@Catriona Tennant asked the question. Yesterday at the open day @Duncan Martin asked the room..so lets see where you are all thinking of heading. @Beppo Buchanan-Smith and @Gosia Murakowska have the small matter of Doha T100 to handle and Im heading up to DIY Celtman solo for my birthday this side of NY. My pics for next year are modest so far. Hyrox Glasgow to push strength over winter. European Cross champs and Aviemore. Support at Celtman of course and will take on a couple of local Scottishchamps hits. Who has what so far?

Season done and dusted. The finale should have been a big Saturday at Barca and a hectic Sunday in Fife. Sadly mother nature had other plans for Spain. Funny thing is the exact same thing happened 2 years ago. We had a group of kids heading to Valencia and all was well but the week after..unprecedented floods. Turns out not unprecedented at all. IM now have a bit of an issue with 13 races this year having had the swim or the race cancelled. Even the Outlaw was a duathlon. It will be interesting to see how the many thousands that signed up, paid big cash, trained hard only not to get what they paid for will do next. On Sunday a very different event. Low key, local and joyous. Lochore is sadly in Fife but genuinely a class venue for multisport. 7 different races all in one spot and yet it almost didnt happen. Entries were at a level that meant the race would lose money. All race organisers are finding the same issues. Spiralling costs and too few punters. Same story at Aberfeldy, Craggy Island to name a couple more. The races did go ahead and we were treated to some magical moments. Sean and I had 7 athletes in play and 6 of the 7 made podiums. Could have been 7 but for a navigational issue. Not AG podiums (which are cool) but the actual 123 at the pointy end. Its worth thinking about the race card for next year. All the eggs in one basket or maybe something more balanced?

I’ve always struggled with the clock change, and winter in general- even when I spent lots of time working in the outdoors. I’ve been reading a book called ‘How to Winter’ in an effort to make it easier to deal with the darkness and short days (I live north of Inverness: in mid-winter we only get 6 hours of daylight). The book recommends a number of things , but a couple that have stuck out so far are: - Celebrate the special things about winter, and make it enjoyable. For me it’s going to include plenty of candles, fires, twinkly lights and hot chocolate (the perfect recovery fuel 😋). - If you expect winter to be awful, it will be. I’m going to change my expectations to include plenty of good toughness training in the cold, wet, windy weather, and plenty of other good stuff that comes with the change of season. Anyone got any tips or advice on how to make the most of winter?

The bad news? It doesn't happen overnight. Its an apprenticeship. Your best long distance race is NEVER the first one. Its more likely its going to take 3, 4 years maybe even longer. The first one is a voyage into the unknown going somewhere your body and your brain has never been. The next one you learned some stuff so its likely to be stronger but it takes time to build that really deep fitness and mental fortitude it takes to race long. Sure you can complete faster but you arent pushing until you have learned about yourself. Maybe tradesmen know..an apprenticeship is 4 years for a reason.

To paraphrase if you can meet triumph and disaster and treat both those imposters the same.. Every week we can celebrate triumphs great and small but over the season there are far more disasters and downsides. It set me thinking when one athlete went from National Champion to a DNF and a 'gave up'. Then add in flawless prep and execution for a highly diligent athlete only to be robbed by a DQ. Set me thinking so I wrote a wee piece (full version available) and made a wee sideshow. Hope its interesting