Motivation

BOSS OF ME.

Running With Diabetes – Boss of Me.

There’s an old Native American tale that inside each of us is a wolf of darkness and a wolf of light. The wolf of light is kind, compassionate and happy and the wolf of darkness is mean, intolerant and miserable.
These two wolves are in a constant struggle for supremacy, some days the wolf of light is in charge and we are productive, kind, humble and patient. Some days the wolf of darkness is in charge and we are impatient of others, feel sorry for ourselves, play the blame game and can be just plain old mean.

The question is which wolf is the strongest?

The one that you feed!

So how do you feed your wolf?

Well, you can feed your inner wolf of darkness with pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, sloth and wrath, or you can feed your inner wolf of light with humility, temperance, chastity, kindness, wisdom, diligence and patience.
We all have a choice, or more accurately a continual series of choices. If we choose to be positive, to be kind when we can (including being kind to ourselves) to take a minute when dealing with others, then we are feeding the wolf of light.

Whatever your day brings your way always be aware that you have a choice, pretending not to choose is a choice like any other.

I live with Diabetes (L.W.D.) which means that I am constantly having to make choices and decisions which other people don’t even have to think about.   If you think that I’m looking for sympathy then you couldn’t be more wrong.  I own my Diabetes.  Diabetes is not the boss of me. 

I am the Boss Of Me.

Living with Diabetes makes me take ownership, which means that I have to be present, turning up is not enough, I have to make a conscious decision to deal with whatever comes my way.  So I deal with it.

Like a Boss.

Whatever challenges you are living with, they are yours, so own them.

The limits we live with are mostly the limits we put on ourselves.

Have a great day.

MEDITATION

When I hear the word meditation I instantly think of somebody sat on the floor with their legs crossed and their eyes closed, sometimes they are listening to music, sometimes they have incense burning, sometimes they are repeatedly saying ‘Ommm’ to themselves.

Now, I know that this works for lots of people and I’m both happy and supportive of them, I just know that it doesn’t work for me, and if we’re going to be completely honest, I find meditation just that little bit weird.

That said, the lure of meditation still appeals to me because of the numerous benefits that it is said to provide, and there are a lot of benefits, meditation is said to:

• reduce stress
• increase happiness
• improve concentration
• help to lose weight
• slow ageing

The list goes on.

So I like the effects of meditation, but I’m still not sure I can actually bring myself to sit on the floor, even with a cushion, and do nothing for half an hour or so.

It’s not that I haven’t tried, it’s just not for me.

I realise that this is a failing on my part, but perhaps there’s another way.  Let’s take it back to basics. What exactly is meditation? Well, meditation can be defined as a practice where an individual focuses their mind on a particular object, thought or activity to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm state.

Now we’re talking.

So, if we expand on what we mean by meditation to include something that we do on our own and where we just focus on just one thing then we can include a whole raft of other activities that can qualify.

For some people meditation is gardening, for some it’s chopping wood, for some it’s cooking.  For me, it’s running. Not the social running with friends, but the singular focus of running on my own. I love it, whether it’s just thirty minutes or three hours plus. For me, my meditation consists on lacing up my running shoes and going out and pounding pavements, or forest trails, or canal paths or muddy fields. Some people may find running a bit weird, I get it, but when we get right down to it we’re all a bit weird. Here’s the thing:

Find your weird

own it, don’t let your perceived expectations of everybody else’s perceptions influence your actions.

Meditation can be a conscious activity which helps you achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm state. If gardening is your thing, grab hold of it with both hands and just go with it. Commit to it in the full and clear knowledge that gardening isn’t just something you do, gardening is your meditation, gardening is the conscious activity that you have chosen that allows you to achieve your mentally clear and emotionally calm state. And it doesn’t have to be gardening, it can be dress making, designing, writing, cooking, chopping wood, or even running.

Have a great day.

POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE

I love running marathons.

When you run a marathon they you run with two things and they’re not your legs.

You run with your head and your heart.

I’ve seen athletes who are all head and no heart, usually they’re the ones with tons of natural ability, they often fail to warm up (or cool down), but they have followed their training plan to the minute and they are ready to go.  If they have a good day then everything goes great.  If they have a bad day then it can be a different story.

I’ve seen athletes who are all heart and no head.  These are the ones who aren’t gifted with as much natural ability as others, who find it easy to get carried away at the start of a race, who set off too fast and then struggle later on.  These are the ones who just keep going, even when their head tells them to stop, beyond sense, beyond reason, one foot in front of the other until the job is done.

I remember the morning after I ran the 2016 Loch Ness Marathon, which is a fabulous, incredibly beautiful  race.  The organiser’s tag line for this marathon is

“If you’re going to put yourself through hell, you might as well do it in heaven.“

which always makes me smile, even though they got the location slightly wrong (for me it’s Ireland) but the race itself is wonderful and even though at just over five hours I achieved my personal worst I still loved it.

Anyway, I stayed at a bed and breakfast in Inverness, and at breakfast the day after the marathon the other athletes who stayed there were declaring their times.  I kept quiet because at just over five hours I was the fastest there, but I was also the youngest (by quite a way) and the thinnest (again, by quite a way) and I didn’t want to show off.

As the other athletes reeled of their times, five and half hours, five hours and three quarters, six hours, and longer, I noticed one of the ladies, about five feet tall and somewhat on the heavy side, just sat there patiently waiting for everyone to finish.  When they had, she gave a great big smile and said, “Well, I’ve got you all beat.  I’m the best athlete here!  Not one of you kept going for seven hours and fifteen minutes yesterday, but I did!”

Collectively we all took a second to process this, and then, as one we all cheered her achievement and more importantly, her attitude.

It was somewhat humbling to hear her declare that she was the best athlete there because I know that I suffered the day before and I could only imagine how much it took for her to just keep going.  What impressed me most was her attitude.  It was one of the best examples of positive mental attitude that I’ve ever seen.

On the morning of a marathon hundreds, sometimes thousands of athletes will line up to run the 26.2 miles.  Most of them know full well that they aren’t going to win.  And they turn up anyway.

If you line up for a marathon (or any race) there will be athletes who are faster than you, (good for them), and there will be athletes who are slower than you, when you finish they will still be going, (so good luck to them).  Should you be reading this and you finish dead last in a race then you’ve still finished in front of everybody else who didn’t run.

Well done.

Should you decide to commit to a marathon then, as you finalise your preparations for your race remember it’s not just your heart that’s going to get you there, it’s also your head, specifically your attitude.  There’s no way around it, running a marathon is hard, but here’s the thing, life is hard, how you react to it and your attitude going in will determine whether you stop or whether you just keep going.

We all face adversity, that’s a given, how you deal with it is up to you.

You have a choice, you can be negative and focus on all the reasons why your life is so hard, or you can be positive and focus on all the reasons how you can do your best.

You won’t always win, you may not always succeed, but with a positive mental attitude you will be able to tap into your full personal resources and know that you did the best that you could on the day.

Positive Mental Attitude.

It’s not just for marathons.

Have a great day.

BLING

I run a lot.  

I’ve literally ran thousand and thousands of miles and ran in hundreds and hundreds of races.  

In itself this is not particularly impressive, lots of people run more than I do, and lots of people run less.  I’m a runner so I run, and I do like races.

At the finish of lots of races I usually get some bling, the bigger the race, the better the bling.  Not surprisingly I tend to get the best bling at marathons, medals, t-shirts, shorts, bags, umbrellas, water bottles, jackets and my particular favourite, a felt lined recovery cloak.

Whilst I like all the bling I’ve collected (who doesn’t like a drawer full of shiny?) bling is not the reason I enter races. 

I enter races because I love running and I find races, especially the hard ones, help me to run better because, for me, entering races is all about setting goals. 

If you want to keep moving forward then you should set goals.

When I enter a marathon I’m setting a goal, one that I’m not entirely sure that I can do.  I have an objective that I want to achieve (finish) and I plan out how I expect to make that happen.  As soon as I book a marathon I get excited, and a bit nervous. Yes I’ve ran marathons before, (when I was younger), but that doesn’t stop the nagging little doubts:

Can I do it again?

Can I do it quicker?

What if it goes wrong?

I know that when I don’t have a marathon booked, then my training loses direction and I lose focus, I get a little bit lazy and I just don’t try as hard because I’m not running towards anything.

Setting goals boosts motivation.

Setting goals builds self-confidence.

Setting goals helps you get where you want to go.

We all have things that we want, very often these things have very little to do with bling because bling just doesn’t last.

I’m a runner, so a lot of the goals I set take the form of races, lots of you reading this aren’t runners, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have aspirations and hopes and dreams.  

If you want to achieve them then you should set goals.

So set Goals.

Have a great day.

BUY FLOWERS 

Spring is a good time to go running, it’s warmer, there’s more daylight and lots of flowers are in bloom.

Which reminds me of an old saying that goes:          

‘Stop and smell the flowers.’

Whilst this is a nice idea, most of us don’t have the time.   

We’re busy, running around in circles, just trying to get through the day whilst trying to carve out a little me time before we have to go to sleep, because we know that it all starts up again tomorrow. 

With all that in mind here’s some advice:

Buy flowers.

It’s really easy.

Don’t wait for somebody else to buy them for you, don’t drop hints that you would like flowers, don’t buy them for somebody else as a gift and give them away, buy them yourself and then put them in your home where you can see them.

Buy them as a small gift from you to you.

Choose a room that you use a lot and put your flowers on display.  I put my flowers in the kitchen so that every morning as I’m sat waiting for the milk to soften my twig-like breakfast I get to look at and smell the flowers, it doesn’t take any extra time and it makes my day better.

Some of you reading this (mainly the men but some of the ladies as well) won’t have a vase to put the flowers in.  

Go out and get one.  

This is a one of expense.  Vases come in all shapes and prices, so try and get one that you like as you will have it for a while.

Lets get back to the flowers.

If you’ve not bought flowers before then your best place to start is the supermarket.  Most supermarkets have a flower section with several pricing options. Now, unless you’re rich then do not buy the biggest bunch of flowers that they have, they will cost around £20.00 and will only last as long as a bunch that costs £5.00.  If it’s tulip season when you read this then a bunch of rainbow tulips should cost around £5.00, and they will last between 7 – 10 days.

At the end of this time throw the flowers away and go out and buy another bunch.  

Like buying anything else at the supermarket you should check the sell by date, also have a look at the petals of the flowers, if they’re broken or bruised then they will not last as long, so its worth spending a few minutes checking before you buy.

The act of buying flowers is often neglected because we aren’t in the habit of doing it.  It can be seen as indulgent, which is ridiculous, nearly everything we do is indulgent, from what we eat, to what we wear, to what we binge watch on television to what we do at the weekends.  

Of course buying flowers is indulgent, that’s kind of the point, we are an indulgent species, but buying flowers is an indulgence that you should get into the habit of making because it is one that will make you feel better. Unlike a bottle of wine, or a takeaway, flowers will enrich your quality of life.

You can get metaphysical about it if you want, let the act of buying flowers be symbolic of the illusory nature of possessions, the intransigence of beauty, the temporal quality of life itself.

Or you could just buy flowers because they are pretty and they smell nice.

So buy flowers.

Have a great day.

THE SEA THE SKY

I like marathons, they’re great big events, I find them really motivational for training, they’re fantastic for goal setting, they are always challenging and sometimes they don’t go the way I planned.

In 2017 I ran the Blackpool Marathon (in the U.K.). Training had been going really well, no niggles, no injuries, I had managed to increase my weekly mileage so that I was running farther than previous training plans and everything was going great.

Right up to the Wednesday before the race when I got a virus. 

So I went to bed and stayed there until Saturday, hoping that I would recover and be able to run the marathon.

I drove down to Blackpool early Sunday morning, feeling great, the blue sky from the day before had clouded over nicely so I lined up with everyone else in the wind and the rain, which for me, are perfect marathon conditions. 

Brilliant.

