Race Planning by Ricky Lightfoot

You could say 2017 was a quiet year race wise, two finishes and one DNF, not through lack of wanting to race but most of it was spent recovering and rehabbing from a hip arthroscopy. My plan for the coming season is to gradually ease back into racing and increase mileage slowly so as not to aggravate the hip or risk over doing it as the first 12 months after surgery is the most important, it's also important to me to be confident in my hip and my ability to perform at my best, after all, no one likes going into a race not being 100% fit.

Early season I plan to pick some local races out using these as stepping stones really to a goal of competing at the Yorkshire 3 Peaks at the end of April which is a big goal as it's also a trial race for the GB Team for the World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships.

Later in June focus turns to a race I've had my sights on for a while, the Man Vs Horse Marathon down in Wales, a race where runners pit themselves against horse and rider over 22 miles off road, in the history of the race the horse has only been beaten couple of times. I've got the opportunity to race the Dodo Trail in Mauritius in July, I've raced here a couple of times before over 50km and the opportunity is too good to pass up!

For the remainder of the season I've got some races pencilled in but a lot depends on shifts at work and family commitments so I don't like to plan too far ahead.