January Blue Sky Run

I was itching to get out for a long run, after forfeiting my long run for a trip to London last weekend. A perfect morning – blue sky, cold, but no wind. The run took longer than it needed to. I walked to navigate around some particularly swampy puddles in the twelfth mile – and

Adapting the training plan

There’s no time for my usual long run this weekend, as I’m in the big smoke (London) to see a play. To compensate, I had a longer recovery run – eight miles – earlier in the week. I had worried that it was a bit soon after my long run for an eight miles run,

Long Run Saturday

Today was long run day. I really wasn’t in the mood. Given the choice to do any kind of run I’d have chosen an easy treadmill run, with Forest Gump playing on my tablet. Outside did not look appealing. But I needed a long run, so that was that. When running long runs, I prefer

New Year Running

I’m pleased that I found time to get a run in on both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Both were 5K recovery runs along the same route in grey, gloomy, foggy weather. On both occasions, I felt tired and sluggish, and my times weren’t great. And then I compared with the equivalent run

Happy New Year

Reflecting on the past year a few days ago, I said to my family that 2019 had been a horrible year and I’d be glad to see the back of it. We have, as a family, had a couple of truly horrific – and I mean really shocking – things happen this year. But we

Fifteen miles fuelled by Christmas

I decided on 27th December to attempt my first fifteen mile run. I should have done this weeks ago. Since I completed my first half marathon back in September, I’ve been telling myself that I’m gradually increasing my mileage, in training for Newport Marathon next April. But, as the year comes to an end, I

The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Grief of Christmas Present

Christmas can be a painful time for many of us, made more difficult by the expectation that everyone should be having a wonderful time. My Christmases used to be filled with nothing but joy. As a child they were all about awe, wonder new toys and chocolate. Then, as I grew up, enjoyment of Christmas

Weston Christmas Cracker 10K

The Weston Christmas Cracker took place on an extremely windy Sunday morning on 8th December. The Weston Christmas Cracker was recommended to me last year as a fun race with a great atmosphere. At the time, I had just started running and was not yet ready for a 10K race. Besides, the race is very

Insomnia

Yesterday was a stressful day. I work in education, and we had The Special Visitor. It went okay – results pending report etc. But I couldn’t help but second guess everything I did and said. All through the night. Over and over. Now that I’m part of the management team, I feel responsible not only

Hello winter, goodbye autumn

Spring and autumn are times of transition. Thinking back to the start of the autumn – I was about to run my first half marathon, and it was hot. It was too hot. It stayed hot until, all of a sudden, around mid-October, it wasn’t. Everything went cold, wet and windy. Suddenly the biggest problem