With lock downs easing and having been recently double jabbed it finally felt safe to visit Maxwell and Liz in Bangor. Colin took the boat across and spent a couple of days mainly focussed on practical things. A nice lunch out at the golf club and a very nice dinner at the yacht club.
On a saturday a busy day putting on the much delayed orienteering event at Polkemmet that was delayed multiple times from April 2020. A small crowd on a nice afternoon. Good to get it done.
On Sunday it was a trip out to Craig a Barns near Dunkeld for the Scottish Orienteering Championships. The first "hard" forest orienteering for me since late 2019. I took it slow and cautious with a focus on accurate navigation. This was successful but at the cost of quite a slow time. Very enjoyable and a good challenge.
A busy week of racing concluded with a very long hill racy from Blair Atholl up a munro. Great weather - hot for running and a lovely course through the gardens and woods by Blair Castle out into the open moors and hills.
I was very pleased with my form. On this type of running it's a case of running on the flats and downs and slowing to a walk on the moderate to steep uphills to conserve energy. Was able to maintain a reasonable run pace on all the bits I would want to. Almost 20 miles and 1000 m climb - completed in around 3 hrs 50 min and coming in 60th place of 150.
First hill race since CoVid. To make things difficult I cycled out from home (and back) making around 2 hrs in total on the bike.
A nice evening but with the effect of running in the previous days and the cycle out I wasn't on good form for the run. It felt like very hard work and I was very much at the back of the field. Still - lovely to be out running in a crowd again.
First 10 K "road" race in a long time. 48.18 time which was pretty good.
We headed off the Glendoick garden centre and gardens near Perth to look at the rhododendrons. The woodland garden was great with lots of rhododendron in flower and an impressive planted gorge. We bought a few plants at the garden centre.
After lunch we went to an open gardens day at Pool of Muckhart. We just visited three of the ten gardens. One was very impressive.
Cherry and Colin headed off by bike on Sunday morning to Duddingston for a visit to this lovely garden. Rather a long time since our last visit given how nice and close it is.
In the afternoon we drove to visit Les and then when to Redcroft garden in Murrayfield. A lovely property and garden open as part of the Open Gardens Scheme.
The local orienteering calendar has been springing to life with a good number of events on local parks and streets. In the past couple of weeks I've managed to do two Sprintelopes at Fairmilehead and at Pollock Halls and two parkland events at Dechmont Law and Corstorphine Hill. The first proper forest event is now scheduled for the end of June.
Taking advantage of the lifting of CoVid restrictions we arranged a short break away to Dumfries and Galloway staying at the very nice Balcary Bay Hotel. Nice place with fabulous views over the bay.
On the way down Colin got on the road bike for a tough climb from Abington through Leadhills, Wanlockhead and up to the summit of Lowther Hill. A tough climb but made it without having to stop. Snow in the summit. Cherry had a nice wander round Leadhills. We just finished in the nick of time before a hailstorm.
On the second day we headed to Glentrool forest park. Colin changed plans from a summit climb to a slightly flatter trail run give the bad weather while Cherry had a short walk. We stopped off briefly at Kirkcudbright on the way back.
On the last day and journey home we visited Threave gardens. The weather was not quite a nice as hoped for but it was a pleasant enough visit.
Finally allowed to leave Edinburgh City so headed down to Peebles for a long easy run in the Meldons. Ran the Drove Road northwards out of Peebles then steep climbs up White Meldon and Black Meldon. These felt like very hard work! Onwards along the road to Lyne and then followed old railway lines back into Peebles. Feet were feeling it by the end but a very nice journey on a cold by clear skied day.
A slow return to some aspects of normality with a proper orienteering event for the first time in over a year. A lovely sunny day and a challenging course at Craigmillar Castle. It will be a slow return with just a handful of events over the next couple of months.
On Monday morning we loaded up the van for Colin to drive down with Hannah to Oxford and help her move into her new flat which had been quickly arranged over the preceding week. We had a Standard sized van from Arnold Clark and were ready to leave by 2 pm. We stopped overnight at a Premier Inn at Warrington just off the M6 and finished the journey the next morning.
Got the keys after lunch and moved all the boxes on Tuesday afternoon. Very pleased with the flat and the location. Some lovely views on our short walk on Tuesday evening.
