Even clown cars have horns

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Survived the long run group! And we weren’t at the back. Alright, so we were 4th and 5th from the back and that was mainly due to the very last 2 people being the group leaders who have to be there to make sure no one dies en route. 30 minutes out and back, 5.25 miles and a sodding valley (it is a valley I promise you).

valley

valley

See. A valley. There’s a river at the bottom and everything. This was spot on halfway round so although we had to do up the hill, we got an instant downhill before the uphill again.

And to make things even better, we were accompanied by a selection of ‘helpers’ who encouraged us on our way. Now, I pass a lot of runners while I’m out and about during the day, normally I just think “I’d be out running if I wasn’t at work” (this is a lie, I’d be watching Diagnosis Murder and eating toast). I have never, ever been tempted to beep my horn and gesticulate what I think was a ‘knees up’ gesture as one chap did tonight. I suspect that he’d done this at every small group of us he passed (we were quite spread out by then) so I couldn’t even feel special, in fact I felt a little cheap. Neither have I been tempted to just yell something quite random at passing runners. I really hope that the girls hadn’t thought too hard about what to yell tonight because all I heard was “yaaaaa yaaaa yaaaaa yaaaaa”. And I certainly haven’t beeped my horn at runners on a bridge over the motorway whilst driving on the motorway below. Usually I am concentrating on the whole driving concept. Ah well, it keeps them happy I suppose.

Just the two of us

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Following Thursday night’s accidental agreeing to maybe doing a  half marathon, the ‘training’ has begun. We’ve done a 3.5 mile on Thursday, 5.8 on Saturday morning and 3.5 yesterday. Tomorrow we’re being terribly brave and going to the long run group (an hour’s run) and I’ve an early hour and 10-20 minute run planned on Saturday (before I go to Manchester and eat too much. Hmmm, I see a theme here…).

Running with someone else is a little bit odd for me at the moment. I’d just got into a lovely routine of early running and now I’m back to going out after work. Luckily Husband is very tolerant and can cook, otherwise we would both starve. It’s also a bit strange as our motivation levels are a bit different – I’m proper little Miss Keen Knickers (I got busted stopping the watch when we had to wait to cross roads/remove stones from shoes/decide which way to go… Well the only person you cheat is yourself. What’s happened to me?) and have noticed that I’m running a bit slower than I do on my own.

Having said that…

  • I think I’m doing better runs in the afternoon than stupid early on little/no food. They’re definitely longer
  • Running a bit slower is probably a good thing for our long runs
  • The company’s lovely
  • I’m going out when I would probably be sitting
  • We set out to do an hour and ended up adding on an extra 7 minutes (I would have rounded up to 10, but it’s better than nowt)

I think my answer is to chuck in a solo outing  just to remind myself that I can do it alone. Best of all in this, I found myself looking forward to running yesterday (admittedly I was in an audit workshop at the time, but still…)

I think I preferred Juneathon…

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After a short post-Juneathon break, I’m back from my jollies full of vim and vigour. Also full of sausages, beer and cake. It’s a scientific fact that calories consumed outside contain far less than those consumed on the sofa – it’s the fresh air that does it. Sadly that may not be as evidence-based as I’d like it to be and I’ve returned home feeling like the side of a house, but by heck it was worth it. We’ve noodled in Greenwich, scoffed Nepalese in Hythe, wolfed down Malaysian in London and barbecued at our tent.

It wasn’t just gorgeous food mind you… I was plonked on a bike for the first time in three years (I’m not a natural cyclist, I failed my Cycling Proficiency when I was 10 and there’s been 20 years of trauma since. I was “still wobbly on my bike” since you ask) and did a 25 mile ride. This was on day one of having the bikes and I’m still trying to work out if it was a good idea. I have quite a well upholstered bottom, but there was some definite saddle soreness on the morning after. Part of me thinks that if we’d done a shorter ride on day one, I’d still have had an achey rump and would not have agreed to the longer trip, so it was worth it. I think.

