Wrong-footed shoes

I stretched my run to just over 2 miles this morning, the first time I've done that since I had plantar fasciitis and ditched my running insoles. It felt really good.

Admittedly I was a bit later this morning as I had to attend my monthly business networking group, which is always fun but does mean leaving home a lot earlier than usual.

As I was running on my own this morning and going a bit further I tried to concentrate on feeling the ground beneath my feet, which I can do a lot easier with worn down running shoes and no insoles. It made me think of the parallel with helping people to fully experience each moment of their lives through coaching rather than numbing themselves from the present moment.

Every bit of life, the highs and lows add value if we allow ourselves to raise our awareness. They all teach us lessons about how we live our lives and what is really important to us.

On the topic of worn down shoes, a guy called David Smyntek, who is a runner and physical therapist specialising in acute rehabilitation, decided to conduct an experiment to see if he really should replace his expensive running shoes every 300 to 500 miles, as the running shoe industry was telling him. So when his shoes wore down on one side he swapped shoes and continued to run 5 miles a day wearing his worn down shoes on the wrong feet. He experienced no problems whatever.

Makes you think, doesn't it.

By the way I've now run over 100 miles since the beginning of the year.

Day 63 - but day 2 under the floor

I've lost track of how many days I've done. If today's the 4th and I've done 31 and 28 days in the previous 2 months, then that must mean today was day 63.

The days are still not getting warmer.

My little toe seems to be OK and healing up nicely.

The plumber fixed our leak last night, so we have running water, as well as heat, again now. It did make me realise how much we take for granted with our running hot and cold water literally on tap, light, heat and cooked food at the flick of a switch or turn of a dial. It's all so easy and I'm so completely helpless without it.

I wonder what would happen if I was immediately transported to an environment where none of that existed, where I had to walk, or run, miles to the nearest well to get water to drink, wash or clean and where I had to build a fire from scratch to cook my food and keep warm?

Would I adapt and survive or would I just feel helpless, sorry for myself and give up?

It's been my second morning under the floorboards, this time emptying the buckets of water and also trying to remove some of the rubble that is covering the wet earth that is below. A lot more rubble removal to be done, which is quite hard due to the restricted access and the limited room to manoeuvre under the floor. Then we need to get some equipment down there to dry it all out.

An eventful few hours

Is it my imagination or is it getting a little bit colder each morning? No frost, no sun but quite a chill wind when we hit the streets at 7.15.

An eventful night and morning in the Barclay Phillips household. Nicky woke me at 1.30 a.m. to say that she could hear water leaking under our bathroom, so I had to shut off the mains water and make sure the heating didn't come on in the morning.

This morning, after we ripped up the flooring I was under the hall and bathroom, amongst the rubble, identifying leaks and strategically placing buckets while we wait for the plumber.

At least we know that we can have the heat on now, even when our water is shut off.

I did wonder when I wrote that life was good yesterday whether I was tempting fate. But then again, life is always about challenges. It's a bit like a steeplechase, one of those ones with water jumps as well as hurdles.

Oh yes, I've just remembered that I slipped and fell down our spiral staircase leading down to the kitchen when I got up to make tea this morning. I sliced open a small bit at the end of my little toe on my right foot, but at least I didn't break it, like I did in 2004 when it stuck out at 45 degrees.

And now, as I write this, the sun comes out.

Life is still good!

Run to be healthy

“Humans really are obligatorily required to do aerobic exercise in order to stay healthy, and I think that has deep roots in our evolutionary history… If there’s any magic bullet to make human beings healthy, it’s to run.” So says Dr. Daniel Lieberman, a professor of biological anthropology at Harvard University.

Well that's reassuring. He probably doesn't mean just a mile, but hey it's a start, and I have run 61 of them. Actually, according to my running log I've run just over 98 miles since the start of the year. It doesn't sound too bad like that, I think.

An absolutely stunningly beautiful sunny morning this morning, even colder than yesterday but without the ice underfoot. I have to say that there is no comparison between warmer and wet, and cold and sunny. Give me beauty every time.

Another thing I love about running, especially when you get away from traffic, is the feeling of space. I'm still getting that feeling now, sitting at my desk looking out over our back garden, over the tops of trees to a huge expanse of beautiful blue sky.

Everything feels right with the world.

Day 60 - another milestone

First day of my 3rd month of running a mile each day. I never expected to get this far when I started the experiment 59 days ago.

It was great running in sunshine again this morning after not seeing it for a while, although we had to step very carefully as it was still icy at just after seven o'clock this morning.

A bit late posting this as I've been in London today and I haven't worked out whether I can do this on my iPhone yet.

I loved the Winter Olympics men's ice hockey final last night, so much so that I missed the celebration drink for the half marathon helpers. Oh well, Winter Olympics only comes once every four years.

Yay for Canada! It's great having dual citizenship as my countries got 15 gold medals between them (GB you did let the side down slightly on that score).