Meanwhile, back in Shropshire......

....council employees in Telford have been served with 90 days notice on their jobs and been told that they will be re-employed after that if they agree to new conditions which include a 5.4% pay cut. Otherwise, goodbye. Sacked. Not redundant apparently!

At the same time (you couldn't make it up), the Chief Executive, who hasn't been there that long, has apparently decided that he doesn't fit in with the plans of the council and has offered to resign.....for which he's getting a "redundancy" payment of £125,000!! And then they're looking to hire a new interim Chief Executive!

All in it together, right?

Anyway, onto much more agreeable matters, and a tough old week of training. Last Friday saw us meet up with the Bannermans over at Fyrish and. while the girls had a 5 or 6 mile trot out, Ross ran me ragged over plenty of new paths, covering approximately 8 miles at not a million miles off my race pace! Nice! Smashing evening though, and great company to run with.

Then Saturday saw us head up the road for a leisurely day out on 4 munros in the Fannaichs. A cold day on the tops, and a long, tiring trek back from the furthest peak. But we didn't half enjoy being able to sit in Scooby and brew up before heading home!!

Then on Sunday, we picked up Claire and headed over to Fochabers, for the Gala hill race, a 5.5 mile run around the wooded hills. It was quite a trek over there, and the cloud and wind increased as we headed east. We arrived and registered, and had a chat with a couple who saw Kirsten's Calder Valley hoodie and turns out they're good friends with Alan Greenwood.

Socialising over with, we donned HHR tops and the tartan shorts got another outing! The legs were definitely tired from the day before, and I struggled to hold on in the initial 3 miles of gentle up. There was then a half mile steeper uphill to the highest point, before a 2 mile downhill, which suited me perfectly and I flew down to overtake the person in front and finish 8th! Pleased with that.

Claire came in looking sick and having clearly worked hard and Kirsten followed soon after, looking pretty much the same and feeling quite wrecked from 3 consecutive days of decent training. That'll stand her in good stead in due course.

On Wednesday, I headed back out to Glascarnoch and a tough day on Am Foachagach. The usual boggy path across to it had been dried out by the sun, and the river crossing was simple. But the heat was a problem during the ascent to the ridge. I'd banked on it being colder and had 2 tops on...mistake!

It's a splendid hill despite the books saying it's dull. It has some of the best views going, immediately west into Beinn Dearg and Cona Mheall, south to the southern Fannaichs, An Teallach, the Fisherfield hills, Slioch etc and north to the marvellous hills of Assynt.

Instead of heading back down the path, I dropped north to the bealach between it and Cona Mheall and then headed south down the pathless valley, passing three lochs on the way back. It was hot, the going was tough, the flies were out in force, and it took some willpower to keep a decent pace going. Again though, it was lovely to get back and relax in the van with a nice cool milkshake and reflect on a smashing day.

And then last night, I met up with another local runner Graham Briffett, who it turns out, is planning his BG for 13th August. Plenty to talk about, lots of past in common, smashing new paths over the Cat's Back and around to Loch Kinellan. I think Graham took it at a trot, while I had to work and was feeling the previous day in my legs and breathing. Great run out though, including wading through head-high bracken and being scratched by thorns and raspberry bushes!

And so to the weekend, a good weather forecast and the whole of the northern Highlands on our doorstep.....life is good!!!

The Power of Big Business...

This week, I got the chance to see how the energy companies operate when it comes to plastering wind turbines all across our wild land. It was an enlightening experience. Of course, I already know that a certain amount of "brain-washing" appears to have taken place whereby, to even question the effectiveness of these monstrosities gets you labelled a "climate change denier" amidst cries of NIMBYism.

I went and attended a public consultation at Culbokie in respect of the planned industrial development of the Carn Liath Wind Farm.

Now let's start with that. It's not the "Carn Liath" development, it's a development on Ben Wyvis. So trick number one is always, ALWAYS come up with a nice cuddly name that doesn't conjure up images of iconic mountains being covered in metal.

