Adventures in Feeling Alive

It has been a while since I last posted so I thought It was time to do a catch up and let you know what's been going on with me.   The autumn has been busy and I have been trying to hard to continue my activities. Swimming 3 or 4 times a week has helped a lot and so have the (almost) weekly parkruns. I was delighted on Christmas eve to have reached my 50th parkrun and my 39th of 2023 which was also my 39th shirtless parkrun of the year too.  My 50th Parkrun on Christmas eve This year started off a bit hit and miss, I am not sure what was going on with me but it was a bit of a stressful January and then I was away for some of February on a work trip, the planning of which occupied a lot of my time, the regular swimming helped me get through all of the stress which is great.  One thing I have noticed is my ability to tolerate the cold a lot more, in previous winters I have often been swimming and then driven home shivering for a fair time while I warm up, This year I h...

 Hello all, well its been a bit of a long gap since my last post, lots going on here and I have neglected you all so I am sorry about that.  Just to update you all with things, I am still swimming in the sea regularly, trying to do about 4 swims per week but tomorrow will be day 6 of a swim every day which I am happy about. I am still Parkrunning, So far this year I have done 17 of them and all of them have been shirt free which I am super happy with.  last Month I took part in a Spartan Beast event, 14 miles of hardcore running and obstacles, I achieved it but it did mess up my legs a little and its taken me some time to recover from that, I think I am just about back to normal thankfully, whatever normal is.  Finally I have started riding my bike a lot more too, I got a new bike and this makes life a lot easier, I have done a few of those bike rides shirtless as well and hope to do a lot more without needing a top, its mainly a case of plucking up the courage to ju...

          It has been a few weeks since my last blog post, I have had my fair share of swims and runs but I have also been away a LOT which means I had lost the regularity of the outings.  Most recently I spent 6 days working in Blackpool and it WAS my plan to take some time out to go for a run, go for a swim and maybe have a walk but as we ventured up north storm Dudley was just about to hit the UK and scuppered all my plans, for the next 5 days Blackpool was battered by 3 storms which made swimming FAR too dangerous and it really put me off wanting to run or walk anywhere along the promenade.            The work I did in Blackpool was exhausting and on my return I took a much needed day to recover and then on Wednesday I headed down to the beach for a small dip, I went alone as I was only expecting a small dip but it was lovely to be back in the sea.       Friday morning I was back in the sea wit...

This last 10 days has been a pretty awesome one for me, full of little adventures which have helped me feel great. Parkrun I will start off at last Saturday with Parkrun, It was my 3rd Parkrun of the year, I had been out of the country for a couple of weeks plus a little ill so I decided to treat this parkrun carefully, I still ran shirt free but I really concentrated on taking it slow for the whole run, I think I over did it a bit as I came in at a full minute slower than my personal best, this was not a problem and although I did feel a tiny bit down about it I came to realise it was VERY windy and I was still recovering from a small illness. I followed this parkrun with a quick dip in the sea which was cold but energising, what I really love about the Saturday swims is the people I swim with and the cakes they supply. Bliss The next morning I was up nice and early for a run with Matt, it was at Farlington marshes nature reserve which is a regular 5km run for me however it was a new ...

You may have noticed I have not posted in a few weeks, this is because of multiple reasons, firstly I was working away in the USA and although I could have posted I do find it more difficult to post things using my phone, Also since my return home I have not exactly been feeling 100%, Don't get me wrong I am fine but I have had various things going on which have kept me away from my blogging. So the USA was great anyway, I was staying in Florida and I managed a few local shirtless runs which was not difficult in any way as it was generally in the mid to high teens temperature wise, the only thing that made it difficult was all the locals dressed up in all their layers thinking it is really cold where I am sweating like mad. I swam in the hotel pool daily which was heated so was far too warm but generally it was a great trip. Since my return home I have managed 2 swims in the sea, this happened to coincide with a time when everyone I know has said how extra cold it has been feeling ...

     Those of you who follow my blog will know I have been a bit stressed this week, In my last post ( click here  to read) I mentioned that I am travelling to Florida for work on Monday, other people have been passing their worries and stresses about the trip onto me. Well worry not as I have those stresses under control and I am in a much better place mentally. This is partly due to the fact that I managed to get my issues written down in this blog, so thanks for letting me vent.       Another reason I have managed to deal with this stress is the kind words of friends around me, I have had some lovely support from my other half Nat, a wonderful supportive message from Tim and a good chat with Ann too, all these little things make me realise that I am doing the right thing and that no one really means to pass their stresses onto me, its actually nice that people are concerned.      The final reason I have dealt with the stress is b...

New Years day parkrun      Something I have not mentioned on this blog before is my job, and there is no need to mention it because it is completely unrelated to the subject of this blog, I do however consider myself extremely lucky in that I occasionally get to travel to some amazing destinations for work. Last summer I was asked if I would attend an event in Florida, after some thought I said yes and the tickets were purchased and the arrangements were made.  Moving forward to the last week and as you can imagine I am now super stressed about the situation, Florida seems to be the Covid capital of the world and travel at the moment is a costly and stressful nightmare. Those reasons however are NOT the reason why I am stressed, let me explain something to you first.       I love travelling, I do get a little stressed at times but generally I go with the flow and I am happy. When the current Covid situation heightened I figured the best thing to d...

