So, by now you have probably noticed that these blogs are becoming less frequent. Not because I don’t have much to say, but because I am struggling with focus and staying afloat – so to speak. In the past 7 Months I have now put on 1.5 stones (9.5kg) purely as I have not been following the ‘programme’. In the first part of 2020 I was super focused stuck to the programme and lost a lot of weight, then came Lockdown 2.0 and Lockdown 3.0. The fact of the matter is the weight is creeping back on, I cannot deny this – but the will to do something about it is starting to wane.
So what do I do now, well I’m trying a balanced approach – that being; watching what I eat and making conscious decisions to opt for the healthy choice. I am very adamant that I am not following a diet. This needs to be a way of life for me. Coupled with active training I have got to make this work.
With everything that had been going on in my life the past few months I needed some time away. My friend Ben also needed some time away and at short notice we decided to go climb Ben Nevis. A quick scout on AirBnB found us an apartment to rent and we set off up the M6. What I was looking forward to was the drive. The Western Highlands were stunning, simply beautiful. At Glencoe we had to stop the car and get out to soak all the scenery in – it was stunning.
We set off for our ascent on the morning of the Sunday as the weather looked better that day, at 7am we hit the trail. As we were on our way up I was staggered to meet some fell runners who were already on their way down! The scenery was stunning. I was also quite surprised that it had a well defined path all the way up to the summit.
When we got to about 900m in altitude the landscape changed. All of a sudden it turned into what I can only describe as a moonscape. There were no plants up here and only baron rock formations from the Eruption that carved the landscape – quite awe inspiring really. The final 200m of altitude were incredibly tough. It required Cranpons and poles as the rocks were buried in a 3m thick block of ice. The clouds had descended also and it was snowing, there was near 3m visibility. Then as we kept plowing on we reached the summit. We decided to stop here and have our sandwiches – which was a great idea. For, within ten minutes the clouds completely disappeared and we were treated to the most amazing views on the top of Ben Nevis.
Bipolar Ironman 