Rosedawn Ramblings

What are you afraid of? The last time I ran with my headtorch was at Thunder Run in July. Truth be told, although the weekend itself was great fun, I hated everything about the running experience. My first lap, in miserable muddy conditions, reduced me to tears. My second lap in the middle of the night wasn't much better and I was a quivering wreck by the end of it. I didn’t write much about the weekend; I was just glad when it was all over. But ever since my first attempts. I've always loved trail runs at nigh t; after my experience at Thunder Run, I wasn’t so sure.  But I wasn't ready to give up the idea of night running.  My experience at the Rodbaston 10k gave me back some of my lost confidence for coping with mud, water and woodland obstacles. But how did I feel about in the dark? Was I brave enough to get back out there? What if I couldn't do it?  A few weeks ago, I signed up for the Delamere Forest Night Runner 10k... I'd run it befor...

I have a vague memory of sitting in the hallway in m childhood home, secretly trying to take a plug socket off the wall using a fork for a screwdriver. Fortunately, I managed to avoid doing any damage to myself but I'm sure I was just trying to work out 'electricity' (my mum be able to confirm). But why? I like things to be logical. I need to understand how things work. I can't cope with an inefficient queuing system or a decision or action that doesn't make sense. I like everything to have an evidence base. I don't like 'just because' as an answer. But why? Sometimes running is really logical - improving my diet, focusing on speed in training runs, getting stronger through cross-training have all directed impacted on my ability to run faster in recent weeks . Consistent training produces results. But why? And then sometimes, running is really illogical and nothing about it makes sense.  This has definitely been my experienc...

It's been hard this weekend to escape the concept of running faster... in case you missed it, yesterday Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon in 1:59:40.2. It's the fastest marathon ever, the first time the magical barrier of two hours had been broken.  It seemed impossible; most people thought it was. But Kipchoge and the team working with him devoted everything they had toto the goal. Drawing on the input of experts in technology, sports science, psychology. nutrition and biomechanics, nothing was left to chance. And he did it.  1:59:40.2. It was definitely an inspirational performance - which I watched in part on Kirsten's phone before and during parkrun yesterday .  As we set off for parkrun, Kipchoge was entering the last couple of miles. As I passed the volunteers by the start/finish of my first little lap, I got a thumbs up from the gathered group, cheering on the parkrunners but also huddled around the phone. Kipchoge was still on target...

I don't often run listening to music but a couple of times this week, I've connected my fancy new Bluetooth headphones, turned up the volume and tuned out with my latest running playlist . It always seems like the shuffle option knows exactly what song to play at what moment, either to make me smile, give me a sense of perspective or just make me run that little bit quicker when needed. And today was no exception: Life of Riley (The Lightning Seeds) - I've been very busy lately with work and other commitments. It's been difficult to find the time (or energy) for running. But when I do make the time, I never regret it. When the alarm went off this morning, it was tempting to snooze for a few more minutes. But a run always clears my mind - even more so when it's raining - so I got up, got ready and set out on my run. I still believe that in this world, we've got to find the time...  Why Does It Always Rain On Me (Travis) -  after running up to Burslem for...