West Highland Way Reccie

Well 22miles today. The reccie was to check out the course for the Highland Fling in April so I did an out and back route from Beechtree Inn to The Old Oak Inn at Balmaha and back. The first section was flat with couple of hills on the approach to Drymen. The route from Drymen was a bit of a test as it was rolling hills for about 3miles with a quick downhill section on the way to the climb over Conic Hill, which turn out to be very pleasent with great views from the top of Loch Lomond and as normal forgot to take a camera. On the return the route from bottom of Conic Hill to Drymen seemed to pass in no time, looking back on it I did gain some hight heading out of Drymen so all downhill back to Drymen.(Happy Days). I ran today with the rucksack I plan to take to the Gobi very good piece of kit no bouncing around, food and drink very easy to get at, should have take a bit more of each. Trail food worked well mixture of jelly beans and mixed nuts. So on the whole another good days traning.

Training

Some good news. Firstly training going well 14mile run last Sunday in 2hrs, 16miles tomorrow with good sessions throught the week at the gym and with the club. Further good news was that my employer Muirfield Contracts Ltd (Dundee) have agreed to sponsor me for the Gobi Challenge 09 the finer details still to be confirmed.

http://www.muirfieldcontracts.co.uk/

Lenzie Jog 09

The first race of the year took place on the 2nd of Jan 2009. A 180 runners took to the start line on this cold and crisp day. Distance varied from 2.5miles and 5miles races. I took part in the Big Lads race and completed the 5mile course in 39mins and finishing in 51st place, not to bad after the party season. So its now onwards and upwards with my training for the Highland Fling.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

On the run up to Christmas training was going well until the dreaded "man flu" took hold which floored me for 2 weeks. Now over the flu and back in training, its only a 115 days to the Highland Fling Foot Race so training will need to be step up in the coming weeks.

Training Over Christams and New Year

1. 2 x Hill climbing days.
2. 2 x Hill rep sessions, 1 mile warm up and 2 mile warm down.
3. 2 x 7 mile steady runs.
4. 1 x 10 mile trail run.
5. 1 x 6 mile road run.

So all in all its been a good 2 weeks.

Introduction

Hi

Thanks for visiting.

Where to start. I am a late starter when it comes to running. I was challenged to run a 5k Christmas handicap race by my son who runs with our local running club Kirkintilloch Olympians at the age of 38 then followed the challenge of 10k and half marathon. The thought of running a full marathon is something that I have no interest in "why"? I dont know. As someone who enjoys the great outdoors ie hillwalking, mountain biking, camping I was looking for new challenges that would encompass all of the above and this is were I entered the mad world of Ultra Marathons.

Ultra Marathons are generally events over 30miles and normally 1 day races and as runners look for the next challenge more and more are looking to multi-day event like the Marathon des Sables, Gobi Challenge and 6633 Ultra Race which allow athletes to race over distances of 140+ miles. I have to date taken part in three 1 day event, twice in the Maggies Challenge which is a 30 mile bike section followed by a 43 mile run/hike to be complete in 24hrs and recently The Devil o the Highlands 08 a 43 mile footrace to be complete in 12hrs along the latter part of the West Highland Way. My next Ultra is the Highland Fling a 53 mile race along the the lower half of the West Highland Way this will be used as training for my main challenge in 2009. I am taken part in the Gobi Challenge which races 140+ mile through mountains, ice gorges, desert plains and the highest sand dunes in Asia.