Author: jogblog

Janathon Day 13: Donkeys and potato shaped animals

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I asked Twitter if they wanted sheep, cows or donkeys. A few people asked for sheep but Ben asked for donkeys and so I thought if he can be arsed to run 255 miles (not a typo) so far for Janathon, then the least I could do is be arsed to go and take a photo of a donkey or two for him.

donkeys

The donkeys were photo’d after we’d been to the farm shop where I bought a potato shaped like a rabbit (I originally thought it was shaped like a pig but have since changed my mind and decided it was a rabbit).

bunny_shaped_potato

And a potato shaped like a hippo.

hippo_shaped_potato

I didn’t buy them just because they were animal shaped, honest*.

I saw some sheep too. 

sheep

I didn’t see any cows though, so it’s just as well no one asked for any.

This bike ride was done in my new Adrenaline Women’s Iso-Viz Jacket. As you can see from the photo, it has nice long sleeves (so many jackets have sleeves that are too short for my gangly arms)

mountainlife_womens_jacket

and it’s slightly longer at the back, making it perfect for cycling.

mountainlife_womens_jacket_side

It also has taped seams to make it extra waterproof. The only thing I don’t like about it is that there are no side pockets. It has a back pocket and a chest pocket and that’s it.

So, we’re nearly at the halfway mark for Janathon – keep up the good work!

Stats
Cycling: 7.05 miles
Donkeys: 2
Sheep: Lots
Cows: 0
Rabbit shaped potatoes: 1
Hippo shaped potatoes: 1
Hi-viz jackets: 1

*I so did.

Janathon Day 12: My first parkrun!

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Since when did Saturdays begin at 7am, huh? Well, this one did. After Nici said on a previous blog post that one of her mini-Janathon challenges was to finally get to a parkrun, this reminded me that I’d kept meaning to get up (down? across? not sure…) to Whitstable which is the venue of my nearest one.

Whitstable, although only 30-40 minutes away by car, takes nearly two hours on the train and so I asked iliketocount if he would drive there and he said yes and, so, this morning, off to Whitstable we went.

It was great! I’d run the Folkestone Half the year before last and found out that coastal runs are pretty dull. But the Whitstable run had enough scenery going on to make things interesting and although it was mainly an out and back along the seafront, there was a muddy bit before looping back which broke it up a bit.

Coming back down to the finish though, I saw the runners ahead going up a hill at what appeared to be a 45 degree angle. NO ONE TOLD ME THERE WERE GOING TO BE HILLS! BASTARDS! I got to the bottom of the hill and it didn’t look too bad from there, it definitely didn’t look as bad as it did from the distance and I told myself that I could run up it, or at least stagger in a fashion not too far removed from running.

I made it to the top of the hill and looked at my Garmin: 34:08, which is mighty fast for me at the mo.

Stats
Distance: 5k
Time: 34:08
Pace: 11 m/m
Whitstable parkruns: 1

The essential piece of January running kit

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A t-shirt was delivered yesterday. Two t-shirts, in fact. And not just any t-shirts but Janathon t-shirts, yay!

Ideally, I’d have had them sorted way before Janathon started, so I could buy one and check the quality before letting you all know they were available. But because Cafe Press took an absolute age to approve the design (72 hours? Pah!), I didn’t get the chance.

But, I am 100% DELIGHTED with these t-shirts. I was worried that they’d be that cheapy, thick cotton that’s uncomfortable to wear but these are gorgeous. They fit beautifully, the cotton is just the right thickness and weight and I proudly wore mine to the gym this morning.

janathon-t

This is a normal cotton t-shirt but performance dry ones are also available (along with lots of other styles, like the baseball top below).

janathon 019 

If I’d have thought about it, I’d have saved wearing it until tomorrow when I’ll be doing my first Parkrun but I’m going to do a white wash today especially and hope it dries in time.

T-shirts, hoodies, bags, mugs, dog t-shirts, slankets, stickers, badges and all sorts of stuff are available in the Janathon Cafe Press shop.

If you’ve bought a t-shirt, I’d love to see a photo on your blog of you modelling it!

Stats
Rowing machine: 20 minutes
Cross-trainer: 20 minutes
Treadmill: 10 minutes
Stationary bike: 10 minutes
Janathon t-shirts: 2

Weigh too tired for weights

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Terrible pun, sorry.

I had planned to do an hour of weights today and put the PC Fitness DVD on and told it I wanted 30 minutes upper body strength but after five minutes I was knackered. I was so knackered, I thought I’d just do 15 minutes and I lightened the weights and lightened them again and I was still knackered but then I thought I won’t wimp out after 15 minutes but I will do 30 minutes and although 30 minutes is half what I had originally planned to do it’s still twice as much as I was going to do when I wanted to wimp out and so it’s not really wimping out, is it?

