From Llanberis pass

Form the road where I was watching the Siskin, I dropped down the valley in rapidly increasing temperatures and no wind. It was still only 08:30 in the morning, but it would take me the best part of 2 hours to crawl up the slopes of Elidir Fawr.

At intervals I stopped for a slug of water and as the path crossed the stream half way up, I dumped my head into its frigid waters and relished in the relief it gave. In truth I was beginning to appreciate  how long it had been since I last walked any distance. A life time of walking, running, swimming, cycling, you name it can soon be lost in the confines of an office. But that's ok. I didn't really expect it to be any different and I liked the challenge I had set myself all the more for knowing that I would have to work hard in the days, weeks and months ahead.

On the summit I met a women and her two dogs running. The second of the four legged joggers looked as old as the hills. I marvelled at their stamina but worried about the effects of the heat and no water on an animal that age. I've no doubt he had being doing it day in day out for years and there in lay the reason why he could and I was finding that it wasn't as easy as I would like.

Thirty minutes later as I crouched against the only boulder capable of providing any shade, I watched as another couple of fell runners dropped rapidly down the hill toward me. The girl looked in better shape and they were also headed over the same route as I. They had made a much smarter choice, starting that morning at Pen Y Pass. From there they had summited Crib Goch direct before doing the ridge and then Snowdon before descending the railway line to a point above Nant Peris to where I had started up Elidir Fawr.

For all the times I had walked across these hills, I had never yet seen some of the more notable landmarks. Somehow I had avoided the mountains most well known features, Bristley Ridge, The Cantilever and even Adam and Eve atop Tryfan. Mostly because I'd previously been so unlucky with the weather, more often navigating with a compass across the Glyders plateau than roasting in a late July scorcher.

From Adam  and Eve I dropped straight down the boulder field to the north west and the Ogwen cafe, except that it is being rebuilt and has been substituted in the interim by an excellent food and drinks van.



My weekend in North Wales was done and for two days I would hobble around on thigh muscles that had relearned a good lesson.

Since I got back I have started a list diary of training. I make no excuse for the apparent lack of ambition in this. Rome wasn't built in a day and I've been here before. Endurance training has to start somewhere and I've been here before. It will be interesting to look back at these early entries in a few months time.

In the mean-time I await the return of my possible rowing partner to find out if we can really get started on the Atlantic 2017 bid.

Exercise diary

3.2 miles and 2200 ' elevation to Snowdon summit 20/7
12.86 miles Snowdon over Cryb Goch and the Glyders and Tryfan 21/7
2.47 mile run 26/7
2.47 mile run 28/7
1/2 mile swim 1/8
2.86 mile run 3/8
1 mile swim 07/08
4.64 mile run 10/08
60.02 mile cycle 13/08
22 miles towing the two kids 20/08
22 Miles towing the two kids 21/08
3.48 mile run 25/08
18 miles cycle 02/09

Waiting and but not waiting

Since I last wrote I have been busy. Mostly at work, where as an Emergency Care Practitioner working for the Out of Hours Service, I attempt, along with my colleagues to bridge the gap between day time General Practice, working through the nights and weekends to provide a Primary Care service to the good people of Norfolk.

But less of that. Everyone has to have a day job.

I had a constructive and encouraging conversation with a fellow adventurer. About to launch himself on a race from the UK to Istanbul, we plan to meet up at the end of the month to check each other out and to head out on the bikes for a few hours. Apparently that's what guys do best; doing. Communicating through play.

I wish him well. That kind of distance in 6 days is a tough call and will certainly set down a marker for me to live up to. There's nothing like a challenge and a goal to motivate though and it will be crucial for us to be at our fittest if we are serious about rowing the Atlantic Ocean in four years time.

I have a long way to go on that score having been lax since my cycle back in 2010. In the last 10 days I have managed three runs, two cycles and a swim and it feels really very good to be working toward something again.

The weekend before last I took on the Welsh 3000s and was sorely beaten, but not. The temperatures were in the high 20s throughout the weekend. Climbing Snowdon the evening before, it was 24 degrees at 10 at night and I felt comfortable in my decision to leave my sleeping bag behind.

The summit was littered with other cacooned walkers intent on the same goal. I hunkered down on the platform and endured a comfortable though surprisingly chilly night before rising at 04:30 to head off across Crib Goch.

The forescast was for a hot sultry day and with the suns rays reflecting off the rock, it was to be a scorcher that sapped your strength and sucked the fluid from you. I thought of the conditions in a small boat mid-atlantic and began to get an appreciation of just how much brackish water I would be drinking.

I carried very little with me beyond some food and about 4 litres of water and some sachets of fruit juice. The water was all gone by the time I was down on the road below Dinas Cromlech and its most famous route, Cenotaph Corner. I was reminded of books I had read of this unforgiving routes' first climbers and of the famous that had since followed in their footsteps on their way to the worlds most renowned summits.

 A youth hostel by the road housed an early bird who kindly filled my drained bottles and I headed off down the road to Nant Peris, (Old Llanberis,) and the foot of Elidir Fawr.

Half way down the hill I stopped to admire a beautiful male Siskin as it hunted for food on the wall beside the road.