We took a road run around Burgess Hill that started at a pace that I had also forgotten… [...]]]> Whilst I am generally up at 6am weekdays, I was clearly out of practice for early morning running, since Nick was gently tapping on the front door before I had even finished getting ready on Friday morning.

We took a road run around Burgess Hill that started at a pace that I had also forgotten… fast… such that I had to quickly deploy the sea anchors to slow us down to to a more conversational pace.  It was cold enough for longs, two layers and a jacket, hat and gloves… but of course the irrepressible Nick was wearing shorts!

After an enjoyable run we stopped for a brief chat before we went our seperate ways for breakfast and I then ran on back to the house.  A total of 5.2 miles in 46 minutes including our stationary chat, 6.78mph.

The Burgess Hill session was fully booked so we took our custom to the Dolphin in Haywards Heath where the trainer, Denise, had assembled [...]]]> After last week’s re-acquaintance with circuit training, and with the whole-body aching which chased it through the days that followed, Kim and I returned for a further endorphin rush last night.

The Burgess Hill session was fully booked so we took our custom to the Dolphin in Haywards Heath where the trainer, Denise, had assembled a veritable torture chamber of activities… 17 in all.

The warm-up alone had me gasping for air but with a group of around 37 people we were left a little to our own devices on the activities themselves, so I was able to decide my own limits.

Thankfully I was also able to copy my training partner for the evening, Daryl, otherwise I would still be working out the exercises now.

I say copy, but in fact he chose double the amount of weight than I did each time… strange that!

Overall a great workout!  Probably not as hard-core as Burgess Hill, though maybe that’s because I actually re inflated some old, forgotten muscles last week!

Joe Jaworski, son of the lawyer who indicted Nixon, suggests that by opening ourselves to the possibilities in the world around us and responding to the subtle signs we then see, we can induce predictable miracles to happen around us.  That’s how I felt this week.

Having written about the power of smiling and [...]]]>

Joe Jaworski, son of the lawyer who indicted Nixon, suggests that by opening ourselves to the possibilities in the world around us and responding to the subtle signs we then see, we can induce predictable miracles to happen around us.  That’s how I felt this week.

Having written about the power of smiling and then the benefits of focus over the last couple of weekends, I came across a significant piece of research which links the two.  Admittedly there is research and there is research and it’s often difficult to tell which is which, but this has the appearance of the latter, with half a million data points gathered from 15,000 people over the course of more than two and a half years… thus far.

The main findings around the subject of happiness are very interesting, but there was a side bar which suggests that, on average, we allow our minds to wander half of the time.  The percentage varies between certain tasks (for example it’s only 10% during sex!), but the crucial working day mirrors the overall average at 50%. It may be worth repeating that, in case you were thinking about something else.

Our minds wander HALF of every working day!

More interesting still is the correlation between focus and happiness.  When daydreaming, we can drift onto positive, neutral or negative subjects…mostly personal concerns.  Positive daydreaming has a largely neutral effect on our happiness, but neutral and negative daydreaming cause us to be less happy and downright unhappy respectively … and this results in decreased productivity, which I suspect is likely to reinforce the effect.

It is actually when our minds are focused on a task that we are at our happiest and, er… productive too!

With all this going through my mind this morning I can’t say I had a particularly happy run (in running terms), but it was at least a pleasant day… and a fitting close to the mild-mannered Year of the Rabbit which ends today.

I followed the same route as the last couple of weeks… I suppose I should name it my thinking route.  The first five miles were relatively hard going and the thought of cutting it short did cross my mind, but at the turn point I was one minute up on last week at 44 minutes.  The second five miles were equally tough but I managed to hold a faithful pace and returned another 44 minute time.

So ten miles in 1.28, average 6.8mph.

Lots of chores to do now to get the place clean in preparation for Chinese New Year tomorrow… it’ll be a miracle if we get them all done!

I’ve been thinking.

Sure, we are all thinking about something from moment to moment, but I wonder how many people sit down to deliberately think about one thing?

In fact, since I sold out of my marketing business in 2007 and have been thinking in a more focused way about thinking, I’ve observed that [...]]]>

I’ve been thinking.

Sure, we are all thinking about something from moment to moment, but I wonder how many people sit down to deliberately think about one thing?

In fact, since I sold out of my marketing business in 2007 and have been thinking in a more focused way about thinking, I’ve observed that relatively few people do so deliberately or on a regular basis.

There are a couple of directions that I could approach the subject from (for example brain speed) but it may be easier to look at it in terms of focus.

If you have an imaginary 100 units of focus bandwidth at any one moment and you’re thinking about two different things, for example driving and talking on a  hands-free phone (or even to someone sitting with you in the car), then your focus is split between the tasks to some extent… in this case maybe 70/30.

This may be sufficient focus on driving provided there are no abnormal considerations, but the band-width required to take that split-second action that might have averted an accident is essentially tied up doing something else… in this case listening, thinking and responding.

The same is true if I am running and thinking at the same time, something that I regularly do… with last week’s contemplation of smiling being a case in point.  There my focus was probably biased more towards the thinking, say 30/70, whilst I allowed my subconscious to keep me moving from step to step.  One of the (numerous!) reasons I eschew racing is that the training required is a different task to merely running, or in my case, running and writing a blog about it afterwards.

If I were in training (like Phil) or actually racing, then my focus would need to be more on the running and less on the other cognitive flotsam & jetsam.  Frustratingly however, the mind is easily distracted away from the task in hand and into thinking about other things, for example the past and future, or in Phil’s case, probably into thinking about music!  Take the focus away from running hard and you slow down.

