JAY PRIOR

ME.

When I did my first 5km in 2012 after being challenged to join an event through work by a colleague. I thought it would be a breeze when they added to that challenge that it need to be done within 30 minutes. Being an ex-serviceman, I scoffed at the thought of this taking anywhere near 30 minutes. However, when it come round to doing the 5km run, I set off at a heroic pace that I was used to from about 10 years before and subsequently finished the race throwing up my breakfast, but successfully coming through at 29:58 after a big push by my colleagues at the end to hit target! That was my wake-up call! From that moment I looked to change my lifestyle, do more exercise and generally get fitter. So later on that year we set a challenge to train for and entered the London to Brighton bike ride. That led to doing an OCR Wolf Run and joining the local park run, with the intention to do more OCRs in 2014. However, having the bit between by teeth, I entered the ballot for VMLM and to my surprise managed to get a place! So all training changed, the bike was hung up, the short distances were changed to a marathon training plan and the year of OCRs were put on hold by fear of being injured, although I did do a few like Judgement day and a few Brutal Run’s! The Marathon training lead to meeting a fantastic bunch of running heroes for ‘The Soldiers Charity’ and completing the London Marathon with a sub 4hr target in 3:52. This lead to further challenges like Paras 10, Fan Dance, London to Brighton Ultra, Bournmouth Marathon, Brecon to Cardiff half ultra and being involved with the 100 peaks charity events and training days to continue to promote the good work of ‘The Soldiers Charity’ but to also keep up the training to support the 100 peaks challenge in 2017. The 100 peaks ‘Brothers in Arms’ Wales section was my final event in 2017. I joined the team on the hills around Snowdon and Brecon, scaling up at a relentless pass around 16 peaks in 3 days, while supporting the transition of the true athletes on their cycle days.That was an epic few years and in my head I told myself I had had enough and needed a rest! That’s when things went downhill with regards to training, events and my mind set. I hadn’t done much if any training and avoided events from July 2017; I over indulged at Christmas and New Year, eating and drinking what I wanted and as a consequence my fitness dropped considerably, I gained over a stone in weight and my mind set was full of negative thoughts towards life in general, training and lacking motivation.
So at the end of January 2018; I had a few words with myself and joined British Military Fitness (BMF) to try and re vitalise my mind and body; that’s when Karl popped up with BE A BLACKSHEEP and having the opportunity to be involved with likeminded people again seemed like a life saver….The journey begins.

WHAT DO I WANT TO ACHIEVE?

I’m going to concentrate on a single event ‘The South Coast Challenge’ and try to sort my head out in terms of having positive mental attitude! I’m going to do better at this event, than I did in the London to Brighton and finish within 15hrs. I will lose a few pounds more and hit my target weight of 68kg and tone up for my family holiday in August… Simple as that!

WHAT CHANGES AM I MAKING?

Watch what I’m eating, I still need to shift a few pounds! Get back into eating the food I need for a healthy lifestyle and that fuels my goals. Attend a minimum of 2 BMF sessions a week and include more running in my training, while setting a training plan too. Overcome mental challenges and use the support around me to succeed, while being supportive to others myself.

MY PLAN FOR 2018 AND BEYOND.

I may add some events, but at the moment The South Coast Challenge is all I’m signing up for initially.

Cranleigh Trail Marathon 2018 - Sunday 13th May 2018

MY PERSONAL PROMISE.

Be more motivated and motivating, as I was before 2017!