Adam in Runderland

Tangled limbs unwind Toes testing the air to find A sign of some kind A reason to tuck back under the covers. And remain blind To the dawning of a new day. But the desire to run smothers Any physical ease The mind already focussed on the run The physiological tease Paired with the need to Be outside and see The first rays of morning sun. Breaking the horizon Like a surfacing titan A blinding Poseidon Lifting his head from the sleepy abyss   Drawing me from my slumbering bliss Not wanting to miss The sun’s first kiss Witness to the day breaking The view as breath-taking as the effort My heart is making To pump blood to my lungs Inhaling, exhaling Always exhilarating. I seek the satisfying toil The stretch of muscles and sinews as they uncoil Lungs filling with fresh sea air Cleansing body and mind Legs turning in time

This year I have finally embraced Streaming. For years I bought and listened to all my music by CD, but I now only use Spotify (other music streaming platforms are available.) This has the added advantage that I can listen to tunes while running. Combining these two passions of mine not only means that I am more up to date with new music but I also have a soundtrack to my runs. I created a number of playlists for different situations. One for general runs, one for hard, fast runs, one for my September challenge, and a general 2019 one. So what tracks have accompanied my runs and made it into my 2019 Top 10? 10 - Notes from Ewer Street by Suli Breaks Laid back beats and a chilled delivery. This hypnotising track features brilliant lyrics such as "Some mornings I wake early just to listen to the sunrise" "Try to tell my cousin that she can take pictures that ain't for the gram, that these moments still happen even if people don't see them, but she's young so

It's that time of year when everyone is making a list, clothes, books, gadgets, perfumes...hoping that Santa will pop what they wished for under the Christmas tree. My wife has explained that she is happy to have a list from me as long as it doesn't contain anything running related. Mainly because she knows the whole list would be exactly that, but also as she says correctly, that these items are what I spend my money on the rest of the year. Fair point. However, what would my list look like if she hadn't added that caveat? And yes this is a good excuse to share some ideas for anyone who wanted to buy me a present.... I'll do a top 10 because that's what you do at Christmas. 10 - Compression socks - No matter how often I trim my toe nails I still seem to get a whole in the big toe every couple of months so these are always in demand. 9 - Gloves - From November through until March these are essential both before, during and after a run. 8 - Shades - In the summer

I’ve enjoyed getting back to the longer mileage this month after taking it easy in October to recover from the Run the Date Challenge. It was another 200 miles completed towards my year-end target of 2500. I need to run 175 in December to reach my goal. As long as I stay healthy that should be achievable. It has been enjoyable mixing up early mornings with lunch runs and night runs. For the first time I’ve started regularly listening to music too which has been really enjoyable. Achievements : 200 miles run Mile PB of 5:21 Marathon 11/12 and a PB of 3.23:31 Goals for December: 175 miles Finish 12 marathons in 12 months challenge on New Year’s Eve Try for a 5k pb? (weather dependent) Highlight: Without doubt my highlight was beating my previous marathon PB. I kind of had two; the official one of 3.28 and the unofficial one that I ran at Manchester in 2015, but was scrubbed due to the course being short by 200m – this was 3:24. I didn’t set out to break it although i