Saturday 17th May 2008 Posted by Ricky
I was up Ben Lomond this morning and was up and down in 1 hour 53 minutes, which was 22 minutes quicker than last weekend so it's all good. Only problem was when I was running down I totally wiped myself out when my trailing foot caught a rock, but thankfully there was no-one around to see my head-over-heels moment! Take a look at my Heart Rate against altitude that I recorded today.


Thursday 15th May 2008 Posted by Ricky
Well we didn't quite make it up and down Ben Lomond in 2 hours, but we weren't far off. We ran the first 100m or so and then settled down to a fast march. Ally had struggled on our previous ascent with his lower leg muscles, since he wasn't used to climbing mountains. On this occasion, however, we stopped only a couple of times on the climb to stretch off tight muscles. It was a beautiful sunny day and there were very few people ascending at 08:15. Toward the summit, which was stillshrouded in cloud, we started to run again as the knowledge that we were nearing the top spurred us on. We reached the summit in 1h20m, and as we were re-fuelling with nuts and dried fruit, a middle-age couple that we had passed made their way to the top. They clearly thought that we were a bit strange in our shorts and trainers, but we explained to them what our challenge entailed and they were extremely supportive.

On the descent, we felt good and decided to run the whole way down. Three weeks earlier, we had descened down teh Ptarmigan Ridge route, which was generally quieter and out of the wind. However, there was still some snow and ice near the top and the steep descent made it treacherous and time-consuming. On this occasion, we descended the same way we had come up, down the usual mountain footpath. This route is great for running down as there are only a few steeper rocky sections that require extra care. We were glad that we had set off early as the mountain was becoming really busy as we neared the car park at Rowardennan. We made it back down in 55 minutes, so our overall time was 2h15m, which was a big improvement.

During the rest of the weekend, I spent more time in my office on expedition admin. The search for sponsors is never-ending and we've now started organsing our expedition launch party, which means more and more admin.

I've been hitting the gym during my lunch hour for weights sessions but the exertions of Saturday meant that I had nothing in the tank on Tuesday at the gym. Ally and I were then at Glasgow Climbing Centre on Tuesday evening, where we both struggled for strength. By Wednesday, however, I was feeling refreshed and was able to lift weights like normal. Tomorrow night we're back at the climbing wall and I'll be up Ben Lomond again early Saturday, although Ally has school commitments (he's a P.E. teacher).

In fact, today, Ally was challenged to a bleep test against a first year pupil, which he lost, but he put in a good effort for a big lad and his cardio training is definitly paying dividends. We managed to get an article in the Scotland on Sunday last week and there should be another article in the Scotsman either this Saturday or early next week so we're still working very hard to raise our profile and keep our sponsors on board.


Friday 9th May 2008 Posted by Ricky
With my Glasgow Hawks RFC team-mate, Ally Maclay, I am taking on the challenge of climbing Africa's 3 highest peaks; Mount Stanley, Uganda (5,109m), Mount Kenya, Kenya (5,199m) and Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (5,895m). We are undertaking this incredible journey in October 2008. Prior to this, from 14th June to 14th October, I am spending 4 months on secondment working in Kenya Childrens Home orphanage in Nairobi, supported by my employer Bank of Scotland Corporate.

We've beenworking incredibly hard over the past month or so to attract sponsors, sort out the logistics and raise as much money as possible for the Balcraig Foundation, which supports the orphange. Between now and October, I hope to post regular updates about our training and fundraising, and hopefully inspire other people to set themselves ambitious goals.

Ally is a complete climbing novice so we've been spending a few evenings a week at Glasgow Climbing Centre because we plan to climb Batian on Mount Kenya (the true summit) and this involves a high altitude, technical rock climb. Tonight, at the climbing wall, Ally proved that he is imrpoving all the time. He's completed a couple of 5+ climbs that had defeated him over the last couple of weeks. He's a big lad, who plays either back row or centre, and a month ago he weighed in at 17 stone. Since then, he's lost almost a stone thanks to the cardio training that he's been doing.

Tomorrow morning (Sat) I'm picking him up at 7.30 and we're heading up to Ben Lomond for a training run. When we were there a few weeks back Ally struggled to keep the pace as his calves were just not used to climbing mountains as he is used to anaerobic activity on the rugby pitch. We're planning to run up and back down and hope to complete it in about 2 hours.

I'm then heading in to my office in Edinburgh to get some expedition admin done, such as writing and printing letters to potential sponsors. This is an incredibly time-consuming task but will hopefully be worth it in the end. Today, I had a telephone interview with a journalist from the Herald newspaper (Scottish broadsheet). He is writing a feature that will hopefully run in the next week or so and should help keep our corporate and kit sponsors happy and attract new sponsors.

That's all for now.

This article was posted on 20-May-2008, 18:52 by Hugh Barrow.