Tribute to my Osprey Talon 33 - A long term kit review.

I love Osprey rucksacks. I have five of them, all different sizes, ranging from the big Aether 70, through an old rugged Ceres 50, a Talon 44 and down to a lightweight Venom 13.

But the one that I use the most, my favourite and constant mountain companion, is a four year old orange Talon 33. It has been with me everywhere. Mountain marathons. Days out training with DofE teams. Scrambling in Snowdonia. Overnight bivvies. Climbing centres. Weekend hotels. Long training runs. Running the length of Wales on the Big Wales Thing.

I reckon I have probably used it enough now to do a review of it!

Thoughts from the Wild

 I finished the Big Wales Thing some months ago, and have ever since felt a bit guilty and frustrated that I haven't really written anything about it. I know that I could write a day by day account of my 225 mile, 15 day journey through Wales, or extract some practical lessons for others that might want to do the same thing. Or maybe write some reviews of the kit that I used and the food that I ate.
But somewhere inside me those don't feel right. They might be useful or interesting in their own way, but they wouldn't express the real deep feeling that came from my journey, the complicated and mixed emotions.

Clarendon Marathon - We Did It!

Pete and I at about 18 miles!

A few years ago, looking at my OMM training schedule, I had spotted the Clarendon Half Marathon as a potential training event, but after a little pondering had dismissed it as being a too close to the OMM three weeks later, worried that I wouldn't recover from the 13.1 miles in time for our annual wander round the mountains.

I thought of that and how much my fitness must have changed yesterday as I was in the middle of the full Clarendon Marathon, a whole 26.2 miles of hilly paths winding from Salisbury to Winchester.

Keep on Running

It's been a while since I have posted about running.

The Big Wales Thing was a big run for me, and a culmination of a lot of training runs to get ready. After it was all over I didn't feel I had a huge reason to keep going out at the frequency I had been, or run those distances.  And I certainly didn't want to put a rucksack back on!

Big Wales Thing - Food

Cooking Supper in the Wild

You can't do a 200 mile journey without sorting out the food! So here are a few thoughts on what I ate and what I learned along the way.

Jiva Coffee Cubes

I love good coffee. I normally start the day with a couple of cups of freshly brewed strong coffee, and one of the things I miss when out hiking is a decent cup of coffee to get me going in the morning. Sometimes I take a small stovetop espresso pot, but there was no way that I had space or weight for that on the Big Wales Thing trip. I know there are the real coffee pouch/sachets that you add water to, but they were just too bulky and expensive. What I needed was some sort of instant coffee that had the taste and kick of the real thing.

So I was very interested when I came across a review of Jiva Cubes in an outdoor blog. Good tasting instant coffee cubes?  Sounds perfect!

Big Wales Thing - I did it!

224 miles and 15 days of running and walking and the Big Wales Thing was all over. I stood on the cliff edge by the lighthouse on Great Orme on the North Wales coast, grinning at the blue sky and sea, and I had completed my journey on foot from one end of Wales to another.