Another one bites the dust

Juneathon is finished

Well this is it, the month is over and we can have a day off tomorrow yaaaaay!. This month has been hard, having been running for another 6months, I thought I'd find it easier, and be able to beat my Janathon total, but no, I found it a lot harder, probably because of life/death and work getting in the way, and the awful British summer we had at the beginning.
I've run a respectable 179km which I should be happy with ( and I am really) but I'd planned to beat my 200km from Jan, the shortage is due to too many token jogs round the block of 0.5,1 & 2km but I did it (well most, I did one day of exercise and I think there's a couple of blogs missing/half written in drafts)
 For tonight's run I felt I had to put a bit of effort in for the finish line, and fortunately my kids had spent the day  at their friends so the wife & I drove out to pick them up,and I ran back home from there a pleasant 13km of footpaths mostly following the River Darenth, what better way to watch the sun set.

Its been a pleasure running with you all, and reading a few of the blogs (must read more next time), looking forward to Janathon already

Todays total 13km
Juneathom Total 179km

29th of Juneathon

The same story that has happened to many times this month
4am up
5am leave house
6am-4pm work
5pm home
but tonight extra was 6-9 family fun 'day'/party in the park, whereI some how ending up manning the sumo suit stand, and spent 2 1/2 hrs lift kids from 5-15yrs off the floor in huge padded sumo suits,with the added job of throwing all the extra teenagers that enjoyed a good bundle. Then walk home and go for a 12 mile round trip to drop kids of at their mates house for the night, so get home after 1030, and shattered. So a quick run round the block, still in normal trainers, and combat shorts with hoodie.
Just hope I can get a decent run in tomorrow night to end the month on

Are we nearly there yet?

Please tell me we are, tonight's 5km was the hardest one I had to do in a longtime, really struggled to keep going, and not stop to walk. My leg were the heaviest they've ever been, how people maintain year long run streaks I don't know, especially the mighty Fletch, who has not only done over a year know but has managed to run 200km MORE than me in June ( I haven't even managed 200 this time).
Oh well only 2 days to go, then we can take 6 months off

Non runner

Having worked from 6am til 7pm & then gone out for dinner so I didn't get home until gone 11, meant I finally missed a run this month, but to make up for it I did 20 sit ups, press ups, crunches, tricep dips & squats.
Goodnight now so I can get up 3,1/2 hours

Another 5km

Really nothing to write about today apart from Longest Day Run fail, though I have tomorrow to fix that. The original plan was myself and copy7t were to run as 4 or 6 parkrun courses across the day, but due to his hamstring complaints and my working that never happened. Also due to another night of only 4hrs sleep and a  4am alarm meant that I was in no condition for a long run tonight, and so I just did a 5km for juneathon. I've just seen the time and so need to finish this off as I need to be up at 6 to leave at 7 for 8am registration at Polesden Lacey 10km, then once home I'm planning another 10km trailout to the villages for a summer lunch/dog walk, then run home again knocking up a potential 30km tomorrow

Day 22

This morning whilst waiting for the wife to return from school run, I was just wandering round the web bored, when I suddenly thought, I should be exercising. My first juneathon post stated that I was going to do an exercise routine each day along with my running, that actually went out the window after about day 5 or 6. So this morning I decided to have another stab at it, and so did the 8min abs routine, and then the homemade one listed on 1st of June.This didn't take long, and so I had the idea of  doing this first thing in the morning, before work, as running at 4am really isn't going to happen, I just don't have time, but could spend ten minutes doing a few crunches, press ups, squats etc, and then carry on doing my runs after work. So lets see how that works out next week
As for today's run, it was a gentle 10km (well 11 in the end)  being monitor by runtastic on my HTC one V and with my Garmin 410 - was interesting to see the differences between the two
Eyes are closing so will see you again tomorrow

Nearly Failed

Having been in meeting all day, and then all gone to TGI Fridays afterwards, I was pretty tired and stuffed when I got home at 9pm this evening, so I figured I needed to let my dinner settle before I went out tonight. This would deal with the stuffed feeling but unfortunately gave the tired feeling opportunity to take  control, meaning I woke on the sofa and it was gone 11pm. With gale force winds and rain to match I nearly said sod it,but no that wasn't right so chucked on a coat and jogged round the block, just to save my Juneathon effort, now back to giving in to the tired feeling..............goodnight

Dog Jog/Intervals?

