SOL 2 - Linn of Tummel

Second SOL event of the year. Decent weather with even a few moments of sunshine. The course was a lot more open than the last event with sparse woodland and some open hillside making it quite a bit easier. Generally went quite well until the penultimate control when I made a pretty big mistake.

Callander Sportive

First sportive of the year was the Callander Sportive which I had done in 2016 although it was a different route this year. Weather was pretty good. Grey skies, 11 degree temperate but dry. Arrived around 9 am and started around 9.30 am. A very nice figure of 8 route taking in many lochs including the closed road at Loch Katrine and two climbs over Duke's Pass. The ups and downs along the side of Loch Katrine were probably harder than that the more steady Duke's Pass climb.

Nicely organised event with good signs and a food stop at Aberfoyle which I stopped at on the second passing.

I was on the Medium course which was 55 miles, 1282 m of climb and took 4 hours to complete. I was still in decent shape at the end although it was pretty tough and certainly felt well tired afterwards.

Carberry & Elphinstone

An outside ride at last with the weather improving a bit for a day. Still quick cold but less wind and clear skies made for a pleasant outing.

Most of the ride was fast familiar cycle tracks but took some time to explore Carberry estate and some Queen Mary history and enjoy the fabulous Queens view to Edinburgh, the Pentlands and Fife.

85 miles ridden over the weekend.

KickR

With more bad weather it is very difficult to hit my training targets with nice outdoor rides. Having had two faulty Watt Bike Atoms I have now moved onto a Wahoo KickR bike trainer. A wet saturday was the ideal opportunity to put the set up through its paces. Having previously done an unsatisfactory Sufferfest Ride in gears mode I tried a session in ERG mode which went really well. This was followed up by two rides in Zwift. Not quite as intense as the Sufferfest rides but soon got the heart rate up to a fairly steady high level. The bike is a bit noisy and the gear changes not that smooth but on balance I think it is a keeper. It will be nice not to have to go to the Pure Gym any more.

Busy Busy Busy

A tough working week that started on Sunday night with a flight to Southampton and overnight at the Premier Inn by the airport. Monday morning train and taxi to the office in Bournemouth before around 5 hours of meetings. Managed to squeeze in a 30 minutes jog in Poole before a working dinner.

Working breakfast on Tuesday morning then an 8 hour meeting following by a 4 hour cross country train journey to Telford - getting to the hotel by 10.30 pm.

Wednesday was meetings from 10.30 to around 6 pm and then straight to dinner. Thurday started at 9 am with meetings through to just after 3 pm and then train to Birmingham Airport where I had to hang around to 8.40 pm for the FlyBe flight home - getting back at around 10.30 pm.

Thankfully a few weeks off now.

SOL 1 - Auchengarroch

Drove up to near Crieff for the first of 5 Scottish Orienteering League events this year starting at the Wildlife Park at Auchengarroch. Parking was at the Prisoner of War camp at Cultybrachan.

The Orienteering was extremely difficult. It always feels like a massive step up to SOL events. I never got totally lost although it was tough going.

More Snow

The Mini Beast from the East led to another cold weekend with pretty heavy snow on Sunday. It cleared pretty quickly this time but played havoc with my biking target for the weekend of 80 miles. I had a pretty nice ride on Saturday morning only slightly spoiled by a flat tyre out by Silveknowes. Then an indoor Sufferfest session on Saturday afternoon and a tired session on Sunday.

Beecraigs

Cherry, Les and Colin drove out to Beecraigs. Colin was orienteering in the Compass Sport Trophy and had a pretty reasonable run in snowy and muddy conditions. Les and Cherry walked although the conditions were a bit too rough for Les.

Colin cycled home along the canal.

Edinburgh Food Studio

For my birthday treat, a few days deferred, we went out to the Edinburgh Food Studio for an evening of classic french cooking. The restaurant is a bit different with set menus, guest chefs and a fair bit of experimentation. A very nice and large meal.

Snow

The Beast from the East and Storm Emma hit the country and brought pretty much everything to a standstill. I was down in London at the start of the week with a 2.40 pm flight back to Edinburgh on Wednesday. I got to the airport and found pretty much everything cancelled and flights back the next morning at the earliest. I rushed across town and just managed to hop onto the 2 pm train heading North which was probably the last one to make it through to Edinburgh. Arrived 2 hrs late but given the conditions and general havoc this was a pretty good result.

Got out for 1 run and 1 short cycle during the snowy weather with conditions not conducive to anything more adventurous.

Athletics Grand Prix at Glasgow Emirates Arena

Colin and Cherry drove through to Glasgow on Sunday to watch indoor athletics. A long time sitting but pretty entertaining with lots going on all the time. Watched the World Record in the 3000m walk being broken.

