102 posts! The 100 post milestone almost slipped past me!!

I was surprised to note that the last of the recent batch of blog posts was the 102nd entry, so I thought I should do a brief look back over this.

This blog was created back in April 2015 when I started my training for my maiden Ultra (100km Race To The Stones), and during those four months to July 2015, it is clear I was highly focused and fired up, hence 62 posts and 1.6million steps done at an average of 13,250 steps a day.

The effort to achieve this saw not a drop down  to a steady state of running and exercise afterwards but a complete switch off as for the following eleven months, the average step count drop to 7,350 with some months being as low as 5,800.
There were attempts to achieve 10k average in a month but it was half-hearted, without purpose and unsustainability in the way I was trying to achieve it.
Blog posts in those eleven posts was just 29 and a lot of those were talk of getting back to fitness etc but not much action in reality.

This month with one week to go, I have done 12 (including this one) blog posts, I will produce the most steps in a month for the last twelve months with a distinct reality of beating the my fourth highest (April 15) monthly step count.

The last twelve months have been extremely challenging for me personally as factors beyond my control have spiralled out of control, taking me to physical lows and stressed to the edge.
The Miracle Morning book made a big impact on me, and it allowed me to draw a line and start again but with purpose and more drive to achieve my aims.....I am not out of woods but I am moving closer to getting out of those woods.
Another thing that has kept me going is a blog by a friend of mine, Grant, who actually was inspired to do so because of my blog during the Ultra training, so it is ironic that his blog has been since inspiring me to keep on trying through to the successes of this month.
Grant runs, does triathlon, and recently did a half-IronMan which quite frankly is amazing - I well recommend following him as he continues on his own fitness journey - http://runtrisleep.blogspot.co.uk/

The Road To Thetford - Day Thirteen

I did run on Wednesday (Day10) but didn't get round to doing a blog - to be honest, my intent is not a daily blog, so I may well start to store up batches of runs and report them in the same blog.

There was meant to be a run on Thursday with a break on Friday but in the end I did neither morning, and with me working from home, the overalls steps per day was less than 5k - it also impacted my focus on the work I was meant to be doing those days and more widely my general well-being with some very poor food choices.

The positive is that up to two weeks ago, these poor days were happening day-in day-out, so now having five good days and only two poor days is a big improvement.

The concepts of Miracle Morning do have a big impact and most of it is common-sense.

Anyhow today, I did my planned five miles, and even though I had two days break it was a struggle but I got it done.

Some cloud cover was helpful as when the sun was free of the cloud I could feel the heat on my skin.

Photo below amused me with plant sale sign in front of a muck heap, although it would be good for your plants......

Horse muck - probably need to get some to store, allow to rot, and use over winter.

The Road To Thetford Day Six - The Four-Miler

After a two-day break that were individually planned but I hadn't realised it would result in two days of no running, I went off on my run having done my Miracle Morning hour - early days but getting up at 5.45am is still happening.

Running from Freethorpe towards Halvergate, this is the view of the Halvergate Church across the fields.

I took a photo of this road sign in Halvergate because when I start doing the longer distances, I plan on doing a route I have never done to date, which is to run into Tunstall and follow the public footpath that takes you to Damgate Lane in Acle, and probably from there I would run to Beighton before returning home - probably a 12mile route so one for about three weeks time.

A few photos of rooks who few off as my lumbering feet disturb them - look for black dots (sorry too slow taking the photos).

A shot of a windmill across the fields that has had scaffolding on it since forever....

Wickhampton church in the distance.

Last year you could run along the permissive pathway which wound it way through the a sizeable field, and one evening I had an extra incentive with two horses also using it behind me.  Shame it has gone but the Government cut spending on this and the farmers all just dug them up and put extra crops in.

Weird to find a concrete wall on the field - at first I thought it was a wall to block travellers invading the field but looks like it is an area for trucks and lorries to load and unload - not pretty though,

Below is my brunch I had - Toasted Bread with Avocado and Tomatoes - I was a bit stingy with the lime juice so next time I will make sure I squeeze some more on.

The Road To Thetford! Day1

Given all these top athletes are on the Road to Rio, I thought I should have my Route to Thetford given that is my big race of this year.

After a number of months with only sporadic bouts of running, today with just 10 weeks to go until the Thetford Marathon (http://www.marafunevents.co.uk/) I started my training - ideally it should have been six weeks ago but life got complicated and it has taken until now to mentally break the feeling of being overwhelmed by it.

I have been inspired from reading a book called the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod (I got it out of the library but places like Amazon stock it as well), and I am using this as a starting basis to make the changes I need to make in my life.

I plan on using my Mike Reboot blog to report on whole aspect of applying the concepts from the Miracle Morning and on this blog report on the running aspect.

Tonight I will work out a manageable 10 week training plan to tie in with the Miracle Morning approach but as a starter I did about 1.5 miles this morning and I have been eating healthy today as well.

No photos today as I forgot to take the ipad with me on the run.