School - Supertramp

Lyrics:- 'You're coming along!' - Davies & Hodgson

Song Choice:- A brilliant track from the 1974 'Crime of the Century' Album and one well worth another listen. It's a perfect accompaniment to today's blog as I called in at my old school King Edward VI Grammar School for Boys, (yes Shakespeare's one) in Stratford-upon-Avon and ran round the old school cross country course.

It was 1974 when I first ran it, and 1994 when I used it as a route for a lot of my first regular training runs. It's a 5km hilly old route and although I can't remember much about my school day runs, as a new runner, I did enjoy improving my times and eventually managed to get under 20 minutes. A kind of early solo parkrun success perhaps...

Anyway, it was back to the drawing board yesterday and I thought it would be a good gauge of my fitness post SIDP to see exactly where I am right now. Taking into account that I'm over twenty years' older and have been taking at least 45 minutes to cover the same distance recently, I had a truly inspiring run.

I always love visiting my old home town and maybe I relived some of those early runs as I managed a very respectable 39.10 mins. It's light years slower from where I've been but hey, who cares as I've broken that 40 minute barrier without killing myself and I'm running pain and injury free.

It sets me up quite nicely I believe for the Cardiff Half on Sunday and it shows that sometimes if you are looking for inspiration or an indication of where you are with your fitness, it can be a  good idea to go back to basics.

Be inspired...

Rory Coleman
976 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 9 Guinness World Records - 13 Marathon des Sables
www.RoryColeman.co.uk 

Superman - Black Lace

Lyric:- 'Superman! Woah!' - Longi, Vanni & Manera

Song Choice:- I can't say that Black Lace have ever been on my playlist and it's always been a definite sit down record at any disco I've ever been to since 1983 but it does highlight my theme of being your very own 'Superman or Supergirl quite nicely today.

You see I believe we are all Superman (I'll make it single sex to make it easier from here) and generate our own Krypton and Kryptonite. According to Wiki, Krypton is a distant planet which orbits a red sun. Before its destruction, it was home to a great civilisation which boasted advanced science and technology. In many versions of the story, it was either barren or icy, and often the home to huge crystals and crystalline structures. It is the home world of Superman, but also to Supergirl, Krypto and other Kryptonians. Unfortunately, the destruction of the planet also created Kryptonite, radioactive chunks of the planet which are deadly to all Khryptonians and deadly to us too, I believe. 

Scary stuff eh? Maybe someone should make a film or ten!!! Christopher Reeve will always be Clark Kent for me...

Anyway, as I've already stated, we are all Superman. It's just that we don't know it, or possibly acknowledge it. I coach lots of runner's to achieve their PB's and getting them out of their 'Runner's Rut'. Yet in time, post-race, they are soon back to their old ways and old running times. Just look on FaceBook at folk broadcasting negative vibes about their lives.

Their exposure to self-administered Kryptonite is obvious.

The sad thing is, the destruction then seeps into other areas of their lives. For instance, their professional life then takes a back seat and careers that have taken years to build, can be destroyed in an instance, ask Big Sam Allardyce! What a plonker...What was he thinking? He certainly didn't have his Superman outfit on that day! Or on quite a few days perhaps.

My question to you is, 'Did you have your Superman outfit on today?' or did the Daily Kryptonite just sneak up on you when you were least expecting it? It can you know...and before you know you are Superseded.

Rory Coleman

976 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records

8301 Days' Dry

www.RoryColeman.co.uk

These Days - Take That

Lyric:- 'Tonight, tonight we'll remember - We'll remember these days - Barlow, Donald, Owen, Mark & Norton

Song Choice:- I just love Take That and in 'These Days' they are quite happy to take the mickey out of themselves in what's actually a great pop song. Not taking yourself too seriously always helps in my experience. Take a listen here and see what you've missed as I love it's sheer positivity and hopefully you will too, as it's that positivity that I'd like to tap into for today's blog.

You see, negativity can just seep into all aspects of your life, when you are least expecting it. It can come from family, friends and colleagues in all manners of forms but mostly it comes from within. 

How many times have you entered a race, full of energy and enthusiasm and got to race day totally deflated thinking 'Whose bright idea was this one?' Well it was yours you dummy and yes of course it's good to challenge yourself and step outside of your comfort zone etc BUT I wonder why folk set themselves challenges that they are just not suited for. Over a couple of years of non-achieving the negativity eats away at your confidence, it's like 'Running Kryptonite'.

