Pressing Reset

....and there was me thinking I'd missed the sunrise

I have a friend in the States - Tim Anderson - who has put together a few useful books on fitness, some looking particularly at the role of the brain and nervous system and how we improve our movement and health by thinking about the brain.  One of his books is called Pressing Reset and it gives a few simple moves to work the neural connections behind some basic movement patterns (free pdf here with examples).

That idea of pressing reset was in my mind this morning as I was up in the Pentlands again, not in terms of movement or exercise, just the need to reset my mind, my thoughts.  Last weekend I'd been south visiting my parents.  Dad is still in hospital.  His dementia is now such that his next stop is a nursing home, so the awful recognition is there for us as a family that we need to find him somewhere to live.  We would like to have him at home but he needs a level of care that we can't provide.  And it is heartbreaking.

My thoughts are taken up with that situation and also with work.  There is an election looming and as ever pulling the various strands of the project together is very stressful.  There is a team, but I carry the can if anything goes wrong.  So between long hours on that and then worry about Dad, things are exhausting now.

I felt really under the weather yesterday  and did hardly anything - lazing around the flat, watching the rugby, playing with my websites - then an early night.

This morning I was awake at about 530am.  Not feeling fully rested, but not drained as I had been yesterday.  I got up about 730 and was heading for the hills, having decided on an easy walk, when I looked out the window and saw the sunrise already happening....it is getting earlier.

Ach well.  I got in the car and was surprised to see the ice already melting from the windows.  It was warmer than I had expected. 

Not the exotic southern hills of the Pentland range today.  It was back to the north, heading up from Hillend to Caerketton. 

While I had missed the exciting pink sky as I climbed up the ridge, I saw that I was luckily in time for the finale as the sun peaked out over East Lothian.

It was wonderful.  Warm and alive.  

The ground was hard with frozen water, my shoes skidding around unless I walked in the deep heather.

Up on the ridge the views continued.

It was a good place to be.  A long way from work.  All back in perspective.  I was pressing reset with each step, each view, each breath.

The city was below, sleeping still perhaps but I was glad to be above it all.  I didn't carry on to Allermuir - I was still tired and just wanting an easy day.  I dropped back down to the car, an hour snatched from the week.

They were busy hills this morning - lots of runners up there.