Author: jogblog

Have you won? Cram Alert Sport ID giveaway winners announced

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About three weeks ago, I held a competition for five people to win a Cram Alert Sport ID pack worth £15.95. Each pack contains a wristband and either a travel tag, key fob or mobile property ID. Also included is a year’s free registration.

All you had to do to be in with a chance of winning one of the packs was to let me know which superhero you’d like to be rescued by.

The winners thrown up by the random number generator are:

1. Maggie

“I want Mr. Incredible to rescue me. It’s not that I particularly fancy Mr. Incredible but I do fancy being Elastagirl. I think that these ID tags are a great idea and I’m very conscious that, like you, I often go out with no ID at all.”

2. Kieron C

“I’d like to be rescued by Ellie Harrison in heels and a bodysuit. But before she got pregnant. So some sort of time machine would need to be arranged too. Ooooo Ellie in the DeLorean. With a big pack of pickled onion monster munch.”

3. Michelle

“Does your servant feed you grapes wearing nothing but a thong, because that would be just the best image.

I would have to be rescued by my all time super hero, Rowan Atkinson, he would ride up on a huge black stallion wearing his amazing codpiece dressed as Edmund Blackadder. Throw me over his shoulder and gallop off with me clinging to him like a leech”

4. Millie

“Erm, I don’t know, I think as my total knowledge superhereo’s is quite small, I think I’d like to be rescued by Yoda.

He’s a super hero right?
I just need one of these packs to stop the canal murders when I’m out on my long runs, well not stop them, I’m not certain that the ID bracelets have magic invulnerability powers, but at least the police will be able to inform my family when they find me.”

5. Andrew Ross

“Wow Daisy Duke, providing it’s not the real-life aged version, can rescue me!”

Well done! Email me your addresses and I’ll get the packs off to you.

Audiofuel: Adrenaline Junkie 2 Challenge

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This morning I tried out Audiofuel’s long-awaited Adrenaline Junkie 2. Long-awaited for me, anyhow, as I’ve been bursting for some new tunes from them (although, I’m not yet sick of Dansatisfaction. I need that track to give me a boost when I’m flagging).

I’m going to take it out for another go on my next run and write a longer review then (plus I need to go out in a mo to eat pizza and drink beer with helsbels), but I wanted to let you know about this Thursday’s (28 July) Audiofuel Adrenaline Junkie 2 Challenge.

For just £10, enter the Adrenaline Junkie Challenge and get:

  • A copy of Adrenaline Junkie 2 – with coached and coach free non stop DJ mixes
  • A place in the race at 7pm on Thursday evening (run from your own home)
  • A chance to win new sports headphones
  • An unreleased version of the track "Self Belief"
  • An Adrenaline Junkie 2 certificate for your Facebook wall

ENTER THE RACE

The gun will go at 7pm GMT on Thursday 28th. The countdown will happen on the Audiofuel Facebook Page.

After the start time, hit the streets where you live and run for 44 minutes with Adrenaline Junkie 2.

When you get back, post a photo of yourself or a picture or screen grab of your distance on their Facebook wall.

Audiofuel will give a brand new pair of Sennhieser Sports headphones to:

  • The post run photo they like the best (they’re expecting a lot of sweat)
  • The finish distance picture or screen grab they like best
  • The post run comment they like the best

Good luck!

Cram Alert Sport ID Giveaway

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The review

I run with no ID on me. None at all. All I have on me (apart from my clothes of course) is my iPod, my Garmin and my house keys. I suppose the emergency services could find out my identification by plugging my Garmin into a computer and seeing on Google Earth where I started my run and knocking on the doors of the houses in the vicinity to see if any of them had lost a female runner, or taking the Tesco Clubcard key-fob to Tesco to ask them who it belongs to, but that still doesn’t give them access to the phone number of someone to phone in an emergency.

Cram Alert Sport ID is a wristband carrying contact information and finder instructions (they also do travel tags, key fobs and mobile property ID) that you register on the website, so if you do have an accident while out running, cycling, walking, etc. as soon as you are found your next of kin will be informed and the emergency services made aware of any necessary medical information that would assist in caring for you.

cram_alert_wristband

I decided to register my wristband this morning before going out for a run. I would have registered my travel tag, key fob and mobile property ID too, but didn’t realise at first that they all have different ID numbers on them (it explains why on the FAQ page) and so couldn’t be bothered to do all of them then, but you can go back and add other devices later.

It took me a long time to find out where to register on the website. Eventually, I found a link under the ‘Cram Alert In Action’ menu, which told me to go to the log-in page. I would have liked a nice big ‘register here’ sign on the home page.

