Running To Learn - Blog

I have had a very ‘happy birthday to me’! I tend to have an extended birthday; I herald it for while and then fully live it. It is important that we always take responsibility for our own happiness! I love celebrating birthdays in style...

On Saturday morning Fi and I arranged to meet at mad o’ clock at the bandstand. We had planned to run 15 miles and as I was working all day, 6.15am saw us bright and cheery at the bandstand ready to head off for the hills on a lovely May bank holiday...

Friday I am in Beanzz coffee house - about to enjoy a cappuccino - instead of a cafe creme in Nice! My ankle is a bit sore and I am tired - so I made the decision to stay here and let the plane fly off without me. It's quite possible of course...

As I arrived at my front door at the end of my Sunday morning run, I saw my friend Simon from the Tri Store running down the road towards me. He stopped for a chat, said that he’d been following Jim, Rupert, Rob and me on the top of the downs; he...

Monday Morning I have been running around Edinburgh this morning. It is a beautiful cold sunny day, Edinburgh looked glorious in the bright morning light; the streets were starting to fill with people going on their way and the Castle rose magnificently...

Last weekend I raced in the Sussex road relays. It is a two mile loop around the grounds of Christ's hospital school. I last raced there in 2004! I love club athletics and it is thanks to Tom Ulliott our team manager that I have been running the...

Jim and I went for a run in Friston Forest on Sunday. We met at The Lamb at 7am and ran uphill past the youth hostel and onto the downs where the sun was glistening on the sea and Eastbourne was slowly waking up on a sunny spring Sunday morning. We arrived...

I feel like I’ve been in a strange swirl of time that whisked me up and put me back where I once was for a short while and then has brought me back here to a dawning spring day by the sea. The Masters Cross country championships took place in...

Last week passed so fast and yet felt very immediate and full of energising experiences - each person I spent time with and each run I did felt intense and rich with life force. In some ways the more my life exists in the present moment the more remembering...

I am at Cyprus airport! I have just had a really fun weekend in Cyprus with Running Crazy. I have laughed a lot, enjoyed the sun and the sea and the lovely warm and welcoming atmosphere of Paphos. It was a weekend of racing; there was a marathon...

When I was 17 and training to run as fast as I could, I can remember one day walking across from Godalming 6 th form where my best friend Wendy and I were doing our A levels, to Charterhouse where our boyfriends Andy and Richard were at school - for tea...

I am gradually making my way back to barefoot running again – I have a screen saver of me running on the beach in Kenya in bare feet (the reason I have a screen saver of me, is that I put it there to inspire me when I was injured!). I rushed...

As I drove over to the Sussex League X country race in Lancing on Saturday, I was listening to a CD of Andrea Bocelli singing in Central Park. Listening to him, it seems evident that he is doing what he loves; it feels like he is giving us his gift. He...

On Sunday morning I ran up to the Pilot to meet Fi and we set off on our Sunday morning journey over the downs, it was still snowy and icy on the top so we took to the road with the downs beside us– the landscape looked so different from a new position...

My long run wasn't so long on Sunday – I was out for a while – 2 hours 20 minutes, but I only covered 10 miles in that time. The downs were snowy and so I walked and ran and slip-slided about. I liked it. I liked the sudden change, I like...

I had a wonderful weekend. It was very full and today I am glad of a restful ‘catch up with myself’ day. I worked this morning, had a yoga /body work session with John and made my way here to Beannz for lovely vegetable soup and then carrot...

Last Saturday, I enjoyed the rare feeling of a totally unexpected show of form! I travelled to the Masters County Championships with zero expectation. My run last week in the Sussex League was pleasing in that I ran hard, had come away uninjured and...

I have loved my week of running! At first it felt a bit hard to have done week one of ‘proper training’ and there was week two straight away, expecting to be run too! This is something I have learned over the years. Take a day at a time, a...

I am kind of easing my way back into running without much of a plan , but the plan is making itself. I rather think that if we let go of trying to make things happen then things happen of their own accord. I have discovered that I have sometimes...

I found myself recounting how many runs and how far I'd run to my friend Rob today - 'I ran 12.5 miles on Saturday , 4.5 miles on new Years Day and 8 miles this morning with Fi'... I suddenly stopped and said 'Wow I sound like it's...

I ran down the road in the dark at 6.45am on Friday morning and soon saw the figure of my friend Fi emerging from the blackness towards me. We set off to the seafront and talked our way to the end and back again. It slowly got light, no dramatic sunrises...

Saturday, the day before Majorca 10k I am undecided as to whether I will run the race tomorrow. I have been hopeful and my rather short run up to the race has been promising, but yesterday my knee started to hurt again and although I ran for half an...

As I write I have 'The chorus of the Hebrew slaves', by Verdi, on repeat. I keep hearing it on the radio when driving. I love it so much that I bought '100 best Verdi' from Amazon imagining it must be included, and thankfully it is! ...

I spent Sunday afternoon recovering in a café (of course!) from running for an hour! Being injured for so long has made me forget how much energy running uses. I have been training consistently and quite hard on all the equipment in the gym...

I trained outdoors again a little bit last week, because although the gym is keeping me incredibly fit, I have been missing the downs and the sea. I have come to realise that I really need my ‘sea fix’ everyday, and that I have been missing...