In the spirit of continuing to take risks and try new things, I tried out an ice axe and crampons this weekend. I’ve always been wary of both items, first because they’re just an extra thing to carry and second, because if the mountain is really that dangerous then my inner parent generally doesn’t think I should be allowed out on it.

However, I had the chance to go for a hillwalk with a good friend and an experienced mountain leader and this chance coincided with the opportunity to borrow an ice axe and crampons.

We had a great day out, and stopped to play with the ice axe in a suitable icy patch which had soft snow and heather at the bottom of it. Lots of fun, and it did convince me that an ice axe could have uses other than accidentally impaling its owner.

And as for the crampons, well they are just an extra thing to carry and extra weight on your feet while you’re wearing them, but they gave me a magical superhuman ability to walk on ice without slipping. Apparently you can even walk UP sheer walls of ice, but that’s an adventure for another day.

At the end of March I’m going to do an “adventure run”.  From what I can gather, this involves running 10k in the mud and going over obstacles and through rivers.  I’m only doing it because my brother thought it was a good idea to do 5k and my friend talked me into going for 10. Why oh why?

Anyway, today I thought I’d better get some practise in and went to run around the park.  The park has a nice concrete path round it which is ideal for walking or cycling on.  But what use is that for practising for an adventure run?  I decided to run off the path, slalom between the trees, and run up and down the slopes.   Almost felt like snowboarding! (well apart from the effortless gliding, the snow and the scenery that is)

And it was a lot more fun than just jogging on concrete or tarmac.  May have looked a little odd but hey..

I used to find exercise a hassle, something I felt I had to do in order not to become a big blob.  But now I’m addicted, and of all the things out there to be addicted to I’m quite pleased with this one. 

I really enjoy getting to a point where I can look back and see that something which a month or two ago was hard work now feels easy.  And having a certain level of confidence in one area of fitness helps a lot in having confidence in other areas.  I used to climb hills with a completely different attitude.  I always felt I was the slow one, holding up the group, not quite fit enough to belong there. Now I feel fit and energetic to the point where I’m happy to join almost any group of walkers and not feel worried about being left behind.

I think it was the Step class that transformed my attitude to hill-walking, even though in some ways they’re very different sorts of exercise. I’d always imagined Step was a bit of a gimmicky girly kind of class, but its fantastic.  I enjoy the slightly choreographed nature of it, and now find that if I do a less girly class (like boxercise) the same exercises WITHOUT the step seem remarkably low impact.

So let’s hear it for Step classes!!

Was away camping this weekend. Having cycled to work on Tuesday when it didn’t seem to stop raining ALL day, I had low expectations of the weather.

However, we got to Braemar, cycled 3 miles, put up the tents, no rain. That night was COLD (slept with my hat on!!) but the next morning was glorious sunshine. We climbed 4 munros, and when we got back it was still warm enough to enjoy eating our meal in the great outdoors and watching the sun set. That night was warmer (kept the hat nearby, but didn’t need it) and the following day was another scorcher.

Who would believe this was September? Climbed another munro and had a leisurely trip back. Absolutely perfect weather. And great company.

Its fantastic when the chance to spend every single minute of daylight outdoors coincides with some of the best weather we’ve had in weeks.

I love Scotland.

 

There was a church lunch on Sunday, nice chance to chat to various different people.  After that, a few of us went for coffee in the Landsdown.  Haven’t been there for ages and we got to sit in the atrium and had the sun STREAMING in through the glass.  It was lovely.

And Monday after work was another trip to the climbing wall.  Managed to do that red 6A that nearly killed me last week, which was a great sense of achievement. 

Also bumped into someone that I met a few weeks ago who’d let me have a go on a ’slack rope’ in Kelvingrove park.  He and some friends had attached some rope (webbing kind of stuff) between two trees and they were practising walking along it.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and the park was full of people relaxing in various different kinds of groups.  After watching from the sidelines for about half an hour finally plucked up the courage to have a go.  (Thanks to C, for encouraging me to give it a go!) I wasn’t very good, but one of the guys gave me some instruction, and the use of a shoulder! What was surprising was that the hardest thing was just getting on it.  It really was very wobbly.

It was one of those idyllic days where it just seemed that everyone in Glasgow was happy, outgoing and adventurous.  I loved the fact I could just join in on someone else’s game, and would have loved to have hung around a bit longer and got a bit better at it… Anyway, that was a long way of saying it was nice to be remembered by someone I only met once, and also nice to be reminded of one of the best days of the summer.

Mmm in fact just thinking about it makes me feel relaxed and happy.  Good stuff does happen, and the world is full of nice people. 

PS the circus thing didn’t happen.  Next chance is the weekend after next…

For the last few days I’ve been trying to fix my bike.  All I was trying to do was change the mountain bike tyres to road bike tyres and I was determined to do it on my own.  Managed to change the tyres which was good, then ran into trouble.  For some reason the rear wheel wouldn’t sit right without rubbing against the brakes.  So I did some twiddling with the gears and thought I’d fixed it, but then the chain was rubbing against the gear change mechanism.  Argh.

So this morning I joined what an ex-colleague disparagingly referred to as the ‘West End dependency culture’.  I went to the bike shop and admitted defeat.  And the lovely man at Gear of Glasgow had it all fixed in about 10 minutes.  And didn’t even charge for his time.

Hooray!