Well I needed to run, and the dog needed to go out, that was easily fixed, but I didn't have much time, so now what?
Another try out for the 410, lets play intervals.Now I've never tried doing intervals but the watch does really make it easy, plus I discovered that a lap of the local playing field  is pretty much spot on 500m, which is what I set my run segment for.
Now as I said I didn't have much time as the kids needed to be put to bed, and with the dog it wasn't easy to maintain pace, but now I know how it works, I definitely will be doing a few more and be making it part of my weekly routine

A PB

My run tonight was a bit techie overload do to wearing my mobile using the runtastic app with my head phones playing 'rock my run' remix and then my new Garmin 410 and heart monitor chest strap. I'm running both as I want to keep the runtastic app running at least until the end of Juneathon so I can use the screen shot of the calender in the final blog. I decided to go for a quick run as I had just set up the Garmin and needed a max. heart rate figure, so I set the virtual trainer for 4.55min/km  and selected 'Go Hard' as the tunes and shot off, apart from a few teething probs with the touch sensitive bezel all went well, in fact very well with the Garmin registering approx 23:20 min for 5km which was a personal best by a good 10 seconds too.
Happy Days

New Toys

Another late run tonight, due to me getting home at 8pm and finding my new Garmin forerunner 410 had arrived and so I needed to play with that a bit first but it said to charge for 3hrsand so there was no way I was waiting until 1130 to go out, so my first Garmin run will have to wait until tomorrow. So tonight was a 25:01min 5km

Go Ape - Go to Bed

As a Fathers Day treat me and my two sons, my Dad & my two youngest brothers headed to Bedgebury Pinetum and enjoy the tree top fun of Go Ape.Although great fun, it knackered all of us and so once home we were all falling asleep, but then I realised I hadn't run but was far to knackered and was all set to give in, but figured that wasn't an option, so I just went out as I was (trek trainers, cargo shorts and hoodie) and ran round the block - yep a full half kilometer in under 3 1/2mins, That was that

Ford to Ford

Just noticed I've missed this one so will keep it short, unlike the run.
Needed to pick the kids up from Eynsford,so me and the wife drove out and then I ran home using the foothpaths/ Darenth Valley River Walk as much as possible for a 13km run, unfortunately the sun made it home before me and so the end of the run was ran in the dark!

Late night shopping

Was busy online spending my bonus, on a Garmin 410 and a net book, saw it was 2230 so threw my shorts on and sprinted round the block for a 9:06 2km, and that's all you're getting frome tonight both running and blogging

Goodnight

Getting Muddy Lost......again!

Well I found myself home alone again this morning,with the car, on a nice sunny day. Days off mean longer runs, car means somewhere new/further a field - happy days.
A quick google found a couple of country parks, with 10km circular walks, no intentions of walking anyway, but marked out trails makes for easier running - or does it?!?
Right then Trosley Country Park here I come
Once there, (sat nav taking me to a footpath on the road before - lost#1) I nipped in the visitor centre and grabbed a map/leaflet (learning from the last time, see 6/6/12)and so off on the Harvel Hike I went - or so I thought.
I found the start OK, I know I was looking for arrows with A on and had a map in my hand, I head along the trail and think its all going well, then I'm not sure - think I may have missed a turning, but the route starts and finishes on the same long approach so figured I could just run it backwards. Once at the end I'm now thinking I may have got back on track, yep I have, excellent...........bugger missed another one, sod it, I'm running out of time, am not going back again, have map, so find my way back the route and head back. I got there, though not sure if I completely followed my intended route, grabbed a large piece of flapjack and a Blackberry & Nettle tea and headed home.

