Millennium - Robbie Williams

Run around in Circles...

Question - Where were you at the Millennium? You know, the day the world was going to stop revolving when all the computers were going to say 'no', and the planes were going to drop from the sky? I can remember and was 37 at the time and had run 217 marathons - I know, I checked.

Well, I'm sure you can remember what you were doing as the year turned 2000, but that's twenty-five years ago. Yikes, where did that time go? Life happened. Stuff happened. There were ups and there were downs - but we survived and, hopefully, in that time you managed to tick a lot of life boxes.

 

Looking back, we were still on dial-up to get online, Facebook wouldn’t be online until 2004, Twitter 2006 and Instagram 2010, (I kid you not). Big Brother aired and Pop Idol appeared in 2001 amongst other TV shows of the time. We were still listening to CDs and watching DVDs - The digital world just didn’t kinda exist! 

 

Anyway, what got me thinking was that in twenty-five years from now, God willing, I wonder where we'll be. I'll be 87 with some marbles left. I do hope and I'll be writing about how in 2050, I've made great use of the previous twenty-five years since I last wittered on about a quarter of a lifetime passing me by.

 

Who knows eh? It does make you wonder though, and I want to make sure I'm making the best use of my time and continue to help, achieve, and experience the world around me. As I've learned in this past twenty-five-year chapter, it's the people that surround me with an added drop of adventure that gives life value and worth.

 

As I head into my thirty-second year of sobriety tomorrow, I feel grateful that I'm still here enjoying everything life has to throw my way - and I hope you feel that way too as this is it folks, there's no dress rehearsal and no second chances.

1,205 Marathons - 285 Ultras - 17 MDS - 9 GWR - 1 Life

Magic Bus - The Who

‘You can’t do your homework on the bus’. It’s one of my stock sayings and if you’ve ever worked with me, you will have probably heard me say it on more than one occasion.

Looking back at my school days and my homework assignments, I did them on the bus or not at all on many occasions. Luckily, I had an elder brother that had already completed the homework brilliantly a few years previously which I could copy to escape the threatened corporal punishment. Funnily enough though, his marks were always higher than mine.

Anyway, luckily learning is a far kinder process nowadays and on googling ‘preparation points’, the following bullet points appeared. In my case points one to three were often ignored. I certainly didn’t understand point four and overlooked five, six and seven, putting most of my energy into the eighth praying that everything would turn out right on the day.

Make a realistic revision schedule

Find a revision style that suits you

Customise your notes to make them more personal

Make sure you understand everything

Look at past exam papers

Take regular short breaks

Reward yourself

Do something physical.

No wonder I failed miserably - Maths, Science, Languages and Literature became a lost cause to me. Yet forty-four years on, I use these lessons every day, so my education can’t have been all that bad. I just lacked the right preparation. Trying to blindly achieve when you are battling in the darkness, as I did with my education, is a sure way to fail - especially if the process doesn’t match your ambition, ability or in my case, one’s way of learning.

Come 2025 and I’m in a different situation and have a different understanding of the world gained from varied life-experiences and years of ‘Autodidacticism’. A great word, meaning the process or practice of learning a subject without a teacher or formal education. Autodidacticism – it’s me all over!

With this in mind, I’ve converted the revision planning timetable above to fit how I see things today and I’ll explain the reasoning behind each point.

Make a 12-week training plan

Make sure it suits your ability

Make your training very personal

Understand everything

Read some reviews

Take regular rest days

Get regular massage

Find an adventure.

Make a 12-week training plan.

No plan means no direction – it’s simple. It’s like setting off on a journey without a map, blindly hoping you’ll find the right destination. I like to know what I am doing, and when I’m going to be doing it. I like to know where I am in my 12-week macrocycle and mark my progress. I choose 12-weeks for my macrocycles as I’ve found it provides a suitable period for focus. Keeping my focus and momentum for any longer proves difficult for my attention span, however, signposting and knowing future events are planned into my year means I can plan life around them and give myself a fresh plan, 12-weeks out from the next adventure.

ATM I have MDS in April and ULTRA-X in October so I’m training hard for Morocco with Jordan in mind.

Make sure it suits your ability.

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been asked if I’ve ever done an Ironman. I once considered entering one but my inability to front crawl more than fifteen metres limited any thoughts of swimming the further 3,785 metres to keep me from drowning.

Anyway, I found running suited my needs completely, both physically and mentally so I didn’t really need or have the time to swim and bike. Early on I discovered that the more miles of long-slow distance I did, the easier and faster I could complete in races – a real win-win as I loved the feeling of freedom that running gives..

Make your training very personal.

