Janathon day nine: early

09/01/20135 Comments

During the first week of Janathon I was full of grand plans to do a couple of early pre-dawn runs. I even went so far as to call Morning of Magicians for being a lightweight as he was ‘only‘ going out at 7.00 (in comparison to my hardcore 6.00). Inevitably, he got up and actually went out for his run, whereas I shunted my Janathon efforts to the end of the day…

I did have an excuse though. The weekend before new year, I’d come down with a bit of a cold and spent a couple of days with a sore throat and aching limbs, which had pretty much gone by Monday morning. Unfortunately, it left the gift of an annoying tickly cough that, while being absolutely fine during the day and not affecting my Janathon efforts, came on as soon as I lay down. Now, I need my sleep – I love sleep, I can sleep anywhere – I am that woman on the train who gets on, sits down, closes her eyes and then nods and dribbles until her destination (strictly speaking, usually the station before my destination when I wake up in a panic thinking that I’ve missed my stop). When coughing fits forced me to see 1.00, 2.00 and 3.00 on the clock, I was strangely reluctant to consider getting up at 5.30 for a run.

My saviour.

I couldn’t admit all this at the time because my mum would have read it and shouted at me, however I’ve seen her since and she’s had chance to shout at me in person (or at least look concerned that I looked a bit pale and panda-like, which was worse than being shouted at). Anyway, I invested in some sort of cough remedy and on Monday night I had a proper night’s sleep. Despite my mind working overtime when the light went out last night (note to self, must sort car insurance) when the alarm sounded this morning (see linswoo’s Janathon day 4 for the ultimate in Janathon alarms), I lurched out of bed and was outside by 6.00.

As I set off, I thought “cold, dark and misty, that’s today’s run”, but by the turnaround point I had upgraded to “cold, dark and foggy”. It was that type of cold that nips at your calves (my fault for wearing 3/4 length tights) and that type of mist that leaves your eyeballs feeling damp (my fault for having them open). My poor legs mustn’t know if they’re coming or going because they managed a much better pace than last night despite there only being 12 hours between outings. Other than that, I barely saw a soul (just a couple of people waiting for their lifts to work), it was all pretty quiet and I have since been rewarded with porridge and a pot of tea.

Janathon day eight: efficient

08/01/201310 Comments

I am a natural born procrastinator. I am easily distrac….ooh, look pigeons…. Sorry, distracted. I will always find something to do that isn’t the thing that I’m supposed to be doing and running is no exception this. I’ve accepted that there has to be a minimum of 20-30 minutes between getting up and going for an early run (but that’s more, ahem, intestinal than anything) but later runs can take hours to actually happen. Janathon is an enabler in all there as there is always someone to tweet or a blog to read and I can pass off “faffing around on my phone” as camaraderie and offering peer support.

Tonight I was determined not to get caught by the faff monster. Home 10 minutes early, I followed JogBlog’s 3G Mantra^(TM) and I was changed and ready to go by half five. Once again I was joined by Ginge opening up a whole world of not-safe-for-ladies-on-their-own routes, this time one that took us down deserted alleyways and lonely unlit paths. Unfortunately we only have one set of hi-vis so himself wore it and ran alongside me like a ginger guide dog. It was a 4.5ish mile loop that was rounded up to 5 with a little add on at the end. The first couple of miles felt harder (and were slower) than the last two runs I have done – my legs are definitely feeling the effects of Janathon at the moment.

When I got home I was checking twitter (obviously) and spotted that abradypus had posted “If I’d gone for a run when I first mentioned it, I’d be home showered and tucked up on the sofa again by now” which is pretty much one of my favourite running quotes that I’ve seen on twitter (I forget who I should hat tip for this photo – if it’s you, tell me for full credit!). This should be my mantra….

It’s true. It really is. I still ignore it most of the time mind.

Janathon day seven: shop

07/01/201310 Comments

Today’s Janathon effort was a ‘shop and drop’. These usually occur several times during an Athon and come into play when I need both exercise and groceries. Basically, we go and do the big shop at Tesco, Ginge throws me out at the side of the road and I run home. Tonight I did the shopping in my kit (hi-vis vest in handbag, I’ve got to have some standards) and was chucked out with a couple of miles to go. Miles was having one of his sulks at being asked to find satellites (either because it was cloudy or because I was standing next to a tree) but eventually we both got our act together and legged it back in time for tea.

This was not the only shopping that I have done in the past 24 hours. My beloved Asics Kayano 18s were half price at Sweatshop this weekend and the Telegraph were doing a £10 voucher as well, so it seemed rude not to invest in a pair for when my current shoes give up. Unfortunately, I was given an education in the difference between ‘a sale’ and ‘an offer’. It turns out that I couldn’t use the voucher for my trainers because they were on offer, rather than being in the sale. Still it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Lovely clean shoes

The Telegraph also had a voucher for Women’s Health magazine, which went into the trolley tonight and will probably cause me to curse and mutter dark oaths under my breath from cover to cover.

So that’s week one of Janathon completed and 21 miles done!

Janathon day six: muddy

06/01/20135 Comments

I had the pleasure of some company on today’s run and was bravely joined by Ginge (I often become quite stroppy with him when we run together and I wouldn’t put with me if I was him). Running with Ginge means that I can do routes that I would be a bit nervy doing on my own (mainly through fields and the lonelier parts of the village) and today was no different. While we were out we toyed with two longer routes; one was a known 7.5 miles, the other an unknown distance (I’ve fallen for mystery tours before, it rarely ends well), but settled for a short (3.5 miles) hilly, mudfest of a run.

First past some sheep fields, saying hello to the occupants and making them flee with the sight of me flailing past them.

Posing sheep

If you like all things ovine, Jovial Gnome is treating us all to Sheep of the Day on his Janathon blog. I am in sheepy heaven with this and am going to go round and rustle them all into the boot of my Renault Clio at the first opportunity. Technically my sheep are strangers to me, but I shall call them (from left to right) Muriel, Agnes and Maud.

Next up on the nature ~~walk~~ run was a hawk. We tried to sneak up on it but failed miserably although I managed to take a moody Kes-style black and white shot (entirely by chance than design) before it went and sat in a tree where it looked (a) less hawkish and (b) very precarious.

Imagine Brian Glover on a football pitch, stage left.

That can’t be comfy

There were some fabulously squelchy bits to the run. I splashed through these gleefully and oblivious to the fact that I was narrowly avoiding barrelling into Ginge, whilst he cowered in my muddy wake. Ooops.

Beware indeed…

Janathon day five: park

05/01/201306/01/20137 Comments

Despite it being Saturday, I had to work this morning. Bah. I tried to come up with a convoluted plan that involved running to or from work, but it wasn’t to be. If I ran to work I wouldn’t have access to showers and that would be at best impolite and at worst, in violation of any number of infection control policies. If I ran back from work, it would be a steady uphill trek and I would then have to catch the bus back to pick up my car (I couldn’t bus it to work because of the amount of stuff I had to take with me). I considered running the streets near work, but quite frankly this didn’t fill me full of joy. I thought about driving somewhere after work, but feared that this would end up taking up the entire afternoon.

And then I remembered that Saturday work is virtually opposite a park. So I decided to run there. It was a glorious spring-like day, the sun was shining and the paths were full of people searching the rhodedron bushes for children and dogs. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that most of the park is uphill and it was only when I got home that Ginge pointed out that it is called a valley for a reason. Still, I enjoyed myself, I tackled the hills with enthusiasm (until the enthusiasm stopped short of my actual legs) and took lots of photos of trees.