A light-hearted look at running, cycling and general fitness
As you’ll remember, I had a copy of ‘What’s Your Excuse … For Not Getting Fit?’ by Joanne Henson to give away.
And the winner is:
Valerie Bloomfield
Well done, Valerie – I’ll be in touch.
If you weren’t lucky enough to win a copy, you can buy it on Amazon for (at the time of writing) £2.05 on Kindle, or £4.99 for paperback.
If you’ve got an excuse for not getting fit, you’ll probably find it in What’s Your Excuse … For Not Getting Fit by Joanne Henson.
The book covers excuses that could have been written just for me, such as:
‘I’m hungover’
‘I want to go to the pub instead’
‘I want to watch Eastenders’
‘My iPod needs charging and I don’t like to exercise without music’
and other excuses like:
‘It will mess up my hair’
‘I’m too fat’
‘I walk to the station and back every day, isn’t that enough?’
‘I hate the gym’
‘It’s too cold/hot’
Joanne covers all these excuses and how to change your habits and attitude. This isn’t a ‘how to get fit book’ but more of a ‘there are no excuses to not get fit’ book.
Giveaway
What’s Your Excuse … For Not Getting Fit is available on Amazon, but I’ve got a copy of it to give away. Just leave a comment below letting me know what your excuse is and I’ll pick a winner by random after the closing date of midnight, Friday 27 September.
A couple of weeks ago, I hosted a giveaway of two weeks’ worth of breakfast, supplied by FUEL.
I swear on Tesco’s alcohol aisle I used a random number generator and didn’t just shut my eyes and poke at the screen, and the lucky winner is:
Keith Jenkins (who blogs at The Thames, a runner and his dog)
Well done, Keith! I’ll be in touch.
Thanks to everyone else who entered, I loved reading what you’d like to excel at.
If you want to win more stuff and stop me looking like such a loser, I’m giving away some multi-vitamins and other supplements over at my Planet Veggie blog and no one wants them so far.
I promised to give away some fantastic prizes at the end of Juneathon. The Random Number Generator has spoken, I’ve checked the blogs for eligibility and the winners are:
A year’s supply of Halo Sports Detergent
Matt Lambourne (Matt’s Juneathon)
Feet in the Clouds by Richard Askwith
Lucy Jiwa (Black and Tabby Runs)
GO>ID Personal Emergency ID Kit
Holley Knight (The Dog With The Broken Ear)
Kim Ivory (High Fiving Palm Trees)
Kath Jones (cogitjoggett)
Well done Matt, Lucy, Holley, Kim and Kath – you’re worthy winners indeed!
Inspired by Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers which explores the theory that perfection is achieved after 10,000 hours of practice, the developers of new breakfast brand, FUEL, believe it can help to provide morning sustenance to any athlete or artist, business person or musician in their pursuit of excellence.
Consisting of a breakfast milkshake, crunchy granola and on the go porridge pots, FUEL is perfect for those go-getters who are too busy to sit down to breakfast. The concept is simple, fast and convenient sustenance with the exact balance of carbs and protein to support you on your day.
FUEL is giving one lucky winner the chance to win two weeks’ worth of breakfast goodies (2 boxes of granola, 6 bottles of Liquid Fuel drink and 4 porridge pots).
How to enter
Leave a comment below letting me know what you’d like to excel at, e.g. athlete, musician, penguin tamer, double glazing salesman, high class prostitute, bus driver, poet, pretending to be Russell Brand, etc.
Terms and conditions
One winner will be picked at random after the closing date of midnight, Friday 26 July 2013.
UK entries only.
Bupa are offering the chance to be Jo Whiley’s training partner for the world’s largest half marathon. Read below for more information.
Jo Whiley is looking to recruit a running partner as she prepares to tackle the Bupa Great North Run. One lucky member of the public will win then chance to be her training buddy and help keep her motivated as she faces her biggest ever physical challenge. The famous broadcaster will be joining 56,000 runners for the world’s largest half marathon on Sunday 15th September.
