Author: jogblog

Slippery when wet

8 comments

After having not eaten since Saturday, my energy levels are low and so a run still wasn’t going to happen, but I had thought I’d walk my little .75 route but after listening to the wind rattling through all the chimneys all night and waking up to see trees bending in half in torrential rain, decided against it. I spent a bit of time to see what my fellow Janathoners have been up to and saw that Warriorwoman had been on her rowing machine. Aha! I thought, we’ve got a rowing machine in the conservatory, I’ll go on that. Although the rowing machine is my favourite machine in the gym (after the machine that sells crisps), I don’t enjoy going on our rowing machine at all. I don’t know why; maybe because the rowing machine in the gym tells me I’ve burned about 150 calories in 20 minutes and the one here tells me I’ve burned about 40 in the same time. Slightly disheartening.

I put on my slippers scientifically advanced state of the art hi-tech cross-training shoes

rowing machine 002

and rowed for 10 minutes.

Hardcore, huh?

Stats (rowing)
Strokes: 300
Time: 10 minutes
Calories: 17.3
Pairs of scientifically advanced state of the art hi-tech cross-training shoes: 1
Janathons completed: 3/3

An unspecified garden thing

7 comments

It definitely wasn’t a gallop. In fact, I didn’t even make it round the garden as it was too dark and so I only went round half the garden and I didn’t even run it, just sort of walked a bit. My Garmin spent longer finding a signal than I spent walking.

My slackery knows no bounds today.

Stats

Distance: half a garden
Time: don’t know, my Garmin doesn’t do nanoseconds
Pace: slackery pace
Calories: Maybe half a calorie, tops?

The Garden Gallop

8 comments

I was going to recreate last year’s Dressing Gown Dash but as I stayed out all night, I didn’t have my dressing gown on and so after a bit of tweeting with Travelling Hopefully (Tweeting with Cassie = being nagged by Cassie), said I’d go for a gallop round the garden, mostly because ‘garden gallop’ sounded cool.

I put on my clown shoes

janathon 001

opened the back door and was greeted by this

janathon 003

Yes, it was a bit dark and a bit wet and a bit minging but after going back upstairs and consulting on Twitter if sitting in a car for 16 miles was enough for Janathon and being told ‘NO’ (by fairweatherrunner), I had to go and do a run.

I was going to do a proper Miranda style gallop – you know, the bit where she says “Running -  wrong unless professionally or as a child.  As an adult you should only run if you’re near a train station and look at your watch first. And you certainly can’t gallop like kids”. I can’t describe how much I love that clip. I can’t even describe how rare it is for me to want to swap places with a 6 ft fat chick but I would swap lots of things (except my cat) to be as funny as Miranda. I really really really really really (and I don’t care how many times my tutor would kill me for repeating words) wanted to find a video clip of Miranda doing the galloping thing but I COULDN’T FUCKING FIND ONE and I only wanted to blog so I could use that video clip and so I wasn’t going to blog at all but then remembered the stupid Janathon rules (who started this stupid Janathon thing anyway? Oh, yes, it was me. Meh, stupid me) and so I had to blog.

I think that’s the end.

Janathon day 1.

Yay, go me.

Oh, hang on. I did my run, then rescued the champagne from the fridge.

janathon 004

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Stats
Distance: round the garden
Time: not very long really
Pace: um…
Janathons done: 1/1

Zalando

2 comments

zalandoZalando’s logo says it’s ‘the online shoe shop’. It isn’t, it sells loads of stuff. As well as shoes, it sells women’s clothes and men’s clothes and children’s clothes and bags and jewellery and – what I was after – running gear.

The site is easy to navigate down to your chosen department. As I need some new running gear to see me through the winter, especially with my London Marathon training and Janathon coming up, I looked for a long-sleeved top and some long running tights.

Most of the clothes on the site are in the upper price bracket (with most of the more affordable ones being out of stock in my size) but I did find a pair of tights and a long-sleeved top that I liked and weren’t either XS or XL that together came to £55. I went through the process of ordering (PayPal is an option which is a bonus to me – no need to look for my credit card details) but the website didn’t like my address and kept deleting the house name (I live in one of those stupid countryside houses that don’t have numbers).

Fortunately, Zalando had given me the opportunity of reviewing these products, so I emailed the owner of the site and told her the problem with the site accepting my address (if I had been ordering with my own money, I’d have gone somewhere else).

