Gorillas in the mist...

... or 12 down, 272 to go.

Debbie et al walking along the Aonach Eagach ridge on Stob Ghabhar

There's absolutely nothing like being on top of a Scottish mountain enjoying sunlit views across the countryside, and this was nothing like that. ;-)

What had started out as a wistful remark to Thomas on Thursday about being jealous of his hillwalking trip with Debbie turned into an invitation on Friday from Marco & Debbie to join them on an outing up Stob a Choire Odhair and Stob Ghabhar.

Coming from Ayr meant an early but rather disorganised start. We were over 6 miles up the road when I spotted that my wife was wearing her trainers and I couldn't remember her putting her boots in the car. Oops! Frustratingly, we had to carry on another 2 miles before we could turn around so that was 16 miles going nowhere before we event started! Boots retrieved, we headed up north as fast as we dared and after a brief but essential pit stop at the Green Welly, we arrived at the Victoria Bridge car park at 9:30.

Marco & Debbie and Neal from the WHW family were there along with a collection of friends & dogs and we set off up towards the forest lodge and Allt Toaig burn that marks the way up.

Marco promised us glorious weather, well, perhaps not "promised" but the forecast was fair. To be fair, it was "fair" but low cloud meant that it wasn't a day for stunning views and I was very glad that I wasn't reliant on my own navigational skills up there.

Our route

It was really strange for me to be going up a hill without my muscles on fire with lactate, blood pounding in my ears and throat raw from gasping but as my wife is a relative novice at hill walking (who incidentally doubled the number of Munros that she's bagged in this one trip) I did my best to rein myself in. Not an easy task when every fibre in my body was just crying out to go galloping ahead. Still, it was good discipline and we're still talking so whilst I didn't entirely succeed, it wasn't a complete failure either. ;-)

What we hadn't realised when we set out was that this was going to be Debbie's 100th Munro and Marco had brought along a box of French chocolates to celebrate on the top of Stob Ghabhar.

Debbie the centemonronain

As we descended, the views opened up a bit and we had a stop for sandwiches and to enjoy the view. The descent by Sron a'Ghearrain & Mam nan Sac was easy if a bit squelchy. Certainly, it seemed preferable to the recommended descent by Coire na Muic which looked a bit scary from below.

On the last leg Marco made us pay for relying on him to navigate by leading us astray down to the Abhairn Shira river on to the Glen Etive footpath rather than the forest road. For "footpath" read, "2km of bog hopping". Muriel, bringing up the rear with her GPS sensibly took the forest track and arrived back at the car well before the rest of us but with no car keys and the air thick with midgies.

Still, despite the midgies and the low cloud, it was great to be out on the hills and we were very grateful for the invitation & opportunity to walk the hills. After a bit of rumaging around on this handy page on Munromagic I've discovered that I've now done a grand total of 12 Munros. Looks like I've got a few more to bag to catch up with Debbie!

The curse of Loch Ness

I know Loch Ness is supposed to have a monster rather than a curse but every year I seem to end up entering it and only later remembering good reasons for *not* doing it.

Once again I've just remembered why I shouldn't have entered. Namely, the Two Breweries Hill race on the 27th of September and the Pentland Skyline on the 12th of October. I've only ever done the Skyline but always wanted to do both of them but with the Loch Ness Marathon on the 6th of October, the timing couldn't be much worse.

I'm sure there are some intrepid souls who would tackle them all but I'm not one of those.

*NEXT* year hopefully I'll remember not to enter. :-(

Craigengower & long run

On Saturday I had to choose between the epic Ochil 2000s or our local hill race in Straiton. The Ochils race was something like 25km and Straiton was 3km. Honestly, I would have loved to have done the Ochils race but it would have meant a full day out and I don't think that would have been too popular at home. Instead, I opted to support the small local race.

It may be only 2 & a bit miles but it's a great wee race that's part of the village fete celebrations. There's always a great atmosphere and some years, there are even some serious runners! On Saturday, Prasad Prasad was there to take the course record down to 16:11. As you can see from his Scottish Hill Racing profile, he's quite a handy runner (very nice chap too). I finished in 22:02 which was a PB for me and put me 14th out of 49. If only I wasn't such a girly coming down the steep hills!

