Ya gots ta put in the work. About 10,000hrs (a perfectly round figure by coincidence….) should do it according to the pseudo-science of ‘Big’ Malky Gladwell. The sentiment is there though; be strict, put in the hours and reap the rewards. As the well known saying goes “discipline maketh tha’ geez” (Roots Manuva, 2001).

Fell running is gloriously amateur (one reason I have both HUGE respect for Billy Bland’s BGR record and deep reservations about all the chat regarding the possibility – and let’s face it, big likelihood – that it will be beaten by the likes of Kilian Jornet or Anton Krupicka – both professionals in the truest sense of the word….but that’s a whole other blog for you to wait for) and long may it remain.

No, that’s not Lingmoor behind him….

There are essentially three sub-groups of fell runners who exhibit the desire for ‘le metier’ (probably massive grammatical imperfections in the use of this word/phrase but hey, if God wanted me to speak French he’d have had me be born in France, right?). Anywho these groups are defined as the following:

1. Resolution-runners: those who will think ‘you know what? I’m gonna make sure I beat that guy/gal/80yr old this year at the <insert race name here>’. They train like a bastard for a week or two, get beat again, wonder why, then make that commitment to train like a bastard. Repeat ad infinitum.
2. Warm-weather-warriors: who runs during the winter for fuck’s sake?? Winter’s for eating as much as humanly possible and hibernating/vegetating until the ‘season’ begins. They’re race-fit by the time the penultimate race of the ‘season’ comes around. All the eggs in one basket and hell-for-leather.
3. Pro-am: I like to think of myself in this category, having ‘graduated’ from the two previous tiers. I train, a lot (for an un-gifted amateur at least). It’s probably not cool to admit that. We’re good in the UK at liking the underdog and so anyone who trains AT ALL is an obsessive try-hard who somehow doesn’t deserve to beat the gutsy enthusiast. What’s the deal with that?! How do you train? Ah yeah that’s it, log on to x, y, z training blog and just copy what they do. Get injured. Repeat for a few years. Get in touch directly with someone who actually knows what they’re doing. Don’t get injured any more. NB: I’ll caveat that by saying that I’m nursing a bit of a calf strain at the minute….but that’s cos I ignored sound advice.

Ring any bells to any out there? The long and short of it is, if you want to improve you’ve gotta put in the graft. It’s not pretty and it’s certainly not ‘cool’.

‘Tis the Winter season when these ‘gains’ through ‘training’ are permissible (ignore point ‘2’ above). Woe betide anyone caught ‘training’ and not racing through the Summer months; that shit just ain’t cricket. Be quick now cos Winter ends on March 1st.

Wouldn’t it be great if that was how the Olympics worked?? You’re allowed 6 months to train between the end of one Olympics and the start of the next. It’s up to you when you use those 6 months but they have to be used in one block and no sooner than 6 months before the Games begin.

….I’ve just read that paragraph again. What a stupid idea.

NB: Seb Montaz with the incredible picture…….