Stats
Upper body weights: 30 minutes
Lower body weights: 0 minutes
Terrible puns: 1

Janathon Day 9: Gate press-ups and flashing

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Michelle has been doing farmer’s gate press-ups. Yesterday she posted photographic evidence and this inspired me to do some farmer’s gate press-ups too. I’m not sure if my gate belonged to a farmer but it was in a field, so it counts. Because I thought Michelle had been doing 20 press-ups, I decided to out-press-up her and did 30. I’ve just checked her blog though and she did 30 yesterday. BAH! Oh well, it’ll be 40 for me next time. Anyone else want to join in the farmer’s gate press-up challenge? If you haven’t got any farmer’s gates nearby, any gate will do.  Bonus points for photographic evidence.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the flash fiction (short, short stories) collection that was published yesterday that contains one of my stories, ‘Fog’.

the_flashing_type

The Flashing Type is a collection of 50 pieces of flash fiction by new authors and, at the mo, it’s only 77p for Kindle on Amazon UK or 99c for Kindle on Amazon US.

Stats
Run: 2.69 miles
Farmer’s gate press-ups: 30
Flash fiction collections published yesterday that has one of my stories in it: 1

Janathon Day 8: The first week of jogging, slogging and blogging is over!

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I set my alarm for 7. I woke up at 8:30. Damn, there was my plan of getting up early and getting out for a run by 8 scuppered. And it meant I’d lost 90 minutes of my day but then I thought, if I spend 90 minutes fewer on Facebook and Twitter, that means I’ve clawed back those 90 minutes, hooray!

I decided running could wait until tomorrow though, when I WILL get up at 7am and go for a run and this morning I went to the gym instead.

My gym isn’t very far away and my running-to-the-gym PB is currently 2:42 and today I thought I’d try and beat my PB and, wahoo, I SMASHED IT, I AM BADASS, I NAILED IT, I TOTALLY OWNED IT, I BLEW IT OUT OF THE PARK*, etc. with a new running-to-the-gym PB of 2:36.

Then I did some gym stuff like go on the rowing machine and cross-trainer and, to finish off, I did 20 minutes of the Audiofuel turbo trainer track (that I reviewed here) instead of the treadmill as I’m just a crazy, reckless, carefree, spontaneous kind of girl who likes to mix it up, as The Damned would say (if they were singing the wrong words).

So, now we’re into the second week of Janathon – well done everyone keep up the good work!

Stats
Run: 0.28 miles
Rowing machine: 20 minutes
Cross-trainer: 20 minutes
Stationary bike: 20 minutes
Minutes spent in bed ignoring the alarm: 90
Minutes of the day clawed back by not going on Facebook or Twitter: 90

*If I EVER use phrases like that on my blog again, please feel free to ask for my address so you can come round and give me a slap.

The JogBlog 3G Mantra™

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It was back to school today (for those of you who don’t know, I’m in my second year of a creative and professional writing degree). And it was an all-day day (at least in student terms) which meant I wouldn’t be able to go for my usual run-before-getting-dressed-in-normal-clothes thing. But, I hadn’t forgotten my pledge to do an afternoon run and today was to be that day.

I was all geared up for it. My playwriting seminar was supposed to finish at 2, which meant I’d be home at 3 and so I’d planned to go out for a run at 3 but then the seminar didn’t finish until 2:30 and so that meant I wouldn’t be home until 3:30 which meant that I wouldn’t be running at 3 as planned which unsettled my poor little brain which likes plans not to go awry.

So, as I was cycling home, I wondered how I could get out of going for a run. Then I realised that I couldn’t really get out of it and when I saw someone running down the dreary dual-carriageway in the rain, I thought, well, if he can do it, so can I.

But, as we all know, there are pitfalls and dangers in the house to keep you inside instead of going out running and so I said to myself, when I get in, I will not touch the computer, there will be no email checking, no Facebook checking, no Twitter checking, no emptying my books out of my rucksack, no feeding the cat (sorry looey), no nothing, just

GET IN, GET CHANGED, GET OUT

and, lo! it worked. I got in, I got changed (using the fortnightflo method of getting changed while pretending not to notice you’re getting changed) and I put my Garmin on and did my 1.5 mile route and, sssh, don’t tell anyone, but I actually enjoyed it.

So there you are, the JogBlog 3G Mantra™.

And that’s my first week of Janathon done. How’s your first week been?

Janathon Day 6–A sober Saturday

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I thought the gym would be full this morning. I don’t usually go to the gym at the weekend as, I run on a Saturday, and Sundays are reserved for hangovers rest days. But, as I didn’t drink anything stronger than hot chocolate last night and was tucked up in bed at 10:30 reading – with, in hindsight, maybe a touch of irony – ‘Hangover Square’ by Patrick Hamilton (blimey, that book is bleak. If ever a book could be described as a colour, that book would most definitely be grey).

So, because I woke up this morning unhungover, off I went to the gym. The gym was empty. Not even the usual people I see in there in the morning were there, they must be weekday warriors, like me.

