Catchup

Ok a little catch up, as clearly I seem to be struggling to get in the swing of Juneathon. Wednesday was ...erm, well it was Wednesday, I had a meeting just 4 miles from home, so I took my shorts & trainers with me, and figured I'd run commute home afterwards, added bonus, my mum works where the meeting was so I wouldn't have to run with the bag either. Whoops change of plan, my little brother (as in younger cos at over 6ft &17st+ he aint little) worked opposite where I was and finished work as my meeting finished. As it was his birthday the next day but I'd be unable to get to his meal, my run turned into a bus ride followed by a  pint, and then when I got home I ate, assisted with maths homework and then went out again to music practice at the church and so despite wearing my garmin all day I did nothing.
Then Thursday wasn't much better though I worked a 15hour shift (6-9) so it 10pm when I got home and so I wasn't going to run, as I discussed my poor Juneathon performance with my wife whilst standing in the kitchen I remembered that a certain someone claimed a push up against the bar was acceptable level of exercise, so I thought I'd push the boat out and do 10 push ups against the kitchen worktop.
Tonight I was going to a gentle 5km around the lakes, but once there, there were too many drinking 'fishermen' (not sure how much they were gonna catch with the amount of beer around) and there were too many midges, and although I'm not sure what the carb content, but even with a race in the morning I didn't want to over carb load with the amount I was swallowing as I ran round, so I cut it down to 3km and wen home again.

Running by myself is pretty much the norm, but not on a Tuesday. Tuesdays have been the savior of my running lately since I joined the Sweatshop Running Community Thanks to finding these guys just about 1.5km from my house and the route runs either side of my house I don't really have an excuse for not going out on a Tuesday, plus its a nice social and I now have a few more race companions too. Unfortunately this week, I finished work at the same time the run started, but as it was Tuesday and as I'd made my excuses on Facebook earlier and promised to run it anyway, that's what I did all be it at 10pm rather than 7 and on my own instead of between 30-50 others. None the less that's another 5km done for Juneathon, I need to do more though as I'm rapidly dropping down the leader board, I'm not generally competitive but I liked the look of being 3rd on the first day 

3rd of Juneathon

Today's run was round my original self made 5km route that I worked out when I started running almost 2 years ago, not sure why I chose it tonight, but I suppose it just set to default if I've no over plans. I'd said to myself that I wanted to do more than 5km each day, but struggled tonight (maybe a full day at work, maybe the heat, maybe doing more in the last 2 days than I've done in the last few weeks - I'll stop there, don't want to use too many excuses too early in the game), so once home I defaulted again to the ever faithful 8min Abs workout on Youtube, this is a necessity as the 23km on Saturday left me with what felt like bruising on my 'love handles' and round my belly, which I can only put down to excessive jiggling on the run. So with that rather attractive mental image I'll say Goodnight

Only day 2 & it's going wrong already.
Did the run at 8am a nice 7km along the canal. Then a quick shower, straight to church, on to family BBQ, then in the car for 180mile drive home, then into bed.
Dam I haven't logged or blogged, so this is the blog but the log will have to wait, cos I'm not firing up the laptop now.
Night All

Lessons Learnt Already

Here we are again, the 1st of Juneathon.
The 1st day of pushing myself to get out and run.
The first day of trying to get different systems to talk to each other (Garmin, Runtastic, runningfreeonline).
The first day of trying to find something interesting to say here.
So here goes.....

Today's run was easy to start as I was somewhere different to normal. Today I was staying at my sister in laws, in Newport, South Wales. The idea of a run somewhere new is always a good motivator, and when its a run to a run it's even better.
Generally I work on a Saturday ((joys of retail) but when off I always try to get to a parkrun, so as I'm on holiday and its Juneathon I thought I'd revisit the Newport parkrun. Last time I went, I was staying at my Mother in laws which was approx 4.5km away so I ran to it, ran it  ran back. This time I was about 9.3km away, but as I'm signed up to the NDR30km and so need to up my distances, I figured I would still run to and run back.
So a quick look showed that the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal runs past the house and almost to Tredegar House, so I tried out plotting on my Garmin & off I went, and this are where the lesson began!

Lesson 1 - If it looks like a glorious day (even at 730am) then you are going to need water when you run

Lesson 2 - If you're going to use an electronic device to direct you somewhere & record your efforts - its a good idea to ensure it is charged enough to to last and not run out just when you start to have options as to which direction you can go!!

Lesson 3 - The running community are great - reasons to follow.

