Run a mile each day on Facebook

Another day, another month, another mile. Month six here I come.

Feeling a little stiff today, but not from running, from gardening yesterday. Now, for those of you who know me well, that is not something you would expect to hear from me ever.

I managed to fit this morning's run and a quick jaunt into town and back on my bike before the predicted rain arrived.

I'm enjoying seeing the number of people who like my Run a Mile Each Day Facebook page steadily expand, particularly as many of those who are following the page don't appear to even have a direct connection with anyone else I know. That's quite fun.

Nicky said this morning that her morning mile was now in the same league as her morning shower. She just doesn't feel right, or ready for the day, until she has done both.

I know exactly what she means.

5 months, Greece & Glenn Miller

That's five months completed. Not bad as the original plan was to see if I could do one month running at least a mile every day.

It's a bit chilly this morning. I found myself thinking that I don't like this temperature, and then thought, "what a waste of energy to not like the temperature"!

It reminded me of an incident on a holiday about 15 years ago on a Greek island. We had rented mopeds and gone on a long ride exploring the island in shorts and tee-shirts. We were a good half an hour's ride from home when the clouds rolled in, the rain bucketed down and the wind picked up, and it settled there for the day.

I can still remember riding back on the winding coastal roads, chilled to the bone and making myself think, "it's beautifully warm, just soak up that warmth."

In my experience, no matter how hard I try I have never been able to change weather that I don't like. It is very frustrating to rail against any external factors in my life that I have no ability to change or even influence.

So this morning I let the temperature go and enjoyed the scenery that I run past most days. It really is rather lovely and I am lucky to live in such a beautiful spot.

Anyway, enough about that and back to listening to Lionel Richie, Duffy, Eva Cassidy and now Glenn Miller that have been playing on my iTunes while I've been typing this. Eclectic, don't you think?

Traffic, elephants & a nearly milestone

Up early to do a supermarket shop this morning so the run got put back to lunchtime, which meant a very wet blowy jaunt round the local lanes of just over two and a half miles.

Showing my age here, but I was reminded of the 60's hit "Hole in My Shoe" by Traffic, which contains the line "all that I knew was the hole in my shoe that was letting in water". Very appropriate today as I can fit four fingers of my hand into the hole in the upper of my right Asics trainer.

There is also a line in the same verse of the song that goes "I looked in the sky where an elephant's eye was looking at me from a bubblegum tree." My, those drugs were strong in the 60's.

Tomorrow should be (barring the fickle finger of fate) my 150th consecutive day of running at least a mile every day. Feels like another milestone.

Nike got it right

Nothing like a 5K in the rain before breakfast to spark an appetite. It was actually really nice. I can't think of a better way to start the day.

I'm sitting at my desk with Crowded House blaring out at me from my iTunes and getting really excited about going to see my favourite band again in a couple of weeks.

I feel great today and am also excited about several projects that have been in the background but are all starting to slowly start moving.

There's something about moving, isn't there. That's what I love about running. No matter how you feel when you're stuck, whether at work or at home, just the process of getting your body moving on a run generates energy and starts that important initial momentum.

Nike got it so right when they said "Just do it".

Game of 2 halves

Wish I could shake off this cough that has followed on from last week's cold.

I have only been doing the minimum distance apart from a gentle 5K I did with Nicky on Sunday. I think that the October marathon is looking very unlikely right now, and yet the vision of an eventual ultra still remains strong. Who knows exactly what and when, but it doesn't feel like it matters right now.

I did some preparatory work on foot toughening on Monday, walking barefoot on the stony beach - really quite painful.

Today has been like the proverbial football (soccer) match, a game of two halves. I was struggling with a problem that needed to be resolved today and couldn't see a way through this morning. The result - reduced energy, feeling of me on my own against the world, inspiring vision evaporated, only able to see two to three feet in front of me.

By this afternoon, I had taken the problem apart piece by piece and addressed each small chunk individually and dealt with it. Result - energy supercharged, I'm back in alignment with the rest of the world, excited by the endless possibilities (and heard some positive news about a new business opportunity), and I'm now physically looking across the tops of the trees at the vast and amazing sky from my desk.

Talk about the power of the inner game being so much more critical than the external one. I think so!

Happy Birthday Cyd!!