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Morning input

Those of you who know me will know that I like to read, especially in the morning at the start of the day, feeding my mind in the same way that a subsequent breakfast will feed my body.

This habit used to lapse each winter, when I prefer to sit in the emerging gloom rather than put any electric lights on. However, last year I inherited a Kindle and I have found this perfect for providing those few pages of insight in a backlit format. It’s also more discreet than the kind of chunky books I often read and doesn’t stand out in our pleasingly-minimalistic sitting room.

Later this week I’m running a workshop on Change to the wider Sussex Projects team and whilst I’ve already done the heavy lifting of designing the session and the slide deck, I do like to flip through the slides each day, in the run up to workshops, to ensure that I’m really familiar with the flow.

Reading before a run is always helpful to help my mind using the exercise time to assimilate and throw out new ideas, so this morning I chose to read my slide deck rather than the Kindle.

It was only a short 1-mile run on the machine before work, taking just under 9.5 minutes, but mind and body are now both ready for the rigours of the rest of the week 🙂

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Hidden in plain sight

We’re lucky enough to have an in-house running machine, which hides in plain sight in the thoroughfare between the open-plan dining and sitting rooms. Regular readers will know that I’ve not used it for a while, but recently it’s been out of bounds and surrounded by the flotsam & jetsam of life and the paraphernalia of our recent house guests.

Last weekend we finally managed to clear enough space for it to emerge from the background of my subconscious as the solution to a short-term problem.: I’ve not been getting enough exercise recently and I know that this eventually results in my brain working more slowly… something that I can’t afford to do right now with the pressures of my exciting new role.

Suffice to say that the machine was fired up early this morning and a short run ensued. Just one mile in just under 10 minutes, but I know that one run of this nature each week would tip the balance in favour of a clearer head. As per usual… watch this space 🙂

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More cold ears

After a second month of full-time employment (a shock in itself after working for myself for more than 20 years), a particularly busy period of juggling important work priorities and the departure of our amazing house guests who arrived at the start of December, I finally managed to find the head-space to get out for a run this morning.

I feel that running generally results in a lower resting heart rate, better quality of sleep, and clearer thinking, but an absence of running inexorably drives a feeling of lethargy, which makes it progressively harder to find the motivation to run

Add into this that I’ve been suffering a heavy cold for the past week and it’s always tricky to gauge whether the exercise will help or hinder its demise… or my demise!

The run itself was surprising. Despite another month of not running (and lately having been metaphorically tethered, motionless, to my desk for ten hours a day) running felt fairly easy. I started slow and didn’t push myself, but it turned out that I ran slightly quicker than my recent runs since the end of October. I was also faster on the way up the hill than on the way back down… I did notice that my legs ran out of a little steam towards the end.

So just under 2 miles in 19 minutes 21 seconds.

Oh, and I was wearing shorts, t-shirt, hat & gloves and whilst the rest of me was comfortable, oh my did I have cold ears!

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The Year of the Water Rabbit

With my recent move to an exciting, daunting and fully immersive role, I didn’t leave myself enough time for my usual Chinese New Year collaboration with Simon at Scoopsweb, so the design above is much more homegrown… certainly free-range 🙂

During this period of relative instability, I hope that we collectively manage to find the patience to think things through, before acting with compassion.

Wishing you good health, peace and prosperity in the Year of the Water Rabbit 🙂

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Celebratory run

Happy New Year!

Shortly after my birthday each year there is a slow process by which each of my treasured schoolfriends in turn becomes a year older than me, until I finally catch them all up again… ever the laggard! Actually, whilst it wasn’t always fun being the youngest in the year, now it’s a pretty cool gig!

The Bank Holiday in honour of my friend Squiffee’s birthday today dawned bright & sunny and I felt the need for a celebratory run.

The distance was only a token gesture, using the same circuit as my recent runs, but it was great to be outside (in shorts and a t-shirt) and thinking about my friends.

Bizarrely, whilst I’ve not run for more than a month I was reasonably quick on the outbound leg (for the recent me), whilst the return leg was exactly the same pace as my last three runs.

So 2 miles in 19 minutes 30 seconds and a great start to the New Year 🙂

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Steadily does it :-)

With three weeks since my last run, I decided that it was more important to take it steady today and enjoy myself… which I did!

Whilst it wasn’t so warm wearing shorts and a t-shirt, a weak sun was pushing through the greyness which, along with a hat and gloves, made the temperature bearable.

I focused on flowing along gently and had none of the heavy footedness that I was experiencing a few months ago. In fact, I could easily have run further… although I can’t deny that it was a relief to get back in the warm 🙂

So, a smidge over 2 miles (I ran to the door and the warmth behind it 🙂 in just under 20 minutes. That’s not as fast as the last couple of runs, but only on the outbound leg, running up the hill… on the way back I actually matched the pace of the last two runs, which is pretty amazing given that I thought I was taking it steady!

