The Road To Thetford - Game Over - Or To Be Turn This From Being Negative To Positive, Why I Run

The fact there has been no blog update since the middle of August will be a big clue that the training plan for the Thetford marathon just is not being done - a big reason for this is that I had a stomach virus for about a week but if I am honest, my heart has just not been in it.

If I am really candid, it has not really been fired up for race events all year, hence I have failed to turn up for a single one - it would be easy to blame the challenges I currently have in my personal life that have at times overwhelmed me but the truth is, I am just not fired up enough to want to train as much as a race would require me to.

Does this mean I now stop running forever?  Absolutely not but I am going to free myself from the pressure of having to run x number of times per week that requires ever increasing mileage.

If we go back to why I originally started running, it was to not be unfit and unhealthy but what ultimately took over was a love of running in the countryside with great scenic views.

When I am truly absorbed, times and distances cease to be important and even the need to run can be part-exchanged for some brisk walking instead.

On a train, in a car, or even watching something like Le Tour De France, I am admiring the scenic views that in my mind I could see myself running, particularly the tough parts of the Alps that make or break the cyclists.

This blog has been tough to do, and I have put off typing it for a few days but what I have said is what I already know, and being honest with myself allows me to get running again without the self-imposed pressures, and the bottom line is we should be running because it is fun.

Three Million Steps - Achievement Unlocked

So two days ago, I clocked up my three millionth step since getting a Garmin at the beginning of April 2015.
Garmin hasn't awarded me an achievement badge for it like it did in September for reaching two million steps but it still an achievement.

Obviously if you are aiming for 10k steps a day then you should hit 3.65 (or 3.66 in a leap year) million steps.

For this week I have hit an average of 9.6k steps but I have the weekend which is generally a lot lower for me, so that average may drop sharply.
I only did three lunchtime mindless walks this week at work otherwise the pre-weekend average would have been nearer 11 to 12k.

As for my calorie management - this week has been a disaster with too much last minute meal purchasing (pizzas one night, curry meal box another night) and it has not been helped by family issues that have hit my generally positive approach.
However I do not give up, so I pick myself up again and I carry on accepting it was just a blip and today is a fresh day.

The four well-being pillars are out of balance - time to get them under control

Mental, Physical, Sleep, and Nutrition.


There are those who believe that to operate at your best (whatever you are doing) there are four "pillars" that need to be broadly in harmony.

1) Sleep - Seen as the big one, as a decent amount of sleep will provide the right basis for wanting to do well in the other three areas during the day i.e. poor and/or little sleep might reduce your willpower to not eat sugary junk food, or to not do some exercise, or to read/study.

Seven to eight hours sleep per day is seen as optimum but it also need to be quality deep sleep, and mindfulness, which seems to be the in-thing, would be an area to look at to help you de-clutter and slow your mind down prior to going to bed.   Going technology-free about an hour before bed apparently also helps.

For me, I probably have had the right amount of sleep but of a poor quality.
In fact having just looked at my garmin data, when I was training for the 100k run, my average sleep was about 7hrs, and since then it has been 8hrs, so I am sleeping more but feel worse for it.
Fundamentally, the sleep is not deep enough making me more prone to wake, and then need the loo (post-cancer treatment made my bladder weaker than it already was), and more recently our new cat wanting to be fed at 6am and hasn't moved on from British Summer Time.......

2) Mental - The brain needs to be fed as much as the body, but with words not food.
Setting time aside to journal, plan ahead, read, listening to relaxing music prior to going to bed etc.

I was very good at this but I have struggled to get back into the swing of things - I take a lot of books out of the library but I rarely read more than two of them.
I also felt like my mindset at work has been quite negative but somehow still getting the work done.

3) Physical - Whilst I was training, I was doing an average of 400k steps a month, now it is just 200k.
Or to put it another way, my average per day now is 6.6k compared to 13k previously.

The amount of running at the moment has dropped to less than one run per week - not necessarily a problem if you are being physically active without running but mine has been little running (not due to injury) and no alternative activities.

4) Nutrition - Eat well and you feel well, you then have the energy to do what needs to be done.
This one out of the four has been terrible for me recently - eating for the sake of it, to excess, lots of crisps, sweets, less fruit and veg and so on.


Ok, a lot of doom and gloom negativity but this is about me being honest with myself and accepting that I need to draw a line on this, and day by day get those pillars back into balance.

Interestingly despite my lack of blogging recently, I have been thinking about creating a second blog, yet to be named, that would focus on healthy eating and home-cooking.