The maddening wind and grey skies did nothing to deter our resilient Team Blizard athletes this weekend, with seasons’ bests, podium finishes and gritty performances galore in the mud in Liverpool, and on the roads in Glasgow, Wolverton and Barnsley.

Our elite Blizard team athletes Fiona Davies and Mike ‘High Tower’ Chadwick proved their mettle in possibly the most challenging weather conditions the Barnsley 10k has ever seen on Sunday, with Fiona winning the women’s race and Mike taking third place overall in gales yet again.

Fiona finished 28th overall out of a huge field in 38:36, while Mike’s 35:35 clocking was just as impressive considering he had smashed out a tough cross country session just 24 hours earlier!

Mike was just ahead of Doncaster veteran ace Simon Wright, whose time of 35:27 may have been short of his PB by some three minutes, but still ranks him inside the top 50 for his V50 age group for 2015!

Simon’s SB time of 34:11 from Dewsbury already places him 10th in the whole country, so he really should be recognised as one of the region’s finest Masters distance runners of his generation.

Fiona’s, Mike’s and Simon’s runs were all the more impressive considering the still raging winds, which also saw Kimberworth’s Lee and Sam Weatherall work hard for their respective times of 43:54 and 48:21 - well done all!

Fellow elite Blizard team member Tom Morris may not have raced this weekend but he still put in a lot of hard training sessions, including a phenomenal 14 mile run at 6:34 pace - phew!

Earlier in the weekend there was more action in Glasgow and Milton Keynes, with two 5m races taking place with our athletes featuring strongly in both.

Edinburgh AC’s John Reynolds finished first V40 and first veteran outright in a superb 28:30 in Glasgow, while Nene Valley Harriers’ lactate threshold devotees, Yvonne Scarrott and Blizard’s own Ruth Jones recorded their fastest times in years with times of 34:12 and 33:09 respectively on yet another gale force windy day at Wolverton, Milton Keynes.

Last but most certainly not least was Barlick and Blackburn’s Matt Lalor, who recently won the Leicester marathon in a huge PB of 2:34:39.

Matt took on the very best in the UK at Liverpool on Saturday when he contested the European cross country trials. His position of 140 does not do justice to his strong performance, but when put in the context of the overall finishing figure of 574, and the fact that he covered the near 10km distance across some of the muddiest terrain this event has ever seen in a swift 34:52, it goes some way to showing just how well he did!

With this weekend’s Percy Pud 10k representing a big Team Blizard effort, keep training smart, believe in the power of lactate training, and we hope to see a lot of you on Sunday!