5x50 Week 2 in the far north (Highlands of Scotland)

[swanscot]

Activity reports

Day 8: Snow on the ground, snow falling... what to do? Opted for a 6 km walk in the local forest with my son (who had competed in a hill race the previous day, so wanted to stretch his legs.)

Day 9: 5 km hill run. I couldn't believe it was only 60m of ascent on this hill - it felt much more! But it was great not to have to worry about my knee this week and I could fly downhill.

Day 11: Cycle around some local roads; plus in the evening I attended my weekly yoga class and for some reason I was very unstable and worse then usual in any poses requiring balance!

Day 10: Regular tempo run through a local country estate with 2 km walk/jog home.

Day 12: Cycled around a couple of neighbouring villages.

Day 13: A nice, easy 5 km run in the early evening instead of my usual morning runs. It was good; I set off feeling very relaxed, in contrast to my usual stiff body when I go out first thing in the morning! Only downside was having an over-enthusiastic dog leap up on me. The owner apologised and called the dog to him and Fagin ran back to the guy. But when I started running again Fagin ran after me. Again he was called and Fagin returned to the owner, but again, the owner did not hold on to him. So Fagin chased after me for a third time! I ran off, turned the corner and left the stupid owner yelling Fagin! Faaagin! Faaaaagin!

Day 14: A local, short, albeit hilly, cycle with stops to look for three geocaches.

Body Report: Feeling great, especially when running in the small glimpses of sun we've seen this week.

Photographic report

More photos uploaded to my Flickr account - '5x50 Challenge 2013' album, with apologies for the low quality of the photos taken on my running days as they were (mainly) taken on my iPhone: (newest photos to beginning of set)

flickr.com/photos/swan-scot...

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Don't know what I'm on about? 5x50.co.uk/

[DeliaItaly Graduate]

What beautiful scenery Swan!

You are so lucky! Never mind the challenge, Scotland rocks!

[swanscot Graduate in reply to DeliaItaly]

> Scotland rocks!

I know; it's the geology of the place makes it so!

[DeliaItaly Graduate in reply to swanscot]

Great pun! Thanks Swan, I shall use it in my next publication ... boo boom (not sure how you write that last bit!)

[thinnerandfitter Graduate]

Lovely photos! Looks like you've been having a lot of fun with the challenge already!

[Bilby Graduate]

All sounds amazing!

I'll admit that I read your blog a bit fast and read 'with stops to look for three geocaches' as 'ganaches' and thought that sounded amazing, wondered if there was some sort of dessert trail I was missing out on I might go and have dinner...

[swanscot Graduate in reply to Bilby]

Ha! I wish! Dessert sounds lovely right now.

[sfb350 Graduate]

Fantastic photos !

[rosn123 Graduate]

Lovely photos!

[greenlegs Graduate]

You are so fit and active! Lovely scenery too.

[swanscot Graduate]

Thank you all for the compliments on the photos. By adding this extra challenge (shooting at least one picture of some activity each day) ensures I do at least 5 minutes of outdoors exercise, plus any indoor stuff. Living in such a beautiful part of our country, I always think it's a 'waste' not be be out exploring it.