Yesterday I competed in the Cholmondeley Castle 10k X country run. I came third which i was really pleased with in the intense heat over a tough course. There were a lot of top runners and I ran a good race coming on strong at the end but i just couldn’t quite catch the first two who ended up about 20 seconds ahead of me. I ran it in 37 minutes which is good considering the terrain.

I get asked what I take supplements wise and what I eat etc before a race so here goes…

The day before I make sure I am well hydrated to when I wake up on race day I don;t have to drink vast anounts of water and then need to constantly go to the toilet. On waking I don’t have my usual porridge… I opt for some Scottish Ultra Fine Oats (100g) and one heaped scoop of Diet Whey with water. I have this an hour and a half before the race. I then sip on some PhD battery to make sure I have all the necessary electrolytes in my body to stop any unnecessary cramping of my muscles during the race and to offset what I will lose from sweating during the race. Then 15 minutes before the start of the race I have startedtaking the PhD V Max Pump. This is great as it contains 200mg of caffeine and Beta Alanine. These two ingredients combined really give a feeling of alertness and set me up well for the race. During the race I don’t ingest any fluid as there is no point at my race lasts typically 35-40minutes which does not allow for the water ingested to be used by the body (gastric emptying takes 45mins) so any additional water taken on just increases my bodyweight! Immeditately after completing the race I like to take my PhD 2:1 Recovery. This supplies me with fast acting carbohydrates to replenish my glycogen stores along with protein to repair my muscles.

My next race is the Marbury Park 5km which I think I have a fairly good chance of winning… but we will see and then the Manchester 10k road race on the 16th May which should be a good race to try and set a PB.

Well my first ever 10k X country race was quite successful. I managed to finish very strongly and come in 6th place, just under 2 minutes off the winner. I was fairly pleased with this as there was about 250 entrants from different running clubs. I ran it in 41 mins 45 seconds… this is with tough terrain and numerous stiles which broke up your rhythm.

Hi guys, well on Sunday I had my first race since the Amazon over a sprint distance of 10k x country. I have to say from the outset it felt really tough as my legs felt like lead even with having a rest day the day before. The first 5k was up hill with a mixture of road running, then into the forest followed by ploughed fields etc. After the first 5k I started to get into the grove of things and then started to pick off other runners and got stronger and stronger finishing in 6th position. My next race is this Sunday which is another 10k x country but is less hilly so hopefully now after my first race I will go a little quicker and place top 3. We will see….

I have now just entered a 10k cross country at Beeston, known as the Sandstone run. I have run around this area a lot before, most recently last weekend when i did the whole Sandstone trail which is 36 miles long. I did this in just over 6 hours which I was pretty happy with as had some weight on my back with provisions, water, waterproofs etc and the course involves negotiating a lot of styles and gates as well as being very varied and undulating terrain.

My training in general had been going well, I have started to focus on bringing my 10k time down and am now sub 37 minutes which is avaragin over 16kph. I have also managed to row 1496m in 5 minutes on the rower and even started doing a pilates class for a bit of variety.

My goal at the moment is to focus on my timed runs on the treadmill. The main distances I am focusing on are the 5km and 10km. My best is 37mins 43 seconds. However it has been a while since I did this and last week I did a some what disappointing 40mins 41secs. I increaed the pace too quickly and really started to struggle at the 30min mark. I however managed to continue through for an hour and average 14.3kph which wasn’t too bad for my first attempt. I should hopefully get back down to the 37 minute mark soon enough with focus. I think I may need to drop from my current weight of 13st 2lbs to accomplish this… I will keep you posted!

Last Sunday I decided to run up Snowdon, it works out at 14km and 1634m of accent and decent. It was a great day for it, the sun was shining, this is a miracle as every time I usually run Snowdon the weather is always against me. The snow was still thick on the ground from about half way up which made the decent a little tricky but I like a challenge. It took 2 hours 30mins top to bottom with a 10 minute break at the top. I trained with a little weight on my back weighing roughly 5kg.

The very summit of Snowdon

Since completing the Jungle Marathon I have really started to focus on my long duration running. I still enjoy lifting weights although I try to get the right balance between effective training to improve running economy and being fresh to put the most into my different runs. I try to fit one interval session in a week on a treadmill as well as intervals on the Stairmaster. I also do one tempo run and then a longer run on a Sunday where I usually add additional weight (up to 50lbs) and tackle various mountains such as Snowdon, the Sandstone Trail, and the South Pennines.

My intervals usually look something like this;

5 mins at 13kph (warm up)

1 min at 18.5kph

1 min at 12.5kph

1 min at 12.5kph at a gradient of 8%

1 min at 12.5kph

1 min at 18.5kph

1 min at 12.5kph

1 min at 12.5kph at a gradient of 8%

1 min at 12.5kph

1 min at 18.5kph

(This is not set in stone as I like to add variety to stop boredom setting in, sometimes I increase the sprint speed, resting speed, gradient, times at each interval etc)

For my tempo run this can last between 7 mins 30 seconds and one hour. I like to try and see how fast I can do 1.5m/2.4km (7 mins 30 seconds). I also like to run for up to an hour which is usually averaging about 15kph on a good day.