One last cheeky mid week Tentsmuir run

What can be better than a mid week run on a beach and through a forest? How about you throw in a cheeky wee crepe? Oh, go on then.

This is to be my last random mid week run as I move job to more regular working hours. I also just passed my driving test and so decided this would be my first solo drive. Tentsmuir forest, A place so brilliant It should be known the world over. It also meant I  didn't had to travel too far as I've never filled the car up with petrol and some traditions should remain so.

Also, why didn't anyone tell me having a car is just so much easier. I didn't need to look at bus time tables, pack loads of spare kit to change into after so I don't get cold and a two hour run doesn't take up the whole day getting there and back on the bus.

Once setting off apart from nervously trying not to crash I also wasn't sure what run my legs were up for. I had to do either: 10 x 1km repeats, 15 km easy or 21km easy. My legs were still a little sore so I ditched the 1km's. They belong to a day that wont be made any worse by wanting to vomit at 5 minute intervals. 

 

So we would wait and see how I felt and play it by ear on the 15/21km issue. Having arrived safely at the car park by Tayport and only checking 7 or 8 times I'd locked the car I was off. Considering it's winter and fife has been hit by some truly horrible weather recently it was a perfect day for running. I decided to head to the beach and try to see some seals. Once passed the entrance  I didn't see another soul until I got back to Tayport.

I started off skirting round the forest toward the nature reserve and beach. Once there the views were great. There's something about the beach that makes you smile. It's infectious, I found myself running along with a huge cheeser on my face for no other reason than I was happy in that moment.

 

The smile didn't last too long though as sand is bloody hard work on the legs. 15km it was. once round the corner of the nature reserve I went closer to the beach to try and see some seals and get to firmer footing. Sadly I got neither, though I did run through the water. Yes I'm a child.

 

 

All this happy care free running though wasn't helping the state of my legs so I decided to head inland towards the forest looking for some of the fun single track stuff that the mountain bikers use. This is my favourite part of the forest as you never know which way it'll turn next.

 

After a while I got to some diversions where the forestry commission are taking some trees down by the main car park due to high winds. This meant either I turn back and go the way I came or I run round the diversions and do the 21km. A wee swither to myself and off I went in search of a new path. That mean running though the dunes. Finally I made it onto gentle well maintained forest path. Hallelujah. The last few miles flew by with the hope that I could get a crepe if I got a move on.

 

 

 

 

What's that I hear you ask. A crepe? Did I run to France? Oh no, Tentsmuir just got even better. Due to the forestry works the 'crepe shake has moved from the Main Car Park to the Tayport entrance of the forest and now sits perfectly for me to get a post run snack. It's like running god's blessed me. 

 

On a serious note, the Crepe shack seems to have been established for a wee while now. It was my first time and I loved the product and the idea. Fife, Dundee and Scotland in general needs more of these great entrepreneurial businesses. If you fancy a wee walk or a  cycle/run treat give it a go. Brilliant stuff.

My view to eat my crepe

 

 

 

 

Lastly this was my route and pace etc. The drops tent to be me either looking for a place to turn or taking a photo. The run ended up with 89m of gain which although not a lot seems crazy for such a flat route.

 

 

 I know I say it a lot but don't you just Love this place.

 

 

 





First Microadventure

 

My First 5-9 #microadventure

 

Our view. Photo courtesy of Sgt S

 

Escaping the 9-5 life is often a life's ambition but we reverse that. What if you become content with the 9-5, accept that it exists then look to add adventure elsewhere?

That I feel is the principle behind the #microadventure. A concept made famous by Alistair Humphries. The aim is to do adventures that fit into the 5-9. The 16 hours that we are free from work.

I found Alistair's book microadventure in a great wee shop in Dunkeld. Anna indulged me by buying it. The idea appeals hugely. Shift work means I often have gaps of time available that I have the potential to do more with. The idea of going on mini adventures that allow me be outdoors more is always going engage.