Likewise to my mind, driving requires 100% bandwidth in order to moderate speed and road position according road conditions and (a conscious awareness of) potential hazards, which is why I generally drive with the radio off and never answer my phone.  The habit I have formed here is essentially not to think about anything other than the driving.  My occasional passengers will be familiar with my tendency to stop talking, even mid-sentence, in order to assess a situation ahead.

My route this afternoon (after a shameless lay-in) was exactly the same as last week, chosen in part for the ease with which I could think while I ran.  It was a glorious if somewhat chilly day and I quickly got into a reasonable pace.  The running element of my focus consisted of noticing when I had slowed down and pushing myself on a little, while my head then generally spiralled back to the more cerebral subject addressed by this blog.

I reached the halfway point in 45 minutes, exactly the same time as last week and I made a conscious decision to focus more bandwidth on the running on the way back.  I first focused on my footfall, landing on the outside of my heel and leaving from my big toe as I was taught by Andrea Wright, my super-physio.  I also focused on relaxing my upper body, where the Bok’s trick is to relax the jaw, since the rest of you then seems to relax.  Then, keeping a watching brief on these two elements, I focused mainly on my breathing, in through my nose, out through my mouth, fully and in time to the pace.

Like trying to break any other habit, this was difficult (even for me, where I am conscious about what is going on!) and I found myself back in the earlier subject more than once (my breathing becoming shallow again), but I didn’t beat myself up about it, rather just drawing the focus back into the preferred place.

In general terms I made good time, finishing ten miles in just under 90 minutes, or 6.74mph average.

Whether you are running, driving or working, we should try to be more aware of the bandwidth we are using… and if it is less than 100% (and this wasn’t a conscious decision), then we should focus more clearly on what we’re supposed to be doing.

Keep thinking… and keep smiling too!

I was humbled that, at Christmas, my folks thanked me for my psychological support during last year.  I find it interesting that that despite being a highly evolved species, it is often the simple stuff that makes a difference to how we think and how we feel.

Take smiling for example.  It may be [...]]]>

I was humbled that, at Christmas, my folks thanked me for my psychological support during last year.  I find it interesting that that despite being a highly evolved species, it is often the simple stuff that makes a difference to how we think and how we feel.

Take smiling for example.  It may be an automatic response to something we like or find amusing, but if you give yourself a big smile as you sit reading this, your mind will probably disregard the fact that you smiled for no apparent reason and post-rationalise that you’re feeling happy… which you will then feel.  You may even enjoy reading this post more, even though it’s a slightly obscure one.

It was late when I dragged myself from bed this morning and I played my guitar whilst supping my way through two quadspressos… before finally pushing myself out the front door at around twenty to midday.  I have a sense that Michael Apter’s fascinating Reversal Theory applies to my runs as well since, unlike last week, I had no desire to get muddy whatsoever.  In fact I was definitely in a telic (task-focused) mode rather than a playful para-telic!

I opted for my ten-mile pavement route on the basis that I could turn around early if required… the cough that I had all through Christmas is still lingering around, which is why I reluctantly turned down the offer of a run with Mark Johnson yesterday.

You may think that running alongside the road would be somewhat tedious, but I happen to be passionate about cars and motorbikes and it didn’t take long before I found myself smiling inanely at a Kawasaki as it rumbled past.  I smiled at more cars, some without thinking and some deliberately.  A Morgan with the top down, a Boxster, a 911, some MX5s… each time getting a little rush of happiness to ease the physical effort of running.

I smiled at neat new fences and tidy gardens and even at the thought that had clearly gone into the design of a new property on the southern outskirts of Hassocks.  I especially smiled as I acknowledged the people I passed along the route… some of them clearly needed a little extra happiness in their lives, whilst others were as Larry as me!

I reached the 5-mile turn point in 45 minutes… I smiled about that too, since it had felt like hard going.

The return leg was slower and definitely harder work and I was glad that I wasn’t trying to keep up with Mark, but the smiles kept coming.  A new red 911 4S convertible (BIG smile!), an old 911S, a neat new Jag convertible, a Ducati , more people (including some that I passed for a second time), more houses and gardens.

It’s curious how easily we can make life more interesting and less stressful: deciding not to get irritated at groups of people taking up the whole pavement, giving a nervous motorist extra time at a junction without adding to their stress, thanking someone who let us out or sorry to someone we have inconvenienced, saying good morning to elderly neighbours (one of whom stopped to give me a lift to the station as I jogged to catch my train, even though she probably has no idea where I live) or even just giving ourselves a little more time to get to work in the morning, or more space to the car in front of us.

Those of you familiar with my work and my England Garden Gang concept probably realise my wider belief that there are plenty of simple ways to make a difference in our organisations and in society too, with a little additional effort but no great sacrifice… for example keeping our neighbourhoods neat rather than assuming it’s the responsibility of someone else.  There’s plenty of stuff to smile about!

Towards the end of my run I passed several curry houses with their delicious aromas hanging in the stillness of the flat grey day, but rather than smiling this just made me feel hungry… such that I announced an urgent requirement for minestrone soup and toast when I eventually dragged myself back through the front door, quickly to be followed by two cups of tea and two hot cross buns.

10 miles in 1.33, 6.45mph and though my legs are already heavy, I can’t help smiling at the positive effect my run will probably have on my body and soul.

Despite whatever aches you might have, feel free to join me in a BIG smile as you wake up tomorrow morning if you want to improve your chances of having an excellent day!