The official Travelling Hopefully Athon committee (Ginge and I) has convened (had a natter) and reached a conclusion. I am not hardcore.
I have had a nine day mini-runstreak, but I’ve spent the last few pondering whether I want to continue running every day and today I realised that the answer was no I don’t. My reasons are many. I don’t want to run every day only to hit that period of post-Athon relief and not run for ages. I’m horribly aware that everything is a little more achy and clunky than in previous years and I don’t want to get injured. I suspect that if I put some more effort into fewer runs then I will make better progress. Logistically I am struggling to run in the mornings so most of my running is done after work, by the time I have got home, wrangled the boy, got tea sorted with Ginge, been for a run and got back, it feels like the whole night has gone – this is rubbish. I am knackered and I know that this type of tired can be hideous for my general wellbeing and sanity. And have you seen the weather out there….?
Decision made and I felt that a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. We had a splendid afternoon, I treated myself to new books and we spent the afternoon/evening in the kitchen making Thai fishcakes, chicken satay and peanut sauce, and a pork curry that we ended up too full to eat after scarfing down the fishcakes and satay.
Exercise-wise, I am determined to do some yoga practice at home and have been doing a few haphazard postures most nights since the New Year. Tonight would barely count as proper practice (in front of the telly with the cricket on…) but I started in corpse pose and had a listen to my body. My body told me that I was holding a lot of tension and clunkiness in my shoulders so I did an assortment of stretches to get them less tense and clunky.
Thus, I am still on the Janathon wagon and am looking forward to a run tomorrow.
Travelling Hopefully 
Sounds like a good decision – and those fishcakes look dee-lish!
Quite right to listen to your body – and yes, the fishcakes look great.
Good call. You can still Janathon running 2 or 3 days a week and you may still like running afterwards.
Tomorow’s activity is publishing the fishcake recipe!
You’ve done fab. A lot better than me. At least you’re doing something!
I know the feeling as you see the evening slip by! Sometimes it’s good to take a day off and then come back refreshed.
I think this is an important message for everyone. It is easy to go over the top. Good to remember that running is just one part of our lives.
I didn’t know uou didn’t have to run everyday to take part in janathon……
Ah, the magic of the Athons is that you can do any form of activity (its tagline is that it is ‘an annual festival of activities and excuses’) but for all of my pre-baby ones I ran every day (amazing myself each time) so i wanted to try again.
Those fishcakes look yum.
And you are hardcore, you had a baby. You don’t need to run everyday – I sure as hell am not. I fear doing injury and after everything, I just want to remain unbroken.
You rock x
Agree with Hels – you are hardcore, but you are also very sensible. Too many people go on regardless and then get hurt. Fishcakes look very delicious (I had fishcakes for lunch, but Thai ones sound even better).