Orienteering Holyrood Park

I was back running the Brown course after a year doing the much shorter Green in 2018. It was a very cold windy morning and the navigation and terrain were both challenging. Perhaps more by luck than skill there were no major navigation disasters. Pace wasn't great as I was doing my best to no get lost. Got round in 1 hr 46 mins for a lowly position in a big crowd of competitors.

The Glasgow Girls & Touching The Void

We had 2 nights out to the theatre this weekend. On Friday to the Kings for The Glasgow Girls and saturday to the Lyceum for Touching the Void. Both very good.

Foxtrail 16 K Run

Up early to travel to Dunbar for a run through the forest and beaches of John Muir Country Park. Lovely route on a cold morning. Completed in around 1 hrs 30 minute taking a few moments en route for photos. Good running form and comfortable with the distance.

Cammo Orienteering

Ran the Green course at the Come And Try It orienteering at Cammo. A nice park at the West side of town and surprisingly complex and confusing. I managed to mess up big time on the second control. Other than this a very nice event.

10 Mile Run to Leith

On Wednesday I did my longest run in quite some time. A 10 mile almost completely flat jog along the Union Canal to Longstone and then the Water of Leith to Ocean Terminal in Leith. The run was pleasant and successful with no injury problems during or after the run. Great to be back and able to do a longer outing such as this with my new regime of 2 runs only per week and strength and flexibility sessions as compulsory during the week.

Portobello Park Run

I've done surprisingly few parkruns over the years. Officially this is just my second run although I seem to remember having done at least one more than that. I managed to arrive half and hour too early not realising Scotland starts 30 minutes after the English races. Pleased with my time of 23 mins 47 seconds. I should do more of these are they are close to home and nice simple no-fuss events.

Greenmantle Dash 2019

The 2nd January sees one of my favourite little hill races of the year - the Greenmantle Dash. A short race of about 25 minutes for me but lots of variety along the way with walls to jump, river to cross and short sharp hill to climb. The temperatures were very low, - 3.5 degrees, but the skies were clear making the conditions very pleasant. Very pleased with my run today when I kept company with people normally way ahead of me in the field. Came quite close to my personal best for the event.

Festive Frolics

On Christmas Eve Colin, Cherry and Hannah went out to see Kinky Boots at the Playhouse. Very good. Christmas Day at home with less staying over - Max in Canada.

On Boxing Day Colin, Cherry and Les headed to Beecraigs. Colin did the 1 lap version of the Boxing Day Handicap race in warm weather for the time of year. Pretty decent run with the course well marked this time.

On Friday Colin & Cherry took the train to Dundee to visit new V&A Dundee. We went round the Ocean Liners exhibit and the permanent collection. It was extremely busy and not particularly good.

On Saturday Colin took part in the ELO Festive Frolic which was at Levenhall, Musselburgh. Still nice weather and a nice easy location for orienteering. The planning for the score course didn't go well though and arrived back about 6 minutes late for lots of penalty points.

The Run in to Christmas

On Monday night went out for the evening with Frank, Warren and Ian in Edinburgh City Centre. Started with a walk to Salisbury Crags with Ian before meeting Warren at around 4 pm at Brewhemia when the drinking started. Walked through the Princes Street Christmas market with half pint in hand and got to the Angels Share at 5.30 pm to meet Frank. We had dinner a Thai dinner at Chaophraya before continuing the pub crawl which fizzled out just after 11 pm. Nice to see the boys again especially Frank who we don't see much of (living in Singapore).

After a busy day on Board meetings by phone we headed to have a Christmas dinner at Jamie's Italian with Max before he headed off to Canada for his Christmas in Calgary.

On Thursday Colin has a wander around an exhibition at the National Library. Small but quite interesting.

On Friday night we had a family out visit to the Filmhouse to see The Muppets Christmas Carol and a quick Nandos afterwards.

On Saturday Colin ran in the Kirk Craigs Hill Race in Tillicoultry. Tough but fun.

Cold

My final business trip to London of the year at the start of the week and a Christmas dinner in lovely surroundings but with slightly disappointing food.

I felt my throat slightly raw the next morning and unfortunately had picked up a cold after a day spent in Board rooms with so many other people. Still suffering on Monday morning 5 days later. Have managed a few easy walks and lots of Board paper reading over the past few days. Stopped off for dinner at David Bann with Cherry on one of the strolls.

Hopefully better soon.

Hermitage Trail Race 10 K

Early start on Sunday morning for a new 10 k race around the trails of the Hermitage and Blackford Hill. A very familiar area but a good one with a nice route picking up the best of the trails. It was slightly congested at the start and I was happy to start at a fairly modest pace over the first kilometer. Time wasn't great but it was a hilly course with lots of mud and twists and turns so it is hard to judge the effort. Time was almost exactly 1 hour. Felt pretty strong at the end which is always nice.

Richard, Thomas, Nicola & Zoe Visiting

The Weston's arrived on Friday afternoon and Max & Hannah returned later in the evening. We had dinner in together on Friday and enjoyed playing Pictionary.

On Saturday the youngsters went into town and up Calton Hill whilst Richard and Cherry had a walk about town. Colin unfortunately had work to do. In the evening we went to the Old Bell Inn for dinner. We didn't get the Christmas Dinner we hoped for but it was a reasonable pub meal.