What I say, is concentrate what you are GOOD at. If you are fast, get faster. When you perform, perform to the best of your ability. It feels AMAZING when you do. If your boat like mine is to run long, run even longer. Set up your own multi-day race on your own route, to your rules and specifications. It's an unbelievably positive experience - I know as I've done it, many times over.

Even if you are overcoming injury or illness you can still be really positive about your progress and recovery. Look at yourself and see what you can improve on when you get back running? Where are you going to race and make sure your 'Kevlar Armour' can fend off the doubters?

If you need inspiration, take listen to 'Take That' as we'll all 'Remember these days'. Keep that positivity going and enjoy your running as I'm loving mine atm...and I'm positive about that.

Rory Coleman

976 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records

8299 Days' Dry

www.RoryColeman.co.uk

Running up that Hill - Kate Bush

Lyric:- 'Do you want to feel how it feels?' - Bush

Song Choice:- This is one of my favourite Kate Bush tracks. Can you believe it's from the 1985 'Hounds of Love' album? I bought here whole back catalogue a couple of years back now and it's well worth going back and taking a fresh listen to as it's still as fresh as the first time I heard it, way back when. Try it in headphones, it's cosmic.

It's also the track that comes to mind when I'm doing my hill reps. It's always been a tough session too, going up and down Leckwith Hill, in Cardiff eight times. I can't say I've ever looked forward to doing it, but I've always enjoyed the feeling when it's completed and the results of the training.

Anyway, yesterday I really enjoyed 'Running up that Hill', just the once. Running alongside Jeff 'Big Moose' Smith, made it even more special as he's been so supportive during my illness and there was no way I was going to give up running all the way to the top in front of him, even if I'd wanted to. 

It wasn't fast, it wasn't pretty but who cares. I did it!

The 77 minutes Jeff and I spent running together, marks my longest run to date and I'm not feeling the effects too much today, so I'll be out there again in the Cardiff sunshine enjoying my new found running freedom. Knowing I can run anything now.

You never know, I might even go and run up Leckwith Hill again.

Oh, how does it feel? Bloody Marvellous! That's how it feels...

Rory Coleman

976 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathons - 9 Guinness World Records

8297 Days' Dry

www.RoryColeman.co.uk

Time Was - Wishbone Ash

'Time Was - George Best'

Songwriters:- Powell, Turner, Turner, Martin & Upton

Song Choice:- Taken from the 1972 album ‘Argus’, this 9.42 minute track is simply awesome IMO. It’s a shining example of the twin-vocal, twin-guitar fashion of the day. ‘Time Was’, offers more than all of this though, with it’s amazing lyrics and if you are struggling atm with everyday living, it’s well worth a listen. Only bear in mind that it doesn’t matter what you’ve done so far in your life, it’s what you are going to do with it, that counts. I'm living testament to that one...

The song starts, ‘I've got to rearrange my life, I've got to rearrange my world.’ - Sound Familiar? It continues, ‘I've got to keep my memories aside, I've got to try to live again.’ - Hmm, this is getting spooky now…

It gets spookier still, ‘And there's a time for waking up, and feeling down. That’s when you have to pick your feet up from the ground. It's not so easy, to just change your way of living.’

And that’s my point, It’s not EASY! II believe it's more SIMPLE…

Two completely different things.

If it was EASY, well we’d all be living amazingly perfect lives because all of our problems would just be a simple fix. Thing is, you have to work away at life’s problems…you know, chip away at them. Slowly, carefully and in time if you are lucky, you might get there. However, if you treat them as being SIMPLE, well then things get fixed a whole lot quicker and in my experience, stay that way for a whole lot longer, if not forever.

I’ll explain. A SIMPLE way of changing the way you live is to try and fix just ONE thing that is currently making life unbearable. It doesn’t have to be the ‘Elephant in the Room’ sized one, it could be a minor bump on an otherwise smooth life journey that maybe only you know about. Try it. Pick one yourself and have a go at eradicating it from your life. Hopefully you’ll find out that the process is SIMPLE and then pick off other character traits that are also driving you potty or to depression.

The interesting thing is, you will fix something. And that something you’ll find, only matters to you. At the end of the day - it's your shit and you are the best person to get yourself out of it.

The Wishbone Ash track finishes off with…

‘The crime was, I couldn't start to change my history' and it would be a shame not to change your history in the future eh?

More tomorrow…

Rory Coleman - 976 Marathons - 241 Ultras

13 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records - 8295 Days' Alcohol Free.

Location: Pembroke Road, Cardiff, United Kingdom