I was handed the results from my DEXA (dual x-ray absorptiometry) scan, the gold standard method for measuring body composition. There was just a week to go before I was set to run the 380km (236 miles) Dragon’s Back Race, promisingly dubbed the ‘hardest mountain ultramarathon in the world’. I had signed up to this race because I wanted an adventure, and the idea of running the length of Wales, while climbing a total of 17,400 metres in the process (over twice the height of Everest), for some reason, appealed to me. My personal sporting background is rugby, then weight lifting and a bit of CrossFit, but I wanted something different – exciting.
So, for the previous ten months, I trained specifically for this race. Crucially, though, I set myself the goal of maintaining or even building muscle mass, while getting enough running in my legs to stand a