As you may of guessed from lesson 2 my Garmin died, just as the one direction footpath ran out and I reached the housing estate which meant I actually needed all the directional help going. I fortunately had a map app on my phone, but as I was opening that I noticed someone jogging down the hill to my left (first decision to make was - are they out for a run or just in a rush) I noticed they were heading in roughly the right direction for where I wanted to go, so started heading along behind them. I got level as we reached a road to cross,and she looked round and "Hi are you going to the parkrun?", "Yes I replied are you?", "Yes", "Great you can show me where I'm going then cos I'm lost!". So we carried on together, and made the start with 10min to spare, and as her friend hadn't appeared, she gave a spare bottle of water.
A trip to the Gents meant I lost my new acquaintance do to the 344 runners plus supporters meant there was quite a crowd. After the briefing and introducing of the pacers (yep pacers at a parkrun! - once a month apparently), we were off. I knew today was never going to be a pb, due to the run there and need to do the run home again. So a social was on the cards, a trailblazer tshirt started my first chat and then I found Carol again, who seems to be struggling with the heat, so I stuck with her until the end. A nice coffee, & hot choc and then Carol kindly walked me back to where she found me, gave me another bottle of water and off I went back long the canal to home, where a nice sausage sarnie was waiting. So a great morning and approx 23km to start Juneathon

23rd of Janathon

This evening I have mostly been sleeping on the sofa, I'm just going to bed, so did 10 tricep dips as I got up. Goodnight

22nd of Janathon

20 sit ups
10 push ups
1min plank
That's all the effort I had today & all I can be bothered to write

21st of Janathon

Well due to cold weather, icy pavements, tired legs & a lazy arse, I've not run today but instead I did half an hour of 'My Fitness Coach -Cardio Workout' on the Wii, it's the first time I've used it (borrowed it off my Mum last night), tonight seemed to be all shape boxing, and although I was warming up, I didn't quite break a sweat. Apparently as I get further in I'll do more variety of exercises, and feel like I've actually done a workout, may even put a heart strap on to see how much cardio is actually happening.

20th of Janathon/@virtual10k

Last Sundays run route was chosen as my Sister in law & her new hubbie came visiting and said they'd seen some signs saying the roads were going to be closed this weekend for some event, so I went out to investigate. Turns out it was for the Les Witton 10km hosted by the Dartford roadrunners ( a local club which I will join one day, its only been 6months since I first said that). So this Sundays run was to be the Les Witton 10km, as I've never run a local race and with the start line being only 1km from my house I figured it wasn't going to get much more local. Now during the week @GrahamCarterGC tweeted me about an event that he'd come up with - @virtual10k where you run a 10km by yourself wherever you want, so I figured I'd sign up for that as it tied in with everything else.

A final check last night to see when the start time was, and see if they'd put a route up yet, showed that the race had been postponed until Feb due to the weather conditions, initially I was a bit gutted but figured it meant I could run where & when I wanted, and now @virtual10k was even more fitting as the whole idea came about from a last minute cancelled race in the first place.

The weather forecast said that it would be snowing from 4am today, so I though I would wake to a fresh covering, but when I was woken at 630 (by my dog evicting the neighbour's cat), I saw that there was no fresh snow, which was a shame ( it didn't start snowing until around 8ish) , so I had a light brekkie and then procrastinated a bit by sorting out my running box - an old trainer box where all my medals, running numbers head phones, garmin, arm bands etc etc get thrown  carefully stored so I don't leave it all laying around the house annoying the wife know they are secure, and set about taking bling pics

Then the rest of the house got up, so my run was postponed as now it was time to walk the dog and get 2 teenage boys moving  & ready for church. Once back from church the wife asked if I was running anywhere near South Darenth as we needed to deliver a birthday card. I knew the field near the birthday boys house was 5km away so figure there and back would tick all the boxes for today.

So after lunch I got my kit on and headed out, it was still snowing which got in your eyes a bit but other than that its was a really pleasant run. As long as I stuck to the deeper snow my TR4's did a great job of gripping well, only when I went on to the roads and driven on snow did it get slippy. Once on the footpath I had to keep an eye on lumps in the snow as many were raised roots, and be aware of where the rutted muddy bits were before (glad of some local knowledge) as some were  frozen solid so very uneven and some were still soggy and slippery - not what you want when running along the river bank! 

I delivered the card, had a little chat on the doorstep, didn't want to go in as I'd get even sweatier and then would freeze on the way home. Turned round and headed back, though walked the first bit as met some other friends and so strolled with them until I picked up the footpath again.

