Fetcheveryone Member of the Month

STOOSH asks: Nice one Tizer, a well deserved winner of motm..

After doing all the events at Edinburgh, are you going to join me in some offroad ultras?

Tizer says: Cheers Stoosh, not sure its well deserved given I've only logged 44 miles for June after EMF

Hmm Ultras… You know how much I loved GO33 last time !!! After that race I said I'd never run longer than a marathon and I can still remember very clearly how shit I felt crossing the line. On reflection I expect a lot of that was down to the weather and the fact that I'd done very little in the way of training. I'd love to start doing some sections of the WHW to get a feel for the course and do some off road stuff for a while…Saying that, I say the same thing after every Spring marathon and never actually do it. Give me a shout when you're heading for the hills and I'll be sure and join you

Alice the Camel asks: Congratulations - a deserving winner I notice that you're from Up North and recently raced a marathon in Barcelona - do you prefer running in hot or cold temperatures?

Tizer says: Thanks Alice. For me an early Spring Marathon abroad offers the perfect conditions. Barcelona was about 16c, the sun was shining and by the time I'd finished it was about 20c and perfect weather to celebrate with a few mighty large gins

I'm not great at running or racing in hot conditions and have been caught out before in Milan, London and even Edinburgh!!! so I'd say cooler conditions suit me better. To be honest its the wind that bothers me more though. Can't stand it, unless its behind me

HappyG(rrr) asks: Brilliant Tizer, many congrats on MOTM. Your running has been, ahem, variable, over the years (hope you'll forgive that - I think it's been a combination of pressure of work, life, injuries etc. Anyway, I can say it - at your lowest point, I was once able to beat you, and you *know* you should be better than that! So... ) If you could be a full time athlete, would you enjoy and stick to a training plan or would you always rather do lots of different challenges and vary things? Congrats again. G

Tizer says: Bit harsh My training can occasionally let me down and I can't really blame work, life or injuries. I've been pretty lucky in the time that I've been running that I've only had to take a few enforced breaks due to injury, mainly because I tend to try and train through them.

I would like to think that as a full time athlete I could find some decent gains, particularly over longer distances. There's so much I know I could improve on particularly around diet , cross training, stretching, core but I seem to be very inconsistent with that side of things. As a full time athlete with a coach telling me what to do and when I'd definitely enjoy sticking to plan and having a couple of big marathon type targets a year.

And don't play yourself down. You're close to all of my pbs and I'm sure with your focus shifting to shorter distance improvements you'll be ahead of me again in future races

Jono. asks: Brilliant Tizer, well done (I even slipped you a tenner :)) how did you get your brain around the EMF challenge?

Tizer says: Jono, you're a good man and I was also an avid follower of your blogs. You helped me raise over £3500 for Macmillan & Strathcarron Hospice and thanks to you and the others that sponsored me from Fetch.

EMF challenge was definitely a once off. It took a fair amount of planning, particularly around the transport between the Half finish and the Full Marathon start so a lot of my worries on the days and weeks leading up to it were focused around that side of things.

On the Saturday I expected the 10k / 5k to be a bit of a warm up for the following day but they were far from it and took much more out of me than I would have liked so that definitely put a few more doubts in my mind for the Sunday. Sunday morning was initially just making sure I split it into two distinct races and focused purely on the Half to start with, keeping everything feeling as easy as possible, drafting as much as I could, but ensuring I was hitting the 6:50 pace target for the 1:30 finish. Once that was out of the way and the transition went so smoothly I just tried to break the marathon down into manageable sections. Having a tailwind for the first 17 or so miles definitely helped and by the time I turned back into the headwind I was only thinking about finishing and adding the fourth medal to the collection

baz p asks: haza, the lad done good. don't know what to ask now, i've got a nice gore tracksuit, how much do you want for it?

em......

what is your favourite cheese?
gin or whiskey (ooft)?
house or deep house?
marathons or ultras?

well done mate, truly well deserved imho.

Tizer says: Thanks Baz, I do love a bit Gore running gear that's for sure Favourite cheese is definitely anything blue. Seems that the closer it is to the smell of my trainers after 500 miles the better. Whiskey for sure (currently drinking a large Cardhu as I answer your question) but love a gin or two as well (Hendricks all the way). House music wise it depends. Soulful and Deep when I'm making dinner and a bit more 90's old school when I'm pounding the streets. And finally marathons for now mate but with GO33 in the Autumn things could change very quickly if I run well

santababy asks: Hey Tizer, well done totally well deserved after you epic effort You ran a bit of my first ever ultra over 50miles with me, is that the next step for you now that you've seen Boab make the transition look simple? I see others have asked same thing.. I've never asked you if you're name is cause you like Tizer, is that the case?

