Gone with the Wind

Training Day : 8

Session : Hillwalking

Distance : 11.6 miles

Avg/mile : n/a

Time : n/a

I decided that this time with my training I would incorporate a lot of hillwalking as well, so that I was hill ready for the WHW race.  It also helps to be hill fit for any Mountain Rescue callouts that I am involved in.  Running and hillwalking are different and although my fitness in general is normally good I have found that I never seem to be 100% fit at both running and hillwalking at the same time.  At the moment I feel hill fit but not running fit and hopefully by still doing hillwalking at the same time I can get fit at both.  So I thought that this would be an easy day and far more interesting than a long run.  When I planned the trip I decided that it would be fun to do the 5 munros at Ben Lawers.  Joining me for todays jaunt would be Debbie (of course), Jill and Carol from the running club, John (who I have known for years and taught me about the hills), Gus and a girl that I hadn't met before called Therese.

Debbie and Jill had invited Therese to come because the 3 of them are away to do Kilimanjaro next month and this was a get to know each other day out.

So the plan was to meet at 7am at mine and then head up to Killin for 8:30.

Apart from starting at completely the wrong place and having to walk a little bit longer than anticipated the first munro passed without any hitches.  Then on the way up the second munro the wind really picked up and we ended up spending the whole day being blown about the hill with little or no conversation because noone could hear anyone else or even walk beside each other without falling over them.  I was a bit worried about Jill, Carol and the new girl because they werent too experienced but they were totally fine.  Anyway Carol had just bought a load of Ski wear (?!?!, I think she got confused somewhere) and I think she was glad to be getting bad weather so she could test out the waterproofness and wind resistance of her new gear.  Jill on the other hand had decided to borrow a £250 brand new looking all bells and whistles "I'm going up Everest" jacket from a guy called Benny at the running club.  More on this jacket later.  The munros on the Ben Lawers ridge are pretty easy and Debbie and I were looking forward to getting back early, having a nice meal and an early night.  It was after all our one month wedding anniversary.

Back at the car I had to give Gus and Therese a lift back to their cars at the beginning of the ridge and as there was not enough room in the car for everyone I left the girls to get changed at the Ben Lawers visitors centre.

15 minutes later I picked the girls back up and off we headed home.  We reached Crianlarich to find that the road along Loch Lomond was closed.  Great. There goes the early home.  OK, we arent too bad, we will still be back by 8pm.  So off we drove towards Loch Awe with the plan to go to Inveraray and then back over to Loch Lomond via Arrochar.  The weather by now was getting pretty stormy and everyone was getting tired and hungry.

Just as we passed Kilchurn Castle I was pointing out to everyone that that was the place that Debbie and I first camped when I heard this "OH NO" coming from the back.  Everyone was like "What?"  It was Jill.  "I have left Benny's jacket at the Visitors Centre" (an hour away)

So Jill.  I know I said I wouldnt say anything but does posting it to my blog count?  So we ended up having to drive all the way back to get it and then all the way to Callendar to get home and so the early night home turned out to be getting back at 10pm.  To be fair, Jill is black afronted with her mistake but I am sure that we will all get some milage from this.

Anyway training wise it was a good day out but not too strenuous.  I would like to start doing some running on the hills so that I can get the best of both worlds but with the weather the way it is that might be difficult.  My legs feel great and I am looking forward to the next session on Tuesday.