Nick
I've just got back from a week’s training in Cornwall. I was staying with my girlfriend and two friends in a cool little place called St Agnes, with instant access to the coast path. I went for a few great runs with my mate Henry who's a seriously good fell runner. Our first session was two and a bit hours flat-out. When the path went up we went fast, and when it went down we went faster. Another time we did hill reps on a 30 per cent hill… ouch! Other than that I ate, slept, surfed, kayaked, swam and ate some more – the hard part for me is resting to recharge the batteries. But I’m going into the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc feeling great. I can’t wait to be on that starting line. It’s a little daunting not knowing what the weather or the terrain will be like or what your body is going to do on the day – but that’s where the excitement lies. It’s not meant to be easy. As if 166km of running with an ascent and descent equivalent to Mount Everest thrown in ever could be.

Darren
This week I’ve been grappling with a heavy workload, not to mention a bout of gastro-intestinal problems and a bruised coccyx from a fall on the Lakeland 50. It’s certainly taken longer to recover from the Lakeland race than normal, but I’ve still managed a few 10km runs – which these days counts as giving the legs a rest. In the final few days before the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, I'm going to be putting in some final runs and hill work. One thing I have learned from the ultra races to date is that you can never know what things like the weather and terrain will do to your master plan. A large part of succeeding in these events is having the ability to ‘roll with it’. Don't think about the distance or the time without sleep, just put your head down and do it. Famous last words…

Steve
Without Nick or Darren pestering me to train, last week I took the opportunity to give my feet a complete rest – no going to work or even the shops, and staying off them as much as humanly possible. It’s a bit of a drastic measure but my feet really felt like they needed it after the Classic Cliffs race when they took a real battering. It's going to be strange being out in France with Nick and Darren but not racing. I'm missing out on an amazing opportunity and when I’m watching them on the start line from behind some barrier, I know I’ll be gutted. Around the 12-hour mark, though, when their faces collapse and they hobble past me with dribble running from their mouths, I think I’ll feel a bit better about the whole thing.

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