"Act child like, not childish"- Alistair Humphries

There seems to be a movement towards named outdoor fun such as 'Adventure running' and 'Wild swimming' probably even 'Microadventure'. Richard Askwith talks about it in his book Running Free and describes it as a way of adults giving them selves permission to so something that would have been taken for granted as a child. I think he hits the nail on the head. When I mentioned the plan for my first #microadventure Anna's reply was "Isn't that just camping?" She's right, but doing it on a school night makes it feel like your stealing some fun and freedom from the monotony of the work day. Getting a little dirt in your shoes and sand in the soul. Just like we did as kids.

Sold on the idea of the #microadventure all I needed now was the adventure and to decide if it should be done solo or with pals. I thought I'd try and sell some ideas to some friends and see if I could hook them. Luckily enough I managed to convince a few folk on the idea and then set about trying to think about where and when.

This part would be easy, I'm lucky enough to live in the greatest place in Britain. I'll argue this to anyone that is willing to listen, I'm blinded by it's beauty. Dundee is blessed with a huge variety of outdoor spaces that can be reached quickly. So the choice was either beach, Hills or Forrest. I decided to go for Forrest and Beach with the joy that is Tentsmuir being so close to me. With the place and then the date set Sgt S from the Blair Atholl post was able and willing to join me. We were raring to go.

I had bought an Alpkit Hunka bivvy bag earlier in the year with the aim of doing some two day running which ended up being turned into the Blair Atholl to Aveimore walk so I ended up not using it. So with that and my Rab sleeping bag I was ready to go, some last minute rain meant we also took along a tarp incase the weather turned foul. I meet Sgt S after he finished work at 16:00. I had spent the day playing on the Tay in a squib so ended up being the one that was running late.

Having already experienced the Sgt's perception of minimal kit we decided that we would get some fish and chips in Tayport and use it as a way of making sure this was microadventure was enjoyed rather than endured by not taking any unnessecary extra kit.

From Tayport we headed out and followed the path between the Tay and the Forrest. Tentsmuir has so many paths in it that you could easily go a huge number of routes and experience a huge number of different things.

Walking along the dunes. Photo courtesy of Sgt S

After about an hour of walking we decided to try and find somewhere to set up our tarp as it had been raining fairly consistently most of the day. we initially settled on some trees at some moorland but after wondering along to the beach it was stunning and totally deserted. In fact we only saw one other person the whole trip.  Both of us felt it would be stupid not to take advantage of the views near the water. But, knowing that the tide is  a big issue in this area we decided to use one of the dunes that rose to about 6 feet up from the beach. I was fairly sure the tide was out on our arrival.

The Beach view. Photo courtesy of Sgt S

a relaxed life. Photo courtesy of Sgt S

We ended up getting the tarp set up pretty quickly using some drift wood and although not storm proof we were convinced it would stay up the night. Having already had dinner and set up the tarp we then just mucked about with the camera and had a couple of beers as the sun set. Once it was dark it was a little strange being so close to home, you could see the lights of Dundee from over the dunes. Without TV or the internet you sleep pretty quickly. The sand makes a great bed with my Alpkit Aero underneath to keep me warm.

The moon looking amazing. Photo courtesy of Sgt S 

Sleeping in a Bivvy is a weird thing if you've spent time in a tent in the wild. As new age as it sounds you do feel more connected and exposed to elements, probably because you are. I zipped up my bivvy so no draft got in and fell asleep easily waking up occasionally and then drifting back off to sleep.

Suddenly BOOM, the first asteroid hit. I was convinced we were living the first strike of independence day. After saving Dundee and trying to figure out why they would strike the Tay first I realised it was 4am and the noise was actually the waves crashing, and the water lapping the bottom of the dune we were camped on. It was still fairly dark and the waves were impressive, breaking 50 metres from where we were. After a couple of nervous checks every 10 minutes I managed to drift off to sleep for a while. At 05:20 we ended up deciding it was time to put everything away while Sgt took a few more photo's. Some biscuits for breakfast and a great walk out through the Forrest meant we were back at work for 07:30, in time for a shower to freshen up. That day I was doing a sponsored walk from Ninewells to St Andrews which I'm doing a separate blog post about.