I set off and ran the first lap of the marathon and I loved it; the promenade, Blackpool Tower, the arcades, the attractions: Madame Tussauds, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, The Star Trek Experience, the Pleasure Beach, the rides, the trams, the lights, the sea, the sky.

As some of you know, Blackpool marathon is two laps, (roughly 13 miles each) and two miles into the second lap (mile 15) I began to suspect that I had not actually recovered from the virus as I started to fall to bits.

So I kept going.

Another mile, (mile 16) really struggling now.

So I kept going.

Another mile (mile 17) and everything’s an effort.

So I kept on going.  

For another half mile.

I’d spent that half mile working out what my chances of finishing were.  I knew that I could probably (60%) finish the marathon, but that would come with the risk (40%) that I would make myself seriously ill and end up in the back of an ambulance, which would have been silly.  It was just a marathon.

The day before I became ill with the virus I gave somebody else (who had picked up an injury) some advice, which mostly went like this:

Giving out advice is lovely, taking your own advice, less so.

If you’ve ran 17.5 miles of a marathon then you know that there’s only 8.7 miles left to go, or in terms of time, (if you’re running 10 minute miles) that’s only 1 hour and 27 minutes. 

With that in mind I unpinned my bib (number) from my vest, got on a tram and went back to the start.  

I was done. 

Lots of people line up at the start of a marathon and lots of them finish.  

But not everybody does.

Getting through the day can often feel like a marathon, and just like a marathon:

Do your best and hope for the rest.

Sometimes you have a great run and everything goes your way and you do fantastically well.  And sometimes you don’t.

If you tried your best and it still didn’t happen, for whatever reason, don’t beat yourself up over it, there will be other marathons, just pick yourself up and try again.

Have a great day.

FAILURE IS NOT THE ENEMY

At first sight the above statement doesn’t seem to make sense. 

Let’s be clear, you are going to fail.  

It doesn’t matter how hard you are, how fast you are, how strong you are, you are going to fail.

This is not a bad thing because failure is not the enemy.

Now, I’m not saying that you will enjoy failure, because we all know that it sucks, but failure is an important part of achieving success.  Once you accept that you will fail then you open the door to the possibility that you will succeed.  Failure is the road to success, if everything you did came easily and without any effort on your part then you wouldn’t have achieved anything because you wouldn’t have struggled, you wouldn’t have adapted and overcame, you simply wouldn’t have grown.

Nobody ever learned anything coming first.

Success doesn’t happen all a sudden one day, the day you succeed is great, but that’s not where success really happens, it’s the culmination of all the days that go before it, all the times you worked better, faster, stronger, more and all the times that you failed, and just kept going.

Whenever there is a big marathon, social media fills up with stories; triumphant stories, motivational stories, moving stories, success stories., which are lovely.

What it is not full of is runners celebrating their failures, lot’s of people don’t get the time they were chasing, and some people don’t finish at all. In running this is called a D.N.F. which stands for Did Not Finish.

If you’ve read The Sea, The Sky above, you will know that I when ran Blackpool Marathon, I did not finish – D.N.F. (I’ve no idea why they put it in captials, but they do). This was not my first D.N.F. and it’s probably not going to be my last.  

Was I disappointed not finishing?  

Was I disappointed failing?

Of course I was, but I don’t let failure define me.  

I ran 17.5 miles, most of it pretty quick, and if it had been a training run then I would have been more than happy with my performance, so I just logged it as a training run for my next marathon.  

Now, I know that not all of you run, but we all have challenges in our lives.  If you want to achieve anything then you run the risk of failure, and sometimes you will fail, because just like everybody else, you are human.

Failure is not the enemy, inaction is the enemy.

If you failed yesterday, if you fail today or if you fail tomorrow then do not let this hold you back, every failure is another step towards success, all you have to do is keep moving forward. 

You may not get there today.

You may not get there tomorrow.

You will get there.

Have a great day. 

F.E.A.R. 

F.E.A.R is one of the most widely recognised acronyms mainly due to Alcoholics Anonymous where it is defined as:

False Evidence Appearing Real.  

There are other interpretations of what F.E.A.R. stands for but for now I’m just going to talk about the A.A. definition.

Fear itself is a legitimate response to an immediate physical danger.  

Fear feeds our Fight or Flight response.  

Fear is primeval. 

Fear is literally hardwired into us as a survival instinct.  

If tomorrow you were attacked by a Tiger then you would experience fear which would provoke a physical response that helps you to fight (good luck) or flight – run away as fast as possible.  Remember if there’s two of you, then you don’t have to run faster than the Tiger, you just have to run faster than the other person.

F.E.A.R on the other hand is what happens when there’s not actually any threat of immediate physical danger, no threat of a loss of somebody or something that you care about. 

In this way F.E.A.R is illusory.  

Reading that F.E.A.R. is an illusion is all well and good, but when your brain tells your body that it’s real then it becomes real and it can be one of the biggest barriers between where you are now and where you want to be.

Living in F.E.A.R. not only holds you back, not only is it unhealthy but ultimately it offers you no protection whatsoever.  There’s a line in an old Marillion song that goes:

The fearful fall foul of fate as often as the reckless.

F.E.A.R. isn’t very helpful.  It’s aided by the little voice that tells you all the reasons why you can’t achieve what you want, how many obstacles are in the way, how you will fail and how somethings are just impossible.  

Here’s the thing.

You always have a choice.  

Always.  

Sometime having a choice brings it’s own challenges because once you accept that you have a choice then you become accountable which means you are responsible.  Events will happen in your life, (good and bad), which are completely beyond your control, and if something’s beyond your control then there is nothing you can do about it.  

But how you react?

That’s on you.

You’re not always going to get it right, sometimes you will, sometimes you won’t, that’s just the way life is.  

Now, I’m not saying to ignore F.E.A.R, that’s unachievable, but what I am saying it that you shouldn’t let F.E.A.R. control you when you are making a choice. 

So make up your mind to be a little brave. 

All you can do is your best, usually that’s enough.

Have a great day.

THE 6 P’s

The 6 P’s is shorthand for Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Nobody appears to have taken ownership for coming up with the 6 P’s, but I like to thing that it originated in the army.

There’s a quote you may have heard – failing to plan is planning to fail, which is a reworking of an original quote from Winston Churchill:

He who fails to plan is planning to fail.

Like most things, the original is better than the copy because it makes clear that planning is a choice.

Choosing not to plan is also a choice.

If you want to move forward then you’re gonna’ have to make a plan.

The more time and effort you put into your plan then the more prepared you will be.  

To be clear, sometimes the sun will shine and everything will go the way you planned.

And sometimes, it won’t.

Whatever eventualities you think that you have got covered, whatever contingencies you have in place, sometimes it all goes wrong anyway.

So why make plans?

The more effort that you’ve put into your plans, the more time you’ve spent on them, then the better equipped you will be, the more choices you will have and the more prepared you will be to deal with whatever happens and still move forward.

If anybody tells you that something can’t be done, then smile politely and agree with them, because for them, it’s true.  It is something that can’t be done.  

By them.  

They have already made up their mind and they will fight tooth and nail to support their decision. 

But you’re not them.

And if you want to do something that others say cannot be done, then you’re gonna’ have to work at least as hard to support your decision.

Overcoming your fear, and making the decision to do something incredible, is hard, but once you’ve made that choice, then that’s where the real work begins.

Work out where you want, write it down, then write down everything that you can think off that’s inbetween where you are now and where you want to be, then plan out how you’re going to get there.  

At first the list of things in your way may too seem many, that the dream is too big, it’s too hard, it’s too much work, it’s impossible.  

And there will be days when it is too big, when it is too much work, when it is impossible.

Just keep moving forward.

Every day that you work on your plan you’ll get that little bit closer to where you want to be.

All it takes to change Impossible to I’m possible is a little space and a highly achieving comma.

Have a great day.

IF YOU CAN’T FLY THEN RUN

If you can’t fly then run, are the opening words to my favourite Martin Luther King quote of all time. 

Now, it’s possible that he wasn’t really talking about running when he said this, however, once I read that I was off.

I love running. 

I love thinking about it, talking about it, reading about it, writing about it and coaching it.  I love everything about it.

But I never used to, or I did, and then I didn’t and I even forgot that I ever did.

Let me explain.

Running is a very emotive activity.

I was talking to somebody in America the other day and the conversation turned to running and they said:

They love the thought of running, but they hated the act of running.

This sounded familiar. I’ve heard lots of other people say this before, and I’m pretty sure that I’ve said something very similar in the past.

Lots of people (runners) love running and lots of people don’t love running and when I ask them why they invariably say the same thing.

They hate it.

If you investigate further, usually the answer is because of the way that it makes them feel. Which is often one of the answer for why lots of runners run; we run because of the way it makes us feel.

Like a lot of other runners I only returned to running in my mid thirties.  Before that I didn’t run.  The thought of it was great but the act?  Not so much.  

Which got me to thinking.

Why does running provoke such extremes from people?  They usually say that they love it or hate it, and if they’re saying it here (in England) and in America, and probably other places as well, what’s going on?

The answer I came up with is school.

I have a large extended family, which means lot of small children, and what I’ve noticed about small children is that they love to run.  You start off asking them to slow down, then telling them to slow down, and then negotiating with them to be careful or not run on the road.  

The point it children love running and they are great at it.

And then they get sent to school where the first thing they get told is:

Don’t run!

All of a sudden running gets you into trouble.

The next thing that happens is that you are forced to participate in physical education and if you don’t ‘play hard enough’ at a particular sport, then you are made to run.

So, not only is running declared bad, but it is used as a punishment as well.

This goes on for years and at the end of it most people don’t run anymore.

Like a lot of people I didn’t enjoy school, I endured it, like I endured college and university. I kept going because I knew that education was the only way I could move forward from where I was to where I wanted to be, so I stuck at it.

As for running, years of continued negative reinforcement (running is bad) combined with running being used as a punishment meant that I didn’t run, and after a while I even forgot that I’d ever liked running in the first place.

Then in the middle of my 30’s, in an effort to lose weight, I tried running again.

And it was hard!

But I kept with it, little by little, I could run further and then faster, not by much, but I just kept going until one day something magical happened.

I realised that I loved running.  

And all that time it was waiting for me, like a forgotten childhood pet.

I run because it’s running.

I run because I’m a runner.

I run because when it’s good it’s like flying.

When you go for a run you want to be as light as possible, taking only what you need.

We all have baggage, but that doesn’t mean that we have to keep carrying it around with us. 

Who we once were does not dictate who we can become.

We have a choice, we can recreate ourselves at any given moment, we don’t need anybody else’s permission to let go of what is holding us back and to move forward, we just need to act.  

We don’t have to make that choice today, or even make it tomorrow, but if we want to move forward then we do have to make it.

Here’s the full quote from Dr. Martin Luther King:

If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.

So keep moving forward.

Have a great day.

BUXTON       

Buxton is England’s leading spa town. 

It was founded by the Romans who called it the Spa of the Goddess of the Grove, and it is famous for its natural spring water, Georgian architecture and picturesque location. 

It also hosts The Lomas Distribution Buxton Half Marathon, (which I’ve ran a number of times), and it’s great. For years the t-shirt had the race profile on which clearly displays the total elevation of the course which at 1,508 ft (460 m) is brilliant.  

You start outside the Opera House and run up along a hill that’s called Axe Edge, down Dowel Dale, up Chrome Hill, down Glutton Dale up Brierlow Bar then down Harpur Hill and finishing in the Victorian extravagance of Pavilion Gardens. This is one of my favourite races.

I remember one year, after I’d finished running it that I went to eat and a strange thing happened.

I found that I couldn’t eat.

I tried and tried, but it was no good, my body just rejected food.  

Which was a little odd as I am usually really good at eating. 

I did feel a bit unwell, but after I got home and had a sleep I was back to normal.

Strange.

A few weeks later I mentioned it to one of my very talented athletes and she told me that after every half marathon she would throw up.

Every time.

This sounded familiar so at a different training session I mentioned it to some of my other very talented athletes, and it turns out that throwing up at the end of a race is not all that uncommon.  Lots of runners will finish a race, be it 10K or a half marathon and they will often throw up, especially if they have run quite fast.