On Sunday I couldn't resist doing another long run up to Failford (21 miles from home) and although Saturday's race was just a short affair, I could feel that my legs were lacking a bit of bounce. Not unexpected of course and hopefully nothing that a bit of tapering between now and the RAW won't fix. I've decided that I'm definitely doing the Loch Ness Marathon and our accommodation is now booked. Don't suppose I'll be giving JK a run for his money but hopefully I won't disgrace myself either. ;-)

Woohoo!

Last night was the first time since the WHW race that I've felt that running the race might actually have done me some good rather than just tear up my body.

After my long 28 miler on Friday and an easy 7 miler on Sunday, I just felt different. The bounce was back in my legs and I just knew that I was back on form. It was like finding top gear in your car after months of being stuck in fourth. It was a club night last night and I just *had* to run the Smugglers Trail, a mix of road and trail that has some great hills for blasting up and down which is precisely what I did.

I don't think I can recall when I've last felt so strong on hills. It was one of those magical runs where the energy just seems to keep coming and you feel like you could run forever.

The only downside is a niggling worry that this is the sort of form I want in just over two weeks time, not *now* and I'll doubtless screw up between now and the RAW but I don't really care, last night's run was just so much fun. I find it hard to believe that one could get a greater buzz from illicit drugs. Last night my drug was SPEED.

Will I, won't I...

I've been blowing hot and cold over the Loch Ness Marathon for weeks now but since my long run on Friday, apart from a bit of post-run stiffness, I've been feeling like I've getting my "pre WHW" legs back.

Consequently, I'm feeling much more inclined *not* to throw in the towel just yet and wait until after the RAW. I'm still not keen on road marathons, which begs the question, "why did I enter?" which I think was down to a desire to have an autumn goal after the RAW. My biggest problem with road marathons is my feet! I've yet to run a marathon where I haven't been in severe pain for the last 8 miles or so which I put down to my high arched rather rigid feet.

I've tried running in both well cushioned shoes and racing flats and it seem to make little difference. This time, I'm going back to the "well cushioned" option perhaps with a new pair of Asics gel Nimbuses (?sp)and see how that works (assuming now that I do run it).

With no speed work or tempo runs for goodness knows how long I still don't expect to excel but hopefully I won't disgrace myself either.

Rationing places in oversubscibed events

This might sound like I'm trying to shoot myself in the foot but I'm coming round to the view that rationing places in popular oversubscibed events like the West Highland Way, Ben Nevis etc. might actually be good for the sport, good for the "old hands" race addicts, good for newcomers and good for race organisers.

I think that races like these have a very strong lure that brings folk back year after year. In recent years entering these races has become a real case of being "quick off the draw" and entering ASAP when the entry opens. This system tends to favour the race regulars who know the ropes and makes it hard for first timers to get a foot in the door. I think also that many race regulars would quite like to do something different some years but the lure of the race is too strong to resist and they end up doing the same race year after year without spreading their wings to attempt many of the other great races around.

I think I'd like to see repeat entries restricted to 2 entries every 3 or 4 years, with a withdrawal (that can be filled by someone else) not counting.

This would give race addicts a chance to have a year out and DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! It would also free up a lot of race regulars for marshalling duties and give them a chance to give something back to a race that they may have run many times but not helped in the running of.
It would free up space for more first timers, which has got to be a good thing.

I can't think of a major downside at the moment but I'm sure others will come up with things I haven't thought of. ;-)

Knackered!

As part of my "panic training scheme" I went out with a club mate for what turned out to be a 28 mile run along the River Ayr Way. Having done my first long run since the WHW last Thursday (21 miles), a couple of 8 milers, a 5 mile trail race on Wednesday, I'm now ready to start tapering for the River Ayr Way race on the 6th of September. ;-)

I'd be the first to admit that this is no way to train for an event but that's never stopped me in the past and I don't suppose I change my ways now. When I say "taper" I really mean tapering my longest runs. I hope to try and put in a few more miles through the week than I've done till now but I think I've done enough long runs to get me through the race.

The run itself went well although the last 5 miles along Ayr seafront and home dragged a bit as I was on my own for that stretch but on the whole, I'm happy with the way I ran the hills and kept going without any major problems.

I am though seriously considering pulling out of the Loch Ness marathon. My heart just isn't in it at the moment. I remember how much road marathons hurt and I've not much enthusiasm for putting myself through that pain when a decent time let alone a PB seem out of the question at the moment. I guess I'll wait until after the RAW and see how I feel then but if I don't do the marathon I'll see if there are any 10k places left instead. Not that I'll run a 10K PB either but my wife will be running and I feel I ought to be up there to support her.

