“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” Alfred Wainwright.

14h Feb – Days to go on 100 days dry: 57. Days until the Dartmoor Way: 90

A couple of wins that have countered my self-flagellation of the previous week. The walk at the weekend was brilliant, tiring, longer than before, but outstanding. The next excursion needs to top 25km and take about 6 hours. I am planning to get dropped off north of here on the Cotswold way and walk home. We’ll see how that pans out as the walk will be unknown, follow hills and roadways and be a lot more representative of the Dartmoor way in profile.

The second piece that I was really pleased about is that the program I am on called for an hours walk on Sunday rather than a rest day. And I nailed it.

I took #dogbeast straight up Stinchcombe hill and walked around the golf course. The weather was atrocious, the rain came in sideways. I was starting to feel a little sorry for myself when we crossed paths with a hundred or so runners doing something called the ‘Dursley Dozen’. 12 miles cross country, over hillsides, roads, woodland, open country, mud and more mud. It put things into perspective and at the same time reminded me of the journey that I am on. A good friend of mine who is a professional business coach uses the phrase ‘there’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.’ That resonated with me on Sunday.

And then, to cap off a good week, my weigh in this morning showed the improvement I have been waiting for. Some real movement on my visceral fat number. Not enough for me to even consider resting on my laurels, but I have dropped out of the ‘danger’ zone. I still have some way to go, but heading in the right direction. If I can keep this up, I should get into what is considered ‘healthy’ before I start the walk in May.

Time for me to step things up slightly. All of my personal KPI’s are moving in the right direction. My subjective fitness is allowing me to do more, for longer. The results are motivation enough to increase my workload and get to the goals that I have set myself.

And I am really looking forward to my run tomorrow!

“However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.” Stephen Hawking, Theory of Everything.