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!!

Commitment & acknowledgement

This mile each day game has been fun over the last week and a bit.

If I had not challenged myself to see how long I could sustain running at least a mile every single day, I'm sure that I would have missed 3 days of my mile in the last week.

Firstly, I would have decided that I didn't have enough space in my hand luggage for my flight to Holland to fit my running shoes, shorts, tee-shirt, socks and Garmin GPS device. And yet I found room, and I had an absolutely gorgeous run of three and a half miles in the forests of southern Holland. Thank you Lieke.

Then, I was running a training programme in London 2 days last week and knew that when I left my hotel in the morning, I wouldn't be back until well after 10.00 pm. So I managed to get out and hit the road before 6.00 a.m. each day. That wouldn't have happened either, had it not been for my commitment to the mile each day experiment.

I'd also like to acknowledge Toby for his commitment to the experiment. Realising that you haven't done your run at 11.50 p.m. whilst brushing your teeth, getting ready for bed, and yet still going out and doing the mile anyway, I take my hat off to you.

Bluebells to Holland

I've been rather remiss as I haven't blogged now for a week.

Is blog a verb as well as a noun?

This morning, Nicky and I diverted from our usual circuit to go into the woods just down the road from our house and search out the bluebells. We found them, although we had to climb (sort of run) a horrifically steep hill to get to them. I find it amazing how a mass of bluebells can have such an ethereal, magical quality to them.

If you haven't gone out and taken a run, or walk, in some woods that contain bluebells, I urge you to do so in the next few days, while they are at their most magnificent.

Tomorrow I won't be able to do my morning run as I am due to catch a 7.25 am flight to Dusseldorf and am spending the day in Holland. I'm told that there is a forest very near to where I'll be, so I'm hoping to do my mile in the forest.

Magic, awe & distraction

Ran on my own this morning. Put in a fairly pacey (for me) 3 miles, which was fun. I checked a couple of times whether I was pushing myself but I wasn't. It was like I was running automatically on duracell batteries. I almost couldn't help it. Interesting.

Two thoughts came up for me on this morning's run. The first was how children so easily see magic and have a sense of awe and wonder about them. Do we just grow out of it and see reality as adults, or do we lose the ability to look with a sense of awe and to see magic, although it is still there?

I strongly suspect the latter, because every now and then I get glimpses of magic and also feel that sense of awe. It's amazingly powerful and hugely uplifting. We could all thrive rather than survive a lot easier by suspending our cynical minds and getting back in touch with magic and awe.

The other thought I had was how we usually see the quality of being distracted as a negative trait. But what if we were intent on a goal, a challenge and we were confronted by someone who could benefit from our help or assistance? Is the most positive thing to do, ignore it and keep focused on our goal or is it to allow ourselves to be distracted and lend a hand?

Human relationships are often just as important, if not more so, than the goal. So maybe the ability to be distracted is not such a bad thing?

Amazing what I think of when I'm running!

Secrets, washing-up & MJ

Really enjoyed my run this morning! Had a nice chat with Nicky for our mile and a bit, particularly about the news we heard this weekend, which is amazingly exciting, but I'm unable to reveal as I'm sworn to secrecy for a couple of weeks. After that I did another three miles, which was also lovely.

I realised on this morning's run that I can still do Beachy Head in October, whatever anyone else says, however professional they are, or what authority and experience they have. If my goal is to run it (with a smattering of walking) and have a fabulous experience, it is absolutely in my own power and my hands (or possibly legs).

As it's Bank Holiday Monday today, I have had a great chill out morning, including what I refer to as disco washing-up, which involves just me in the kitchen with my iTunes turned right up doing the washing up and clearing up. I know it sounds weird but I love it.

The origins of disco washing-up are from my time living in Vancouver in the 80's, when a bunch of us used to get together after a meal, and we would throw plates, cutlery, pans from the "washer" to the "dryer" to the "putter away" in time to very loud music. We borrowed it from a scene from the movie "The Big Chill".

I also had a strange experience when a Michael Jackson song came on. I suddenly brimmed up with tears. Music is such a powerful communications channel. I could plainly hear through Michael Jackson's voice his pain, passion and also beauty. It hit me straight in the chest and knocked me sideways for a good couple of minutes.

I just love music. Sometimes just listening to it allows me a level of self-expression that I find it hard to access in other ways.

Blimey, I think I've drivelled on enough for about a week's worth of postings, so time to sign off.