Worrying Is Optional is a self-help book by Ben Eckstein. It uses third-wave cognitive behavioural therapy, drawing on acceptance and commitment therapy and metacognitive therapy to help people reduce their worrying. it’s written in a light-hearted way that should be accessible to everyone and takes you through understanding worry, other ways to deal with worry, retraining your attention and practical exercises for changing your relationship with worry.
Getting something out of this race meant a lot to me.
I only just found out about the event after the registration deadline in 2022. I was in great form from IRONMAN Copenhagen but alas, it wasn’t to be.
So I signed up for the 80k in 2023 and decided to make that my A-race of the year. Health problems got in the way of training and I dropped down to the 47k but in the end I was too ill to run at all for two months and missed the race.
When 2024 rolled around, I opted to register for the 47k as that seemed straightforward. But continuing health issues meant I couldn’t train and even though I dropped down to the 30k, I still wasn’t in any form to complete the race. This year, though, they added a 10k option. I missed the deadline to switch down so ended up having two separate registrations: one for the 30k and one for the 10k. But I made it to the start line.
I wasn’t feeling much better on the day. I was still having stomach issues and my latest attempt to find shorts that did not chafe had ended in failure. Luckily, Bray had clean public toilets.
The race starts by running along the sea front and then heads straight up Bray Head. It’s a climb of just under 200 vertical metres. As we went up, I found my vision got quite blurry. I’m not sure whether it is the low light under the trees as a similar thing happened on the way down where I woul have had a lower heart rate.
The views from the top are beautiful and I stopped to take a few pictures. We then follow the track around the headline for another beautiful view of Greystones before descending into the valley on the far side. There is then a road section into town before climbing and descending Bray Head a second time.
I was so relieved to cross the finish line after battling my stomach, my vision and my nerves. It’s bean a unpleasant descent from IRONMAN triathlete to struggling to run a 10k. But I did run it and I made it to the end. I wasn’t aiming for any kind of time but for the record it was:
1:21:57
It’s a beautiful race and well worth checking out if you like mountains and sea views.
A month ago I read Ender’s Game and it was superb. It sounded too violent for me but it’s actually a brilliant story. Ender’s Shadow is another book by Orson Scott Card that tells the same story from Bean’s point-of-view. It’s equally excellent.
Yesterday, my total number of Udemy students ticked over 100,000.
It’s a cool landmark. Udemy isn’t the only platform I teach on so I’ve been at this number in totaL for a while. But great to reach it on an influential platform like Udemy alone.
Occupational psychology, also known as industrial, organisation and work psychology, is all about how people function and thrive in work environments. In my new course, you will learn all about building organisations that enhance employee engagement, wellbeing, and productivity.
Preview the course on Holbeck College or watch the trailer below.
Another Paralympics has been and gone and another great result for Team GB. We finished with 124 medals including 49 golds. This is the exact same number of medals we won at Tokyo 2020 but with eight extra golds. It also means Team GB has come second in the medals table again.
This marks the 7th Olympics in the row where we have come second in the medals table. Technically, Russia came second at London 2012 but obviously we don’t count them anymore because the country is a bunch of big cheats.
One of the things that makes me proud to be British is that as good as an Olympic team we field, and we do field an excellent Olympic team, our Paralympic team always outperforms them.
Back in May, Jonas Deichmann set out to try and complete 120 long-format triathlons in a row. Last week, he finished it. This surpasses Sean Conway’s previous record of 105. Congratulations, Jonas!
Ender’s Game is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card. I was looking around for more science fiction (I love Asimov and really enjoyed Blade Runner recently) but I wasn’t sure about this one. Sounded all about war and fighting. But it was recommended by so many sources that I thought I would give it a go.
It was excellent. I really enjoyed it. There was quite a lot of fighting in it. But it didn’t get in the way of a good story. Ender is a very likeable character, in my opinion, faced with difficult moral choices. It is easy to forget that he is a child, which itself adds another layer of complexity to the rights and wrongs of the situation.
Bunratty Castle is a castle and folk park that is open to the public. Folk parks are living museums where traditional buildings have been relocated and are often populated with staff playing characters and or demoing 19th century trades. We’ve done St Fagans and Ulster and this one was also good.
Ulster was excellent: great role-plays and lots of cool stuff. But it was quite spread out. Bunratty was all a little more compact and the map was spot on so it was easy to find your way around.
I finished the namely challenge! I was the last letter I needed to spell my name. It’s a lovely parkrun: along the banks of the estuary, trail, plenty of shade and friendly.