The duo will become training partners and receive expert guidance from Bupa’s team of sports medicine experts along the way. Jo will be paired up with one lucky winner via a competition on the Bupa Facebook page. The winner of the competition will attend two training sessions with Jo, receive regular contact from a Bupa sports medicine expert and will join her at the start line of the iconic 13.1 mile course.
The presenter has committed to running her first ever half marathon, in a bid to get fit and help her face her busy schedule. This forms part of Bupa’s My First Run campaign, which aims to inspire 2,000 people to take up running by offering free Bupa Great Run 5km places to first time runners.
Like Jo, you may be used to years of early starts but are still tempted by the snooze button instead of exercise. Alternatively, after a long day’s work if you are lured to the sofa rather than the treadmill then running experts advise that a training partner will help you get those trainers on and get running. Running with someone else makes it easier to get started and stay motivated.
Jo Whiley said: “Like a lot of people, my life is really busy with my many presenting commitments and running around after four kids. So, I find it difficult to motivate myself to get active and having someone to train with will help me stay focused. I appreciate the benefits of being fit and healthy and after some great advice from Bupa, all I need now is someone to help get me to the start line!”
To enter the competition visit the Bupa Running Facebook page and submit your reasons why you should be Jo’s running buddy before Sunday 16th June.
The random number generator has spoken and the winner of the Vibram FiveFingers KSO giveaway is:
Frances Green
Well done, Frances!
I was secretly hoping that no one had exercised and blogged every day and I could keep the running shoes from SportsShoes.com for myself but alas, no, the entries poured in and I had to choose a winner.
And the lucky winner of a pair of running shoes up to the value of £90 is:
Louise Ayling, who blogs at abradypus. Not only did Louise exercise every day, but she ran every day. And not only did she run every day, sometimes she ran more than once a day. And not only did she sometimes run more than once a day, she also racked up 231 miles during January. So, a worthy winner indeed and probably in need of a new pair of shoes. Well done, Louise!
The winner of the Deep Heat competition is:
Angela White, who blogs at Health Transformation. Although this giveaway was also open to slackers who didn’t exercise every day, Angela did exercise and blog every day, so another worthy winner. Well done, Angela!
Both winners were picked at random, using Random.org.
Thanks to everyone who took part in Janathon and I hope you’ll all be signing up to Juneathon!
I woke up to scaffolding outside the front of the house and ladders peeking over the roof at the back of the house. This did not please me much so I escaped to the gym. I immediately felt better when, just as I sat down on the rowing machine, the extended version of ‘Uncertain Smile’ by The The came on my iPod (I love love love love love Jools Holland’s plinky plonky piano solo at the end).
(A slightly tenuous link here but, incidentally, did anyone hear the interview with Sinéad O’Connor on 6Music the other day? I’ve obviously never heard her speak before as I had no idea that she sings like an angel, but speaks like a pikey. In case you’re wondering what the tenuous link is, during the interview, they played The The’s ‘Kingdom of Rain’ on which O’Connor sang the female vocals.)
After The The, came Elastica. I was definitely cheering up now and after the rowing machine, I went on the cross-trainer and had planned to do Audiofuel’s ‘Thru the Gears’ on the treadmill after but just as I was getting to the end of my cross-trainer workout, Ghostpoet’s ‘Finished I Ain’t’ came on and dammit, I wanted to hear the end of that song, which left me with a dilemma; do I carry on the cross-trainer for a bit while Ghostpoet finishes his song or go and walk on the treadmill for a bit while he finishes? I chose the latter option and walked for a couple of minutes on the treadmill until ‘Finished I Ain’t’ became the less catchy ‘I’m Finished Now So You Can Get On With Your Thru The Gears Workout’.
Speaking of dilemmas, I received an email the other day offering me a pair of these beauties.
