I’ve decided I needed a new challenge. Soon after the amazing events at Twickenham with Bromley RFC & at London Irish’s Training Ground for the Guinness World Record, I realised that I needed something to look forward to in 2016.

Initially I wanted a PB in a trail marathon, but I can’t face pounding the roads again as I’m bored of it. And I’d rather run a trail race as it will keep me mentally motivated to run in woods etc.

CTS Sussex is 33 miles with 5.5km of incline & a lot of southerly gales in March 2016! I wanted a one day event where I can get to for training, as I don’t fancy another long train journey back home like The Wall last year. The route is around South Downs Country Park, in between Seaford and Eastbourne where I’ll be running on grass, chalk and forest.

My goals are to have a finish time of 6hrs 33mins (which is this year’s average time for males), get to 15% body fat & be as injury free as possible! I also want to prove that carbs are beneficial and essential for the human body for many fitness goals. As some know, I sometimes have rants and the ‘low carb’ ‘No Carbs’ mentality does do my head in.

Right now training is slow and easy ( I blame the Rugby World Cup) so that I can get used to running, preparing my runs and food etc. I’m focussing on running well and making sure that every run is good. I’m regularly going to Oakley’s Fitness Gym in Petts Wood Kent to build my strength in my quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves, back and core. I want to build a solid platform before I begin the weekly grind.

I’ll slowly build upto 4 runs a week, in a bid to balance work and training. For example I don’t want to run 20 miles on a Friday, before I coach 90 kids rugby on a Saturday morning. I’m just not ready for this yet, but I will be!

I’m looking forward to starting, especially as the majority of the World Cup is over, less socialising and more focus on training from the end of October. I’m going to attempt to get photos of exercises uploaded to give an idea of what exercises are beneficial for certain muscles for runners. With strength comes endurance!