SportsShoes Blog

This coming weekend it’s ‘The Trog’ - a long (20 mile) race around the hills and moors of Hebden Bridge, Ovenden and Oxenhope. Where its rather bizarre name comes from I’ve no idea but with the conditions we’re likely to face at the weekend I think some of us may look like Troglodytes by the time we’ve finished. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troglodyte

See http://www.cvfr.co.uk/ for details of the race and feel free to come a long for a watch / heckle / giggle - I’ll be the one in the Bingley vest (not at the front!)

I did it for the first time last year and it’s a fantastic ‘real’ fell race across open trackless moorland and whilst there’s no high peaks en-route there’s lots and lots of tough climbing to contend with.

Last year as I approached the last check point I begin hearing strange music filtering through the wind and only when I got to the check and saw a girl sat in the heather playing a flute did I realise I hadn’t actually gone mad - little eccentric things like this are what makes fell racing the sport it is.

The year before last I’d entered but it was cancelled the night before the race due to SNOW - I’m keeping an eye on the forecast as it could well happen again.

I see Rob Jebb’s in the entry list so my chances of a win have taken another blow

I did lots of training last week including a dog jog every morning, a speed session on Tuesday evening a hard road session on Thursday and biked to work and back Friday. I then ran with the dog Saturday and Sunday mornings, did a 2 hour bike ride Saturday and a 2hr 10 min off road run on Sunday afternoon in very testing conditions. When I got back I was bushed and my wife said - oh, before you get changed could you take the dog out for a quick run through the woods……another 20 mins and that was me done - I had to retire to the bath….

Steady week this week with the Trog looming - just my 20 min dog jogs in the morning and probably a spin out on the road tomorrow night with my Bingley pals.

first event of the new year was th MP OPen, an Irish Gran Prix event. I made the way to the final with relative ease but was far from playing well. My first 2 rounds were in 3 but concentration levels were way off. In the semis i played keith Moran and again won in 3. I was a little better but knew i needed a big improvement to win in the final.

Here i played Derek Ryan and lost in 3. Physically i was fine but just wasn’t match sharp. That is kind of what i needed though, so with some tough practise games lined up, i should be perfect for the next event in washington DC in febuary …