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

Good morning and happy Monday. Apologies for the silence on this blog. I’m hoping that life has calmed down a little and that my blogging mojo has reappeared. After not running since September last year and a lot of strength and conditioning, I would love to be able to run 5km in approximately six weeks’ time. We shall see. Anyway, I hope that whoever takes the time to read what I suspect will turn into quite a long blog containing all sorts of randomness had an amazing weekend. My weekend had a couple of highlights; lunch at the Giggling Squid and an enjoyable interval run in the rain. So, it ..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

I’d like to start by saying good morning, good afternoon, good evening etc, and happy Tuesday. I hope that whoever reads what is going to be the final instalment in my ‘Books read recently’ series of blogs for a while had an amazing Christmas and New Year. If for whatever reason, you didn’t enjoy Christmas and New Year, I hope that the next twelve months are kinder. One of my 2022 New Year’s Resolutions was to read more. Not just running-related books but all of the books I’ve purchased over the years and never made the time to read. I’m know I’m repeating myself, but since 2020, books have pr ..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

As 2022 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 like the previous two years I spent most of 2022 injured and unable to run, 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 quite 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 most def ..read more

In 2020, I published a couple of what I called ‘What I spend in a week’ posts. These posts looked at my weekly spending and were very loosely based on the Money Diaries that are regularly published on Refinery29. [Source] The first money diary captured my weekly spending pre-lockdown, the second money diary during lockdown. As lockdowns are hopefully very much a distant memory, I thought I’d keep track of my spending during a week in the lead up to Christmas. I figured that certain aspects of my life have changed since June 2020, so it was time for an update. When I published my lockdown week ..read more