Friday 24 March 2017 12:40, UK
Freezing conditions, mud, lots of elbows jabbing you in the ribs as you jostle for position with hungry rivals wanting to get ahead of you.
Why would a top class 1500m runner get involved in cross country? There are lots of differences with competing on the track, but Jess Judd is happy to get stuck in for long-term gain.
The 20-year-old from Essex is running at Liverpool's Sefton Park on Saturday in a race acting as the trials for the European Cross Country Championships in Hyères in the south of France on December 13.
Here's the latest blog by the Sky Academy Sports Scholar on how she's spent the last two months away from the track and her insight to the brutal world of cross country.....
My off-season has been great. I managed to go home and see my family which was really nice. I base myself in Loughborough so I don't get to see them that often.
I also visited my boyfriend's family so I've managed to switch off from athletics all together. I also spent a week in Cyprus which was amazing.
I've been training really hard and the mileage is slowly killing me! On average I'm running around 70 miles a week, so that's tough!
This weekend I've got the European Cross Country trials so I'm very excited to see how that will go. At the moment I have just been training through cross country races and I have no real cross country aims, so I just want to use the winter to get fit and ready for next summer.
Cross country is very different to track. It's much longer and so it means the winter sessions are more gruelling. The sessions include long reps and hills, and my weekly mileage is at the highest it's ever been this year.
This is very different from the track season where we focus more on track reps and the mileage drops considerably.
I do prefer racing on the track as you can really focus on the tactics as it's not too long and you can break the race down into certain parts.
In cross country, it's more difficult as there are hills, the wind can play a part and you also have to take into account the mud that can slow you down and really tire you out.
Mentally it's a lot tougher in cross country. Because the races are longer you have to be switched on for longer and cover certain moves.
You need to make the right decisions when coming up to hills and when you hit the mud, you have to keep your eyes on the ground as well so you don't fall over!
It's more brutal at the start as there are so many more people racing, but I find the track is a lot quicker so things can happen quicker so probably the pushing is harder to cope with on the track.
We do a lot more core training and conditioning in the winter just to make us stronger and help us with the extra elements.
We have two drills sessions a week and two conditioning circuits a week to help with this. These circuits help me in particular with foot control, which is important for running through mud. It's all very very tough but it is very beneficial for the summer though.
Outside of running, in January I have my first set of year 2 exams for university. I am studying Human Biology so it's quite hard to balance that with running but I have split my year which is making life easier.
My ambitions for the next 12 months are to get to the summer season in the best possible fitness and get ready for the summer races.
Obviously I would like to make the Olympic Games but I will just have to see how it goes in the lead-up to the trials!
WHAT'S COMING UP FOR OUR SCHOLARS
NOVEMBER 21-29: Sam Oldham, Tokyo training camp
NOVEMBER 31: Elise Christie, World Cup Shanghai
25 NOV-DEC 21: Holly Bradshaw, South Africa training camp
