davidgardiner

I'm interested in great people, moments and things. So that's what I try to share.

[davidnerr]

So excited to share these photos! 😁 How about this mountain lake x 🐐 combo? #LacBlanc (at Lac Blanc)

[davidnerr]

I’m no 🏔🐐 - I don’t live in the mountains. I just love to go there and try to move like one! I hadn’t seen an #Ibex before this trip, only tracks, they’re wild, elusive, graceful and majestic. Now that I’m back in London and recovering from the @marathondumontblanc 90km I’m going to share some of the best bits from my week in the Chamonix valley. Can you be truly in the moment, or focused on a goal if you’re busy posting about it? I think it depends on your priorities. Mine consisted of the overall trip I’d planned, spending quality time with friends, and my race... which meant a spectacular Tuesday (swipe for @stravarun w/ @mfr80 & @d.i.r.k_j meeting this guy and overdoing it with 1400m downhill... which meant sore legs on the start line on Friday @ 4am 😅 - but it was worth it for me, as I’ll show you! #taperingfail #runningcoach (at Chamonix, France)

[davidnerr]

Just a shot from yesterday. An epic day! Argentiere > Lac Blanc > L’Index > Flegere > La Floria > Chamonix (at Argentière, Rhone-Alpes, France)

[davidnerr]

London ✈️🇨🇭Geneva 🚌 🇫🇷 Chamonix 🏔 For @marathondumontblanc week! It seems like an eternity since I entered the ballot for the 90km, then invited a few hundred of my friends to join me and the thousands of other mountain runners from across the planet who descend on Chamonix for this prestigious series of races. It’ll be an incredible new experience for many of them. // For me, it’s the first time I’ve managed to blend two things I love (my running community/friends... with mountain running and it’s culture) on a scale this big. It’s going to be epic! Who’s coming?! It’s not too late... here’s to a great week, wherever you are 😁 🎉 (at North Terminal - Gatwick Airport)

[davidnerr]

We’ve been a bit spoilt when it comes to group photos at @run.dem.crew - that man at the front, @simonrphoto has often ran with a hulking camera backpack with his ‘I’m not messing about’ camera. Wielding the thing in a way that leaves me impressed and thankful for such a sharp, pristinely captured moment of a run. So @shahussain and his phone was always going to be up against it 😆 Thanks Sha, for the best shot I’ve got from tonight. I hope it’ll suffice and convey some of the atmosphere of our run, and help illustrate my words. I didn’t make it to RDC last week - so tonight felt like something of a return! Great to catch up with friends, I’ve been training alone a fair bit, and going up and down hills a lot, doing what I can to prepare for the @marathondumontblanc 90km in just over 2 weeks time. I’m not juggling as well as I want to. As ever, Instagram is the first to suffer, and I’m sorry for it - but a rushed, heartless post is even worse than no post. I’m interested in more than keeping a posting schedule. I end up missing the very real sense of community and interaction from you though, and decided to forgo sleep in order to check in and share... something. Highlights from tonight: Talking goals with @jackcajack , hamstring rehab with @wardle_man , the loss of the great #salesforcefishtank with @denisyong , wearing flipflops on a tuesday night in LDN with @josip.runs , discussing worked glutes, sugar, and optimal body composition for runners with @shahussain , chasing hot airballoons in a Land Rover in India for weeks, travel writing and trips of a lifetime with Pistol Pete, quizzing @ond3rd on where/how he got his hands on that priceless @nbrorunning vest, @izzymilburn03 on her sufficiently epic FKT plan... that’s without the countless smiles, hugs from friends I didn’t have time to catch up with. I could go on and on. It’s easy when you’re surrounded by such interesting, inspiring people, and that’s without knowing six of the faces here. I wonder what their stories are and how we all ended up together. I can’t help my relentless curiosity, but I’m way out of time and in need of a haircut. And sleep.

[davidnerr]

The short shorts we’re definitely called for yesterday 😅 25+ degrees is way out of my comfort zone for running and I struggle to maintain any kind of intensity, I had planned a long run, but decided to change tact and did some hill reps in the shade of those woods in front of me instead. Tonight, I’ll run after sunset - when it’ll be a balmy, hopefully more forgiving 20 degrees!🤞🏼- My body’s been confirming that yesterday’s session was a success, via minor soreness in the right places. I slept better, and needed it! (at Woldingham)

[davidnerr]

Tried to smile for the camera and the pretty sunset... but it was hard, hot, humid and hilly! 😅 // With Mont Blanc 90km less than 5 weeks away I figured it was about time I started incorporating a really specific session into my training, in the form of hill reps on the biggest hill within a reasonable distance. (>30min drive in my case) // A big going ahead of the 90k is to improve my power to weight ratio and overall strength, leg strength in particular. I’m leaner than I’ve ever been before which is a great position to build from. // I’ve been ill this week and have been struggling with sleep, but I’m happy to have maintained some consistency and even added some jump squats, walking lunges, explosive press ups, some jumps and strides into my week. As well as the world’s most convoluted muscle-up! On my second attempt) Just to see if I could still get up there! 😂 Hope you’ve had a great weekend!

