Cold comfort

After 10 days of being laid tragically low by a summer cold (not had one of these for many years) I found I could no longer cope with the lack of exercise and the amazingly good weather... so I decided on a bike ride.

(I'd already tried yoga but the upside down postures just caused the copious amounts of "cold gunge" to go straight to my head almost causing me to drown in snot. And one try-out run was impossibly slow and possibly dangerous.)

Now proper cyclists that I know will probably laugh when I tell you that I "drove" my bike to Aberfoyle for a circuit of Loch Katrine and the Duke's Pass. But I wasn't feeling up to the extra miles from Bearsden. I'd been ill, OK? And I've hardly been on my bike for months. OK?

While I'd heard plenty of people raving about this route I'd never actually got around to doing this ride and, boy, have I been missing out. Undulating in all the right places, with a few opportunities for hill efforts plus the ascent, then incredible descent, of the Duke's Pass, as well as the ice cream stop at the pier and stunning scenery all added up to a fantastic outing.

I was pleased to find that my thighs, which had been burning a little on the uphills throughout the circuit, were almost fine the following day. And the ride seems to have almost completely knocked my cold into touch. Now it’s back to proper running again – and maybe I will throw in a few more bike rides with summer suddenly making an incomprehensible return to Scotland.

You awesome Bealach Mor riders

...So normally I'd be the one up for a mega challenge but the 90-mile Bealach Mor Cycle Sportive is so notoriously tough that I decided to, aherm, marshall and race report at this event! To be honest that was exhausting enough. With a streaming cold and pretty much zero cycle training over the last few months I'd have been lucky to make it through the first 5 miles on the flat, let alone 90 miles with a total ascent of more than twice the height of Ben Nevis. And that included a 6 mile haul up the UK's biggest road pass from sea level to 626m.

Some 380 cyclists set off from Kinlochewe on a mega-raining day on Saturday, most with wide but rueful grins. Of these only around 40 didn't complete, either due to bike failure or exhaustion. The final times ranged wildly from Andy Strathdee's mind-boggling 4hrs 35mins to the final rider at 8hrs 39 mins. As this event is billed as a sportive, it is not a race. But, of course, most riders were out to get their best time. They had battled rain storms, side winds, head winds, thick cloud, terrible visibility and the arduous, mountainous course but still almost everyone was smiling as they finally crossed the finish line.

The comments were all upbeat: "Awesome route", "Amazing course", "stunning scenery", "fantastic organisation", "I totally loved it", "Hard and tough but amazing".

This is another fab event from the highly organised Hands On crew and now that I have seen it in action I might have to get into the saddle for next year. This event is so popular, though, that riders need to sign up within 24 hours of entries opening. Keep an eye on their website. In the meantime there's another awesome cycle challenge to round off the year, the Ullapool Sportives 130 miler or 65 miler on September 26

Summer whizzed by

And so I have been waiting for the rain to stop. And for an Indian Summer to head to Scotland instead of lingering smugly over the south of England. But no such luck. I have also realised that while I've been waiting for the return of summer (didn't we have something that vaguely resembled that concept for a week in June?) that I have been too busy to keep my blog up to date. Shame on me!

So... over the last month or so I have climbed Munros, mooched around with Little Miss Outdoors on her school hols, climbed another Munro, surfed and body boarded in glorious Welsh surf with great pals G&T and Little A, climbed more Munros, run a few smaller hills, climbed another Munro or two, squeezed in some work, climbed more hills, become a yoga addict, summitted just one more Munro - and generally got wet in Scotland's great outdoors.

I'm struggling to recall a day/evening in many weeks when it hasn't rained on me as I've walked, climbed and run but still I've had a fun so-called summer.

This weekend I'm off to do some marshalling and a race report for the mad but popular Bealach Mor cycle challenge organised by the first rate Hands On Events. Then I might take another opportunity to fuel my new Munro bagging addiction.

And maybe, just maybe I'll see some sun before Christmas is suddenly upon us again!

Bitten by the Sea kayak bug

And so I have finally been out for a sea kayak adventure. It's an activity I have been keen to try for years but somehow I have never found the time to give it a go. This week, thanks to the fab National Kayak School, newly based in Oban, I spent two glorious days pottering in and around sea lochs and islands close to the west coast tourist town.

If you have never given sea kayaking a go then I can't recommend it more highly. Alternately peaceful and relaxing, then full-on and bonkers, I found myself enthralled by the simple art of paddling a kayak along stunning coastlines and around the islands of Kerrera, Lismore and Shuma to name a few.

And while one night was spent in the plush surroundings of the Crerar Oban Bay Hotel, another night involved wild camping on the tranquil island of Kerrera, just a 45 min paddle from Oban itself. I'm not sure which I preferred the most: the champagne-style kayak experience combining a day's paddling with the decadence of a hotel or the sublime adventure package of paddling out to an island for a wilderness camp over.

I now have a huge hankering to head off for a much longer trip, perhaps paddling and wild camping between a larger number of islands off Scotland's wonderful west coast. Or maybe I'll head to Loch Nevis for a kayak trip into the wilderness of Knoydart. That's another outdoors bug that has bitten me!

To Conic Hill again

Conic Hill at Balmaha appears to have become a family favourite. It's a place where we have often taken visiting friends. At 361 metres the hill is not too hard a climb but it does offer the most amazing views of Loch Lomond and the surrounding countryside.

