not lost, just not where we were supposed to be!

This weekend we were supposed to be in Skye but after much staring at the weather forecast, some feedback from a local via Twitter (Skye photographer @Landscapes365), and a long discussion in the pub we decided that camping in gale force winds and torrential rain was a bad idea and we ended up in Cairngorms. What we didn't expect was that this turned out to be the start of a theme of not ending up where we were supposed to be!

It sometimes seems like training for the Highland Cross takes over your life, it's too easy to miss out on events and trips away because you need to 'get in a run' or 'do more miles on the bike'. Colin and I are keen climbers, and joined the Ochil Mountaineering Club when we moved to Stirlingshire at the end of last year; but we've hardly been out on rock this year let alone out with the club as much as we would like. However, this weekend we were determined we would do the club trip to Skye and had a lovely run and bike ride planned to coincide with the occasion. So, when the trip was cancelled due to bad weather, we were determined to go on a trip of some sorts and joined a few hardy club members in the Cairngorms where we hoped the weather would be much better.

I spent Friday pouring over maps and plotting with tools to find an alternative route for our long run on Saturday and in the end I came up with three options which we could choose between based on weather and underfoot conditions when we arrived. On the Saturday morning we went for the longer run based on it being more sheltered and involving no river crossings, it was slightly more than our target distance but we decided that we could walk the first mile to warm up and that would give us our target distance of 15 miles running.

We started off well, the track up to Ryvoan bothy was nice running and generally the shelter of the trees prevented the wind from slowing us down. The downside of running through forestry tracks is that they are not always clearly marked on the map (or that is my excuse anyway!) and at around the 5 mile mark we ended up heading the wrong way down a track for just over a mile before realising our mistake and having to turn back from where we weren't supposed to be. To begin with this didn't seem to affect us too much, but by about the 10 mile mark we had actually run 12 miles and still had 5 to go and the folly of our mistake was beginning to take its toll. The reassuring thing is that though Colin stopped running after his GPS told him he had run 15 miles and then walked the final 2.5 miles, and I stopped after around 16 miles, walking the rest, we both recovered well and managed a total distance of over 18 miles if you include the walk. We nearly did the whole Highland Cross foot section distance by mistake!!!

This mistake aside the run was really pleasant, and because it was low level we avoided much of the bad weather which was hitting the tops. Our friends who did some munro walking that day suffered a little more buffetting and encountered a river which required extreme measures to cross. Photographs of this are censored for reasons of decency!

On the Sunday we were supposed to be doing a long bike ride but the wind had significantly increased and was gusting well over 50mph in places - after such a big day on Saturday we decided (with very little persuasion!) to postpone our cycle ride until the Monday and joined the others for a low level walk from Aviemore. Apart from a few showers the weather was fantastic, and if it wasn't for the fact that even at only a few hundred metres in height the wind was blowing so hard I couldn't stand upright, you would have wondered why we weren't off doing something more intrepid - as we were supposed to be!

We topped the weekend off on Monday with a bike ride taking in a circuit of Stirling, Carron Valley, Fintry and Kippen - where we stopped for tea and cake of course! - before returning home. The wind had dropped, the sun shone and I really enjoyed it. All in all it was well worth changing our plans over the weekend, and though we weren't always where we were supposed to be - from a training perspective I hope we are right on track.

and the wind blew so hard we ended up in Oz!

This is a picture of our new friend Joey. He is a wallaby and we saw him out cycling today. I'm led to believe that wallaby's live in the wonderful land of Oz so the wind must have been blowing very hard!!!! I tell you what, it certainly felt like it was, and I would have given anything for a pair of red slippers that I could click together to get me home again.. but unfortunately we had to use pedal power the whole way.

In fact the wind has blown quite hard most of the weekend. After a fairly gentle weeks training, partly because we didn't want to overdo the training, and partly because Colin's knees have been playing up again, we had a couple of long sessions planned for this weekend. Yesterday we headed out to Bridge of Turk to run the Glen Lednock circular - a 13 mile hill track which I had spotted on a map the other week and have since found descriptions of in various guidebooks. I've been really looking forward to running the route and had been advised by a couple of people it would be great training for the Highland Cross, so despite the grey skies and high winds I had set out for the run in quite good spirits.