She got in contact with their customer services who said it was probably because my house has a name and not a number (this reminds me of my first job that was at a courier company called ‘On Yer Bike’ and they used to advertise for riders with the slogan ‘be a name not a number’ and then they’d all be given a number anyway, then they’d give themselves nicknames like ‘Cage’, ‘Digger’ and ‘Major Tom’ [sorry, where was I? Oh yes, running stuff]) and that she’d ask them to change it manually.

I went back to the site and my basket was empty and so I went back to find what I had previously ordered but neither the top nor the tights were there anymore so I looked for alternatives that were within my price range. I couldn’t find any tights that I liked the look of (they were all completely black) and the price of but settled on a pair of Reebok running tights with green trim for £37 (much more than I’d normally pay for a pair of running tights)

tights

and a red long-sleeved Nike top for £22 (the same top in pink was £30 – huh?).

red-top

So, a total of £59 for both items. Far more than I’d usually pay for two items (since venturing bravely into Sports Direct in the High Street, I am now a fan – massive bargains to be had in there if you can bear the hordes of chavs and the shop’s illogical and almost impenetrable layout) but there is the bonus of free delivery. A downside to the free delivery is that the website states your order will be with you between 5-7 working days and if I’m ordering from a website, I expect my stuff to be with me quickly, i.e. within the next three days but ideally within 48 hours. It’s also delivered by courier and not Royal Mail, so if you’re not in, you’ll have to rearrange delivery (although they will attempt to deliver three times before taking it back to the depot).

My address had been changed to show the house name but now the road name was above the house name. Worried that the delivery driver wouldn’t be able to find the house (as even with the most specific directions, a lot of delivery people can’t find it even if you draw them a map with arrows pointing to it (but the pizza delivery dudes can always find it and that’s the main thing), I edited it so the address was showing the name and road in the right order but this messed it up again and deleted the house name.

I emailed them again to tell them this had happened and was told it was something about them being in Germany and they’d sort it for me. I went back to the site, re-ordered my gear, saw my address was looking normal and paid for my order.

I was in Paris when my order arrived but the driver had left a note saying it was in the woodshed, which is fine with me. The tights and running top were comfortable and fitted perfectly and I took them for a run on Christmas Day. Well, I say ‘run’, what I really mean is a bit of a shuffle for 1.5 miles. Now that Christmas is over, I suppose I’d better stop over-drinking and over-cheese-eating and get myself back on the road and back into the gym.

Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for Janathon. Slacking isn’t an option.

Not quite marathon training yet

6 comments

Alcohol-free Friday: yep

Good night’s sleep: yep-ish

Up early: yep-ish

Nagged by Cassie on Twitter to go for a run: hell yeah!

The above are the basic requirements for me to go for a run. Having a marathon to train for is also a pretty basic requirement for getting me to go for a run. And although my marathon training schedule doesn’t officially start until 19 December (or ‘flapjack day’ as I’m calling it, due to Cassie refusing to send me any of her gorgeous flapjacks until I officially start training), my training schedule starts off with a 3 mile run, a 5 mile run and a long run of 8 miles and seeing as I haven’t run for over two weeks and even then that was only a pitiful 1.67 miles and the only running I did before that was a half marathon two weeks earlier which I strolled round in a ridiculously slow time.

That’s a bit of a ramble, but what I’m trying to say is that I’ve got a lot of catching up to do to be marathon-training fit.

I did want to wear my new Adidas Solution running shoes

adidas 008

but because it was raining heavily and I want to keep them for the gym and I don’t want to wear muddy trainers to the gym, I wore my usual Asics, which was a good idea because when I got to the trail that finishes at a ditch, the ditch was full of water and I had to do a mini-Grim to get to the other side (when I say a mini-Grim, I mean I had to splash through a small puddle).

After completing my mini-Grim, I ran the last mile down the track where I usually see a couple of dog-walkers and runners. Today’s dog-walker was a miserable old boot of a woman who gave me a dirty look, or at least, she looked like a miserable old boot of a woman, she may well have plenty to be miserable about for all I know, or maybe she was just miserable because she had a stupid small dog with her and not a proper size dog like an Irish Wolfhound or a Dalmation.

