Dan, Dan the Rasta Kayak Man

After work yesterday the sun shone so I set out for a quick seven miler to Witches and back. I’d noticed a tent actually on the pebbles a few times but hadn’t been close enough to get a photo of it. I figured someone was enjoying a bit of wild camping. Yesterday I met the owner of the tent and what a lovely guy he is.

Dan with his tent and kayak

His name is Dan Chapman and he is attempting to kayak around the British coastline in aid of the Multiple Sclerosis Society in memory of his nan.  You can read about it and if you wish you can donate on his just giving page here.

His facebook page is here

He seems a well grounded guy and just really happy in his life and the challenges he faces ahead. Best of luck to him!

Good luck out there dude!

It was a beautiful spring day and the beach was was a beautiful as ever.

View down from Witches

Dan also gave me a horseshoe he found at the clifftop near the ladders. I’ll hang onto it for luck and when you finish the trek you can have it back!

Hell of a horse – I placed it around a “normal” horseprint and it surrounds it!

 

West Wales Weekender

I was lucky enough to be invited down to West Wales by a couple of friends who were renting a cottage for a week ( I say cottage, it was huge and could sleep 8) so off I went on friday straight after work , only a couple of hours drive but you forget the beauty of your own country sometimes.

The cottage was in a tiny village called Nolton Haven and it had the most perfect bay for learning to kayak, not much swell and some interesting coves and coastline to explore.

Nolton Haven beach at low tide

But first things first I woke on saturday and my foot felt fine so I figured I’d go for a gentle run on the beach as the sand was super soft, of course I couldn’t actually stick to my plan and was soon off up the coastal path that runs either side of the bay. The views were fantastic and the foot felt fine. I’ve spent some time considering things while off injured and have come to realise I can’t hammer my body at this age (which does makes me sound old) when it’s not really used to it. If I want to run at all I need to run smarter, lower impact and run slower.

I’ve been serruptitiously reading about slow ruinning and heart rate training and I managed to keep my heartrate easily below 140 despite some extremely vertical terrain – not that I was really monitoring it to be fair as I didnt have my watch as I didnt expect to be running and anyway the watch doesn’t even do heart monitoring. So I simply took my pulse and timed it. Works for me!

I ran around 4 or 5 miles perhaps and as I say took it slowly, expecting my foot to start hurting but apart from near the end where it started to nag a little on the downhill to the beach it was fine and afterwards I felt no pain. I have an appointment at the doctors tomorrow to discuss the xray results ….. so I probably wont mention the run :p

I also had my Altras on and in my admittedly limited experience these are the most comfortable trainers I’ve ever worn. It’s like running in slippers and the grip is utterly fantastic. Some of the descents were on shale and they provided perfect footing with no slippage at all. To say I’m happy with them right now is an understatement.

Some photos from the run

Overlooking the bay at Nolton Haven

Cave!

Headland which probably has some local name which I don’t know

Close up of stack

Looking down to Newgale

I came across this just off the path – Turns out to be the remains of Trefane Colliery – a Mine! – more info if you’re interested here

 

Beautifully weathered stones

Mineshafty thing

Mineshafty hole

So after the run it was time to test the kayak!

Absolutely loved it, spent a good few hours in the water self teaching various techniques – I think the hardest part was launching it! I also learned how not to panic when you ground yourself on a rock and nearly tip out and how to fend off a dead seagull with my paddle. I finished off with a lesson in how to get back on if I ever do actually fall off by mistake.

I actually look like I know what i’m doing! Note the calm sea though

After kayaking it was chill out, bbq, beers and watching Wales win their opening game in the Euros! Oh and playing with Iolo the labrador puppy – Who had this face on after trying to eat my Altras

Ummm we may have drunk one or two

Well running and kayaking is thirsty work!

All in all a fantastic few days. So glad the foot held up and to get a few miles done was the best news plus the kayak is great and gives one hell of a workout to arms, legs and arse!

Hope everyone else had a good weekend too.

What a day to run ….

Only I didn’t …. Wait! What? I hear you cry, on such a glorious spring(ish) day? Are you crazy?

No I didn’t because I had to go and pick this up …..

Yes indeed I now own a kayak (plus paddle and wetsuit) which I won on ebay and was only 30 minutes down the road. Thankfully it fitted in my car (not my car in background as a. This wouldnt have fitted in it and b. This car is clean unlike mine)

I can’t wait to try it out and hopefully spend the warmer months running and now paddling the coastline. All I have to do is work out how I get it back and forth to the beach. Of course I should have considered this in advance but I’m learning to enjoy challenges.