Gold in them there Munros?

Oh, oh.. here's another great reason become a Munro bagging addict... or even just a Munro bagger. For a gold mining company is bidding to restart an old mine beneath Ben Lui, in the Scottish southern Highlands

Scotgold Resources, which owns the only working gold mine in Scotland near Tyndrum, is hoping to restart work at the old mine at Cononish.

It seems that the southern Highlands area is rich with gold and silver seams – but the mine is also within the boundaries of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. It's highly likely, therefore, that a landscape impact report will be a major part of the decision-making process over whether this mine will again be worked.

A thick covering snow hampered any chances I had of spotting a few bits of the precious elements (if indeed that is possible!) while walking Ben Lui in January. The Munro (3,707 ft, 1,129m) was a still a gold star winner as far as I was concerned though!

Speed running in the sleet

While 20 or so of our fellow Glasgow Tri Club athletes headed out to the warmer climes of Club La Santa on Lanzarote today, eight of those left behind in Scotland braved a chilly and sleety run session tonight.

Led by Major Tom, aka the Captain of Communication and one of our fab coaches, we completed a 30-minute speed session, with one minute of fast running followed by a minute's recovering. Now I know that doesn't seem like a long time to to be running but speed intervals are always tough.

The session is as much about gauging pace (ie starting at a pace you can manage for the whole set) as it is about mental resolve over physical pain. These sessions are always the same for me. I set off thinking that the first three reps are really quite nice, then by the halfway point I start to think I'll probably puke. By the time we get to the last few reps I am close to actually puking ... and then on the last two reps it's mind over matter that always wins and I find I can just about make it to the end of the last rep before my legs give way.

Ah, and while it is painful, these sessions do work wonders on overall speed. We're starting to build up for the triathlon race season – and the aim for many will be to pull off a decent run time at the end of a triathlon event (swim, then cycle, then run on wobbly legs).

Thanks Major Tom for keeping our motivation up tonight - while we all tried to forget about the warm weather training our fellow members will be doing this week in the Canaries. Hurumph!

1000 miles of free-running and obstacles

This guy is clearly a little bonkers – but it's bonkers in the name of charidy so that's alright then. Go dude!

See his blog here

And the Observer article here

But what about Scotland's cycling epics?

Hmmmmmmmm. Just read Susan Greenwood's article in the Guardian about the best cycling challenges for 2010. While it's obvious she had to do a bit of a worldwide round-up and so couldn't cover all epic events the biggest oversight appears to be the 24-hour Stathpuffer, held at Strathpeffer, Inverness-shire. Voted by a top bike mag as one of the toughest MBT events in the world this surely should have got a mention? And then there's the road cycle sportive, the Bealach Mor, that heads up, up, up and over the UK's biggest road climb. Hmm, I feel a lot better now I've blogged about that!

FamilyOutdoors slope off to France

FionaOutdoors, Little Miss Outdoors and the G-Force take to the slopes in Flaine, France. Yes, yes, I know the skiing and snowboarding are fab in Scotland, too, but sometimes we crave a little away time. It was good for Little Miss Outdoors' French education, in any case. No, scrap that, I don't need any excuses for a fabulous skiing holiday in the stunning French Alps! Read about it here:

"i" really, really want one!

So I didn't really want an Apple iPhone. Not really. I could appreciate it was a thing of gadgetry beauty and that it offered all kinds of nice apps. But I thought I could get by without one - and that I didn't want the expense.

But now I've changed my mind! On Sunday the G-Force showed me how he'd tracked his cycle ride via the app, MapMyRun. Now I've used MapMyRun and MapMyRide a few times via my Mac and I know how useful it is to be able to plan a route or to check the mileage covered during a run or cycle outing.

But with the iPhone app it's possible to actually track the exact route covered, check out your speed, and also discover overall pace and time thanks to the in-built GPS. And I am now very jealous. I know there are other gadgets out there, such as Garmins, that offer a similar tracking facility but do they a) look as good as the iPhone? b) combine as a mobile phone? c) have a music player? d) have the facility to integrate with Twitter? In short, no.

Oh, and I've just noticed that it's also possible to download a Nike+ app to turn your iPhone into some kind of personal coach. I really, really want an iPhone now.

PS I'm wondering how many brownie points I'll to need to earn before the G-Force lets me borrow his iPhone for my next run or cycle ride.

Finally, I ran to the top!

The first time I took the G-Force to run Dumgoyne hill, near Strathblane, I was fairly confident that I'd at least keep up with him. After all I've summitted this 1400ft scenic icon several dozen times and almost always as fast as I can go. Never, though, have I managed to run All The Way.

I believe that the G-Force was aware of this Dumgoyne Holy Grail but I didn't think he'd actually go ahead, on his first attempt, and tick it off. Of course, he was the perfect gentleman runner for all of, erm, about 10 minutes, before he made a bid for the top, running all the way - and, yes, you guessed it, Totally Trashed FionaOutdoors.

Surprisingly I wasn't really that bitter about it. Fair nuff, I thought. He's a fit bloke, he's an obsessive Munro bagger and he's very determined. I just posted away the memory with a wry smile in the part of my brain that is labelled "I'll Get Him One Day".

And yesterday was the day! I wasn't feeling particularly fit and I didn't feel that energetic but I was going to give Dumgoyne my all. To begin with I actually thought I was going to be able to run the hill (and there is a very steep, long section for most of the hill) non-stop. But even the G-Force had not done this. While he'd run it all the way he'd had to stop a number of times for a breather. I think I took five "breathers" in total and I can't describe my running as anything more than jogging very slowly at times but I still did it. I ran all the way from the top to the bottom without ever slowing to a walk.

Better still I had started at Strathblane and take in a two or three-mile undulating warm-up run before even getting to the bottom of Dumgoyne, followed by the same run on the way back.

I have to say that the G-Force took the news well. Although, when I causally mentioned the run from Strathblane first he did splutter a little. I can't see it being long before he's missing a day of Munro bagging for another go at Dumgoyne.

A little healthy competition certainly ups the training regime!