Registering your devices is straightforward. You enter the ID number and then add your family members who you’d like to be contacted in an emergency. They give a helpful list of definitions of ‘family’.

1) Husband, wife and children.

2) All blood relations.

3) All who live in the same household including servants and relatives, with some person or persons directing this economic and social unit.

4) Civil partnerships.

5) Common law relationships.

6) Stepchildren and foster children.

So, that means that Shaun is lower than a servant. Excellent.

The rest of the registration process is simple (well, it is if, like me, you have no allergies or special medical needs the emergency services need to be aware of and all you need to do is give them the phone number of your servant boyfriend).

While I don’t really need anything else on my wrists while I’m out running, it’s a good-looking band and is comfortably rubbery. It was a bit of a struggle getting it on the first time, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. The wristband is adjustable and once you know how long you need it to be, you can cut the overlap off with a pair of scissors (if this really is beyond you, you can see step-by-step photographs, or even watch a youtube video of how to do this on their FAQ page).

Without being run over by a tractor, I can’t say whether the Cram Alert works or not and my dedication in the name of research doesn’t really stretch that far. Plus, if I did get run over by a tractor, the emergency services wouldn’t be much help; a man with a big shovel to scrape me off the road would be of more use.

The Cram Alert wristband costs £9.97 and if you buy any other items, they will be discounted by 40%. The first year’s family registration is free, thereafter a £15 per annum administration fee applies.

Unless you have a long list of medical requirements and/or want to register a number of family members, I can’t really see that this has many benefits over a cheaper ID band with no yearly registration fee.

The giveaway

I’ve got 5 Cram Alert packs (worth £15.95 each) to give away. Each pack contains 2 devices:  1 x Cram Alert wristband and 1 x either a travel tag, key fob or mobile property ID. Also included is a year’s free registration.

cramalert 004

 

I mentioned on Twitter that I was going to try out the Cram Alert wristband and runningokintheuk asked if it had superpowers. I said not unless the number goes through to Superman’s hotline and he comes to rescue me, which gave me the inspiration for today’s giveaway.

For a chance to win one of 5 packs of Cram Alert ID, leave a comment here letting me know which superhero you’d like to come and rescue you (it doesn’t have to be a superhero: if you want The Hoff to come and rescue you in Kit, that’s fine with me. Or maybe Daisy Duke is more your thing. Maybe I should stop showing my age).

Terms and conditions
Closing date midnight Friday 12 August
5 winners will be chosen by an internet random number picker
UK entries only
Superhero not included

A field of dead crows

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I didn’t slack on Saturday. While thereisasixpackunderhere and Travelling Hopefully were out doing their very first ever parkruns, I was out running in the pouring rain. My kit got so wet, it was still wet two days later and came out of the washing machine drier than it went in.

So, that was 6 miles on Saturday, and on Monday, I went to the gym and did Audiofuel’s Thru the Gears on the treadmill.

A few weeks ago, iliketocount and I went down to investigate the nearest part of the Royal Military Canal to see if it was a suitable place to run. It runs for 28 miles from Seabrook in Kent to Cliff End in East Sussex and I had hoped it would all be towpath, but the bit near us only has a bit over two miles of track and the rest is grass. Ho hum.

Still, as it was such a nice day outside yesterday, I decided to cycle five miles down to the canal and do my scheduled five mile run there.

After the decision came the dilemmas. I really wanted to take my camera to get some pics of the canal and any cows I saw but didn’t want to run with my camera, so I decided to take my iPhone with me in my Belkin armband.

As I was going to be cycling 11 miles and running 5 miles, I thought I’d better take some water but as I  was going on my mountain bike due to it having more gears and I didn’t fancy struggling up the hills like I do on my lady of the manor bike, I didn’t have anywhere to put a water bottle (ahem, iliketocount… can you put a water bottle holder on my mountain bike please?) so I decided to wear my new outdoors/cycling jacket which has deep pockets and carry it in that and then I’d take a carrier bag and put my jacket and water bottle in that and leave it with my bike and hope it doesn’t get stolen while I’m running. House keys would go in my Karrimor wrist wallet. I hoped that with an armband, wristband and trion:z bracelet on one arm, and a Garmin on the other, I’d a) still manage to run with all that extra weight; and b) not get laughed at for looking like a complete twat.

Swallowing my pride, I cycled down to the canal, locked my bike up, shoved the carrier bag containing my jacket and water bottle behind my bike and started off on my run.