My top tip for running is although you have the map, its a good idea to have a look and read the  directions before you start running, so you know what to look out for on the go.

Todays figures 5.7km in 34:06

Total 90.38km

Might go out again today cos not happy with only 5km on my day off

13th of Juneathon

Another bright and dry , and so I thought a nice  run round the heath. As it was late (ish) and so the heath would be quiet, and I figured I should take some company in the shape of a year old black Labrador named Jess. Although she was reluctant at first, but once at the heath and off the lead she was happy to jog along and then once back on the road at 5km she got really into it and as she was back on the lead, dragged me flat out for about half a km until I had to pull her back for a bit  and then settle back into a jog.
Tomorrow is my day off so weather and wife permitting hopefully my km's will be in double figures

Distance - 7.11km in 40:26

Total 84.67km

Dry Run

After the last few days of bad weather, I was really started to dislike Juneathon, and with another 18 days to go its far to early to be getting fed up. I could deal with the cold of January but I don't remember it being wet like this. Though my dedication was recognised on Twitter buy @jogblog, @Jo365 & @cmmercer. Then this morning whilst flicking some fresh tweets, I noticed @jogblog debated whether to cycle in the rain to her spin class - which I duly encouraged along with @helsieboo and @jogblog held true to her word and got wet on the way there and back again.
Her getting wet was apparently my fault despite the fact that I had already informed her that as the organiser of this event surely it was her responsibility to book the Sun as that's the idea of Juneathon over Janathon (heat over cold). Clearly the soaking did the job in persuading her to deal with her oversight and so the Sun made an appearance nicely in time for me to have a warm bright 5km run when I got home from work.
Apparently I owe an apology, for @jogblog getting wet - I'm not sure I completely agree but

Sorry Cathy/@jogblog/@janathon/@juneathon (any other personalities I don't know off) that you got wet because I said yes you should cycle to spin class, but Thank you for getting the Sun out, and I hope you've booked it for the rest of the month

5km in 24:59

Juneathon total - 77.56km

Token Effort

I was up at 4am, have done a 14hr shift, didn't get home until 9pm, and its still bloody raining (I'm getting wetter now than I did for Janathon), but running is what I said I'd do, and so a short run round the block mustering a token 2km is the best you're getting from me, especially as my alarm is going off at 4am again tomorrow - Goodnight all

Rainy with Heavy Legs

Having spent the weekend in Wales and not got back until 7 tonight, then eaten and unloaded the car it was gone 9pm before a run was on the cards, and bugger it was still raining. My wife kept saying 'can't you just do a short one', etc but no, I was determined to keep to my 5km minimum.......that was until I started running and realised how much the last 2 days of running the hills in Newport had taken their toll on my legs. Damn they felt heavy, a lot heavier than the rain, so I figured a shorter run might be a better idea, so 3.5km was it, finishing at my parents house to reclaim our dog (Jess) whp'd spent the weekend there. Now although not logged, I could add another half km as, I not sure whether it was the rain or the excitement of going home to the family, but Jess was determined to run all the way home

So that was day 10

Running to a Run

Today is Saturday, and so it is #parkrun day, and as I'm off work and it is #Juneathon it would be rude not to attend. Now I'm not at home so I've  played my tourist card and run the Newport event.
I look up where it was, last night and saw it was only about 4km away, so rather than wake the others early, I decided to run there.

....Published unfinished just to get it out there......will finish eventually

Running in a Foreign Land

Today I'm 180miles from home, in a foreign land - well Wales but hey its a different country, and they definitely speak a very different language. As always in Wales its raining, and wasn't looking like it was going to stop, so it was 8pm and I figured I was going to run out of light if I didn' t go soon, so accepting the fact I was going to get wet, I stuck my shorts on and headed out.

Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal

I'd look at a route earlier trying to find a 5km loop, and wrote a basic set of directions and then obviously left them on my mother in laws table. Armed with a dangerously rough idea of where I was heading I started running - up hill (there are so many hills, the first 1km had a 39m gain). Quite obviously the original route went out the window by the second turning, and from then I start winging it. After 2km I was almost back again which was never the plan,  so I checked my phone map and tried to recover the original route. I found the woods I was to run along side, past the barracks that were on the planned route, but then found a canal that I had looked for the last time I was here, and so started running along there. As the picture shows its quite pretty, though had I taken the shot to the right, it would of been the M4, but I just kept looking left whilst running, with the music drowning out the traffic, and pretending it was all good. Once I felt like I'd found a bridge to cross over to the other side, I checked my map again and saw that the most direct route was straight up through the woods - easier said than done due to the 'drought' causing the hill to be very slippery and the pond to burst its bank and be flowing across the path

Once back out of the woods, found myself back on the same roads I'd been on earlier so carried on back down the hills throwing an extra couple km's at the bottom for good measure.
This was the story of a damp day 8



8th of Juneathon

7.85km in 49:19 starting at 2022 on 08/06/12

Total 53.14km (using running app, inc all the decimal bits)

Day 8 Jogged Logged and Blogged

7th of Juneathon

Okay, so today's is going to be the short one

I ran 10km on the road today, managed to do it in the dry with the sun shining despite the  fact that it was raining for the majority of the day. My total's not bad for the first week but well off if I want 250 for the end of the month so need to put in a few more 10's. The next few day will be posted from Wales so who knows what might happen.


7th of Juneathon

10km in 56:31 starting at 1812 on 07/06/12

Total 44.5km

Day 7 Jogged Logged and Blogged

Get Muddy Lost

The wife and kids were out today, so I figured a long run was due. I was never going to reach my 250km target only running 5s each day.
So having waited for the cloud burst to clear, I took Jess for a 4.5km walk round the heath, then headed home to decide where to run.
I'd been toying with the idea of following the River Darenth until I found the Lullingstone visitors centre, where some coffee and flapjack would be enjoyed before turning back. Now this turned out to be approx 28km so prob a tad long, though not out of the question as I had all day, and it was two halves, but then I remembered I had the car, so could go further a field and try somewhere new. Straight away the Darnley Trail sprung to mind out at Shorne Country Park. Its a 10km loop that start and finishes  at the Country Park Visitors centre, I'd seen it when we did a sponsored dog walk earlier in the year. So off I went.

Why couldn't I follow the route?!?

The start of the run was well marked and so easy to follow, and was very muddy and down hill so quite fun, then I hit the road, saw a black arrow pointing left and that was the last one I saw. So I continued to follow random footpath signs, running through woods, farms, horse fields, cow fields and along rivers, until  I ran out of footpaths, and decided to find out where I was and workout how to get back to the car (oh the joys of phone apps! though if I had a map, I wouldn't of been lost in the first place).
Eventually I found myself in Shorne village , which seemed a nice little place, though possibly a bit dated in areas.

I found my way back to the woods, and in to the country park, though not knowing exactly where I was in relation to the centre I still didn't know which way to run, so just opted to follow my internal compass (which to be fair is pretty good), until I found so people walking to woods how confirmed I was going to the right way. Once back at the Visitor centre, I got my flapjack and opted for forest fruit tea over coffee, but had to get straight back in to the car, so I could get the car home to pick up the boys.

On the way home, I pulled in to the left lane, to come off at Dartford, but did so too early, got boxed in by 3 large lorries and so was forced on to the Dartford Tunnel approach, which no one wants to be on at 3pm even if you needed to be there, once I managed to get off (20mins for 1/2 mile) I then managed to get myself in the wrong lane again, and forced round a filter lane into the industrial estate, so had to turn around and go back again.