There’s a couple of possible explanations for this, but the most common one seems to be that the athlete has pushed themselves too hard for too long and as a result their digestive system has temporarily shut down.  This happens because the energy demand of their muscles has increased so dramatically that their body has redirected the blood supply to their muscles so that the athlete can run as fast as possible.

The problem is that when the athlete finishes they stop running, their muscles energy demand supply drops off and their digestive system can start back up again.

If it starts back up again too quickly then the results can be dramatic.

You throw up.

Now, if you run and this happens to you, it can be avoided by simply extending your cool down. A good baseline is for every mile you run, add a minute to your cool down, so a 10K (which is 6.2 miles) would require a 6 minute cool down and a half marathon would require a 13 minute cool down.

Your cool down should include static stretching, gentle walking and focusing on your posture, all of which will help your body return to normal in a controlled, non explosive manner.

This may take a little bit longer than your usual cool down so you will need to time it to make sure that your recovery at least meets the baseline for your running event.  The payoff is that if you do feel unwell then you will return to feeling better quicker.

If you are struggling to find time for an extended cool down then consider the following quote by Charles Buxton:

You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it.

We all have busy lives with lots of things that have to be done, and often we don’t find the time for ourselves.  

Fitting everything in is important, but not at the expense of making yourself ill, sometimes you just have to slow down, run fast, work hard by all means, but allow yourself the chance to recover.  

Make time for you. 

Everything that you have to do will still be there and you will be much better equipped to do it once you have made time to allow yourself to recover.

Once you have recovered then you can go out and do everything you need to do, as hard and as fast as you like.

Hopefully it won’t make you throw up.

Have a great day.

POWER

What is power?

Power is often confused with strength.  

It doesn’t matter how strong you are, if you want to hammer a nail into a wall then you’re still gonna need a hammer.

Now, you can have all the strength in the world but if it comes without the ability to control it then you don’t have any power, all you have is force and when you try to use it, the results are unpredictable and often destructive.  Try hammering a nail into the wall with a sledgehammer, or better yet, a wrecking ball.

It’s not going to work out.

So power comes down to control.

I was diagnosed with Diabetes at Easter in 2012, and I’ve noticed that it has become a trend to call the date of diagnosis, a dianniversary.  Part of this trend has spawned other words like diathlete or diabadass which are all words that are supposed to highlight that an individual is living with Diabetes (L.W.D.) and loving life.

My problem with diathis and diathat is threefold.

Firstly, dia sounds like dire as in terrible or of a very poor quality.

Secondly, dia looks like an acronym similar to M.I.A. (missing in action) K.I.A. (killed in action) or D.O.A. (dead on arrival) none of which are particularly appealing to me.

Thirdly, there’s the language itself.  

When I read that somebody is declaring themselves as a diaathlete or a diabadass, then what they are doing is empowering their medical condition instead of empowering themselves.

If you’re an athlete, then be an athlete.

If you’re a badass, then be a badass.

You don’t need to qualify that. 

And you certainly don’t need to define yourself in terms of your medical condition.

The minute you start adding D.I.A. then you are empowering diabetes when you should be empowering yourself.

Be a badass. 

Be an athlete. 

Be a rockstar.

Be whatever you want to be or whatever you want to become.

Be epic.

Just don’t be diaepic.

Because that’s not even a word.

If you’ve let diabetes, take your power away from you, then go and take it back.

You always have power, and this isn’t just about living with Diabetes, (because there’s a lot more to life than just Diabetes) and power affects all of it. 

Whatever you think it is that has taken you power away from you, realise that this is illusory and go and take it back.

I don’t care if you’re incarcerated if federal prison, if you’re ‘trapped’ in a job you hate, or a relationship that’s no longer giving you what you need or any other number of situations where you feel that you have no power.

You always have power.

Once you accept this, then you realise that you have a choice and all of a sudden you are responsible for the choices you make.

Which can be exhausting. 

Lots of us stay in situations that are no longer appropriate for us, and we tell ourselves that it’s more comfortable to stay than to change. 

Which is a lie we tell ourselves, because we know that it’s not comfortable.

It’s easier.

Which is a million miles away from comfortable.

Easier doesn’t mean good, and it’s unlikely to feel comfortable; it feels more like running out of air, slowly, easily.

You can stop this any time you choose.

The limits we live with are mostly the limits we put on ourselves.

As soon as you decide to take your power back then you free yourself from the chains you no longer even noticed were holding you down.

Have a great day.

THE LUMBERJACK STORY 

This is a story about Chris, he’s worked in an office for about 20 years and one day he decides that’s it, he’s going to become a lumberjack. So the next morning he gets in his car and drives to the forest to see the head lumberjack, who’s called Phil.

Phil looks Chris up and down, sees that he has two arms and two legs and tells him, “Okay big man, to be a lumberjack you’re gonna need to cut down 100 trees.”

“Great, let’s go!”  Chris says and Phil gives him a chainsaw and points to where he wants Chris to start felling trees.

Chris works all morning, but it’s hard and as the day goes on he gets slower, he has a break for lunch and then he’s back on it and he’s cutting down trees, but slower again.

At the end of the day Chris goes back to see Phil who asks, “Well?  How did you get on?”

“60 trees.”  Chris replies, a bit disheartened.  Phil nods like this is to be expected and says, “Don’t worry big man, nobody does 100 trees on their first day, come back tomorrow and you can have another go.”

“Phil, that’s great, thank you so much!” 

So Chris goes home, has a good sleep and the next day he drives out to the forest, he gets there half an hour early, gets his chainsaw from Phil and starts cutting down trees like a man on a mission.

And the same thing happens, he starts off great, but as the morning goes on he gets slower, he has a break for lunch and then he’s back on it cutting down trees, but slower again. “Give me one more chance!”  Chris says. Phil looks him up and down and he can see that Chris really wants to be a lumberjack so he agrees and says, “Okay big man, one more chance, but if you don’t cut down 100 trees tomorrow, then that’s it.”

“Phil, that’s great, thank you so much!”  So, Chris goes home, eats well, goes to bed early, gets a good nights sleep, gets up in the morning and arrives in the forest early.  Phil’s there already so he hands Chris his chainsaw and off Chris goes, a man on a mission.

And the same thing happens, he starts off great, but as the morning goes on he gets slower, so he digs in and works as hard as he can.  When it comes to lunch he only stops long enough to eat and drink what he can and then he’s back on it cutting down trees, but he’s still slower again.

At the end of the day Chris goes back to see Phil who asks, “Well?  How did you get on?”

“90 trees.”  Chris replies, a bit disheartened.  Phil nods like this is to be expected but he looks Chris up and down and he can see that Chris is covered in sweat, clearly Chris has worked hard, came in early, probably didn’t have a proper lunch break and he looks gutted that he’s not managed to do the 100.  “Look big man, I can see that you really want to be a lumberjack why don’t I show you how I cut down trees, see if you can pick up a few pointers to make you a bit more efficient?”

            “Phil!  Thank you so much, anything you can show me would be great!  I really appreciate it!”  So Chris and Phil go outside, Chris hands over his chainsaw, puts it on the floor, pulls on the ripcord and starts it up.  

            Chris jumps up 3 foot, straight in the air, when he lands back down he looks around and says, “What the hell’s that noise?”

This is how I look at runners who haven’t got a coach.  I can see that they’re working hard, they’re putting all the effort in but they’re not getting the results they should because they’re not performing to the best of their ability.  They need a coach – especially the fast ones.  

It doesn’t matter what sport you do, running, swimming, cycling or weight lifting, everybody starts off with a different level of natural ability but to realise your potential, to unlock it, you need a coach. 

Have a great day.

THE TOUR OF TAMESIDE

For those who haven’t come across the tour, this is a four day festival of running based in Tameside which is a borough of Greater Manchester in the North West of England.

The festival of running always starts on a Thursday night with a 10K multi terrain race titled the X Trail 10K.  It goes through two different parks with lots of bumps (hills) and is a fantastic race all by itself because the course is really scenic. 

Total mileage after day one: 6.1miles.

The next race in the festival is on Friday night, titled Hell On The Fell Race, for me this is the most challenging of the four days.  It’s 6 miles, with a steep climb and an even steeper descent, and there is a hill in this, and it’s a big one.  That said, the views you are rewarded with when you get to the top are spectacular. The reason I find this race the tough one is not just because of the ascent/decent, but because it’s 24 hours after the X Trail 10K and about 13 hours before the next race, which is a half marathon.  You’ve probably ran quite hard the night before, and you want to run quite hard this night as well, but you know that you’ve got a half marathon in the morning and another race the morning after that, so you want to go as quick as you can, but not so quick that it slows you down for the next two races in the festival.  After the views and the atmosphere, which is incredibly friendly, this is my favourite aspect of the Tour, that you get to run four races on four consecutive days, I just love it.

Total mileage after day two: 12.1 miles.

The next race in the festival is on Saturday morning, it’s titled Hero Half Marathon, this is my favourite of the four races.  You start in a field, run out through the village and then onto the Longendale Trial which is the former Woodhead railway line which used to run between Manchester and Sheffield.  This disused railway line presents vista after vista of fantastic views as you run through the Peak District National Park.  You get to run alongside a chain of reservoirs, starting with Bottoms reservoir, then Valehouse reservoir, then Rhodeswood reservoir, then Torside reservoir and then, finally, Woodhead reservoir, where you get to turn around and run back the other way.  Absolutely stunning race.

Total mileage after day three: 25.2 miles.

The last race in the festival is titled the Dr Ron Hyde 7 Mile Race.  The race starts in Hyde and it is named after Dr Ron Hill MBE who founded the original week long Tour back in 1983.  The Tour didn’t run for a number of years until Sports Tour International brought it back, about four years ago, they started with three days for the first year, then extended it to four which it has remained at ever since. Sports Tour International host lots of races which are always incredibly well organized and are simply a joy to run in, for me the Tour of Tameside is the jewel in their event crown.  

Let’s get back to Dr Ron Hill’s race, 7 miles, this is just a weird distance and I always run it like a 10K, which is 6.1 miles, which is 0.9 miles short, which means that last 0.9 miles is pretty tough.  But it’s also the last 0.9 miles of the entire festival, and there’s no race tomorrow, so you can run it as hard as you want to run it.

Total mileage after day four: 32.2 miles. 

A marathon is 26.2 miles, so if you run the whole Tour, you’ve ran 6 miles more than a marathon, admittedly in four days, but this is still a great achievement.  I know this because I have a framed certificate on my wall signed by the legend Dr Ron Hill MBE himself.  Sports Tour International awarded me this (framed) as well as a medal for each race and a long sleeve technical tshirt.  Now, I run a lot of races and the races that Sports Tour International host are always fantastic, if you’re looking for a race to add to your training schedule then they are well worth checking out.  If you get the chance to be in Manchester in June next year then you should definitely give the full Tour of Tameside a try.  

You won’t regret it, but you might like to start training for it now.

One of the reasons I love the Tour of Tameside is because it showcases all the countryside in and surrounding the borough of Tameside itself.  

All four races offer a different palette of colours, textures and multi terrain surfaces for you to run upon.  The visually appealing routes keep you engaged and entertained as you’re trying to catch up with that runner you saw in the race the night before who finished just that little bit in front of you.

One of the other reasons I love the Tour of Tameside is because Dr Ron Hill MBE is included, he’s on every medal this year and he even signed my certificate, which is now on my wall.

For those who don’t know who Ron is, then Dr Ron Hill is a world class British distance runner who set several world bests during his career.  In 1970 he won the Commonwealth Games marathon in Edinburgh in a world record time of 2:09:28, which is two hours, nine minutes and twenty eight seconds. This was the same year he won the Boston marathon, smashing the course record by three minutes.  Back in the 1960’s there was very little sponsorship so Ron worked full time as a textile chemist and went on to found Ron Hill Sports which became hugely successful.

My favourite quote by Ron is:

Get going. Get up and walk if you have to, but finish the damned race.

