When the Levee Breaks - Led Zeppelin

Lyric:- 'Don't it make you feel bad'

Song Choice:- This is my favourite all time Zeppelin track and one I've run to many a time. I listened to it today as I headed to my first consultant's appointment, (on foot of course) thinking about what I've achieved over the past few weeks; and then over the last 22 years. I've got a few more years left in me yet apparently.

Anyway, neither's been easy. Over-coming serious illness and addiction takes a lot of self discipline, yet we live in a strange old world where some little white tablets can bring mobility to life and where we let the stupid people at Tesco sell wine into our already struggling alcohol abused society, for less than £5 a bottle.

Now I know we live in a world of choice but we've been getting the idea of slamming the £'s onto cigarettes for sometime now and I reckon it's time for the cheap drain cleaner, the Supermarkets are pushing in every last corner of their stores, to get the same treatment, don't you?

Two bottles of wine for £9 - It's a joke!

What would be good is for one of the big players to stop selling both Alcohol and Cigarettes. How mighty would that be? You know, stand up for once and make a difference to society. I wonder how long it's going to take?

My lifetime? Your lifetime? The limited lifetimes of people who rely on buying this cheap shit? When's that LEVY going to break eh?

Rory Coleman

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

www.RoryColeman.co.uk

When the Levee Breaks - Led Zeppelin

Lyric:- 'Don't it make you feel bad'

Song Choice:- This is my favourite all time Zeppelin track and one I've run to many a time. I listened to it today as I headed to my first consultant's appointment, (on foot of course) thinking about what I've achieved over the past few weeks; and then over the last 22 years. I've got a few more years left in me yet apparently.

Anyway, neither's been easy. Over-coming serious illness and addiction takes a lot of self discipline, yet we live in a strange old world where some little white tablets can bring mobility to life and where we let the stupid people at Tesco sell wine into our already struggling alcohol abused society, for less than £5 a bottle.

Now I know we live in a world of choice but we've been getting the idea of slamming the £'s onto cigarettes for sometime now and I reckon it's time for the cheap drain cleaner, the Supermarkets are pushing in every last corner of their stores, to get the same treatment, don't you?

Two bottles of wine for £9 - It really pisses me off!

What would be good is for one of the big players to stop selling both Alcohol and Cigarettes. How mighty would that be? You know, stand up for once and make a difference to society. I wonder how long it's going to take?

My lifetime? Your lifetime? The limited lifetimes of people who rely on buying this cheap shit? When's that LEVY going to break eh?

Rory Coleman

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

www.RoryColeman.co.uk

Summer of '68 - The Pink Floyd

Lyric:- 'I felt the cold far too soon - the wind of ninety-five' - Wright

Song Choice:- A very hippy, Beatles influenced, track from The Floyd and a rare solo effort from Richard Wright. It's one of my favourite earlier songs from the Atom Heart Mother album of 1970 recorded at The Abbey Road Studios. Stick with it and enjoy the 'Summer of '68' again for yourself here.

Funnily enough, I can remember that summer really well and if you are a wine buff, you'll know just what a vintage year it was and if like me you were 8 years of age or over, you will remember the Football World Cup in Mexico, or the Apollo 13 mission, perhaps. We've certainly had a few summers' since and it's a time of year I simply love, yet missed out on this year as you know... until this weekend.

You see, it's just been simply glorious down here in Cardiff and I've finally been able to get out there and enjoy the 'Summer Sun of '16' delivering some well-earned Vitamin D onto my rather pale old skin and bones, down here on the beach in Porthcawl. 

For me there's just magical about the beach. Maybe it's harkening back to summer holidays spent in the mid '70's spent getting frazzled on Pendine Sands as they were great family times, who knows. They are etched into my mind anyway and being on the flat sands at Rest Bay yesterday reminded me of the 'Summers' of '75 and '76', in particular. 

What scorchers...

Anyway, Wright's lyrics cover a broad span of time and funnily enough, the 'Summer of 95' marked my introduction Ultra-Marathon running. A 33-miler along the Grantham Canal on the August Bank Holiday weekend. I just had to Google the weather on the day as I couldn't remember what it was like - but it was 'Cool and Dry', so there you go.

Gosh, thats 20 year's ago and I wonder what 'Summers' we have lying ahead of us? I know for sure that I don't want to miss out on another one. Being inside, when the world is going on outside just drove me potty. Or pottier!

So there's no time to wastes and this afternoon, is another opportunity to get out there and enjoy another few hours of this 'Indian Summer' before it gets blown away. I suggest you get out there too and enjoy it whilst you can.

Rory Coleman

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

www.RoryColeman.co.uk

Learn to Fly - Foo Fighters

Lyrics:- 'Looking for something help me burn out bright' - Mendel, Grohl & Hawkins

Song Choice:- I thought this track from the Foo Fighters would highlight my thoughts on learning today. It's a great track and I love Grohl's attitude to music in never giving it less than 100% - a man after my own heart...

