Blog

The award-winning Rock and Ride blog page. Years of older posts available at; http://rockandrideoutdoors.blogspot.co.uk/
Dec 05
0

Becoming Past Tense…

By | Mental Health, Running

I used to be a runner… Not a bad one too. And like many obsessive types it dominated my thoughts and actions for years. Fifteen hours a week of skipping round the mountains backed up by recovery spins on the bike. Sub 3:35 Seven Sevens twice in a week, followed by a 3:41 Mourne Skyline, with a couple of 55 minute Slieve Donards for rest days. Diet pored over, any excess a weakness that could shatter the delicate mental balance of an elite mindset. Holidays were thinly disguised training camps. The mantlepiece groaned with the weight of a lovely variety…

Read More
Jun 17
0

You Are What You Eat

By | Biking, Running

My interest in sports nutrition has been a twenty-five year slow-burner, from the genuinely perplexed student wondering why my legs felt flat the morning after eight pints of John Smiths, to the puritanical obsessive and self-confessed ‘diet nazi’ of a few years back. These days I’d like to think I’ve got it dialled, having learned through a painful process of trial and error what my body responds well to, and what ‘recommended’ approaches are actually detrimental to personal performance. My approach to ultra-race nutrition involves zero carb-loading, minimal mid-race food and fluid intake, and precisely pre-planned fuelling to the extent…

Read More
Aug 28
0

Because It’s Everywhere – The ‘Everesting’ World Record

By | Running

Tackling Everest ‘That was my Everest’… An oft-used metaphor signifying the toughest challenge ever encountered by the user. Writing a thesis, overcoming a phobia, making a fundamental life change, whatever it may entail, mention of the World’s highest mountain is synonymous with epic-scale struggle. ‘Because it’s there’… The famous quote attributed to British mountaineer George Mallory, made to a New York Times journalist in 1923 to justify the reasons behind his seemingly impossible attempts on the mountain that took his life the following year. Because It’s Everywhere Of course, attempting to climb the mountain itself is the preserve of those…

Read More
Aug 20
0

Temptation

By | Running

Temptation Deeper than an emotion, it’s an irresistible drive or uncontrollable desire, the magnetic pull of inevitability, the tractor beam dragging your physical form towards an unknown conclusion, one that may have destructive and permanent repercussions. The rational mind temporarily overridden, sense trampled and realities blurred. Mental and physical scarring distinct possibilities, it could all be so easily avoided, and yet once that carrot is dangled, that poisoned apple plucked, for some of us that temptation is a force that overrides all. It could be a vanity? A midlife crisis? The need for intrinsic or extrinsic verification? Probably a combination…

Read More
Jan 03
0

Feeding The Dog

By | Coaching, Running

Fascinating Food Diet fascinates me; the ways in which our relationship with food has such a profound impact on physical capabilities or lack thereof is truly incredible.  On a basic level, diet significantly dictates how two people born at exactly the same weight and size can subsequently grow to be totally different in shape.  Obviously genetics and exercise also have a huge part to play but if we took identical twins, made them partake in exactly the same exercise regime but fed one twice as much as the other then the results wouldn’t be hard to predict. As an endurance…

Read More
Nov 23
0

Turn Off, Tune In

By | Running

A gentle ‘on your right’ as I aimed to nip past the walker who was occupying the whole trail, poles spread wide… ‘JESUS CHRIST!!!’ A shocked screech as she jumped further into my path, forcing me on to the peaty hummocks, throwing me an aggressive accusational stare… ‘You could’ve f**cking warned me!!’ The apology almost fell from my lips, the curse of the polite, bumped into on the high-street and still issuing my regrets, but something overrode and instead I ignored and ran on, yards away before my brain computed the hard facts.  I’d been approaching for minutes, the epic…

Read More
Sep 28
0

Decoding the Body

By | Running

Unplanned Siestas I’ve just recently woken up… Nothing too sinister or alarming in that, except it was at 3:30pm in a car park in Newcastle.  Fortunately I wasn’t lying comatose round the back of the bins, instead sat in the driver’s seat of my van whilst the boys were playing away in the park, but it’s the third consecutive day that I’ve totally flaked out mid-afternoon. I know, I know, most people reading this would love the luxury of being able to crash out for a siesta, the joys of designing my own work schedule are obvious, but for me…

Read More
Sep 19
0

Genetic Predisposition? The Skyrunning World Championships

By | Running

Solid and Dependable Looking back on the weekend just gone and amongst the fuzzy warmth of a hugely enjoyable experience is a strong sense of inevitability.  My result at the Ring of Steall Skyrace was entirely predictable, with a comfortable top forty position and a time suitably close, but never challenging previous winning efforts.  A 33rd at the WMRA Long Distance World Champs back in June whilst in similar form showed me where my abilities stand among the genuine elites of mountain running, and regardless of fitness, my total lack of knowledge of the course on Saturday was always going…

Read More
Jul 27
0

Life Begins – The World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships

By | Running

Getting Wood… Was the original title for this blog, a cheap innuendo based around avenging last year’s sprint-finish defeat by Team GB’s Jack Wood, by pipping him high on the misty upper-slopes of Mount Sniezka in this latest edition of the World Champs.  But although many careers have been forged on puerile humour, it’s a poor way to encapsulate the suffering, drama and satisfaction of being part of the premier event in the mountain running calendar, particularly when Jack is young, fast and will have his revenge many times over.  And so instead, something more serious will form the real…

Read More
Jun 13
1

Prioritising Pain

By | Running

I had an interesting conversation today with a mate I’ve not seen in a while.  He’s signed up for a half Ironman this year, and also a full Ironman next year, guaranteeing well over twelve months of self-motivation.  Like Aidy, I’m a huge believer in having future goals, reasons to drag yourself out in the lashing rain and cutting wind over the dark months beyond the simple wish to not get fat or unhealthy. I could see he regretted telling me that completing the course was his sole aim as soon as the fact left his lips, instantly realising he’d…

Read More