Running turns up the colour

Running really does turn up the brightness and the colour on my day.

You know when you're looking at photos and they're dull, bland and flat, and if you tweak them in a photo editor you can bring some brightness, colour and the life back into them?

Well this morning was a prime example of how running did that for my day.

I had one of those early mornings where I'd forgotten the point, at least I just couldn't see it.

A mile and a bit later, and today is looking good.

My inner game

Back at home again and I decided to run a 2-miler this morning.

I was thinking about how I often get grumpy late in the evenings when something isn't where I think it should be or someone does something that bugs me.

Then I was thinking about what I should try and do differently when that happens next time.

After a few minutes of failing to think of anything, I remembered Tim Gallwey's book, "The Inner Game of Tennis", a fantastic book that probably led to coaching moving from sport and into the business world.

In Tim Gallwey's book he talks about there being two opponents in tennis, the one on the other side of the net, and the one in your head.

That applies to pretty much everything in life (apart from the bit about the net). There is usually an external challenge and an internal one.

Also, what doesn't work when dealing with the internal one is to point out what you're doing wrong and try to find something that you should be doing more of, less of, or better.

It is always far more powerful to take yourself out of your head (and no I don't mean alcohol or drugs) and to concentrate on something else other than how you are performing.

So, my challenge next time I get grumpy is just to notice it and be curious about what's going on, what I'm trying to achieve and how effective my current strategy is. That's all.

How do you start your day?

I stayed in Hove last night so I got to run along the seafront towards Brighton this morning.

I love doing the seafront run, especially when it's such a gorgeous morning as it was this morning.

There was every age, shape and size out running the seafront this morning. And the rest were dog walkers, inline skaters and cyclists. It was obviously still too early for the sightseers, sun worshipers and those on a day out.

What was even better was I topped it off with a dip in the sea with my family before we went back for breakfast in the back garden.

For me, it's so important how I start my day.

If I want to set myself up for the best possible day, I can't beat starting it with a run.

How do you start yours?

On driving and using the horn

An absolutely beautiful morning again this morning. If this is October give me more!

I was thinking what I would blog about on this morning's run and I remembered something I witnessed whilst walking into town last night to meet some good friends for dinner.

It was quite a common occurrence. A car pulled out of a junction, turning right across the path of approaching traffic, and a driver in another car that was driving reasonably fast took exception to the timing of the other driver's manoeuvre.

His reaction was to sound his horn, not as a quick warning, but a long extended expression of his anger at the other driver.

I wondered what the driver sounding his horn was trying to achieve. If he was trying to educate the other driver to ensure that he was more careful next time, I don't think he probably achieved his intended outcome.

If he just wanted to vent his frustration and make himself feel better, I also doubt that he achieved that.

What if, at moments of anger, annoyance or upset, we all managed to do a timeout, and think to ourselves, "what am I feeling and what would I like to achieve?"

If I would like to dissipate this feeling and return to calm, the first thing I need to do is notice that.

So, next time if you cut me up and I jam on my horn, apologies, but I must have temporarily forgotten my own wisdom.

Lucky man

This morning I ran a slightly modified version of a route I've run before. It is pretty much all hills and comes in at 1.1 miles.

It was beautiful running down across the golf course, with mist in pockets across the greens and the sun coming up, on what looks like it's going to be another glorious hot day.

Is this really the day before October starts?

As I often do on my morning runs, I felt a huge sense of gratitude for being alive, for being able to run like this.

And this morning I told myself to be thankful for whatever wonderful happens to me today, and to make sure that I realise that it happened, rather than miss it because I'm too wrapped up in my thoughts.

I'm looking forward to today.