I read the information boards and I chatted to one of the representatives, not from the company who are actually doing the development, but from what is effectively their PR fronting company. I was not in any way confrontational, asked pertinent questions and gave him every opportunity to respond and convince me that this was a necessary development.

First and foremost, I recognise that the SNP are 100% committed to onshore wind power, and therefore it makes no sense to argue the case against because this will have no effect or purpose.

Therefore, it seems to me, each wind factory proposal has to be looked at on its own merits and arguments made for or against development in a particular area. And this was the gist of most of my questions.

And what came out of reading the boards and talking to the representative were;

i) Photo montages are put up to show what the view will be. But, and this is a huge but, they are clearly "photoshopped" so that colours are dulled, taken on a day when skies are grey, and thus it appears as though you can hardly see the turbines against the background. This, of course, in reality is patently untrue and they stick out like sore thumbs.

ii) The representative simply could not answer a number of my questions. They weren't, in my opinion, difficult questions and I would expect anyone involved in the development to know the answers (eg what is the optimum wind speed in mph for the turbines? How often has this occurred on this site during testing?).

iii) The other "trick" is to say that an expert (peat expert, ornithology expert etc) has undertaken studies, but then inform you that they are neither present at the consultation nor will there full results be published at any point!

iv) There were a couple of pieces of information which I requested but was told they would not be available unless a FOI request was made at a later date. Very transparent!

v) Did you know that turbines need to use a percentage of their own electricity to start the turbines up after being switched off and to heat them in cold conditions? I didn't. Of course, this amount ISN'T deducted from what they say the power output of the turbines is.

vi) The emphasis is constantly on telling you how much money the community and individuals (through "community investment") can make out of the turbines. Doesn't it strike you as odd that individuals, landowners and energy companies are ALL making huge returns on these things. Doesn't that say that this is NOTHING to do with climate change and CO2 and everything to do with profits? It does me.

vii) My understanding is that local councillors and MSPs should represent their community...is that not correct? The local community has come out strongly against this, as was evidenced by them collecting signatures to say as much, and yet I'm told the local councillor is backing it 100%. Democracy at its finest if that is true!

Anyway, I came away with more insight and I have registered my disapproval on the basis that THIS wind development is one too many because of the visual impact it has on an iconic mountain. I'm not overly hopeful, but then some interest is being generated and some reasonably influential people are against it, so who knows.

Hill 1 Airlie-Gilberts 0

This weekend was the first chance to head out for an overnight in our new campervan....so it had to be done! A quick look at the race calendar showed a couple of short races within driving distance, but one race stood out.....Glamaig!

I remember the long discussion about the steepest fell race on the FRA forum, and seem to remember Dungeon Ghyll getting votes based on 2300ft in 4 miles. Well that's tame compared to Glamaig. 2,600ft in just over 4 miles, with the first mile having negligible climb. Now THAT is steep!

I'd managed to get Kirsten to agree to doing it (by not showing her photos, assuring her she wouldn't be last and mentioning the ceilidh held afterwards!) and that was the plan, as long as the weather was ok and the cloud cover not too bad.

Driving across to the Kyle, the cloud was down on the munros, but not by much and the forecast was for the weather to clear up the further west we went. Everything was packed up for a cracking weekend away and it seemed surreal to be crossing the Skye bridge only just over an hour from home!

We travelled up the coast road and then finally came towards Sconser and views up towards Glamaig. My goodness it's a big, steep hill!! As we rounded the corner and head towards the campsite, the rain started in earnest, lashing down and bouncing off the road. And the cloud started to lower as well, obscuring the black cuillins completely.

Perhaps it would have been better if the cloud had stayed down! As it rose to reveal Glamaig in all its glory, the steepness of the hill hit home. Kirsten really doesn't like steep ascents, and this was looking the steepest in hill running! I'm not much taken with steep scree descents either, and was busy working out a grassy line down on the left hand side.

We stopped around for half an hour, taking Rufus out for a quick walk in the rain. We jumped back in the van with an hour and a half to go until race start, and the rain increased in intensity! Decision made....we were heading up the island in search of better weather and a more sedate day on the Trotternish ridge.

