“I’m going for a long run.” I said to Mrs TwinBikeRun and immediately I felt like a right pillock. 

 A “long run”. What the blimey is a “long run” and why would Mrs TwinBikeRun care. She’s only interested in knowing when I might be back. 

“I’m going out, I’ll back in an hour,” would be a better thing to say because how long is a long run? It’s meaningless. For me, a long run means I’ll be more than an hour. For Elise Kipchoge, a long run means 20 miles and he’ll be back in 20 minutes. For Jasmin Paris, ultramarathoner, it means three days, fifteen mountains, and a new world record. A long run means something different depending on the runner.

For anyone else, a long run is meaningless. If you don’t run, then a long run is just ‘a run’. Not long, or short, just something that someone else does.

So why do we have it? What’s the point a long run? 

I think we have a long run so that we have something to boast about when we’re training. No one boasts about a Tuesday night regular run or a Friday morning jog to work. But, on Monday, you might say when asked what you did for the weekend: “I went for a long run!”

Not that anyone is impressed. You can tell if they’re impressed if they say “how’s your legs?”. If they ask that then you know they’re not impressed, they’re just polite!

We rarely say “I’m going for a short run”. Instead it’s just a run. We don’t want people to know it’s short. We don’t do short. We don’t do easy. We either run or we run long, that’s it. 

But is that the right way to think? I’m training for the Edinburgh marathon and every week I need to have a run which is longer than others. An extended run. A run with additional miles. A run that I am absolutely not calling a long run. Instead I call it my run. And every other run in the week is my short run. In my head this run is normal and everything else is easy, Now I have one run a week and three short runs. Easy. 

By thinking about my long run as just a run, I’m trying to make the marathon appear shorter, at least in my head, because it won’t be a long run either, it’ll just be a run.

Sadly, while my mind is helping, my calves have yet to catch up and still complain my when I finish my long run run. 

“I’m going for a long lie down”I say to Mrs TwinBikeRun.

“Do you mean a lie down?” She asks.

“No! Everyone knows what a long lie down means!”

Coffee First, Then The World is the story of Scottish cyclist, Jenny Graham’s attempt to become the fastest woman to cycle around the world unaided. The “unaided” point is important because she makes clear in the book that wanted to do this fully unsupported, even down to making the people who would ride with her ride behind her so she wouldn’t benefit from any slipstream they might produce.

The book offers an interesting perspective on more usual adventure books as by usual adventure books I mean male adventure books. The challenges for a lone female cyclist, camping wild and meeting strangers along the road, are very different from a six foot bloke built like a tank after months of cycling. Even an offer of help comes with a healthy dose of suspicion as to why a man may be helping a woman in the middle of nowhere.

Jenny Graham comes across as very optimistic, positive and driven and is always thankful for the opportunity she has had to make this attempt happen.

Overall, an enjoyable and inspiring read.

Interesting comparison this year as 2024 was all about Celtman and 2025 was Celtman Solo Point Five, half the distance, and, looking at these stats: half the training!

This year’s challenge – to take a photo every day – was harder than expected. How hard could it be? We all carry a camera in our phones and all it takes is a press of a button to take a photo. Job done.

However, after starting I thought that simply taking a photo was too easy. It wasn’t a challenge so I added some non-binding rules.

1. I couldn’t use my phone. I had to use a camera.
2. The photo had to relate in some way to the day. It couldn’t just be a random show of my breakfast. It could only be a shot of my breakfast if the breakfast was somehow ‘important’ that day.

And that made the challenge too hard as it meant I had to remember to carry a camera (which I often forgot!) and I had to justify my choice, which then made a photo challenge more of a writing challenge.

Anyway, what did I learn from this year’s challenge: I like grafitti, I like shapes in photos rather than people, and I take far too many photos of TwinBikeChild as, every day could have been a TwinBikeChild photoshow if she’d only sign the model consent release form and would get out of bed for less than £10,000 a day. Damn models!

But it was fun to do this challenge as it gave me a chance to remind myself why I like photography and to open my eyes when outside (as, if not, traffic can be a real challenge!)

This year’s challenge: take a photo a day, every day for January.

31 January: 31 days of photos and only one was rubbish.

This year’s challenge: take a photo a day, every day for January.

30 January: Pay day. It’s been so long since I was paid in December that 20p could have bought me a a can of Diet Coke, a packet of crisps and a deposit for a 3 bedroom detached home in Bearsden.

This year’s challenge: take a photo a day, every day for January.

29 January: With all this plastic sheeting I’m not sure if the decorators are prepping the room for an undercoat or a Dexter style kill room.

This year’s challenge: take a photo a day, every day for January.

28 January: What TwinBikeChild said.