I bloody loved this workout. Maybe I should stay sober more often*. I went on the rowing machine for twenty minutes, then the cross-trainer for twenty minutes, then despite my legs still aching from Friday’s weights session, I went on the treadmill for a Thru the Gears run. It doesn’t matter how many times I do Thru the Gears on the treadmill, I still get a tremendous buzz from it. If you want the same buzz, you can get it for FREE on the Audiofuel website (I’m assuming it’s still available, as the link’s there but it’s been out a long time now – if it doesn’t work, you can get it for a bargain-worthy 69p on amazon and yes, that is my five star review underneath it).

Oh, and because I am extra-hardcore, when I got back from the gym, I did a 30 minute upper body weights session at home.

Stats
Sober Saturdays: 1
Bleak books: 1
Hangovers: 0
Weekday warriors: 1
Rowing machine: 20 minutes
Cross-trainer: 20 minutes
Treadmill: 15 minutes
Weights: 30 minutes

*na

A sore bum and a Janathon run

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I had a sore bum this morning. That lower body weights session I did yesterday must have worked. But Janathon doesn’t take sore bums as an excuse for slacking, so I had to go and do my run today. I pulled out a short sleeve t-shirt, then asked iliketocount if it was cold outside and he said no, but he’d be wearing long sleeves, short sleeves, tights, shorts, a hat and gloves because he wanted to burn his cold out. I see… that’s how to cure a cold, is it? It won’t surprise you to learn (and you’ll be pleased to hear), he’s not in the medical industry.

My run was uneventful. I saw some dog walkers and that was about it really. And now that I’ve Janathoned and showered and hair washed and lunched and blogged and dicked about on Facebook and Twitter, I have to write 1000 words on the difference between radio and stage. Travelling Hopefully helpfully said on Twitter: “One you can see stuff, the other is just in your ears. Job done.” This, from a girl with a first class degree. Almost as bad as iliketocount’s medical advice.

One thing I keep forgetting to say on here is that, in the spirit of Janathon, I’ve set myself some mini-challenges. They are very mini and you’ll probably wonder why I’m even calling them challenges, but I am set in my ways and so they are challenges to me.

1. I always run in the morning after I get up. I can’t stand the thought of putting on normal clothes, then changing into running gear, then changing back again. I can’t be bothered changing clothes all the time, hence the comment ‘you’re early’ from iliketocount on New Year’s Eve when I got up and put on the dress I was going to wear that evening. So, this Janathon, I’m going to do a run in the afternoon and a run in the evening. I reserve the right to either a) stay in my dressing gown until the afternoon/evening; or b) run in my normal clothes.

2. Cycle four miles down to the woods for a run.

3. Do a trail run (not really a challenge but not something I do often in the winter).

Anyone else got any mini-challenges?

Janathon Day 4: Cut short by a chainsaw

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A run had been planned for today but then I remembered it was Saturday tomorrow (damn you Christmas and your I-know-what-day-of-the-week-it-is gene remover) and Saturday is traditionally my long run day, even if my long run is only about a mile and a half.

So, I decided to do some weights instead using my PC Fitness DVD. I wish I had remembered that, because I can exercise in the smiley room now with its high ceiling, I was going to finally use my Strong Body, Fit Body DVD that I bought a while back but haven’t been able to use yet as some of it involves jumping and in an 18th Century ex-bakery with ceilings made for munchkins, jumping isn’t a good idea.

But, because I had decided to do my PC Fitness DVD, that’s what I had to stick to and so I did half an hour of upper body strength, then half an hour of lower body strength. When I was half way through the lower body strength bit, I could see the fence next door moving. Then I saw the tree behind the fence next door moving. Then I heard a chainsaw. Then I saw the top of someone’s head and I thought pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease don’t look over the fence and see me exercise, I will die of embarrassment and I had 14 minutes left and I thought, well, what’s the worst that can happen? The man next door will see me exercise and maybe tell his wife and she’ll think so what? and then I remember I don’t think his wife’s there anymore and so maybe he’ll tell his big barky dog but I don’t think his big barky dog’s there anymore and he can’t tell anyone over the pub because he barred himself from there and he can’t tell the people in the Chinese takeaway because he’s banned from there and then I thought oh no, he’ll tell the postman and then I thought so what? I’m sure the postie has seen worse things than someone exercising and anyway, the postie has seen me out running and knows I go to the gym and has had the door opened to him when I’ve been in my gym gear and then I’ve run out of people the man next door might tell who might laugh and point at me in the street and so I carry on doing my squats and lunges and stuff and he carries on doing things with a chainsaw.

Stats
Low ceilings made for munchkins: lots
Ceilings high enough to do jumping around bits: 1
Next door neighbours with chainsaws: 1
Next door neighbour’s wives: 0
Next door neighbour’s dogs: 0
Places next door neighbour is banned from: Most of them
Upper body strength: 30 minutes
Lower body strength: 30 minutes

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