Happy Friday! I’m going to start by making what sounds like an incredibly selfish wish; I hope that the year ahead is an injury-free year for me. I know that there’s more to life than running, but I really want to be able to run consistently. After what feels like far too many years of injury problems, I hope 2025 is the year I finally manage to leave my injury woes behind me. I’m aware I’m repeating what I’ve said numerous times, but I’ve had enough injuries to last me a lifetime. I’ve reviewed the previous 12 months in far, far too much detail here and I’ve drawn a line under last year. It’s ..read more

As 2024 has almost come to an end, I’ve decided to review my running highlights, low points, and the lessons I learned throughout the year. As I spent several periods of the year injured and unable to run consistently, I decided to share some of my non-running highlights and low points. If you don’t enjoy reading lengthy annual review posts – I’m nosey, so I find them interesting, but I know from previous feedback that not everyone does – I’d recommend that you navigate away from this page and continue with your day. Here are the links to my previous annual review posts, there’s definitely a t ..read more

My ‘True cost of running’ in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and in 2023 posts turned out to be quite popular, so I decided to work out how much I managed to spend on what I call running-related purchases in a year that happily featured more running than last year. I decided to use the same categories; running clothes and trainers, running accessories, race entries, etc I used in previous years so that I could compare this year’s spending with what I spent last year. I also added a new category – osteopathy appointments – as after having a mini meltdown back in April, I finally decided to do som ..read more

Good morning and happy Monday. As always, I hope whoever takes the time to read my latest training and life update had a great weekend. If, for whatever reason, you didn’t have a very good weekend, I hope that the next seven days are more positive. My weekend had a couple of highlights, volunteering at Sutton Park parkrun and finding running for 25 minutes relatively easy. The NHS Live Well website provided the following information about the three training runs in Week 6 of the Couch to 5k training plan. Like the last time I attempted the sixth week of the Couch to 5k, I looked forw ..read more

Good morning. As always, I hope whoever takes the time to read this weekly life and training update had an amazing weekend. If, for whatever reason, your weekend wasn’t great, I hope the next seven days are more positive. My weekend had a couple of highlights; a sociable Sutton Park parkrun and running for 20 minutes without taking a walking break. The NHS Live Well website provided the following information about the interval sessions in Week 5 of the Couch to 5k training plan. Like the last time I attempted the fifth week of the Couch to 5k, I looked forward to tackling three different train ..read more

Good morning and happy(?) Monday. As always, I hope whoever takes the time to read this weekly life and training update containing a fair amount of waffle and food photos had an amazing weekend. I’ve said it before, but if, for whatever reason, you didn’t have a very good weekend, I hope the next seven days are more positive. My weekend had two highlights; setting an unexpected season’s best at Sutton Park parkrun and successfully completing an interval session. The NHS Live Well website provided the following information about the interval sessions in Week 4 of the Couch to 5k training plan ..read more

Good morning. I can’t believe it’s Monday morning again. As always, I hope whoever reads this life and training update had a fabulous weekend. If, like me, you didn’t, I hope that the next seven days are more positive for both of us. For the reasons I outlined last week, I decided to start again with the Couch to 5k training plan that is available on the NHS Live Well website. This version of the Couch to 5k training plan should take nine weeks. The NHS Live Well website provided the following information about the interval sessions in Week 3 of the Couch to 5k training plan. My ..read more

Good morning. Happy Monday. As always, I hope whoever reads this life and training update had an amazing weekend. If, for whatever reason, you didn’t, I hope that the week ahead is kinder to you. My weekend had two highlights: walking (and running) Sutton Park parkrun with Ellen and making a start on my C****tmas shopping. For the reasons I outlined last week, I decided to start again with the Couch to 5k training plan that is available on the NHS Live Well website. This version of the Couch to 5k training plan should take nine weeks. The NHS Live Well website provided the following ..read more

Good morning and happy(?) Monday. I’ve just realised I haven’t shared a any sort of update on here since May. If I had to summarise the last six months or so in four words I’d go with illnesses, injuries and intermittent running. As always, I hope that whoever takes the time to read this weekly life and running update had a fab weekend. If, for whatever reason, you didn’t, I hope that the next seven days are more positive. My weekend had one main highlight: completing the first week of the Couch to 5k. After a longer than originally planned break from running due to illness and a temperamental ..read more

Good morning. Happy(?) Monday. As always, I hope that whoever takes the time to read this weekly life and training update had a great weekend. If for whatever reason, you didn’t, I hope that the next seven days are kinder to you. My weekend had two highlights; walking Sutton Park parkrun with Ellen and running for 25 minutes without having to take a walking break. The NHS Live Well website provided the following information about the three training runs in Week 6 of the Couch to 5k training plan. My Wednesday and Friday evening interval sessions started with a fast warm-up walk and ..read more