Peace of Mind - Above & Beyond feat. Zoë Johnston

Abs are shaping though...

Lyrics:- 'If you've ever lost every part of yourself, if you've left your heart on a lonely avenue, it will be only a matter of time before your life comes through for you' - Grant, McGuinness, Siljamaeki, Bayer & Johnston

Song Choice:- Above & Beyond are quite a new band to me and this is a great track with the wonderful line in it about 'losing every part of yourself'. I know only too well myself as it's something I encountered last year and it's dead easy to lose your purpose and end up treading water in life if you are not careful.

Has that ever happened to you? Or maybe you feel you've lost yourself right now? I do - Well bits of me still anyway...

I remember feeling very lost the first time I came back from the Marathon des Sables in 1999. You see no-one back home had experienced what I'd been through, social media didn't exist to share my highs and lows and no-one understood my 'Post Traumatic Race Disorder'. I do remember having a few dicey moments after the race that year and ended up feeling very isolated with the only option I found being in changing everything around me so I could start again, afresh.

It took sometime to regain a 'Piece of Mind' I can tell you but it worked. 

When the world around me changed last year, rather than do it alone, I looked for help rebuilding my life post GBS and used social media to connect with other folk who'd had  similar GBS experiences. I went looking for solutions as I'm a fixer - I didn't go looking for sympathy or to whinge on about tingly hands, feet and feeling tired as that doesn't help you get mobile and is negative and counter productive IMO. I didn't find the answers - I had to work them out for myself.

What I've found to be vital in a good GBS recovery is: - 

• Knowing what drugs to take - for the shortest time possible 
• Knowing what Physiotherapy will give you the best outcome
• Only listen to very experienced people - then make up your own mind
• Family support is extremely important as they tell you straight
• And do everything at your 100% best as no-one will do it for you.

Do that and you'll walk or run away hopefully knowing you've given it your best shot. Don't get me wrong, I've still got a long way to go as I ran 4.5 miles hard yesterday and was on top of the world and ran two miles today with the world on my shoulders. But who cares as 'Life is coming through for me, and nothings going to stop me. 

Is it coming though for you? Be honest...

Rory Coleman - 990 Marathons - 244 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,532 Days' Alcohol Free - 381 Days' post GBS

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location:- Boscastle, Cornwall

Blind Vision - Blancmanche

Lyrics:- 'Blind visions, with no reasons'

Song Choice:- Blancmange surfaced in 1984 with this 'Synth-Rock Classic'. They had a string of hits including 'Living on the Ceiling' but as a poor man's Depeche Mode perhaps, by 1986 they simply disappeared, which seems a shame.

Anyway, it's the 'Blind Vision' that I'm interested in for today's blog as I often wonder if folk actually see their real-self, when they look in the mirror in the cold light of day and whether they see beyond their reflection, right into their heart and soul.

Being objective about that, well there's the rub...

You see, I help umpteen people every year change their outward appearances and become the person they want to be perceived as being. 'You never get a second chance to make a first impression' they say and our tribalism and appearance attracts friends and lovers as well as it excluding us in certain social situations. It's amazing what signals we send out about ourselves.

Losing weight and getting fit, well that bits easy...

Changing the signals we all send out, well that's different. Some people just don't get it that they are over-bearing, myopic and opinionated. All great turn-offs for the general population and ingredients for a very lonely existence. I'm guilty of this myself sometimes too, but if you are happy in your own company, well that's ok.

Changing this behaviour pattern can take a lifetime and that's the hard one to project as folk eventually revert to type as their guard comes down and the pounds pile back on. I'm currently watching one of my Average2Awesome clients do just that, so I will be having a word in the very near future with that person and help them take a good look at themselves.

Having worked so hard, it's such a shame...

'Life's a Journey' and we all know really when we are boring the pants off people yet keep droning on and know when we are being our own worst enemy.

So why have we got 'Blind Vision' as there's 'No Reason' for it?

Have a think, are you 'Blind' and in need of a 'Personality Update' as well as a 'Physical' one'?

Rory Coleman - 990 Marathons - 244 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,523 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Lights Out - Royal Blood

Lyrics:- 'You're not so hard to forget, with all the lights out' - Kerr & Thatcher

Song Choice:- Another track not yet released? My word I'm like John Peel reborn here! 

