Petestack Blog

Thought my mileage was looking a bit weedy this week after missing Tuesday (brought my headache home from a late night at work!) as well as my usual Monday then turning down two climbing partners for Saturday to work on the boat with Twig (after which I managed just the 9.1 miles to the Dam and back by the Ciaran Path), so boldly set out to restore some 55-mile respectability (actually 54.7) by going for something reasonably meaty today. And this took the shape of a big loop up the brutal hill (toughest of any local trail) to An Cumhann and Loch Eilde Mor (where I met Martin and Liz Basil enjoying a walk), over the more runnable hill of Meall na Cruaidhe and through to Loch Treig by Loch Chiarain before returning by Luibeilt for a total of 22.7 miles at a modest 3,600 ft of ascent. So who knows why it felt as hard as it did in the end, but my gels and chewy bars just weren’t keeping me going and, in pushing for a >5mph average (doesn’t sound that fast but goes with the terrain), I found myself getting so dizzy coming down the final hill that I just had to blow that target (finishing with 4:34:34 ‘moving time’ from a total of 4:41:42) and take a sit-down stop to wolf down the better part of my 250g packet of apricots. And my head was spinning again by the back fence!