PoppyScotland Sportive

A very early 6.15 alarm call to get to Prestonpans and ready to ride by 8 am. The day started well with temperatures relatively pleasant and partially clouded skies but enough light to make the East Lothian coastline look fantastic. The ride out to North Berwick was flat and easy without pushing too hard. After North Berwick it was inland towards East Linton for the first food station. After a short break for a giant flapjack it was on to the hilly section with a long hard climb into the Lammermuirs. Pleased to stay on the bike the whole way as there were quite a few riders hoping off to walk the steep bits.

The second stop was in Gifford. Food choice wasn't great - would really have killed for a coffee and a cheese sandwich but it was really just sugary flapjacks on offer.

The last 22 miles was surprisingly hilly. Out to Humbie before homeward bound via Cousland and any other high spot the route planner could find. I didn't feel on great form. Legs possibly a bit stiff from Body Pump two days before and it was also a big longer and hillier than anything I've done in a while.

68 miles, 1500 m of climb in just over 5 hours moving time on the bike. A good Sunday morning.

SOSOL at Cademuir

First non-urban orienteering in ages at Cademuir in Peebles. Generally feeling pretty solid with new HOKA shoes with maximum cushioning to help reduce any aches and pain in the legs. For the most part it was decent navigation on a fairy easy course but I managed to ignore control 6 and go straight to 7 then 8 before finally remembering to do 6 (and then 7 and 8 again). About an hour running on the Green course.

Peebles Duathlon

Very early start leaving the house and heading for Peebles at 7.20 am arriving at 8 am. Registered and then set up my bike in the transition area.

3 mile run was a pleasant 2 loops of a park running close to the Tweed. Lots of ups and downs and steps making it a little more challenging. Tried to keep a nice steady pace and heart race - no point pushing too early in what would be a long morning. Finished the first section in 28 mins 23 secs.

Transition to bike went fairly smoothly. There was a fair distance of pushing the bike in the road shoes which wasn't ideal.

The bike felt almost like a rest compared to the running. It was a pretty familiar stretch of road between Peebles and Traquair with some climbs but nothing too series. Completed the 12 miles in 42 mins 51 secs and an average speed of around 17 mph. 

Transition to run was slow but fine although brain was barely functioning at this stage so pleased to have left with everything I needed. Downed 2 gels at this point. Had only just taken in enough water on the cycle and there were no drinks on offer on the final run.

The second run leg was pretty tough at first. The cycle does something to your legs that makes the run feel very strange. Needed to just focus on a slow steady jog to get back into the running zone again which I finally did by halfway through the second lap with about a mile to go. Was able to push on quite well at the point and finish fairly strongly.

Medal, water and snacks provided at the finished. Very pleased with the outing which went very well.

Meadows 5K

First road race in quite a while. Paid my £2 for the Sri Chinmoy 5k route the Meadows. Locked into sync with Kenny and helped push each other along for most of the second half of the race. Finish time was a reasonable 24 mins 17 secs.

Lets Ride - Tour of Britain

The Tour of Britain cycle race was starting in Edinburgh today. Went down to the Meadows to watch the cyclists go speeding by (twice). The cyclists are past in a flash. The motorbikes and team cars with bikes on top and probably more interesting to watch.

 

Afterwards Cherry and I went out for a 4.5 km closed road loop around the centre of edinburgh. A good crowd of people out and a pleasant easy paced ride. First time Cherry has been on the bike in quite a while.

Dinner with Max & Cherry in the evening at Pizza Express. Hannah is in Disneyland Paris with her Birmingham friends.

Eliburn Orienteering

I was the planner at the Interlopers Come and Try It event at Eliburn Park Livingstone. A busy day spent putting out and taking in the controls and wandering round deterring anyone from stealing them.

The courses seemed to go down well and it was a nice afternoon.

Ben Challum

Hired a car and headed off to a munro just North of Crianlarich. This is officially one of the wettest places in the country which explains why it has been so hard to spot good weather windows in this part of the world.

