Good morning and happy Monday. As always, I hope that whoever takes the time to read what may well turn into a longer-than-originally-anticipated blog had an awesome weekend. My weekend had a couple of highlights; volunteering as a parkwalker at Sutton Park parkrun and the return of Gladiators. 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 is spread over nine weeks. The NHS Live Well website provided the following information about the interval sessions in Week 2 of the Couch t ..read more

My ‘True cost of running’ in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and in 2022 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 featured a lot of parkrun volunteering, but not a lot of running. 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. And yes, I know it’s not the end of the year, but now I’ve stocked up on socks in the Versus Socks Black Friday sale ..read more

Good morning and happy Wednesday. As always, I hope that whoever takes the time to read what I suspect may well turn into another long blog had an amazing Bank Holiday weekend and start to the working week. My weekend had a few highlights; volunteering at Sutton Park parkrun, a win for Wolves, getting to check out what might turn out to be the new and improved Sutton Park parkrun course on Sunday, and lunch at the Giggling Squid. As the Couch to 5k training plan doesn’t seem to work well for me, I decided to follow the This Messy Happy Beginner to 5k training plan which is available along with ..read more

Good morning and happy Monday As always, I hope that whoever takes the time to read what I suspect will turn into another quite lengthy training (and life) update had an amazing weekend. My weekend had a couple of highlights; managing to run 2km without needing to take a sneaky walking break and celebrating Sutton Park parkrun’s fifth birthday. As the Couch to 5k training plan doesn’t seem to work well for me, I decided to follow the This Messy Happy Beginner to 5k training plan which is available along with other training plans here. The This Messy Happy website provided the following inform ..read more

Good morning and happy(?) Monday. As always, I hope that whoever takes the time to read what I suspect may well turn into another lengthy blog had an amazing weekend. My weekend had a couple of highlights; volunteering at Sutton Park parkrun and finding running for 1 km without stopping relatively easy. As the Couch to 5k training plan doesn’t seem to work well for me, I decided to follow the This Messy Happy Beginner to 5k training plan which is available along with other training plans here. The This Messy Happy website provided the following information about the training sessions in Week 2 ..read more

**Disclaimer: I’m writing this post after a somewhat disappointing birthday. After spending my birthday last year waiting for a friend to be discharged from hospital I was hoping for a more positive birthday, but the reality was sadly different. I know that it’s my own fault I don’t have many friends, but spending my birthday on my own was difficult. Although I suspect that this rants and raves post may turn out to be more ranty than usual, I know that writing this post will make me feel better. As always, all rants and raves and moans and groans represent my personal views. Other, far less ne ..read more

Happy New Year! Happy Monday. Here’s to a hopefully positive 2023 for everyone. I’m going to begin by making what sounds like a selfish wish; I hope 2023 is an injury free year for me. I know that there’s more to life than running, but I hope I’m finally able to run consistently. I’ve had enough knee issues to last me a lifetime. I’ve reviewed 2022 in a fair amount of detail here and I’ve drawn a line under 2022. It’s now time for me to look ahead to 2023 and to set myself some running goals, some walking goals, and some parkrun goals. Last year, the combination of a severe loss of mojo and a ..read more

Good afternoon and happy Wednesday. I hope you are having an awesome week and that the weather isn’t too miserable where you are. It’s just gone dark and started raining here, again. Fingers crossed it’s dry at the weekend. Anyway, enough complaining about the weather. I know it’s only November 23rd, but in an attempt to stop myself from making any ‘Black Friday’ running related purchases, I decided to publish this post today. My ‘True cost of running’ in 2018, 2019, 2020, and in 2021 posts turned out to be reasonably popular, so I decided to work out how much I managed to spend on what I call ..read more

**Disclaimer: I’m writing this rants and raves post after discovering Wolves have just failed to win, again, and are now firmly stuck in the relegation zone. I’m aware that in the grand scheme of things football isn’t very important, but it’s frustrating watching a group of footballers who look like they’d rather be somewhere else. Although I suspect that this rants and raves post may turn out to be more ranty than usual, I know that writing this post will make me feel better. As always, all moans and groans and rants and raves represent my personal views. Other, far less negative running blog ..read more

**Disclaimer: I’m writing this rants and raves post after spending the day completing mandatory training courses. One of the training courses took over three hours to complete so I’m feeling a little bit grumpy. As a result, I have a feeling that this rants and raves post may turn out to be quite ranty. As always, all moans and groans and rants and raves represent my personal views. Other, far less negative running blogs are available** I’d like to start by saying good morning, good afternoon, good evening, etc to whoever takes the time to read my latest selection of rants and raves. TGIF! It ..read more