The Gamma Head torch

Overall I felt great and strangely refreshed. I know it sounds a little weird and new age but being outdoors overnight refreshes the soul and invigorates you. It isn't something that's easily explained so please just go out and try it. You don't have anything to lose.

The View on the walk back. Photo courtesy of Sgt S

The barriers that stop you don't actually exist, and it's fun. How often do we do something low tech and genuinely fun? So please just go do it give it a try, it's an evening that you'd normally spend watching Eastenders or Corrie and you can get them on demand.

I'm sold on microadventure and can't wait to do another one despite the ribbing that you get when you tell people you spent the night with another bloke, in the woods, camping.

Beer and (a short lived) fire. What more do you need. Photo courtesy of Sgt S

Have you done a microadventure? Do you have any ideas? Is there anything stopping you?

Or if you're reading this and you have any ideas from more microadventures in this area please let me know. If you have any questions etc  just ask in the comments section and I'll do my best to get back to you.

Woop Woop

Lundie Crags, Tentsmuir and some motivation

Well isn't this post overdue....

Last time I wrote about training I had signed up to the Glen CLova Xtreme duathlon and was raring to go. I'm still raring, but have now actually got going. The last month was spent working, sleeping and catching up with friends with no running at all. I did however dust off the bike, get it serviced and now cycle to work every day (forget that its only 1.9 miles) up and down a wee hill.

The cycling has actually been fun and I've been on some longer rides to St Andrews and some of the surrounding villages of Dundee. It's been great fun finding routes and going places I haven't really been. I felt I had exhausted my running routes last winter and the thought of running my 'usuals' filled me with dread. But, the Bike lets you go a little further (still not for for a cyclist I know) and slightly faster so you can explore more of this amazing area.  The most enjoyable of these was rides with Steve and his expert navigational skills (I'm a liability with directions) through Liff and Fowlis then down to Longforgan. I think it's a popular area to cycle as we saw a few cyclist despite our early rise of an 8am meet. This weekend we are heading a bit further but importantly for Glen Clova taking in more hills.

There has been less running, and for a while none at all. But recently I've been doing a few trail runs around Lundie crags and Tentsmuir. Both were run with Anna and at a fairly relaxed, but fun pace. This was our second attempt a Lundie Crags. After taking a wrong turn the first time, we cheated and took the map and the gps. The route we followed was great fun and produced great views. Suprisingly it was still a little boggy on the descent but it was great fun with changes in views and tempo as the gradiant changed. 

 

 

 Another interesting run was through Tentsmuir. I've ran a lot in tentsmuir as it was part of my regular long run last winter but I had stuck to the main paths. Last week we decided to do a small recovery run (for Anna, I had nothing to recover from) but went onto some of the smaller paths. The benefit was that we found even more variety to tentsmuir. However, after only three(ish) miles we found ourselves very suddenly and somewhat abruptly at the Leuchers Barrier having entered Tentsmuir by Tayport. Having no idea how we managed to get so far off track and with no map or phone (silly I know) we ended up extending the run to 8 miles and stuck to some more familiar routes on the way back. The beauty of this was that we had no other option than to get on with it and keep running. To be honest I was fresh and thought it was great fun, Anna with a little more work in her legs was less pleased. 

Having ran so often in Tentsmuir I felt I needed some photos so took along my camera and here are the results.. 

                                                    

Tomorrow we are off to Dunkeld for a trail run and Sunday it's the bike with Steve. So maybe another blog soon.

Dont forget Le Tour starts this weekend

Woop Woop.

 

The Tentsmuir Cure

I have been cured, thankfully not like an Italian meat. It was the beautiful Tentsmuir Forrest.

Finally, a week which has included running. Since last Friday I ran 3 times. I know that  isn't very often, but for me it has been fun, and most importantly stress free.

It started with a regular 4 mile run I do, with easy to remember mile markers (no I don't use a GPS, a story for another blog). The only thing to say about this is that it's important to remember to eat after night shift, and before a run. In future I must remember this point.

