Chris Worfolk's Blog

Although my annual year in review is a pale shadow of Michael Clarke’s annual missive, I like to think it has a special place in the hearts of you, my three loyal blog readers. Thus I present the 2025 edition.

I did three things in January: research for my doctoral thesis, go on long runs ahead of a big race in March, and publish a daily video on Chris Is Proud Of You. Looking back, it does not feel like much, but definitely felt like plenty to be getting on with.

February was also a bit of a blur as Elina had surgery at the end of January, and looking after her and Venla took most of my time. But I did squeeze in a few Zwift races and attend the Neurodiversity Intervarsity Conference. The Eagles won Supr Bowl LIX and Paul Sinton-Hewitt made a guest appearance at Marlay parkrun. I achieved E-RYT status.

We celebrated Elina’s birthday in March. I set a new personal best for longest training run, covering 53 km. This was my big prep run for the DUHAC 24-hour later that month, in which I took my second victory, clocking up 110 km. I’m thankful to have had a killer team. I also managed a sub-22 at the Tallaght 5k, which is my fastest for a long time. Holbeck College launched our Cognitive Behavioural Coaching course.

Apparently, April was all about running as well. I completed a full year of my movement streak and did some parkrun tourism at Porch Field and Navan. I celebrated my 400th parkrun at Cabo and Venla celebrated her 50th junior at Marlay. Having done no triathlons at all in 2024, I finally returned to the sport at TriLaois.

We took some trips in May including Belfast and Limerick. This allowed me to tourist at Stormont and Newcastle West. DUHAC did our next club race at the Phoenix Park Duathlon, including Paddy winning his age group, while Blackrock raced Sandyford 5k. I was lucky enough to attend the Neurodiversity Summit at Trinity. Holbeck College achieved YACEP status and Leeds were promoted back to the Premier League.

It was mostly parkrun tourism in June with trips to Pontefract, Carlanstown, Laytown Beach, SETU Arena and Mullingar. We hit the beach in Waterford and did the annual Teddy’s ice cream run. Hyde Park Harriers ran the fifth annual Around The Park, Around The Clock. But probably the highlight was DUHAC winning first place in the relay category of Skerries Triathlon. I have a trophy and everything!

The Price of Darkness played his final gig in July before leaving us shortly after. I continued my return to triathlon, completing both Kilkenny and Two Provinces, the latter in a heatwave. I did some parkrun tourism at Mountlucas and Dundalk before finishing the month taking on Dublin Mountain Trail Festival. We visited Dublin Zoo and England overcame the odds to win Euro 2025.

So many major events happened in August. First, we spent an amazing week doing the northern coast of Ireland to celebrate finishing my doctorate. Too many highlights to mention but Inishowen was probably the most magical. We also took in the Giant’s Causeway, Derry, Letterkenny, and parkrun tourism in Portrush and Sligo. When we got back, I had my doctoral viva, and also had surgery for skin cancer. Plus somehoe we also managed to fit trips to Pont y Bala, Yorkshire Museum, Little Sugar Loaf and Sheffield to celebrate with Nicola & Sam at their wedding. I just recovered from my surgery in time to compete at Lough Key Triathlon and Tullamore parkrun.

After all of that, I just wanted to collapse in September. But there was racing to be done. I completed Lough Ree Monster Triathlon and Westport Triathlon that featured a sea swim and yet somehow I managed second overall in the super sprint category. I got some more parkrun tourism in at Christie and Tullow, and completed the Causeway Coast Half Marathon. I was delighted to achieve chartered status with the British Psychological Society.

It was an equally huge month in October as we celebrated my doctoral graduation. I celebrated my birthday by running Dublin Marathon. We did a lot of hiking including Tibradden Cairn, Djouce, Bray Head Hill, Bohernabreena Reservoir and Three Rock. We also did a trip to Killarney, completing all of the counties in Ireland and Killarney House parkrun. Elina and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. Ed Byrne spoke at Humanists and Leeds Anxiety Clinic launched its new website.