The weather was good as expected at the start with a pleasant walk up the hill on fairly pleasant terrain and after the first steep climb a section with a bit of a path leading to the top. It was extremely windy at the summit and the weather started to turn just after I reached it. Any thoughts of extending the walk to 3 hills were quickly dropped with the weather and the potential route looking daunting.

Once off the top the conditions weren't too bad and it was even getting warm and sunny again by the time I reached the bottom.

Tour of Tweeddale

50 mile cycle ride from Peebles. Good strong effort getting round the course in 3 hrs and 5 minutes of cycling. 2 cake and soup stops en route.

Walk to Corstorphine Walled Garden

A very short walk with Les from his house to the very pleasant nearby walled garden.

Oldhamstocks Flower Show and Hill Race

Cherry and Colin headed out to the small village of Oldhamstocks inland from Dunbar.

Colin ran in the 4 mile hill race. As hill races go it is a pretty gentle affair with only a very modest climb and generally pretty good surface under foot the whole way. Very pleasant running. Got round in about 37 minutes and finished in reasonably good shape.

Afterwards we enjoyed the show with exhibits of fruit and veg and a number of stalls for local goods and crafts. A very pleasant rural event.

Festival

On Thursday night Cherry and Colin headed down to Musselburgh to see Dougie MacLean at the Brunton Theatre. We've seen Dougie quite a few times and he always puts on a nice show. The set and the sing alongs are becoming a little bit too familiar though.

On Sunday the four of us went to see John Hegley. A bit like Dougie he was pretty good but what may have been new and innovative 25 years ago was fun but not that exciting. More sing-a-longs in this show as well.

Cherry and Colin went along to see a Virtual Reality (mixed with some live performance) at CodeBase. We tried on our Google VR masks which had a Samsung Galaxy phone placed in the eyeset to provide the VR experience. I have to say the technology was pretty unimpressive with a fairly pixelated display and nothing in the show that was particularly interesting to look at.

A quick dinner at Petit Paris on the Grassmarket on the way home.

Beinn Chabhair

I had one remaining Crianlarich munro to complete and planned a long day out to get there.

A start at Strathyre was followed by a 13 miles cycle ride along quiet roads then landrover tracks in the later parts. Good weather, two lakes and lovely valley made for a very pleasant ride.

The climb to the munro summit felt tough. I guess I was pretty quick up but the legs weren't in great form for the latter parts of the climb. The route down was pretty grotty as well. This was very much the rarely taken back route into the hill.

A nice ride back to the start made for a good 5 and a half hours of exercise and another munro ticked off.

Northern Ireland

A nice trip to Bangor to visit Maxwell and Liz. Flew over on Thursday lunchtime and had lunch at Liz's in Groomsport before going for a walk along the shore.

Dinner in the evening at the Wheathill on Grays Hill.

On Friday we had a visit to Titanic and then dinner out at the Old Inn Groomsport.

Flight home on Saturday morning.

Triathlon Try Out

My entry is in for the New Years Day Triathlon. I had a go at the course on Saturday morning.

400 m swim in 10 min 26
3 Laps of Holyrood park on the bike in 48 mins 06
1 Laps on foot in 33 min 18

Pretty comfortable with the effort and a very good exercise session.

Dunkirk & Kyloe

Family cinema trip to see Dunkirk and steak dinner at Kyloe afterwards. Cherry and Colin tried their first Chateaubriand.

Cruach Ardrain and Beinn Tulaichean

With the weather forecast looking great I headed off at about 9 am towards Crianlarich for some munro bagging. Arrived and ready to go at about midday with the weather looking decidedly dodgy with thick cloud all around and no sign of the sun.

The walk headed under the railway and then up a good path on the wrong side of a river. I missed the recommended turnoff up the mountain seduced by the easy going on the path and finally took a sharp left and up the steep hillside when the path came to an end. It was tough going over steep grassy ground. It felt like a bad route at the time but after going back down the "correct" way I'm not so sure.

Finally arrived at the path at a height of around 750 m and headed up the rough track to the summit. No visibility at the top.

Onwards from the first summit and the weather started to clear for the second summit which presented a lovely straightforward walk to the top.

