Juneathon 2009 Day 3 – A gentle row

For today’s Juneathon I decide to utilise Shaun’s (I don’t know why he insists on calling it mine; he paid for it, it’s in his computer/exercise room and he uses it) rowing machine and you’d think this would be as easy as walking the twenty feet from my computer room to the back bedroom but no, I have to move the radio and then it’s out of tune and although Radio 1 was seriously bugging me yesterday (I can’t get a good signal for XFM down here), the first station my radio tunes into is sounding scarily like Terry Wogan and I think am I 60?  Should I be listening to Terry Wogan? and I decide I shouldn’t and so I keep trying to find another station and something comes on that doesn’t sound too annoying and then I realise that I need that plug socket to plug the rowing machine into and so I go downstairs to get a double plug but the only one I can find has the holes in the wrong place and the rowing machine adaptor is too big to go on it and then I realise that the plugs next to it are turned off so I unplug them and plug the adaptor in and because I’d unplugged the radio again, it’s untuned again so I retune it and start to row and have it on the manual resistance and it’s still bloody hard and after about 9 minutes I decide to see if I can turn the resistance down and I press the down button and the whole screen goes off and I think eek, I’ve broken Shaun’s rowing machine and I’ll get told off like I did when I put the cold drinks in the hot drinks cupboard and the tinned tomatoes in the wrong place and I’m pressing the buttons and nothing’s happening so I turn it off at the wall and turn it back on again but it’s still dead and so I pull the adaptor plug thingy out of the machine and plug it back in again but still nothing, so I unplug it at the wall and the machine and plug it back in and then it beeps back into action and I think hooray, it’s working again and I get back on it and can’t remember how many minutes I’d done but it was about 9 and I’d planned to do 30 so I decide to stay on it for another 20 minutes and it’s bloody knackering and after a few minutes I decide to be brave and press the button again to lower the resistance and hooray, it doesn’t break this time and this is far far far easier and after a few more minutes I decide to stop being a lightweight and turn the resistance back up and I eventually get to 30 minutes and this rowing machine is far far far more hard work than the ones in the gym.

Junethon day 3 part 2

After spending the rest of the morning writing 500 words as part 1 (of 3) for my Open University assignment that’s due in on Friday, I decide to take the bike out for a spin before lunch.  I ride up the pavement as usual but there’s a car parked on the pavement and a man walks along towards me with a dog and I’m going to have to go on the road and the man with the dog stops to let me go past and I say thank you and I feel bad as I shouldn’t be on the pavement anyway and I’m going to have to go on the road in any event as there’s a car parked on the pavement and I can’t get past it so I’m brave and go on the road and the cars are overtaking me but I’m brave and don’t wobble and I turn off and cycle up to the tree and there’s a man walking up ahead of me and I don’t want to overtake him as I think my jeans are falling down and he’ll see my bum but he gets to the tree before me and I go round the tree and go back the way I came without the man seeing my bum and I pull my jeans up with one hand and there’s a couple of people walking up the road and I think more people? I don’t usually see anyone here and they give me a half smile and I give them a half smile back and then I’m back on the main road and I think I’ll be brave and cycle back on the road and anyway the car’s still there parked on the pavement so I don’t really have a choice and I cycle on the road and weeeeeeeeeeeeee, I feel liberated but the cars are going fast and I don’t care if the sign a few feet ahead of me says there’s a speed limit of 30, I think they’re doing about 180 and I get home and feel proud of myself for not being a wimp and sticking to the pavement.

Stats (rowing)
Distance: about a mile
Time: about 30 minutes
Strokes per minute: about 20

Stats (cycling)
Distance: 2.09 miles
Time: 11:46
Speed: 10.6 mph
Calories: 67
Weight: 9st 4
Juneathon’s completed: 3/30

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