So my run didn't go where I wanted it to nor as long as intended, but was muddy and interesting, and the consistent hills more than added the effort of the extra kilometres that I had wanted, and then managed to make 2 wrong turns on the way home hence today's title but I ran, and it was good

6th of Juneathon
7km in 49:37 starting at 1346 on 06/06/12

Total 34.5km

Day 5 Jogged Logged and Blogged

Dont blame me, its the Queens fault

I'm losing it, Janathon went really well, I managed to JLB everyday, kept the blog on the right day, but Juneathon is getting a bit messy, I finished blogging the 3rd on the 4th, then did the 4th straight after - both from my phone, whilst watching the Jubilee concert at a mates house. On the 5th I logged my run and realised that I hadn't logged the 4th so logged both on the same day, and have woke up this morning (the 6th) realising that before I can run today I still have to do blog the 5th, and that I never did the additional exercises yesterday either, which probably means I have to start all my Tribesport challenges again too. :/  All of this is the Queens fault!, Having been to the Royal Boat Pageant all day Sunday (ran at 10pm), the parkrun 9am Mon on to a street party, followed by dinner and Jubilee concert watching at a friends place. The Tues was another parkrun at 10, back for lunch then a quick nap before heading to a village fete, for a Tug'o'war across the ford (it was raining so hard that no one minded getting a bit wetter) and watching my sons mate play in a Jazz band at the cricket green - all in the name of HRH Elizabeth II.

So my Exercise for Day 5 (I think) was the Nonsuch Parkrun, with copy7t and a few others from the Riddlesdown parkrun that I'd run the previous day ( a benefit of the Jubilee - 2extra Parkruns). Considering the rain that has been falling lately, the weather was almost perfect for running, fairly bright & sunny but not to warm with a gentle breeze. The turnout was about 450 runners with a lot more family/friends supporters as well. Due to the size of the pack 7t and me decided that I was going to set another pb so we'd have a social instead. So off we went at a nice steady pace, still working our way round numerous runners but happily chatting away, about running, workouts, injuries etc once at the halfway point we decided to push on a bit as we'd been taking it too easy, and the conversation started to stagger, but then we meet up with Jo Quantrill, who seemed to be struggling  -quite possible due to the fact she was running with a knee injury - oh yeah and a BROKEN RIB!!!!( On a good day her average parkrun time is a over a minute faster than my PB and her PB over 2 minutes faster, plus shes about 20yrs my senior, so normally I wouldn't see her until the end)

Right now I'm up to date, and want to get out for a longish trail run before the rain starts again so TTFN

5th of Juneathon
5km in 27:37  starting at 1000 on 05/06/12

Total 27.5km

Day 5 Jogged Logged and Blogged

4th of Juneathon & Parkrun Jubilee Special

Day 4 brings a little difference, thanks to Her Majesty's 60th year under the crown, there were additional bank holiday special parkruns - any excuse for a run
So I headed up to Riddlesdown to meet up with the guy who got me into this game, Mr Copy7t. It was clearly busier than usual and judging by the lost looks and questions many were "tourists". Which gave the event an attendance personal best of 202 runners
The rain had fallen all night and so had left the course rather wet, but it was still fairly solid, just a few large puddles to play in, but that didn't stop me setting a new parkrun pb of 24m14s, helped along unintentionally by a very young lad right up until the 4km mark when I told him we were still under 20 min to which he "cool" and then took off like it was the 1st one (turns out he has a 21min pb).
The run was followed by a nice coffee  and catch up in the horse shoe, and since a street party, and now sat at a friend's house watching the concert, so in all a rather celebratory day, and tomorrow will bring more of the same......