A day of shopping and other moving in activity on Wednesday before Colin drove back on Thursday and Friday stopping for runs at Cannock Chase and the Lune Valley near Lancaster.
February saw more heavy snow which has hung around quite some time with very cold temperatures. Managed to get out a few times for decent length runs from home to Calton Hill, Holyrood Park, Blackford and the Braids. Had an afternoon sledging with Hannah and Cherry.
The year started badly with soaring CoVid cases and a very strict lockdown announced in the first few days on the year. The disappointment of a return to very strict lockdown after so long under various covid restrictions and very cold temperatures throughout the month made this tougher than earlier lockdowns. There was little work until late January when reading and meetings kicked off again.
Made the most of exercise time with various local runs and bike rides when the conditions allowed.
In the first week of January with a hard lockdown announced we decided to try a virtual French holiday to add a bit of variety to our lives. Our holiday to France in April had been postponed to September then pushed back to March 2021 which was also looking improbable.
Colin did an indoor simulated ride of a French mountain on 4 days and a run on another to the Little France area of Edinburgh. We went out for a short walk to a french cafe or boulangerie to collect cakes or bread and cooked a recipe from the French Recipe books we got for Christmas over the 5 days of the "holiday".
Lots of work meetings in early December as usual kept Colin busy with loads of reading and long Zoom meetings.
Completed 6 weeks of the Duathlon training plan. It was a good experience and I enjoyed the structure and simplicity of knowing what training to do each day. A good plan for lockdown as most of the running was locally round the Meadows and the cycling indoors on the trainer. Running speed improved a little and there were good gains on the bike. Whilst enjoyable decided to stop after 6 weeks and not do the second half to allow for a bit more fun and interest in my fitness activities.
With CoVid cases rising rapidly and restrictions on activity increased plans for a short break in November were cancelled and we reverted to activities close to home.
Colin started a Duathlon training plan and so did lots of indoor cycling and structured running along with regular Body Pump and Body Balance.
Coffee shops still open so most mornings popped out for a coffee at the quietest of the cafes available locally.
Colin, Cherry and Hannah headed off for 3 days in a cozy cottage at the Crieff Hydro. The cottage was fairly basic but adequate although the double bed was a bit small and hard.
We had dinner three nights at the Terrace restaurant which was pretty good. It was pretty busy but with reasonable levels of spacing.
We had booked lots of fun activities. Colin & Cherry did an hour or archery and we all did Air Rifle Shooting, Segway and Laser Combat.
The weather was a bit rubbish unfortunately.
Nice to get a bit of change of scene as we don't expect to be going anywhere else this winter.
As my October adventure I set out on a two day cycle "adventure" from Edinburgh to Cardrona - just over 40 miles of riding each day. I deferred the start from the weekend to midweek in search of some reasonable weather.
First headed along the canal to Balerno where I had a coffee break of a takeaway coffee and sausage roll from Scotmid - no sit in cafe available. Then onwards into the Pentlands and over the Red Road and grassy descent down Monks Rig to Nine Mile Burn.
Some stunning weather for 2 days of energetic walking in the hills. Up early for the drive North to just beyond Bridge of Orchy. The car park near Victoria Bridge was overflowing with lots of people taking to the outdoors as a result of CoVid. Walked up Stob a Choire Odhair and Stob Ghabhar in fine weather. These were very pleasant hills with quite a lot of path on the route.
Stayed the night at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel. Expensive but nice and worth the little bit of luxury. Decent dinner and very good breakfast and all very CoVid safe and secure.
The next day I was able to get out early from the White Corries Ski Centre to tackle Meall a Bhuiridh and Creise. On route through Rannoch Moor mist was sitting on the frozen group creating a wonderful picture.
Moved at pretty high speed on the hills and feeling in pretty good physical shape. Another fabulous day.
For a bit of fun and to celebrate the race actually happening this year I plan to ride every day the Tour is riding doing a ride that reflects the nature and spirit of the actual tour.
The first two days were a nice opportunity on Saturday for a ride through our wonderful city doing 3 loops of the old town and Holyrood Park.
On Sunday I took the car out to Killin for a big loop in the mountains going past Ben Lawers on to Loch Lyon and over the hills to Glen Lochay. Weather wasn't as good as hoped but it was a nice challenging circuit.
