Tackling the mountains in Scotland at night in the Mighty Deerstalker

Do you ever set yourself a big challenge for the year? 

This doesn't need to be a New Years resolution, although hands up if you're still doing yours. 

Cheryl and Amanda a couple of my clients have been training with me for a couple of years and each year they set themselves a race challenge.

So far this has included becoming Legends after completing the Suffering weekend, completing their Spartan Trifecta last year and this year they have the Rat Race season pass and are in the process of taking on all of thier events.

At the weekend they took on the Mighty Deerstalker in Scotland, a 10 mile night race. Training has been going well, Amanda has been able to get in more strength sessions to help her knees and Cheryl has been getting in more running, running to the legs sessions at the studio even if this has meant getting a lift home after the session. 

With the weather against them after the storms and winds of last week they took the steady drive up to Scotland, only to experience snow and rain on the way up. Everybody had been advised to layer up and be sensible out in the evening. 

So if you're looking for a bit of inspiration this is what Amanda and Cheryl had to say about their first race of the season. 

Amanda "It was great fun, very cold and muddy and I'd totally recommend it to anybody looking to try something new. I know I need to train more and schedule it in around work, but the fact I only ached with a bad case of DOMS rather than hurt after the weekend let me know the strength training is working"

Cheryl "My first race completed and I loved it to say how anxious I was at the start. Running up the mountains in the dark, who'd have thought it would be so much fun. Seriously though it was a hard race, we layered up very well, Amanda too well, as she was melting and had to stop a few times to strip layers off. 90% of the race was vertical slopes which made the calfs burn but thanks to the training with Gemma we flew up the 420m inclines. Coming down was like a game of pinball, but we felt stong and confident to conquer the tricky decent, the 10% which was flat was on the banks of a very swollen river which was very scary."