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.

 

Day 19/31 –2.5 miles

Ferrero rochers burned

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

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

Despite being up at an unseemly time for a Sunday, I didn’t get round to running until this afternoon. At half seven, I was sitting in the living room listening to the rain lashing against the window while I planned a route. However, given the meterological prospects for the day, I realised that it was far more pleasurable planning the run for another day rather than actually completing it this morning.

Instead, I pottered about for a bit and then went up to my mum’s to help set her up with a new laptop (she ventures on here now and again – Hello Mum!). Laptop sorted, schemes plotted, world set to rights and its 2 o’clock. I toyed with the idea of running near mum’s and staying for lunch, but I realised that I had to go home and avoid the ironing, so off I went.

The route that I chose was one that I thought was four miles, but turned out to be nearer three so I had to do a bit of funny looping round to get the extra mile. If I was alone, I probably would have settled on three miles, but I was being chivvied along by the 40 minute Rollercoaster mix from Audiofuel. This was one of the tracks that I picked after my efforts with last year’s and listening to it today, I realised that I’ve not really commented about using them on here. In short, I bloody love them.

Fair enough, they’re not the sort of tracks that I’d listen to in the car (although being reminded to breathe and relax might come in handy on my daily commute) but I can run to them quite happily. I use the tracks with coaching and find that my running style becomes better and (whisper it) I feel like a runner when I’m listening to them. I don’t realise that I’m holding tension in my shoulders until the voice reminds me to relax and then I notice that they’re up round my ears. Over summer I used the long run tracks to gradually increase my mileage (I managed to get up to 10 miles, then panicked and barely ran for a month) and I’ll definitely be using them again when Janathon’s over. In fact, to mark being over the Juneathon hump, I’ve just downloaded an interval session to brighten up this week’s morning runs.

Due to the re-routing of this weekend’s runs, today’s photos were taken in mum’s garden and were inspired by a post at Little Cotton Rabbits, which introduced me to the idea of the Splash of Colour project (link includes photo of cows…) and seemed just the thing this grey, wet weekend.

Day 16/31 – 4 miles

Ferrero rochers burned

Given that some brave Janathon souls were doing Grim today, I’m slightly ashamed by how soft I was this morning. I was accompanied by Ginge again today and when he asked how far I was going, I cheerfully replied “four to six miles”. We set off. It was a bit drizzly. We reached the 2 mile point for an out and back route and I suggested making a bit more interesting and looping back through the next village. The rain came down harder. Ginge suggested doing a route that took us off road, down the side of the railway tracks (I’m not allowed to do this route on my own as it’s a bit lonely and there might be all sorts of ne’er do wells skulking in the bushes). The rain grew fatter, the wind grew stronger. “How far are we doing?” asked Ginge. “As long as it’s at least 3 miles…” I replied. We carried on and started to do a loop round the back of the house to make it up to 4 miles. “How far’s left?” asked Ginge. “We’re just coming up to 3.75” I replied. We carried on through the now pouring rain, bracing ourselves against the gusts. “How far now?” asked Ginge. “You’re not going to like me” I replied. “What have you done?” “Um. Well we’re still at 3.76. I must have pressed stop when I faffed around with my sleeve….”. And so I carried on with another mini-loop to take it to 4 while Ginge retired gracefully indoors (having run an actual 4 miles, but without feeling the need to have this evidenced via Garmin, ah to be free of the tyranny).

I was hoping to have some interesting animals from today’s run, but once again there were only sheep.

Day 15/31 – 4 miles

Ferrero rochers burned