EUOC orienteering weekend with a night event around Pollock Halls on Friday evening, an Urban event on Saturday and a classic event around Holyrood Park on Sunday. I've been avoiding back to back races to prevent injury for a while but this seemed to much fun to miss. Paced myself on the first two event keeping things at a steady sustainable pace. On Sunday pushed as hard as I could. Seemed to go well although didn't feel well for the next 3 days which I think was unrelated, probably.
With the Omicron Virus still spreading life wildfire it seemed like a nice idea to drive Hannah back to Oxford so she could avoid the crowded trains and Colin could make a bit of a holiday of it.
On the way down we stopped for a nice walk around Moffat. Hannah enjoyed the visit to the Moffat Toffee shop and we both enjoyed a walk around Gallow Hill. We even saw some llamas.
We stopped overnight at the Solihull Hockley Heath Premier Inn.
The next day we had a stop off at Leamington Spa for a wander around the town centre and the parks. Quite pleasant. We arrived in Oxford in the afternoon. Pizza dinner at the Open Arms just round the corner from Hannah's flat.
On Wednesday we visited the Ashmolean Museum although around an hour was enough for both of us. We sat and read in a cafe for a while then went to the Jericho pub before enjoying a very nice meal at Brasserie Blanc.
Colin headed off back north on Thursday morning. Had to spot for a work meeting for a couple of hours at Abington before getting home in time for dinner.
A really nice event in Selkirk. A hilly 13 mile race that is generally on pretty pleasant trails. A stunning day with clear blue skies and running one doesn't feel the cold. I didn't push for a good time but went at a steady pace and took some photos as I went round. The time wasn't great as expected but a very pleasant journey. It felt like hard work at the end as my run volume has dropped as the cycling has increased. Haggis pie and soup at the rugby club afterwards.
Finally managed a complete circuit of Edinburgh by bike after my last attempt had been foiled by a puncture 3/4 way round. A cold but not unpleasant day.
A bike ride to Covenanters Wood then a run round the Green course at the ESOC come and try it orienteering event. Always a fairly tricky area and my result seemed pretty poor. Maybe I needed to run through a few rivers.
With stunning clear skies, but low temperatures, it was another chance to get out on the MTB. Around 75 mins drive to the Braeval Forestry Commission car park and a nice loop from Lake of Menteith over to Loch Venachar and through Achray forest back to the start. Early parts of the ride were fairly rough terrain and slow before the first main descent and then some nice track along the loch. The return route was blocked by fallen trees and I diverted to the Duke's Pass as I was getting very cold with the slightly extended route. Total ride time around 2hrs 20 minutes.
Freezing cold morning so very well wrapped up. Even so it took a while to get warmed up and comfortable with the low temperature.
A first loop from Peebles to Glentress Peel and up to Buzzards Nest then a loop past the upper Green loop which was closed and back down into Peebles for lunch.
Family trip to the zoo. Cold and damp but saw a surprisingly good number of the top animals being reasonably active - pandas, meerkats, sloth, armadillo, koala, giraffe. Lunch at the Grasslands restaurant.
Amidst all the CoVid restrictions the orienteering calendar has thankfully been running nearly as normal. The ELO Festive Frolic is always an enjoyable hour of activity. It was a festive word search on the otherwise fairly straightforward terrain of Levenhall Links in Musselburgh. A pretty decent effort picking up a pre-planned 10 letter word - would have got a few more points if I'd also focussed on some of the obvious words on the map. Great event.
We had Max and Hannah staying for a good length of time over the Christmas period and Les visiting on Christmas Day.
Colin had to attend the LV= Special General Meeting in Bournemouth on Friday 10th December. A very early flight down to Southampton and then picked up a hire car at the airport as the plan was to enjoy a few days walking rather than just do up and down in a day.