These are Vibram FiveFingers KSOs (KSO stands for Keep Stuff Out – you’ll read why in a minute) and don’t they look fab? My dilemma, however, was that I have a porch full of running shoes, including numerous ‘barefoot’ shoes, most of which remain unworn. So do I greedily grab a pair for myself, knowing they’d probably not get much use, or say ‘thanks but no thanks’? I don’t like to say no to things (except to the text from my friend Tracey the other day when she asked me if I wanted to see England play indoors for free this afternoon. Football? No thanks.) but then I thought to myself, ha! I can earn karma points by saying I didn’t want to take them knowing they’d languish unloved and unused but I’m sure I could find a good home for them by having a giveaway on my blog.
So, eventually, I’ve got round to telling you about the competition. Well, you already know what the prize is, so here’s the official blurb:
Over the last few years the Vibram FiveFingers KSO model has become the most popular style due to its unbeatable comfort and versatility. The KSO features a thin, abrasion-resistant stretch polyamide and breathable upper that wraps your entire fore foot to ‘Keep Stuff Out’. A single hook and loop closure helps secure the fit while the non- marking 3.5mm Vibram TC1 performance rubber ensure excellent grip, whatever your activity.
The Vibram FiveFingers KSO is the perfect choice of footwear for an all-round active healthy lifestyle whether you love climbing, trekking, running, canyoneering, yoga, kayaking, canoeing or surfing, or all of the above for men and women alike.
For more information visit www.cotswoldoutdoor.com
For your chance to win, just email me (with ‘VFF Comp’ as the subject) at cathy@jog-blog.co.uk with the answer to the question below, your shoe size and address, and a winner will be drawn at random after the closing date:
What does KSO stand for?
A. Kippers Smell Off
B. Keep Stuff Out
C. Kites Surf Overhead
Terms:
Competition closes midnight Saturday 2 March 2013.
Last night’s plan for today:
Get up at 7am, go for a short run in a field at 8ish to try out these New Balance Minimus Zero trail shoes
with their snazzy (do we still say ‘snazzy’ or do I sound like an 80s throwback?) Vibram soles
but when I got up I remembered that it snowed and rained all day yesterday and the field would be a bit yuk.
So, Plan B, then:
Get up at 7, go for a road run at about 8.
What happened in reality:
I got up at 7, looked at my university timetable for tomorrow and decided that tomorrow would be better for a run and the gym would be better for today and so I would go to the gym at 9am when it opened.
At 8:30 I fancied some hot chocolate, so I made myself some then decided to do a Janathon mailout as it was the halfway mark. I sent out the Janathon newsletter then stared at the Mail Chimp stats showing me how many people had opened it/clicked a link in it/complained about it, etc. for about an hour then decided it was too late to go to the gym and so I went downstairs to the conservatory and did 20 minutes on the rowing machine. Pathetic, I know.
I haven’t forgotten it says ‘incentive’ in the title.
I mentioned a Janathon incentive. I have waved my Sooty wand (not to be confused with a fairy wand according to Travelling Hopefully but ‘pah’ to her) and magicked* up a pair of running shoes courtesy of SportsShoes.com worth up to £90 to be given away to one lucky Janathon participant who has been hardcore enough to exercise and blog every day.
Oh, what’s that? You’ve been a bit of a slacker? Never mind, I’ve also got some Deep Heat goodies (a tube of Deep Heat, a tube of Deep Freeze and a tube of Deep Relief) that I’ll give away in a draw open to all Janathon participants (although, if you’ve been slacking, you probably don’t need any muscle rub type stuff, do you?)
For more information, visit the competition page on the Janathon website (don’t enter the competitions yet though).
Stats
New pairs of almost barefoot running shoes: 1
Runs in fields done: 0
Road runs done: 0
Gyms gone to: 0
Rowing machine: 20 minutes
Sooty wands: 1
Fairy wands: 0
*asked their PR if I could have some.