There was another big transition in November as we packed our bags and headed back to Leeds. But not before I completed my final Blackrock run, Broadmeadow Linear parkun and Run The Line. We made it home in time to do York parkrun and the Abbey Dash before month end.

We spent December mostly buried in paperwork and admin. But I did manage to squeeze in some parkrun tourism at Heslington and the Hyde Park Harriers Christmas party. I also visited Eurka! for the first time in over 30 years so Venla could visit the national children’s museum.

Small Space, Big Living: Interior Design to Make Every Inch Count is a book by Sofie Hepworth.

It focuses on designing small space interiors. Most of the book uses the Shila Shed as a case study, which is a tiny home they build in their garden while they were renovating the house. It is fantastic for this kind of maximising space on a blank canvas situation, but the advice for being stuck in a rental property is somewhat limited. That said, I came away with plenty of of tips I could implement in those situations so it was worth a read.

It is also pretty practical in terms of the process of designing. It talks about how to do a draw out a floor plan (and provides ezamples), or build a mock-up model, or find a reliable tradesperson.

Mad about the House: The budget how-to guide for smart home decorating with style is a book by Kate Watson-Smyth.

The book starts with some general advice on colour, then goes systematically though each room in the house commenting on different design elements to consider. It ends with a top ten design ten design hacks. It is illustrated with a mixture of lovely line drawings and photographs. It was an enjoyable and fun read but I might struggle to tell you what crystallised knowledge I took away from it. It might be a book I come back to when I am designing a specific room.

The Interior Design Handbook is a book by Frida Ramstedt.

It’s the best book on interior design for beginners that I have read. I’m brand new to the topuc and I’ve only read three books so far. But this one is my favourite. It teaches a lot of the fundamental theory but in an acessible way. For example, how to vary your light sources, using things like the rule of three, acoustics, and all of the elements you need to bring a design together.

If you are thinking about decorating your house, this book seems to be a great place to start.

Could It Be Adult ADHD: A Clinician’s Guie to Recognition, Assessmnt, and Treatment is a book by Jan Willer.

It provides a a lot of good information for professionals on recognising signs of ADHD in adults. It goes beyond the simple list of ICD/DSM criteria and talks about related problems and offers a bit of guidance on differential diagnosis. It is accessible and comes with vignettes.

It is written from a compassionate perspective, and does talk about ADHD strengths, but overall comes from a very medical deficit-focused perspective. Everything is written as a disorder and there isn’t much attempt to describe the ADHD experience beyond the vignette quotes. As a result, I skim read most of it and skipped the treatment section entirely. That talks about CBT and skills training.

We all have that one nightmare scenario that sits in the back of our mind. Sometimes it comes true…

ADHD 2.0: New Science and Essential Strategies for Thriving with Distraction is a book by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey.

It is written for adults who are ADHD or have ADHD children, but could also potentially be a read for clinicians who want to gain greater insight into the ADHD experience. It talks about one of the underlying models of ADHD (default mode network) and then goes on to talk about practical strategies such as building the right environment, exercise, diet, and discusses the use of medication.

From a critical perspective, many of the strategies are simple and common sense. That doesn’t mean they work. But, for example, the authors try to sell us on the benefits of to-do lists. But many ADHD people have told me they can never remember to check their to-do list so more scaffolding is needed. Perhaps the biggest criticism of the book, though, is that it writes in support of Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), an approach firmly rejected by the neurodivergent community.

I don’t know how to reconcile these differences. For the most part, it is a very neuroaffirmative book and I’m thinking “these people really get ADHD”. But then when I read other bits, such as ABA or just write a to-do list, I’m thinking “these people have never met an ADHD client”. On the whole, I the whole, it is mostly the former but I don’t think I would recommend it as a resource.

Them: “Have you been to Eureka before?”
Me: “Yes. But not in the past 30 years so maybe you should give us a refresher.”

We have freed up some more space for the clinic, so from next week, I will be available for in-person sessions at Leeds Anxiety Clinic, as well as online. Chris’s appointments are available as usual, too, so you can have your pick.