What’s great about this quote is that Ron was in a race and he was catching up with the leader who he noticed was getting into difficulty and slowing down.  Now, instead of running past him as fast as he could (which is what I would have done) Ron slows down and gives his competitor the above advice!

Like lots of great advice, it doesn’t just apply to running.  Whatever you’re trying to achieve, whatever it is that your working towards, there are going to be times when you will struggle, when all you want to do is stop.  

This is the time to get going.  

This is the time to get up.

Walk if you have to, but finish what you started, all you have to do is keep moving forward.

Have a great day.

EINSTEIN

Albert Einstein is generally considered as the most influential physicist of the 20^thCentury.  Since his death in 1955 his name has become synonymous with genius, for example, it is claimed that polar bears (also known as ice bears in Norway and Denmark) have IQs as high as some apes which has led to them being called the Einsteins of the bear world.

Another interesting point about polar bears is that they have been clocked at sprinting speeds of 31 mph (49.887 kph).  To put this into context Usain Bolt, who’s pretty fast, has reached speeds of 27.8 mph (44.72 kph), which is faster than anybody else, but not faster than a polar bear. Over short distances a bear is faster than a race horse!  Bears are one of nature’s most impressive sprinters.

That’s enough about polar bears for now, let’s get back to Einstein, there’s quite a well known expression about the definition of insanity, it goes like this: “The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

The first time you hear this it sounds convincing.

You may even think that it is awesome.

It is not.

What it is, (to misquote a line from an old New York Dolls song), are pretty fancy words that aren’t really real, they sound good, but in a snake oil salesman type of way, they’re illusory.

In an effort to try and sell this definition of insanity it has been attributed to several famously clever people, the main one being what many regard as the cleverest, Einstein.

Here’s the thing,

Einstein never said it.

And even if he did (which he didn’t) it still wouldn’t be true.

Repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is how breakthroughs happen.

It’s how magic happens.

It’s how you move forward from where you are now, to where you want to be.

If you repeat the same thing over and over again what happens is that you get really, really good at doing it, the more you do it then the quicker you develop and progress.

Take running, if you repeat your runs over and over again, you get better, you improve, you get to where you want to go.

And it applies to everything, as long as you put the work in, as long as you put the effort in, and keep putting it in, over and over again, you will get there.

So, if Einstein, who is widely celebrated as a genius didn’t say anything about the definition of insanity then what did he say?

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” 

That’s Einstein, famous for being a genius and the most influential physicist of the 20^thcentury.

Now, of course he was smart, no question there, but what Einstein was saying was that when he found a problem he kept working at it and working at it, over and over again and expecting a different result.

And sometimes that’s exactly what he got.

Einstein wasn’t a quitter.

You shouldn’t be either,

If you need a break, then take a break,

if you need to take a step back, then take a step back,

if you need to regroup, then regroup,

and then try to move forwards, 

over and over, 

until you do.

Have a great day.

DO BETTER

Thirty years ago Nike trademarked the slogan:

“Just Do It.”

Now, I’m pretty sure that Nike never actually came up with this slogan, mainly because I heard my Mum, (and lots of other people’s Mums) use it before Nike ever did.  

However Nike were the first to put it on a t-shirt and then give themselves a tick for a job well done.  I’m also pretty sure that Nike never actually came up with ticks either, but they did a nice design, and they called it a swoosh and after they trademarked this as well they put it on t-shirts, and shoes, and shorts, and caps, and jumpers, and jackets, and lots of other things.  

Which is all very nice for Nike, but let’s get back to that slogan (which I still think was invented by Mums or maybe Dads).

If you have children who talk then you will know that a child’s favourite question is, ‘Why?’

This is a great question, it can open the door to communication, greater understanding, connectivity, the list goes on.

With that said, there are occasions, (like when you’re running late and you’re just trying to get everyone out the door so they arrive at school/work on time), where a philosophical discussion on society’s need to wear matching shoes and the cultural and economic impact that this entails, will make you late. 

At these points of high pressure, the conversation usually goes back and forth until we get to the end game, where your child will ask:

“Why?”  Which can lead to the following exasperated response,

“Because I said so!” 

“But why?”  Your little angel will enquire sweetly.

“Just Do It!”

Which is usually the end of the conversation. 

And this conversation isn’t just for domestic purposes, what we learn as children we repeat as adults and, back when I worked in an office, I found myself listening to lots of variations of this conversation, usually in meetings.  

So, back in 1988 Nike trademarked the slogan and launched an incredibly successful advertising campaign.  

Here’s the thing.

1988 was three decades ago.

And time has moved on.

My issue with ‘just do it’, is that it is not motivational, it’s not a phrase that comes from a good place, it is not positive advice it is a negative demand.

Should you ever hear yourself utter these three little words then you will know that you may well have been wound up so tightly that you think you might actually pass out, and none of us perform particularly well under those conditions.

Should you be on the receiving end of those three little words then you are unlikely to feel uplifted, you are very unlikely to feel energized or to feel valued and appreciated for what you bring to the table.

Which means that you will probably just do it.

But there is zero chance of you doing it well.

You are more likely to have just gone through the motions.  

This is particularly true in running, but it holds true for pretty much everything else.

For me ‘just do it!’ is right up there with ‘get it done!’ and ‘because I said so!’  

Which is a problem, not for work (unless you work for yourself), because if management tell you to just do it then they deserve to get exactly what they ask for, which isn’t very much.  

The problem is when, (after thirty years of negative advertising delivered into your home through your television, posted on billboards and maybe even printed on the clothes you wear), you say these three little words to yourself then it is really easy to deliver exactly that. 

Which as we know, is not your best.

It’s probably not even anywhere close to your best.

When subjected to the incredibly negative demand, Just Do It! then it is perfectly reasonable to respond by under delivering.

And, after awhile of under delivering, this becomes your standard.  

Which becomes a rut and once you’re in a rut it’s really easy to get stuck.

If you do this when you train then you are robbing yourself of your own potential.  

If you have a dream, something that you want to do or to achieve, then you’re going to have to work harder than you’ve ever worked before.  

You are unlikely to do it on your first attempt, because you can do better.

So do better.

Remember,

Don’t do it.

Don’t just do it.

Do better.

Have a great day.

DONEGAL

The county of Donegal is located at the top North West of Ireland, it borders the Atlantic Ocean and it is very, very hilly.

Donegal is home of the northern stretch of the Wild Atlantic Way, (which is over 2,500 km of coastal road that starts in county Donegal and ends in county Cork) and in 2017 it was named the ‘Coolest Place for 2017’ by National Geographic Traveller.

In 2018 it was home to the first Magee 1866 Donegal Wild Atlantic Marathon.

If you were living in the U.K. at the time you may recall that there was a prolonged heat-wave that year, which is lovely, unless you were training for and planning to run a marathon.

The Donegal Wild Atlantic Marathon was due to start at 8:00 a.m. in the fishing port of Killybegs with the half marathon starting at 10:00 a.m. in Carrick.  The organizers took the heroic decision to bring the start times forward by an hour because of the extreme weather conditions, so at 7:00 a.m. I along with the other marathon runners, set off from Killybegs when the temperatures were not too hot, and in two hours and 13.1 miles away the half marathon started at 9:00 a.m. 

The marathon itself was started off old school, with a shotgun being fired up in the air and we were off, straight up a hill, down the other side and straight back up another hill. Like I said, Donegal is very, very hilly.  

It’s also rather beautiful.

I’ve ran marathons in Scotland, Wales, England, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and America and the Donegal marathon was the most scenic course I’ve ever ran on, over hills, along the coast road, mile after mile of stunning views.

It is also the hardest marathon I’ve ever ran.

Before marathon day I was a little worried about the marathon, I knew that the course was challenging, I also knew that I struggle with the heat and the consistent high temperatures would add another dimension of difficulty.  

On top of this I had picked up a ridiculous non-running related injury to my lower back (lifting up a wheelie bin one handed and swinging it round) which meant that my training suffered in the few final weeks before the marathon.

Now, before my last marathon (a few months ago in Blackpool) I picked up a viral infection that left me laid up in bed for almost a week before, and whilst I still ran the marathon, I had to pull out after seventeen and a half miles.

So as the Donegal marathon came closer and closer, I really wasn’t sure if it was even possible for me to run it, what with the heat and my back injury, so when the organizers brought the time forward an hour I thought that maybe I had a small chance.

As the days clicked down to marathon day my back got a little better, then a little worse, training runs came and went, sometimes I could run and sometimes I couldn’t, some runs had to be abandoned altogether half way through, which is a hard thing to do when you know that if you don’t put the miles in when you’re training then you can’t expect to take them out on the marathon.  

For a couple of weeks there it started to look like me running the Donegal marathon was impossible.

And I decided that it was.

And I ran it anyway.

When I stood at the start line last Sunday I really didn’t know if I would be able to keep going for 26.2 miles and make it to the finish line.

So I decided to run just 1 mile, because I knew that I could do that. 

Then I did it again, just 1 mile.

Then I did it again, just 1 mile.

I did this twenty six point two times and, eventually, I crossed that finish line.

And I had an ice-cream, with a flake.

Now I know that not everybody reading this runs marathons, but I also know that there will be times in your life when, despite all your plans, all your efforts, and all your achievements, you will face a situation where moving forward is impossible.

So do it anyway.

Have a great day.

POST MARATHON BLUES

Post marathon blues is a fairly common phenomenon that happens to lots of runners and it usually kicks in the day after they complete their marathon.  Now, I know that not everybody who reads this is a runner, however, Oprah Winfrey has a lovely quote about that:

“Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it.”

So when I talk about running (which is a lot) what I’m talking about can usually be applied to life in general.

Like I was saying, post marathon blues often hits a runner the day after their marathon.  Personally I know that I can suffer terribly with this.

What happens is that when you start your marathon training plan it sets out the next sixteen to twenty weeks, which is four or five months and you are full of good intentions and expectations.  The first few weeks are great, they’re even easy, as you’re just starting out.  As the weeks go by, your training ramps up and you’re putting more effort in, you’re getting your miles in, hitting your goals and it’s going great.  If you’re not managing to tick all the boxes in your training (which can happen) then you double down and have the talk with yourself where you try and motivate yourself into doing better the next week.  And so it goes, the more you train, the more effort you put in, the more you concentrate on your marathon training then the more it seems to take over your life, to the point where all you seem to talk about is your marathon.

This is a good thing because it usually means that you’re ready.

Inevitably marathon day arrives and it’s time to find out how well your training went.  However you perform in the marathon is a combination of how you performed in training over the last sixteen weeks and luck.  

The best of athletes can suffer a bad day and the worst of athletes can enjoy a great day.

Running a marathon is an experience that most people on the face of the planet don’t get to enjoy so if you are lucky enough to be one of them then you should take a minute and enjoy it.  Even if you log a D.N.R. (did not run) or a D.N.F. (did not finish) this is an experience in itself and at the end of marathon day it’s done.

The day after marathon day is when post marathon blues can strike, for the last sixteen weeks you had a plan, a goal, or more accurately a weekly series of smaller goals culminating in your end goal, which is running the marathon.

When it’s over you may well feel a little bit blue, sad, bereft even, because you miss having all that structure and focus in place.

The way that I, and a lot of other runners deal with post marathon blues is to go out and book another race, often my next race is booked before I even get out of bed on marathon day. The problem with this is that sometimes we are already looking at our next race, our next goal that we forget to enjoy the success of the day.  Sometimes, we can focus on the negative rather than the positive, when we finish a marathon we can be unhappy because we didn’t perform the way that we wanted, or expected and our race time was longer than we had hoped for.

Here’s the thing, I don’t know most of you, some of us have never met, but I can guarantee that there will be times in your life when things just will not go the way you’ve planned. Sometimes you will be partly to blame, sometimes you won’t but what I want you to remember one piece of advice:

Take the win!

