The biker chick theme continued when Spook and Finn invited me to join them on the downhill red route at Nevis Range. I had heard it was a bit scary, but with a good pair of hill running shoes, it is no bother, especially with a sturdy mountain bike to provide stability - better than walking poles. Finn had never been down it before and set off at a good pace on hardtail bike and no body armour. He spent a lot of time good naturedly waiting for his mother. It's a great track as long as you don't get too hung up on trying to stay on the bike. I had no problems!

It is raining straight down today. I was determined to go up the Ben but only managed a half as it was too uninspiring to go all the way. Training has been very poor, but I am on the Kelloggs diet of 2, 45g bowls of cereal a day plus my evening meal. This will end on the Wednesday before the race, I will have lost 10lbs and as a result, fly up the Ben like a butterfly. Except that, in order not to collapse at the half way point from malnourishment, I will have been carbo loading all day Thursday and Friday and be back to 11stone.

Spook came with me, but started a mile down the road and my target was to stay ahead as long as possible. With the psychological advantage of believing myself to be fairy light (been on the 2 bowls a day for 5 days, and it does say you can carry on with your usual snacks, so an entire big bag of Kettles crisps the other night whilst feasting on two DvD's shouldn't be too much of a setback), I kept ahead for longer than usual and we then had a very companionable run down together. Both of us had wished we were not on the hill at first as weary, sluggish limbs tried to get a bit of enthusiasm going, but on the way back down we were upbeat and glad to have done it. If it wasn't for the Ben, I would not be out at all. I always said The Ben looks after me - physically and mentally.

Amongst the dull and rainy days, there has been some great light - hints of Autumn, if not in the colours. The polytunnel has yielded some juicy harvest. Some has been a little hard to swallow. If the Munro's wont eat mushrooms because they are slimy, there is not much point in cooking snails.