[davidnerr]

Had a great run around Hyde Park yesterday, leading week 2 of the ASI Data Science Run Club! (so snappy I know) We’re all on a mission, I hope, to spend more time doing important, fulfilling work that we love. Using my enthusiasm and experience to help encourage, empower and develop other runners feels like a solid step in the right direction! (at The Serpentine)

[davidnerr]

Had one of those idyllic runs on Sunday. So glad I took the opportunity to explore #HatfieldForest - Absolutely loving my first pair of shoes from @lasportivagram (no affiliation) the #HeliosSR - so light, yet cushioned enough, a 2mm drop, flexible, and enough room in the toebox for my feet... they don’t hold onto mud, they work ok on pavement. Definitely a unicorn shoe worth trying for anyone that wants a low drop, lightweight trail shoe. (Thanks for the heads-up @alflowersruns ) Any shoes that have really impressed you lately?Hope you’re having a great week!

[davidnerr]

Running through London earlier with @run.dem.crew and the light turned epic... and I didn’t have a camera! So I literally ran into the road and shouted for someone, anyone to take a picture!

[davidnerr]

Woke up like this! This was the view from my ⛺️ on the third and final day of the @greatlakeland3day . It was only the second time I’ve been camping in the last decade. There’s something to the whole #campinglife thing for sure. Spending Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, and most of Monday moving in the mountains, sharing a camp with good people, and sleeping in a tent beneath the stars was nothing short of therapeutic. It’s not everyone’s ideal retreat - but it is mine. If you have a love for running, runners, mountains and challenging yourself... it might be yours too! I’m really glad that it wasn’t a festival for runners. But instead my first #mountainmarathon (without the competing as a team, carrying all your stuff & sleeping in half of a tiny tent. But even that sounds like it could be fun someday!) Have you got any adventures planned? (at Buttermere, Cumbria, United Kingdom)

[davidnerr]

Annnd we’re back to more photos from the @greatlakeland3day last weekend! I’m still feeling the DOMS. My feet, and quads still haven’t forgiven me. #LeftMyLegsInTheLakeDistrict // Many of the participants take part in the event as a two-person team. I can’t think of many better tests of a friendship/relationship than competing together in a #mountainmarathon. Who would be your teammate / dream teammate?!

[davidnerr]

Old habits die hard! I’d taken this before thinking if it was professional or not. Next time I’ll ask, and give my new friends some warning... 😅 // I was hired as a running coach to come and lead an after-work run club for a forward thinking company based in Marylebone who specialises in data science. I spoken to any of them before, but they were really welcoming. :) - the gentleman on the right ran the Prague marathon in 3:19 last week - the lady in white ran further today than she has in 17 years. So I had to use my experience to keep the run enjoyable for everyone! The route I chose through Regents Park and along the canal was beautiful in the sunshine! Hopefully they enjoyed it and I’ll be given a chance to lead progressive runs and work with them over the coming weeks/months. // I’m also really excited to have taken on the role of @shahussain ‘s coach - we’re going to be working together over the coming months, towards the goal of turning him into a sub 3:15 marathoner by the time the Berlin Marathon is over! While hitting a bunch of other goals and enjoying the process along the way! (at Regents Canal)

[davidnerr]

Day two of the @greatlakeland3day started like this... Who doesn’t love a #cloudinversion ! We climbed straight up a mountain called Robinson from our campsite on the shore of #LakeButtermere hiding beneath the cloud (swipe to reveal!) (at Robinson (Lake District))

[davidnerr]

What an epic long weekend! Spent off-the-grid at the brilliant @greatlakeland3day - I’d never done a race/event quite like this before and it’s impossible to sum up the whole thing in a single post, but luckily I took a ton of photos to help me remember and share my experience of the event. (Not all of them are #trailselfie s either! 😆) • Managed to get through 3 long self-sufficient, self-navigated days in the mountains covering something like 80km and 5000m+- (most of the ‘Wainwright’ course’) to kick-start training for the @marathondumontblanc 90k in late June. Made a bunch of new friends and caught up with @ultralan & @northbound_driftwood ! Hope you all made the most of your weekend? Anyone else done a #mountainmarathon before?#greatlakeland3day

[davidnerr]

Rest days... do you like them? Or despise them? Often I’ll despise taking one, and then in hindsight realise what a good idea it actually was... but two in a row during training?!?! It usually means something’s wrong. /: But it paid off, and now a minor ‘niggle’ around my ankle/Achilles seems to have been given the opportunity it needed to sort itself out. I did an easy 5 miles today and it was great! • I’m so excited to be heading back to the mountains for the first time since? November?! Too long. But I’ll be getting all the mountains I can handle at the @greatlakeland3day • Photo from the brilliant #RunToSwitzerland event that I helped lead for @on_running on a sunny Saturday morning a few weeks back! (at The Regent's Park and Primrose Hill)

[davidnerr]

Tried to get a shot with the pretty blossom trees in the background as I was running down this slope (where I’ve had a spectacular fall/slide in the mud before) but my aim was off! 🤦🏼‍♂️ The second photo gives a better idea of just how much blossom was around. It turned the muddy trail pink!