If you manage to drag yourself round 26.2 miles then you are a winner.  That’s why you get a medal.  You may not have come first, or second, or anywhere near the front.  To be clear, your placement is irrelevant.  Even if you finish dead last you are still 26.2 miles in front of everybody else who didn’t run, which is mostly the rest of the population of the planet.  If you didn’t perform the way you planned, then so what?  You still finished, which means that you’re a winner, so:

            Take the win!

Enjoy it.  

Should you feel that you could do better then book another race, another marathon, recover and get back into training.  Even if you think that you have performed badly focus on what you did well and use this as a foundation to build upon for you next run.

This feeling of anticlimax after a win is not exclusive to marathon runners, many very successful people work hard, for months, sometimes for years, towards their end goal and when they achieve it, it is wonderful.

But afterwards there’s a vacuum, a space left behind which was filled with effort and work hard to climb up whatever mountain of endeavor they chose to climb and once they’re at the top it can all seem downhill.  

When you find yourself at the top of your mountain, take a minute to enjoy the view, you did it, you’re a winner so take the win.  You may find yourself a little bit lost and wonder what to do next.

Relax. 

There’s always another mountain.

Have a great day.

WHAT GETS MEASURED

You may have heard the saying ‘What gets measured gets done’ or one of a number of variations on this, such as, ‘What gets measured gets improved upon’.  These sayings have been around for centuries and are usually doled out by salesmen when they want to sound impressive and they want to sell you something.

And, when you first hear it, it is impressive, but once you have a think about it you quickly realise that it’s nonsensical.

The origin of these quotes can be traced back to the 16^thCentury Astrologist Rheticus who is credited with having said, 

“If you can measure something then you have some control over it.”

Again this sounds fancy, until you start to think about it.

Let’s apply this saying to the rain.

You can measure the rain all you want, but after you’ve measured it you will still have rock all control over it

You can measure the rain all you want, and you will not be able to improve upon it

And finally you can measure the rain all you want and it will not get done.

Like I said, it’s nonsense.

Is it possible that I’m approaching this from the wrong angle?  

Possibly, so let’s consider the saying when it is applied to somebody whose aim is to lose weight.

If my aim is to lose weight and I then go and weigh myself every day for a month then, at the end of the month the act of weighing myself every day will not have affected my control over my weight and it certainly won’t have improved on it, all I have done is collect data.

Now, collecting data is useful, especially if you log it by writing it down, but on it’s own measuring does not get things done, it doesn’t improve on it because there is no magic tape measure.

Here’s the thing, you don’t need a magic tape measure.

If you want to make a change then you have to want it, you have to commit to it and then you have to act upon it.  

Often the hard part is making the decision.

Change is possible, but it’s only going to happen when you decide to commit, when you decide to focus your attention on what you want and you then put your effort into making that happen.

Change is possible, but it only happens with consistent effort.

So it’s not what we measure that get’s improved, it’s what we focus our attention and effort on is what gets improved.  Now part of focusing our attention can be data collection but we then have to take that information and act upon it.

Consistently.

Let’s get back to the rain, measuring it is all well and good, as it gives you information and once you have a log of information, you still won’t be able to do much about the rain, but if you focus your attention and effort on it then your reaction to it will improve.  Your ability to deal with it will improve and the more you focus your attention and effort on it then the quicker that change will happen and the longer that change will last.

There are going to be times in your life when it is going to rain, whether you want it to or not.  You can run and hide and wait for the rain to pass, or you get back out in it and keep moving forward.  

You can’t change the rain, but you can change how you deal with it.

If you are not satisfied with where you are now, if you are not satisfied with what you are doing now, if you are not satisfied with your current situation as it is now, then usually the change you want to happen is you.

And you should decide to make it now.

Have a great day.

MILLBROOK MONSTER

One of my favourite races is the Millbrook Monster. This is a 10K (6.1 mile) race held in Stalybridge or Staly-vegas as it’s known locally.  

The race starts in Stalybridge (Staly-vegas) Country Park and then goes up and up into the wild moorlands above Millbrook. This is a great race not just because of the lovely scenery but because it is what I call a multi-terrain adventure. 

Now if you’re a runner then you should treat your feet to as many different terrains as you can, because this will stress the muscles in your legs and feet in different ways which and will ultimately make them stronger.

Let’s get back to the race; the initial hill start is on a sandy trail path surrounded by trees, followed by a timely flat blacktop section as you cross the dam at Walkerwood Reservoir, which is on your right.  On your left you can see the tops of the trees you’ve just run past with views of Manchester and the Cheshire plain in the distance.  The reason I was admiring the views so much is that I was avoiding looking at the great big dirty hill in front of me, which is where the route of the race goes, right up the Pennine Bridleway. 

The gradient of the hill starts off fairly challenging, the trail path itself is a mixture of compacted rock and sand and as you keep going up the hill you are rewarded with fabulous views, with the sun low in a clear blue sky and you can see for miles and miles.  The reason I was looking at the view again was because the gradient of the hill was about to become that little big aggressive and I knew that I was going to have to walk.  

Every time I run this race I always have to walk this section.

I’m not the only one.

As soon as you get to the top of the hill you are rewarded with a swooping descent, this year the compacted rocks had been churned up, which meant that you had the extra challenge of small boulders to contend with, the further down the hill you go the easier this gets until you are back on smooth blacktop which is just a joy to run on.  There’s a very quick (because it’s downhill) road section and then you’re back in the Country Park with a return to the sandy trail path, which transitions into bare earth, with a few steps thrown in and then you’re back where you started on the sandy trail path with a lovely downhill finish.

If all this wasn’t great enough you are rewarded with a chip barm (a great big floury bap made of bread) from the local chip shop which is excellent.

I love this race.

I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again because I really enjoy it.

I remember one year the weather was particularly hot, and I struggle with the heat at the best of times, so I found running in the heat really tough.  As for running a race in the heat?  Well, I can do it, but I just can’t run anywhere near as fast as I would like, but, with that said, I can still do it.

So I did and it was great.

I could easily have ignored the heat and tried to run as fast as possible, but that wouldn’t have been realistic, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the race anywhere near as much as I did and ultimately it would have left me demotivated.

I talk a lot about setting goals, and when you set goals then they should be realistic, they should be goals that you at least have some chance of being able to achieve.  And for this to happen on a regular basis then there will be times when you need to readjust, when you take stock of what you can and what you can’t achieve on a given day.

There is rock all I can do about the weather and I know that this means that my running performance will be affected, because it always is.  

So rather than focus on what I couldn’t do I choose to focus on what I can do, which is run, but slower.  Millbrook Monster is one of my favourite races, and it was lovely to ease back on the speed (just a little bit) and just enjoy the course for what it was.

Like I said, I’ve ran this race before, and I’ll run it again.

And there’s always next year.

Have a great day.

GOALS

Because I’m a coach I talk a lot about goals.  

Goals are important because they help to focus your attention when you are trying to move forwards.  Remember:

If you want to keep moving forward then you’re gonna have to set some goals.

Now, goals come in all sizes, you can have big, end goals, such as running your first marathon, and you can have smaller, more modest goals, such as running continuously for three miles without stopping or running for 6 minutes without stopping.  

Depending on where you are with your running, these goals may seem easy or hard, and this is because as you continue to move forwards then you become better at whatever you’ve been working on.

When you start anything new, it is hard.

And it remains hard irrespective of how much work or effort you put into achieving it.

The more you work on it then the better you become at working on it, the thing itself hasn’t become any easier because it hasn’t changed, what has changed is you and your ability to do it, whatever it is.

When you are born you can’t crawl, walk, run, or even hold your head up by yourself.  

All these things are hard.

As you get older you start working on your list. You start working on your goals and as you achieve them you get better at them and you come to view them as being easy.

So when you are born you work, and you work and eventually you can hold your head up, and you can crawl and then you can walk and then you can run.

And you get to do all this because you set goals (without anybody ever telling you to) and then you worked on them.

When you get older you go to school and then you go to work and you usually start working for somebody else.

What often happens is that you work quite hard, and your goal becomes to get better at your job.  And eventually you do, how fast this happens is largely dependent upon how much effort you put in.  

Here’s the thing.

As you get better at your job, you are getting better at working for somebody else’s goals, and if you’re working on somebody else’s goals then it’s really easy to forget to work on your own.

And this can go on for years.

It can go on for so long that you lose your confidence, you start to think that your dream is too big, that it is too hard. 

Part of this may be because you are really busy, working hard.

For somebody else.

Which is another excuse.

And it’s an excuse we all tell ourselves at one time or another.

Because it’s easier to believe that than to face up to the truth that we are all responsible for ourselves.

Now, I’m not saying that you’re not working hard, you may or may not be, but whether you are or not is irrelevant because there’s a big difference between being busy working for somebody else and working for yourself.

You can be busy all day every day, work long, hard hours and then collapse in front of the television because you are exhausted. You may even be that busy that you when you get home all you can do is collapse into bed.

Once you’re in this state (or in bed) then it’s really hard to motivate yourself to start working on what you want to do rather than what you have to do.

I get it.

I really do.

I also know that this is just another excuse.

More importantly than me knowing it, you know it as well, if you have a dream that you want to work on then you need to set goals. 

If your end goal seems too big right now, then create a plan with lots of smaller goals on the path to your end goal. These smaller goals should be realistic and achievable, and you should write them down, (in a plan), and the more you work on your plan, then the easier it will become.

Be flexible with what your goals are, what you want at three months is unlikely to be the same as what you want at thirty or fifty.  Give yourself the option to change your mind because you’re going to do it anyway, as you improve and get better, things will get easier, and your goals will change to reflect that.

Also, be flexible in how you are going to meet your goals, if you were walking down a path and a tree fell in front of you, you would climb over it, if a great big rock appeared in your way, you would go around it, if a pit opened up beneath your feet and you fell in, you would pick yourself up and climb out of it.  

I guarantee that events are going to happen that will get in your way, that’s just how life is, but, I also know that you will be able to deal with these events as they happen, because that’s what we do, we adapt and we overcome.  

Wherever you are now, as busy as you are now, take a minute to answer a quick question: “Are you where you want to be?”

If you are great, keep going.  

If not work out what needs to change, often it’s you, you need to adapt and overcome whatever it is that’s between where you are now and where you want to be.

Setting goals will help you get there.  

Have a great day.

DONEGAL HALF MARATHON

One of my favourite half marathons in the world is the Donegal Half Marathon.

It starts on a hill at the edge of the town of Letterkenny.  You run up the hill, down the other side and then do a quick loop of the town itself, running straight down Main Street where you get to look at all the shops, in an effort to distract you from another fairly big hill.  The route then goes out towards Glenswilly and Newmills, before coming back to Letterkenny town where you get to finish on a redcrumb running track next to the Aura Leisure Centre which is just lovely to run on.

It’s also the only part of the 13.1 mile course that is flat, the rest of it you’re either going up or you’re going down because it’s Donegal and it’s just a little bit hilly.

It’s also a stunningly beautiful place to go for a run.  You get to run through the town and then out into the countryside, surrounded by hills and fields, there’s even a river, and the contrast between town and country makes this one of the most aesthetically pleasing runs you’re ever likely to experience.

When you loop round you get a great view of the Gothic-style Cathedral in the distance with more hills behind it as a backdrop and you get to run back from the wide open countryside back to the largest town in Donegal.

Like I say, it’s an absolutely beautiful route to run.

The route is not to be confused with the new Donegal Wild Atlantic Way (W.A.W.) marathon which starts in Killybegs and is about 44.6 miles away from Letterkenny.

The Donegal W.A.W. marathon is even more stunning because you get to run along the coast and the hills are slightly more dramatic. There’s also a half marathon route, which is the last half of the marathon route and if you ever get chance to run it you will love it.

So what makes the Donegal Half Marathon in Letterkenny my favourite out of all the half marathons I’ve ran?

Well, it’s the fact that every time I’ve ran it, there have been athletes in wheelchairs competing on the course, which I think is brilliant.  Back when the Donegal Marathon was in Letterkenny, (I ran this one in 2014) there were athletes in wheelchairs competing on the course as well.

Now, not only were these athletes competing but they were also represented on the t-shirts as well.  And they have been every year.

