Typical Scottish weather

Its a typical Scottish day outside, grey and wet with low lying cloud. It may look a bit miserable but to be honest its quite nice to train in because its nice and cool but not cold enough that you have to wear thermals. This morning I went for a run with poles up the Clashmach which usually offers a panoramic view across Huntly and the surrounding hills however this morning......

View from the top of the Clashmach

Its a really nice run and ideal for using poles because its either climbing uphill or downhill. For the last few days I have been glued to the Sjusjoen web cam to see how there getting on in preparing for the World cup this weekend. http://sionvalais.com/review/sjusjoen/133567. Can't wait till I can spend half the weekend watching skiing on TV again, its what I live for really. 

Near the top of the Clashmach there is a very important Stile that has to be crossed. It has been truly blessed by somebody very special.

The blessed stile

This stile has been blessed my none other than the special one, Andrew Young. A couple of years ago the special one decided it would a great idea to try out his amazing hurdling skills over the stile. He tried to jump from the second step over onto the grass below however as you can see his plan didn't quite go to plan. It resulted in a broken step,a tumbling Andrew and me laughing my head off.

Half way down and you can just about see Huntly.

Any way I hope you'll all be watching the world cup this weekend and cheering on Andrew Musgrave in his first World cup of the season. My pick for the podium this weekend is Tarjei Bø but it is so hard to predict early season results and there are always a few surprises.

cheers

Alex Standen