Since our return, I’ve been out a couple of times. Tuesday in the rain with the running group and my pal the running bully, and tonight after work with the running bully again. She’s lost her rhythm a bit at the mo, so it’s my turn to do a bit of motivational bullying at the moment. I don’t mind doing this because I definitely owe her for all the support she gave me when I started, but I appear to have agreed to do a half marathon in October while I wasn’t paying attention. I’ve been assured that doubling my distance and not making an arse of myself is quite realistic in the time available (I’m somewhat doubtful, but I’m using all my saved up Juneathoness to gee me on), I’ve also checked the times from last year and the last person to cross the line took about 4 hours, so hopefully I wouldn’t come last.

As well as the half, I’ve been railroaded into a 5k with other members of my team at work. The strange thing is that I’m more worried about the 5k than the half (It’s the fear of possible embarassment, as they seem to be under the impression that I can run. The fools.).

So it looks like I’ll be doing some slightly more focused training over the next couple of months. It starts with an hour’s run on Saturday and who knows where it will go from there. Any advice/suggestions/tips would be gratefully received as I’m a bit clueless and proper training schedules scare me silly.

Juneathon 27-30: The end is nigh…

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I’m better at the exercising than the flipping blogging at the moment, but it’s a completed project which is something of an unknown for me.

Day 27 Saturday: One of the many things that Juneathon has made me realise (and it has been a bit of a voyage of discovery for me) is how much I enjoy my weekly yoga and that I’d like to do a bit of practise at home as well as my weekly session/random workshops. As well as that, the stuff that we’ve been doing recently has made me interested in the various forms of Hatha yoga and the ideas before them. Lacking a responsible adult on Thursday evening, I accidentally found myself in the Mind, Body and Spirit section of Waterstones buying the Yoga Bible (half price, good size for camping, splendid photos even if one chap has a slightly offputting tache) and Essential Yoga (bit more on meditation, specific sequences for different sports/ailments and the use of the phrase “drunken monkey mind” to describe when your mind wanders during meditation. That swung it for me…). The upshot of this is that Saturday’s exercise was a practise of the suggested sequence for running – lots of hamstring stretches!

Day 28 Sunday: Ah yes, Sunday. Like an idiot, I decided to try for my first ever six miles. I managed to cover a whole six, unfortunately it just wasn’t all running. It was stupidly hot quite early and I’m not good at being static in heat, let alone moving. I also forgot to take water. If I’d been sensible, I would have turned round and done a sensible 3 or 4 miles, sadly I wasn’t sensible and I ended up doing probably half and half running/walking on the return 3 miles. It didn’t help that I got carried away going downhill at 3 miles (ignoring the fact that lovely downhill becomes evil uphill in a matter of seconds when I, um, turn round) and went a bit further than I should do. As I headed back, I could feel my legs slowing down and slowing down – it was a bit like a set of wind up false teeth as they run out of winding. And then I felt a bit rough and shivery. So I walked for a bit, ran for a bit and turned off my watch so I wouldn’t kick myself too hard later on.  As it was, I wasn’t too disappointed with myself – and it made me realise that if I do end up run/walking, it’s probably more sensible to let myself recover properly and have a more satisfying run rather than pressuring myself to set off running again and then running out of steam a few yards down the road.
I also enjoyed my Sunday run because I get to nosy at people in cars and wonder where they’re off to. Particularly intrigued by a couple on bikes with camping gear on the back – I hope they were off somewhere exciting.

Day 29 Monday: More yoga from the book.

Day 30 Tuesday: Early morning run, 30 minutes. I set off with the intention of doing a fairly flat 15 minutes out and back again, but I ended up behind a bloke out running (who must have been going quite slow because I’d managed to catch up with him). I don’t usually see anyone running at that time and saw 2 today so I assume that the heat has got to people. I felt a bit uncomfortable running behind him (and it looked a bit like we were out together and had fallen out), so I veered off down to the lake. I’ve had some work issues recently and wanted a nice mindful kind of run where I could notice small things and take a bit of pleasure in them. Sleepy ducks, a triptrap bridge (no trolls or goats), rain pitterpattering on the leaves, ripples on the water, a very sweet smelling patch of flowers, the crunch of gravel underfoot, dappled light through the trees and a very keen angler smoking a pre-7am cigar. The only problem with this run is the fact I have to meet my nemesis the Big Hill, which I tackled and won – setting me up much better for the day than sulking under the duvet. AND I’ve just realised that Day 30’s run is exactly the same as Day 1’s which has a lovely symmetry to it. And was totally intentional….

