Category: Junathon 2009

Juneathon Day 6 – Thank you Juneathon people!

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Hmmm. Weekend plans went a little awry. It started last night when I realised I have to do a presentation at work next Monday. I’ve no work time to work on it and have stuff on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday nights and we realised we want to get away for a bit of a weekend camp next weekend which rules out Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This also potentially rules out new and exciting exercise for a week.

I cancelled my scheduled run with the running bully (who seemed moderately relieved) and spent today with a table covered in journal articles and everyone’s chum, Powerpoint.

Just when I was getting a bit fed up with the idea of failing at day 6 (I can be a bit all or nothing with my thinking when things don’t go to plan), I had a read through of people’s blogs (obviously not while working on my presenation, no sir…) and realised the motivating power of Juneathon.

I learned

  1. I’m not the only one finding today to be a hard day for doing something
  2. Reading Running & Thinking reminded me that I have possession of a Wii for another 48 hours and as such, I clocked up an hour or so on the aerobic and balance games. I particularly enjoyed being a penguin
  3. If it wasn’t for Juneathon, I would have sat on my bum watching crap telly

Got a rural 5 miles planned tomorrow, am taking husband and his local knowledge so I don’t get lost…

Oh, and I walked to the library which is a whole 0.3 miles (with a very heavy hardback book).

Juneathon Day 5 – Why there yellow cow?

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Back to the straightforward moving in a straight line, one foot in front of the other this morning. Despite the satisfyingly achey abs and arms today, I don’t thing that I’ll ever master the technicalities of the grapevine or other such fancy dan moves (I’m somewhat relieved to see that these instructions say that it can be mastered in a few sessions – I had a matter of minutes). Still, I’ve amused people with the mental image of me grinning and flailing.

Did a nice 3 miles this morning. Apart from running towards the motorway, it was splendidly rural and I enjoyed running between fields. I do love the fact that no matter where I run in the village, even on the main road, there’s trees and fields to see.

One of the fields contained three horses and a lovely yellow cow, which made me wonder what the cow had done to warrant being in a field of horses and whether it found this confusing in any way. I was slightly worried that she was a cow outcast, but settled on thinking that she has a wide social network that comes from a wide range of backgrounds. The cow didn’t seem particularly perturbed by it, so that’s alright then.

Running tomorrow with my friend the bully. I might even make a note of the planned route this time

Juneathon day 4 – you put your right foot in, your right foot out, in, out, er.., out? in? er… right ? left?

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It’s official – I’m hopeless.

Today I have learned (or had reinforced) that I have no co-ordination, rubbish balance, a general listing to the left and I’m overweight. For giving me this knowledge I have to thank a high impact aerobic class and a wii-fit.

The aerobics was hilarious. Picture the scene; the class is being held in one of the boardrooms so we spend the warm up shifting tables and chairs, it also soon becomes apparent that the air conditioning is tamperproof (well the controls are covered in parcel tape) so it’s like working out in an oven. The class consists of 9 women and 1 man; 9 of us are giggling furiously, the other is a pert swishy ponytailed lady (I shall say no more).

Within about three minutes, I’m age 5 at ballet class – grinning like a loon and swinging my limbs with wild abandon. It turns out that I can work the top half of my body, I can work the lower half of my body, I can move in all major directions; what I can’t do is more than one thing at once. I’m like a marionette whose puppet master has his fingers trapped in a socket. Despite this, I really enjoyed myself and was quite chuffed to not be too exhausted by the aerobic aspect.

I’m not likely to try it again and it’s made me wonder if aquaerobics is a good idea given that it’s aerobics with the added risk of drowning. On the plus side, no one will see my lower half, so I’ll only look half as bad…

And as for the wii… For reasons that are far to complicated (dull) to explain, I have possession of a wii for the weekend (wiikend? Fnar) and have to play with the balance exercises. I have an appalling sense of balance to the point that I can fail children’s balance assessments (and that’s a fact) – generally it’s a miracle I stay upright. The highlight of my evening has been shouting “panda! panda! panda! shoe!” at the header game and then falling off the board. Who the hell decided that a disembodied panda head was the thing to hurl at footballers? And why haven’t they written to the FA with the idea? It’d liven up the game as far as I’m concerned.

Back on the early run tomorrow morning providing I don’t fall over in the meantime.

Juneathon Day 3 – Promise fulfilled

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I didn’t think I’d have chance to post after yoga, hence my short pre-yoga post earlier. Events have conspired to mean that (a) I have possession of the computer and (b) I am awake, so I can do a proper post. Aren’t you lucky?

I’ve been going to yoga classes since January and really have enjoyed them. It’s helped combat some of my work stress, I feel more balanced (in more of an actual less clumsy sense than a spiritual way) and at times I can convince myself that I’m longer and leaner than I am (except when doing anything a bit plough-ish and then I get a faceful of flabby squishiness, which spoils the illusion somewhat. It’s a bit like being suffocated by bread dough). It’s very much a mixed ability class and I don’t do anything half as scary as Ashtanga yoga like Running From 30, which would kill me without a doubt.

Although I had mixed feelings about not running this morning, I’m glad that I did (or didn’t…). It dawned on me a bit back that if I try to run everyday, I’ll have an initial burst of enthusiasm and then get bored and give up. There’s no way that I’d keep up with the  press-up and sit-up challenge (as created by Hauling My Carcass), so after a bit of thought I’m trying to use my non-running days to either
(a) do a lovely long walk somewhere nice with the husband
(b) do something energetic that I’ve not done for ages but used to enjoy or
(c) try something completely new.

So far the list includes swimming, squash, badminton, golf, tai chi, aqua aerobics, crown green bowling (which is more just an excuse to justify a day in the pub), ladies racketball and some form of aerobics class (because I’ve never done one cos they seem too scary). This is how I’ve ended up signing up for a body combat/boxercise/ultimate fighting type combo class after work tomorrow. Working for a health conscious employer who likes us to practise what we preach (and not go off sick), our trust is running a bit of a get fit for summer thing and is hosting various 8 week classes. High on the excitement of Juneathon, I found myself sending a tentative enquiring email, which was soon followed by one saying “can I come on Thursday please?”. I never do anything that impulsive. Damn Juneathon.

http://haulingmycarcass.blogspot.com/

Juneathon day 2 – hark at my efficiency

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Due to a previously unseen level of social life today (well I’m going out for my tea) and the fact that I hijacked the computer last night, I thought I’d write up early today.

Another run in the sunshine today, 3.25 miles (ish – I’ve nothing as fancy as a garmin, but I’m not quite using an A-Z and a piece of string). Felt like I was going a bit slow (for me – compared to anyone else I was going backwards) but it levelled out and I averaged out at a pace of about 10min 30sec/mile.

What I have learned today is that organisation is the key to success at this time in the morning. Yesterday I forgot to make my dinner; today I’ve found that putting the front door key down on a patterned cushion potentially adds 5 minutes and half a dozen swear words to the day.

And before I forget – a huge thank you to JogBlog for adding me to the roll call, JoggerBlogger for being king of the Juneathon, and everyone else who’s doing it and keeping me both motivated and entertained!