Hello all, hope you enjoy my first blog here on runnerslife. With this entry being my first, I would have liked to have had a big race coming up or to have just smashed a training session but in truth I'm struggling with some heavy legs at the moment. My training has been base orientated for 3 months now and the miles are now beginning to take their toll.

Without having to worry about cross county this year I've been able to put my head down and churn out a load of training without having to ease down for any races. In the last month I've raced twice on the road. 4 weeks ago I hit a 5miler and was very happy to clock 24.13 and just edge out Mr. Andrew Sherman who has been a great training partner for me since I arrived back from World Uni's.

Two weeks later I ran a 5km in Illinois called the Prodigy run and through some strong winds I ran 14.44 and won $1000 in prize money (which prompted me to go straight out and buy a Nike+ GPS watch). With there being a decent amount of prize money up for grabs and unfavourable weather conditions I ended up sitting in the pack till around half a mile to go and then I just blitzed it and hoped my speed would see me through.

Since the Prodigy run, I've been grinding through a few of my runs and training sessions. Despite this I've been really enjoying my running. The NCAA cross country championships took place in Terre Haute, which is just over an hour away from Butler's campus. When Ross Clarke and Callum Hawkins were putting the finishing touches to their NCAA XC campaigns it got me really excited and inspired to go out and hit my workouts regardless of my fatigued legs.

Arriving at a cross country course usually makes me nervous as I've historically blown a little hot or cold on the grass. However, when I got to the Indiana State University Cross Country course I couldn't help but feel fired up for one of the best cross country races in the world. Both the men and women's races were very compelling events as both the team and individual battles unfolded under some chilly weather conditions. In witnessing the top four male Brits bust their asses off for 10km and gain All-American honors (top 40) you couldn't help but become motivated to head home and crush some more miles.

Good luck to everyone running in Liverpool this weekend. Can't wait to check out the results and see who has made the team for euro's.

Thanks for reading.

KG