Not Training

Time for a New Challenge… ?

Posted by

2

Wow time really does fly! Its November, only 5 and a half weeks to Christmas and nearly 7 weeks since the Loch Ness marathon!

What have I been up to?  Well, I took some time out (a week of slow walking and bumping down stairs on my bum because I couldn’t walk down them after the marathon) and gave up serious training for a while.  However, I have 2 dogs to exercise daily so I have not turned into a couch potato I can assure you!  I’ve been out jogging a couple of times for short runs but haven’t recorded anything on my app to prove it!

I climbed a 3,576 ft (1,090 m) mountain – Stob Ghabhar on the 12th October.

Stob Ghabhar from Loch Tulla

Stob Ghabhar from Loch Tulla

It was the sunniest day in October, blue skies and freezing temperatures up high.  The gentle incline on the way up the valley was followed by a slippery scramble up the rocky buttress (where my brothers dog whined with fear!) then the exhilarating walk across the short but very exposed Aonach Eagach ridge before a nice walk round the path and up to the summit next to a stunning cliff face.  The shorter steeper decent was chilly as the sun got lower in the skies and to our amazement a lone stag watched us walk out on the road next to the river and he was only 100 metres from us (thankfully Candy was upwind of him otherwise we might have lost her to the chase!).

Stob Ghabhar Summit view from top of the buttress next to Aonach Eagach ridge

Stob Ghabhar Summit view from top of the buttress next to Aonach Eagach ridge

View of the Buachaille from the road

View of the Buachaille from the road

Looking back down the valley we had just walked up (on the way to Stob Ghabhar)

Looking back down the valley we had just walked up (on the way to Stob Ghabhar)

Stob Ghabhar Summit looking across from below the buttress

Stob Ghabhar Summit looking across from below the buttress

Rannoch Moor

Rannoch Moor

Just last weekend, despite the weather, we jumped on a ferry to the island of Great Cumbrae (otherwise known as Millport) and turned right off the ferry slip and walked 13 miles anticlockwise around the coast road.

It was another cold day and the dogs were glad of their new smart rain jackets:

Winnie and Candy in their smart winter coats

Winnie and Candy in their smart winter coats

So what’s next? I am looking for 2014 challenges… Feel free to make some suggestions!

Dig in!

Posted by

0

Ah, the final taper before the marathon… the joys of not training and just chilling out!  Well that’s the idea anyway but having committed to my neighbour Jill (see Life’s a Beach &  Real Toy Stories and Tantrums) back in the summer that we should use the IBM On Demand Community Challenge framework to get a team of volunteers together to help revitalise the local School’s eco garden, I had to follow through… its a shame it was the Thursday before the marathon – poor planning on my part!

Anyway, I managed to put in a full digging shift and only slightly strained my right thigh! Result!

Here’s the article we sent to the local paper and the photos from the dig!

Thursday 26th September 2013:  Neilston Primary – Eco Garden

The Volunteer Team consisted of people from:

  • IBM
  • Support Our School
  • Neilston Development Trust
  • William Tracey
  • Parents
  • Children Eco Committee

It was all organised, the only thing that could have dampened the spirits was the weather. Imagine our surprise and delight when it turned out a dry crisp autumn day!

All helpers were given a motivational talk by Rosemary Crossan, Principle teacher and the children from the Eco Committee.  Each committee member had been selected by their fellow pupils by being voted in or by giving a presentation on why they should be part of the committee.  Pupils showed awareness of environmental issues faced by the school and in today’s society, including the importance of recycling, fair trade, litter picking and support the Green Flag award scheme.

Between the motivation for the children and the £200 donated by IBM and the free skip hire from William Tracey,  the volunteers got dug in!  Children, excused from classes, came and helped the volunteers from the Support Our School, Neilston Development Trust, Parents and IBM.   Volunteers had made a really good start on clearing the weeds and digging over the ground and then enjoyed a school dinner courtesy of the dinner ladies.

Making quick progress the team of volunteers managed to dig over a second area dedicated to bird preservation before the children came and planted new grass seed and hung bird feeders.

A big thank you to IBM for their £200 donation towards bird feeders, seeds and bulbs that the children selected.

 

Before (area 1)

Before (area 1)

Before (area 2)

Before (area 2)

During

During

During

During

During

During

During

During

After

After

Twenty? Really? Must I?

Posted by

0

Well I have to admit, doing the 110 mile cycle over 8 hours and 45 minutes of cycling had really taken its toll on my body and I was feeling very tired.  I had been delighted with the ‘Short n Sweet‘ training session on the Tuesday however, a 20 mile training run was due by the Sunday 15th September.  As the weekend approached I’d not made it out running again mainly blaming the weather but the reality was I was still exhausted!

The weather improved significantly so I went to Troon beach on Saturday and thought about the 20 mile training session… that’s all I could do when I was drinking coffee and watching the dogs run around!  I was not in the right frame of mind to don the trainers and lycra so I decided to have a restful night.

Sunday rolled round and again I just couldn’t face the 20 miles so I decided to listen to my exhausted body and take a break from training!  I was confident that since I’d done 18 miles a couple of weeks previously, plus managed a massive endurance cycle, that my body would benefit from that training and I’d be able to do the marathon on the 29th…  however, there was still a bit of fear and trepidation!

I looked up the marathon course details and reassured myself that it was practically a downhill course so nothing to worry about!

