Cairngorms

Yesterday I went up to the Braemar area for a run around the foot of the Southern Cairgorms, an area I know very well, but where I had not been for a while.

I parked at Invereye and ran down past Mar Lodge following the Dee on its north bank for a few miles then head north towards the Sluggan. I can see that the snow is lying to quite a low level, uncharacteristically for this late in April, but I don't plan to go too high. However as I approach the Sluggan I see that on leeward slopes the snow is lying and is a couple of feet deep.















Looking back down the Sluggan.

As I crest the top I see that there is way more snow than I anticipated - this is going to be slow torturous going ! I wade through the snow taking an hour to cover the next 2.5 miles, running's impossible until I'm well down the glen. I'm able to get running through the Clais Fhearnaig then stopped in at Bob Scott's bothy for a quick lunch before heading on to Luibeg.












Climbing up from Luibeg I once again enter the snow which slows me down again. I had planned to turn south and head for White Bridge but the laces on my Salomon trail shoes snapped, if anyone has experienced this they will know what I’m talking about. The lacing system is not straight forward and when not broken works well, but is a nightmare when it breaks.

To cap it off the blue skies disappear and it starts to snow – heavily, so I decide to head for Corrour Bothy to fix the shoe and eat my 2^nd lunch. On my arrival there were 11 people sheltering within but I managed to squeeze into a corner fix the broken shoe and cut the lace on the good shoe and fix that too before it breaks somewhere less convenient.














The path down to White Bridge is a real trackle once I’m out of the snow and my feet have thawed, I have to walk though 5 miles of mud, but I eventually get onto the track and run back to the car through the Linn o’ Dee.

I covered around 31 miles in 7hrs 30 mins, pretty slow, but I take comfort that over 10 of these miles were through snow and mud and slowed me down considerably. This has been a good run and I my legs don’t feel too bad which gives me a bit of confidence for the Highland Fling in a couple of weeks.

Monster Bike and Hike

A couple of Fiona’s team have pulled out of the Monster Challenge leaving them short. I had originally been on standby as a reserve to drive the support vehicle but now I’m roped into doing the full thing. Normally this would have been a good training opportunity for the full WHW but it is only 1 week after the Highland Fling, and my legs could be a little weary. Hopefully I won’t pick up any injuries….

Cateran Trail

After 2 weeks off I run the 11 miles home comfortably and decided to risk a longer run at the weekend. Fiona, my wife, is taking part in the Maggie’s Challenge Monster Bike and Hike on 3 May, (a 31 mile cycle followed by a 43 mile walk) so she and her friend decide that as training they would walk the Cateran Trail from Spittal of Glenshee to Bridge of Cally . I drop them off then drive back down to BoC and run the trail to the lunch hut a couple of miles shy of the Spittal. On the way I'm transformed into a snowman a couple of times by passing flurries but it's blue sky between them. After a quick bite to eat Iran back to BoC and met up with Fiona.

This was the longest run I’ve done to date, 28 miles in 5 hours and still felt fresh, but I’m very conscious the Highland Fling will be twice that. Quads are a bit weary though !

The Lomonds

This weekend I managed an extra run to push my mileage up a bit and went for a run from the Craigmead car park near Falkland in Fife, over West Lomond to the transmitter at White Craigs and back. Unfortunately as I was running over Bishop Hill something twanged in my left calf, but as I was so far from the car I had to continue on it, probably exasperating the injury, but it was 11.5 easy paced miles over rough terrain.

Yesterday I went running with the club and despite some discomfort in the calf I pushed on and had a good run. Unfortunately today the calf is now killing me so I think I'm going to lay off for a week or 2 which is really frustrating as my shin splints have all but vanished.

March 2008

I’m back up to 20 miles a week but a little worried that maybe I’m too far behind schedule and this will be too little too late. I make this up by doing the 8 mile run with the club and running the 11 miles home from work once a week. My club runs are now back up to the pace they were 6 months ago and I’m remaining injury free. I plan to go out for longer runs at the weekends now as the 53 mile Highland Fling from Milngavie to Tyndrum is just over a month away.

February 2008

The 3 February is the Forfar half marathon and it’s very wet underfoot, there’s one stretch of about 30m where the ice cold water’s up over my knees ! This is a fantastic route around Forfar and it’s a good change to get a decent off road run, even if the styles do interrupt the rhythm. There’s a big climb up Balmashanner Hill at 9 miles which I struggle a bit on but otherwise I cruise round within myself finishing in a better than hoped for 1hr 48mins.

Since I’ve started back running my shin splints have returned however the enforced lay off has meant they were not as bad as before. I run in custom made orthotics but feel that they are not giving me quite the support I need for my over-pronation so I book an appointment with a podiatrist. She basically stops short of calling me a freak and adds a couple of extra degrees lift, apparently I need around 10 degrees. I combine this with a new pair of road shoes and the end result – no shin splints, why did I not do this years ago ?

January 2008

The chemo is now finished but I still have no red blood cells and my lungs appear to have been damaged by the treatment. Do the same route at the Xmas run with the club only this time I can’t run it all and have to walk the hills finishing in 1hr 5mins. It’s freezing cold, chucking with rain and to add insult to injury I’m last back – at least it can’t get any worse !

I miss the Devil’s Burdens relay race across the Lomond Hills in Fife, but help out with the transporting of the 2 teams to the various start points. It’s incredibly frustrating not being able to take part.

Throughout January I rapidly recover towards a reasonable, but still diminished, level of fitness and enter the Forfar multi-terrain half marathon as my first fitness goal. My objective is to run all the way round,including the uphills, and get as close as I can to 2 hours ( I finished in 1hr 37 in 2007 which was my first half marathon).

December 2007

Not doing much running but still going to the club when not in hospital. I’m getting slower and the Xmas run, which is only 6 miles, takes me 59 mins.

November 2007

20 November and do my first run since the start of October and after my initial dose of chemo, which finished 3 days ago. Feel a bit slow but pretty good considering and manage the 7.5 mile route in 58 mins.

October 2007

The training was going along nicely I was up from my normal 8 miles to about 20 miles a week, not much but no injuries, things were going well. Then disaster, the day before I move house I’m diagnosed with a fairly serious illness, which will seriously hamper my training with the treatment lasting well into 2008.

I consider contacting Dario and asking him to rip up my application but then have second thoughts and decide that the thought of the race will keep me motivated to try and keep some form of fitness throughout my treatment and if I recover in time I may still be able to participate.