The meeting wasn't due to start until midday and I was in the car by 8.30 am. Drove down to Lepe Country Park on the southern sea front. A fairly pleasant location and went for a short walk along the beach and on the inland path just a few metres in from the beach. A nice coffee and snack at The Lookout before the very pleasant onward drive to the office in Bournemouth. Overnight stop (for 2 nights) was the North Poole Premier Inn.
On Saturday the weather in the morning was OK with a forecast for wetter weather later in the day. The route to the sea went through Corfe Castle where I stopped for a short wander around. I was too early for the Castle or anywhere for morning coffee.
I drove onwards to Swanage and walked through town along the seafront and on to Peveril Point. On route enjoyed a nice coffee and croisant.
One of my favourite orienteering events. Three parks around Glasgow with relatively straightforward and very short sprint courses.
Park 1 was Glasgow Green in the freezing cold. A very simple course but made a howler of an error running confidently to the wrong place around 400m beyond the control sight and losing 3 or more minutes on a course taking around 20 mins to to finish.
Park 2 was Alexandra Park. A nice urban park and fairly straightforward but started off with a big error on control 1. I think allowed myself to be distracted by other runners and their routes rather than careful focus on the map and my own choices.
Park 3 was Drumpellier which I had run recently so was pretty familiar territory. A better run this time but not enough to compensate for prior errors.
Still - a good fun day out even if my performances were very poor.
A nice hour of orienteering at the very pleasant Dalkeith Country Park. Felt quite an ordinary performance but result was relatively good.
A nice run from Bannockburn High School in Stirling as part of the Scottish Urban League. Very easy navigation mainly through streets with a very small amount of park or woodland. Pushed pretty hard to come mid-table in the Super Vet category.
A very wet Sunday morning at Drumpellier Country Park. I was well wrapped up with waterproof trousers and jacket. The ground was pretty waterlogged but the rain at least stopped half way through the run. Some really bad navigation on what is always a surprisingly tricky location. An enjoyable run and left me feeling I want to practice and do better.
Cherry, Max and Colin headed across by the Stena Line ferry to visit Maxwell and Liz in Bangor. A pleasant enough journey and a nice home cooked dinner on Friday evening.
On Saturday four of us headed to Castle Espie to see the wildfowl. The weather was quite kind to us and it was nice to see the changes that have happened to the place since previous visits many years ago.
Last big run of the year at the Pentland Skyline. 17 miles, 2010 metres climb and 4 hrs 1 min 30 secs of running. A big tough effort. Similar time to when I ran it 13 years ago. In pretty good shape at the end.
We took Les out to South Queensferry to celebrate his birthday. A short walk along the shore and through the village before enjoying sunday lunch at the Hawes Inn. Colin and Cherry went for the healthy options and Les enjoyed Roast Turkey with an extra Yorkshire Pud and Sticky Toffee Pudding.
An early drive to Moffat for a new race as part of the Moffat Golden Eagle festival. A nice route that starts in the town centre of road, before moving through track, trail, field, river crossing onto rough hillside and repeat in reverse back to the start/finish. Didn't feel on great form today with legs a wee bit stiff and it felt hard work on the climbs. Managed a great we sprint at the end with a 1 v 1 race with a much younger gent just pipping him at the line.
A wee trip to Eildon near Melrose for the Three Hills Race - a Scottish Championships short race this year. Felt on very good form today making a good strong ascent at pretty much maximum effort. All three little hills felt pretty long and challenging. A good finish on undulating trails. 153% of winning time was pretty good for a championship race.
A busy active long weekend for Colin at the Keswick Mountain Festival. On Friday it was the Three Peaks Challenge with a non-competitive hike or run over three hills surrounding Keswick; Catbells, Walla Craggs and Latrigg. It was a bit of an overcast and humid day but pretty good conditions for exertion. As I was feeling pretty good I decided to do the route at pace running the flats and downhills and walking fast up the hills. Some lovely views and nice to move through the crowds doing the route most of whom had started earlier in the morning. Made it round in about 4 hrs 30 mins - 18.7 miles & 1075 m climb.
