An icy slide along the Cateran Trail.

Firstly, thanks to everyone who commented in response to my request for training suggestions. I'll go with the unanimous majority and keep doing what I've always been doing, although this year I might bump the mileage up a wee bit.

Went for a run along the Cateran Trail yesterday, a route I've done a few times, run was from Bridge of Cally to a bothy known as the "Lunch Hut" between Enochdu & the Spittal of Glenshee. In total it's not far off 28 miles, so would be a good test for me at this stage of my "season".

The Route

We are currently dog sitting so have 5 dogs in the house and by the time I'd got them walked, fed then driven to the start it was mid-day - a lot later than I'd planned to be. As 2 of the other dogs were still pups and the other 2 are fat little barrels, it was only Cody that I took with me.

Within 10 minutes I was slipping and sliding along icy forestry tracks. When hard packed, wet ice covers the entire width of the track, it makes for very slow, cautious going, and I found places more stress on your legs as you tense up and try not to fall. And when there was no ice there was mud, lots of it. 

Cool signpost near to Cultalonie Farm

 

Going out was a bit of a slog, previously I have been to the halfway point at the hut in 2 hours 15 mins, but yesterday it took me 2 hours 55 mins. I knew then I was going to be finishing in the dark. The way back was even tougher, obviously the terrain was the same, but my poor fitness really showed and I came back in 3 hours 25 mins, making a total time for the 28 miles of 6 hours 20 mins, an average speed of 4.4 mph - yikes !!

I'm putting it down to the underfoot conditions stopping me getting in to my stride ! I hope that's the case as I'm planning a run on the WHW on the 27th with John Kynaston and a group of pretty good runners, so I don't want to hold them up. I'm really wishing the snow would disappear now, but there's more forecast tonight and it looks like I might struggle to get to work in Blairgowrie in the morning.

Snowy run with my "new" Packdog !

I decided to go for a longer run on Tuesday there, so headed up to Dunkeld to do a run in the Loch Ordie area, I had a target of 20 miles give or take in mind, and thought that after the recent, relatively warm weather most of the snow would be gone - I was wrong !

As I headed past Perth I could see that the snowfall we had on Sunday night had stuck around locally, but I decided to carry on anyway. Cody was with me and this was our first outing with his new dog backpack. I figured there was no point in me carrying everything when I could give the dog gainful employment, so he got the pack for Christmas. He's only worn it for a few walks but doesn't seem to mind it at all, his tail continues to wag incessantly -

So given the weather he was tasked with carrying a spare fleece and a pair of trousers for me. We set off from the car park and it quickly became clear that the run was going to be a lot harder than running in normal conditions. The soft powder snow was generally 2-3 inches, but frequently was 6 inches deep and any standing water was frozen solid, making for slippy, tiring progress.

Typical conditions

I trudged up to Loch Ordie then down towards Kindallachan and back to the car park by Rotmell Farm. The distance covered was about 17.5 miles and because of the underfoot conditions I was regularly reduced to walking so it took me 3hours 15 mins, an average speed of 5.3mph, which I guess I'm quite happy with given the limited running I've been doing and the snow / ice.

I'm running a bit more regularly now and hope to get another couple of longer runs in before the end of February so my monthly target is 70 miles which, work permitting, should easily be acheivable. I've created a table of my monthly mileage again, but this year I've added my total mileage prior to the WHW race and my time. I've never done this before and what I found amazing was how close my totals were given that I don't really know what I'm doing and have a completely unstructured, run-when-you-can training regime. 

This year I'd like to increase my mileage to see if it makes any difference. Looking at some other blogs Marco Consani ran 285 miles in January ! And Ian Beattie ran 2,035 miles throughout the whole year, so I have some catching up. I've deliberated this many times before and I'm not sure if the running that I do suits me, or if increasing my mileage would improve my times ? So Jez, if you're reading this and you  have the time to make me up a training program then feel free to e-mail me ! I know that it's a completely individual thinag and if you ask 2 ultra runners how they train, you'll get 3 different answers but if anyone else wants to contribute some suggestions then they would be gratefully received.