Thursday 14 June 2012

Neglect

Dear Blog

Sorry for the awful neglect you are going through. I just don't find the time to update as often as I would like. I'm busy running, getting injured whilst running, recuperating, running, working the allotment, drawing, spending time with Isaac and Claire, running, getting injured, etc.

Last sunday I passed 500 miles running for the year but have some hamstring problems (possibly hamstring tendonitis) that are bugging me only 2 weeks before the Trail MArathon Wales. Hopefully, with my regime of ice, ibuprofen, foam rolling and stretching, I will be on the start line in good shape to attempt to break 4 hours.


Sunday 29 April 2012

Triffic Trail Training

Country lanes disinterest me. Pavements bore me. Treadmills have been known to send me into a permanent vegetative state. But I simply love running on Trails, and even off trails, which I guess is fell running. So addictive.
In prep for the Trail Marathon Wales we've (JAsper and I) been hitting the trails every saturday morning, both locally and further afield (The Beacons). As difficult as it sometimes is to drag yer arse outta bed at 6:30 on a saturday, by the time we've run a mile and started to warm up, I'm thinking there's not many places I'd rather be.
The last three saturdays have seen us tackle the Cwmcarn Scenic Drive from Henllys, Mynydd Machen from Alt-yr-yn and a 16 mile loop from Talybont. Running through the old disused Hendre Quarry in swirling mist is an experience everyone should try, providing you like running, and quarries....and mist.







For Luca

Some of you may have heard about a 3 year old lad from Newport called Luca who was struck down with Meningoccocal Septicaemia in January 2012. Luca survived against all the odds but he lost both legs and has major tissue, muscle and skin loss. Luca's parents are raising funds so that he may have access to the best prosthetic legs and equipment he will need to allow him to excel in life.

You can read about Luca on Facebook and Twitter and his awareness campaign has reached far and wide and many celebrities have kindly got involved. People are asked to write 'For Luca' on their palms and take a photo to raise awareness.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/ForLuca1

My little contribution is to attempt the Trailmarathon Wales for Luca in June. 26.2 miles around the Coed Y Brenin Country Park in Snowdonia. A friend, Jason White, and I are collecting sponsorship on this just giving link. Any donations are very gratefully received.


http://www.justgiving.com/trailmarathonforluca


Thanks.

Twunts

A Twunt, if you didn't know, is apparently a small bird that only inhabits parts of Snowdonia...Iolo told us on the telly. And with this word in mind, myself and 8 fellow 'Twunt Spotters' set off for a couple of days clambering over the rocky crags of the Glyders and Moel Siabod in late March.

I booked wall to wall sunshine for the weekend (only £9..99 at http://www.michaelfish.co.uk/) and it made for great walking weather. We arrived at the Ogwen Valley around 10am on Sat March 24th. Tryfan was our first stop and it was inevitably busy. See if you can spot all 87 people on this photo at the base of the north ridge.



But, I've no problem with crowds, and to be honest, the North Ridge of Tryfan is pretty vast and until you reach the narrower section higher up, you can lose most of the crowds. Some of the lads struggled a bit, even though the pace was slow. But they were there having a go and didn't give up.


It probably took two hours to reach the summit after many breaks. The Summit WAS busy. But Adam and 'Steve', the two famous boulders at the very highest point, were not attracting many 'jumpers'. So, Ian, myself and Beggy all took the plunge and did the jump between the two for the freedom of Tryfan. This now means we can go to Tryfan and climb it anytime we want. Of course, so can anybody else.
Without wanting to name any of the others who bottl..., I mean, didnt fancy doing the jump, I'll just say that it was Chopper, Nicholls, Gapper, Klampitt and Manley. Cowardly Twunts.



Down into the bwlch and then to Bristly Ridge, a first time scramble for all of us. Sinister Gully looked awesome from the bottom! After 10 metres or so Klampitt decided it wasn't for him and he was going to turn back and amble down past Llyn Bochlwyd. Gapper decided to join him, so the rest of us pushed on.
I have to say that Bristly Ridge is a fantastic scramble. Slightly more technical than Tryfan's North Ridge, but still within many people's capabilities. the gully is the hardest bit, get through that and it's easier towards the top.





