Autumn, whilst not quite here, is certainly starting to make its appearance. There's a slight nip in the air, the leaves are starting to fall and the squirrels are out in full force gathering nuts and seeds for the winter ahead. This is quite a stark contrast to what I've just been enjoying for the last two weeks: hot sunny Spanish weather with no running, lots of swimming, food and beer, and not much else.

I've just got back from my first run in just over two weeks following my belated summer holiday and what a wonderful run it was. I felt full of bounce and seemed to just glide my way along. The cool nip in the air punctuated by dappled sunshine was very refreshing, and the feeling of the cool tar under my feet broken up by intermittent patches of freshly dropped leaves quite exhilarating. Of course, I don't think the squirrels were too happy with me suddenly appearing behind or right next to them completely unannounced: there was a lot of squirrel screeching and scurrying and not too many happy squirrels, but hey-ho, that's what happens when a nutter like me works near a nice wooded area.

I'm looking forward to running barefoot this autumn. Autumn is one of my favourite times to run and this year will be my first year completely barefoot. I'm also eager to see how far into winter I can go before I feel the need to wear shoes because of the cold. If we don't get the snow we had last year, I may be able to make it all the way through. Time will tell.