Moving on 2013

So 2012 is well and truly behind us, a year with so many sporting memories. Personally it's going to be a hard year to top, I mean how do you follow running the London marathon......You go to a different country and run a marathon there!

When I say another country I'm only hopping over the border to our lovely neighbours in Scotland and to the Loch Ness marathon. Actually it's a bit more than a hop, it's 600 miles so flying will be the means of travel.

The Loch Ness  marathon

This will be my third marathon and I can't wait, but it's a while away yet and not until September, but it's been on my 'to do' list for a while.

Before all this happens and a bit nearer in the future (about 6 weeks away to be precise!) I have the Grindleford gallop to run in. This is a race I know very little about, alot of Twitter folk are doing it so I thought I'd join in.

I know that Grindleford is a Derbyshire village, and that the race is a 21 mile trail race with 3000ft ascent....and that's about it. I've paid my money and entered so now it's a case of ramping up the miles in training till then.

...something else I found out about Grindleford!

I've been good with my hill training lately which will put me in good stead for this race but I need to get some longer runs in. My weekly longest run is currently 13 miles, but I need to get this up to 15 or 16 miles in the next couple of weeks before trying to get a couple of 18 mile runs in before the race.

I'm doing both these races with my running buddy Brian which will be good. We've been running together for about 9 years now and have come along way since we started running a 3 mile loop twice a week!

I had a low key running week last week but apart from that I've been running regularly around 30 miles a week and have been really motivated in my running of late. I think that's been down to the variety of running I've been doing.

Once a week for a while now I've been running over the Ash ranges in the evening with Tim (@jedirider) Brian (@bsmithy100) and last week Susie (@starterfour10) from Twitter joined us.

It's been brilliant trail running with headtorches chatting away to like minded friends on a 10 mile loop exchanging stories about...erm...running! (Run nerds!) I really look forward to this run every week.

Tonight it was just Brian and myself out on the run, and it was a brilliant run. The trail route we take is rarely used so the snow was still fresh as we made our way around the route. It was tough as the snow made more work of it than usual but a great experience. The snow covered ground was so white that we didn't use our headtorches once.

Usually we don't see a soul on this run but in the blizzard tonight we actually saw another runner! Crazy fool, who would be out running in the pitch black in weather like this!!!

Brian on the snow run

Zondo Run and Endure T shirt

My first product review of the year is for the Run and Endure T Shirt sent to me by the good people at Zondo.

Zondo are a brand new sportswear company, with products designed by athletes for athletes. Currently on their website they stock running shorts, compression leg wear and running t shirts like the one I'm reviewing today. As well as running shirts they also produce a cycling t shirt.



Run and endure aqua blue t shirt

The fitted design is one of the stand out properties of the shirt. It hangs perfectly and when running is extremely comfortable and moves with the body well. There are breathable mesh panels under the arms and on the back of the neck. I warm up and sweat quickly on the run so the panelling worked really well in cooling me down and the moisture wicking kept me mostly dry.

Along with the great fit, the t shirt is very light, again this was noticeable on the run. The shirts come in a variety of colours and are currently being sold for £10 on the website. The original price of £29.99 would seem pricey for this item but for the current price, it's an absolute bargain, and I would certainly consider adding more Zondo products to my running kit collection.



Flat seams for more comfort

Trail Running VLOG #1

My first attempt at a VLOG post! An insight into my trail running over the Ash Ranges. Apologies for some bad camera work and quality (and presenting) as I was using my phone to record this.