Tizer says: Ultrababy, thank you. As epic efforts go I would say I'm still well behind your WHW exploits. I'll get the easy one out of the way first. I used to be a lot more ginge and was initially nicknamed Tizer Baws by a guy at work…Thought it would be best to drop the baws and stick to Tizer for Fetch. My Mum & Dad even had a 'Go Tizer' poster at EMF but don't think they realise the background story

Ok, I'll say it now. I'm hoping to run the Fling next year if I can get a few recce runs under my belt between now and then purely based on reading the post WHW race blogs and aiming for the WHW race in 2017. After GO33 last time I honestly thought I was out of my depth at attempting anything over marathon distance but the EMF challenge has shown that theres obviously some decent endurance and mental strength in there somewhere. Boab makes it all look easy and I look up to him massively. I'd love to step up in the same way he (and yourself) has but it'll require a big change to the way I generally look after myself. Now that I'm starting to recover from my various post EMF injuries I'm hoping it starts here!

paul the builder asks: WAHEY! Congratulations Tizer. Really glad to see someone I much respect and admire winning - your training log might be, I think, the one I look at the most after my own. What does Mrs. Tizer think of your avatar?

Tizer says: Ha Ha, yes, that avatar does need to change. She doesn't mind though…I don't think

I have to admit my training log hasn't been that great for the past few months and the HRM use has been fairly erratic but now that I'm back training agin I'l be sure and keep it nice and neat for you I do love to track those HR improvements

LouLou asks: Excellent work Tizer. Do you ever feel guilty for being a factor that introduced me to Stoosh? If you could offer one piece of advice to improve my marathon time what would it be?

Tizer says: Thanks Lou. I think you guys are great together. Couples that train together, stay together n all that and I don't feel guilty at all. A match made in sub 3 heaven.

Just one bit of advice. Put less pressure on yourself. You have plenty opportunity to build on your success. You have a demanding job that requires a massive amount of your time both physically and mentally. You ran 3:08 in London during one of the most stressful times of your working life so I don't think another bigger sub 3 is that far away once things settle down again.

Boab asks: Maccy D's, 4 slice of cheese on toast or kentucky fried chicken? i know you'll have your eye on a weekend away at a foreign trail ultra, which one are we doing?? Transvulcania, UTMB or Western States?

Tizer says: Boab, 4 slices of Cheese on Toast any day. Weekend? Nah, proper holiday with race in the first couple of days and the rest for relaxing with a few Rock Rose gins. From that list I'd have to start at Transvulcania…cos its the shortest. Lets pencil it in

Mr. White asks: Brilliant - well done Tizer. What's your next challenge going to be?

Tizer says: Thanks Mr W. Next challenge was supposed to be Chester Marathon but injury has set me back a few weeks so I may can that and focus on GO33. No more silly challenges though…well not in 2015 anyway

Duchess asks: What do you think will give you more satisfaction: the multiple challenges of the EMF quadruple, or a straightforward PB? And how are you going to resist the lure of all these Fetchies trying to tempt you into the ultra world?

Tizer says: Hi Duchess. I'll never forget the feeling I had crossing the line of the first 3 races knowing that my race wasn't finished. Its something I doubt I'll ever experience again…unless someone comes along and beats my overall time and I have to do it again I gave the 4 medals to Steph's 2 kids and don't think I'll could ever get the same emotional highs and lows from a straightforward pb. As for ultras I'm pretty much moving there as we speak. The training for GO33 started today From there we'll see what happens...

Canute asks: Congratulations on MOTM; well deserved, especially on account of your EMF quadruple. Do you think that the ice bath on the Saturday increased or decreased the total sum of pain you experienced on that weekend?

Tizer says: Thanks Canute, appreciate that. The ice bath probably seems a bit excessive after running a 10k & 5k but I've had a number of niggles from the waist down that need iced on a regular basis (both achilles, calf, and groin (both sides)) so I decided that capturing them all in one very painful go would be the best approach given the the schedule for the following day. I believe it helped, possibly physically but definitely mentally. It was another thing I could tick off in my mind when things got tough (c'mon, you had an ice bath yesterday, your legs are good, refreshed and ready to go).

