Celebrate small achievements

Back to a mile and a bit a day. My right heel feels fine again and the run felt quite easy and smooth this morning.

I'm reading Rosie Swale-Pope's "Just a Little Run Around the World" at the moment. Apparently she woke up in her bivvy tent in Poland one morning with 5 foot of snow on top of her and the tent. She then had to burrow her way out. I can't believe how pragmatic some people can be in such extreme conditions, although I guess you don't have a lot of choice in those circumstances.

There are vague rumours that it might even warm up a few degrees in a few days time. I'll believe it when I feel it!

It's funny how the day numbers become meaningless now after nearly 70 days. The milestones are now in number of months or in hundreds of days.

In my coaching experience we take our small step achievements for granted and far too lightly and only notice when we fail. I have to remind myself that I'm still running my mile every day and have done so now consistently since 1st January.

I think Im going to celebrate and brew myself a large cafetiere of coffee and have a couple of biscuits. Yay!

Day 66 - another extra mile

Although I didn't post to my blog yesterday, I did still run my mile.

Today I ran a mile with Nicky and then did an extra couple myself, so I completed just over three and a half in total, my highest for a good couple of months.

Another absolutely gorgeous morning, cold but glorious. There was a bird in our back garden, just as I was waiting for my GPS device to find a signal, doing the most beautiful singing. It really did lift both our spirits even higher than they were.

Very pleased that we knuckled down yesterday morning and cleared most of the rubble from under our floor to allow it to dry. Three sorties to the tip then followed, and then a warm glow of satisfaction from a job well done.

My Rosie Swale Pope book arrived from Amazon yesterday and I've already read the first two chapters. What an amazing, inspiring and yet ordinary (I guess that's where extra- ordinary comes from) woman she is.

I'm dumbfounded as to how little publicity she received for such an incredible feat!

About beasts, running and life

Ah, Saturday morning means weekend, means getting up a little later.

I still haven't pushed myself beyond the one mile yet, the weather is not enticing enough or there's too much to do. I have any number of reasons, but the truth is I'm not inspired enough yet to do it.

Since finishing Born To Run, I can't get inspired either by the novel I'm reading, so I've ordered Rosie Swale Pope's book about running round the world solo. I'm looking forward to receiving that some time next week.

Do you reckon I might have tendencies that could be bordering on the obsessive (Nicky you don't need to comment on this one) at times? It does seem that when I get enthusiastic about an idea, it percolates everything I do. Maybe that's just what being passionate is?

I do tend to see running, and my experiences when I'm running, as a fantastic metaphor for life as a whole. For example, the following quote from Born To Run (for a change):

“You can’t hate the Beast and expect to beat it; the only way to truly conquer something, as every great philosopher and geneticist will tell you, is to love it.”

That's just so relevant to any aspect of life. Along the lines of "what you resist, persists", and that you can only change a situation once you accept that it is as it is, and then choose to change it.