2013 Loch Ness Marathon Map

2013 Loch Ness Marathon Map

2013 Loch Ness Marathon Profile

2013 Loch Ness Marathon Profile

The Chips are down!

Posted by

0

After the 18 mile jog on Sunday I was exhausted and so rested on Monday and Tuesday. With my new lodger moving in on Friday I took Wednesday as a holiday to complete a number of jobs needing done before her arrival. The list was extensive and unrealistic! in the end it took all day just to build a wooden frame, make pegs to hold it in place and to transport 2 tons of Valencia stone chips into place to finish off the outside of the house.
Thursday was a long day in Edinburgh for a really good innovations in public sector event talking about 4 topics: the financial benefits of linking all public sector systems to create one golden record of the truth for each citizen; predicting the future of crime, fraud, distribution of resources to improve safety and improve efficiencies; understanding what causes people to behave like they did on your web site and how to share knowledge and best practice across silos and through management levels to improve services and cut costs. #IIPS2013 so no cycling or running training yesterday either!

20130906-120620.jpg

I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly….

Posted by

0

…well its been an interesting week..

Sunday was spent recovering from Saturday’s 12 mile jog, Monday bank holiday was spent weeding, cutting the grass, trimming the hedge, getting rid of back garden debris and what I thought would be a 2 hour job turned into 7 hours of gardening followed by a well earned small fish supper with my folks (my mum did an amazing job of ridding my border of all weeds)!  Tuesday back at work – meetings in Bellshill and Paisley followed by a trip straight to bed because of a monster headache and also had a jittery jiggly right eye and a twitching eye lid… not quite a migraine but enough to make me cancel my cycling trip and close the curtains to limit light in.   I wondered if this was related to a dark patch in my eye last week..    Wednesday awoke with a slight headache and decided to book myself an optician appointment for the afternoon just in case.   The optician confirmed that I’d had a bleed in my eye because of the jelly (vitreous gel) inside ripping away from the anchor point at the bottom…  it will heal up but they referred me to the Royal Alexandria Hospital in Paisley as a precaution because it may cause a retina detachment.  If they deem it necessary they can laser it in place.

And here’s the science:

The back cavity of the inner eye is filled with clear jelly called vitreous.

Posterior Vitreous Detachment (PVD)

Normally the jelly is only loosely adherent to the retina. However, occasionally, the vitreous jelly is so adherent to the retina and pulls so hard on it that it creates a tear. If this tear is along a blood vessel of the retina this may cause bleeding into the vitreous (called a vitreous hemorrhage) which could lead to a shower of floaters which cloud the vision. Acute retinal tears with or without flashes and floaters pose a risk because fluid can enter through the tear under the retina and lift the retina off, causing a retinal detachment, much like damp wallpaper peeling from the wall. Since Posterior Vitreous Detachments are usually the initiating event of most retinal detachments, this is why PVDs are such a concern.

Retinal “Horseshoe” Tear

Horseshoe tear with retinal vessel involvement

 

So that’s my excuse for no training Sunday to Wednesday this past week!

 

 

Driving miss lazy

Posted by

0

After last weeks Great Glen walk I went to Glencoe to stay for the weekend as a base for some mountain biking. However Saturday was very wet and windy and when we arrived at the chair lift for the Nevis Range (near fort William) it wasn’t open at the top and the route was damaged! Not only that, a lady reversed her big Volvo and tow bar into my friends car doing some serious damage!
Hoping for an improved day we headed to the indoor climbing and ice climbing centre at Kinlochleven -the ice factor and got an hour and a half lesson along with 3 fearless kids! First we learned to get roped up properly and how to belay. Then we climbed up in the smaller route area using any holds or features of the wall to get to the top so we could get a feeling for what we were doing. The next climb was more challenging… Only using the yellow holds. It was rated a 4 and I found myself having to do more balancing on my feet and plan the next couple of moves. Being only 5’2″ this tactic worked a treat and I got up to the top 🙂
Over the next 3 climbs we got up to level 5+ and went into the much higher route in the bigger room up to 50 ft (shakes and vertigo at the top with sweaty hands meant I wasn’t hanging around to look at the view!).
I came home for my dads birthday yesterday and after a nice dog walk hampered by cleggs (horse flies) spent most of Monday catching up on sleep after spending the previous night camped out my neighbours back garden with her daughter as I promised her we would before the school holidays were finished!
Back to the training plan tomorrow! Cycling it is!

Struggling after tea…

Posted by

0

Here we are on ‘bins out night’ and nearly a week has passed since ‘Doon to Troon’ with not so much as a bicycle spin or running shoe worn for jogging purposes!
Yikes! Zoweee! I’d have got away with it if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids! T in the park antics to blame… 20130718-131539.jpgFriday & Saturday drinking with no food on Saturday followed by sober Sunday and junk food are not great ways to set yourself up for good health or training the evidence would suggest! I was exhausted Monday, got my car MOT done, dog walking along the clyde canal during the MOT for two hours, met Lynn for Lifeline volunteering planning session (7hrs) and gardening on Tuesday… Up at 6 for 4 meetings in Edinburgh today and had a sniffly nose and a headache by the time I got home…. Yes I agree, excuses excuses!
So here’s the deal.. Back to full training commitment and on the wagon from tomorrow! Promise!
Overnoot