You know you're obsessive when...

...you row an extra 2.5km just to finish at a "nice spot" on the West Highland Way. ;-)



After my normal 5km I knew that I would finish within sight of the top of Conic hill but wasn't sure whether I'd have the energy to do two and a half km more. Well after a bit of a rest, I jumped back on board my rower and I can now go away for the weekend happy in the knowledge that my "virtual me" will be enjoying the views.

That's 27,500 metres down, quite a few to go...

Other than the rowing, I'm pleased to have passed the 200 mile mark for running in February.

Well, I've reached High Wood just north of Drymen now and I'm wondering if I should push for the top of Conic Hill tomorrow (7.5km) or stick with my 5km sections. Be nice to stop where the view is good. ;-)

I must admit I find the 5km sections pretty draining as it is and I don't fancy doing more yet. Maybe when I'm a bit fitter. I am getting faster though so it must be doing something for me.

Rowing the West Highland Way

Well, I'm getting seriously worried about being fit for the Hardmoors 55 in under four weeks now. Past injuries have made me very wary of pushing my mileage in training and I've also started late with training this year. Consequently I've really not been able to get in as many long runs as I'd like and the ones I have done have been a struggle.

Interestingly enough, my January & February mileages are almost identical to my 2008 figures when I ran my best WHW race but I know that I was a lot stronger on the long runs back then.

Anyhow, I've decided to break the habit of a lifetime and try cross-training. To this end, I've hired a Concept 2 rowing machine for 12 weeks to try and boost my fitness without risking a running injury. If after 12 weeks I'm sold on it as a method of cross-training I might consider buying a similar (but cheaper!) machine. Perhaps foolishly, being a typical macho fool, I've cranked the difficulty up to maximum and am trying to get at least 5km in per day. If any experts want to call me a fool and offer sage advice, I'm all ears!

To keep me motivated and clocking up the distance every day I've decided to "row" up the West Highland Way and the picture above represents my progress on day 3. (I'm the little red spot).

Hopefully by doing this I'll keep at it although I've just realised that I'm going to be away from home on Sunday so I guess I'm just going to have to take a rest day. ;-)

Foot in mouth

I seem to be rather good at this lately. I'm referring to comments I made regarding the direction that the West Highland Way race is going, in particular about how the race has been "held back" by the organisers' past insistence on support crews.

Personally I've always been in favour of runners being given the opportunity to run unsupported and have always felt that whilst having support crews may save organisers some work on the one hand, it can create more problems on the other. Not a problem if you're happy keeping a race entry low but as has become vary apparent in the Highland Fling race and the WHW race latterly, support crews can become a very real headache for organises when the numbers grow.

The last thing in the world that I wanted to do is sully the memory of Dario, the previous race organiser who died so tragically young last year by suggesting that he had somehow "got it wrong" but I think the race has to move on and the new race committee is facing up to the problems and limitations imposed by the past insistence on runners having support crews.

That Dario isn't here to see these changes (and lead them himself) is very sad but I think he would understand and approve. He made many changes to the race in his time as organiser and I think it would have only been a matter of time before he would have introduced these changes himself if he was still with us.

My other "foot in mouth" moment was referring to the "Scottish ultra running community" that the WHW race has built. This is of course silly, the WHW race has drawn folk from all over the world and I've got to know many of them. The links between us all transcends nationality, it's ultra running and the WHW race that binds us all.

Anyway, time to stop digging before I upset any more folk. ;-)

SUMS update

As I mentioned yesterday, we've managed to secure the Ayr town hall for our post race ball. Here are a few pics I took today apart from the first which I *ahem* borrowed.

Blowing the dust off.

Well, it's been a absolute age since I last updated my blog, not because nothing much has been happening in my life but I'm aware that I spend too much time on my PC to be entirely healthy. Also, this is sort of supposed to be a running blog and there wasn't much of that happening at the end of last year.

Since my last post we've acquired a new dog. Our old collie cross mongrel Roger died at the end of last year after a very short illness. It took a while to get over his loss but at the end of December we took the plunge and took on a rescue dog from the SSPCA.
Here he is, he's called "Ringo" and as far as we can tell he's a full blooded border collie, about 9 months old now.

Like all border collies he's quite demanding of attention but he's also very rewarding to own. He loves running and is already pretty good on the lead and has run with me everywhere this year. Did his first 21 miler yesterday and celebrated by trying to scoff 3/4 of a dead rabbit on the way home.

Runningwise, after a pretty cr*p year last year I didn't do myself any favours by falling on the ice and cracking a couple of ribs about 3 weeks ago. I actually heard the "crunch" when I fell and it wasn't the ice. In some ways though, it's been a blessing in disguise as although painful, it actually hasn't stopped me running slowly and given my injury history, running slowly is working just fine for me. It's also meant that I've had more time to run with my wife Muriel who is training for her first half marathon (woohoo!) and my daughter (woohoo again!) who is just getting started. Off her own bat I should add, no pressure from me at all. The weekend before last Muriel, the dogs and I ran from Troon station to home and at 11.5 miles this was the furthest Muriel had ever run. She managed just fine and I'm really looking forward to running the Bath half marathon with her on the 7th of March.

I should be worrying about getting fit for the Highland Fling in April but I can't worry about that as I'm wetting myself worrying about the Hardmoors 55 on the 20 of March! I've got some serious endurance building to do between now and then.



Enough of my running, the other big news is of course the wonderful new Scottish Ultra Marathon Series as masterminded by Murdo MacDonald, the Highland Fling Race organiser. Once he got the idea he's been a human whirlwind creating two brand new scottish ultra races (or rather, asking folk in a way they couldn't refuse, to organise them) and resurrected one old one (The Speyside Way). It's just astonishing what he's achieved in so little time. What's more, today's big news is that he's secured Ayr Town Hall as the venue for the post race ball. This is going to be one brilliant do.

If you're an ultra runner but hadn't considered the series, have a look at the SUMS site. Don't forget to buy your ball tickets (only £5 a head!) as it's sure to be a sell out.