Colin was a little nervous due to the lack of running he has done over the past few weeks whilst resting his knee, but he decided that he could always walk the route if running proved to be too painful. The track was fairly 'undulating' to say the least and the last big steep hill had a real sting in the tail of a false summit made worse by the fact that it was hidden in the cloud - so when we got there we really had thought that we'd reached the top. The low cloud turned into heavy rain and the wind increased making the last half of the run a particularly cold affair and very hard work. Never the less both of our legs held out well and it was just as good a training route as I had hoped for. I think it makes a much nicer run or mountain bike than a walk, and I would certainly do it again - but maybe in slightly better weather!


We are lucky in that since moving to the Stirling area we have met a couple of hill runners through our climbing club, and have had some excellent routes suggested to us. This also meant that we got given the name of Angela Mudge who does great sports massage. Both Colin and I treated ourselves to a sports massage this week and I have to say I think its helped loads with the heavy legs I was experiencing this time last week. Not to mention the great advice she has given on stretches to do and places to go training. Angela also happens to be a top fell runner and all round great athlete, she not only knows of the Highland Cross but has won the womens race a couple of time, this means that when she is offering advice you listen... Thus I can now be seen sitting on a couple of tennis balls of an evening, don't ask!


As for the cycling Colin has really been picking up the pace, and I am being made to work hard on speed, hills and confidence. The deal is that I pick the long runs and he picks the long cycles but this is now backfiring and today he had me out on a 38 mile circuit to Auchingarrich Wildlife Park and back. Despite cycling not being my favourite sport I do have to confess that I am loving cycling the local back roads; they are generally quiet with very friendly drivers using them, and are taking us to places with amazing scenery that we wouldn't normally go. However, that said, today was incredibly hard work. It didn't seem to matter which direction we cycled in, the wind would buffet us so much I found it difficult to stay on the road. At one point I was actually having to pedal to go down hill - most annoying! It was therefore a joy to come round a corner and see Joey sat next to the road at the entrance to the wildlife park.

We have marked the Wildlife Park down as an interesting looking place to go back to when we've finished the Highland Cross and can spend a relaxing Saturday there without having to run or cycle back again in some crazy weather. Its under 4 weeks to go now, so just two more long runs - let's hope the conditions on the day are a bit better than the weather we've been training in this weekend.

The reason we do it....

I had a really interesting discussion with someone this week about the Highland Cross and the reason they do/don't enter events like it. For them the issue was fundraising and this made me sit up and take notice as I'd not really considered this aspect as a negative before.

Fundraising is something that is very close to my heart and something I've always been involved in one way or another: from my days at university when I was heavily involved in the student charities group RAG (organising and participating in events or running around streets with a collecting can) to my various attempts to run silly distances for charity to, more recently, the professional work that I've done with charities to help them find new ways to fundraise online. I had never really considered that fundraising might be something that would put people off entering an event. In fact, for me, more often than not, it is the whole reason for doing the event in the fist place!

The other side of the coin, so to speak, is that for people who do events like this because they enjoy them or because of the competitive aspect, then they do so many events that asking people for donations/sponsorship for each one could be seen as taking a liberty. This leads me to wonder whether there is a fine line for charities to balance between attracting the 'club' runners and other people who run for the enjoyment, and insisting on entrants raising money.

For large events such as the Great North Run or the London or Edinburgh marathons it is possible to pay an entry fee through a ballot system, if you subsequently choose to raise money for a charity then that is your choice. The events are large, always over subscribed, and have a good mix of abilities. However for smaller charity specific events is there a large section of potential competitors who just don't enter as they don't want to ask people for sponsorship, and are these the competitors who would potentially add prestige to the event and guarantee press coverage?

For the Highland Cross my understanding is that this has never been an issue as they are always over subscribed and can basically accept applications by invite only. The event numbers have to be kept to a small due to safety reasons: the cross country trail really isn't suitable for vehicular transport if there is an accident and in places the trail is steep and single track so overtaking your competitor just isn't an option; if they had more than the 750 entries it would just be too crowded. The event focuses on different local charities each year and so is heavily supported locally, all of which means that it can be self sustaining; but I wonder if all competitive fundraising events have this luxury. You only have to see the adverts that Cancer Research UK has out at the moment to try and drum up interest on the Race for Life event to realise that even large charities with this sort of event can struggle. Have people finally reached fundraising event overload or is it just a sign of the hard times that we are going through?

For my part I expect to find fundraising alot tougher this year. Colin and I have recently moved and therefore are in the process of meeting new friends and changing jobs. It seems horribly rude to meet someone for the first time and then thrust a sponsorship form under their noses! However the world of the web means that we are able to keep in touch with friends and family on email and Facebook which does help greatly; and one of the main reasons I write this blog is I like to try and prove to those folk we know around the world and who do follow us that we're earning those donations and sponsorships received. I can't say how pleased I am to see we've already reached over £100 so for those who've donated so far - thankyou very much.... and for those who've been holding off please don't forget to visit our Just Giving page. We really do appreciate it.

