Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

It's amazing how quickly things can change. Since being laid off from work back in October last year, I have been applying for endless jobs but nothing was proving fruitful - no interviews, no  phone calls, nothing. It was starting to get me down, but I was able to keep myself busy by focusing on my running, walking the dogs for a good hour three times a day, and making videos for my YouTube channel  . Whilst I was having fun with all this time on my hands to do all the things I was enjoying doing, I didn't really have a sense of purpose for quite a while, and some days I did wonder why I was even bothering getting up in a morning. I had to keep telling myself that other people were in the same boat or an even worse position, so I should quit complaining. Then out of the blue, I ended up having three interviews within a matter of days of each other, and then I received two job offers - both a similar job, both similar pay, both with good reputable companies. It was a hard deci...

Sinister Sports organises three awesome races every year - Sinister Seven, Canadian Death Race, and Black Spur Ultra - and despite races being cancelled in these Covid times, they have done an amazing job in offering a range of virtual events throughout the year to help with motivation for runners where needed. As mentioned previously, my initial plan was to run the 6 hour event at Hill of a Race, but with that having fallen foul of the ongoing pandemic, I switched my sights to the Beat Sinister virtual event.  The idea behind this event is to choose one of 5 distances ranging from 10k up to the full 100k, with the aim of "beating" the carefully selected "agents". Despite "Agent K" setting an outstanding time of 8 hours 40 minutes for the 100km distance, I still decided that I wanted to give the 100k a try - it's been a few years since I did exactly 100k, and I thought it would be a good benchmark to see where I'm at fitness wise, as I prepare for ...

March was a good month in that my training started to incorporate some speed work, and with a target pace of sub 7 minute miling, I'm very pleased to say that I've been running around 6.36 average pace in the rep sessions over the past few weeks. It hasn't been easy - it's been many years since I've ran as quick as that - but I am certainly starting to feel the benefits, and combined with more regular strength and mobility sessions, it really feels like I am back on track to being a (slightly) better runner than of late! The past couple of weeks have been crazy but very enjoyable, and at present, I am feeling really happy with things in my life. I've been applying for jobs for a few months now, but interviews have been short in coming, but I am very happy to say that this past week, I've been for two interviews. I feel like both went pretty well, and even if I don't get either of the jobs, at least it's been good experience and has got me back into i...