Cruachan Munros

With a forecast of excellent weather all weekend it seemed like a good time for my first leisure day away from home in ages. An early start and a fairly easy drive up to the hill just beyond Dalmally. The roads were all surprisingly busy. Started the walk at around 11 am and just under 5 hours later had bagged 2 munros - Beinn a Chochuill and Beinn Eunaich.

Spend the night at the Tyndrum Inn before heading off early on Sunday to Cruachan Falls for a walk up to the reservoir and then a circuit of the horseshoe and two munro summits of Ben Cruachan and Stob Daimh. It was pretty rough going with some tricky sections on the high parts and on the descent from Cruachan.

East Lothian Bike Ride

With CoVid cases increasing a little in Scotland we are still staying close to home and staying safe. Lots of running and cycling in the local area.

Today was a long 45 mile slow paced cycle along the East Lothian coast and onwards to Haddington before taking an inland route home. A pleasant ride on the back of a hilly 13 mile run the day before.

Family Gathering

With Hannah back home for the summer Max came home from Glasgow for a long weekend with us. He has just resigned from his ScienceSoft job and will be starting with Spartan Systems soon. We headed out for a nice walk in the Pentlands on Saturday.

Pentlands in June

I set myself the goal in June of bagging as many summits as I could in the Pentlands. Managed to get out 3 times per week most weeks for a moderate length journey bagging summit big and small, well known and new to me. Managed 45 in total which was pretty much all the hills North or the Drove Road through West Linton.

Not a great photo but it is looking North from Mount Maw and includes pretty much all the terrain and peaks covered during the month.

Pentlands Run

I've been sticking very close to home for all my exercise during lockdown with lots of indoor Body Pump and Body Balance as well as some outdoor running and cycling.

This Sunday headed out for a longer session taking the bike to Swanston and then having a run/walk to Caerketton, Allermuir, Woodhouselee, Castlelaw, Harbour and Capelaw Hills. More fast walking than running but nice to be out in the wilds.

Lockdown Project 2 - Raspberry Supports

Study wooden posts and wire supports for raspberry canes.

Lockdown Projects - Vegetable Bed

With the lockdown providing lots of time for garden projects we built a third vegetable bed. Peas this year and sufficient beds for some crop rotation.

Hannah & Telford

The day after the British Champs Hill Race I met up with Hannah at Telford Station - better than meeting in central birmingham.

We went for a very nice walk up the Wrekin.

After that we headed on to Ironbridge..

for a wander around and a look at the bridge.

We then headed to the Woodbridge Inn for a nice dinner. Roast Pork for me and Sirloin Steak for Hannah - very nice indeed. I dropped off Hannah at Telford Station and then drove homewards after my meetings in Bournemouth having moved to telephone conference call.

British Championships - Medium - Ras Yr Aran - Wales

The first race of my planned British and Scottish Hill Race Championship year. The race was scheduled right at the start of the CoVid 19 crisis becoming serious after the initial tentative restrictions had been put in place. The race organisers responded quickly to the government advice and called the race ON in line with the guidance at the time but most other events later started being called off including the big 6 nations matches.

As I had a meeting to get to in Bournemouth I decided to go to the race. Virus risks were small as I'd be travelling on my own by car and there is only a limited amount of physical proximity at a hill race which can easily be reduced.

Drove down on Friday nice and stayed at a very quiet Premier Inn in Wrexham. A short drive on Saturday morning to the race.

The weather wasn't great and I was feeling a bit off having eaten too much through the Premier Inn meal deal. It was a tough high mountain race at a time of year that is still more winter than spring. As planned I started easy but unfortunately found myself at the very back of the race and not moving at all smoothly. Need to stop and put on a raincoat layer as it was really cold - this proved a good idea as I needed that layer of warmth and rain protection the whole way round the course.

After about an hour I started feeling better and had a strong section on the higher flatter terrain and on the final approach to the summit.

After the summit the downward route was rough and I struggled a bit. Also didn't manage feeding and water very well on the return route - should have fed earlier on the way up and should have used a camelbak rather than carry a small water bottle.

At about 1 hr 30 mins I tripped and banged my right knee on the ground. Ouch! This brought me to walking pace for several minutes before managing to return to a slow cautious jog.

The final run in over the last half mile was good. I felt pretty strong and pushed reasonably hard over this last section on more pleasant terrain.

Final time was 2 hrs 28 mins for a course of 10 miles and 900 m climb. I was 173% of the winning time when I had a goal of completing this in 160% - way off target unfortunately.

