Life In The Saddle

Winter means cross-training, and that means trail running. In this post, I've picked out a few of my kit highlights for this season... CEP Wingtech Compression Tee I admit, the phrase "sensorimotoric stimulation" had me lost. The principle behind the Wingtech tee from CEP Sports is quite simple though: the special cut and 'Smart Wingtech Stripes' send subliminal reminders to your brain, to help you maintain a better posture. Everybody knows that good posture is important. Did you know that it also promotes muscle development though; further leading to better future posture. Effectively, this shirt promises to improve the way you run, and in doing so reduce the risk of injury, and optimise performance. Does it work? Well, it certainly feels supportive.  The Wingtech Stripes have a notable effect on pulling your shoulders back, and pulling your core tighter. The result is that running in the CEP Wingtech tee gives you a noticeably more upright posture. ...

'Running' perhaps isn't the only adjective that should be used to describe taking on last weekend's OMM in the Galloway Mountains, Scotland. You should also add 'Climbing', 'Scrambling', 'Hiking' and most definitely 'Bog Bashing' to the list; it is a running orienteering event of pretty extreme proportions... Friday saw us drive from Portsmouth to the Galloway peninsula in South West Scotland; a casual 15 hour journey by minibus. We picked up my running partner Ben in Penrith enroute, and completed our four man team from Wiggle. Welcomed at midnight by the cheery OMM team, we settled down for a few hours sleep, not sure what to anticipate from the next day's race. The OMM is a running orienteering event series, with events in the U.K., France and even Japan. The events all hold the same format: on the start line, teams are given a list of checkpoints out in the mountain wilderness - each one is worth a different number of 'p...