Sometimes training is just plain hard work

In training for an event, just like anything, you have good days and bad days.. and sometimes you have bad weeks. The tricky bit is reminding and convincing yourself that this is just part of the journey and that it doesn't mean you are failing in any way. In fact you need the bad days to make the good days better - it just doesn't seem like it at the time!

From a training perspective, I have had a bad week, not a terrible week, but I've just found it hard work: my legs have felt heavy on every run and though my confidence is definitely improving on the bike I'm suffering from knee and back aches - probably as a result of lack of prior use! The fact that for much of the week it has been showery making it difficult underfoot and resulting in a lack of nice views has merely compounded the issue.

On Saturday for my 'long run' I returned to Lochearnhead and Glen Ogle to do a 12 mile circuit of the old railway (endless boring hard tarmac) and the old military road (mud, river crossings, marsh and route finding challenges). I had got the route out of a walking book and surprisingly it stayed dry for the whole time I was out, but I hadn't anticipated the effect of the recent rain on the terrain - not a mistake I want to make again in the near future!

On the plus side, last week I really felt I was making good ground on the bike, and even didn't mind getting a little wet when I got caught in a shower. So yesterday - inspired by the local Etape Caledonia in aid of Macmillan Cancer - we aimed for a 25 mile cycle ride from Dunblane to Callander via the backroads, returning via Thornhill. It was the most beautiful cycle ride and I finally managed to cycle over a reasonable (and undulating!) distance with an average of above 10mph!!! If I hadn't ached so much when I'd finished it would almost of have made up for my poor running this week. Maybe we should enter the Etape next year?!

However, though I seem slightly down about my current performance, I can console myself with the knowledge that hard work does pay off. I'm not just saying this from past experience or from reading too many articles about top athletes! It's true in all walks of life. To illustrate this I can proudly point you towards Julie Broadfoot who launched her first exhibition last week, containing the beautiful image of rain which I've borrowed for this blog. A very good week for her indeed, but not without much hard work and I'm sure many days out with her camera in moody weather!

Lets hope I get a good week again soon.

It's all in the planning....

I'm a project manager.
I mean this in more than a professional sense, it's not just what I do but it's who I am. It's quite scary really and it's not always something I'm concious of; however there is no doubt about it that I am far happier if there is a plan/list/map on hand for reference purposes. This doesn't mean I don't enjoy being impulsive or winging it, in fact some of my best trips have been where I've just followed my nose, but you will normally find a fall back of a guidebook, map or something similar in my bag - just in case!

The most recent case in point is the training plan for Highland Cross. I've always used a training plan to prepare for big events like this. I don't force myself to stick to it rigidly but it is a good guide for me to see what distances I should be running or biking and helps me to think about how I can fit it around my other activities (or work!). Truth be told, if nothing else, having a list to tick off milestones really helps me feel like the task of getting up to distance might be possible!

The real benefit of having a training plan was brought home to me this past few weeks since recovering from being struck down with laryngitis. It is just over 3 weeks since I was able to start training again after 2-3 weeks of doing absolutely nothing except sleeping. The training hadn't really kicked in before I had got ill so it left me very behind where I should have been. By having a plan I could adjust, I was able to work my way back on track. It's difficult to strike that balance between slowly increasing time/distance and pushing yourself to get back on plan, but it's much easier if you can see where you need to be so you can set yourself interim goals. I've never really thought about it in terms of the job I do but actually this planning and replanning is exactly what I have to do in my work as a Project Manager. Just like reading a map when you are out walking you don't need to refer to the plan all the time, and the plan isn't there to be stuck to, it is there to remind you of how you are going to get to where you want to be - if you need it - and most importantly it's ok to change the plan/route as long as it still gets you to where you want to be.

With this all in mind and the plan suitably adjusted, we've found some lovely local runs to do around Dunblane, Doune and Callander over the past couple of weeks. I'm so lucky that we live in such a beautiful area with plenty of walking routes around to turn into runs. We've possibly not got in enough hill running which seems odd considering we are surrounded by them here, but I am confident that will come now fitness is improving. I just need to plan them in! The good news is that if I can achieve our milestone this weekend of a ten mile run tomorrow, then we will have hit our mid plan target, which will be a huge relief.

So now I'm off to look at maps and guidebooks for some inspiration for tomorrow's route; after all, planning is what I do!