Shine - Years and Years

Where will you be?

Lyrics:- 'And it's you that I've been waiting to find' - Thornton, Turkmen, Goldsworthy, Ralph & Kurstin

Song Choice:- It's funny how training and life patterns seem to go hand-in-hand and if you use a simple training approach for either, for long enough, it can help you achieve your goals. Looking back at my July 2016, it was a pretty lean time when it came to achieving anything at all looking at my iWatch overview. I didn't move, stand or step at all on July 7th 2016 and things had only improved to 2,889 steps for 31st July - a year ago today.

What a difference 365 days can make...

Wind the clock forwards 365 days and you'll see that every day this month, I've consistently reached my goals in 'Calorie Expenditure' (Red) Exercise Time (Green) and Standing in at least 12 hours of the Day (Blue). Ok it's not an 'Extreme-superhuman-mega-distance-ultra-feat' to have achieved every day BUT it takes time, energy, determination and consistency to achieve your ultimate dreams and this has been a good start for me.

Being vigilant and not wanting to break the months target (you get a special icon on your iPhone and yes I know it's sad) has meant that my fitness over this July has certainly improved and I'm going to carry it on in August as I'm a million light years on from where I was in 2016 as you can see..

You see, technology can be a great tool if it's used positively and there's a lot more on offer than just seeing how far you've run or walked. However, it doesn't tell you how you feel or if you are doing too much or too little - but a visual picture of one's activities on an iPhone screen has certainly worked wonders for me.

It could work wonders for you too. Building a clear vision of your fitness and progress will determine a timeframe for success. Some of my runner's are now really benefiting from 12 months of building their speed, speed endurance and their pure durability. Another couple of years and a few more personal bests along the way and they'll be pushing for even bigger life challenges and achieving real greatness. 

It's a high contrast to some of the FB posts I've seen over the weekend from folk undertaking some of the toughest feats on the planet, who were clearly not prepared enough to even get close to completing their goal - what were they thinking. For others, some admitted they were pissed off, 'Just scraping in under the cut-off times' and I'm pleased they've finally woken up and smelt the roses as if you are looking to really achieve in this game, there's no short-cut to greatness, only to failure.

So, have a think to where you are going to be on 31st July 2018. What will you have achieved and how much nearer your goal will you be? And whether by then, you will have found yourself...

Amen.

Rory Coleman - 996 Marathons - 244 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,607 Days' Alcohol Free - 455 Days' post GBS

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir

Location: Cardiff, Wales