Max & Taylor Visit

Max & Taylor came to visit us in Edinburgh for the first time. They were still pretty busy in the run up to exams but we managed to squeeze in some nice meals, board games and a walk round Blackford Hill and the Hermitage.

Busy with Work

A very busy 5 week period in the run up to Christmas with 6 trips to London and 1 to Manchester for various Board meetings. With meetings comes lots of reading as well so struggling to fit very much else in at the moment.

25th Wedding Anniversary

Colin and Cherry went to the Crieff Hydro to celebrate their 25th Anniversary. Two very nice meals out, archery, swim and Segway ride were highlights of the weekend.

There was snow on the surrounding hills and a light dusting on the Knock Hill.

ESOA Championships at Riccarton Campus

My favourite sort of orienteering around a campus setting on a cold but clear morning. It felt almost too easy this time with a pretty clean run with only very minor errors and hesitations going round. Running was fairly strong for the first half but then the dreaded heel injury started to impact as well as general fatigue. Pretty happy with the time but will need to take things easy on the foot for several weeks.

Urban Orienteering Biggar

Quick trip down to Biggar on another cold but sunny day for some urban orienteering in Biggar. A few smallish mistakes and moments of confusion probably amounting to around 2 minutes of mistakes. Heel was feeling a bit sore at the end so will need to be careful with running volume.

Forth Road Bridges

Colin, Cherry and Les drove to South Queensferry for a walk out on the old road bridge to have a good look at the new bridge. Stunning weather. The walk and the new bridge not that exciting. The old rail bridge still looks fab.

Lunch afterwards in the Little Bakery was very good. Excellent home made soup with half a sandwich and delicious scones (chocolate & raspberry) and jam.

Van Morrison at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Great songs with a bit of a jazzy vibe to the sound this evening. Pleasant venue with great acoustics as usual. Band great and once or twice really got into the groove. Van the man lacking any engagement or conversation with the audience which is a shame. Fairly short set of 90 minutes - felt like he was just there to collect the pay cheque.

Orienteering at Kinnoull Hill (Perth)

Another cold but clear day made for ideal orienteering conditions on Kinnoull Hill. A very nice woodland area with lots of paths and pretty pleasant underfoot terrain. I was on the green course and managed an ok time of just over an hour having made a few mistakes on the way round.

Heel was starting to feel a bit off by the end which must have been the cumulative effect of the munro and this event - need to take it easy for a while.

Hot Chocolate and cake at the finish as this was a 30th Anniversary for Tay Orienteering club.

As the weather was so nice I decided to take a stroll back up the hill to enjoy the wonderful views of the River Tay at my leisure.

Mortonhall Orienteering

I was the organiser for the clubs Come And Try It event at Mortonhall with Ann Haley planning the courses. The pre-event organisation was pretty easy but on the day it was pretty intense dealing with the large volume of new and novice orienteers and various helpers. Cherry did a great extended job on registration.

We treated ourselves to a nice meal out in the evening to the Rabbit Hole just round the corner. Yummy Rabbit Pie !

Creag Mhor and Beinn Heasengarnich

With clear blue skies across the whole of Scotland I though this was definitely my chance to finally bag those tricky munros up Glen Lochay that I've had two previous visits to but on each occasion barely got started on the walk.

Parked the car at car park before Kenknock farm and took the bike 4 miles up the valley to the foot of the hill. A short upwards section of twin track took me to the upper track from where it was straight up over grassy terrain to towards Sron Nan Eun and then a more pleasant high level walk to the summit of Creag Mohr.

Nice views down the valley on the way up:

And along the ridge towards Creag Mohr:

The next summit was in view with a large expanse of high land and the peak right at the far end of it:

The decent involved heading briefly in the wrong direction and then a bit of a jog over boggy grassy slopes to the col between the mountains. The haul back up again was hard work then followed by a pleasant but lengthy high level walk to the summit.

Back the way I came before taking a left turn down the grassy slopes to the river between the hills. The rough hilly terrain was hard work at this late part of the day.

Finally made it back to the bike and a tired return to the car park.

4.5 hours walking time (9.3 miles and 1186 m ascent) and an hour in total on bike.

Glasgow Mural Trail

We got the train on Sunday morning to have a walk round the mural trail in Glasgow. It has been there for a few years I'm told but I've never noticed them before. We did around 15 murals over a 2 hr walk taking in the Strathclyde Uni Campus, the River Clyde and the main shopping area. A nice mixture some of which were very impressive.

We had a nice lunch with Max (who was too busy for the earlier walk) at La Bonne Auberge.

East Lothian Cycle led by Peter Inman

Lovely cycle through East Lothian on a mix of trails, tracks and minor roads with Peter Inman, Stewart Gray and friends. Lunch at the coffee shop in Tyninghame which is well worth a future visit (note - the sandwiches are BIG). Started in Spott and headed up through fields before heading down to the coast at Torness then along the coast to Dunbar. From their went to Tyninghame and places like Binning Wood.

The wind fair blew which made the going pretty tough particularly when combined with the trickier trails. Around 36 miles in around 4 and a 1/2 hours of cycle time.

Glen Lochay

The intention was to bag two munroes above Glen Lochay taking advantage of the high road from Loch Lyon after a very long slow drive. The good weather forecast hadn't been noticed in this part of the world and the summit was looking cold and wet. After setting off I slipped on the boggy ground after 20 metres and after a further 80 m came to a deep marsh that was too deep to jump across. Rather pathetically I decide this wasn't for me today and headed back to the car and drove down the hill again. The head of Loch Lyon didn't look very inviting for a bike ride so drove onwards to Ben Lawers which was looking much more appealing both in terms of weather and path. Unfortunately I discovered that my water bottle had dropped out of my bag in the car and so decided to turn back after about an hour.

Head on to Killin and cycled up Glen Lochay which was a pretty pleasant cycle. Got a decent view of the alternative approach to the two munros which may try for the next attempt which may well be next year.

Bit of a disappointing outing.

Natural Tweed Parts 1 & 4 (sort of)

Headed off to Peebles for a revisit of the lovely Natural Tweed route. Feeling slightly off form I quickly decided to cut down my ambitions and picked off a few modified sections of the route. Part 1 is generally pretty nice although I added a little segment through to Lyme which was a bit mucky and rough through lamb filled fields.

The route over the John Buchan way was as muddy as ever but pleasant enough and I took a route through Cademuir with a little less climb that the official route.

Linlithgow 10 K

First 10 K road race in several years. A nice rolling course with modest ups and downs which added to the challenge and slowed the pace in places. Pleasant circuit of the lake by the Castle made for a scenic route. Hit a 5 min per km pace pretty consistently through to the 7th km when the climb knocked the time 45 seconds off a 50 minute finish time. Recovered a bit in the last km to finish with a pretty good time of 50 mins and 15 seconds.

Orienteering at Grandtully

A wet wet day. Ran in the long course which proved very challenging with a lot of difficult navigation and not that much running. Worked my way round slowly without any major errors in just over 2 hours.

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.