This week’s training group session was at Wendover Woods, with the focus all on hill-running technique on steep, difficult and loose terrain.

After excellent work on drills with hurdles to get good high knees, hips, and triple extension we moved into different slopes and hills. It finished off with a hilly route around the woodland to rehearse technique for the ultra – recognising where you are burning matches that you will pay for later!

Of course we met the Gruffalo – as Mouse explained to us, the gruffalo is a creature with terrible claws, and terrible tusks in its terrible jaws, and knobbly knees and turned-out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of its nose. But Mouse has no worry to show. After all, there’s no such thing as a gruffalo. . . . so we decided that his running biomechanics were definitely off with those turned out toes, and he looked rather rooted to the spot.