4th of Juneathon
5km in 24:14  starting at 0900 on 04/06/12

Total 22.5km

Day 4 Jogged Logged and Blogged

Jubilee Day

<p>Today is the first day of my week off work, today is Sunday, and so I should be having a lay in, aahh but no, today is also the Royal Boat Pageant on the Thames and my wife is a big fan of the Royals, also our friend is a historian, and works for the RAF Museum and his boss was on one of the boats, and with that I was on the 0640 train out of town upto Charing Cross.<br>
Once up there, we set about trying to get to the river front, which was easier said than done as to help with the crowd control they had shut all the nomal routes, once we found our way round and had had security check my packed lunch, we settled in on the Embankment next to Cleopatra's Needle. After a lot of standing, a bit of singing, and some flag waving, we watch a few boats potter past (got the at 8am, first boat at 330). Though I wasn't overly fussed about the occasion, the atmosphere, and social aspect was great, even when it was over and the rain poured down.
The main issue I had with the whole affair was when was I giving get my run in? By the time we got home we were very tired, very wet, and very cold (still struggling with the hot juneathon idea). But it is Juneathon and one must run, despite @jogblog telling me as long as I blogged it, I could count the 10hrs standing as my daily exercise, so I mustered up what energy I could and did a quick 5km finishing at my mum's house to collect the dog, then got home and did the exercise routine to, which is why the blog is only just happening as I promptly went to sleep




3rd of Juneathon
5km in 28:25  starting at 2050 on 03/06/12

Total 17.5km

Day 3 Jogged Logged and Blogged

2nd of Juneathon

Today was a struggle, after last nights late run and even later blog posting (2356), followed by a 4am alarm and a 12hr day at work, (after which I almost fell asleep at the wheel on the way home) as much as I knew I wanted to, my body was reluctant to agree with my need for a run. So having sat down, and had an impromptu nap, I got changed, chomped on a glucose tablet (hoping it might stir something in me and headed out.
As I've set myself the target of beating Janathons 200km, I knew another 5km wasn't enough so I headed to the heath and followed the 5km path laid out, but with the journey there and back it totals 7.5 km done in 42m44s. Once home, and fed, little prawn cocktail, gammon round with new potatoes & a fruit salad (the starter & desert prepared by my son as he's started doing food tech at school this term) I then went and did the exercise routine I talk about yesterday. So my exercise is done, my food has been crap free (even turned done Mcd's brekkie this morning 7 had a banana instead), I have logged the run and have now blogged it too, I'm know off to prepare for the day in London at the Royal Boat Pageant tomorrow. So that's gonna be a very early run or another late one :(

So 2nd of Juneathon

7.5km in 42:44  starting at 1809 on 02/06/12

Total 12.5km

Day 1 Jogged Logged and Blogged

It has Started

Well here it is, Juneathon. I've only done a Janathon, and whilst it was 'fun' (not sure if that's really the right word), it was marred by the fact that is was dark, damp and cold. Juneathon on the other hand is supposed to be bright, sunny, and warm (maybe to warm) - that is unless you're completely unorganised and don't go out until10pm, then its definitely dark, a bit of a chill, and damp misty rain - but that's my fault, for going out 18 hours later than originally planned.

So my plans for Juneathon

• Better Janathons 200km
• Add in some body weight exercises each day
• Eat sensibly/healthily - no calorie counting/points watching etc
• Decrease my weight/measurements.
• Get my wife and two sons on the Couch to 5k programme

So to do this I need/want to

• Run 60km a week
• Have created a workout incorporating some Tribesport Challenges (25crunches, 25squats, 10pushups, 1min plank, 25crunches, 1min wall squat, 10tricep dips, 10 burpees, 25 crunches, 10 push ups) This may evolve but want to stay with this minimum
• Cut out biscuits, sweets, cakes, beer etc eat more salad for lunch than Gregg's etc
• I have done my weight and measurements, and have them on my before photos. I would put them up but they ain't pretty, maybe after if there's enough improvement - 13st4lb(1st4lb less than when I started running) and 42inches around the bellybutton line
• Have got the App on her phone and shown them the run walk splits for the first couple of weeks

Well that'll do for now as I seem to be in to midnight blogging on day one and I have to up in 4hrs.

So 1st of Juneathon
5km in 24:47  starting at 2157 on 01/06/12

Total 5km

Day 1 Jogged Logged and Blogged