Rosedawn Ramblings

I've spent a good couple of weeks trying to get my head around my new normal . I know that I am incredibly fortunate to have a secure job and am able to work safely at home. I've enjoyed being able to break up the work day with music or creating a meal in the slow cooker.  I know that having outside space and my little balcony is a real privilege. I've really enjoyed eating breakfast outside, especially in the recent sunshine.  I know that I have good friends and family members at the end of a video call for support. I have actually enjoyed navigating new technologies and I've even been on a podcast ! But some days have still been better than others.  I'm not sleeping as well as I usually do (and this helpful article probably explains why) but it's given me time to clean out bathroom cabinets and kitchen cupboards. I'm probably having too many mid-morning / mid-afternoon biscuit breaks (stay away from the fridge) but we are tryin...

At the start of 2019, I set myself the challenge of publishing a blog post every week during the year - 52 weeks, 52 posts. My motivation was to get back to something I loved doing, something I'd missed, something I'd started several years ago but then lost my way. I thought I'd run out of things to write about. On Sunday, I achieved my goal. I wrote about eating profiteroles for breakfast. It wasn't always easy. Some posts were longer than others. Some were only written right at the last moment. I did it! I crossed the finish line with a smile on my face (mainly thanks to those profiteroles ). But what did I learn? About myself, about running and about life in general? 1. Inspiration can come from anyone and anything ... it can be easy to think that you need something 'big' to get you started. At the start of 2019, I certainly had lots of inspiration to run and blog as I completed an ultramarathon along the River Thames. I've also been inspi...

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...

The Dusk Til Dawn Half Marathon... a half marathon in the dark, on a course up hill and down dale around the Derbyshire villages of Hope and Castleton. I said 'yes' to taking part without knowing much more than that! The race started in Hope at about 5.45pm, the official time for sunset on Saturday night. We were layered up, wearing our headtorches. We were novices, totally out of comfort zone and really not sure what we were letting ourselves in for. Every change of direction seemed to bring different underfoot conditions... after a mile along the road from Hope, we followed a gravel track, then what seemed like a rocky river bed before turning up across the fields to Back Tor. We climbed up a rocky incline to the top of Back Tor, actually much less scary in darkness than in daylight for me, then crossed a ridge line to Losehill Summit in the fog, where visibility was just a few metres even with our headtorches. Boggy fields, muddy trails and then more road and on to my ...