Ayr 'Turkey Trot' 10k

It was +3 today, apart from the wind, Scottish Summer!

Today i ran the annual boxing day 'Turkey Trot' in Ayr - a little 10km race along the sea, to burn off those Christmas mince pies. I had caught a bit of a flu the other day, probably due to the crap weather, and Christmas boozing, so i just took it gently - i dont recommend running with the flu by the way in freezing cold, by the way, no matter how well your dressed.

Noticing how fit everyone was, (my pal i ran it with must have got about 10th place!) the positive I took from the race was, that I must be kidding myself if i think i can complete the Marathon des Sables in an ok time with my current lack of training or discipline. However, at least thats the kick i need to actually now get in shape. The weather is truly awful for training here in the frozen north but i can only put a disciplined effort together for January and February, get a decent paid of shoes i can run with in the snow or the desert, and find a place to actually live where it may get above zero degrees before March, then im in with half a chance.

Well, heres to crazy dreams, and Great Expectations,

Merry Chirstmas, readers!

The Joy of the Carrick Way (running up hills in freezing snow)

In a fit of guilt due to not training, I decided to go for a run in the Carrick Hills today, in Ayrshire, south of Glasgow, where my little sister lives with her husband.

In theory there is a track there called the 'Carrick way' - I even found a stone that says so, but with the snow, it was pretty much guesswork all the way.

This makes me think there is a track somewhere

Anyway, if you want to run for a cheeky 10 miles (16km) or so through roughish terrain, you can start at Sauchrie or Minneshant and basically just head up the road that goes uphill, westwards towards where the sea should be eventually. Run up the road and you'll see after 3miles or so (from Millieshant or a mile from Sauchrie), another road pointing upwards with hiking path signs and so on. Take that road for 3 miles more and you get to a junction which, for the unprepared like me, can mean a choice of life or death.

Even by the time i got to the junction, my body was telling me quite straightforwardly that i need to change my diet, cut out processed food and stop eating chips, and do some training sometimes, so this kind of thing would be heavily involved in my new years resoultions, if i ever made any.

Anyway you can go left or right to the same destination - the left path is is a normal road, it winds gently round the hills and ends up after 5miles in Dunure, a pretty little village on the Ayrshire coast (which has the foodlicious Dunure Inn if you like fresh seafood and a big warm fire)

 The right path i do not recommend unless its a lovely summers day and you are maybe the kind of guy who, unlike me, does fell running on a regular basis. In theory its nothing more than a rough path through some marsh, woods and over the hill, and in theory is 3miles to Dunure. Just jump over the turnstyle and your on the 'Carrick Way' ,

By the way i would just like to state here publicly that i think that the Carrick Way is nothing more than an urban myth to trick idiots who run up hills in winter. Im pretty sure it doesnt actually exist. (even the website alludes to that fact)


Another  knackered and freezing victim of the 'pretend paths in the middle of nowhere' trick, yesterday


As is my destiny, I of course took the road less travelled, and within 5 minutes in the snow got soaked as the ice over the marsh broke. Thanks God i thought, I only have to run up the bloody hill now and i'll possibly see the sea. Of course snow, while its great on the feet, means that quickly any semblance of a path up the hill was lost. Its also slippy as hell when your running up a hill on it. And anyway, I had no idea where Dunure is except by the sea, somewhere nearby, so with this logic i ran towards some random stones at the top of the hill (which are actually cairns, marking the site where people die) With no food, and nothing more on that my silly looking 'pro combat' running tights and a few layers of christmas fat, both of my imaginary freinds were now questioning my sanity, but due to limited other choices, i had to press on (and at at a quick pace to avoid hypothermia)

The well defined path up the hill

Unfortunatley when i got to the top of the hill it was snowing heavily so couldn't see any sea, never mind a path, but after picking my way through a load of jaggy bushes, I eventually found a small river you could follow to get down towards the road on the other side.

Which brought me to a field full of cows. As i ran, the cows started following me, which was great fun, I actually as they sped up I thought it would cool to set a stampede going - until i realised they were in fact horny bulls, so i had to vault into the next field to avoid a pretty interesting death.

However, the worst was now over, as from here i could see a farmhouse, which brought me to a road, and eventually some roadsigns to Dunure, and 5 more miles later i found myself warming my freezing self by the fire in Dunure Inn, gulping down some lovely homemade soup.

A field of horny bulls, taken from the safety of the next field

In normal weather though, the route i believe is quite a good run, and you can add to it after Dunure, right along to Girvan (another 10miles or so) or Ayr (5miles +) so you could knock out 15-20miles in total here, with some lovely scenery.

Dunure Castle today, looking rugged and handsome (like me)

EUREKA MOMENT

I saw a stroke of Genius today. While doing an admittedly lame training 'walk' for 10miles, I was pretty encouraged to see quite a few runners, especiually out in the 'burbs, running with spikes or weird contraptions on their running shoes for the snow. But the smart ones - the few smart ones, were running in the cycle lane. Eureka! 

Of course the cycle lane on the main road was totally cleared of snow. And no cyclists are so stupid to go out in minus 5 and snow (only runners are so stupid) so you have a clear road to run, maybe a full 10miles worth, all through the winter. I think ill give it a shot tomorrow, instead of the indoor track. The only real danger here are cars - being in UK, no one bothers to get winter tyres despite a foot of snow, so i think its worth looking out for rear wheel drive BMW's careering my way.

My walking today wasn't actually so bad. I felt i got a workout at least, with the pack on. And the snow of course slowed me down and used more calories than it would normally. Now tomorrow night i'm off to London for a week, where I understand the weather is pretty crap - wet, cold, slushy snow. So i think a lot of walking will be involved there, and a fair amount of slipping. Seems everyone i know has a cold (Estonian wimps can handle minus 20 but not minus 3 in dirty London!) but luckily, unlike USA it is possible to buy fruit and vegetables in London.

Winter Training in the Frozen North

 With a foot of snow here in Glasgow, yesterday I trained at the Kelvin Hall indoor sports arena, a draughty old 'municipal' indoor track in the West End to test out if my technique is still up to scratch. Having not really run much in the last month, i decided to run without a pack, and also without any music.

The lack of music was great -music tends to drown out what your body is telling you, although the pace can pick you up when you need it. With no i-pod i could feel that im pretty out of shape (i should train more than once a month maybe?) Anyway my plan now is to use these sessions to up my tempo a bit, and see how good a pace i can keep up for 10km.

No pack also made a big difference, so much so that ill drop the pack for runs this month, and walk with it instead in the snow. It will be desperately boring so i think music is necessary here.

Im still trying to tie in running with a pack with Chi-running - they basically arent compatible and i still have a problem here- chi running is all about being light, using core muscles, not using the legs etc. but a pack automatically loads all your muscles an extra 10% of your bodyweight.

So this month i plan to continue to combine building up the miles with chi-running indoors, without a pack, and walking long walks in the snow with a pack on. It's about 5 miles to the centre of Glasgow from my home so my December training will consist of 2 times walking a week to strengthen the legs and core, and an hour and half run in the indoor track, in between days.

The great thing about being back in an English speaking country are that there are plenty other runners, and clubs and so on i can join to keep motivated, it was pretty cheering to see some fellow sufferers training in Kelvin Hall yesterday !

After this month, January and February have to be hard training months, so depending on business commitments ill maybe move to a warmer drier country to train properly so i can relax a bit in March ahead of the race. This is the slackers ultramarathon after all ;o)