And a good decision it proved to be, as we walked the Cuith Raing, gazing in awe (as always) at the incredible spires and turrets of rock in this most majestic of places. Having had a quick trot up to the top to stand on the "table", we headed on north to find the breech in the cliffs and then head back over the top, to peer down into the abyss.

Drizzly rain just started as we headed back down to the van, having decided we could find no better spot in the world for our first night out in it than that top car park, with views of the ridge and out to sea.

We cooked tea, brewed up and then settled down for a wonderful night, waking to sheep surrounding the vehicle and mist clinging to its sides and restricting visibility to only a few yards! A leisurely morning ensued, having breakfast and packing up before heading down through torrential rain to Sligachan. We decided to cross over the bridge and go for a walk at Plockton, somewhere which holds lovely memories from my childhood holidays, and where the weather was much brighter and drier.

All in all, a lovely weekend....but no running!! And despite a splendid day, and plans to return and run the whole Trotternish ridge from Duntulm to Portree, we couldn't help feeling that Glamaig won the day and we need to mark it in the calendar for next year....and hopefully slightly better weather and stronger minds!! :-)

Lately...

....life seems to have been hectic! Need to catch up with a bit of a round-up of recent running etc.

First and foremost, we did our 2nd Scottish race a couple of weeks ago. The Fyrish hill race starts in Evanton, about 10 miles from us, and heads up through the forests, down a bit, up to the monument at the top and then plunges down over a 3 mile run to the finish.

We'd done a recce and knew it was fairly fast. We weren't sure how many runners to expect, but it didn't look like many! It was a warm-ish day, with sunshine breaking through about an hour before the race and making us quickly change into just vests for the race.

A bit of a warm-up and we were off....toiling up those forest tracks in the baking heat, dripping with sweat, our bodies unaccustomed to the warm conditions. I held back a bit early on knowing the path gets steeper and, indeed, I started passing people on the way up to the top. The field was spread out as I hung onto the tail of a tall, thin runner in front as we headed through the trees, absolutely plagued by flies buzzing around our heads.

The top was a relief as the flies disappeared and, after a quick gulp of water as I rounded the monument, it was time to peg it down the hill and try and catch the runner in front. Now I have to say, I'm not the greatest downhiller in the world(understatement!) but boy did I fly! I had a truly brakes off descent which saw me pass him about halfway down on the steepest section, and start to make up ground on the two runners some way in front.

I thought I'd catch them....until the path levelled out and I discovered that the fast downhill had left my legs shattered and full of jelly! I gritted my teeth and hung on in there, still making up ground but not enough to pass them. I passed through the finish line of the 7.5 mile & 1500ft race in under 65 minutes and it was as hard as I've raced for a good while, I'd given everything.

And that's when the message about Scottish hillrunning was re-enforced - I finished one place below midway in a field of just 28. Down in England, if I'd run like that I would have been well up in the top half, possibly on the edge of the top third. Ah well, something to work on....

As for Kirsten, she gave it everything as well. She was absolutely shattered as she crossed the line in 85 minutes. But again, a run like that would have left 20-30 runners behind her in any English race....not here!

It's strange, there is such a disconnect between the "JogScotland" runners and the "real" clubs. Fyrish was a perfect race for fell "newbies", and yet not one turned up, it was all old, gnarly hillrunners. Something more to work on I think, as we get to know more runners around here - they need tempting out onto the hills.

Training was going well that week and the week after, and I worked hard to put in some mileage and ascent, knowing that a trip down to England over the last week would see little running. And so it proved. Only one run down there, a trot around Widdop, Gorple and Heptonstall Moor on a sunny day.

Back up in Scotland now...but the rain's returned and I'm busy with some work, so no playing out today. Off for a run over Muir of Ord this evening, and then try and get out on the bike tomorrow. On Saturday, depending on the weather, we may head over to Skye in our new campervan(!!!!!!) and do the Glamaig race. It looks anything but my type of race, but it's one of those that just HAS to be done at some point. And a first race since joining the Highland Hill Runners, Kirsten will be hoping we can get hold of the tartan shorts in time!!!