jimmy McGregor in concert at the Mackintosh Church.

The next morning we walked along the river to the Botanic Gardens and then had lunch at the Oran Mor before heading home.

Feel The Burns

Ran in the fantastic Feel the Burns race from Selkirk Rugby Club up into the snow covered borders hills. It is generally a lovely route with modest climbs at reasonable gradients and some great long runnable descents. Snow covered about 98% of the course today but for the most part it was very runnable and only in 1 or 2 places becoming icy and slippy.

After an extended flu and a slow recovery I was very nervous about my fitness and ability to complete a length race like this (over 20 km and 890 m of climb) in a decent time. As usual I started off at a slow pace but with the steady ascent Heart Rate was quickly up to 160 bpm. Used the heart rate monitor to try and guide my pace and effort level and maintained an average of 156 over the 2.5 hours.

The snow on the photo was fairly typical of most of the course. Dropped down to a walking pace up the first hill. At the summit the strong wind made it very cold but made good progress down the descent passing quite a few runners many of whom were in trainers. The course undulated up and down for quite some time. I reached the turn in pretty good shape and then enjoyed one of the nicest long descents in scottish hill running being at the perfect slope to make you feel fast but never need to break.

At around the 3/4 mark there is a hard steep ascent which is pretty unwelcome after 2 hours of running. It didn't take too long however and was pleased to keep running for the last mile of so back to the starting point.

A little slower than last year but came ahead of a few runners who can often beat me. 161% of the winning time. Pleased with the effort and really enjoyed the well organised and well marshalled event.

Great Winter Run

Nice run in the Great Winter Run round Holyrood park. Not a great time as still recovering a bit from flu.

Portobello Promathon

Ran again at the great new years race on Portobello Promenade. Ran a slow steady pace for a very poor time as I still had the tail end of a nasty flu.

Glasgow 3 Parks 2014

One of my favourite events of the year suffered from very cold weather. It was snowing before the first race but eased off before the start. Springburn Park was venue for race 1 and I did a pretty flawless run round the very simple course. Time was pretty good.

Race 2 moved onto Glasgow Green for another extremely easy and short run. At least that is what I thought until discovering like many others that I had mispunched chosing the obvious control at a fence corner when the correct control was a short distance away behind a small slope. Very disappointed and ended up at the back of the chasing start of the last race as a result.

Race 3 was Cathkin Braes a tricky venue where I have struggled badly in the past. Control 1 was difficult and took a while to locate. 1 other major error later on meant a poor time overall.

A great event again even if the weather wasn't the nicest.

Foxtrails Winter Series Race at Dunbar

Great run this morning at Dunbar in the FoxTrail Winter Running Series. Nice course through John Muir Country Park with good marshalling and signage. Just the right number of runners - never crowded but always some-one within 30 m ahead. Pleased with my time of just under 1 hr 10 mins over 13 km of muddy trail. 21st race of the year (or 44th counting orienteering races).

SOSOL at The Hirsel

A short trek down to Coldstream for the 4th South of Scotland Orienteering League event of the year. It was nice parkland for this event which made for reasonably easy and fast running. It was cold but the sun shone making for a very pleasant event. Second last (of 9) on the longest course.

Miami

Work took me to Miami to speak at a conference so I tagged on a weekend at Miami Beach. Tough eh! 

Dumyat Dash

Nice run at Dumyat on a new shorter course. The race starts in Menstrie at the southern foot of the Ochils. The race started with a steep lung busting climb and then a section of around a km skirting the hill before a long painful climb to the summit at 418 m height. Great downhill charge back to the start again.

Results not in yet but felt I'd done reasonably well.