Red January

First of all, I’d like to wish you all a very happy new year! Hope you all had a wonderful festive period & heres to another year filled with health, prosperity, travel & adventure!

So you may have seen a couple of photos, of me running up hills at all hours over the last few days… well, fear not, I haven’t gone totally insane – yet. There is method in this madness!

Christmas was a pretty chilled out affair this year. Stark contrast to hucking waterfalls and adventuring over in New Zealand! Some quality time with family & friends was just what the doctor ordered, after a really busy end to 2018. The lake district was the perfect place to clear my head & get ready for a fresh start in 2018.

Instead of any new year’s resolutions, I opted to take part in Red January. At this point, you’re probably wondering what all the Red January fuss is all about…

Brought to you by the charity, Mind, Red January is a community initiative that encourages you to support your mental health by doing something active every single day throughout the month of January. RED January can provide you with a goal and a focus in a characteristically tough month, empowering you to start the year as you mean to go on. All achievements are celebrated, no matter how big or small and the RED community is there to support you every step of the way.

Why am I doing it? Many people are choosing to fund raise for Mind – however I’m not doing this to raise money, simply to raise awareness of the benefits of exercise through a stereotypically tough month.

Why am I doing it? Many people are choosing to fund raise for Mind – however I’m not doing this to raise money, simply to raise awareness of the benefits of exercise through a stereotypically tough month.

What are the rules? There are no set rules about what you need to do, how far you need to go, how long for. The best bit about this initiative is that its totally unconstrained! Whether its running 5k, or walking to work a new way, a morning swim or taking your bike out for a spin – thousands of people around the UK are kick-starting their 2019 in the most positive way.

So what am I doing? Time to explain the madness. I’ve set myself the objective of running up a hill each day in January. Yup, come rain or shine, wind or rain, daytime or night time, I will be running up a hill somewhere! Think I’m crazy – well so do I!

“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last year, it’s the benefits of exercise in reducing stress levels. Exercise releases endorphins – also known as feel good hormones. Nothing beats that feeling of sweating out the stress of a rough day in the office! Hence, I started cycling to work.

Concentrating on your bodies movements enables you to forget all the worries you’ve developed throughout the day, putting you in a better mood – leaving you with a clear mind, giving you energy and optimism for everything else you do.

Regular exercise can increase self-confidence and it can lower the symptoms associated with mild depression and anxiety. Exercise can also improve your sleep, which is often disrupted by stress, depression and anxiety. All of these exercise benefits can ease your stress levels and give you a sense of command over your body and your life.

Beat those January blues – join me in taking on the Red January challenge!

Its not too late to sign up; https://www.mind.org.uk/redjanuary

You can follow my hill running escapes over on my social media channels – where you’ll see me in my red jumper, running up hills at all hours!

Hill progress so far;

Day 1: Parlick Fell

Day 2: Longridge Fell