I thought aloud, in my last post, that Wednesday would involve a walk as well as more driving northwards. It wasn't to be. My target hill remained unvisited, as the forecast of heavy snow for Thursday morning made us think it wise to get over the Drumochter Pass before the end of Wednesday, to maximise our chances of making our tea-drinking date in Newtonmore on Thursday morning.
A location just outside of Dalwhinnie became our new destination for the day and that's exactly where we first parked up for the night, whereupon I trundled off up the road for my second undulating run in as many days.
The snow shower that came through whilst we were parked there had us think again. We had every confidence the A9 would be clear for our hop and skip up to Newtonmore on Thursday morning, but there was the small matter of getting back onto the A9. Northwards we moved again, eventually settling a little beyond our objective, in Kingussie.
It was a good call, as the car park in which we parked also serves the doctors' surgery, and thus it receives more attention than your average village car park. The blanket of snow to which we awoke was soon broken first by the village's mini snow-plough, then five minutes later by a full-sized model.
By the time we had drunk tea and chatted at length with Ali and Sue (newtonmorehostel.co.uk), then made our way further north, there wasn't much day left yesterday, so we made do with a stroll around Grantown-on-Spey. No bad thing as it had come to my attention that the previous days' undulating running had left me with rather sore shins. Nothing alarming, in that if I take any length of break from the hills, my shins always get very sore when I next introduce them to the notion of an incline, but it did leave me with the quandary of the conflicting wants.
I had some hills planned in this area and wanted to go up at least one, maybe two, of them today. But, I also want to do Elgin ParkRun tomorrow morning, and even one hill today would have left my shins too sore to run. The question thus became which I wanted more.
The conclusion: the hills I can do next week; the ParkRun I can't. So, today we settled for a couple of shin-friendly walks that were about as flat as can be (along the Dava Way, ex-railway line, and along a beach). Both lovely even if very short.
On the Dava Way in murky visibility this morning
There will be hills soon!
A location just outside of Dalwhinnie became our new destination for the day and that's exactly where we first parked up for the night, whereupon I trundled off up the road for my second undulating run in as many days.
The snow shower that came through whilst we were parked there had us think again. We had every confidence the A9 would be clear for our hop and skip up to Newtonmore on Thursday morning, but there was the small matter of getting back onto the A9. Northwards we moved again, eventually settling a little beyond our objective, in Kingussie.
It was a good call, as the car park in which we parked also serves the doctors' surgery, and thus it receives more attention than your average village car park. The blanket of snow to which we awoke was soon broken first by the village's mini snow-plough, then five minutes later by a full-sized model.
By the time we had drunk tea and chatted at length with Ali and Sue (newtonmorehostel.co.uk), then made our way further north, there wasn't much day left yesterday, so we made do with a stroll around Grantown-on-Spey. No bad thing as it had come to my attention that the previous days' undulating running had left me with rather sore shins. Nothing alarming, in that if I take any length of break from the hills, my shins always get very sore when I next introduce them to the notion of an incline, but it did leave me with the quandary of the conflicting wants.
I had some hills planned in this area and wanted to go up at least one, maybe two, of them today. But, I also want to do Elgin ParkRun tomorrow morning, and even one hill today would have left my shins too sore to run. The question thus became which I wanted more.
The conclusion: the hills I can do next week; the ParkRun I can't. So, today we settled for a couple of shin-friendly walks that were about as flat as can be (along the Dava Way, ex-railway line, and along a beach). Both lovely even if very short.
On the Dava Way in murky visibility this morning
There will be hills soon!
Sounds like the influence of Occam's Razor.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I've finished Between the Sunset and the Sea, Simon Ingram, but I'm not sure whether to post it - please advise.