Also, the athletes in wheelchairs feature on the medals themselves, which is something I’ve not seen at any other race and I think that this is commendable and should be celebrated

I love competing in event runs, be they marathons, half marathons, 10K or even 5K, I always enjoy them, including the ones where I perform incredibly badly (there’s been a few of those) and I think that it’s massively important not only to be inclusive but to have a visual representation that other athletes can see and can be inspired by.

If you or somebody you know, has a disability or chronic life long medical condition and you think that this is a barrier to you engaging in athletics or running, then you may well be right, but, more often it’s just a hurdle.  

And hurdles can be overcome.

I was diagnosed with Diabetes in 2012, and at first I was a little bit gutted because I thought that I couldn’t run anymore. 

Which was nonsense.

Of course I could still run, in fact I’ve now run more marathons after diagnosis than I have before diagnosis and I’m a much better athlete.

Now I’m not a much better athlete because I was diagnosed with Diabetes, the diagnosis itself (in terms of my running) was in many ways irrelevant, I had already experienced a life altering event and whilst being diagnosed was great as it meant that I could start medication and management of my Diabetes it did not help me to improve as an athlete.

What did help me to improve, was joining a running club, listening to lots of different Coaches, reading many different of books and qualifying with England Athletics as a Coach. 

Being diagnosed with Diabetes was a hurdle, but I got over it and I’m now Running With Diabetes.

Living with Diabetes (L.W.D.) is a constant series of hurdles, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  I loved running before I was diagnosed and now, after diagnosis, I love running even more, because it helps me to deal with those hurdles, one at a time, and allows me to keep moving forwards.

Overcome your hurdles, ask for help when you need it and accept it when it’s offered, the sooner you do, then the faster you can keep moving forwards.

Have a great day.

HOLIDAYS

I read a quote the other day and it said:

‘When you like your work every day is a holiday’.

This quote can be a little polemic, some people will read this and nod their head in agreement, most people will read this and shake their head as they realise that it is nonsense wrapped up to look like wisdom. A holiday is, by definition, an extended period of leisure and recreation, usually spent away from home.

I like holidays.

If you think that you are too busy at work to take a holiday then you should sit down and have a little chat with yourself. You may well be overcompensating. And you are probably overestimating how important you are.

Here’s the thing, the sun will still get up in the morning.

The sun will still set in the evening.

You do not have to be at work for this to happen.

To be clear, you may love going to work, you’re probably very good at what you do, you may even be appreciated and rewarded appropriately for all your effort.

You still need a holiday.

Will stuff still get done without you being there? Probably. Or it may not. That’s not your problem.  When you are at work it may become your problem.  When you are on holiday, not so much.

But what if you work for yourself?

Well, then you need a holiday even more desperately than if you worked for somebody else.

Ideally, you should take two weeks. Which is fourteen days, all in a row. And you should do this at least once a year. Short breaks or mini holidays are great, but they can be a little on the frantic side and leave you more stressed when you get back. The whole point of a holiday is to have a break.  Take time to step back from whatever it is you do.  Decompress and relax.  This is why you should take two weeks in a row, the more successful you are then the more you need a holiday because success breeds stress.

I’ll talk about stress in a later blog but for now all I want to say is that stress is like a lovely cake, a little is quite nice and actually good for you, but an entire cake of it will just make you ill.

Take a holiday.

Have a great day.

SOCIAL MEDIA

In September 2018 the Royal Society For Public Health (R.S.P.H.) attempted to launch scroll free September which means no social media until October.

The main thrust of this initiative arose because recent studies had highlighted that social media can have on a negative impact on us.

Now, I’ve never heard of this organisation until they started telling me (and you) what to do but they did raise a good question, namely: does social media have a negative impact on us?

Well, the answer, like a lot of answers is; it depends.

Yes of course social media can have a negative impact, and it can also have a positive impact.  It all depends on how you use it.

I went on holiday earlier this year for two weeks and it was lovely.  One of the reasons it was lovely is that where I stay doesn’t have phone reception, let alone an internet connection.  This can, at times, be a little inconvenient, however, to get reception all I have to do is walk down the road for about 3 minutes to be able to use my mobile phone. When I want to use the internet then I just have to drive 5:00 minutes to one of the local hotels and use their free wifi.  

So, I don’t go cold turkey on social media, but I do have a 3:00 to 5:00 minute buffer which effectively removes the temptation to look at just one more video of kittens being really cute or, more usually, looking at future running events.  

I see social media as a tool, a lot like a hammer.  Now, you can use a hammer really positively and creatively and you can use a hammer really negatively and destructively.  It all depends on how you wield it.

If you use social media in a negative manner then you are concentrating on negative thoughts and what you concentrate your attention on is what improves, which means that if you are consistently using social media to feed your negative thoughts then it will have a massive negative impact on you.

With that said, if you use social media in a positive manner then you can use it to have a massive positive impact on you.

Look, I’m not here to tell you what to do: I ain’t the boss of you.

You are the boss of you.

Use social media anyway you see fit, because it’s a choice.  You can choose to focus on the negative, or you can choose to focus on the positive. 

One of the most positive uses of social media is that is gives a platform for peer support groups.  I have type one Diabetes and like a lot of long term ongoing medical conditions that you have to deal with day in and day out, it can be quite an isolating experience. Social media has a wealth of different peer support groups that provide support and connectivity with other individuals who struggle with the same condition as I do.  Connecting with a peer support group is important because it provides information, experience, knowledge and just simply a support system that’s unbound by geographical location.

Peer support groups aren’t just for people living with chronic medical conditions, if you’re a parent you will know how tough the first few weeks/months are, and getting in touch with other parents who are in the same position as you and are sharing the same experiences as you are can help you to get through to the end of the week.

If you are in a situation and you are struggling (with whatever it is) then go on social media and have a look for a peer support group so that you can connect with other people who are nothing like you, but are going through the same thing that you are going through.  Whilst we are all individuals it is highly unlikely that your situation is completely unique.  Spend 10:00 to 15:00 minutes looking for a P.S.G. that matches and if you really can’t find one, then you can always create one.

Have a great day.

TIME

Time is a funny thing. 

It can be measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, seasons and years.  It can be defined as a continued progress of existence and events in the past, present and future regarded as a whole, which sounds pretty fancy.

Physicists often argue that time isn’t real, it’s an illusion, which is an appealing argument but not one that’s likely to help you when you’re late for work.

The physicists may have a point though, as children we don’t really have a concept of time, all we have is the present, the now.  We tend not to worry about the past because it’s done and we tend not to worry about the future because it hasn’t happened yet, time as a concept doesn’t really exist for us, so we just live in the present and for the most part we’re happier for it.

As we get older we’re introduced to the concept of time and we become aware of the past and the future, and life gets more complicated.

Now, this is all very well, but you may well ask what does this have to do with running?

Well, there is a philosophy in training that advocates just turning up.  

I get it.  

If you don’t turn up then you won’t get anything done, because you’re not there. 

At first this seems to makes sense, but if you think about if for a moment then you quickly realise that just turning up simply isn’t going to cut it.  Just turning up and going through the motions is a waste of your time.

To move forwards you need to commit, which means that you need to be present.

Going through the motions whilst your attention is focused on rehashing something in your past is not very helpful.  Going through the motions whilst your attention is focused on worrying about something in your future is equally unhelpful.  

Worrying soaks up your energy and it takes up your time as well. 

So live in the present.  

The past is done, it’s gone, it’s over, it’s time to move on. 

The future hasn’t happened yet and if you are busy thinking about the past or worrying about the future then you are missing what’s happening right now, in the present.  

So be present.

Have a great day.

MEERBROOK 15

Some years I run the Meerbrook 15K (9.3 miles), which is an unusual distance for a race.  It’s held in Meerbrook, which is in Staffordshire (near Leek).

The race has a total ascent of around 268 meters and was voted the 3^rdhilliest race in the U.K. in a recent survey in Runner’s World.  So it’s a bit hilly, and when you get hills you usually get some great views and Meerbrook 15 doesn’t disappoint.  It’s set in the Staffordshire moorlands and as you run you are rewarded with the most fantastic views over the Cheshire Plains.

I love this race, I’ve ran it several times, usually in June and sometimes in September, when it is a little bit colder, which I prefer.

At about 4 miles in I overheard a conversation behind me which made me smile, it went a little like this:

“Graham, how old are you?”  

“I’m 74, how old are you?”  Graham replied.  Now, I don’t know Graham, but I was fairly sure who he was because we were having a running battle in the race.  I would pass him, he would pass me, and this went on for about 4 miles.  I concentrated on my running and sure enough within a couple of minutes Graham overtook me and then I never saw him again, which is a slightly dramatic way of saying that he finished way in front of me.

Here’s the thing, I was 46 at the time, that’s 28 years younger than Graham and he beat me by loads, and he wasn’t the only one, nor was he the only one a lot older than me who finished in front of me. 

This is not the first time that this has happened to me in a race, and it’s probably not going to be the last.  Lots and lots of runners are faster than me, and about half of them are significantly older than I am.

If you’re reading this and you’re not a runner and you think that you are too old to start then you could not be more wrong. Lots of runners don’t return to running until they reach their 50’s and they just keep on running and running..

There may be a whole host of reasons why you can’t start running, why you can’t run 5K or why you can’t run 10K, or why you can’t run a half marathon, or even, why you can’t run a marathon, but age is not one of those reasons.

Once you decide what it is that you want to do and you commit to that decision, then you can start working on your goal, you can start working on your dream.  

All you have to do is commit.

Have a great day.

D.N.F.

D.N.F. is an acronym that’s used in races to record a ‘Did Not Finish’.  There are no percentages in this, you either finished the race, or you did not.

I returned to running  in my mid 30’s and since then I’ve racked up a few D.N.F.s, both in marathons, and also in smaller races as well.  

Since becoming a coach I’ve realised that the only way to avoid a D.N.F. is to avoid running in the first place.

Which just won’t do.

D.N.R. (Did Not Run) is very similar to D.N.F. because if you entered a race but didn’t turn up then technically, you did not finish.  Now, I know that there’s a story attached to why you didn’t run, there always is, but we’re still going to log them as D.N.R.s because you didn’t do what you said you were going to do.

To put it bluntly you failed.

Logging a D.N.F. or even a D.N.R. means that you failed.

What’s more, you’re probably going to do it again.

I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating:

Failure is not the enemy.

Most people who’ve failed worked really, really hard to get there, so here’s the advice:

Own your failures.

Your failures are as important as your wins, you probably won’t enjoy them as much, because you’re not meant to, but often you need to fail, sometimes a whole bunch of times, before you win.

It’s easy to focus on a D.N.F. as it publicly records your failure, but that’s only one aspect of it.  D.N.F. also records that you had the courage to try, the courage to continue, and that one time it just didn’t go the way you planned it.  

That one time.

So do it again. 

I ran two marathons in 2018, one in Blackpool and one in Donegal and I loved both of them.  The Blackpool marathon was first and after 17.5 miles I had to pull out, logging a D.N.F.  Now, rather than beat myself up about not finishing I just took my failure, rolled it into my training plan and logged the 17.5 miles as a training run.  A couple of months later I ran the Donegal marathon, which was the hardest marathon I’ve ever ran, it was also my quickest marathon for 3 years.  I ran a half marathon the month earlier and logged my quickest half marathon for 4 years.

Now, would I have been able to log these times without logging a D.N.F. at Blackpool first?

Probably not, because:

Running is like anything else, sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down, but you can’t stay in the same place.

D.N.F. is an important part of any runner’s career because it means that you had the courage to try something you weren’t sure that you were capable of, and one time you weren’t.  

I’ll leave you with one of my favourite quotes from Arnold Schwarzenegger:

I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

Have a great day.

EDUCATION

I never enjoyed school.  

On the whole I found it to be quite a negative experience.  

Now, I’ve heard that some schools are wonderful places of learning and empowerment, but that’s just not the school I went to. The one I went to seemed to be more about conditioning children so that they would be ready to start work.  

In a factory.

