Time is moving fast now, when you think you have ages to train and prepare the reality is the clock doesn't stop, tick tock tick tock!  There isn't long left now, 8 weeks till Hardmoors 55, I've booked in a cheeky run on Feb 4th as part of my training.  The organisers are called 'Its Grim Up North' which I thought sounded great and perfect for me.  Since the 'Frostbite 30' was cancelled I needed something else just to get mentally in the game,  its all part of the master plan for Hardmoors 160.  I'm not going to fail at it as want to succeed at it more than ever, training has been good and I'm well rested.  I want to learn more though and the only way to learn more is to get out there.  I'm excited about the 160 but its one run at a time with the build up, to me this key, the 55 is enough of a build up as it will allow me to test my physical improvements and any strategies I want to practice.  I've also decided I want to just get better at this endurance lark, the long distance stuff really drives me.

Back to the age old problem of fitting things in.  I have new commitments in my life that as much as my running and endurance events are important to me, my new life is more.  I still want to do the endurance events but will cut back on the other races now and start being more selective.  Once I get in to the Hardmoors 1000 club I will re-assess my challenges.  My training has really started to show its worth now and the benefits are starting to show.  My main test will be the HM 55 this is where I will be pushing to do my best at this race as part of my preparation for the 160.

Small goals - big gains!

How do we keep moving forward?  How do we re-motivate constantly to keep the dream alive?  These are the questions I have now.  Once upon a time my motivations were different, it was a completely different game altogether. I once gained strength from negative things in my life that helped motivate me to be better, stronger and to want new adventures that would change how I felt.  I was used to negative experiences and turned them into positive feelings and outcomes.  What was once my cleansing process is now something else!  What I am now learning to do is to use positive experiences in my life to help motivate me in my Ultra running and challenges.  What I am learning is that being able to use happy positive thoughts can be just as powerful as the negative ones that I once used.   My desire to achieve great feats is now greater than ever, I have pride in what I want to do and a real sense of adventure surrounds it.

Everything I read up on and investigate just seems to inspire me to do more, I get excited when reading about ridiculous challenges and great feats of endurance.  I just think wow, wish I could do that!  Then I think back a couple of years, and this was exactly the sort of thing that got me into all this but now its different as I have done a few things.  Only the tip of the iceburg ha ha!

What lays ahead!

I think its important to have a bit of a long term challenge/plan, then a semi-ridiculous challenge as warm up and then smaller interim stupid challenges to build your strength and character in preparation.  I love the process, I love the training once you know what your plan is and I love working towards it.  This is what it is all about for me, not just the race itself but the process of getting you there, the build up.

How do I see the next few years?  My plans are simple really.  I want to keep building on the distance and difficulty but with a process in mind.  I have the Hardmoors 160 booked in for this May and looking for another 100 miler towards mid to end of the year.  I have set myself the challenge of joining the Hardmoors 1000 mile club which will take me to May 2019 and completing the Hardmoors 200 which will be massive for me.  In build up to this I intend to complete the Spine Challenger with the intention of completing the full Spine which is 268 miles along the Pennine Way the year after so 2020! This is all part of my process and build up to entering the Yukon Artic Ultra.  Inspired, understatement, excited absolutely.  Ready for the challenge of a lifetime, yes will love every second of how difficult it will be.

What is different now?  I have someone in my life who loves me and wants me to do these things as crazy as they are she backs me and wants to be there for me.  This makes a massive difference, its a game changer!  Negative into positive! If you want something bad enough find a way!

I found my way! :)

Its been a while...... I have now officially entered the Hardmoors 160!!! I'm actually quite excited about it, and slightly nervous but no time for worrying about it.  My training now has a purpose so I suddenly feel invigorated and desperate to move on and keep improving.  My work with Jake at Unit 17c is going well and I'm very pleased with my progress and how I'm feeling.  I am definitely becoming stronger all round, legs, core and upper body.  I'm finding it difficult fitting it in with tennis and squash at the moment but just have to keep focused and disciplined and do what I can.

Last weekend I ran the Hardmoor's half marathon at Roseberry Topping.  This was like going back to see an old friend, I wasn't able to do it last year so I made sure I was booked on for this.  My trail running and Hardmoor's adventure began with Roseberry 4 years ago in 2013 so now I've done it 4 times.  I love it, its the toughest one I do but the best, I hated missing out last year but I was back this time and did my best time so a PB!!!