Next to pass me was the man I see quite often out running who never smiles or says hello. He’s usually wearing normal running gear but today he was wearing long camouflage combat trousers and a thick sweatshirt and I wondered if maybe he was training for some hardcore race or something or maybe he’s just a wuss and then I saw a girl running towards me wearing shoes and a skirt and carrying a handbag and then she got nearer and I saw that she wasn’t wearing shoes, she was wearing running shoes and then I saw that she wasn’t wearing a skirt, she was wearing shorts and then I saw that she wasn’t carrying a handbag, she was carrying two Tesco carrier bags and then I saw that it wasn’t a she after all, but a man with long hair and he must be fitting in a run with doing his shopping and I thought that maybe I should wear my glasses when I’m out running.

Stats
Distance: 3.01 miles
Time: 33:47
Pace: 11:15 m/m
Calories: 316
Basic requirements for me to go for a run: 4
Basic requirements achieved today: 4
Flapjack days: not yet, meh
Pairs of new running shoes: 1
Pairs of new running shoes worn today: 0
Mini-Grims: 1
Miserable old boots with stupid size dogs: 1
Runners wearing camouflage combats and sweatshirts: 1
Girls turning into boys: 1
Pairs of glasses worn while out running: 0
Music
Philip Glass
Mansun

I’m in a glossy magazine!

9 comments

I was on Twitter many months ago and someone (can’t remember who) mentioned that each month Women’s Running Magazine feature a reader who had written in with a ‘Your Story’ article.

I thought I’d have a go and I sent off my article in April about how I went from smelly smoker to (ahem) superfit athlete, and a few weeks ago the editor emailed me to say they’d be running it in their December issue.

Whoop whoop!

It was out last Thursday, 27 October, so go and get your copy now (or just sneak a peek at page 22, poke the person next to you, point to my photo and say ‘I know her’).

And while I’m plugging myself, I’d like to give a plug to Which Protein, as a) it has a very personal touch for a protein supplement website; and b) then the bloke who owns it might do Janathon.

Stats
JogBlogs in glossy magazines: 1
Plugs for protein websites: 1

The Colour of Autumn

9 comments

Although it doesn’t take much for me to reach for the central heating controls, I don’t usually reach for the long running tights, long sleeve tops and gloves until it’s proper cold. Like minus-something cold. But, if it had been minus-something cold today and I wanted to wear some gloves, I would have worn these eGlove Running Gloves.

These gloves aren’t just gloves, they’re gadgety gloves. And they’re not just gadgety gloves, they’re gadgety gloves for a gadget.

They’ve got stuff (yes, that’s a technical term) on the fingers so you can use your iPod or iPhone or iPad or iTouch (or any touch screen device) while you’re out on a run or out cycling without taking your gloves off (although, why you’d take an iPad out with you on a run, I don’t know).

I’ve tried them indoors on my touch-screen Shuffle and they work brilliantly.

Like I said, I didn’t wear my eGloves today but I did go out for a run. I don’t know if I don’t go past many trees on the way into town, or maybe they’re the wrong type of trees, but my running route today was mostly on a carpet of gold and amber and I’d forgotten that the only bearable thing about the end of summer is the colour of autumn.

Stats
Distance: 1.67 miles
Time: 17:39
Pace: 10:33
Calories: 176
Pairs of super-cool gadgety gloves for a gadget: 1
Bearable things about the end of summer: 1

Royal Parks Half Marathon report

7 comments

I know I should have blogged about the Folkestone Half. I even started it a day or two before the actual race but then didn’t finish it. I did finish the half though, although in a very very very slow time. Afterwards, me, iliketocount, helsbels, Travelling Hopefully, Travelling Hopefully’s husband Rich and helsbels’ two friends Jimmy (who will be getting a blog as he will be doing Janathon) and Helen, went to Googies for lunch. You can see my lunch and my recent recreation of it on my Planet Veggie blog.

Helen, Jimmy and Helen drove back to London afterwards, while me, iliketocount, Travelling Hopefully and Rich went to the pub. A very strange pub that you’d never think was in Folkestone due to its mahogany tables, crystal sherry glasses behind the bar, a baby grand piano and Mendelssohn and Brahms coming through the speakers (I know it was Mendelssohn and Brahms: not because I’m a secret classical music fan, not because Shazam told me (although I did try it) but because the Classic FM DJ told me).