About turn at the summit and back toward the first peak before cutting left the way I had come. Nice views towards the hills we did last week with Max, Johnny and Alistair.

Good walk taking around 5 hrs 30 mins. Pretty tired after this and a cycle the day before.

Walk from Hospital with Les

Les has been in hospital for about 5 weeks after his fall at home and subsequent head injury and increased memory loss. We took him out for a walk from the hospital to the nearby Craigmillar park area. A walk of about an hour which he was very comfortable with.

An Caisteal and Beinn a Chroin

I headed out with Max and his two pals Alistair and Johnny to bag some of the Crianlarich munros. We had aspirations for three possible summits but in the end made do with 2.

Start was at Derrydaroch farm where we crossed the West Highland Way and headed up a track towards a dam after about 30 minutes. From there we headed across damp grassy lamp to a ridge and the a col below An Caisteal. The final ascent was shrouded in cloud which made route finding difficult and always makes it more demanding. Clouds on the summit so no view at all.

We headed back the way we came but very quickly branched off on well worn tracks to the second summit. A nice descent and then a very steep climb up to the ridge of Beinn a Chroin. We couldn't decide if we were at the summit and went to the far end of the ridge to make sure we didn't miss it. The clouds finally cleared at this point for some nice views.

We got back to the col between the two summits and decided that this was enough for today. We could probably have managed the third peak but we'd been out a long time already and there were some aching joints on the younger walkers.

Schiehallion

Max and Colin made there second attempt of climbing Schiehallion after a family outing many years ago where we stopped short of the summit due tonight closing in.

This time we were at the mountain just after midday with good weather so no excuses for not making it this time. We made rapid progress up the hill moving at a very solid pace. The first part was steep but easy underfoot but for the second half became very rocky and stoney underfoot.

Made the full journey up and down in 3 hrs 10 mins. This is the 59th highest munro but the actual climb isn't so big at around 670 metres as the start is quite high and there are no undulations.

Falkland Hill Race

With both heel and knee finally feeling pretty much better I felt ready to run in a short hill race. Falkland is about as small as they come with a direct ascent from Falkland Village to the summit of East Lomond. There is absolutely zero undulation in the route - up all the way to the top and vice versa.

The village was very busy with a traditional music festival and village fair so parking was difficult. Lovely atmosphere in town. Very low key race with race numbers issued at a bench near the town centre.

Game plan was to take it easy and be very careful particularly on the downhill to avoid too many bangs on my joints.

I tucked in at the back and took it as easy as you can with climb of this type. Passed quite a few people on the way up. A few seconds on stunning views at the top before head down for the descent - first over grassy ground then onto the path. Lost quite a lot of places to fast descenders but everything was feeling pretty good no issues with any parts of my legs.

Time of 33 mins 9 secs was pretty descent and only a little worse than my only other run here 4 years ago.

Rough Bike Ride and Foot Orienteering

Headed out to Dunbar to try my first foot orienteering since the spring last year. It was just a short 24 minute street event with a continued focus on not doing too much too soon and damaging my heel. Came first of 3 on the short course. Quite an easy course but good fun and should be able to get a fairly regular midweek evening dose of Street O  around Edinburgh over the summer.

As it was a longish drive out I did a pre-event bike ride into the back country of the Lammermuir Hills. Started at Pitcox with a short road section before hitting walking routes into the hills which were pretty unappealing cycle routes. There was a giant windfarm which didn't make for very pleasant riding.

Tweed Valley Mountain Bike Orienteering

Third MTBO event of the year. Starting at the Cardrona Forestry Commission car park where the same event started last year. Made the decision to start on the easy low controls and to avoid Glentress with a final homeward section on the Gypsy Glen trail. The low stuff was certainly a good plan although the Gypsy Glen trail was very slow as it reached very high ground on rough trails with widely spaced controls. Finished 7th overall which was pretty decent.

1 km long railway tunnel between two of the controls. Made it in 20 metres before deciding NO. Just NO. No way ! Longer alternative route above ground.