That's it. I have had my rest. I have eaten the 16 thousand calories that I burnt during the West Highland Way race. (too be honest, probably more than once over) I have had my holiday abroad, I have hillwalked and relaxed. I have enjoyed my summer. I needed it. Away from serious training, away from racing, away from running. No need to blog and no need to bore everyone with tales of ultra running. I have spectated at a few races and watched my friends run spectacular times. New PB's and race records. I have watched them all go from strength to strength. They have all done fantastic and I am so pleased for them. Some have managed the triple crown of West Highland Way races, some have even won them. Others have continued their magnificent WHW runs with more magnificent runs during the summer. Some have gone from supporting to running and have now decided to enter an ultra themselves. Sure I have run on and off but I have done so in my terms and nice and relaxed.
But after successfully entering the 2009 West Highland Way Race I have to get my ass back in gear. Just before I went on my holiday I ran a 10k. I filled in the application form. It asked for my PB and I wrote 34:40 and then it asked for my expected time. I put in 40 minutes. I didn't expect anything better. I had been hillwalking the day before over 2 munros and had only gone along to the race because Debbie had wanted to. The first half I just ran relaxed. My legs stiff from not doing faster than 7 minute miles since the London Marathon in April. Then I felt good and picked up the pace. How surprised was I when I got 36:39. It may as well have been a PB. I was over the moon. Maybe I hadn't lost too much of my fitness.
I went on holiday for two weeks to Vietnam. A wonderful place with wonderful people. I feel privileged to have visited before it become a tourist hotspot.
When I returned I was back at training with the club. On the Tuesday it was hillreps. Just a short easy hill of 150 - 200m. By the end of 10 I felt sick and dizzy and could hardly run back to the car. On the Thursday we did a tempo run. I felt better but had dropped a pack.
On the Saturday I did a hill run with Rob, Athole, Ian and Euan. The original plan was to run from Corrour Station but this was scrapped when the traffic was so bad that we would have missed the train.
A quick re-write of the plans and we decided on the mamores. Here is a wee video of our route.
It was also a chance to try out my new Inov-8 Mudroc 290's. Debbie had bought them as a present for me and they were all shiney as I took them out of the box.
As this was Athole, Rob and I's first proper hill run we decided to start at the Mamore Lodge, a move that cut out a couple of hundred metres of ascent.
The first 5 miles was along a track past Loch Eilde Mor. By new shoes rubbed a bit on the heel but I expected this as all the reviews I had read said that people felt rubbing on the heel when new. Then the proper ascent began. We missed the start of the track and so it was off road and bog from the beginning. The shoes then started to prove themselves with excellent grip. I on the other hand could feel the lack of fitness but I kept the pace steady.
We climbed the long North west shoulder of Sgurr Eilde Mor with the sun threatening to come out all the way. The promise of views keeping us going up the long slog. But it wasn't to be and we reached the top in 2hrs 22 min and a distance of 9.15 miles. It was cold but the downhill soon warmed us up and I found the Mudrocs had excellent grip and I was able to keep up with Ian on the way down. I was having great fun. We reached Coire an Lochain and then immediately went straight up Sgurr Eilde Beag. The climb was relentless but very quickly we were at the top. It was drizzly and cold but we were all in good spirits. Now we could get some running in and we were able to run good parts of the ridge to Na Gruagaichean. There was a couple of bits of easy scrambling on the way.
After we reached the top we had a bite to eat and then took the decision to head straight down to Alt Coire na Ba. It was a very steep grassy slope with a few cliffs to avoid but my new shoes stuck to it like glue and I was first down to the track. Then we had an easy run along a track to the car.
14.6miles 4 hours 45mins 1,305m ascent
When we reached the car Rob had bad cramp in his quads. It looked pretty sore but probably not much of a surprise since he had only ran a marathon 2 weeks before. All of us were knackered but soon felt better when we used the free showers at Kinlochleven's Ice Factor.
