All articles filed in jamesmackeddie

It’s been a frustrating few weeks. For the time first time in my life I bothered to put some form of structure in place, hire a coach and run regularly.  Despite having run races, reviewed many shoes for MyOutdoors and my own site, my trainings always been lacking. In reality it’s been non existant. Signing…

So the race didn’t happen and boy did it suck. Sat in my house, starring at the swathes of gear laid out neatly into sections at my feet, ready to bundled into my Lifeventure duffle for the trip north, thoughts moved to cancelling post race accommodation. This year Lisa was due to travel with me…

Did Not Start It wasn’t an easy decision to come to. I prepared my nutrition on Thursday night, making a monster batch of Mountain Fuel pancakes and prepping small resealable bags of Xtreme Energy, resembling something suspicious and illegal.Waking up on Friday morning, I laid my kit out on the living room floor, methodically going…

So it’s the night before I need to drive 5 hours north to the Lake District. My head no longer hurts, as long as I’m not sat in the office at my desk, where air flow is non existent & the stagnant musky oxygen claws at your throat, dehydrating you in the atmosphere. The snot…

Another day has gone and I’m worse, not on the mend. It happens. As frustrating as it is, there is nothing I can do other than control the variables in my power. My food, hydration, sleep (ish), activity, stress and above all relaxation. Truth be told I haven’t been this ill since Chamonix last year,…

It’s 5 days till my “A” race. It’s the first time I’ve ever referred to a race having this status, for the simple reason, I’ve trained. Up till now I’ve got by on a young body, luck and a week of agony for the following 7 days. Training hasn’t all gone to plan. Life, work,…

When the coach delivers the news you’ve got to run 31.1 miles off road and you personally want to run knowing you can get some consistency, laps is the answer. After blazing a trail, by my standards, for the first 5, I settled into a steady pace on gradually underplaying loop, with the vast majority…

I was in the depths of rural Wales, where a phone was next to useless, any wifi signal was fainted and gave up the moment more than one device was connected and the only means of communication was via satellite phone…. these places still exist in the UK! After a wet day of expoing at…