Happy New Year folks. It has been a busy month in the Flashywhiskers household as on the 20th December our baby, William, was born at our home in Falkland. He is a little gem and we are over the moon to have him join our family. My partner, Nichola, has been incredible and both she and William are in good health and enjoying these first early days of life.

Needless to say, running has taken a well deserved back seat as a consequence, but I’m starting to irk out opportunities now and then to squeeze quick 10k’s in to keep the legs ticking over. With Transvulcania and the West Highland Way race looming on the horizon I have some serious training to do, but the time for that will come. For now, my time is all about William and Nichola and the little guy is turning into the perfect endurance coach. Long sleepless nights, limited opportunity to eat and drink, repetitive activities which always required high levels of execution. He’s really is quite the coach!

Talking about the West Highland Way, I am taking part in the race podcasts this year during the build up and the first episode was recorded earlier this week with John Kynaston. The episode is now up on the web for you to listen to. John does a tremendous job with these podcasts and they provide fascinating insights into peoples approach to the race. I’ll keep you posted as more interviews get posted.