October 16, 2020
I ran my first ultra, 53 mile Highland Fling, in 2007 and for the first three years I improved year on year. Then for the next 2 years I had some real struggles especially in the longer 100 mile races. I was proud of the fact that I finished them but it wasn’t pretty as I death marched the final 15 miles or so.
I wondered at 53 yrs old that my a...
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October 12, 2020
Regardless of what program you follow or what distance you run. All running training for the most part can be split into two parts. The time spent actually running (and doing cross training) and the time spent recovering from that training. The first part is the fun stuff, it's what we all love about running, out in nature breezing through the t...
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October 09, 2020
Listening to our two brilliant, blunt and so truthful interviews with Gayle and David this week I feel totally inadequate to talk about this subject. Their words are so powerful, stories so raw and most importantly their advice is so so so important. If you haven't taken a listen, do!
Links are here for itunes, spotify and youtube. Please subsc...
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October 02, 2020
Ultra-running is basically a solo sport with the runner spending many hours training and preparing for races which might take anything from 4hrs to several days!
There are no short cuts to being able to run for hour after hour and most of us love to find some company but often we are out on our own.
BUT one of the key elements to doing well in ...
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September 25, 2020
The mid plan wobble….we have all been there and it's where I am right now. 5 weeks into a plan, still 3-4 weeks to go to a start line and everyday the call to show up, put kit on and get out the door for more running feels endless. And right now that call is so hard to listen to as the world seems to be conspiring against us and it's so hard to ...
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September 18, 2020
Finishing an ultra can be a very emotional experience. Over the first six episodes of hosting Run to the Hills we have interviewed a number of runners already and asked them how they felt on finishing.
In Episode 06 I interviewed Kristian Delacour about his recent 'Fastest Known Time' on the Caledonian Way in Scotland which is a 234 mile path fr...
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September 11, 2020
HOW can you recover and go again quickly? Those doing the Centurion Grand Slam this year are facing an even bigger challenge than usual in that due to COVID their 4 x 100 mile events are now roughly a month apart!
We wanted to do a whole episode on recovery in the future, but for our episode this week after some great chats with grand slammers w...
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September 04, 2020
I’m going to let you into a little secret about being a successful ultra-runner….
There is no secret...it is merely a ton of hard work, dedication and a bucket load of flexibility. Many of us have proved this year that we can be flexible when we need to. That we can still be dedicated when goals have moved or disappeared, that races have change...
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August 28, 2020
Over the past three weeks ‘Run to the Hills’ has reviewed two races. In episode 01 we covered the North Downs Way 100 and in episode 03 out this weekend we review the Hardmoors 110 / 160.
In both races we saw a high percentage of dnf (did not finish). I’m sure there are many factors including not being able to train as normal with the present vi...
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August 21, 2020
Over the past few months as all our races have been cancelled it has highlighted what motivates us to run. All over social media runners have been saying that their mojo to get out and train has gone as their main goals for the year have been taken from them.
It is good to recognise that however motivated you are to run there will be times when ...
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August 14, 2020
Over the past few weeks some ultra-races have started again including the Centurion race, North Downs Way 100, which our podcast ‘Run to the Hills’ features in Series 2 Episode 1. The content is also available on our new YouTube Channel ‘Run to the Hills’ so you have a choice to just listen or watch the interviews … or both!!
We interviewed the ...
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August 11, 2020
Somehow it doesn't quite seem right, to be checking the weather for the week and seeing that multiple days are sunny and 30 plus degrees. Here in the UK we might love the sun but we aren't always the best at handling it especially when it comes to getting those miles in.
Soaring temps, a scorching sun and high humidity doesn't mean that you hav...
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