Running Stories from Alasdair Meldrum!

The Prep!   My first WHW race was in 2019 and completed in 26hr 36mins and 27sec  and lets just say it was not a text book race .  Through 2020 and 2021 I had keep myself busy with some long runs, so I was going into 2022 race with much more awareness off what to expect to run 95miles. All was pretty much going to plan until end Feb when I got covid. Although it was relatively mild, since then I had really been lacking any energy and training was feeling like a chore and really hard work. A couple of times I backed right off to see if that would help so the preparation had not been ideal. I was a few minutes quicker for the fling than previous year, but I was pretty broken by Balmaha and was not moving well after that so this did nothing to build the confidence for the WHW race.  On reflection I had forgotten my chest heart rate monitor and think I had maybe just gone off a bit too hard – one day we will learn! I was lucky enough to get away to Crete 2 weeks before...

  The Prep! The seed was sown for entering 2022 Dragons Back Race after completing Cape Wrath Ultra in August 2021 . Naively, I entered without really reading the small print and the detail and it was probably early 2022 before I started looking into the stages properly. It was clear it was going to be long days, with big elevation and particularly at the start of the week some technical ground. And then on day one there was also the infamous Crib Goch – I am not good with heights so Crib Goch was causing some concern and worry!! I decided that if I was going to be serious about completing then I should maybe try and put a bit more structure round my training, so I contacted Jack Scott who I had crewed for on his FKT for the Southern Upland Way and we worked up a plan! For last couple of years I have mixed running with strength and flexibility work – I am never going to be the most flexible but the strength and flexibility has certainly improved my running and reduced my inj...