Seeing the days planned out in advance really helped and if printed out and displayed clearly at home it broadcasts one’s workouts to those we cherish. It negotiates normal life-events such as work, family celebrations and holidays quite nicely. It makes training very personal and acceptable to those around you.

Downloading a universal training plan doesn’t allow for the nuances of life and its everyday hurdles. And writing a plan is actually a very exciting thing to do as you plan your future. I find and as the days click by, being able to adjust and edit really helps, especially if things are going better than expected.

Understand everything.

This is where I went wrong at school, all those years ago, as I didn’t understand anything, let along everything. Life was a bit of a magic-eye picture where there were only flashes of moments when I could understand what everyone else could clearly see. It became years of head scratching and apathy as I drifted along blagging my way through the educational maze unaided.

However, in the early days of my marathon and ultra-marathon career and I worked tirelessly to find out everything I could about the terrain, the distance, and the highlights of any mega-distance challenge I considered. Having a framework really helped me to shape the rest of the race around a series of landmarks that I would tick off as the miles unfolded.

Read some reviews.

I always say it’s best to ask someone else who’s ‘paid the price both physically and mentally for what you are trying to achieve’, rather than view blogs and YouTube as generally I’ve found that there’s a subliminal message behind them that adds a level of drama for effect, that some folk get frightened by.

You’re not buying a toaster here. Where there are hundreds of online reviews to consider written by people with far too much time, praising or bemoaning the ability of a simple machine to burn bread. This is real life. Life and death in some cases.

This is about gathering sensible feedback, knowledge, and insight into the task in hand. I can remember ‘learning’ I all could about the Grand Union Canal before I even ran a step on its 145-mile 706-yard towpath. It made the race unfold perfectly I ran along, reaching highlight after highlight, all the way to the finish line.

Take regular rest days.

At the height of my running, (a weekly 100 miles and never less for many years), I still took one day a week to rest completely. It gave me the opportunity not only to rest my tired-out body but time to catch up on some well-earned sleep.

Over the years, and even though my weekly mileage is far more conservative these days, I still have at least one if not two days of complete rest from pounding the streets – it’s possibly why in nearly thirty years I’ve never suffered from any major injuries. And if I’ve ever felt them heading my way, I’ve stopped running completely until I felt totally repaired. A week off now could save a month off later.

Get regular massage.

Finding the right expert to manage your skeletal as well as muscular aches and pains is the same as needing a good mechanic to look after your car. Running blindly on, ignoring injuries on a poor diet in clapped out trainers is like running your car ignoring the oil warning light, with dirty fuel on bald tyres. It’s something you simply wouldn’t do to your car yet do to yourself.

Your own MOT encompasses everything about you. Shopping around to find the right person is the key to success - they are few and far between you’ll find so take your time and enjoy the process of looking after looking after yourself.

After all, it’s a reward for all your hard work and much better for you than beer and cake.

Find an adventure.

I’m good on adventure. I’ve had plenty of them too. I found that after running a few big-city marathons and improving my personal bests, that races weren’t enough for me. Firstly, they didn’t last long enough as my time out from the real world became less and less as my times got faster and I found I was limited by other people’s idea of what a race should be.

So, I searched for events that would not only last longer but would also test my inner limits of endurance. The Marathon des Sables hit my radar some five years and 158 marathons into my running career. It really ‘floated my boat’ as they say. And of course, I immediately immersed myself in the race and found someone that had actually run the race (rare in those pre-internet days) listened to their experience and preparation and honed my training accordingly.

Nowadays, there are hundreds of adventures to choose from to go and experience and to go achieve. I mean what’s life without adventure? Testing yourself and finding out what you are really made of, there’s nothing better IMHO.

So, here’s the big question. How’s your life-preparation going? And when is your bus leaving or has it already left?

I’d love to know.

1,205 Marathons - 285 Ultras - 17 MDS - 9 GWR - 1 Life 

Let in the Sun - Take That

At two days into 2025, and the New Year feeling like a lifetime ago, everything is slowly getting back to normal. After seeing my first Daffodil of the season, I experienced an overwhelming feeling of coming out of the darkness. I now feel physically and mentally prepared for the year ahead.

You see, you’re a winner if you get out and about doing anything this time of year especially in the restricted daylight of winter and the restricting monsoon-like weather conditions. Staying indoors makes brightening the mood a real uphill challenge in my experience.

That one Daffodil changed my world. Combine that with fifteen minutes more daylight in the afternoons since the winter solstice, and I’m feeling quite chipper as I can only see sunnier days ahead. 

Eutopia is literally only two months away, when finally, we’ll hit March, and then the world will become even brighter.

