This was a post I started and abandoned 20th October 2018:

I’m having a new technology issue. Now that I have very little excuse for not joining my local Parkrun I’ve given myself a small problem. This is a Strava issue. I can see other people’s run times they have posted. I can too if I want. All I need to do is shell out around 150 coins for a Garmin 135. It will come with I heart rate monitor and I need one of them. But I don’t really. I’ve been running on and off for years and I don’t need that.

Since writing the above I’ve bought a Chromebook £200, a Nokia 6.1 smartphone £200, and a Dragonfly Black DAC costing £100 with the extra cables. So, I didn’t buy the Garmin. I’ve been out for two jogs and used Garmin on my phone, and I’ve decided that I like it. Now I wan’t the Garmin 135. It’s not something I need to carry in a pocket and worry about, but is breaking all my old rules about running for the sake of running. Then there’s Brexit. I’m pretty sure that all the satellites will still work for us in the UK, but who knows?

It would be a nice to have, but at the moment what I need to do is just get out and jog. I’ll have my phone on training jogs, and races will look after themselves. That’s sortred then. All I have to do now is get out and jog. This time, I’m going to take my own advice and not over do it. My last efforts to run again were going well until I had a complete slump two miles in to a run. There was nothing in the tank, and I didn’t have any snacks with me for energy. The result was I was out of gas of weeks and didn’t get the runners on again. This was a shame, because otherwise, everything went really well.

All of this brings me to personal bests. I’ve never been as good as I could have been, which is a good thing. What this means is that all of my records are still achievable. I will take this one step at a time, though. Training jogs are just training jogs and what I want is to get out, run a Parkrun or race and do myself justice. I need to get out there and feel like I’m winning, not just turning up. I’m better than that, and I need to set an example. But for now, it’s back to meditation, running, 200 press-ups, and hoping all of this shows through in the rest of my life. I’m feeling a little anger, and lots of fight (at least working on it).

I’m going to make a packed lunch in the morning to take in to work. A little ritual every now and then reminds me that I have a target.