Life is about to change here to some extent with both a new role and house guests imminent. New constraints always help to shine a light on the old routines and drive creative thinking about new ways of doing things, making for both exciting and daunting times ahead 🙂

No pictures of the run today, but enclosing one of my Mum’s Jade plant / Money plant, which has suddenly decided to flower. This is a really rare event, so I’ll take it as a good sign 🙂

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Flippity floppity does it :-)

It’s been feeling somewhat chilly in the house lately, which has less to do with the weather than because we had reduced the heating from seven to two hours a day… one in the morning & one in the evening.

Er… at least that was what I thought I had done. In fact I just realised it was only coming on for 30 minutes in the morning and given that it’s not been particularly comfortable I’ve just increased it to 1 hour in the morning & 90 minutes in the evening.

Suffice to say that this morning it was definitely warmer outside than inside, so I was still able to do my short run in a t-shirt & shorts.

Recently, after around 20 years of doing short daily Qigong / chi-gung body & breathing exercises, the words of my original tutor (Dan, I think) finally sank in… the movements are supposed to be slow, flowing and soft, such that someone could easily deflect your arm.

At least I think that’s what he meant… it was a long time ago and I won’t bore you with the back-story about why it suddenly came to mind again!

Suffice to say that. as someone who suffers from perpetually taut muscles & tendons, cultivating that flippity-floppiness is actually really useful, even though I don’t find it easy!

Long-story-short, I managed to bring a little of that flippity-floppityness to my run today and it helped me to stretch my stride out a little.

My time was a touch slower on the way up the hill than last time, but still ahead of the recent runs before that… coming back down was an exact match for last time, which I’m really happy with. So, just under 2 miles in 19:21.

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Onset of the season of cold ears

My ears are c o l d and I wish that I had worn a hat this morning… to go with my shorts & t-shirt.

The lightweight clothing (apart from the lack of a hat) were perfect by the time I got back, but stepping out was a bit of a shock… even though I had waited until the sun had warmed things up for a couple of hours.

I could feel that I was running more quickly today and that showed up in the slightly improved numbers… from north of 10 minutes per mile for the last few months to 9.37 per mile today, fairly evenly matched across the two halves in spite of the difference in gradient.

So 1.99 miles in 19.10 minutes… and the need to keep at it (whilst wearing a hat methinks)!

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Mild day

It’s been getting colder recently, but today was much milder, with cloud cover that threatened rain. It stayed dry, though I had decided to go for a run in any case.

The first half of my current short run is largely uphill and it was hard work, but in a different way to my recent runs. Instead of heavy knees I felt as if I wanted to run a little quicker but simply could not.

Obviously the second half is largely downhill and this made enough of a difference for me to stretch my legs out… seemingly for the first time in an age.

The overall time was the same as recent runs (just under 2 miles in just over 20 minutes), but I felt as if I made good time on the way home.

I meant to take a photo en route but there was so much going on that I kept forgetting until I was back. There seems to be a lot of money being spent on building works, with a number of older houses receiving contemporary makeovers… it’s always lovely to see people taking pride in their environment and even the grass verges looked neat for a change.

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Farewell to the Queen :-(

The last few nights have been autumn-cold, but shorts and a t-shirt was still sufficient for my run this morning… just under 2 miles in just over 20 minutes.

The last few weeks we have been decorating the house, so my body has had an ongoing workout of infrequently used muscle groups… balancing on top of ladders, painting, moving furniture, carrying things up & down the stairs etc.

This appeared to make little difference to my run this morning, but it did make a difference to gardening at my Mum’s yesterday… I found that trimming her 80ft hedge and then cutting the grass with a push-mower was a lot easier than the last time I did it, with fewer after-effects.

The more you do, the more you can do.

Which segues neatly into the subject of Queen Elizabeth, whose funeral is today. Though I didn’t have the honour of meeting her, she has been an ever-present force in my life.

Lots of uber-wealthy people around the world have lifestyles similar to hers, but my guess is that very few of these people would consider themselves to be a public servant, or would work tirelessly (by all accounts) for the good of common people… in her case the people who make up this country and commonwealth.

Few people will have a high pressure career lasting more than 40 years, let alone one lasting 70 years… not to mention working diligently right up to the very end. She really was amazing.

I pledged allegiance to Queen Elizabeth as a Cub Scout fifty-odd years ago and, based on her work ethic across that time, I’m now very happy to transfer that pledge to her son and successor, Charles.

The Queen is dead, long live the King!