To say the whole stone trip was a learning curve is like trying to argue that night does not follow day. Speaking, or writing for that matter, from my own perspective I was humbled very humbled. Those stones kicked my backside from here to there and back again with a little graze/cut or three along the way for good measure. They owned me rather than me managing to own them.
Preparation is everything and a bit more. You can`t prepare enough to lift those brutes but its not just about the lifting of the stones but the little things like sleeping, eating, warming up and relaxing at the end of the day when you are trying, as we did, to do a whole tour of the various stones that are available to lift in Scotland which are strewn all over a large portion of the country. Failing to fully prepare on some of those points can mean the difference between a successful lift and failure not only at the beginning of a tour but most importantly at the end of such a gruelling journey which took in the greater part of 1100 miles.
Could I have managed to have lifted any of the stones I failed at if we had prepared better in the way of the tour itself?
Possibly. I think I would have managed to have gotten both Deirdre`s Teardrop and The Stone of Dalness overhead. As for the others probably not. A biceps injury during a training session for the tour meant I could do very little arm work which is massively important when lifting stones. Strong biceps are a must.
Paul on the other hand I think could have gotten the Dalwhinnie stone up and was quite close a couple of times.
For all those who plan to follow in our foot steps and undertake such a gruelling tour of the stones I would recommend as much planning as possible to getting the right digs to sleep in along with good sources of food to help fuel and repair the body after each day. Not to mention taking a whole day off at some point midway through the tour for not only time to recharge your batteries physically but also for the pure enjoyment of such stunning surroundings.
Steven. A. Barlow© 2010
the inver stone too was getting there, i think i was too concerned with the dinnies to give it enough effort, also with the other stones ahead, my biceps where also sore from the inver and that hampered other lifts, maybe starting with the lighter and then moving up in weight would have been easier, and the menzies, achievable yes, but definately with more “round stone” training.