running, reading, nonsense.
I went away for two weeks and when I came back the seasons had changed. The heath where I go to run before work, and retreat to during my break, has sprouted. Its trees and bushes and fields are verdant, bright. The grass pops green, clashes with the yellow of the rape flower. Every year… Continue reading So Bloody Green
‘Some of mankind’s greatest acts of philanthropy have had their genesis in boredom. Numerous creative breakthroughs have emerged out of ennui too. Or as Kierkegaard put it, “They gods were bored, therefore they created human beings.” For Aradhna and me, the inspiration for Summer 2018’s epic journey came from an exceptionally tedious wait for a… Continue reading Running the Orient
With the transition of the seasons comes a transition in training. It isn’t exactly a new year, or a completely clean slate, but the gradual shifting of nature’s palette has encouraged me to take stock and consider what might I do differently in the year’s final chapters compared to it’s long open, and sun-stunted middle. … Continue reading To Watch Less
The 5K is seen as a beginners distance in running. It is often the first “proper” distance that runners will look to complete, firstly in their training, and then in racing, often in the form of the sorely missed parkrun format. It also offers up some neat time barriers for runners to break through. A… Continue reading Something about 5k.
Killian Jornet is one of the greatest athletes of our time. He is a sky runner, a trail runner, and a ski mountaineer. He is a winner, and a record holder. He is not the greatest storyteller of our age. Above the Clouds is Jornet’s third book. It is a lightly structured collection of musings… Continue reading Above the Clouds, and Training in the Modern Age.
I’m sure there are some benefits to running in the morning, but I just do it because I have always done it; in the first stage of my running life at the weekends; and now in my second. I’ve heard some things about how morning running improves the way your body metabolises fat for energy… Continue reading Have I ever seen a sheep sleeping?
It hasn’t been the most eventful week of training that I’ve ever undertaken in my life, but I’m perfectly happy with that. As I have reiterated in previous blogs, my current focus is on building aerobic fitness, and eliminating some of the lower leg niggles that I have been carrying for a while now, so… Continue reading The Wind Giveth, the Wind Taketh
I’d always heard that one of the key components of marathon training was the 2 hour long run, and I always figured that at some point I would start doing 2 hour runs regardless of whether I was training for a marathon or not. Running is endurance, as soon as you come off the sprint… Continue reading And Suddenly, my Longest Run.
It's safe to assume that we won't be racing before April, I think. The end of the pandemic might finally be tangible, with the vaccine providing a slowly unfurling solution to this crisis, but we aren’t there yet. From a runners perspective this makes things very simple: no races, no track, no group runs, so… Continue reading Back to Base
Some point last year I went running with a couple of albums and really enjoyed the experience, so much so that I intended on starting a segment called Soundtrack to… where I would pair up albums with particular runs as if I were pairing an entrée with wine. This didn’t last long, mostly because soon… Continue reading Not Running Music
run into words 