 Hi Andrew, how did you originally get into running? So I got into, from quite an early age, I think I joined a local athletics club when I was about 10 or 11. I'm up in Caithness and I think really from there I just really enjoyed athletics, enjoyed being part of a club, the social aspect of it. I think once I finished university then I kind of began to take my training a bit more seriously and looking to get improved my kind of times and yeah and then I got called up for a Scotland vest and it's kind of just, it's got it from there really. You've run also to distances from 5Ks, park runs, 10Ks, marathons, actually the Avimo course record holder at the park run here. So what do you prefer, do you prefer the speed or the trails, the mountains? Yeah I've become a bit of jack of all trades in running, but yeah I enjoy the variety of it. I think with running sometimes they can become a bit monotonous if you just do the same thing over and over again. So I like to mix it up you know in the winter do a bit of road and cross country and in summer and enjoy the mountains and the trails. I think that's what I really get a kick out of is just kind of experiencing all those different aspects. Like sometimes you just kind of got the need for speed and you kind of just want to get out in the flat and on the track and just blast out a really kind of hard session. Sometimes you just want to have a really long run outside in the trails where you don't see anyone for miles and miles and you've just got kind of great scenery. Last year you hit height in mountain running and came fourth in the mountain running rankings. How did that feel for you? Yeah that was great, it's the first year that they introduced a world ranking system to mountain running which I think is a really great idea, it kind of gives a bit more context to the sport and it gives an individual athlete something to really fight for over the season. So yeah I was really happy to finish a season ranked fourth. I finished third overall in the World Cup series so I kind of accumulated enough ranking points to kind of be there and thereabouts and yeah I think going forward I'd hopefully I can sneak off a couple more places and maybe even one day get that top spot. That involved running abroad in a race called Sierra Zanal. Was that something that you really enjoyed racing abroad? Yeah I love to travel and I love to experience different places, different cultures and running is a great way to do that. Whether it's through racing, whether it's through training, yeah you get to see some actually stunning places. But I think particular Sierra Zanal was an amazing race for me to do because it brought together the long distance mountain runners as well with the short distance and I've made for like a really competitive field and it's an absolutely stunning kind of part of the world. It was really beautiful. Sierra Zanal, that was part of the Golden Trail series which has got other races involved with it including Zagama and the Glencoe Skyline. Do you have any plans to take part in any of those races? It's certainly something I'm thinking about for this year because races tend to be a bit on the long side for what I'm doing just now with the mountain running in the European and World Championships they're usually over around about 10k distances so I like to keep my races relatively short for the most part but I think certainly there's room for going to the longer type races so it's something I'm keeping quite a fairly open mind about and I'll see if there's maybe a couple I can do this year I can persuade my coach. At what stage did you decide to get a coach and how has that impacted on your running? Me and Sophie started working together back in 2009 after I came back from a gap here in New Zealand and I just finished university I was at that stage in my running career I think I was a good club athlete but I hadn't quite made that step to international and that's really where I wanted to go so I started working alongside Sophie and she would give me sessions that would really challenge myself but she'd also be really good at giving me advice and when to hold back and I think it just kind of works really well as a partnership we've been through some really good times some really challenging times but I think we've built that kind of relationship where we both can talk to each other freely and we can both express our opinions and I think that's ultimately what you want from an athlete's coach relationship What does your nutrition look like? Is it a strict control diet or do you like to let go and eat some beers and burgers now? Yeah I think I'm not one for being absolutely strict on my nutrition I mean generally I think I do eat quite a balanced diet I like my meat veg, protein, everything everything I think that you would want for a kind of all-round runner's diet I think you've got to treat yourself every once in a while I'm kind of not afraid to do that but at the same time it's consistency it's always key with the kind of diet so you don't want to go too crazy too often It's nice and airy again How have you coped with injuries? Have you any long-term issues and how do you know when a niggle is more serious? I mean fortunately I've not really had I would say a major injury in my running career and that's probably the worst that's kind of happened is maybe a couple of stress fractures and a torn calf muscle but nothing has really kind of kept me out for more than two or three months I think what I try to do to kind of reduce the risk of injury is I do a bit of strength and conditioning and yoga as well It just kind of helps I think when you can build a solid core then it helps with your running economy and your stability I think with the mileage that you do and distance running injuries are almost inevitable but if you can do your most to reduce the risk of injury then you do whatever you can to do that What's been your most memorable race so far? and do you like to wrecky a course beforehand? My most memorable race yeah it's a toughy I think the one that I'm probably most proud of was when I ran the world mountain running championships in 2015 that was in Wales so it was like a home championships so that was great because you had a ton of support out on the course and it was fantastic to have people like waving flags that you're screaming at you and I personally had a really good run and so did my teammates as well and to be ended up winning a team bronze You're running pretty much every day Is motivation ever a problem for you? Yeah absolutely there's definitely some days when it can be for a variety of factors it can be the weather because it's really cold and wet and you don't really want to get outside other days you might be a bit fatigued because you've been heavy training week or even working and stuff as well if you've had a stressful day and you just kind of want to try and go home but I think like you know I've always tend to stick to a routine I think the big motivation is always you know you have to train if you want to perform at the level that you want to perform at so I think like you know I tend to always find a way to kind of motivate myself to get out which is kind of good yeah you always kind of try to remind yourself that yeah you always feel better for it at the end of the day At this moment last week for example what's a typical training week consist of how many days a week are you running what sort of distances are you doing? Yeah so at the moment I'm over a winter I'm kind of typically training like kind of twice a day most days I'll do around about kind of 90 to 100 miles a week and that'll be yeah kind of mixture of steady running there'll be an interval session in there as well track session a long run on a Sunday which can be between like 18 and 20 miles Do you have a favourite piece of kit what you go to shoe? Yeah I'll go with the kind of variety of shoes that I kind of wear with a kind of hook house and particularly when I'm out on the trails I like wearing the speed goats because they kind of give you that bit of extra comfort and support when you're out kind of hitting some of the harder kind of trails and also you can kind of get that bit of speed as well so I like to kind of tear it off a bit on the trails so it's nice when you have that bit of cushioning to that effect it's great Thanks very much for your time Andrew it's been a pleasure Great thank you very much