Interview with Richard Vint.

Since his introduction to X Training, Richard has done remarkably well. As well as being a full time serving CID Police Officer, Richard finds the time to train and compete in his new passion, X Training. With a masters in human biology - this very fit and dedicacted individual probably understands more about the human body then most and he is a very welcome addition to the UK Gym Elite.

Richard Vint came 2nd last year in Fit Brit – how did you find the Fit Brit competition ?

Good. I think it was more based on cv rather than weights, whereas the more serious events are more strength and endurance.

Any problems that you noticed with last year's Fit Brit?

Standardising, the bike entry would help. Spinning the wheeel on the bike and stopping can give you a recovery during the bike phase, but still clock up the distance.I don’t think everyone knows about it so I will probably go with having a set level and no spinning just to make it a bit more standardised.

What about your training for it how did that go?

Not a lot to be honest, I was doing a lot more running, I only started to do gym work when I got injured then the competition came up which seemed to tie up with everything I was doing at the time which was more cv based so i did not specialise my training towards it.

Your a policeman, is that right?

Yes

A normal policeman? Do you specialise in the gym or anything?

I work in CID so that is my specialism. I am a detective so it doesn’t give me time to train properly.

How long have you been training for this event ?And what sort of training?

To be honest I have only been training for this about the last week and half I didn’t realise it was on until quite late,so I have been training about week and half two weeks just gearing myself towards it but because i am doing a lot of gym training anyway it kinda fits in.

Of  the sport of x training what do you know about it? What interests you?

Well I am quite new to it to be honest.I only found out about it after I did the Fit Brit. I met Cassius Frankson over there and he told me about it.

Tell me about your sporting past?

I used to run the 800 and 1500 at Loughborough and represented GB , then had a scholarship to America – I raced over there for 3 years for an American University but unfortunately that’s when I got injured and came back to England and I have had trouble with my Achilles since. Hopefully I am getting an operation on that , it should sort it out with a bit of luck.

What was you doing at Loughborough and the US?

I was studying  human biology 3, achived that and got a scholarship to study in the US and completed my masters out there.

What about sport science?

I didn’t do that only because of my A levels and I sort of preferred biology – there was an opportunity to do it.

What are your PB’s?

For 1500 its 3.45 and for 800 its around 350, long time ago now

So when you look at athletics the severity of doing that sort of time how does it compare with x training?

Very different actually, in terms of the 800 the similarity is that you are always running in lactic, but it is such a speed endurance you do go into a lot of lactic as you do in these events. There is a lot of vascular shifting in these events from legs to arms to stomach and it is a different feeling it is so intense on specific body parts it takes a lot of getting used to.

Since you have started doing it what do you prefer?

I have got quite into this and it is difficult for me to let go of Athletics. I will always keep a toe in that that is why I don’t train as much for this as I probably should do – it is difficult I have started to enjoy this - a difficult choice for me I think. When my Achilles is fixed I will have to think about what I am going to concentrate on.

What about getting other police involved do you think that they might do this?

I have got a couple of friends that have done it in the past they enjoyed it they liked the atmosphere and it gives us something to train for in the gym a lot of the time, I think there is some interest in there but training to the level  that a lot of these guys are at is quite difficult!

There is an event on this year the 26 Sept which is called The Orbital - You will get graded in the only X Training Database - fancy it?

I will definitely aim for that.

Comment. Having spoken to Richard on the day, it is very easy to see the characteristics for all that is good in the sport - quietely confident, easy going and a really nice guy. I genuinely wish Richard all the very best in any event he enters.

Richard Vint completed all of this in a time of 17 mins and 31 seconds