70 Wild Miles 'n stuff

It's been a while since I put pen to paper (so to speak) so I thought I'd provide a quick update of what's been going on.

A few weeks ago, myself and a couple of pals spent a very pleasant few days biking in the Vercors in south east France courtesy of the extremely laid back Phil Smith at Gastrobiking

http://www.gastrobiking.com/

The idea is to climb a few cols have some cake, descend a few cols, have some more cake and ride back to base before having yet more cake - oh, and a few glasses of wine. If you fancy some fantastic riding over some of the "Tour" routes in glorious weather, Phil is your man.

Back home and into some serious training to get ready for the WHW race, I managed some good runs and did my final long session a week ago from Tyndrum to the White Corries and back. 36 miles, under 11 min mile pace and feeling good at the end.

Last weekend saw me and two pals team up once more for 70 Wild Miles. A team triathlon event organised by Click Sargent based in and around Glen Coe. The event consist of a 43 mile bike ride from the White Corries to Taynuilt. This is followed by a 10 mile Kayak up Loch Etive and then a 12 mile run up Glen Etive. Not surprisingly, I did the run section and our team came 2nd overall in the team event - a fanatstic result. Personally I ran OK but struggled in the heat and didn't feel quite as strong as I would have hoped but still managed to record the 5th fastest run of the day!

Me approaching the finish

Graeme "TM" Busby (Kayak), Me, Peter "Boris" Gorrie (Bike)

Not bad for a bunch of old guys in their 40's!

So the focus is now very much on the WHW Race which is now less than 2 weeks away. The training is done and all I can do now is to try and rest up and get my head togther for what will be a very long day. As always, the plan is just to finish but I do have a schedule for a sub-23 hour which it would be great to get near. More on my pre-race thoughts on a later post.

I have one more race before the WHW Race which is this weekends local 10k. Part of the Bearsden and Milngavie Highland Games. I have run this the last few years and it is hilly wee course that catches a lot of people out. I always get to the start line saying that I'll take it easy with the following weekends race in mind but as soon as the gun goes off, the red mist descends and I charge off at a ridiculous speed which sees me gasping and panting after two miles. Still - it's all good training.

So that brings you up to date - a bit of a brief summary really but duty calls and there is business to be done. I'll post next week prior to my main event of the year.