Archive

  • o.t.s.o…..these hills are ours

    Andy Howey and I had a brief but really enjoyable couple of days in Yorkshire and the Derbyshire Peak district recently, which in addition to a walk around a 12 mile stretch of the Edale skyline, also incorporated an evening in a small theatre in the town of Otley, a little North of Leeds to… Read more

  • o.t.s.o…..December

    A short poem for each of the 12 calendar months to give just a flavour of how running changes as the cycle of the year rolls around.  December There’s no avoiding winter’s chill the damp dark days grow shorter still you dream of longer warmer days and come they surely will….. You have to make… Read more

  • o.t.s.o…..November

    For a long time, I’ve had the feeling that from a runner’s point of view, every individual month of the year has some special characteristic that makes it that little bit different from each of the others. Quite how to put those sometimes subtle differences into words has previously escaped me. But in an attempt… Read more

  • o.t.s.o…..on the road again !

    Over the past two and a half years, I’ve had a series of running injury problems – hip, pelvis, both knees – which seemed to have put an end to my running days. By early May of this year I had become completely unable to run a step without severe knee pain, so I accepted… Read more

  • on the subject of…..Gordon Pirie

    Number 2 in the “legends” series. The subject of the second of my mini-biogs of some of the great distance runners of the past, is Gordon Pirie. Maybe the passage of time means he is somewhat forgotten now, but in the 1950s he was the Mo Farah of his day, winning races and setting records… Read more

  • on the subject of…..thinking!!!

    What do you think about when you run? When it comes to thinking on the run, runners tend to fall into one of two camps: ASSOCIATION or DISSOCIATION. In simple terms, association means you are very much focused on the activity of the run, and dissociation means you are (possibly very consciously) allowing your mind to wander… Read more