Cape Wrath & running hills

Buy nice or buy twice !                        sheila used to throw those words at me regularly, unfortunately I am renowned for my frugality which leads me to sometimes buy the cheaper products, which can sometimes work out ok, but mostly ends in me having to buy newer better products to replace the crap I had previously bought, I have a new mantra for this that goes -  if its cheap then somebody or the planet is paying the price!   I say this to myself and try to stop buying anything that isn't - Eco friendly, fair trade or throw away disposable, sadly my toy cupboard, shelves, garage, storage boxes and loft are filled with stuff I have bought twice,           I shall use headphones in this blog as an example of equipment I have bought that I bought cheap only to find that what I bought wasn’t suitable for purpose and I ended up having to buy more, I took a quick count of the headphones I have in Shetland while there for work spread across my locker, my room, my four bag

If i were to go at that pace 14:28 Minuit miles it would take me seven hours fourteen minuits to do thirty miles? ! Pace                 On three consecutive days I ran the same route which I named the brae three peaks challenge it was a six point six five mile route (give or take a couple of yards). With one thousand 100feet of ascent but this ascent was up and down to sea level three times over the peaks, the route is over mixed terrain and ideal for testing my pace over the cape wrath event,   I ran it the first day with Stu MC-loud walked it the second day with Craigy bugs then fast hiked with my poles alone on the third occasion, I made the conditions and timings and route as close as I could on each night, for example by stopping to take photos at the top of each peak for roughly the same time, also going as close as I could to the same over peat routes and pathways etc. this was my experiment on pace to gauge what pace to train hardest at or towards for the event   R

     ,Running weight Is there an ideal weight for a runner? I have been passed at speed in marathon races by tiny girls that look proper anorexic not slim but ill, I have also been passed by big blokes tall hefty boned, on those occasions there was a brief annoyance that my physique should be faster than theirs! Which isn’t true really my own personal physique I would say is Mr average, I am five foot eleven with slightly larger than medium frame, I never normally weight myself, my method is I will look in the mirror shake if nothing wobbles then I am happy same weight of muscle and fat! Fat wobbles muscle doesn't, I've never had much in the way of fat I worked really hard at the gym bodybuilding for a few years and reached fifteen stone ( 95.25Kg) at my heaviest, but there was zero fat all muscle It was extremely hard for me to gain that weight as it was all hard workouts daily pushing very heavy weights, My running and cycling took over from weight training

                Ten kilometres (10K) is six point two miles which is of course the ideal starter run and a good distance for performance checks for all kinds of distance runners, its just short of a half the distance of a half marathon or a quarter of a full marathon in a metric (which in my opinion is now the way forward)                  Over the years I have helped lots of friends make it over the finish line at this distance and its always fun, some friends that started out at novices at this distance went on to achieve marathon distance while others are more than happy to make this distance their running pinnacle, my mate gary for example has zero intention of ever doing a marathon but enjoys doing two annual 10K`s, Grangemouths round the houses event (our local) and the Glasgow his home city and favourite, the first time we done Grangemouth together I chatted all the way he likes that, his words are listening to your pish jokes for fifty minuet’s passes the time kenny!

                    most people who know me would never believe there was once a time I hated running, I thought I was rubbish at it and would never be a good runner (I'm still not) but these days I love running, I have removed the pressures of time scales speed and hard work to just getting out and enjoying it and if I feel the need to slow up or even walk stages then I do Glen coe marathon A history of how I came to Enjoy running                 Running wasn’t always my thing probably still isn’t! I’m much more a box ticker completer type than a dedicated winning athlete compete`r,   the only race I’ve ever won in my life was a beer drinking competition, at school I hated running I totally hated phys ed it was a different world in the schools of the seventies of course it was institutionalized violence where bullying, fighting, name calling of all kinds was common place, PE was fine for the kids who`s parents had cash the rest of us were given it because the school had

                      I never but most kids used to say five ten bugs proof when little children in the school play ground, I've absolutely no idea where this came from but you clapped your hands and touched your foot to prevent you getting germs from dropped sweets or a smelly person!  Germs- illnesses                 It’s a lot of money and a lot of time and effort to get to the start line of a big event, it would be a terrible shame to get ill with some virus or other a month or two before the kick off even worse the week or day before, but how do you prevent that from happening you can prepare as much as you like and be unlucky, I’ve only taken antibiotics once in my life and that was when I was unlucky and caught dysentery in china, some things catch you when your unprepared, after that I started carrying alcohol gel in backpacks when I was travelling, because dysentery is something you can catch by touching a door handle or cup after someone else has touched them,     

                     I consider myself very lucky in life to be in this position at my age, my plan to do the Cape Wrath Ultra at the end of May is seems to be reasonably on target, even for someone as disorganized  as me this requires a fair bit of planning, an event of this size requires months of planning, I have never been known in the past been to do all the British military’s 7 P`s (proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance) I am more known to rock up on the day disheveled  after a late night and get by while complaining about what I’ve forgotten to pack or do, you cannot do an event like this with that attitude! I have been trying to structure a plan for months now this is now march I have just over 80 days to go until the start line and I’ve been planning since June last year, sometimes well focused sometimes falling behind there is many phases to the planning - training-equipment- nutrition - holidays from work - staying injury free - all of these I will touch

I love running through the woods along good trails even bad trails! There`s something wild and free about it, I need to go slower now I'm older as it takes a bit longer to see analyse and react on your route through trails, that’s how I felt anyway! recently I decided to up the game a bit on trails and I`m trying a little harder to move quicker, Chris McDougal is an excellent writer his book born to run was an inspiration to me, recently reading another of his books called natural born heroes, where he spoke of moving over trails and even urban landscapes in a more fluid way inspired me yet again! it just makes more sense to try and interact with the landscape as I move around it and stop battling it as much There’s just not enough trees around locally and the woods could do with a bit of expansion, there is lots of local areas where I run that would make great forests, I am lucky to have what I have at my doorstep I know and should be grateful but more would be great ,      

             With the CWUltra on the horizon and me upping my training, I wanted to give myself a health check, for the past couple of years if I kneeled down compressing my legs for any length of time. as soon as I stood up I got dizzy, I have always put this down to being fit and having a slow resting heart rate with low`ish blood pressure, I felt it would be wise though just to get this checked as its had been getting worse as I had increased my training, I made an appointment with my works site medic Gary, just to check how low my blood pressure was                 Gary was glad to help when I explained the dizziness and gave me a very thorough examination, first off he checked my pulse with both A manual watch check and also the finger clip electronic device which also checks oxygen in blood. As suspected my resting heart rate was slow 48 which is what’s to be expected for someone who is fit regardless that I am 52 year old, the oxygen level was 99% which Gary said is super