Sunbed Athlete asks: Congrats mate! Getting to your age is Ultras the next step? Is or surely there is life left in Young Tizer still? Only "old" Tizer would make the step to the far side!! Congrats again 👍

Tizer says: Thanks mate, there's definitely life in me yet in terms of marathon improvement and I do love those 14 week marathon training plans. Sub 2.50 would be great but I need to start looking at other parts that let me down before I'd get there. I know I don't have the natural ability to improve massively without a fairly big lifestyle change and maybe moving to Ultras is almost a bit of a lazy way out for me. I don't want that to be the case though and hope that I could somehow try and combine both so that I could get an early marathon plan done and leave a couple of months to get some ultra type double weekend runs in and do them justice as well

milemonster asks: What's your favourite piece of running kit?

Tizer says: Hi MM, Definitely my Gore running shorts. I keep trying to get a new pair but end up with those short race type things by accident. They are pretty pricey but I've basically worn them for every sub 3 marathon I've done. Room for 3 gels in the back pocket and no chaffage…or not much anyway

Night-owl asks: Congratulations I see you've done 98 races and I see it could be Chester for the 100. Will it be at Chester or will you slip in another before then.

Tizer says: Thanks, I didn't even realise I was close to the 100. Not great really given I've been running for about 7 years!!! To be honest I might not even manage Chester but will see how the training goes over the next couple of weeks before deciding. Now that you have pointed it out though I'll need to make sure my 100th race is a fairly special one

Cammy asks: As a sub 3 marathoner what do I need to do to get from current PB of 3:12? Well done on the MOM:-)

Tizer says: Hi mate, more and consistent mileage is really the key aspect in my opinion. Some folk can run fast marathons off very low mileage plans but for most you really need to be targeting 50-60 mile weeks at a minimum. The fact that you ran so well in Manchester earlier in the year and have continued to train well will stand you in good stead for another improvement in the Autumn. I would just keep building your base mileage, look for a pb in the Autumn and target sub 3 next Spring. I've run 4 sub 3 marathons, each with some pretty big differences in the type of training I did but all of them averaging about 60 miles a week in the 14-16 week build up. Good luck with the training

katypie asks: Well done. Very deserving MOTM. Oh questions, questions.... How did you start running (or have you always run?), what's on your dream list for races. Em... I'd ask raining tips but we covered that on fmail. X

Tizer says: Thanks KP, I've been running 'seriously' for about 8 years (not long before starting to log my mileage on Fetch and it was really Boab that got me running properly. I was doing a bit now and again but didn't enjoy it that much. It took me a long time to be motivated enough to run on a regular basis and that started to come after watching Boab and others on Fetch improve on their times with more and consistent mileage. Dream races : I'm no use at running in the heat so fancy Marathon De Sables so I could train to be better at it. Marathon wise I'd love to sub 3 the 5 marathon majors (Chicago, Boston & NY left). Finally, and most recently it has to be WHW but I want to make sure that a move to running ultras is because I think I am good enough to do it now rather than it being because I'm too lazy to train hard which was probably the case when I attempted GO33 last time

Nelly asks: Congratulations, a well deserved winner. What would you say is your favourite race distance, and why?

Tizer says: Cheers Nelly, favourite distance would have to be marathon. I enjoy the endurance and pace required for a half but there is no better feeling than giving everything you have and crossing the finish line of a marathon. I also enjoy the training and build up to marathon. The only time I seem to be able to pb at shorter distances is during marathon training. If there's no marathon in my schedule I tend to cut back on mileage far too much

Angus Clydesdale asks: Fantastic. Great achievement (and the EMF thing wasn't bad either ;-)). What's it like working at Hooters, and who's the grinning galoot with you in that picture?

Tizer says: Thanks mate, It was definitely hard work . Ah, my dream job.... It was a great afternoon that. The Mrs went shopping and I took my 12 year old to Hooters. He loved it...and by the looks of things I had an ok time as well

Windsor Wool asks: Tizer or Irn Bru? And what chocolate bar to go with it?

Tizer says: Diet Irn Bru all the way mate, with a standard dairy milk bar. Not the wee one though. The big one that you can get for a quid at most petrol stations