All was well until I got to the field of shit. iliketocount and I had passed this field the other week and all the shit was in one big pile quite far away and although we could smell it, it wasn’t overpowering. Since then, the farmer had spread the shit all over the field and IT FUCKING STANK. Think of the stinkiest festival toilet you’ve ever smelt and multiply that by one thousand and you still won’t be close. I didn’t stop to take a picture due to fear of my iPhone getting contaminated.

Once I got past the field of shit, things were a bit more pleasant and I was happily running along until I got to a bridge

and on the other side of the bridge, the track had run out and so I had to run on grass, not my favourite thing to run on.

A little bit further up, just as I was coming up to 2.5 miles, the point at which I was going to turn around and come back, was some info about the canal

On the way back down, I noticed some black things strung up on poles. Thinking they were bin bags, I was reminded of the time I mistook a Muslim girl who was kneeling on the floor praying, for a bin bag and went over for a closer look. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK, THERE WERE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEAD CROWS STRUNG UP ON POLES.

I assumed they must be strung up there to warn other crows not to fuck around with the corn or wheat or whatever yellowy countryside stuff it is that’s being grown there.

I left the field of dead crows and got back to my bike where I was greeted by LOTS OF COWS. Yay. There were cows to my left

and cows to my right

which kind of made up a bit for the dead crows but I’d still like to shoot the farmer who shot the crows and string him up to a pole and see how he likes it.

I cycled back home and managed to cycle up the road I usually walk up (Helsbels can vouch for its steepness) and while I was going down the smallest country lane in the world ever (which also happens to be iliketocount’s favourite lane to run down and one which he says no traffic will ever ever ever go down) a huge tractor thing carrying about twenty thousand bales of hay or straw or whatever yellowy countryside stuff it was looms up behind me and so I stop and go off to the side and it’s so tight, I get off my bike and I don’t want to step backwards too far in case I go down a ditch and I’m holding the bike tight towards me and I’m pulling my arms in and holding my stomach in and even holding my eyeballs in to make me smaller and give him more room to get past and he squeezes past me so close, the straw or hay or whatever it was almost brushes my nose and after the huge tractor thing has gone I carry on and get home slightly knackered but feeling quite hardcore.

Stats
Cycling
Distance: 11.56 miles
Time: 1:19:22
Speed: 8.85mph
Calories: 359

Running
Distance: 5.01miles
Time: long time
Speed: not much speed
Calories: 431

White Rabbit: Are you sitting comfortably

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Last night (as you’ll know if you are a friend on Facebook or following me on Twitter where I have gone on and on and on and on and on about it) I had a story read out at a local event organised by White Rabbit.

It was held at The George Hotel, Ashford and the room was decked out in a 1950s Mad Hatter’s tea party style with the tables covered in flowers, playing cards, cucumber rolls and, most importantly, cakes.

The theme was ‘secrets’ and my story was read out by Gareth Brierley (who is one of the organisers, along with Bernadette Russell).

Gareth totally ‘got’ my story and read it out exactly (if not better) than it sounded in my head.

The other stories that were read out were so great, I was honoured to be a part of it. At the end, we were all given a copy of our stories, beautifully bound.

Thanks to Peggy at East Kent Live Lit for giving me the push to submit my story and thanks to White Rabbit for a fab evening.

Thrilled doesn’t begin to cover it.

If you can’t see the video above, view it at YouTube instead

Also posted at Isabella Black

The 7 week itch

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Eight weeks ago I started a 12 week half-marathon training schedule, extending it to 19 weeks, so if I had to skip a run or two, I could repeat that week. I was doing really well up to week 7; I hadn’t skipped a single day but then at the end of week 7, I was supposed to do a 7 mile run. I hadn’t done a 7 mile run since the first time I trained for the Royal Parks Half back in 2008 and so that wasn’t a run to be skipped.

But I skipped it.

Oops.

But I have excuses! Of course I have excuses, don’t I always? My excuse is that I had a 5k the day before and therefore needed to rest the day after, plus before I did the 5k, I did body pump for the first time in three weeks and man, did I ache the next day.

That was a week ago and I haven’t really done any running since, except for a 4.27 mile run last Tuesday that was practically at walking pace. What happened to the 9:48 minute miles I’d done just a few days previously?

Bah.

Last Saturday’s scheduled 8 miles was postponed due to going to Hyde Park to meet up with some of my fellow Juneathoners for our post-Juneathon picnic (four of them were hardcore enough to have a run first. Abradypus was extra hardcore, having already done a Park Run and then running from Liverpool Street to Hyde Park. Me, I sat down, opened a can of Pimms and tucked into the stuffed vine leaves and hummous).

This morning, I didn’t have the energy to catch up on one of my missed long runs. I didn’t even have the energy to do the 5 miles it had on my schedule for today, so I decided to do some intervals, incorporating them into a 3 mile run.

