First rock climbing of the year after the ultra-running and big hill rounds took over my ‘summer’ (aka six weeks of rain to coincide with the school holidays), and all’s well apart from the bashed ribs… (more…)
6 September 2010
14 August 2010
Ramsay’s with Rhonda
When I wrote in my recent Ramsay’s Round report that I ‘could be persuaded to pace someone for part of the big one’ despite having ‘no intention of ever confronting Charlie Ramsay’s monster in its entirety again’, it was in the full knowledge that I might be assisting visiting US athlete Rhonda Claridge with her imminent attempt. (more…)
31 July 2010
Weight and ‘Racing Weight’
So you’re an ‘endurance athlete’ and lean is mean, but it’s not always easy to stay lean and mean when you’re built like a 5’11” brick and naturally greedy! Losing the weight once is easy because a simple rule like just saying no to everything is easy enough to understand, but keeping it all off when you start to realise you can still get away with greed if you’re active enough (to quote John L Parker Jr from Once A Runner, ‘If the furnace is hot enough, it will burn anything’) is much, much harder. (more…)
28 July 2010
MTB mini epic
So here’s one from the lunatic fringe of Ramsay’s Round recoveries… (more…)
26 July 2010
My first and last Ramsay’s Round
Hard to know where to start with this one, so how about a couple of quotes? (more…)
22 July 2010
Ramsay’s Round ‘schedule’
Less than two days to go till Saturday’s Ramsay’s Round attempt and it’s getting difficult to sit and wait, but this week has to work as a ‘mini taper’ if my five-week plan of post-WHW Race recovery, some decent exercise (peaking at a slightly unplanned 68 miles/25,300 ft of proper hill running and some cycling last week!) and some necessary rest is going to come off. Which means nothing more strenuous since Saturday than some walking, an easy 5.4 mile/1,600 ft trail run yesterday and relaxed 20 mile road cycle today despite me pretty well climbing up the walls with that ‘can’t wait’ (don’t wish your life away!) feeling… (more…)
21 July 2010
Sir Charles Mackerras
Just heard that the great Australian conductor Sir Charles Mackerras died last week. (more…)
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18 July 2010
Loch Treig round
While I couldn’t describe yesterday’s weather as uniformly nice, my round of Loch Treig with Jon was never blighted by quite such foul conditions as Friday’s ascent of Mullach nan Coirean. More of a mixed bag, really, with some pretty stern stuff punctuated by more pleasant interludes when the wind and rain relented, the cloud lifted, the sun broke through and it actually felt good to be out! (more…)
16 July 2010
More wild weather
So the MWIS was threatening ‘gusts as high as 65mph’, ‘significant wind chill’ and ‘bands of constant rain and showers […] focused on more western mountains’, but I really needed to check out Mullach nan Coirean (most westerly of the Mamores) by the northern approach I haven’t taken for years. And the MWIS was pretty well right! (more…)
15 July 2010
Taking the green line
Nearly a fortnight into the school holidays and, after wall-to-wall term-time sunshine through June, we seem to have had little but wind and rain since (sure, I chose to live in Lochaber, but…). So it’s been getting really quite frustrating when I’m wanting to get out for some refamiliarisation with the Grey Corries and Loch Treig peaks but struggling to persuade myself to go charging off on long, remote, solo runs in horrid conditions (although I’ve got a Loch Treig round with Jon pencilled in for the weekend that may have to go ahead regardless). Which makes a great run snatched from the most unpromising of days all the more precious, and that’s exactly what I got when the rain started to look like clearing this afternoon… (more…)