Anyway take a look for yourself at this first track from Royal Blood's new album 'How did we get so dark' which is released on June 16th. If it's anything like their first, we're all in for a real treat and 'Figure it out' is still on 'parkrun' playlist which speaks volumes for just how great that song is, three years on from it's release.

It's the 'Light's Out' bit I'm interested in for today's blog as I'm not so sure it's that easy to forget what's going in one's world when the light's go out at night. I know a lot of you go to bed worrying about all manner of things in the small hours. It's never an issue when I first 'Hit the Hay' as when I was taking part in the Flora 1000 Mile Challenge in 2003 (you know, the one mile an hour every hour for 1000 hours event), I went to sleep over 300 times in 6 weeks and got into a special fall asleep routine that got me snoring in just a matter of seconds ever since - ask Lady C.

However, I find it's the waking up at 4am routine that's the tricky one, especially at this time of year when it's already starting to get light. You see, the moment my brain cells are activated there's nothing I can do to get me back into 'The Land of Nod'. And I use get up now and have an early morning cup of tea, write a blog and catch up with an old episode of 'The Sweeney'. My word Regan and Carter never needed much sleep!

I know I won't get much tonight as I'm heading for Marathon #990 tomorrow and I'm very excited to be in the last 10 before the 'BIG ONE' at the 'Robin Hood Marathon' on September 24th.

Do your 'Lights go out at Night?'... Or still Glowing?

More tomorrow...

Rory Coleman - 989 Marathons - 243 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,521 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Chamber of 32 Doors - Genesis

Lyrics:- 'But the Juggler holds another pack' - Banks, Collins, Gabriel, Hackett & Rutherford

Song Choice:- I've jumped back a track on 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway', the 1974 concept album from prog rockers Genesis. Recorded at their peak IMO, this track provides a fantastic visual picture and mental conundrum that signs off side two of the album with a musical note of perfect pathos, that actually leads into yesterday's track Lilywhite Lilith. Back in the day, you would have had to have jumped up and quickly placed the second LP on your turntable to maintain the mood - luckily for us it follows on nicely on the remastered digital age in a seamless segway of super studio quality sound which I'd only have dreamed of listening to my old 70's HiFi as a wide eyed teenager.

Anyway, it's the 32 doors notion that I'm interested in for today's blog and I imagine them to be set out like a larger version of Noel's dreadful 'Deal No Deal' game show. (Did you know btw it ran for 3,001 episodes and I see it luckily fell off the C4 schedule in October 2016 - How any TV show based on pure greed and luck lasted for so long I'll never know and hopefully it's now disappeared for good)...

I digress and back on Planet Coleman, I'm visualising those 32 doors. I see two versions - One is where you can see all 32 at once and the call to action is to blindly open them in a crazed advent calendar type way - hoping to find the utopia you are seeking. The other is what you might find on a ship or submarine or in the film 'Alien' where one door, leads to another, leaving an air tight non returnable seal behind you and hopefully the nightmare monsters.

In Gabriel's Lamb, the doors always lead his hero Rael back into the Chamber he's been endeavouring to escape, however in my version they lead to people, places and opportunities with experiences and passages of life that have hopefully been fulfilling, pleasurable and memorable as well as been tough life experiences to endure and overcome.

It sounds simple it would be if there were just 32 doors...

You see, the umpteen thousands that we open during our lifetime (and sometimes stupidly immediately close) lead to a complete spectrum of personal happiness, fulfilment and missed opportunities. Other's are closed on our behalf, through love or doubt, which is a shame.

Sadly some are never opened in case of failiure. Fear has a lot to answer for and playing it  safe only leads to regret and it's rare that the Juggler ever holds another pack - also there's nothing worse that being set on the right track and then losing the way through poor vision. Hindsight is one door that everyone would desire in their own 'Chamber' for sure.

It reminiscent of one artist M.C. Escher's of perpetual staircases illustrated...which only adds to my confusion and 'Chamber of So Many Doors' with nowhere to hide but a lot of dreams still to live out.

I wonder where and when yours would lead you back to? I can think of many I'd love to step through... it's a fascinating thought and on my second blog on confusion it makes me wonder which doors I'm going to open next - or will be opened for me.

Thing is, 'I've got to find my own way' and so have you... just enjoy your day watching the hundreds of people running around to all the doors...

Rory Coleman - 982 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables 

9 Guinness World Records - 8,448 Days' Alcohol Free.

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Pembroke Road, Cardiff, United Kingdom