Month: June 2011

Pump it up

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This morning I went along to the gym for my usual body pump class where I was very hardcore and used heavier weights and hurrah, my arms didn’t crack on the tricep tracks, so the glucosamine that I’ve started taking again must be doing their thing (or it’s the magic bracelet) and then after body pump I went and did twenty minutes on the rowing machine, then I had planned to do just a mile on the treadmill, although running on the treadmill doesn’t really count as running, but then I decided to do Thru the Gears and then usually on a Friday I go and do spin too but as I have a five mile run tomorrow, I didn’t really want to wear myself out even if it is Juneathon and so I wimped out of doing spin and got changed and then I had to go to the library and I decided to leave my bike where it was and walk the half mile to the library as after all, it is Juneathon, and Juneathon is all about making an extra effort and so I walked to the library and as I passed Top Shop, I saw a sign saying 20% off for students this week and so I went in and saw a stripey t-shirt that I had been eyeing the other day and I tried to work out what 20% off would be and then I saw a t-shirt with Mickey Mouse on it and I wondered if I was too old to wear a t-shirt with Mickey Mouse on it and decided I was and left the shop and opposite was Dorothy Perkins with a sign saying 30% off today and so I went in but there was nothing I liked so I went back into Top Shop and thought fuck it, if I want to wear a t-shirt with Mickey Mouse on it I will and so I bought the Mickey Mouse t-shirt and the stripey t-shirt and with my student discount got £8 off and then I went to the library to collect the books that had been reserved for me and then I strolled back through the town looking at all the teenage girls smoking over their babies and got back to my bike and cycled back.

Stats
Body pump: 45 minutes
Rowing machine: 20 minutes
Treadmill: 15 minutes
Walking: 1 mile
Cycling: 5 miles
Calories: about 845
Stripey t-shirts: 1
Mickey Mouse t-shirt: 1
Library books: 2
Teenage girls smoking over their babies: A few

Competition winner announced!

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A few days ago I held a limerick competition to win a copy of Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.

After receiving twenty six brilliant entries, I decided to pass the choosing of the winner to the Independent Adjudicator.

Personally, I’d have been very strict about the meter but it wasn’t up to me and so the Independent Adjudicator has spoken, and in his own words:

Frances Green has to be the winner for the pink dressing gown, despite it not strictly adhering to the limerick definition. Hels was ok but she can’t win just because.

Mark would have won for his Kent based theme but for having read the book and Suzie for name-checking Local Adventures are worthy of a mention in despatches but Frances gets it.

So, well done Frances, you win the book. And well done to the runners up. You don’t win anything though, sorry.

The winning poem, by Frances Green

There once was a runner from Kent
Whose time was haphazardly spent
racing miles through the town
in a pink dressing gown
turning heads in each street where he went

The runners up

Hels’ limerick

There once was a runner from Kent
A lovely free book she was sent
She said, “freebies, ta”
Then went to a bar
To ask for a free beer, she went

Mark’s limerick

There once was a runner in Kent
Round Chatham and Margate she went
Five miles past Dover
She nearly keeled over
And by Ashford was totally spent

Suzie’s limerick

There once was a runner in Kent
Who always ran at 100 percent
So when juneathon came
and local adventures abstained
He thought “I could win this event!”

Blogging, jogging, logging, limerickagogging

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Ok, I made the last word up, but when I said that the Independent Adjudicator had chosen the winning limerick for my competition but that I would announce it later as I first had to blog my jog on JogBlog, Helen said I should blog my jog in limerick form and I said hmm, could I? and she said go on! and so I accepted the challenge and so here is today’s run in limerick form.

There once was a runner in Kent
Whose time should have been better spent
With drinking less beer
And wearing more gear
So out into the fields she went

She ran though the fields climbing stiles
In an effort to put in the miles
When she got to the fifth
Her counting went adrift
As her brain went a bit immobile

She got to the foresty bit
Bears sat around having a shit
They didn’t really
But she is nearly
Running out of words that will fit

She got to the end of her jog
And sat down and started to blog
But then Helen said
Write a limerick instead
But do not forget you must log

That’s a bit of a wonky limerick but I’ll post the winning one later to show you how it should be done.

Stats
Distance: 3.51 miles
Time: 44:13
Pace: 12:36 m/m
Calories: 335
Wonky limericks: 4
Winning limericks to be announced later: 1

Hot sticky scenes, you know what I mean

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First I Juneathoned at around midnight by running for the last train at Stratford International (n.b. adding the word ‘International’ to a station does not make the town any more glamorous. See also Ebbsfleet and Ashford for further proof). I also Juneathoned around 1am by cycling 2.5 miles home from the station. But because I am hardcore and because last year I said to myself that this Juneathon I would run every day, I decided I’d better go for a run. I was only going to do one mile but on looking at my training schedule, it says to either do 2 miles or cross-train, so 2 miles it was to be.

Half of my brain seems to be under the impression that I can’t run without a) my Trion:Z bracelet; b) drinking a Voltz Energy Shot; and c) listening to Audiofuel. The other half of my brain tells me this is all bollocks and I can run perfectly well without any of these things. But something has made me go from a 13 minute miler to a 10-something minute miler within a few weeks and I put it all down to the above and not the fact that I’ve been doing classes and cardio at the gym three times a week for a few months now.

I do decide though that despite being slightly hungover, drinking an energy shot for two miles is a tad unnecessary but you’d have to chop my arm off to make me stop wearing my Trion:Z bracelet and I need Audiofuel to run with. I have a look in iTunes to see if there is any Audiofuel of around 22 minutes to see me through my two miles and spot the (almost) perfect track to start off this year’s Juneathon:  The Juneathon 2010 Mix. Oh yeah. (If we ask Sean really nicely, maybe he’ll do us a 2011 mix…)

Because I’m only going two miles, I wonder if I can do it in twenty minutes, i.e. a 10 minute mile pace. Then I remember that there are two sure-fire ways of getting a running injury and they are a) speed; and b) increasing mileage too quickly (ok, three then: c) getting run over by a bus) and so I decide just to take it easy but hopefully get under 11 minute miles.

Despite the rather annoying traffic lights trying to thwart my plan of under 11 minute miles, my hangover making me want to stop and walk and the heat threatening to melt me into a sticky gooey mess, I do just about scrape into the 10-somethings.

And that’s my first Juneathon 2011 done. Yay.

Stats
Distance: 2.02 miles
Time: 22:06
Pace: 10:58 m/m
Calories: 212

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