Post #whwrace Blues & Some Positive Blog Stats
It’s been a tough week since completing the West Highland Way Race. Thanks to severe night sweats, going through 1 set of sheets and 2 sleeping bags per night on average!, I have yet to have a fully uninterupted nights sleep and I think that this is partially responsible for my slightly lower than usual mood. Apparently night sweats can be brought on by extreme exercise so I suspect that they will pass soon enough. What will probably take longer to pass is the slightly deflated feeling from having completed my ‘A’ race of the season.
I compared the West Highland Way Race to Christmas in a previous post, citing a long buildup followed by the event itself and then, all too soon, it’s gone, done, over. Little did I realise at the time just how apt this analogy would be.
One week ago today I was in Glasgow, getting ready for the 1am start to the West Highland Way Race in what was described by one blogger as apocalyptic weather conditions. This quickly became one of (if not THE) toughest weekends of my life, running some 40 miles further than I had ever run previously. That perhaps doesn’t sound that much but I can testify that running almost twice as far as before does not equate to twice as hard – I don’t think I could possibly quantify exactly how tough it was last weekend.
Fast forward a week and I am largely recovered, bar some stiffness in the ankles and right knee and am even contemplating heading out for a run of sorts tomorrow.
Fortunately the cankles have now gone! It was not a good look for me.
On a positive note, the stats for my personal blog http://www.pixelscotland.com/ have gone through the roof this month. With the addition of reviews, race reports etc. etc. to my long neglected site, I had noticed a steady increase in hits but this month has been something else!
I also received word from The Running Bug that my blog was the 4th highest viewed blog in the first 6 months of the year with some 5,500 hits. This has taken a considerable boost as views of my WHW Race Report, ‘Against All Odds‘, have added approx 800 more hits at the time of writing.
So, 3 weeks to go to the next event, the 40 mile Clyde Stride. By all accounts, given the exertions of the West Highland Way Race, this could prove far tougher than I might expect. I have completed it once before, in 2011. I wasn’t in peak condition having come back from 2 weeks in Menorca, where it was just too hot to run as far as I might have liked for training! Only time will tell how I get on this year but I will be disapointed if I don’t take at least something off of last years time.
After that, it’s back to the West Highland Way, for the Devil O’ The Highlands, from Tyndrum to Fort William and then, finally, off to Speyside for the Speyside Way Race.
Happy running.