It's official, I'm in the 2009 race

A list has appeared of those whose entries have been accepted for the 2009 WHW race and I'm very relieved to see that my name has appeared there. Not that I had big doubts that it would, but I had some payment problems on-line and Dario (the race organiser) has had his mail system die on him right at busiest moment of the year. To lose your email access right at the start of entries for an event like this might be a race organiser's worst nightmare. Hopefully it'll get sorted soon but I dare say it's going to cause him some further anguish even when it is sorted if he has more entries than places (as seems very likely). Trying to allocate places on a "first come, first served" basis when all the entries arrive in one big lump may prove a real headache. It'll no doubt seem funny in hindsight (maybe not for a few years though) but right now I really feel for the poor guy.

Meanwhile, I'm delighted to see so many familiar faces amongst the race entries, particularly those who had unhappy experiences this year. I hope that they can put this year's experiences behind them and have a great race in 2009. I've just been having a peek at Vicky Little's blog who amazingly only started running in 2006 and is now looking for a place in the WHW race next year! She had a good run in the Devil O' the Highlands and has entered next year's Fling. I really hope she gets a place.

I suppose I did my first "WHW09" training run on Tuesday, an easy 8 miler. Last night I was running the Kilmarnock 5m trail race through Dean park. This was my first race since the WHW race and given my lack of any sort of training I wasn't too unhappy with my time (33:58/59). It's a hilly little course (although truth be told, probably nearer 4.7 than 5 miles) and suited my present preference for hills over flat running. I wore my "Skins" short tights which I think helped with my niggly hamstring. Certainly, it's not giving me any grief today and the race doesn't seem to have done me any harm. All being well, I'll be doing a 25ish mile run on the River Ayr Way tomorrow which will probably be my longest run before the River Ayr Way race in September.

We've all got them,...

...those friends who love to tell you that you'll end up crippled and in a wheelchair before you're 60 because you run.

Of course this used to be the prevelant "common sense" view of arthritis that it it was all "wear & tear" and that strenuous exercise would necessarily (indeed, could only) make it worse. Well, I think that theory has been well debunked by this study. (Full text below incase the link stops working - http://med.stanford.edu/news_releases/2008/august/running.html).

I don't suppose it'll change many people's minds as clearly a lot of folk *want* to believe that running is unhealthy to justify their inactivity. Still, I've a few friends who'll be receiving a copy in their inbox before the day is out. ;-)

STANFORD, Calif. — Regular running slows the effects of aging, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine that has tracked 500 older runners for more than 20 years. Elderly runners have fewer disabilities, a longer span of active life and are half as likely as aging nonrunners to die early deaths, the research found.“The study has a very pro-exercise message,” said James Fries, MD, an emeritus professor of medicine at the medical school and the study’s senior author. “If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise.” The new findings appear in the Aug. 11 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.When Fries and his team began this research in 1984, many scientists thought vigorous exercise would do older folks more harm than good. Some feared the long-term effect of the then-new jogging craze would be floods of orthopedic injuries, with older runners permanently hobbled by their exercise habit. Fries had a different hypothesis: he thought regular exercise would extend high-quality, disability-free life. Keeping the body moving, he speculated, wouldn’t necessarily extend longevity, but it would compress the period at the end of life when people couldn’t carry out daily tasks on their own. That idea came to be known as “the compression of morbidity theory.”Fries’ team began tracking 538 runners over age 50, comparing them to a similar group of nonrunners. The subjects, now in their 70s and 80s, have answered yearly questionnaires about their ability to perform everyday activities such as walking, dressing and grooming, getting out of a chair and gripping objects. The researchers have used national death records to learn which participants died, and why. Nineteen years into the study, 34 percent of the nonrunners had died, compared to only 15 percent of the runners. At the beginning of the study, the runners ran an average of about four hours a week. After 21 years, their running time declined to an average of 76 minutes per week, but they were still seeing health benefits from running.On average both groups in the study became more disabled after 21 years of aging, but for runners the onset of disability started later. “Runners’ initial disability was 16 years later than nonrunners,’” Fries said. “By and large, the runners have stayed healthy.”Not only did running delay disability, but the gap between runners’ and nonrunners’ abilities got bigger with time. “We did not expect this,” Fries said, noting that the increasing gap between the groups has been apparent for several years now. “The health benefits of exercise are greater than we thought.”Fries was surprised the gap between runners and nonrunners continues to widen even as his subjects entered their ninth decade of life. The effect was probably due to runners’ greater lean body mass and healthier habits in general, he said. “We don’t think this effect can go on forever,” Fries added. “We know that deaths come one to a customer. Eventually we will have a 100 percent mortality rate in both groups.”But so far, the effect of running on delaying death has also been more dramatic than the scientists expected. Not surprisingly, running has slowed cardiovascular deaths. However, it has also been associated with fewer early deaths from cancer, neurological disease, infections and other causes.And the dire injury predictions other scientists made for runners have fallen completely flat. Fries and his colleagues published a companion paper in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine showing running was not associated with greater rates of osteoarthritis in their elderly runners. Runners also do not require more total knee replacements than nonrunners, Fries said. “Running straight ahead without pain is not harmful,” he said, adding that running seems safer for the joints than high-impact sports such as football, or unnatural motions like standing en pointe in ballet.“When we first began, there was skepticism about our ideas,” Fries said. “Now, many other findings go in the same direction.”Fries, 69, takes his own advice on aging: he’s an accomplished runner, mountaineer and outdoor adventurer.

