The honeymoon's over...

It is a classic saying "the honeymoon is over" but for our training schedule that is most certainly what it feels like!! We may have spent some of our most wonderful week and a half away walking up hills and cycling along remote roads; but we also took very seriously the relaxing and enjoying plentiful supplies of quality food and drink which happily goes hand in hand with getting married. Unfortunately the after effects of this is that the running so far this week has been decidedly hard work. Oh well at least the sun is shining and we don't have any excuses of bad weather to fall back on so hopefully it won't take us too long to get back into the swing of a slightly more healthy lifestyle again.

Don't get me wrong it's not that our lifestyle has been unhealthy compared to some. We spent the Thursday and Friday before our wedding out walking with friends, and Colin went climbing the morning of the wedding whilst I went out for a run. We then had a lovely 'mini-moon' trip around the West Coast of Scotland, which despite initially looking like it was going to be a wash out of a week was pretty favourable from a weather perspective so we did get out for some walking and biking.

We spent a couple of days on the Island of Raasay where we cycled Calum's Road and explored the small Isle of Fladay which can only be accessed at low tide; and we completed a really enjoyable walk to Hallaig and up Dun Caan during which we were lucky enough to see a Sea Eagle flying over head.

On Sky we did a short walk around the Dinosaur footprints at Staffin.

Then whilst on Knoydart we completed a fabulous walk in the sunshine along the ridge of Sgurr Coire Choinnichean, which though only a small Corbett from a height perspective starts at sea level so involves a lot of ascent! Knoydart was a fanastic place and we were only able to just scratch the surface of the walking in the area during the time we were there. We will definitely be back.

On an initial look at this activity you may think that we would have nothing to worry about with regards to keeping up our fitness levels for Highland Cross training; unfortunately it seems that if you mix the enjoyment of the outdoors with the enjoyment of West Coast Scotland food and drink that some impact is inevitable... never the less it was absolutely worth it. We sampled some amazing sea food over the week, drank bubbly in a bubbly spa with a most amazing view, and made sure we enjoyed as many courses of food as we could possibly eat just so we didn't miss out on any of the amazing flavours on offer.

          

So there you have it, we had the most wonderful wedding at Kentallen Bay, and can't wait for the photos to from Julie Bee and Dougie Cunningham who captured the day with much clicking of cameras. We ran off to the West Coast of Scotland for a few days walking, biking and much merriment and now we are home....

Which leads us to the realisation that one month from today and we will be participating in a 50 mile cross country duathlon. Gulp! That seems like a lot of fitness we need to gain very quickly... where's that training plan - The honeymoon is over!