Getting back into the swing of things

It has been a longtime since I last posted. I have been trying to think why. Part of it most surely be that the weather really hasn't been that great for taking photographs (how much wind has there been this year???).

Over the winter I ran a lot of trails from my house in the middle of Inverness out towards Dores which sits as the eastern end of Loch Ness. I have managed to link up some great trails to get runs up to 23 miles with only a small percentage on road. The sections of track alongside the River Ness, when not knee-deep in flood water, are simply superb. Heading back to Inverness there are a number of high-level forestry tracks on the hillside above Dores. Invariably the wind is blowing you back to Inverness making the conifer plantations less tedious. The north side of the Great Glen has some fantastic routes too, Anyway, I have a small project in mind with the aim of making up some route maps of trail runs accessible from Inverness. It might take me a while though.

With my new-found enthusiasm for trail running I ran a section of the Speyside Way from Bridge of Avon to Spey Bay, a distance of some 30 miles and part of the race route. I don't know whether I was just having a bad day, but when I reached the end, which has a fantastic cafe at the Whale and Dolphin Centre, I was distinctly grumpy. In fact I rated the day on the fun-ness scale as a lowly 2 out of 10. The weather was okay, I had a great running partner and the flora and fauna were interesting, but I was still disappointed. Somehow the Spey remained elusive throughout much of the day only revealing coy glimpses through the trees, also there were quite long road sections. Even more surprising was the amount of hill on what should have been, I thought, a downhill riverside run. To be fair to it, the last section from Fochabers was lovely and it was all good training.

In order to restore my yin after some much (almost too much) yang the next weekend I went off up some hills - although after discussion with my Tai chi-ing wife apparently yin is associated with dark thoughts and yang with big bursts of energy - so perhaps that should be the other way around. I wouldn't know because a yoga teacher once told me that I didn't have any earth-force - no shit Sherlock. Anyway, back to the running. It was a nice steady (and highly recommended 8 out of 10 on the fun-ness scale) 10 mile Marilyn bagging trip over Mona Gowan via the melt-water channel of the Slacks of Glencarvie over to Morven. To return to the car parked on the A939 by Glenferzie, we jogged back in the sun along estate roads watching rain showers to the North and South whilst we stayed dry. Perhaps this karma thing does work, although then I would be guilty of mixing my religions. Is Daoism a religion? No idea, but I am sure Wikipedia will know....