Dalby Dash 10k, great fun!  Sunday morning I woke not feeling to great to be honest, tired and aching.  Todays run was a late start which actually was a good thing today but normally I like the early starts so I can be back in good time.  It was to be an 11.02 start, the 2 been the 2 minute silence we observed before the dash began.  I made it to Dalby Forest in good time after thinking I'd be late as normal, but I ended up being ushered through to the second carpark which was a few mins walk away from the Visitor centre and registration. It was cold, I was planning on running in shorts with compression top and shirt with windproof jacket on.  I was sat in the car with tracksuit bottoms, hoody and woolly hat on, with fear running through my body from opening the door to get to my trainers ha ha!  Once I'd plucked up the courage that was it we were off, shoes on, hoody and bottoms off and hat thrown in to the back of the car.  I set off for the visitor centre, I actually even started to run as thought it would help me stay warm ( I have never done that before lol)!  Apon arrival I checked in and got my number and began to prepare myself for the forth coming run.  I was looking round to see if I recognised anyone as thought there were going to be a few that I knew.  After standing in the reception area just trying to keep warm before that shock of going outside again, I started bumping in to people I knew so it soon became a friendly fun environment with lots of smiley faces all doing the same thing, hiding and huddling together inside knowing how chilly it was on the outside ha ha!

Once we'd braved going out the door and gathering near the start line we had the race brief followed by the Race Directors little Poem which was great fun.  We observed a two minute silence for Rememberance Day then he shouted 3,2,1 go really quickly and we were off! It was a steady start down the road and as per usually it was all the giddy chatter and banter before the grind started.  Over the bridge then a left turn in to Dalby village, which was literally a few houses, then onwards up the hill!  Now with me not doing this run before and being aware of this hill I was slightly cautious to start with as didn't really know the severity or distance of the incline so I just kind of went with the flow with the intention of trying to run all of it.  Maybe it was better not knowing how far the incline would last as my determination to keep running was high.  My breathing became heavy to the point of panting but my legs stayed strong, so each time the voice in my head kept saying I needed to stop and walk I had to question why!  I was managing my heavy breathing, it hadn't got the point where I couldn't get enough air in and my legs seemed ok with the current output so I had to just say shut up to myself and push on.  If there's no obvious reason to walk other than the voice in my head then I have to push on.  It was tough towards the top since it had been approximately 2 miles of climbing but I could now see the brough of the hill, my legs were becoming heavy but my breathing was the same so I wasn't going to stop now, no chance!  Over the brough and from the race description and a few peoples comments it was all downhill now.  In the past I have heard things like this and trusted them and eventually been let down which breaks in to your spirit but this time I just decided it is what it is and get on with it and push push push its only 10k!!!

This was turning in to a great fun event.  I actually felt like I was a proper runner, I was striding out and running at a bit of pace for once!  Oh yeah that's because it was downhill all the way ha ha!  It did feel good though and helped to push on and want to do better because there was no excuses for slowing down even towards the end when it flattened out I still had the desire to push on as hard as I could.  I have very rarely done this in my running as always just been happy to go at 'my pace' but it is now something I'm trying to improve on so I will enter more short events just to get that again now I have gained some confidence from it.

After I'd passed through the finish I made my way back to the Visitor Centre to collect my momento which in this case was a great pair of running gloves with 'Dalby Dash 10k 2017' printed on them which was cool. My mind was then preoccupied with having to get back to the club as I was at work at 2pm so needed to get a crack on.  Guess what happened then, go on guess ha ha!! Yep I ran back to the car lol!

Dalby Dash 10k 2017 done, great event good fun!

So with three days to go till Dalby Dash 10k I have just had a light session in the gym doing a few dumb bell weights and kettlebell swings with sit-ups and some Romanian twists.  My training for the Hardmoors 160 is in its infancy but its starting to shape up nicely.  I have a new addition to my team adding a different dimension to my training.  This is Jake, and he will be doing a lot of crossfit endurance training with me including a lot of squats, dead lifts and general power work.  This is in the form of one session a week with him then doing 2 more sessions on my own.  The plan is to work harder in the gym on strength building and working on my weakness and improving my form.  I will be including running in this programme but not high mileage, my high mileage runs will be spread out over the next 6 months with a gradual increase but not any distance that is going to cause long term injury or lack of recovery time.

So I met up with Jake yesterday to do some assessments so he could decide on what the best course of action was going to be.  He had me doing some squats looking at my form and posture, some single leg squats and then some shoulder flexibility and mobility exercises.  We then moved on to doing some squats with weight doing 3 reps at a time increasing the weight to try and find what I was comfortably capable of.  We got up to 95 kg which was good (I think) and this will give us a great starting base platform.  Once Jake had given me the instructions and technique practices, I got stuck in.  The heavier the weight the greater, or weirder the facial expression and more obscure the noises coming from me ha ha!

Next up I have a squash match tonight then hoping for a short run tomorrow at some point then rest before Sunday.  Then I have a four weeks of training before Roseberry Topping when the real work begins!

A cheeky 10 miler in the Peak District!