Which didn’t really appeal to me, so I went to college, which I didn’t really enjoy either, but it was just something I had to do to get to university, which was better.

I remember when I was at school that some of the teachers had a saying about how school was ‘the best years of your life’ and at the time I remember thinking, ‘I’m not sure they’re right but I sure hope they’re wrong.’  

Happily, for me they were.

To be clear, whilst I didn’t enjoy school, (and I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one) I’m a big supporter of education. Why?  Well, because education gives you options, the more education you can get into you then the more options you will have and the better opportunities that you will be able to take advantage of.

I’m aware that you’re probably really busy and you may not have either the money or the time right now to invest in personal development, which is an investment in yourself, lots of us are time poor and we can be reluctant spending our time on education, which reminds me of the quote by Robert Orben:

If you think education is expensive then try ignorance.

When you commit to education you’re not just spending your money, you’re not just spending your time, you’re investing it and you’re investing it in your greatest asset; which is yourself.  Malcolm X has a great quote about this:

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.

Here’s the thing, even if, like me, you didn’t enjoy school, you’re not little anymore, you’re bigger and you’re older which means that you’re in a much better position to do what you need to do. You’re more receptive to learning, to education, because you know that putting yourself through it today will give you the tools that you will want to have tomorrow.

I think that Dolly Parton said it best when she said:

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.

If you are unhappy and you want to make a change, if you want to get from where you are now to where you want to be, then education can give you the tools to pave the way there.

And education isn’t confined just to schools or colleges, or even universities, there are books, there are peer support groups, there are mentors and there are coaches.

If you’re a runner and you want to improve your running then find somebody who has more information or experience than you do. Somebody who has already made a ton of mistakes but kept on going regardless of them.  Somebody who has been there, done that, has the t-shirt’s, read the books, wrote their own, who walks, talks, runs, coaches and breathes running.  That’s who you should go seek advice from, find that person and then see if they are prepared to share that knowledge with you.

And it doesn’t have to be running, whatever it is that you want to improve on there is somebody out there who has more information than you do; when you find them, then invest some of your money, and more importantly invest some of your time because it will give you the tools that you will need to help you move forwards.

Have a great day.

GIN PIT 5

Gin Pit 5 is a five mile trail race that is hosted at Gin Pit Village in Tyldesley which is in Manchester, England.

Historically Gin Pit was a coal mine that used horse driven winding gear from at least the early 1800s and continued to produce coal up until it’s closure in 1958.

As trail races go Gin Pit 5 is fairly flat, apart from one little hill.

The course is a masterstroke of design, you start at the bottom of a hill, and you finish at the other side, which means on a three lap course you get to run down it four times.  

Now, I’m not normally a fan of races that have laps in them, but as Gin Pit 5 is quite a technical trail race, that boasts both narrow and muddy sections, the first short lap is quite helpful as it lets the runners spread out a bit.  As races go, it’s quite scenic, the first lap is followed by two bigger laps which presents the woods, fields and mud so that it feels almost like you’re running through 100 Acre Wood straight out of Winnie the Pooh. 

I really like this race, I’ve ran it before and I’ll run it again.  Five miles is an odd distance for a race, longer than a 5K (3.1 miles) and shorter than a 10K (6.2 miles) so you pretty much have to keep your speed up all the way around.  The length of the course combined with the narrow and muddy sections means that it is quite challenging technically, a bit like a motor rally but with runners instead of cars.

One of the main features of the race is the hill, and when I run up a hill I’m always reminded of the best advice I’ve ever read about hills, which is on the front of Steve Chilton’s wonderful book, by the same title:

It’s a hill, get over it.

This advice always makes me smile, mainly because it’s funny, but also because of how pragmatic it is.  

Whenever I’m out on a run and I’m struggling up a hill I remind myself of this advice, it doesn’t make the hill any smaller, and it doesn’t make me any faster but it does help give a little perspective and some tough love.

Whatever it is that you do, whether you’re a runner or not, you are going to encounter hills, there will be times when the way forward will become harder, will take more effort.  Here’s the thing, 

The only way to get better at running up and down hills, is to run up and down hills.

Tough love again, but there it is.

If there is something that you struggle with, then keep struggling, the more effort you put into it now then the better you are going to become at doing it.  The hills won’t disappear, they’ll just be behind you.

Have a great day.

The Welder Story

The first time I heard the word Dilligaf was about thirty years ago.

I was watching a documentary on BBC 2 and there was a welder called Johan talking about the day he started a new job, welding on a huge ship.  Now, because the ship was so big there was a load of scaffolding on the side of it, to allow the workers access.

On the first day Johan went to work and started welding, and over the course of the day he would hear the word Dilligaf, all day long, from different areas of the scaffolding, the same word; Dilligaf, Dilligaf, Dilligaf, echoing round the ship.

Johan was a bit puzzled as to who or what Dilligaf was, but he was new on the job so he didn’t say anything, and when he finished welding for the day he went home.

On the second next day he got up, went to work, and he’d barely started welding when he heard the same word again, Dilligaf, echoing up from somewhere in the ship.  Johan ignored it and kept on welding, but sure enough he kept hearing the same word all through the day; Dilligaf , Dilligaf, Dilligaf.  Johan was pretty sure that it must have been somebody’s surname or workname and he maintained a covert watch to see if he could find out who this Dillyigaf was and, more importantly, why his name was being repeatedly being called out.  When it got to quitting time Johan hadn’t identified who Dilligaf was, so he finished welding and went home no closer to solving the mystery.

On the third day Johan gets up, goes to work, and just before he starts welding he hears the word Dilligaf echoing up to him and he thinks enough is enough.  So he turns to Olaf, the welder next to him and asks, “Who is this Dilligaf?  All day long I’m hearing his name over and over.”  Olaf looks at Johan and starts laughing.  “What?”  Johan says, getting a little annoyed. “Sorry, it’s just that Dilligaf isn’t a name.  It’s actually an acronym.”

“An acronym?”

“D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.  It stands for: do I look like I give a damn.”  (This is the polite version) and it still makes me smile.

Whenever I hear the word Dilligaf I wonder what happened next in that story.  It takes a lot of workers to build a ship and if the general attitude of those workers is expressed as Dilligaf then I suspect that when the ship was finally completed and set to sea, it probably wasn’t the best ship it could have been.  It probably listed to one side, was slower than it had been designed to be, it may even have taken on water and had to be brought back to dry dock or risk sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

You may well wonder what ships have to do with running?

Well, when you train you are effectively building your own ship, the more effort you put in, then the faster you will be able to run, the further you will be able to run, the more able you will be to keep moving forwards.

Now, it’s important to turn up, because if you don’t turn up, then nothing happens.  However, just turning up is not enough, you have to be present, because going through the motions won’t get it done, you have to give a damn, because if you don’t then why should anybody else.

A more succinct way of putting this is:

Turn up.  Be present.  Give a damn.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you to give a damn about every little thing, that’s exhausting, I want you to pick and choose.  I want you to work out what is important to you and then go work on that.  Focus your efforts on what you can do, on what you can control and keep moving forwards.

Have a great day.

LIMITED RESOURCES

No matter who you are, where you live, or what you do you only have limited resources.

Regardless of what you do at work, what you have in the bank, whether you’re massively in the black or massively in the red, everybody has the same twenty four hours in a day.

Time is a resource.  

You can always do something to get more money, but there’s very little that you can do to get more time.  

As you get older you start to work out what is important, not to other people, but to you, and you start to filter out what you are prepared to spend your time on.  You get to the point where there are some things, which you just don’t give a damn about.  

This is a good thing.

Now, if you’ve just read The Welder Story you may well be thinking, hang on, this isn’t what you just said.  Well, what I said was that I didn’t want you to give a damn about every little thing, because that’s exhausting, so you need to pick and choose, work out what is important to you, to what helps you to keep moving forwards, and then go work on that.

However, this should not be confused with giving a damn about what other people think, by all means be polite and compassionate, don’t set out with the intention of making somebody else feel bad to make yourself feel better.  

Because that doesn’t work.

It won’t even make you feel better.  

What will make you feel better is consistently trying to move forwards.

John Lydgate came up with the following:

You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.

The quote became more famous when advertisers changed the word please to fool, so that it became the ‘fool all the people’ quote used by Abraham Lincoln and reproduced by many other people who were trying to sell you something.

But let’s get back to the original quote for a minute, if you spend your time trying to please everybody else, or giving a damn what they think, they you are quickly going to find out that this just won’t work.   

And it won’t work because you can’t please all of the people all of the time. 

Nor should you try to.

Lao Tzu once said:

Care about what other people think, and you will always be their prisoner.

So, you should not give a damn about what other people think.

You do you.

If you want to get something done, then you need to focus your attention on doing that, which means that you won’t have as much time left over to be able to please everyone else.

This can often be confused with being selfish, however, Oscar Wilde has a great quote about this:

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.

Do what you need to do so that you can get done what you need to get done.  Should somebody suggest you that you are being selfish then often that are trying to impose their lifestyle onto yours.

Which just won’t do.

You only have a limited amount of resources, so rather than spending all you time and energy on trying to please other people, or trying to fit in, you should spend it on what’s important.

To you.

And to help keep moving you forwards.

Have a great day.

TATTON HALF MARATHON

Tatton Half Marathon is a 13.1 mile race that is hosted in Tatton Park, which is in Cheshire (just north of Knutsford) and is owned by the National Trust.  

I’ve been visiting Tatton Park for years because I like how big it is, there’s over 2,000 acres of parkland, 50 acres of landscaped gardens and a neo-classical mansion that you can take a tour round.  

My favourite bit about Tatton Park is that they have deer herds, both red deer and fallow deer which always remind me of reindeer. Now, the main difference between deer and reindeer is that both male and females reindeer grow antlers, which doesn’t have much to do with running, but is still pretty cool.

The Tatton Half Marathon course is two laps, which I’m not overly fond of, but the second lap is quite a bit shorter, which is great, and the scenery more than makes up for it.  Tatton Park is great to walk around and it’s even better to run around. 

If you do get the chance to run around Tatton Park, then you get to experience sweeping views, tree lined avenues, rolling fields and ancient woodland, as well as the chance to spot some deer, which is great when you’re trying to run 13.1 miles.

The course is mainly flat with a few small hills thrown in just for fun, it starts in a field, then onto a trail path, then onto a private drive, and then onto a country lane, before going back into the park again.  This is what I call a multi terrain course which is great for your running as the variation of surfaces creates different physical demands and targets different areas of your feet and legs as you progress around the course.

I love this run, I’ve ran it before and I’ll run it again.

Now, the last time that I ran it, I was a little slow, mainly due to not getting enough training in.  

It happens.  

Sometimes, despite your best intentions you don’t manage to get in as much training as you would like and race day arrives without you being fully prepared.  

Run the race anyway.  If it proves to be too much on the day then you can always pull out, but if you are able to, then you should just keep going.

When you know that you haven’t put the training in and you still race anyway then you need to manage your expectations, getting a P.B. (personal best) or a P.R. (personal record) is not very likely so don’t aim for that.  Aim instead at what you think is achievable, at what is reasonable with what you have to hand on the day.

Race day is just that, it’s one day.  Whether you perform brilliantly or you whether you perform terribly, take what you can from the day and then roll it into your training.

A bad race, or a race where you don’t run as well as you could, can be incredibly motivational, even more so than doing well.  Identifying what you can improve on is a massive step towards improving it, towards running better. 

Bad races are like bad days, at some point you know that they’re going to come along; when they do, just try your best and when the race is over take from it what will help you to keep moving forwards and leave the rest behind, because you have no use for it, it will only slow you down.

Have a great day.

LIVING WITH DIABETES (L.W.D.)