Long Pentlands Circuit + Pressure

Long route in the Pentlands to rack up my target mileage for the weekend. The hills were still sprinkled with snow with the route past Hare Hill and West Kip being pretty bleak with snow and ice. It was however a very good route which will be worth repeating especially when the weather improves.

In the evening we went to see a play about the weather forecasts for the D-Day landings at the Kings Theatre.

SOSOL 3 - Pollok Park and Glasgow Bike Routes

A very enjoyable run at Glasgow's Pollok park as part of the South of Scotland O league series. Some bad mistakes early on before an easy run in the later parts of the course.

The weather stayed a lot better than forecast for a bike journey from Pollok to the city centre and then along the various national cycle routes around the city. Not the most pleasant of routes with a lot of broken glass and an eventual puncture relatively near the end.

Chinese Lanterns at the Zoo

Colin and Cherry visited the zoo after dark on Friday night to see the Chinese Lanterns. A massive display of plants and animals was well work the visit.

Pentlands Bike Ride

Getting the miles in.

Unislam

UoB were victorious at UniSlam - well done Hannah. Next stop the Royal Albert Hall !!!!

On a less happy note our car was broken into. Nothing stolen but a pain to get fixed and it meant I missed my orienteering.

Bike, Three Billboards & Zizzi

After a fairly busy morning I headed out on the bike to the far side of Balerno for a 2 hour ride. For Cherry's birthday treat we went to see Three Billboards at the cinema and dinner at Zizzi at Ocean Terminal.

SOSOL 1 and Sufferfest

With the weather pretty grim I’ve been doing my bike rides indoors with the help of Sufferfest videos to fight the boredom and motivate hard efforts. It seems to work with some really tough sessions this week.

On Sunday I had my first orienteering session of the year. The ground was frozen and potentially dangerous underfoot on the paths. Of course most of the run was on snowy grass which was fine. With the conditions I was focussed on getting round safely. It was a challenging outing with lots of fine navigation through the gorse and complex contour areas on Arthurs seat. There were also a few very long legs which would have been extremely difficult without local knowledge - I could just use my knowledge of the area to plan the best route without worrying about the map.

I was very pleased with the run which only had very minor mistakes. I normally get lost in the gorse bushes so pleased to have carefully worked my way through them.

13th place out of 114 or so runners on the Green course.

Bike Miles

Second week of training with some exercise every day and a 50 mile target for the weekend. With a lot of work to get through the bike rides were scheduled later in the day and the most efficient routes directly from home to save time. These went fine although weren't terribly exciting routes.

Deepsyke Dead Ends

I had planned a long route in the areas South of Penicuik. These are generally fairly bleak areas particularly on a freezing january morning. The first off-road path immediately looked impassible with ground water and very rough terrain so detoured around to the main entrance to Deepsyke Forest. The route through at the far end led to some-ones garden and I decided not to traipse through but to reverse round and do some more exploring in the forest. Trails are quite nice but no obvious circuits - certainly not when everything so wet.

Back onto the road I travelled East to Whitmuir and then back to West Linton and a long slog into the wind travelling North to the care. Feet were frozen solid by the end. There are limits to how long I can be out in weather like this.

New Year Training Regime

I've signed up for a weeks cycle holiday in June and need to get super fit for it if I'm not to be left miles behind. I've got a detailed schedule of activity and mileage targets. Generally each week I'm aiming for 3 or 4 days on the bike, 2 days of body pump and 1 day of body balance with a few additional short yoga sessions thrown in.

Today I took a long loop along the canal towards and beyond Balerno. A fairly flat and fast route. Very wet with snow melt. A good session but quite muddy.

New Years Day Triathlon

A great start to the year with my first ever Triathlon. Quite nervous at the start with quite a bit of waiting around and time for the butterflies. Was 1 pair of shoes short in my set up preparations but other than this all the preparation went fine.

Swim was 400 m and with reasonable gaps between swimmers was a pretty easy effort with the only unusual aspect being the need to duck under the lane divider at the end of each length. Got passed by 4 or 5 swimmers so probably not quite as fast as I had hoped on the swim.

A quick run outside in my trucks - dry off and dress up warm. Then run in bike shoes to the mounting point.

Feeling a tiny bit off at the start of the ride - a mix of residual nerves and some fatigue from the swim. Fairly quickly into the swing of it and maintained a steady effort on each of the long climbs round the park. HR was only just peaking above 160 bpm on a few occasions on the bike so definitely not attacking the course - wisely probably.

Transition to run was straightforward and the run felt good. Again ran most of the way at a comfortable steady pace although the long climb meant it was fairly tough. Felt strong at the end and able to push hard over the last several hundred metres.

Really enjoyed the experience and certainly interested in doing it again.