Top two tips to start ( bold assumption that you have trained well) 1 RTFM this is oddly something lots of idiots dont do. It really is very comprehensive so read it, make your crew read it then read it again. 2 Get yourself a support crew who already know the event. So that means @Ewa Pisarczyk @Karianne Lancee and @George Noble are sorted for sure. Anyone else its worth doing 1 and have a look at some small things that arent in the manual. Travelling up. Torridon is quite remote but if you fill up in Inverness or Dingwall you have enough fuel to get round and back to Inverness. Inverness is also a good stop for supplies..Big supermarkets and Tiso ( sell all the kit needed for the mountain safety bag). You MUST register on the Friday.. or at least 2 people with 2 sets of kit need to register. If you have someone coming say after work just make sure you have their kit and someone other than you to register it. The briefing whilst it can be tedious is useful..even if you think you know it all. There can be last minute changes so dont get caught out by dodging the briefing. Social swim on Friday is great fun if you are up early enough. Make sure you have the means to dry your wetsuit after or bring a spare as at 0300 sat putting on a damp suit will be erm sub optimal. Start your fuelling up on Thrusday and try and stay as close to normal eating as possible on Friday. Anything heavy or high in fibre you may have to join the sheep to get rid of it on the course. Get to bed early Thursday as you will be lucky to get much, if any sleep on Friday night. The buses leave at 0400 sharp. Don't be the dick that isn't there. The finest you can cut it probably is arrive 0315 to set up T1 and pick up the tracker. So depending on how far you are staying from Sheildaig can mean as early as a 0130 start. You have one supporter designated for T1. Make sure you have a plan for how this will run and they know exactly how it goes. The tracker needs to go on the athlete rather than the bike to lessen the risk of leaving it in T2. Since there is no support after T1 until KLE..the athlete should have food and fuel for at least 90 mins with them on the bike. Unless you are out and away in the top 10 to 20 people your support car will get held up and it can be 2 hours before you make contact again.

A veritable skill in its own right and if you want to do XTRI events then its one well worth acquiring. Easy to coach in person so im looking at dates to run a session. In the meantime @Karianne Lancee had the mashed quads that go along with downhills at pace so I took some video to help me explain. Big thanks to @Beppo Buchanan-Smith and Daniel for modelling. The lads got the brief and in the video the main take away is 'body alignment' but there is a big confidence element to it too. So we are showing two different methods. One is inefficient, sore and well incorrect. The other takes bottle and practice but is well 'right'. What we want to do is stand tall as always but allow gravity to lean us down the hill. If we are over cautious the brain says lean back to slow down. What happens then is you are using the quads as brakes..taking full impact on every stride. On already tired legs thats more risky than finding a nice flow..dabbing the feet frequently to cut the speed when needed. A bit like making good turns in downhill skiing. Take a look at the video and see if it makes sense then go try it. If nervy do it on the road or a grassy slope first to get the hang of it before hitting the trails.

Current temps are 8 degrees. Lots of snow still to melt so race day temps likely to be 10 so if you haven't started dipping to acclimatise now is the time. First few dont need to be long just getting the head round how the cold feels and how it impacts you. It's a bit like boiling a frog..get in get used to it and race day has no surprises

Interesting news from the CEO..lady winner is a hyroxer. The cross over is real.

We as usual have a decent cohort tackling this years race. Just onboarding a new lad from the US and Sean will be looking after Gordon this year ( Swissman 25). Just checking and across all coaches we now have 11 entries prepping. It may be useful to ensure you have your logistics in place ASAP and if you need help with support let us know as we do have drivers and runners we can set up for you. Do make sure you have accomodation sorted for your teams as its not fun sleeping on the floor in the Casa Celtman!