On Sunday Cherry and Richard went to the Castle. The youngsters went to Fountainpark for bowling and pool. Later we all went for a Room Escape adventure at Summerhall.

Newhailles Trail Race

A short trip on Sunday morning to Newhailles House on the outskirts of Edinburgh for the inaugural trail race in and beyond the grounds of this National Trust property. A very well organised event and a pleasant course with a nice mixture of path, trail and field to get round. No particular aims for the event and deliberately avoided looking at the watch as I went round. Felt pretty good with no issues in knees or heels. Hoka Speedgoats were a good choice of footwear. Faded a little over the last 1/2 km but managed a decent push over the last 100m to avoid being passed. Definitely worth doing again.

SOSOL Dalkeith Park

Some glorious weather on Sunday for a trip to Dalkeith Country Park for a SOSOL event. Huge numbers of cars turned out and the park looking quite different with a lot of investment having been done in the restaurant and new adventure playpark. The Orienteering was the quickest and easiest green course I've ever done getting round in just over 30 minutes and coming in second place. Enjoyed a short walk afterwards with Cherry.

Tinto Hill Race

It had been a long time since my last hill race in the summer of 2017 and Tinto was a tough winter race to make a comeback on. The race had a 2 pm start and the weather was cold but not freezing and damp but not yet raining. Lots of pre-race nerves and frequent trips to the freshly felled pile of logs for a pee. Confidence was low and that feeling of what am I doing here on such a dreich afternoon was strong. But soon we were off and the heart rate pounding as the long ascent commenced. Gentle at first then getting steeper and rougher. Lots of muddy puddles. A few moments of respite on the way up when the slope briefly eases and then the question is can you summon the will power to force a running pace again. Strength, lung capacity and above all will power are needed on the way up. On the way down strength, core stability, courage and perhaps a bit of madness are the secrets of success. I'm running in Hoka Speedgoats with thick solid soles with lots of bounce but not quite the studs of the traditional fell shoe - they work a dream on this terrain letting me flow down the hill at speed aiming the feet at solid rocky ground of which there is plenty. Yes - I'm loving this - this is my sport. Total concentration and maximum effort as I push through a rapid 2 miles of downhill and race through to the finish in a time similar to what I was achieving 8 years ago but not quite the best results of a decade ago.

SOSOL - Dechmont Law

A glorious day out in Livingstone. Helped with the event parking before a good run round the Green course. Pretty straightforward navigation wise. 6th of around 60 runners.

Mid Week Pentlands Cycle and Run

With some nice weather I enjoyed a cycle out to the Pentlands followed by a run in the hills of about 7 miles taking in the summits of Caerketton, Allermuir and Capelaw. Felt on pretty good form.

Beinn Mhanach

The hotel offered an early breakfast starting from 7 am which allowed me to get to the hills nice and early. Temperates had dropped sharply and it was zero degrees in the morning and the hills which had been snow capped yesterday where fully covered in snow/frost in the morning.

I used the mountain bike for the approach down the Auch valley which allowed me to make good speed over what would have been a long slog by foot. There were many river crossings along the way which were all just about manageable on the bike but did mean getting feet very wet and cold. 

I stopped at a bridge at the foot of the hill and headed straight up the snowy grassy slopes. It was a long hard slog with the legs a little bit tired after yesterday. The summit was cold and windy and not somewhere to hang about. It would have been nice to do the other two munros as per the original plan but they looked too snow covered for me to attempt safely so I headed back the way I came and was back to the car before midday.

After a cup of tea at Tyndrum I decided to make the most of the good weather and did a cycle ride from Strathyre to Callander where I stopped for a coffee before heading back.

Beinn Dorain and Beinn an Dothaidh

A reasonably early start and drive up to Bridge of Orchy for some munro bagging on what was forecast to be several days of glorious weather.

It was fairly pleasant at the foot of the hill near Bridge of Orchy station but started raining about half way up to the col. I sensibly stopped and put on the waterproofs. At the col I decided to head left towards Beinn an Dothaidh. It remained pretty wet and cloudy with poor visibility on the way to the summit with some difficulty finding the right route to the summit and then being clear on whether I'd actually found the true summit. In the end visited everything that looked like a peak. Things then started to clear a little and were looking a lot better when I got to the col again.

From there it was a pleasant ascent at the start towards Beinn Dorain but I stayed on the lower northern path which started to get a little bit hairy towards the end with a lot of snow on the ground. I left the path near the end and headed straight up to reach the summit ridge which was a lot more pleasant.

The descent was pretty straightforward but the rain started again at the end.

Stayed overnight at the Muthu Ben Doran which was cheap and pretty decent. Had dinner at the Tyndrum Inn.

Pentlands Run with Max

Max and Colin headed out for a run in the Pentlands on a pleasant Sunday evening. A challenging route was planned but proved a little much for Max who hasn't been running much in recent weeks. We cut things a little short as it would be a bit tight to do the full route before the sun set. Very pleasant run with lovely views of the hills and the city.

Walk around Kinghorn, Fife

Cherry, Colin and Max had a day out visiting the organic area on the old mining works at Kinghorn. Really should have been a summer visit as it didn't look its best in the cold grey morning light. The sun came out later and we walked to the top of the Binn for views over Burntisland and towards the Bridges.

Rebus - Long Shadows at the Kings Theatre

Cherry and Colin went to the Kings Theatre to see a Rebus play. Pretty good.