Redbush Runner

 Over the last couple of days Britain has been in the grip of a horrific heatwave.  In some ways 'horrific' seems an overly dramatic word to use to describe a very short-lived heatwave, a couple of baking hot days of British summer.  You might expect us to be celebrating such a rare event.  However, this was no ordinary heatwave.  It came with red weather warnings and days of media build-up, terrifying us with gloomy predictions of 40 degree heat, death and destruction.  All we could do was hope that it was all a huge exaggeration.  On social media the usual suspects spouted on about the 'nanny state', daring to encroach on our hard-won freedoms and telling us how we should behave in the sun.  Others made contingency plans, buying fans and mobile aircon units or (in my case) stocking up with jelly and ice-cream.   In the running world, extreme weather is something that we love to disagree about.  Whether it's running in a blizzard o...

Motivation is a funny thing.  Whenever I complete something that I've been training for, I find myself thinking, "Great, now I can just enjoy my runs again with no pressure" but before long those training runs start to feel a bit aimless and I start looking out for a new challenge.  I've been struggling a bit this year and I think it's partly because Rory, my better half and running buddy, has been focusing more on golf.  That's okay, because we should all prioritize the things we enjoy the most and I know that Rory has to be careful not to overdo things after his recent back problems.  However, I do miss the lockdown days when we would go for a run together pretty much every morning.  We still do parkrun together at weekends, but most of my weekday runs these days are on my own.  I don't mind solo running (in some ways I love it) but it can be sometimes harder to motivate yourself when you're on your own.   I certainly feel more motivated when I'...