So that’s what I did.

This weekend, I’ll have to catch up on my missed miles and go for a 7 miler. In the meantime, tonight I’m going to Talking Twitter with Grace Dent and tomorrow I’m having one of my short stories read out at Are You Sitting Comfortably, a local event organised by White Rabbit.

See that bit where it says “an evening of short stories written by local writers”? That’s me, that is!

I may be a bit excited.

Stats
Distance: 3.02 miles
Time: 34:43
Pace: 11:30 m/m
Calories: 317
post-Juneathon picnics: 1
Long runs skipped: 2
Mes a bit excited: 1

Biking, running and windmills

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Yesterday I cycled down to Woodchurch to have a look at the Windmill there. It’s a very nice windmill and I took lots of photos, like this one

windmill_1

which was brazenly stolen from my Facebook page by Fitographer who doctored it in Photoshop and said, hey, look what I did to your photo (or words to that effect) and this is what he did

windmill_2

 

and I was so impressed with what he did to my photo that I made it into my Facebook profile picture but that was yesterday and today I ran(ish) 4.2 miles.

Stats
Cycling:
Distance: 10.73 miles
Time: 1:08:09
Speed: 9.4 mph
Calories: 326
Windmills: 1
Windmill photos stolen and improved: 1

Running
Distance: 4.27 miles
Time: slow
Pace: slow
Calories: 406

Competition: Win an Innocent Veg Pot

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innocent_veg_pot_voucher

Ok, so this has nothing to do with running but I know how much you all like to eat, and judging by the amount of entries I got for my limerick competition, it seems you like to write limericks too, so what better than a food based limerick competition?

For a chance to win a voucher for an Innocent Veg Pot, please see my veggie blog, Planet Veggie.

Good luck!

Ashford 5k Summer Series report

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And so… on the 31st day of Juneathon, I cycled to the gym, did twenty minutes on the rowing machine, fifteen minutes on the stationary bike, a forty-five minute body pump class, cycled back home, submitted a story for a local event, started writing an article for submission to a magazine, went downstairs to read a book in the conservatory where I promptly fell asleep as it’s so warm in there, got woken up when Shaun came in who asked if I still wanted to do the 5k, as he didn’t really want to do it as he was knackered from cycling to and from work all week, but I wanted to do it because it was local and because I’ve never done a properly measured 5k before and because it was a lovely sunny evening and it was being held in a nice park and so we drove over to the park where there was a girl in her underwear and men doing stretches and things, i.e. proper athletes, and so I held off from entering as there were only a few people there and after seeing the results for Staplehurst 10k where the final finisher finished in only 1 hour and 12 minutes, I was scared I’d be last but we paid our entry fee and the race director said to me oh Cathy, we’ve got the medals now if you want one and I said for the Hamstreet race? and he said yes and I thought how does he know who I am and I said did you see it on my blog? and he said yes, it’s a good blog and I said thank you and thought, yay, I’m famous and then Shaun wanted to go to the toilet but the toilets were closed even though the race organisers had organised for them to be open and so we drove back home again and went to the toilet then drove back to the race and there were a couple of women carrying pink water bottles and I thought surely I can beat women who carry pink water bottles round a 5k and I set Cedric to pace me for 11 minute miles although I thought this was probably a bit optimistic, given my current running speed and we all walked up to the start and I said to Shaun I think it’s a couple of laps round the park and a man next to us said yes, it’s a couple of laps and I said I’ll follow you then if you know the way, how fast do you go and he said oh, only 17 minutes and I think only? and I say, I’m not following you then and then the race started and it started on a nice downhill bit and everyone sprinted off and then I slowed down and fell into a consistent pace and I kept ahead of Cedric all the way and there were marshals in all the right places except for the one in the middle of the slightly slopey bit really big hill as I don’t like to walk past marshals and so I had to run up the really big hill so as not to look like a lightweight in front of the marshal and the last two miles were spent behind a man who seemed to be plodding gently along and I overtook him for a bit then with .4 miles to go he steamed ahead of me for his final sprint and I thought I’m not going to try and catch you up as that really big hill is just around the corner and as I get to the hill for the second and final time one of the women with the pink water bottles is just behind me and I think fuck, I’m going to be beaten by a woman with a pink water bottle and I wonder if I sprint off will she decide to  pick me off and sprint past me and I get to the final downhill bit and I run and I run and I run and I get through the finish line and a man puts a medal round my neck and I’ve done my fastest 5k ever ever ever and I go and get a Jaffa Cake and say to Shaun shall we go now and he says let’s wait for the prizes shall we? there can’t be many more to finish and the last finisher comes in and we go to the prize-giving thingy and the race director gives the prizes to the overall winners and then he gives out the prizes to the category winners and he calls Shaun’s name out and I give a sharp intake of breath and Shaun says what? who? me? really? and the race director says yes, you and so Shaun goes and gets his prize which is a bottle of wine and although he hates wine he says I can’t have it because he won it and he’s never won anything before and then we go home very very happy.