Shaun then took us to his favourite pub in Folkestone. Shaun’s favourite pub is a dirty shithole full of scary people with more tattoos than teeth and so we quickly drank up and left Travelling Hopefully and Rich to continue with their Folkestone pub crawl while we headed back to Ashford.

That was two weeks ago.

I almost didn’t make it to the Royal Parks Half. I looked at the train times and the only train to get me to the start on time was leaving at a stupidly early hour and there was no way I was getting up at 4am to run a race I hadn’t trained for. Even if there was going to be pizza and beer afterwards.

helsbels kindly offered me her sofa bed and at first I accepted, mostly due to the fact that it meant we could go out for pizza and beer the night before the race but then I declined as I knew I just wouldn’t be able to sleep as I can’t sleep in a strange bed.

But then, hurrah! a new train was added to the high speed timetable that would get me to the start on time without leaving at a stupidly early time.

So yesterday morning, I got up at 6am and caught the 7:43 to St Pancras. I arrived at Hyde Park with what I thought was plenty of time to put my bag in and go to the toilet.

Then I saw the baggage queue.

It was a long queue. Luckily, it did go down quite quickly and then I joined the toilet queue. Which didn’t go down quickly and I was still in the queue well after 9:30 when the gun for the first wave went off.

I eventually crossed the start line at around 9:55am and did my first mile in under 10 minutes, fast for me at the moment. The second mile didn’t take much longer. 5k came quite quickly and I was feeling fine until 5 miles when my leg started hurting. My leg has been hurting all through my training and during Folkestone Half but luckily hadn’t turned into an injury. Because I didn’t want it to turn into an injury, I seriously thought about DNFing at 5 miles as I didn’t want to walk/limp for 8 miles. Then I decided I didn’t want to wait ages for everyone else to finish and I also didn’t want to turn up at the restaurant and tell everyone I was a loser.

Then at 6 miles a smile spread across my face as I saw Shaun on the pavement, camera poised. I gave him a ‘thumbs up’ (which is really naff and almost as annoying as that ‘fingers-as-quotation-marks-thing’ that makes me want to bash with a hammer the fingers of the person who is doing it) and said ‘my leg hurts’, to which he replied ‘no pain no gain’ which made the girl running behind me laugh. Seeing Shaun gave me a bit of a boost and I carried on running, albeit very slowly, until about mile 8 when my leg started hurting too much for me to carry on running and so I started walking. Shaun popped up again at mile 12 and told me to stop walking and to start running. I hobbled along a bit quicker for a while then started walking again, when he ran up to me and said not to start walking as soon as he was out of sight. Bah.

I walked up to the last stretch and Shaun, Helen and Jimmy were there to cheer me on but I didn’t have it in me to run again until I was practically at the finish line. I ran/limped over the line, turned off my Garmin, which despite me taking flipping hours, was still ticking over, and got my medal and goody bag. Which was just a bag with nothing in it. I JUST RAN 13.1 MILES AND YOU GIVE ME A BAG WITH NOTHING IN IT? It’s a swindle! Luckily in the park there was a tent giving out free stuff and we got free biscuits, Shreddies, teabags and toothpaste.

A pub was found, then we went off to meet fairweatherrunner, fortnightflo and abradypus – who had also done the race – for lunch at Prezzo.

Then, strangely enough, me, helsbels, Jimmy and Shaun went to another pub on the way home.

International Fame and Fortune

3 comments

Seattle_TimesWell, not quite, but I was looking at my web stats last night and, after being slightly freaked by the search query ‘when did cathy white die’ (not a good thing to see just after watching Bride of Chucky), saw that a few people had visited my blog via The Seattle Times.

I clicked on the link and lo! there was a lovely write-up about my blog. It said, amongst other things:

She writes irreverently, sometimes spending entire posts on wildly tangential rants that, even if they don’t necessarily go anywhere, provide a fair amount of laughs. By imbuing her posts with her specific sense of humor, White’s blog never comes across as either too self-serious or too private.

which made me smile and forget all about dodgy search engine queries.

You can read the whole article on The Seattle Times website.

Oh, and by the way, if the person who searched for ‘when did cathy white die’ is reading this: er, I haven’t yet, der-brain.

Stats
Dodgy search queries: 1
Mentions in Pulitzer Prize-winning publications: 1
Der-brains: 1

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