I have had such a good few days, it started on Christmas eve with a double swim, first with my wonderful friend Ann in Hayling and then with the lovely swimmers at Eastney, I really love swimming with both Ann and the Eastney swimmers, they are all such wonderful people and they make me so happy.  On Christmas day I completed the Southsea Parkrun with no shirt on, I finished that run on such a high, I drove home elated with what I had achieved and I have been on a high ever since. since then I have heard some wonderful feedback, no one seems to mind, there were no bad comments, a few fellow swimmers said they were proud of me, all these comments really boost my confidence. On Boxing day I got to introduce two friends to the delights of the cold sea, my running mate Matt and his 13 year old daughter Ava were incredible, they didn't complain about the cold, they were strong throughout  and I am so impressed with how long they managed to stay in the water. I am so proud of both o...

I used to hate early mornings, I was never an early morning person, in fact I always tell people I am a night owl, then lockdown happened and for some unknown reason I started to grow to like mornings, various things happened along the way and I slowly grew to enjoy the mornings. The reason I am telling you this is because whenever someone says to me "Rob, can you do a sunrise swim" or "Rob, how about an early morning hike" I think nothing of it and I get up with no problems at all.  Ann said to me just the other day "Rob can we make Mondays swim an early one please" and I thought nothing of it and just said yes, It actually wasn't that early, I've been up at 4am for swims before now so an 8am swim is nothing really but here is a short video of my trip to the beach for a morning swim with Ann and Rachael.

     I really love big waves, they are so much fun, don't get me wrong I do love a perfectly calm glass like sea to swim in but there is something about big waves, I love to watch the waves roll in, each one as strong as the last, surging up the beach with such energy and then falling away again ready for the next one. I find it so wonderful to see how much power there is out there in the big open ocean.       When the big waves arrive I find myself itching to get into the water. There have been a few times I have driven down to the beach and watched the huge waves and thought to myself "nope, too big and too dangerous". I generally like to think of myself as a very safe swimmer and in those instances when its too rough I drive home slightly grumpy but also happy that I've not risked my own safety. There was one occasion I miss judged the big waves and I got caught in one that slammed me to the beach. I still have a scar on my knee to prove it (albeit ...

     Hello all, I discovered a cool German expression today - Innerer Schweinehund, I will however get to that in a bit as I want to tell you about my swim with Ann this morning.       The drive down to our beach of choice (Hayling beach) takes me about 15 minutes, We choose to go there because its sort of a local beach for both of us and it is a very easy drive. Usually the drive down to the beach involves me setting off and then as soon as possible I put the heating on so I can get my van nice and toastie and warm. On arrival I tend to sit and chat to Ann to catch up on the current goings on so it is lovely to have a nice warm vehicle.       Today was no different, we sat there chatting about various things, as it is Friday I have a weekend of work ahead (I work weekends) and Ann had a full day planned, most of the time I like to think we both have an inner wolf which is keen to bound down the beach to meet the breaking waves...

     Being Brave is such a hard thing to do, its not that often we have to really be properly brave, I mean yes you may have the odd time where you ride a roller coaster or maybe you have to go to the dentist for a filling, but these are not every day events and yet I think that doing scary things and pushing yourself is such an essential part of life.       I have had to be brave a few times recently for various reasons, firstly I was nervous about asking my 2 running mates whether they would mind me running shirtless through winter, of course they didn't mind and why would they? I knew they would be totally fine about it but having the confidence to ask them was quite a challenge itself, I then had to be brave when I actually had to go through with taking a shirtless run with them, I mean I have run a lot without a shirt on in the past however usually on my own and often I head out under cover of darkness when it is quiet.   ...

Before I go any further I would like to get something straight, I have never taken my shirt off in public to show off my body, I do try to stay a little in shape but seriously that is NOT what this is all about. As I have grown older I have noticed the pounds start to pile on and I am now on a constant battle to prevent gaining weight, to combat this problem I try to jog to keep fit, It was in the run up to my 40th birthday I decided to sign up to a Tough Mudder, a 10 mile cross country running event with lots of crazy obstacles along the way.  Spartan race 2021 The Tough Mudder provided me with the motivation to stay fit and gave me something to work towards.  It was in the build up to the Tough Mudder that I had noticed photos of some guys running the event shirt free, It didn't take much for me to decide that I HAD to do the Tough Mudder without a shirt on. Since that first Tough Mudder I have taken part in a further 6 Tough Mudders, a London River Rat Race, an X Runne...

     Hello everyone, so, where to begin? do I start at the beginning? this is so hard for me to explain, let me start a just few years ago.      It was just after Christmas and I found myself being invited to join someone for a swim in the sea on New Years Day, for some reason I jumped at the chance, That morning I packed my trunks and towel and headed on down to the beach to find my friends all wrapped up in their wetsuits, and there I was with just my swimming trunks.    I still did the swim, feeling the freezing cold water move up my body, like a 1000 needles piercing into my skin, it was torture but I soon got my shoulders under and a few minutes later I was walking back up the beach with a massive smile on my face, boy did I feel great.      The New Years dip in the cold sea marked a point in my life when I realised something, the cold makes me feel amazing, how can I explain it, when people ask me I always say it makes me feel...