And so last weekend we set off to walk to the summit again, this time with good friends JoYo, her partner CraigYo and daughter SophieYo. It was a stunningly sunny day and ideal for a saunter and a chat.

But for Little Miss Outdoors there appeared to be something of a mission to get to the top first. Now this is something rather unusual. Until now the Littlest in the Outdoors Family has been a bit of reluctant walker. Yes, she's summitted a fair few hills but mostly because she's been cajoled to join us or because she somehow realises that it's what we do.

However, on this Saturday afternoon we were all having trouble trying to keep up with Little Miss Outdoors. Perhaps she has simply become a lot fitter thanks to her running club and cycling, or maybe she wanted to keep up with JoYo's little dog Buttons. Or perhaps she has suddenly found a little streak of competitiveness.

In fact, every time that I managed to catch her up, Little Miss Outdoors would put in an extra jog so that she was ahead again.

It was only on the final bump of the hill that she allowed me to walk alongside her and admitted that her legs were tiring a little. Then, 10 metres from the summit, she broke into a run to get to the summit first. The smile on her face when she realised she was first was amazing to see.

While I think she would have enjoyed the ascent more if she'd walked with the rest of us and chatted I could see how much of a thrill she had got from being first.

The biggest revelation, however, was realising that for the first time in many years I had not had to cajole my daughter to climb a hill. To me this felt like the most amazing thing yet. It also meant that when I suggested perhaps climbing a bigger hill next time, Little Miss Outdoors appeared really enthusiastic. Now that's my girl!

I know those Rats!

Picking up the press release about this weekend's Edinburgh Rat Race I was very excited to see that two friends from the Glasgow Tri Club were in the winning team. Iona Robertson and her partner Rich Wild plus a friend Clive Parry beat off more than other 500 competitors to win the notoriously bonkers and gruelling event.

When you know Iona and Rich I don't suppose it should be so surprising to find them victorious in such a challenging race - but it's still really good to know that I sometimes hang out with such great athletes. Ok, well, they're usually running somewhere miles ahead of me at track training sessions but I do occasionally get to chat with them before and after the sessions.

Fantastic effort guys. Here's the race report.

After a gruelling race spanning 85km over two days, team Helly Hansen - Nuun won the 2009 Edinburgh Rat Race.

The team, comprising Iona Robertson, Richard Wild and Clive Parry joined 552 competitors in Edinburgh racing over two days (Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 July) for the sixth Edinburgh Rat Race, the flagship of the seven event Rat Race Urban Adventure Series.

Following the madcap event Iona said: 'We're all really pleased to have won the Rat Race in Edinburgh since the competition was as high as ever. It was a tough couple of days; pretty hard work but on a great course mixed in with some pretty obscure checkpoint challenges'.

The Edinburgh Rat Race is a multi-disciplined team challenge of navigation, endurance, mental agility, running, climbing, mountain biking, kayaking and abseiling, combined with surreal sporting tests and obstacles at different checkpoints across some of the city's most challenging terrain. Team Helly Hansen - Nuun covered the 65km course of Sunday's Nine2Five race in 05:51:41, more than 15 minutes ahead of second placed team Average Joe in a Buff, who crossed the finish line 45 minutes ahead of third placed Team Nopesport THB.

Raining but still loving it

So far this year I've enjoyed most of my outdoor pursuits in fantastic sunshine. This has been a lot to do with luck, and also thanks to unusually good summer weather this year. Therefore, a day of full-on rain and wind could easily have put me off the mountains. Not so, I discovered yesterday.

Joining a group of avid walkers (many of whom I know from working in newspapers) on Saturday evening at Bridge of Orchy I was gutted to be told that while they had walked in mega sunshine that day along the Buchaille Etive Mor and ridge in Glencoe, Sunday's forecast was for typically driech Scottish weather. Hmmm. Well, since I'd arrived I thought I might as well see whether I liked the mountains as much without the glorious sun.

And it really did rain. Setting off from Victoria Bridge to do the Black Mount traverse, including the four Munros Stob Ghabhar, Stob a' Choire Odhair, Creise and Meall a' Bhuirdh, we all needed full waterproof clothing (and wind screen wipers for my glasses!). There were glimpses of blue sky at some points during the day but mostly the cloud hung low and proper compass navigation was required.

Yes, I would have preferred to be able to see the fab views around me all day long, but somehow it seemed just as special to be treated to a jaw-dropping view every time the clouds cleared a little. There were several heart-stopping moments when thick, swirling cloud suddenly opened up to offer a clear, spectacular view down across a valley. I was also amazed on one occasion to find myself on the summit of a mountain in sunshine, but looking down on the cloud.

What also made the day so much fun was walking along chatting to people I'd not seen for ages, or else getting to know those who I had never met before. Walking in our great outdoors affords a great deal of time for proper talking – and the luxury (well, so it seems to me in my busy life that all too often gets interrupted) of making it to the end of my thoughts about a subject.

And while I am not brave/competent enough to navigate myself yet I began to understand the satisfaction of working out how to traverse a landscape with only a map and compass for reference. I also liked the feeling of battling against the elements to reach a mountain top.

So now I know that I love the challenge/camaraderie of walking in the mountains just as much as I love the scenery. It doesn't matter so much any more whether it rains or shines.

I do not have another outing planned at the moment – but I hope to very soon.