R & R (Hamilton-Style)

There was probably only ever minor thought that this holiday would be "restful"......giving myself a week's grace to "recover" from the DoTH, and us buying 2 wetsuits that week, were probably clear enough signal that our time in Aviemore would be as action packed and full of fun as always!

We'd originally planned on staying home, but booked a last minute wee house fairly central in Aviemore to ensure I escaped all temptation of work and emails and with the car packed to the gunnels with 3 bikes, 2 humans, the dog, half the kitchen and enough kit to stock a small shop we headed for the hills....via the Mountain Cafe (always our first and last stop!)

A wee sample of MC delights

Clark had kindly volunteered his services as a marshal for the Durty Triathlon on the Sunday, so an early start was in the offing....Cori and I opted to run around Rothimurchus, Loch an Eilean and Loch Morlich before doing some clapping and whoop whooping as the hardy souls battled their way around the course (my favourite quote of the day "someone said the bike course wasn't technical....it's like f***ing base jumping while carrying a bike!")

From then on, the week unfolded into a pattern of run, eat, sleep, swim, sleep, bike, eat and sleep and eat...in any variety of combinations!  Oh and PT Boy decided he had 1,000 press ups to do......most of which Cori decided he needed to join in....

 

So....watching the triathlon didn't put me off the desire to swim...the wetsuit purchases had been a lingering thought for a while...somewhere in the long term I think/hope there's a triathlon in me somewhere......AND thankfully, it wasn't half as scary as I thought (Loch Morlich was nice to me), and despite the majority of my efforts being breast stroke, I got much further than expected!  My day 1 objective had been to swim around the green buoy by the end of the week, and I did that on day 2!!  We swam most days, and it was a welcome recovery from some of the hill running!  The water wasn't too cold and the only disappointment was that the Garmin didn't seem to pick up the signal very well in the water (not sure if it was due to my wrist being under water too much!)

Me tearing up the loch

Ascending from Ryvoan side with
the green lochan in view

So, good times......running Cairngorm kicked ass (weirdo of the day...tourist walking to the summit under cover of an umbrella to protect her from the light drizzle as we powered on past huffing and puffing!), and the steps of Meall a Bhuachaille 2 days later were quad burners from hell! But nothing can beat the solitude, views and euphoria gained from days like these!  Someone once said to me...you never remember a day in the office.....but this is the stuff memories are made of!

Descending towards Morlich

 

Near Loch an Eilean

Probably didn't do quite as much biking as I would have liked...but there are only so many hours in a day...and there had to be some rest in between!

Managed to fit in a wee practice lap of the Glenmore 24 route too....hmmm...hillier than anticipated...but at least now I know!  3 weeks today...and tomorrow....round, and round, and round for 24 hours.....but looks like a great course and sounds like a fun event, with many friends and supporters....oh, and it signals the start of another week's holiday in Aviemore!!  Happy days!  That one is much more likely to be proper rest though (and the house for that week has a hot tub!!)

Home now, for a couple of days "rest"...a massage tomorrow and Monday off work to look forward to, so maybe a wee swim in Loch Lomond in plan..... I'm not broken, just tired...so it's all still up for grabs before the tapering begins again.....

Loch Morlich Sunset : Photo copyright Clark Hamilton