A lot has changed over the years.  Training miles, training speeds and training goals.  In January 2014 I was doing 'ok' - I had recovered from a fibula stress fracture from May of the year prior and built up to a marathon (sub 2:50?) in September of 2013.  I certainly wasn't at big mileage and wasn't just cruising along (my training log seems to indicate visits both to my physio and sports med Dr) but I was training reasonably well.  I was hoping to gear up to Comrades (down run) in early June - some five months away. I'd placed 2nd at Comrades in 2012 and I'll admit ..read more

 Ooof, what a year it has been!  I mean let's be honest it's probably about 1% of you reading this (the brainy scientists) would have had any idea that 2020 would pan out anything like it did.  I remember one coaching client early in the year mentioning how he thought things would unfold (this was before March) and I honestly thought he was being rather alarmist and over cautious - apparently not!  Another coaching client (one of those brainy scientists, Dr O) decided not to race a local half marathon in February due to the virus, and I've told her since that if it was anyo ..read more

 Last Sunday I went out on an outdoor jaunt with two friends, Bill and Pat.  It was a grand day in the mountains - getting up above cloud inversions, surveying from afar the peaks of Squamish and those much more distant,  sampling numerous blueberries and huckleberries, chatting up a storm on topics ranging from religion to ultra running to politics to the merits of Sour Patch Kids (I am a recent convert).  We spent some 13h45 on the trails and mountains and covered some 26kms/ 16 miles.  I can already see some of your brows furrowing and you shifting uncomfortably in ..read more

Whilst sharing a stage last year with the famed Dylan Bowman, Dylan referred to myself and Gary Robbins as 'the blogger generation' and whilst I have rather fallen into a lapse (an understatement if ever there was one) on blogging and moved more over in trying to keep up with the Instagram generation, maybe one or two of you are still listening out there. In April of this year a coaching client of mine (Adam Benkers of Ten Junk Miles) asked what I thought about him doing the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee.  I hummed and hawed, said I'd seen something about it on social media but not ..read more