I took a few pictures on the way back, they all look black & white but that was the natural colour scheme of the day

Naturally Black & White

Bottom shot 17/12/12, Top shot 20/01/13

Everything was still white apart from my socks

19th of Janathon

Well I do believe that I have failed this time round, my blogging has been hit and miss, and I have now actually managed to miss a day's exercise, plus today's is going to be a few sit ups just to say I've done something
My plan yesterday was to go for a nice run in the deep snow, as it fell around me, so when I got home from work and it was no longer snowing, I decided to wait until later as it looked like more snow was to come, but it never did and before I knew it I was in bed, thinking 'bugger I haven't done anything, but I'm not getting back up as I have an early start due to taking the car to work and possibly a long journey in adverse conditions' and so that was my athon failo
I'm not giving up though although today hasn't work out much better, as I meet the wife & kids in town on the way home from work, did some shopping around trying to find coats for the boys, as the for the second time since Christmas the zips have gone on their new ones, then got something to eat and promptly passed out on the sofa until now. It would be very easy to say sod it and go back up to bed with another 'nothing day'  but that's not right so hold on a minute.
Right that's 10 press ups & 10 sit ups done, tomorrows will be a 10km, it was going to be the Les Witton 10 but due to the weather they postponed it, but as I signed up to the @virtual10km I'll still be running 10km, just a shame the race route doesn't seem to be published anywhere or I would of run it solo. Oh well I think 10km off road in the snow will be more fun anyway
Night All

17th of Janathon

<p>Today was my day off so I could run whenever I liked, but as SWMBO had a full morning for me, then I had the pm school run to do followed by homework supervision &amp; dinner to do I figured I better run sooner or it would end up being a 10pm job again.<br>
So I took the opportunity whilst the wife was on the am school run/dog walk duty. I figured the heavy frost would look nicer when covering the green of foliage rather than the grey of paving/tarmac and so stuck my trail trainers on and headed for the heath, giving the wife a wave as I passed her sitting in a stationary row of traffic on her way back from school. I didn't fancy the Green Path (5km) today so opted for a combination and so did the White path (1km), the Red path (2km) and the Yellow path (1km) so with the 1km each way to the heath today's run was just over 6km, and considering the solid ruts and frozen puddles it was also a miracle that I didn't ruin my ankles too.

13/14/15th of Janathon

<p>I'm getting behind with this whole blogging bit, so this will be a quick round up of the last 3days. <br>
My exercise went as follows

Sunday 13th
10km run in 59:21 - no walking which is better than Thursday effort.

Monday 14th
8 min abs
1min plank
20 Russian twists
20 press ups
10 triceps dips

Tuesday 15th
50 sit ups - my sons said they'd do half whatever I did, thinking I'd only do 20, I don't think I've done 50 since I was their age!
1min plank
1min wall squat

Tomorrow I shall run again, apart from that's what you do for Janathon it will also give my stomach muscles a break

11th of Janathon

Apperently a 20min power nap at 9 oclock at night doesn't wake you up it tells your body its time for bed, so tonights run has been replaced by 20 press ups & 20 sit ups - making it the 3rd non running day & so my worst athon so far, but hey I'm still here - just

10th of Janathon - Need a Cuppa

Today has been one of those days.
I got up for work at 4ish as usual, had brekkie, and then decided to snooze a little longer, left the house just after 6 to find a heavy frost and the need to de-ice the saddle of my motorbike. I got to work at about 7, got change into my uniform and set about the morning routine, then once the shop was open,changed back into my leathers and headed off to a meeting - STOP would of headed off to my meeting if I'd still been in possession of my ignition key. Searched every pocket, searched the ground searched the store, and did them all again, and again, but nope the key has gone, and so has my time. Got to my meeting 1/4hour late. Rang RAC to be told they would take the bike 10miles for free but charge me £105 for the remaining 10! (non mechanical breakdown). Got back to my store at the end of the day popped to locksmiths, who said if I could get the barrel to them they would cut a key to fit for £30 (things are looking up) though this would involve a fair bit of disassembly of the bike.
Tube & train home - wasn't quite that straight forward due to my lack of public transport skills, then dinner. My loving wife then offered me a cup of tea, to which I said Yes please, to which she said you best run to the shop then cos we're out of teabags! So that's what I did, using it as an opportunity to pick up the latest Trail Running mag and wasn't pleasantly surprised to see a photo of me in it(well my muddy legs anyway!)

