Just before annus horriblis 2020 ended, I made a New Years Resolution for the first time in many a year. I don’t usually stick to them, so I can’t usually be bothered making them anymore. However, after the year it had been, I felt the need to do something positive whilst at the same time attempting to ward off the winter blues, which have proved problematic in the past.

So, I decided to try and run every day of January 2021 and if I succeeded in doing that, I would see if I could go on and run every day for the rest of the year (which funnily enough would turn out globally, and particularly here on Plague Island, to be Annus Horriblis II).

In taking on the challenge of running every day, I was inspired by my fellow Lancastrian, and commonwealth champion marathon runner, the sadly late, Dr Ron Hill, who ran every day for 52 years and 39 days. Ron considered that to qualify as a daily run, he had to cover at least one mile without stopping. Good enough for Ron is good enough for me. So that’s what I did.

I completed 365 consecutive days running in 2021, covering a cumulative total of 1400 miles. For ten months I ran over 100 miles a month but I got plantar fasciitis, a painful foot injury in late October, so had to cut my mileage right down. I got there though and have to say I took great pride in doing so.

Thanks to a very kind client, Shelter will benefit to the tune of a four-figure sum as a result of the challenge having been completed and my effort has been posted on the official Run Streak International website, for posterity.

Taking on the challenge achieved what I’d hoped it would. After a dreary twenty months, it provided something to focus on daily other than trying not to get Covid and trying to forget about this awful government that we’ve somehow ended up with, here in the UK.

Above all the feat gave me a boost, physically and mentally. It really helped my self-esteem. I can still give myself a hard time and the running provided an antidote when it need to.

The run streak is a hard act to follow. If I hadn’t got plantar fasciitis, I’d probably still be doing the streak. Instead, I exercise every day and go to the gym regularly, but it’s not quite the same.

All of this has set me thinking about how I can shake things up a bit this year, without the rigid daily programme of running being an option (at least until this PF has got better).

So, I’ve decided to try and rework life a bit and shed some of the routines that I know I’ve got into and which aren’t amongst the most productive ways of spending time. On the flip side, I’ll look to make some positive additions to what I do on a regular basis.

Making a grand list of what I should and shouldn’t be doing would be a waste of time. I wouldn’t stick to it.

Instead, I plan to shake things up gently and introduce some changes on a piecemeal basis.

The run streak challenge was one of those things that I did because I know running is good for me for all the reasons I’ve stated. However (and here is the addict in me coming out), just because it’s good for me, doesn’t mean I’ll do it. You see, there was always that little chimp on the shoulder telling me why popping out for a run every day was a bad idea: it’s cold out, it’s too wet, it’s too early, it’s too late and so on.

Yet, because last year I’d set myself to go out and run every day, not doing it would have been a big thing and the longer the streak went on, it would have been a very big thing. On the contrary, very quickly slipping my trainers on and heading out, whatever the weather, became what I did, without my having to think about it.

What challenge should I take on now, then? From experience, I know that writing is good for me. I know, I know – I DO write every day. It’s my job, and one I enjoy. Does that not count then?

No, I’m talking about writing for pleasure; about the sheer joy of getting thoughts down on paper, PC, laptop or whatever passes for parchment these days.

I know it’s good for me to write (not perhaps for you, poor soul, to read what I write), but I get a similar buzz from writing a blog to the one I get from running. It’s cathartic too.

Yet still, there is the chimp, or whatever it is, sitting on my shoulder telling me it’s a waste of time, I’m writing to myself and there are better things I could be doing.

I’ve come to the conclusion that when the chimp starts piping up, the opposite of what it tells me to do is what I should be doing.

For now, my challenge is to write something on my blog, every day, just for the hell of it. In doing so, I will start from the premise that about as many people who watched me run every day, will want to read my blog. It would be lovely though if you could prove me (and the chimp) wrong.

PS As there’s more than a passing reference to it, I should acknowledge that a chap called Dr Steve Peters invented this idea of there being a chimp that sits on your shoulder and in its naughty moments gives you less than good advice. Steve’s book is called The Chimp Paradox and if you haven’t read it, I can highly recommend it to you.