World Diabetes Day is 14^thNovember. Now, I know that not everybody is aware of what Diabetes is so here are seven quick facts:

1. There are three main types of Diabetes, type one, type two and gestational.
2. Type one and type two Diabetes affects over 400,000,000 people and gestationald Diabetes affects around 9% of all pregnancies.
3. Gestational Diabetes goes away after pregnancy, but it does mean that you are more at risk of developing type II Diabetes at some point in the future.
4. Of the 400,000,000 plus people living with diabetes (L.W.D.) around 10% live with type one and the remaining 360,000,000 live with type two.
5. Diabetes sucks.
6. Diabetes is a legally recognised disability that is protected in both U.K. and U.S.A. law.  In the U.K. it is covered under the Equality Act 2010
7. Living with Diabetes (L.W.D.) does not define you

Diabetes is a chronic (which means life long) disease where produce very little or no insulin at all (type one) or the insulin you produce is ineffective (type two).  Insulin is important as it helps to control and maintain your blood glucose levels, if you don’t control and manage your blood glucose levels then you will become very unwell, very quickly.  It’s worth pointing out that there is a massive difference between type one, type two and gestational Diabetes, both in terms of complications and management.

Diabetes is an invisible disease and most people who are living with Diabetes (L.W.D.) just quietly get on with it.  Representation is important so, here are seven top celebrities who have been diagnosed with Diabetes.

1. Nick Jonas (type one)
2. Tom Hanks (type two)
3. Salma Hayeck (gestational)
4. Halle Berry (type one)
5. Randy Jackson (type two)
6. Brett Michaels (type one)
7. Johnny Cash (type two)

Unlike a lot of other diseases there is a fair amount of social stigma and blame attached to Diabetes, the prevailing belief is that Diabetes is a lifestyle choice.

This is untrue.

It’s also discriminatory and a little bit ignorant.

Nobody knows why you get Diabetes.  I’ll repeat that, because it’s important, nobody knows why you get Diabetes.

The only people who are guaranteed not to be diagnosed with Diabetes are the ones who already have it.  

If you are diagnosed with Diabetes then your lifestyle (exercise and food choices)afterdiagnosis will help you to manage your disease.

Whilst you can manage your disease there is currently no cure for Diabetes.

I was diagnosed with Diabetes back in 2012, and at the time I was a bit gutted because I thought that it meant that I couldn’t run anymore.  I certainly thought that I couldn’t run marathons anymore.

Which was nonsense.

I’ve ran marathons all over the world; Edinburgh, Barcelona, London, Madrid, Seville, Loch Ness, Milan, Snowden, Zurich, New York and Killybegs, to name a few.  I’ve actually ran a lot more marathons after being diagnosed with Diabetes than I have before being diagnosed with Diabetes.

To be clear, L.W.D. sucks (quick fact number five) because it is a life long condition that makes everything else hard work, however, L.W.D. does not define you (quick fact number seven).  Before diagnosis I decided that I wanted to become a runner, so that’s what I did, and I decided that I wanted to run marathons, so I did that as well.  Receiving a diagnosis of Diabetes didn’t change my mind, I still wanted to run, and I still wanted to run marathons, so that’s what I do, because I’m a runner, I’m just Running With Diabetes.

L.W.D. affects everything, it’s a 24 hour condition, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  Getting diagnosed with Diabetes is like getting a job that you didn’t apply for, don’t want, can’t quit, with no pay, no time outs and no holidays.

Back when I first started running I joined a club, Belle Vue Racers, and we have a club championship with awards for the Men and Ladies, first, second and third, for the Summer and Winter seasons.  In 2010, (two years before diagnosis) I won the Progress Award which I still have displayed in my office.  For the next eight years I didn’t win anything, I didn’t even place in the top three, until 2018, when I won first place in the Men’s Summer club championship.  I was really pleased with this because I know every other runner in the club, lots of them are faster than me, (some are older, some are younger) and whilst there is a range of natural abilities all of them are great athletes.  The other reason I was really pleased to win first place was because I’m the first member of the club in its history who lives with Diabetes to have done so.

Now, if I could offer only one piece of advice for world diabetes day it would be this:

Keep moving forwards, because you never know who you are inspiring.

Have a great day.

CONWY HALF MARATHON

Conwy Half Marathon is a 13.1 mile race that is hosted in the medieval walled market town of Conwy, which is in North Wales.

The course starts and finishes at the bottom of Conwy castle, which is a brilliant castle, also if you have supporters with you they can have a lovely walk round the castle and the town and be back at the finish to cheer you on.

When you go to Conwy the first thing that you notice is the massive 13^thcentury fortress that is Conwy castle, the next thing that you notice is that the castle walls are still in place, even better you can walk around the castle and even walk along some of the walls.  

The course starts at Conwy quayside, the bay is on your left, the castle is on your right, and you run up and out over the bridge, which runs alongside the pedestrianised suspension bridge with its castellated towers, up and down a few small hills over into Llandudno, past the train, past the promenade, past the pier, and then up and along the Great Orme, which makes the previous hills you just ran over look like speed bumps. Most of the course runs along the coast and the views are just amazing, with the Isle of Anglesey, Puffin Island and the North Wales coastline as a backdrop.  I heard one runner comment that the wall on the Great Orme looked like the wall of China, which was a bit of an exaggeration, but I understood what they meant, it’s big and it goes on for miles.  

I love this race, I’ve ran it before and I’ll run it again.  At 13.1 miles the half marathon is a nice distance as it’s not as hectic as a 10K (6.2 miles) or a 5K (3.1 miles) which is a balancing act between running fast enough so that you finish as quickly as possible, without running too fast that you blow up and have to dramatically slow down.  

A half marathon is nowhere near as demanding in terms of training as a marathon but it’s far enough that you have to train for it or you will struggle to finish in a time that reflects your ability.

As we know the half marathon is 13.1 miles, which is 21.08 kilometers, or 21,082.41 meters, or 23,056 yards, or 69,168 feet, or 830,016 inches, or 2,108,240.62 centimeters or 21,082,406.4 millimeters, which sounds like a lot.

Because it is.  

But it’s also super achievable.  

All you have to do it make the decision to commit, and then keep moving forwards.  

Scaling the distance down into different units of measurement means that the numbers go up really quickly, which reduces the effort required to start adding numbers to your distance as soon as you start running. You still get to run the same distance, but the smaller the measurement you use when looking back to see how far you’ve already run the bigger that number is going to be.

So if you plan to run a half marathon, then don’t aim to run all 13.1 miles at once, rather aim at running just one mile. Forget about the rest of the distance that you want to run, just focus on the mile that you’re running now.

This is often boiled down to the following advice:

Run the mile you’re in.

Which is good advice, but I’ve been in plenty of races where the mile I was running was not going very well, sometime I had to walk and sometimes I had to stop altogether.  

This means that the above advice isn’t always going to be that helpful, so go smaller.

Run your own race.

The distance is not irrelevant, you still have to have an awareness of how far you plan to go, a vision of where you want to be, a goal that you want to achieve, but right now your immediate focus should be on your next three steps.  On what it’s going to take for you to get through your next three steps; that’s it. Focus on your next three steps, get them done, and then you can move forwards and deal with your next three steps, and then your next three, and you keep repeating this until you get to where you want to go, until you do what you want to do.  

You will get there.

All you have to do is keep moving forwards.

Have a great day. 

PAIN AND GAIN

Pain and gain are too very different things which are often linked together because they rhyme.

No pain no gain sounds cool, and it looks nice on a t-shirt.

However, it is not great advice, or even good advice, in fact, it’s not really advice at all, but it is an expression that has been around for some time.

Let me explain.

In 1758 Benjamin Franklin wrote ‘There are no gains without pains’ which sounds fancy, but he was by no means the first person to say this, earlier variations on this quote can be traced back to the beginning of the second century, where there is an old Hebrew expression that goes, ‘according to the pain is the gain’ which is all about spiritual gain.

If we fast forward to 1951, this was when the video tape machines were invented, at the time they were a bit on the expensive side and it wasn’t until the 1970’s that video tape machines became commercially available. In 1975 Sony released the Betamax, in 1976 JVC released VHS and in 1978 Phillips released the V2000.  In the 1980’s Betamax and VHS went head to head in what became known as the first Format War, which VHS won, at least until the creation of the DVD.

One of the big success stories for home videos was the exercise video.  In 1982 Jane Fonda brought out a series of aerobic workout videos where she used the catchphrases ‘Feel the burn’ and ‘No pain, no gain’.  Here there was no mention of the spiritual, this was all about the physical, and selling video tapes, which she did and she did it incredibly well, thanks in no small part to having a couple of pithy catch phrases.

Basically ‘No pain, no gain’ is an advertising slogan.

If somebody tells you this then they’re often trying to sell you something.

Now, I’m not saying that pain has no place in training, of course it does. Pain is your body sending you a memo that what you are currently doing is dumb.  And it would like you to stop doing it, preferably straight away.

If we consider the advertising slogan ‘no pain no gain’ as advice and choose to ignore the pain, then what exactly is on offer?  What is the gain?

Well, injury, that’s what you get to gain, an injury.

There is a vast difference between training hard and pushing past your current boundaries and keeping on going despite several memos from your body.

Everybody has their own personal comfort zone, and when you train the intention is to push yourself out of your comfort zone, but there is a line. Discomfort is the line you should train to up to, pain is the other side and injury awaits.

Should you persist past your line of discomfort and keep going despite it being painful, then you risk injury when you really should know better.

Here’s the thing, when you get injured you cannot train.

Which means that you have to stop training until you recover.

There is a big difference between pushing past your boundaries, and being dumb.

Pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone is commendable, being dumb is not.

Will Durant, (in a commentary about Aristotle), has a great quote about this:

We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit.

What he meant by that is that we are what we do consistently.  A massive effort every now and then will not help you to move forwards.  A smaller, but more consistent, effort, one that you do repeatedly and can keep on doing will help you to keep moving forwards, because you can keep on doing it, until it becomes an excellent habit.

Anything that stops you, such as injury, means that you are temporarily unable to move forwards.

So, if you are training a little too hard, then have a little patience, consistency works, so train consistently.

You may not get there today, you may not get there tomorrow, but you will get there.

Have a great day.

STOCKPORT 10

Stockport 10 is a ten mile winter race that is hosted in the town of Stockport, which is in Greater Manchester, about seven miles south east of Manchester city centre.

Back in the 19th Century Stockport was at the centre of England’s hatting industry and exported over six million hats a year.  The River Tame and the River Goyt meet in Stockport and together they create the River Mersey, (it’s across the road from Sainsburys) the actual site is called the convergence and there is some impressive artwork that marks the site.

Stockport 10 is run presented every year by Stockport Harriers who do a fantastic job in marshalling a great race.  Whatever the weather conditions are the marshals are always incredibly friendly, supportive and vocal.  The course starts at Woodbank stadium running track then goes out into Woodbank park, through Edgeley, Offerton, Bredbury and then back into the park and the stadium.  The course itself is multi terrain, which is great, and it’s fairly undulating with a couple of bigger hills thrown in.

I love this race, I’ve ran it before and I’ll run it again.  A couple of years ago I was unable to run it because I was unwell.  Which was a shame because it’s such a great race, not only in terms of the course but also the distance.  There are not many 10 mile races about and with the hills Stockport 10 is comparable in terms of effort, with many half marathons.

As I was lying in bed, unwell I thought about that old quoted by Thomas Fuller:

Health is not valued until sickness comes along.

Which didn’t really help me all that much at the time, but when you are unwell you suddenly have spare time on your hands and after you’re done feeling sorry for yourself (which can sometimes take a while) then you have an opportunity for quiet reflection.  

At first, when I get these opportunities, I am not very open to it, I’m too busy being unwell, but as I start to get better I become a little less ungrateful and a little more thankful.  Oprah Winfrey has a great quote about this.

Be thankful for what you have, you’ll end up having more.  If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never have enough.

There’s lots of times when I need to remind myself of what I do have and what I can do, rather then what I don’t have and what I can’t.  Like everyone else I often forget to be grateful of everything that I have because I’m too busy working or running.  

Here’s the thing, at some point we all become unwell, which means that we have to slow down, and when this happens there’s not much that we can do until you we are well again, so we might as well use that time to be a little more thankful, and hopefully we won’t be unwell all that long.

Have a great day.