9th of Janathon

Today was my day off work which always meant chance for a long run, chance for a daylight run, chance for me to get out and enjoy some miles. I left home at 930 this morning set on a 10km ( to make up for missing a 5km yesterday), and 10km is what I did but boy was it hard.
I didn't even manage 5km with out a walk stop, it was all a bit of a struggle but I did manage to get there in the end. It was rather damp in the air and even damper (sodden) underfoot, normally I love a good muddy run, but today was too much of a struggle to enjoy. Clearly taking December off and eating shite was a bad move, that or thinking I could just go back to running 5km every day without it being a struggle was a daft one.
I shall not give up though, I've got the Wokingham half marathon to run on 10th February and then some crazy 15 stage, 32 mile self devised charity run to do soon too.

We shall fight on!

8th of Janathon

Well another 12 hour day, but this one with a rather unpleasant and draining headache, probably due to decaffeinating myself, so I know it will clear itself. This means though that the moment I sit down at home my eyes are shutting, so I sort some dinner (quick meal for one) and my eyes start closing again, go out pick the boys up from my dads, get home they put a film on and I fall asleep again until 930 when I go pick the wife up from work. So its now 10am I've got the arse (tend to wake like the proverbial bear with a sore head), its started to rain and there's no way my head is going to take 3 miles of pavement pounding, so the most janathon is getting out of me today is a quick paced dog walk.
I'm day off tomorrow though so should make up for the lack of miles today

6thof Janathon

Lots of family stuff & traveling doing today, so today's Janathon contribution was 8minute Abs. Broke the runstreak already, but figured 8min abs is better than a trot round the block, and I'm really not doing 5km at 2230.
Oh and yesterdays blog will be finished eventually

5th of Janathon - Tourism & Weddings

<p>&lt;p&gt;Well today is Saturday, and I'm not at work so the only right thing to do is parkrun! But it's my sister in-laws&nbsp; wedding today, though not until 2 which is plenty of time to nip off to Southampton Common and do a spot of Tourism. <br>
My Sat Nav got me close, and I found a free parking spot, and then took a stroll across the common to find the start, picking up clues as I went









This seemed to be a busy parkrun, (I'm no expert but have a done few now & this seemed crowded). I figured due my current fitness levels, I start mid pack, though in reality I think I was nearer the back. As I put my earphones in, I noticed I was none of only a handfull to do so, and as the race started I realised why....... " How was your Christmas?" "Did you have good new year?" "Oooo New shoes/top/tights etc" I'd dropped back into the social runners, and as it was the first run of the year there was lots to talk about. This made for a slow start and as the path was narrow and everything off the path was bog, I stuck with it until the first corner. Though as I reach the corner I started to feel pain in my hip & knee, which new and not good on day 5, turned out this was apparently due to have to have short step and holding back my pace, as once I open my stride and settled in to a preferred pace it cleared completely. The rest of the race was fairly uneventful,

 

Once the  race was over the next race was on, to get ready for the wedding. I was originally just a guest, but at the last minute I was asked to help out as an Usher, which meant finding a white shirt ( the red one I'd packed wasn't going to work with the purple tie) and some shoes ( my big 'Harley' boots would of been ok sat in the church but not at the front door greeting all the guests!)
Overall a great day had by all, a newly wed happy couple and another 5km & new parkrun under the belt

4th of Janathon

Whoops, day 4 and only my second blog, the last couple of days have been very long, as in up at 4am in work for 6, still there at 6pm not getting home til 7 then food and recover, so running has been done at 10pm, so far too knackered to even fire up the laptop let alone log & blog.
Though I'm sure Jogblog would disagree, athons are about the running, rather than the blogging for me personally, especially as I always struggle to keep up with my running during December, due to work (food retail @ xmas) and so I need a good kick start to my training. Especially this year as I've got a couple of fundraising runs to do, the Wokingham Half Marathon and an own made 32 miler but this will be expanded on in later blogs and in a whole new blog about the adventure.
Until then though, I have maintained my target of 5km a day and tomorrow I have time to do Southampton parkrun before my sister in laws wedding.
With that I'm off to find the travelodge we staying in tonight TTFN

1st of Janathon 2013

<p>HELLO EVERYBODY</p>
<p>Well here we are again, another 31 day runstreak, another 31 days of dragging on your trainers &amp; forcing yourself out in to the cold, dark wet night's. I sometimes struggle to remember what I'd done to be punished &amp; forced to complete this torture, then I realise I actually volunteered and have been waiting for it to start! <br>
What better way to kick start your New Years Resolution than to sign up to the wonder that is called Janathon! (providing your NYR is fitness related of course)
I think I only ran twice in December, so this hopefully will get my butt of the sofa & feet on the road again.
Day 1 - 5km