Oh yes, I must do my core strength exercises. I'll do them after I've eaten this sandwich. Ah, core strength time. I'll do the plank and some crunches after EastEnders has finished. It that the time already? Oh, I'll just do it for twice as long tomorrow. This is how it usually goes in my house.Yesterday [...]
"You're running how far?" Usually when people say this to me it's with an impressed sound to their voice and I like to do a little, inner, self-satisfied smile. "It's a half-marathon so 13.1 miles" or "A 10k, so about 6 miles" usually precedes this. Or once "It's a cross country so just a couple of miles [...]
I've been putting off venturing to the athletics track on a Saturday morning for a while now. Three main reasons for this are: it's much easier to stay in bed on a Saturday morning where it's warm and comfortable, I've been hungover on Saturday mornings and I know it will hurt.I'm not fan of the phrase [...]
After weeks of debating and deliberating, I've finally chosen which marathon schedule I'll ignore for 16 weeks in the run up to my next marathon. It's a Runners' World schedule and I've already been customising it... when I say customising - I mean colouring in.I've marked it up with a few key dates so you can [...]
Saturday morning the heatwave we've been experiencing in London was still in full swing. I was determind not to cave and be the first person to say 'It's too hot'. Not in April. The UK is ill prepared for hot weather. It's ill prepared for any weather that isn't drizzle really, but hot weather seems [...]
Running: I love it. Not wearing shoes: I'm all kinds of down with that. In fact I'm so comfortable not wearing shoes that one morning last week I left my house to go to work before realising my feet were naked. So how come it's taken so long for me to put these two pastimes [...]
There's many lessons to be taken from running that can be applied to various aspects of your life. Overcoming adversity, pushing through when things get tough and all that karmic stuff that might, one day, make me a better person. But that's not what this post is about. Thanks to lessons learnt running, I can [...]
The Thames from Richmond HillIt's one of life's hilariously cruel ironies that the times when you need to run most are always the times when you want to do it the least. Hangovers often see me clawing at the carpet as Lazy Boy or some other good-intentioned person tries to shuv me out the door [...]
I've never run the London Marathon but for the past few years I've stood enthusiastically at the side of the road cheering from the first elites until the stragglers plod on home. It's always an emotional thing to watch up close and personal. I once went to watch a World Championship boxing match and had [...]
Not running a spring marathon this year? Make a fellow runner smile by going down to support. Take a sign with you and cheer them up. I'll never forget the sign I saw during Brighton marathon that said "Run! Zombies are chasing you!" Be encouraging or be funny. Either way don't go for the old [...]