Adam in Runderland

   Here are my top running tracks of 2024 in no particular order. Click on the link to hear in YouTube. 10 -  Watch me by Biig Piig Electronic heaven. Deep bass, synth rhythms and female vocals. A massage for the ear drums.   If you like this you may also like: I'm so high by Eufoeni, Kuma Fo by Les Amazones d'Afrique 9 - Blame by Gabriels Truly epic. An incredible voice combined with soaring strings and memorable lyrics: Not a slave if I'm already free Not a captive if it's where I want to be And those high notes. Wow. Stunning. If you like this you may also like: My Lady of Mercy by The Last Dinner Party, number 8 below... 8 - Hollywood Blvd by Loren Kramar Drama. Another tune to make you feel like a giant. An anthem. A splendid, magnificent paeon to Hollywood fame. Funny too. Check out these lyrics: Move over I'm coming through Only joking but please get out of the way Who wants to live forever? I do! Come on pencil Let's show notepad what we can do. Don'...

  Here are my top running tracks of 2023 in no particular order. Click on the link to hear in YouTube. 10 - Rinse and repeat by Riton Kahlo Time to make the club go up Time to shut the club down This is not how I woke up But it's how I look now If you leave with me We'll be on till morn Then we rinse and repeat And it just goes on And it does just go on. The bass, the beat. Relentless, hypnotic. Perfect for that Sunday long run. Trance inducing - in a good way. If you like this you may also like: You take over by Kiko Navarro, Yabaal to London by Bondax 9 - Long live the strange by Gaz Coombes Ex Supergrass front man Coombes brings us a catchy and heartfelt ballad with a churning sound and his exceptional and unique voice. If you like this you may also like: Caught by the fuzz by Supergrass, Celebrate by Grovesider 8 - Echo Party by Sylvan Esso Quirky and snappy tune with rolling bass, synths and samples galore. 7 - Silent running by Gorillaz (feat. Adeleye Omotayo) Consistentl...

Another year, another visit to the Peak District for a trail run. It had been in the diary for a while. Matt and I were going to stay with his parents in Glossop and do back to back long runs with as much elevation as we could manage. Day 1. OUTSIDE HOPE VALLEY ROUND We decided to tackle the Outside Hope Valley Round. This is a 20 mile circular route that starts and finishes at the Outside cafe in Hathersage. It was created in 2019 by a group of staff from the shop who ran around the surrounding ridges. There are four big climbs with a total elevation of 4500 feet. It was the first time I had run with my new backpack. I wanted to check it fitted ok before we tackled any longer runs. I'm glad I did because after only 100m the water bottles flew out of their pockets onto the floor. The new bag had no ties to keep them in place. We returned to the shop and I had to buy a new bottle with a straw that could be secured in place.  £30 down - yes, £30! - we restarted our watches. The first...

It was twelve years to the week since I ran my first parkrun. I was lined up on the start line in Dulwich, south London hoping to break 18 minutes for the first time. A new PB at the age of 48. Could I do it? Rewind to that first parkrun on a sunny Saturday in September 2012. Five months previously I had run the London Marathon with no training and severe cramp, announcing that running was not for me. Now I found myself lining up with 150 local runners in a park at 9am preparing to run 5km. At 36 I was already past my prime and had discovered running late through that charity entry to the marathon. A few months later and the memory of the pain had subsided, leading me to approach a man in a high viz jacket to enquire why all these people were running around my local park. He shared about parkrun and invited me along to the next one. It was free. It was timed. It was weekly. And it was a much shorter distance than a marathon. I reasoned that if I had run/limped/crawled 26.2 miles, then ...

I had never considered visiting Salzburg, but when a friend of mine invited me to stay with her family for a few days in the Austrian city I took her up on the suggestion and flew out for four days of running, sight seeing and a special bike tour. This is a running blog so I'll stick to giving an account of that, but I must recommend  Fraulein Maria's Bicycle Tours  that my friend helps lead. The famous musical, The Sound of Music, was filmed in Salzburg and the four hour cycling tour takes groups to some of the featured sites. Along the way songs from the film are played and the guide gives insights into the cast and characters. I joined one of the groups and can highly recommended the tour - even though I haven't seen the film - yet! Back to the running.  Salzburg is in the west of Austria just a few miles north of the German border, and at the entrance to the Eastern Alps. It is most famous for being the birthplace of Mozart. The city is built along the banks of the Sa...