The Young Feller

Last month I was delighted to be asked by Salomon to be part of the "trial team" for the new Speedcross 4 shoe.  Having reviewed shoes for other brands before, I was really looking forward to getting an off road shoe to trial, something that was new to me.  This was something that was open to anybody to apply for, I saw it through an advert online & applied.  I had actually totally forgot I'd done this until I received the email confirming I had been chosen, along with a handful of other runners. I have had the previous model of the Salomon Speedcross, the Speedcross 3, as well as other Salomon shoes in the past.  The Speedcross is, from my own observations, the most popular model of  Salomon shoe, at fell races anyway!  These were one of the first shoes I noticed as they seemed so widely used by the running community, both for trail & fell, so surely a shoe that is well trusted throughout the sport. One of the aspects of the new mode...

Mount Snowdon, Snow Hill or Yr Wyddfa.  Whether you speak English, Old English or Welsh, this is the highest mountain in Wales and the highest point in the British Isles outside of the Scottish Highlands.  At an elevation of 1,085 metres (3,560ft) above sea level and described as possibly the "busiest mountain in Britain", this was going to be my toughest test yet. So, after an extremely disappointing Three Peaks race in April, something I rapidly wanted to move on from, the next "big" race in my diary was Snowdon.  Between those two races, I raced 12 more times - some local short ones but some of reasonable reputation, including the English & British fell championship counter Sedbergh Sports and even a weekend trip up to Dollar in Scotland for the Dollar hill race. A common theme was occurring in most of these races post-Three Peaks.  I found myself feeling very low on energy, with any form of incline proving difficult to run.  My strength was f...