Anyway on the subject of learning, you might have come across the concept that if you give something 10,000 hours of your time, you'll master the skills needed to become an expert in that field. Simplified, Malcolm Gladwell's famous theory says that people aren't born geniuses, they get there through effort, something I totally get. Vince Lombardi's famous quote 'The man on top of the mountain didn't fall there,' only adds fuel to the argument. However, there are folk out there that just love to point out the anomalies to the 10,000 hour rule for some reason, highlighting people that have succeeded without putting in the necessary apprenticeship. I get that too but there are always those that have natural talent. Some of us have just worked really hard at things...

I reckon I've done my 10,000 hours of running over the years and I'd like to think I'm an expert. It certainly helped me in achieving my Guinness World Records, yet it hasn't made the fastest runner or won me any Olympic medals. It helped my enjoyment yet I could have been better and maybe that's where I got it all wrong.

Looking back, I could have invested some 10,000 hour chunks into playing a musical instrument, learning a foreign language or even learning to fly. Having tried all three, when I was younger, I quickly found that on setting out on the learning process, I was light-years away from where I wanted to be and promptly gave up. Maybe you've been there too.

Yet I've got it right without even knowing it. Looking at life in general there are areas where I've obviously clocked up the hours and hadn't noticed. Driving is one of them and thirty years on from passing my test, I would say I'm an expert. I'm sure like me, you've driven miles on automatic pilot without a care and a million miles from that first jerky driving lesson perhaps.

You see it all comes down to experience and there's no substitute for investing time in something you want to succeed in. If you believe in the 10,000 hours' theory, maybe becoming an expert at something will actually take you a lot longer than you think. However, don't be downhearted as investing even half of that will get you to a really high skill level, so there's hope for us all.

It might be worth a thought on where you could invest your time for the better... I can still learn loads I know, what could you learn?

More later...

Rory Coleman

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

www.RoryColeman.co.uk

News of the World - The Jam

Lyric:-'The truth is in what you see, not what you read' - Foxton

Song Choice:- I loved a bit of The Jam at the time and can't believe that's this track is nearly 40 years old now. 

Anyway, on a day of headlines that include a new nuclear power station being built by the French with Chinese investment at Hinkley Point just over the water from us here in Cardiff and 'Bake Off' going to Channel 4, I often wonder what we are supposed to believe in what we are told by our news sources. I mean, just who IS interested in baking some old cakes eh?

So a lot of the time, although I keep a keen eye on what's happening in the news, I tend not to worry too much about the things I can't control and concentrate on making my own headlines. They don't have to be earth shattering, hold the front page news-stories either - they can be simple no nonsense one liners.

Why not have a go yourself and see what headlines, you come up with about yourself today. Yesterday I would have reported on clocking up my first 30,000 step day since last April as a major headline but I'd also write that I'd helped a good friend become more comfortable about undertaking his first 100 mile race. Have a think?

Today's Front Page is there waiting for you and totally blank. It's just asking for your news.

What are you saying about yourself today?

Rory Coleman - 976 Marathons - 241 Ultras

13 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records - 8289 Days' Alcohol Free.

Location: Pembroke Road, Cardiff, United Kingdom

One Slip - The Pink Floyd

Lyric:- 'One slip and down the hole We fall - Gilmour & Manzanera

Song Choice:- Not one of your best known Floyd anthems but a brilliant offering from 'The Momentary Lapse of Reason Album of 1987 and one of my favourites too.

And it's that 'One Slip' that interested in for today's blog. You see we live our lives on a knife-edge I believe and although I wouldn't advocate permanently wearing a crash-helmet and never getting out of bed, I would like to point out here that hi-viz alone can't save anyone from a whole world of pain.

So 'Beware' I say...and let's face it, how on earth does anyone reach old age when there's so much danger in every single thing we do, I'll never know but if you go steady, you'll hopefully get there safely.

Maybe it's more of a 'Momentary Lapse of Concentration' that changes our respective worlds sometimes for the better as well as thee worse.

But then life's a bit of a lottery ain't it and its a whole lot better with a winning ticket?

Rory Coleman - 976 Marathons - 241 Ultras

13 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records - 8287 Days' Alcohol Free.

Location: Pembroke Road, Cardiff, United Kingdom

No More Heroes - The Stranglers

Scott Who?

Lyric:- 'Whatever happened to all the heroes?, All the Shakespearoes'.

Song Choice:- It's ages since I heard any of The Stranglers back catalogue and I'll admit to never buying any of their vinyl back in the day but No More Heroes is actually an iconic track of the 70's, well worth a listen, and ideal for today's blog.

I mean, who are your heroes? Have you ever met them in real life? If you did, did they match up to your expectations? Do we even need in our busy modern-day lives nowadays?

I'm really lucky to have met, trained and raced with one of mine, Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Sadly though like some of my others like Neil Armstrong or Robert Falcon Scott, their names and deeds are slowly being forgotten, as time goes by. Why is that?

Is it our modern day celebrity throw away culture? Or is it that with the advent of YouTube and the Internet where anyone can be a hero and then possibly a zero again before they know it?

Whatever it is, we need our heroes. I've got a long list, of course, including hundreds of musicians, sports people and national treasures, like Ran.

Who are yours? I'd love to know.

Rory Coleman - 976 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records - 8285 Days' Alcohol Free.

Location: Pembroke Road, Cardiff, United Kingdom