We stopped at the top of Glyder Fach and did the touristy photos on the cantilever and we also did our first 'For Luca' shot near the summit. More on this later if you are confused.





A quick descent of Y Gribin (without spotting a single Twunt) and we were back at the car and ready to head into Betws-Y-Coed for grub and beer. We stayed at the Vagabond Bunkhouse which is reasonably priced, clean, and recommended. As is the wonderful Bochlwyd Horseshoe.



Day two to follow.

Saturday 28 April 2012

A lot of catching up to do.

Two months since a blog entry. A combination of being busy, and being lazy. I hope to catch up with what I've been up to over the next few days, but don't quote me on that!

Firstly, without any link to the outdoors, here's a finished piece of artwork I've been working on since last August. 8 months of gruelling concentration, but a pleasing result. It's imaginatively entitled, 'An Interesting Face'.

Tuesday 28 February 2012

Paramo Fuera Ascent

I just acquired my ever bit of Paramo Kit. A Fuera Ascent  windproof jacket. It was free too! I resubscribed to Trail magazine and it came as a free gift. Now I would pretty much buy Trail magazine each month anyway, so this was a no brainer...I pay £49 for £51 worth of magazines, delivered to my door and I get a £65 jacket thrown in. Brilliant!

First impressions are good. It's light, has a decent hood and pockets and long pitzips. And it just has a quality feel to it. It will get a testing in Snowdonia in 3 weeks time. I might even report back about it. I think the offer might still be on if anyone reading this is interested.

Sunday 19 February 2012

A tale of two hills.

Today was spent on two different local hills. Firstly, a tough 11 mile trail run around the Cwmcarn Scenic Drive, taking in my favourite hill in the whole wide world, Twmbarlwm! It really did feel great to be out in the morning sun, listening to some inspiring, and some not so inspiring, tunes on the ipod whilst churning out the miles. My legs felt pretty tired as this was the 2nd 11 mile (and the 2nd visit to the top of Twmbarlwm) in 3 days.


Then, following a swift bite to eat (beans on toast, you cannot beat beans on toast for some post run protein and all round general, tasty, quick fix!) and 30 minutes of fence panel fixing fun in the garden, my son and I headed off to the east of Newport to Wentwood, to meet my Sis and Oliver, for a walk with the dogs.

The highest point in Wentwood is Grey Hill and it has tremendous views of the Bristol Channel. Devon, Somerset, Twmbarlwm (yes, you can see it clearly to the West) and the weather was nice and clear today.

The Second Severn Crossing to the East, where it costs at least £6 to get into our wonderful country.


The sky was really picturesque today


Some of our ensemble enjoyed the puddles. Note the rope connected to the go-kart, the other end of which is looped around my waist in an arctic explorer-pulling-a-sled type arrangement, that my 4 year old son thinks is great because pedalling is much easier!


Twmbarlwm, just visible, top centre.


After 16 miles of playing in the hills, my legs were shot, but my head was happy. Who needs mountains!?

Sunday 5 February 2012

Down Down, deeper and down.

200 feet down to be precise. Beneath the anicent woodland of the Forest of Dean, at Clearwell Caves. Not being a lover of confined spaces, I was apprehensive about joining a couple of my batrunning friends and their spouses on a 3 hour caving adventure on a cold saturday morning. But seeing as Jasper was bringing his 12 year old lad along, I reckoned that I should 'Man up' and tag along.

It costs £20 for a 'deep caving session' which lasts approximately 3 hours and is led by an experienced guide. The weather was absolutely brassic - minus 7 or so early morning, but the beauty of caving is that it's the same constant 10 degrees underground all year round.

They provide Guantanamo bay type caving overalls and helmets with headtorches, plus wellies are available if required. As this cave system is pretty dry until you get 600feet down (!!) most of us just wore walking boots.

Our guide was Mike, a really laid back and thoroughly nice guy, who really knew his subject.

The entrance is through a small hole beneath an old tree. One of those 'you'd never know it was there unless you knew it was there' type of cave entrances. This small gated entrance is no clue to the many miles of tunnels and caverns lurking below.