The second run was 6 miles and an attempt to get a base line on where I am in this thing called 'fitness'. In the end I completed it in 53 minutes feeling fairly fresh and comfortable throughout. So not really any further forward but happy I can improve on it fairly easily. Under 50 minutes? We'll have to wait and see, though that is a big chunk of time to take out.

Then we get onto the fun stuff. I had planned on doing some 'hill training' but knowing that this was going to be a session on a day off  hill reps didn't fill me with joy. Instead, I wanted to try some of the trail runs I had read about in Suzie Allison's book "Scottish Trail Running: 70 Great Runs". After an hour or so looking at the various runs on offer and linking them with trains and the weather I opted for a local run through Tentsmuir Forrest. Suzie Allison's book recommends a figure of 8 starting from the main car park that is about 9km long. Having run/cycled through Tentsmuir a few times I'm familiar with the area and so changed it a bit.

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRun

If you're reading this living in Dundee or anywhere north of Tentsmuir Forrest, don't bother going all the way to the main car park. It's a pain in bahookie and an extra 15 minutes drive, more if your on public transport. You can get to the other end of the Forrest very quickly (2 minutes) from the car parks by the caravan site in Tayport. 

Anyway, that top tip aside, I got dropped off in Tayport on the main road by my lovely wife on her way to work. From there I ran down to the water's edge and simply followed the tay until you get to the entrance of the forrest. Rather than go straight in and run along the main forestry tracks I followed the path that runs between the forrest and the beach. It's a really easy area to run in because despite there being too many paths to remember you can't really go wrong. Too far one way and you're on the beach and then in the drink. Too far the other way and you're on the main forestry road. The whole route is flat but there are the ups and downs you would expect when playing near dunes and the like. I turned off that section when I came to the beach as I didn't think my calfs were up to that sort of sustained assault.

 

the view from the point I turned into the forrest

Instead I turned right and ended up on the main path until I got to the ice house and then followed Suzie's route. This is probably the most fun section as it is so varied. One minute you are on open moorland and the next you are dodging trees and hoping the path keeps unfolding in front of you.

Having to 'jump' the fence made it more fun

a beautiful straight section

This sort of running reminds me of being a kid and just running for fun, so you can't help but speed up as you twist and turn, up, down and around trees, roots and puddles. It was very quiet, the whole run I only saw one cyclist and one forestry worker van. It was this section where I wish I'd worn contact lenses. I kept steaming up and gambling when I could take  off my glasses and wipe them without falling. Thankfully I am becoming less accident prone and returned injury free. Eventually the path takes you to the main car park at the Leuchers end of the Forrest. This area has toilets etc and a great beach.

the empty car park. If this was the west coast or the south it'd be mobbed. East coasters don't know how lucky they are

The sea and a huge beach, when the legs are stronger I'll be back to run along it.

I had a drink here and decided to return by the main path. The beauty of Tentsmuir is that there are so many paths all pretty much in a grid you can just do what you like and not have to run the same route twice. The main path is much flatter and well maintained. Because of this the return journey was quicker with only the odd stop to take a photo or check the signs. 

I do love Scotland. Miles from anywhere and for no other apparent reason than they could, someone has left this painting next to one of the many public notice signs. Brilliant.     

By the time I got back out of the forrest and past the Tay I had ran for 1hr 54 minutes including lots of photo stops and a drinks break. The rough route I did shows about 11-12 miles of running but with all the twists and turns it might me more. I doesn't really matter though. Hopefully, that's not what these sorts of runs are supposed to be about. I didn't have any time pressure or anything to particularly train for. All that was left to do is go out and have fun, take some photos, and not fall over.

Did I mention it was raining? No. It was. The only down side was getting the bus back to Fundee. Getting colder and colder. Must learn to drive.

A great run, though I might be sore the 'morn. I'll definitely do some more trail routes, maybe even some hills. 


A wee note, please feel free to leave comments etc. As I continue this blog it might get a bit dull if I just recount my runs. So hopefully I will do more trail routes and maybe some stuff on running books, that sort of thing. I will also try to enter some races, I do need to train for something. So if you want  to know anything or just want a blether go ahead.


I'll be sore the 'morn -does that work? Maybe not.