Like a moth to a flame...

...I can not resist entering the 2009 WHW race. My e-mail arrived last night and my money is winging its electronic way to Dario as I type.

One year, I'll resist the lure and do one of the many other mid year races that I'd like to do but somehow I can't summon up the willpower *not* to enter the WHW race. ;-)

Dare I even think about setting a goal so soon? There were so many inspiring performances this year that it's tempting to think that I could do better. I know I have plenty of room to improve with regards to my nutrition which I think can make a *big* difference to how one performs on the day. I'd love to shoot for sub-22 so unless injury or some other problem intervenes between now and next year's race, that's going to be my "gold" goal.

Britain's first gold

I was delighted to see Nicole Cooke gain her well deserved gold medal yesterday. She was unlucky in Athens not to get one then and I'll bet it made it all the sweeter this time when she crossed the line. To say that she was excited after crossing the line would be the understatement of the year. ;-)

I have to say though that I'm a bit confused by the award of an individual medal for what was, by her own admission, a team event. Of course the TDF winner doesn't get there without massive support from his team but that's a very different event to a one-off road race. I can't help feeling that a non-drafting long time trial would be a much fairer (& better) test of individual strength.

Anyway, well done that girl!

An easy 8 miler

After another few days off (not through choice but just lack of opportunity), I went out for an easy run today around my 8 mile loop. Thankfully, my achilles niggle seems to have disappeared although I still have a bit of discomfort in my hamstring. Still, it doesn't seem to be getting any worse and a couple of my other aches seem to have disappeared too so it seems that sometimes, the cure is running rather than rest.

I find since the WHW race and my holiday in Tenerife that I'm really relishing running up hills just now. I reversed the direction of my run today just so that I could get a good long plug up a hill and I found on holiday that I was always looking for the biggest hills. Not sure what any of this means though. I doubt it'll translate into speed in the short term and it may be that I'm just running up hills relatively less badly than I'm running on the level bits but at least I'm enjoying it. Feeling much more confident about finishing the RAW race now and hoping to do a couple more 8 milers this week before another long run next weekend.

Panic setting in...

With less than a month to go until the River Ayr Way, a race that I've done my best to plug, I realised that I'd done perhaps half a dozen runs, all no more than 6 miles since the WHW race.

A good rest was always part of my plan but I swear it's not done me any good. After my first 4 week layoff, I developed problems with one of my Achilles and hamstrings and they've never completely gone away. I suspect that some folk, if they don't run regularly, tighten up and then become more injury prone. Perhaps if I was more obsessive about stretching it might not have happened but it seems more than coincidental that I've had more problems this time after the WHW race than in previous years when I haven't tried a deliberated rest period.

Anyway, stuff resting, I've got a race to train for so in best "running fool" tradition, I went out and ran 21 miles yesterday from home to the Failford Inn on the River Ayr Way just to see if I could do it. I can't pretend it was easy but then I didn't make it easy for myself by not carrying enough fluid for the windy & muggy conditions. I also set off just before lunch which didn't help. Still, I feel considerably more confident about managing the RAW race *and* I spotted a Kingfisher flitting up the river which always gives me a buzz (hence the piccy up above).

My legs are a bit stiff today but not too bad. I'll try and get another good run on the RAW in before the race and maybe do some cycling as I don't think I've time to put in as many running miles as I'd like without risking injury.