 

We often speak about there being light at the end of the tunnel or having a light bulb moment. Sunlight is an integral part of our lives. Light IS life. Without light from the Sun, we simply wouldn’t exist. So, it’s no wonder that in the darkness of deepest Winter, it’s easy to feel depressed.

 

Making sense of the darkness is the key to making the most of the New Year and kick-starting your future success.

 

Being ahead of the game, that’s the best place to be – looking forwards. I’m already thinking about April’s Marathon des Sables and the challenges that it will bring. Your challenge might be thinking about just getting to April, booze-free or 10kgs lighter - you know your own agenda, your goals, your dreams, all that’s needed is a catalyst to get you going – or a Daffodil in my case. 

 

As we endure the darkness of winter together, please don’t suffer your personal darkness alone. And if you are finding it hard to see any bright spots, please reach out and I’ll help spread some light on a much brighter future.

1,205 Marathons - 285 Ultras - 17 MDS - 9 GWR - 31 Years' Alcohol-Free

Born Slippy - Underworld

There are many reasons to embrace sobriety. Health concerns, personal growth aspirations, and the sheer embarrassment of always getting drunk and messing up are just a few. And if you do decide to go 0%, you’ll find the impact on your life extends far beyond the state of being abstinent.

At its core, sobriety embodies a commitment to self-care and well-being. It represents a conscious choice to prioritise mental clarity, emotional stability, and physical health over the fleeting euphoria that alcohol brings. However, achieving and maintaining sobriety is seldom a straightforward path. It requires unwavering dedication, support, and resilience to navigate the daily challenges life throws at us and the many temptations that will be encountered along the way.

 

For many individuals, the journey toward sobriety begins with a moment of awakening, it did for me. A realisation of the destructive patterns and consequences associated with booze. Whether sparked by a personal crisis, a wake-up call from loved ones, or a rock-bottom experience, this moment of clarity serves as a catalyst for change. It ignites a desire for a better life and sets the stage for embarking on the arduous yet rewarding path of recovery.

 

The early stages of sobriety are often characterised by withdrawal symptoms, cravings, and emotional upheaval as the body and mind adjust to an alcohol-free life. This phase can be daunting and overwhelming, testing one's resolve and resilience. However, with the right support system in place, including therapy, peer groups, and working with a sponsor or coach, individuals can gradually navigate through the turbulence of withdrawal and begin to reclaim control over their lives. I had a feeling of euphoria during this period of my own recovery.

 

Central to the process of sobriety is self-reflection and introspection. Beyond addressing the physical dependence, it entails confronting the underlying issues and emotions that fuelled the cycle of addiction. Whether rooted in trauma, unresolved grief, low self-esteem, and mental health issues, these underlying factors must be acknowledged and addressed to foster lasting recovery.

Therapeutic modalities such as Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based practices offer invaluable tools for exploring coping mechanisms and behaviours. By gaining insight into the root causes of addiction and developing healthier coping strategies, individuals can cultivate resilience and empower themselves to navigate life's challenges without resorting to drinking.

 

Moreover, sobriety entails a holistic lifestyle overhaul encompassing physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. This often involves adopting healthier habits such as regular exercise, nutritious eating, adequate sleep, and stress management techniques. Engaging in meaningful activities, hobbies, and social connections can also provide a sense of purpose, fulfilment, and belonging that counteracts the void left by intoxication.

 

One of the most profound aspects of sobriety is the restoration of self-empowerment. As individuals shed the shackles of addiction and reclaim control of their lives, they rediscover their inherent worth, values, and aspirations. This newfound sense of self-awareness and integrity serves as a guiding light, empowering them to make conscious choices aligned with their goal of living a better existence.

 

Through the trials and tribulations of recovery, individuals develop resilience, humility, and empathy. They confront their limitations and vulnerabilities head-on, emerging stronger, wiser, and more compassionate in the process. 

 

The ripple effects of sobriety extend far beyond the individual journey, profoundly impacting relationships, families, and communities. As individuals heal and reclaim their lives, they inspire hope and serve as beacons of possibility for others struggling with addiction. By sharing their stories, offering support, and advocating for awareness and resources, they contribute to a culture of compassion, acceptance, and recovery.

 

In essence, sobriety is a testament to the human spirit's capacity for resilience, growth, and transformation. It’s a journey marked by courage, humility, and perseverance - a journey of reclaiming one's life, one sober day at a time and whilst the path may be fraught with challenges and setbacks, the rewards of sobriety, inner peace, and a renewed zest for life are immeasurable.

1,205 Marathons - 285 Ultras - 17 MDS - 9 GWR - 11,319 Days' Sober