Adventures in Feeling Alive

 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 ...

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 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.   ...

     I have known Ann for years, she was once a customer and is now a very good friend of mine, a year ago we found out that we both liked cold water swimming and she soon became my regular swimming partner.  We swim around 3 times a week together and today we were joined by another regular swimming friend called Rachael.      This morning I really noticed the nip in the air as I left home, the wind was coming from the north and the skies were clear and so it was about 5 ° outside, I always make the silly decision to drive down to the beach with the the van heating on full blast. Me (left), Rachael (middle) and Ann (right)      After a chat we ventured into the sea, as always we all just wear our swimming costumes, I have always been against wearing a wetsuit, for me this is all about getting cold and being at one with nature. It doesn't take too long to get in, after several years of regular swimming you would think that I would ge...