Wheels And Sneakers

New Year - Old Resolutions

Its been a while.... most likely as I've not done much activity to write about. Over a 6 month period I went from being pretty active to very sedate and my waistline and general health have suffered pretty badly as a consequence. The middle of 2018 went a bit crazy with my day job and I had to reprioritise a few bits of life to retain my sanity.I got up for work each day, sat behind my desk, did a lot of long haul travel and lost my social and active life in the process. I am pleased to say that everything went well on the career front, but it became increasingly evident that I can't keep up the habits obtained on the journey.

I had been managing my stress levels by trying to cram in as much sleep as possible around some long hours of desk time. The end result was that the job got done, I didn't lose the plot, but unfortunately all was not well in other areas of life. The overall outcome has made me eager to make some changes following the holidays…

We're all finding ourselves surrounded by more and more brands and channels making us aware of the rising plastic pollution problems. Most of us have been trying to recycle for years, but there is still too much plastic ending up in landfill, or worse across our landscapes and in our seas. Our European cousins in Sweden are ahead of the game as usual with their efforts to clean up and have been combining their love of the outdoors, exercise and being generally good humans and cleaning up after each other.. Behold a new phenomenon - Plogging! Erik Ahlström started the Plogging movement, which is a combination of litter picking and jogging, when he moved to Stockholm from the Åre ski resort. He created the website Plogga to help organise events in 2016 and it has been growing internationally since. The Mindful Movement Club recently had a beach walk and clean up session at the beginning of summer near Shoeburyness, but interest in this proactive way to get exercise and clean our enviro…

After months of staring at my bike and thinking about getting back to my commuter days, I finally bit the bullet yesterday and got my pedals turning again. Its been almost a year since my accident and its fair to say that I have not been feeling too cool about the prospect of dancing the wheels between the trucks and buses on route to work again. But I haven't wanted to lose the bike, or the choice, I just had a massive confidence drop in my ability to feel okay about getting back out there.
Truth is, I'm still not totally cool with it, but I am getting better. Following the old bike getting written off by the insurance company, I have been able to purchase a replacement Genesis Road bike (Ruby), but I still don't have the balls to use it. I don't want to be on the drops in traffic and this has led to me keeping it in storage, rather than putting it back out on the road. So I am dabbling again with my single speed PlugOne Charge (Old Blue) as its a familiar friend and…

Last year I was trying to find alternative ways to switch off and to find a reason to keep my head up. I was in need of a new challenge, which didn't involve running, something that would enable me to escape the city for a short break and be a reward worth keeping on for.
I'd been investigating adventure breaks for a while, then kept getting bombarded with facebook adverts for a company who promised to enable short breaks - weekend adventures and make them easy to book up. Welcome to "Much Better Adventures" - a global partner for hundreds of local guides which allow you to pay a small deposit and slowly edge your payments towards the trip.
I had been looking for something peaceful and completely different from my usual trips and became completely smitten with the idea of paddling along the fjords of Norway. Like all online ideas and challenges, the paying for the experience is the easy part. Sure it took me some months to chip away at it, but even though it wasn…

Over the past couple of months I have been getting used to a lot of change at home. My daughter Poppy has moved into her own flat and my time has been spent on moving flats (yes multiple - it's a long and boring story). My role as every day mum and my household responsibilities have changed and I'll be happy to admit, I'm finding it a bit weird and strange.
So its been a perfect time to try a few other new things out. Bouldering being the first one - I tried this on the first Monday evening after I started my new flat share. The flat share in itself was all new - I've not been in a flat or house share since I was 23 (F**k that is actually 20 years ago!!) so learning to live with another person who isn't family, a partner or a friend, all brings changes too.. but its working out pretty cool.
So aside from the change in accommodation - how did I get to the Wall? 
Run Dem Crew have collaborated with Hackney Wick Bouldering Project, to set up 3 sessions of Bouldering,…

Its been about 2-3 years since I made the life changing decision to try to meet up with running crews in London. Initially I was too scared to approach any of them, as I thought my slow pace and non-athletic figure would make my introduction the most anxious horrific experience ev-vah.. Slowly I have found myself fully accepted in the belly of the beast of both Run Dem Crew and Chasing Lights Collective. And what an enormous belly of love I have found.
This year was my 2nd chance to help with Cheer Dem duties at London Marathon and I was given the full pressure of ensuring the road for our cheer zone ahead of Mile 21, was as colourful and as welcoming as possible. A task that I would have assumed to be way out of my league, if asked previously. With a few cans of chalk spray, plus some encouragement from Charlie and Sanchia, the road was closed, our stencils went down and our colours went up.. All early morning crew pounced, with placards, banners, big heads and our cheer zone became…