So that’s it. Juneathon done and dusted. I’vehad quite a lot of fun, it’s made me think about various things and go hmmmm quite a lot and I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone else’s updates, so thank you!

Juneathon 23-26: Beginning to read at verse 3

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And on the fourth day, she rested and looked on the previous days, thinking hmm, I’m not quite a slacker, but nearly.

It’s been another busy few days so I’m afraid the Juneathon activity has included a bit more walking than it should have done, but that was an emergency measure to make sure that I didn’t weasel out of the ironing. Again. If I’m good at weaseling out of running, I’m an elite weaseler when it comes to the ironing pile and as we’re off on our jollies next week, I wanted to take command and scale the mountain of laundry.

Day 23 Tuesday: Ironing marathon (can I claim it as being an Ironman? No?) tonight. So I conned husband into going for a walk after tea. The clouds were a bit dark and ominous as we left the house, so Husband grabbed the brolly and set off with the intention of getting a new water holdy thing for our camping trip from the village caravan dealer. Unfortunately, 15 minutes too late for the water holdy thing, but we ventured on and back through the fields. Which is when the rains came… By the time we got back to the main road, we were passed by quite a few of the neighbourhood animals lining up two by two as the torrents of water flowed down the kerbside. 2.4 miles, jeans soaked to the knees, big pile of ironing waiting for me. Yay.

Day 24 Wednesday: Wednesday night is of course Yoga night and, in honour of Sunday’s new moon, did some moon-based postures. The first pose lead to upward facing dog (the first time I’ve done it) and then a sequence in kneeling which was very similar to this mini-sun salutation, but included upward facing dog instead of cobra. As usual I had to keep one eye on people to make sure I was up to the right bit. It then got a bit Iyengar, which I later learned that is very focused on precision so not really my cup of tea. There was some falling over and I got distracted during the meditation. Again.

Day 25 Thursday: Now, I’m quite chuffed with Thursday as it demonstrates the power of the Juneathon. I was on a day’s training and then hopping on the train to meet a friend for tea, normally this would be enough to write off any chance of exercise. Not in June though! 5.30 my alarm goes off. 5.40 I curse the fact that I’m doing this through choice and set off for a 30 minute plod up the road and back. Home, shower, recycling out, bus at 7.30, train at 8.00, land at 8.15. Realise I’m in plenty of time to get to where the training is(car left at home to enable a couple of beers later on) and enjoy a sunshine-filled walk taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the city over 2.4 miles. The only downside was that it started to feel like a day off, whereas in actual fact I spent 7 hours in a small stuffy room doing IT training.  Still, my tea was yummy and I had a couple of lovely pints of Ginger Marble to round the day off.

Day 26 Friday: Another bit of rogue exercise – I played squash for the first time in nearly 15 years. It was against Husband (who I learned has played squash before. Once) and was splendid fun. I forget how much I enjoy hitting stuff. Considering the cheese string shoulders, the lack of coordination and my reluctance to engage in any kind of sudden movement, I should hate racquet sports, but they’re the only sports that I’ve been slightly decent at and, more importantly, enjoyed. We borrowed racquets and a ball for free (apparently we looked trustworthy enough not to be charged a pound for them. Fools), had to get directions to the court and probably should have asked for a rule book. I don’t think we were playing to exact championship laws, but it kind of worked and we finished up with a win and a half each (due to running out of time). Definitely going to do it again. Or bribe Husband into playing badminton cos I beat him last time we played…

And now I sit on my arse watching glastonbury on the beeb, muttering darkly about wacky types with face paint and glitter.