Well, after a busy week of partying for my birthday I had to sober up, and go to work at Plas Y Brenin where I was directing a Trouble Shooting Techniques weekend, showing people how to get out of all sorts of difficult situations by giving them some tools to hauls, pass knots on abseils, escape the system, and even the most basic of skills locking off a belay plate, so you can think and use both hands.
we did a lot of repetitive practice to help get these guys in the ball park of what is needed to each individual skill, breaking it up into building blocks and working through it one stage at a time, until we can eventually put it all together. More importantly, we went through ways to practice the skills safely, mainly not at the top of a massive cliff, instead just on small bouldery outcrops, or just of the ground in a climbing wall.
I think all the people of the course had a good time, and they certainly went away with a great understanding of various problems to avoid, and skill to get them out of the situations if you haven’t managed to avoid it. If your interested in learning the skills of escaping the system, then you can see a video here or below, alternative book on a course with mehere or Plas Y Breninhere.
After work each night I managed to get a short evening run in, just round the lake, so still going strong on the training. It was interesting, because after work I was really tired, so i wonder if training when knackered will help for the latter stages of the marathon?