So at the crack of dawn on Sunday 22nd October Rob and myself met up at 6.30am to head off to Calver in the Peak district to run a 10 mile trail race.  Now when I say race, that's because Rob's doing it and he will be up there with the other racing snakes, whilst the likes of me are there to make the rest look good!!!  Anyway the plan was to get there about 8ish leaving us with enough time to register and get to the actual start line. We made good time to Calver arriving just after 8 and immediately got ushered into the village hall carpark and given a spot, this was amazing, as I thought we'd be 10 minutes driving round playing eye spy to get a parking spot but it turns out no one wanted to park at  the VH so easy peasy! With the normal pre-race efforts going on with kit and trying to get some fuel into the system while hydrating the whole time we managed to say hello to fellow runners and get ourselves organised.  It was pretty blowy, with rain looming but holding off at this point but I wasn't optimistic about the rest of the morning it looked like it could really come in.  Off we went and registered, sorting names and numbers and receiving our dibbers, safety pins and maps.  We had to get a move on as our time slot was 8.30 and we were rapidly running out of time.  Not sure where we were going we followed others that looked like they were also on the way to the start which I knew was up a steep hill at some point.  After a while and a funny feeling I was getting that we weren't going to the start, I asked the chap in front if he was heading the same way, he wasn't!!! He did send us the right way thought and his brought us to the steep hill and start line.  After a few brief words and dibbing in, we were off!! The beginning basically was uphill for a long a time, in fact it felt like forever aaarrrggghhhh!!!!  I was blowing like Ivor the Engine after only a few minutes, but I was determined to push on and make a decent attempt at it since it was literally the beginning.  Whilst I was huffing and puffing up the first ascent Rob was off like Usain Bolt and took another guy with him on the journey, I just said 'see you at the end mate!' ha ha!

Well the marshall at the start didn't let us down, he'd actually been brutally honest.  From the off it was uphill, which I had a go at for a bit but then needed to power walk a bit before another short run.  This continued for about 3.5 miles, at the middle point of the race there was a noticeable difference almost immediately.  Suddenly the wind was behind us and there was considerably more downhill sections that made it fun and a much quicker run.  We ended up down by the river which was quite nice once we'd descended a huge grass bank that seemed to just go on forever.  Now it was as good as flat and a nice trot through the woods and along the river bank.   Then suddenly I could see flags that had finish printed on them, this was a bit odd at the time as we were no where near the village hall we registered at.  Surprisingly though it was, and I wasn't really sure what was going ha ha!  I was wondering around like a lost sheep, until I followed some other lost sheep and we headed along the roadside following some signs that took us back to registration.  I was expecting Rob to either be huddled in the corner freezing since he'd probably been there for at least 30-40 minutes or to have packed up and gone because he couldn't be bothered to wait for me lol!  He was there eating and drinking and looking like he'd barely done anything where as I looked like I'd done a marathon in a typhoon!

Off we went, home bound!  Job done, it was great to just get out and do a run especially nice to do a different route and experience something new.

Whats next?

Roseberry Topping half marathon :)

How important is self belief when trying to accomplish or succeed in a challenge you at actually is beyond your capabilities?  Self belief is huge, and don't get this confused with arrogance, self belief is about you trusting your training so making sure your body is prepared for the task in hand, race planning and scheduling so again the preparation and attention to detail, and trusting in some fundamental grit, heart and luck!  Self belief is a powerful tool that not only lets us sign up to these crazy challenges but its also what helps drive us to complete them and achieve our dreams. How can you improve or work on your self belief without being misguided and lying to yourself?  I believe that as individuals we can work at our self-belief by positive reinforcement, achievement, good preparation and planning and good PMA!  This is crucial in my opinion to succeeding in Ultra marathons, if you don't believe in yourself and believe you can do it then unfortunately others won't and when your on your own on route in the middle of the night this could be the difference between success and dnf.  So make sure before you start that there is going to be only one outcome, and that is that you are going to finish!  In another book that I once read I can't remember which sorry, but it basically said to help with this you have to dream of the finish constantly, thinking about what it will be like and how it will feel, then when times are hard you can use that to help push you through.

I was caught in a position of dare I say 'misplaced confidence' but the last race I did which was the Hardmoors 60 gave me the appropriate kick in the ass!  I am now fully grounded again and understand that the Hardmoors 160 next May is going to be the toughest thing I have ever done and I need to treat it with respect.  I need to plan appropriately leaving nothing to chance and to start my training in good time so I can build up the mileage appropriately.  I'm loving the new challenge and excited about training properly for it.  Current training is base level fitness, so plenty of gym work and short runs and weight loss as this now going to have a massive impact on the outcome of some of these races I want to do.

To succeed in my challenge there is going to have to lots of hardwork, practical training appropriate to task, discipline, and sacrifice.  These are the ingredients if mixed correctly and balanced right that will determine whether I am successful in the Hardmoors 160.  I'm not going home without my medal, I will succeed and will be using this as my stepping stone to bigger and greater things!

Believe to achieve!