there's nothing left to do but taper taper taper .....

... & to raise some money!

Well that's it folks, 5 days until the big event. Colin and I went out for a lovely 10 mile run round Glen Ogle on Saturday to make sure the legs still worked and now we just need to rest. recover and stay injury free ready for the weekend. We had talked about doing a few miles on the bike yesterday but in true pre-Highland Cross style my knees have seized up and my legs ache and I just didn't want to risk doing myself an injury so we spent the day organising our kit instead! I wish I could say it's helped, but I still ache a little today so I may need to and get some Sports Massage treatment to make sure I can definitely move again by the end of the week!!!

Jo popped around to ask us lots of questions on Friday night, and to fill in the paperwork. She mentioned that she intended to try out a run to bike changeover on Saturday, just to check that her legs work on a bike after running, so I hope her training went well too.

All that remains now is to reach our fundraising target. So here are the many ways that you can help to support us in our quest to complete the Highland Cross

• Jo has come up with a brilliant idea and is running a book on her finish time for the event, with a prize of homemade jam. Stick your guess as a comment on this post and add to the 'just-giving' page if you want a shot of some this tasty prize. (T&Cs can be found here !)



• If you like the idea and also want to guess on Colin or I's finishing/drop out time then I shall be offering up homemade shortbread for the closest guess. Same rules as above.



• My brother has pledged an amount of money per finisher of the event (he is hoping to get a place in the event next year!)...



• You can sponsor us via http://www.justgiving.com/arewenearlythereyetmum2011



• and we'd love to hear from you on the day. You can add comments to this blog, You can tweet me @sajatweet or you can yell really loudly from wherever you are and we shall be listening out for you. (It gives us an excuse for that strange squinting look on our face which could otherwise be construed as pain!)
  

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.