Stats
Distance: 3.19 miles
Time: 31:16
Pace: 9:48 m/m
Calories: 336
Days of Juneathon: 31
PBs: 1
Prize winning boyfriends: 1
People very happy: 2

Prime in my prime

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Following yesterday’s mug and bowl dilemma (which didn’t happen today as my mug and bowl matched perfectly in doggy harmony),

today, upon looking at the table of doom (I’m not sure who coined that term, but thank you), I was in a bit of a quandary. I had 71 miles down, Hal wanted me to do 4.5 which would have taken me up to a nicely rounded 75 but I have a race tomorrow and didn’t want to be too tired for it (not that it makes a difference. Last is last, no matter what time you do it in). I did have it in my head to beat Travelling Hopefully (purely in a ‘girl in front of me in a race that I’ve chosen to pick out and overtake’ kind of way) as she was on 73 miles but I didn’t know how many miles she was going to do today.

The ‘overtaking Travelling Hopefully’ plan was further thwarted by Cassie popping up on Twitter to say she’d Juneathoned. Aha! I thought. I can casually ask how many miles she’s done and then do more and she will never know that I’ve set out to beat her.

‘I did 3 miles but I haven’t logged for ages. I think I’ve done 101 so far.’

Well, that buggered up my plan then, didn’t it?

Bah.

I get very discombobulated when plans go awry (as you may have noticed from yesterday’s post) and so I sulked for a bit on Twitter until thereisasixpackunderhere popped up and said I could do 73 miles as that’s a prime number.

I wasn’t very keen on this as I don’t like odd numbers (although 75 is an odd number, but at least it’s a nice round odd number) but then I thought to myself that as ‘prime’ is a euphemism for ‘old’ (i.e. someone over 40) and therefore I am in my prime (i.e. old), at least it will make a good blog title and so 73 it was to be.

First though, I had to go and investigate what exactly a prime number was. Wikipedia told me that it was a number over 1 that can’t be divisible by anything other than itself. Hmm, surely that’s all odd numbers then, I thought as I went through a quick list of odd numbers in my head. So, off I went back to Wikipedia’s list of prime numbers and lo! I didn’t have to go far through the list until I got to number 9 and even I know that that can be divided by 3. Go me, master mathematician.

So, having got the ‘what the fuck is a prime number?’ question sorted, I set off for my last Juneathon run. As I was only doing two miles, I decided to do Audiofuel’s Pyramid Max 180 intervals and as there’s two miles of closed off road just over the road, that was the perfect place to do it.

And so that’s the end of Juneathon 2011 (except I’ve got a race tomorrow so June for me this year would appear to have 31 days in it).

Thank you to everyone who’s taken part and made it what it is: a brilliant supportive community of bloggers, making Juneathon whatever they want it to be.

I’m sure you all know who’s ‘won’ this year, as he got to finish a day ahead of us, what with him being in Australia and that. Usually, that would put someone at a disadvantage, as then we’ve got time to catch up, but as he’s 144 miles ahead of the runner in second place, I’m not sure this will happen.

So, well done Auswomble, 404 miles is amazing! 

As for me, I jogged, logged and blogged every day. Ok, so a couple of ‘runs’ were round the garden (not in my dressing gown this time; one of the times was even in my running kit), and quite a few runs were only .75 miles but I’ve hardly ever run two days in a row, let alone 30, so I am quite pleased with that.

Look, my SportTracks calendar is all filled in

juneathon_sporttracks

 

unlike January’s, where I was a bit of a slacker.

janathon_sporttracks

 

I don’t want this blog post to end, as then I will feel like Juneathon really is over. Boo hoo.

Oh well, here come the

Stats
Distance: 2.01 miles
Time: 22:08
Pace: 11 m/m
Calories: 211

Juneathon totals:
Running
Days: 30/30
Distance: 73.2 miles
Time: 15.2 hours

Cycling
Distance: 64.3 miles
Time: 6.9 hours

Cross-training
Time: 4.7 hours

Total (from SportTracks, seem to be a bit different than RFO)
Distance: 141.57
Time: 27:02:44
Calories: 11,476

1 … 43 44 45 46 47 … 119