In the first small cave where the above ground temperature was able to penetrate, strange ice formations had risen from the rock surface, where water was dripping from above.


And there were big Cave Spiders!


As we descended a bit more, the temperature increased until it was no longer cold and a few layers had to come off. There was plenty of stooping and clambering and scrambling and kneeling and shuffling to be done. It's not just a stroll around some caverns, it's proper full on caving.


Clearwell is apparently the country's only working Ochre mine. Ochre is used mainly as a pigment for painters. Being the bunch of jovial pranksters that we are (rolls eyes) we decided to apply some of the ochre as Joe Montana eye make up.






Very fetching, eh?? The overalls do come in very handy, because the red dust from the rocks gets on everything. One of the highlights of the visit was the bats - Lesser Horseshoe Bats, smaller than mice,  were hibernating in the caves and they literally just hang off the rocks enclosing their whole bodies with their wings. You're not permitted to even take photos of them, because they are so protected, and the heat from a flashlight may disturb them if up close. But I snuck a quick photo in from a distance - hope the Bat Police don't come knocking...


After descending to nearly 200feet, we had to go through a couple of crawls - the first called the Rabbit Hole, the second called The Mousehole. The Rabbithole wasn't too bad, although it looked a tight squeeze from the start point. Here's Screech going in...




And here's me emerging with a look of terror/relief/concern/whythef***didIcome on my face.


The Mousehole was worse, or better if you're an avid caver. It was about 8" high and maybe 4 feet wide. It was only around 3 metres long (I know, I know, mixing metric and imperial measurements) and then turned a corner for another metre before emerging into a cavern. I got a minor feeling of panic as soon asI crawled in, but I managed to quickly drag myself through and wait for the others with camera poised.






After that we got to a large cavern with an old railway track, that apparently runs for a quarter of a mile! This was at 200feet below the surface and as deep as we would be going. Years ago, children woul d be sent to work down here for 10 hour days by light of candle for a pittence. Think of that when you're sat there on your PS3. The route back was a bit easier than the descent, avoiding the Mousehole! Some clambering and stooping was still essential.



All in all, a really enjoyable and well priced mornings fun in the Forest of Dean. Highly recommended, providing you're not claustrophobic, or don't like spiders. Or bats. Or Ochre.



Wednesday 1 February 2012

Another Outdoorsy Caricature

Just wanted to share this caricature I drew of a friend - he enjoys coming walking with us but lets us do all the planning and just tags along at the back, whinging! Don't you, Chopski?!

Anyway, he liked it. Excuse the poor quality phone pic. Email me for commissions (perfect unique pressie....)

Sunday 29 January 2012

Peeeee Beeeeeee!

One of my favourite races of the year today, the good old Lliswerry 8! 8 Miles of flat tarmac - always cold, always tough, always well organised. I did a personal best by over 2 minutes, - 52:58! Well chuffed with that, especially as I went off way too fast and was hanging on for dear life in the last mile. Well worth the £12 entry and things bode well for the years running ahead.

Thursday 26 January 2012

Bewildering artwork

As well as a love for the outdoors I have a liking for pencil art - I've shared a few of my own pieces earlier on this blog.

So I just had to post a link to an artist I found whilst browsing deviant art. A chap called Dirk Dzimirsky from Germany. His charcoal and graphite portraits are incredible. Photorealism is not for everyone, but I love it, perhaps because I'm fairly good at it. But this is another league. 


The work of Dirk Dzimirsky


I'm not sure if it's okay to link to my favourite piece of his work here, but hopefully it is as I'm only showcasing him. If not I will remove it if requested.






I cant quite fathom that this is done with charcoal! It's stunning. 



Monday 16 January 2012

Twmbarlwm Trek

Twmbarlwm is a cracking little hill (my favourite in fact) that is right on my doorstep and offers easy access to some great walking and running. A friend of mine, Beggy, who works for Caerphilly council is organising a Twmbarlwm Trek on May 12th this year. Entry in advance is a paltry £4 and there are 3 routes of varying length to choose from. I hope to run the 23 miler as a training run with a few mates.