Month: January 2011

Janathon #21 – I tried very hard

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Have I mentioned how much I enjoyed Juneathon?

This morning’s planned interval session turned into a very cautious one-mile token Janathon effort due to the lethal/potentially embarassing slipperiness of the pavements. I did try running on the road, but that was just as slidy and I realised that if I did fall, I would get run over as well.

In the end, I did fall over about 100m from home – a graceful slide onto my left knee and a Vauxhall Corsa. I’m hopeful for more success tomorrow.

Day 21/31 –1 mile
Ferrero rochers burned

Janathon #20 – In which my hair freezes

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A sociable run tonight. It started with me doing a less than glamorous Superman-style change in the ladies at Morrisons. The middle part was like Bambi on ice. And it finished up with me sitting in my car trying to take a photo of my rapidly defrosting fringe. Unfortunately all I ended up with was a photo of my steering wheel.

After last week’s sociable run I complained that I was too warm in my jacket, but there were no such complaints this week. We’re cloaked in thick freezing fog, which has not been fun to drive in, and it’s started to become slippery underfoot. My companion had planned a route for us, but given the conditions I offered to cut it short only to be told “no, you’ve got to run”. Sometimes I regret confessing that I’m doing Janathon. We soon realised that it didn’t really matter where we ran because we could only see a few hundred metres, making the landscape pretty irrelevant.

The best bit of tonight’s freezing run was coming home to a big chicken casserole that Ginge had adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe (It was supposed to be hunter’s stew, but he’d renamed it “Runner’s Stew”) – gorgeous. I’m very lucky that he is tolerant of my daft follies (Cake of Good Hope’s Janatholism symptoms sound very familiar) and doesn’t mind picking up more slack than usual when it comes to my house work efforts (maybe I should do a domestic version of the Athons – cleaning and blogging every day in February? Sounds rubbish). He has also spotted some cows whilst out running and has been scouting out interesting off road routes for us to tackle together (the lengths that he’ll go to actually see me). So…THANK YOU GINGE!

Day 20/31 –3 miles
Ferrero rochers burned

Janathon #19 – handing in my badge

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On Monday I went out in the early evening, dutifully clad in my hi-vis reflective shield of protection and wondered why I bothered. The dog walkers lurking in the undergrowth didn’t bother, neither did people walking home from work and the kids hanging round outside Spar certainly didn’t. The nearest I spotted was a lad with fluorescent toggles on his duffle coat, which hardly counts. The only non-runners I ever seem to see in hi-vis are a couple of dog walkers (who seem to wear it in the glaring sunlight, which seems a bit pointless) and crocodiles of children being a walking bus. I’m in a well-lit place, not crossing any major roads and I stick to the pavements – I only go marginally faster running than walking, so why do I wear it?

Because it turns out that I feel vulnerable and apologetic if I don’t. A quarter of a mile from home I realised that the ‘there’s something missing’ feeling was down to the fact that I was dressed like an amateur mime artist and I had barely any reflective surface area. Too late to return home, I carried on, sticking resolutely to the hedge side of the pavement and crossing roads with a level of care of which Tufty himself would have been proud. Despite getting back in one piece and barely seeing any traffic, I still feel slightly guilty and ashamed.

If I could find my Tufty Club badge, I would be handing it back

 

Day 19/31 –2.5 miles
Ferrero rochers burned

Janathon #18 – Blood suckers (still no vampires)

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Tuesdays aren’t usually early days, but I’m off to give my armful to the nice people at the National Blood Service tonight. When I was in the middle of proper dieting a few years ago blood donation was a guilt-free way to eat 3 custard creams in one sitting, but whatever your motivation it’s well worth doing.

I’m regretting yesterday’s post title as my previously empty spam folder has started to fill up. However, this morning’s rubbish did include the rather wonderful “buenos dias, principal blog on lardy loss. comparable helped.”

Day 18/31 –2 miles
Ferrero rochers burned

Janathon#17 – Twilight running: no vampires

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Confession: I have never read or seen any part of the Twilight franchise. For me, Buffy is the place to go for vampiric pop culture and nowhere else. So there. And I’ve come home from doing the weekly shop to find that Hush is on Syfy – one of the best Buffy episodes ever! I’m giddy at the prospect.

I was able to get home a little earlier tonight, so with a quick change I was out in the fast descending gloom to do a 3 mile out and back. There’s not a lot to report on the run itself, the route took me along the middle section of Sunday’s run, I spotted plenty of dog walkers and saw a young lad and his mate having a smoke (he was either very very young or the cigs had stunted his growth). The half-hour gave me the chance to reflect on some work stuff and that was about it.

This very dull episode took me well and truly over the Janathon hump and provided a reminder to answer shazrun’s enquiry about the running total of Ferrero Rocher’s burned. The answer for the half way mark: 74 (and a half). I should take this opportunity to clarify that I’m not actually eating the chocolates while I blunder through Janathon; they are in fact historical Rochers and 74 (and a half) is several more than I actually scoffed at Christmas (though we shan’t dwell on Sunday night’s carb loading. Mmmmm, bread and butter pudding….).

 

Day 17/31 –3 miles
Ferrero rochers burned