Winter training and racing

Despite the dark nights and wild weather (we have had our fair share of that this year) winter is a time to bank those miles in preparation for those big long summer races. This winter for me has been no different with more road and mountain marathons planned for later in the year. Along with trying to reach 100 miles a week I have managed to get a few shorter races in here are some of my highlights;

December 2009
Four of us represented Team Glasgow in the Lotto Cross Cup in Brussels. I managed to finish 27th in a top class IAAF cross country race.















January 2010
Another high class race in the snow this time in the Bupa Great Edinburgh International. This also incorporated the Scottish Inter District championship so I was running for Scotland West - pleased with my 22nd in the race and 9th Scot.













Devil's Burdens Relay
Scotland's biggest hill running relay gets the hill running season started in style. Tom Owens and I had a great run over the Lomonds of Fife and the fastest run on our leg helping our club Shettleston Harriers to retain our title.














February 2010
The nationals is the big one for cross country runners and I have had the privilege of running in the English and Scottish national cross country championships. Whilst not as big as the race down south the Scottish national is still a great event and this years race in Falkirk was no different. My 13th place was down on my best ever placing of 3rd but the 29 mile run and couple of days skiing the week before was not textbook preparation. The battle for top Scottish team was the closest in the events history and we lost out to Inverclyde by 1 point!!