Replicating race conditions

A break of 3 days after my race last weekend let my body recover and I prepared for a weekend in the mountains.  If Ultra Race Romania is on, and I think that will be a late decision, then I have to prepare for 36,000 ft of climbing in 6 days while completing 250km.  Sadly there is no way to replicate the URR conditions in the UK but we need to make a good go of it.
On Saturday I was with my running buddie Michael who is great at mapping out days in the mountains and we headed to Glenshee to complete 3 Munro's which would take Michael's total to 100 - 10 that week!  As so often is the case with me on the mountains, the conditions were sub-optimal which meant the summits were all in cloud base.  1 hour in 1 didn't feel great and my heart rate reached 186 bpm, normally when pushing it, my HR would reach 168 bpm so this was either a blip or I should have been lying on my back.  We had some food, rehydrated and dropped the pace which solved the problem.  The conditions meant we didn't hang around and we completed the 33km  with 1,546m of elevation in 5hrs 41 mins.  It was a good day out.
Today I was back in the mountains but on my own.  As you know I can get lost in a car park so I was slightly nervous.  The plan was about the elevation, not the distance so the mountain selected, Ben More, has possible the steepest climb out of all the Munro's.  My coach wanted me to climb up once then go half way up and back down.  I made sure I had plenty of food and headed off trying to get my map on my phone so I didn't get lost - but I did.  Fortunately I picked it up early on and reversed my steps.  The cloud base was about a third of the way up the hill so I had little visual queues to go on.  Once you find the path it's very straight forward, except it's vertical and the stones you are stepping on all present a risk.  It got a bit "spooky" at the top as you are surrounded by clouds with some sheer drops but not being able to see the drops was a good thing.
When you reach the top you can go down the other side which is a much easier descent but my instructions were to go back the way I'd come up.  It was a very difficult descent and the pace was really slow as it was on the way up and I had to concentrate very hard.  I decided on the way down not to repeat the first half again as it really was risky and I was on my own.  Better get to the race slightly under prepared than injured!
Getting back to the car I was delighted that my HR had stayed low and that my legs felt great.  I've four long runs planned for the next 5 days.
Some big weekends lie ahead as I spend as much time as possible in the mountains building up my strength.  Hopefully one of these days I'll reach a summit and have a view!