It was wet and cold in the end and with the virus there was no hanging about and socialising so I headed for the car and onwards to another quiet night at a Premier Inn with a day with Hannah the next day to look forward to.

Carnethy 5 Hill Race

Whilst hugely popular the Carnethy 5 is probably my least favourite hill race. The large number of runners, the extra fuss of a bus to and from the race and the waiting about getting cold before and after the run are the downsides. The route itself is great and it is a nice distance. This time round the conditions were very tough with race starting just as storm Dennis hit. There was snow on the ground in place, much more water than usual, mud and very slippy underfoot. With the strong winds this made for tough conditions. By the first summit it felt like survival mode rather than focussing on race time. On the descent from the Kips it became clear that I was in the wrong shoes for the conditions as the lack of grip on the speedgoats meant I had to descend at walking pace and the going through to the Howe was so slippy that progress was very slow. I ended up with my slowest time ever by a large margin (1 hr 35 mins). Oddly I quite enjoyed the extra challenge of the conditions. I was pretty well prepared apart from the shoes and stayed warm during and after the race.

Orienteering City Race & Pride and Prejudice (Sort of)

Colin had a run round the City orienteering race in Edinburgh. Very easy course but still managed to mispunch a control :(

In the evening we went to see Pride and Prejudice (Sort of) at the Lyceum which was excellent.

Feel The Burns

Colin drove down to Selkirk for this great winter hill race. Around 13 miles with 775 m of climb it is fairly tough for this time of year. Temperatures were very cold at just a few degrees above freezing. Most of the water on the course was frozen but there wasn't too much of it. Hard ground made for reasonably fast going.

I was on pretty good form and trotting along quite nicely on the modest inclines and walking fast and taking the occasional place on the steeper bits. Some lovely long gentle downhills.

Feet were feeling it by half way and the last 20 mins were slowed by sore feet. Finished with a great time of around 2 hrs 21 min 50 seconds which was a massive improvement over my previous best of 2:30:34.

A good feed of haggis pie and soup at the end.

Gran Canaria

Colin, Cherry, Max and Hannah all headed off on 3 January for a week in the sun at our favoured destination the Costa Meloneras in Gran Canaria. We had a very relaxing week with perfect weather and good food.

Three days of biking for Colin, 2 for the rest of the family on e-bikes. Visited Palmitos Park for the first time where we enjoyed the bird shows.

Greenmantle Dash

Colin got off the new year sporting activities with a short hard run up the hill at Broughton. The river was deep and the fields particularly muddy this year.

Festive Orienteering

Max and Colin headed out to John Muir Country Park (Dunbar) for some festive orienteering. A 1 hour score course with multiple choice questions at each control pointing to 4 possible locations of bonus controls. Max was fast but unlucky and Colin was slower but gained time by following Max on occasion. Colin came 15th and Max 24th in a field of around 120 competitors.

Beecraigs Festive Frolic

Colin was running the 14 K long route this year for the first time in a number of years. Back on pretty good form with no aches, pains or niggles.

Christmas

Christmas at home with Max & Hannah and with Les on Christmas Day. The 4 of us went out to An Edinburgh Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve and then wandered round the stalls in Princes Street Gardens in the afterwards.

Kirk Craigs Christmas Cracker Hill Race

My second time running this tough little race in Tillicoultry. After a short initial muddy but flat section the climb upwards is brutal steep up to the high moorland. Then down to a big stone and turn and back along the same route before the very steep descent and the final flat but muddy dash home. Improved by 90 seconds over last year. A nice feast of mac'n'cheese pie and lots of cakes at the end.

Bangor Visit

We drove and ferried across to Northern Ireland for a very pleasant long weekend meeting up with Maxwell and Liz and Michael and Lusi. Lots of good food on a couple of very chilly days.

Orienteering - Duns

A damp but warmer day for orienteering at Duns. Max drove there and back in practice for his driving test next week. Colin had a bad run with real navigation problems and finished in a really poor time.

Orienteering Loch Ordie

A fantastic orienteering event at Loch Ordie near Dunkeld. Very cold but beautiful with think fog in the valleys and and snow on the distant hill tops - clear blue skies. A tough run but perfect navigation on the rough high moorland terrain.

Theatre & Orienteering

First weekend back after the holiday in France. After the Rugby World Cup final in the morning we went out to the Royal Lyceum in the evening to see Barber Shop Chronicles which was OK but not great. On Sunday Colin went orienteering in the rain at Callendar Park, Falkirk - the first time out orienteering in quite some months.