Category: Janathon

Janathon Winners Announced!

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Janathon winner

Well done to everyone who won a prize and thank you for taking part in Janathon (and a special thank you to those of you who have done what must seem like flipping billions of them but keep coming back for more).

Those of you who won – you’re under absolutely no obligation to do this but if you did want to share the above image and blog/tweet your thanks to the companies who donated the prizes, that would be nice. Just saying, like.

Anyway, as you were. Here are the winners.

Audiofuel running tracks

Tim Hodson

Beer from Country Life Brewery

Lena Conlin

2 bottles of Beet-It shots

Anke

Handmade bracelet by Corinna Korrubel

Tim Hodson

Online detox class from Mission Lean & Clean 

Carla Greer

21 day detox recipe book from Mission Lean & Clean

Lucy Jiwa

Case of drinks from Everything But The Cow

Stuart Walker

Box of Ener:Gels

Julian James
Angela White
Ruth Rouse
Helena Romanowska
Stuart Walker
Keith Jenkins

A pair of Firefly knee straps

Catherine Henderson

A box of Fuelify nutritious snacks

Freya Rodger

Helly Hansen top and tights

Dave Thomas

Fat Burn Revolution book by Julia Buckley

Ruth Rouse

A pair of shoes from New Balance

Laura Dryden

Thanks again for taking part and thanks to all the generous brands and companies and people for their donations.

 

 

 

 

The Bells, The Bells…

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Hark! Is that the sound of bells heralding the end of Janathon? Why, I do believe it is. Unless you haven’t done yours yet – in which case, GET OUT THERE YOU LAZY SLACKER.

I know I’ve been the slackest of you all and it’s such a shame as, in the first week of Janathon, I HAD ALL THE ENERGY. Yes, all the energy, even yours. Then it went. Gone. My energy kaputted itself out of existence. Bye bye energy. It briefly came back over the last couple of days and I would have made more of an effort today if I hadn’t spent the day saving escaped bunnies, being a plumber’s assistant and making up stupid names for cottage pie.

But I did do some kettlebells later on in the day. Here they are.

The bells, the bells... (Yes, I know... I already made that joke)

The bells, the bells… (Yes, I know… I already made that joke)

So… thank you to everyone who took part in this year’s Janathon – I hope you enjoyed it and reached your personal goals whether that was to do one mile without stopping or to do one hundred miles over the month (or to do 400-odd like that nutter in Australia). Thanks also to those of you who took part in the DGDVC and I’ll embed the videos into a blog post some time next week and let the public vote for their favourite. If you haven’t done a DGDVC but still want to give it a go, feel free to send a youtube link to me over the next few days and I’ll add it.

Special thanks to Deputy Helen for being Deputy and helping to arrange some of the prizes and – more importantly – accompanying me to drink wine and eat pizza. But because we’re so hardcore, Helen and I haven’t even finished Janathon yet, as we’re doing a 10k tomorrow.

Wish us luck!

There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing (or whatever the saying is)

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‘Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you’, sang Crowded House. This isn’t a sentiment I entirely agree with as, although, yes, it would be nice to bring back a bit of sun from your summer holiday, all those English people lazing about by the pool in Barbados in December won’t be best pleased if you rock up after your long haul flight from the UK with a bit of British cold wet winter weather, will they?

So, no. Don’t take the weather with you everywhere you go. Instead, dress for the weather you currently have. Take this morning, for example. Although the sky was clear and blue and, from the warmth of my centrally-heated room, the world outside my window could almost have been mistaken for summer, I knew it was going to be cold outside and I’d promised Facebook I’d go for a run (mostly to stop The Running Goth picking on me by calling me a slacker every three minutes) and so I needed to dress appropriately. Hello, thermal top from Blackspade.

Yes, I'm holding my stomach in

Yes, I’m holding my stomach in

This top is lightweight, comfy, warm, has a high neck (if you like that kind of thing – personally, I don’t like things round my neck so I undid the zip a bit) and, as you can see, is quite long and stays in place.

This isn't me, but you probably new that

This isn’t me, but you probably knew that

I also wore it out walking a couple of weeks ago (you can see a pic of the pretty countryside in which I walked here) underneath a body warmer and it kept me warm then, too.

I changed out of my slippers and put walking boots on, honest

I changed out of my slippers and put walking boots on, honest

I’d also wear it out cycling so, all in all, it’s a versatile top. If you would like a top like this, in the absence of anyone bringing back some winter sun to warm you up, the Blackspade Winter Thermal Sports Top is available from Amazon (this link takes you to one which is identical except there’s no zip on the neck).

And remember kids, ignore what Crowded House say and don’t take the weather with you – leave it where it is.

Shamed Into Blogging

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The Running Goth has outed me at least three times in different places over the last couple of days for slacking, so before she finds anywhere else to shame me,  here’s an update.

On looking at my Running Free Online calendar, it’s not as bad as I thought. Okay, so the blogging perhaps maybe kind of a little titchy tiny bit slightly got a tad slack but I have sort of done some exercise. Look.

rfo-19Jan I think the 10 minutes last Monday must have been some kettlebells, the 4 miles on Wednesday was, in fact, a 6 mile walk in the countryside (my Garmin doesn’t like pausing too often and when it does it robs me of my mileage. Stupid Garmin). This countryside, to be specific.

countryside

The bike ride on Friday was cycling to the station before I went pizza-making with Helsbels where we put in further Janathon effort by kneading the dough for our pizzas. It counts. Shut up.

waitrose-pizza

The bike ride on Saturday was me cycling home after the pizza-making class, after midnight.

Okay, so I was slack last week – I admit it and I did annoy myself by being so slack but after such a promising start to Janathon where I had an immense amount of energy, that energy just seemed to disappear last week.

I promise to do better this week.

PBs And The Gods Of Sloth

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The Gods of Sloth were looking down on me last night as I was searching for a reason to drink wine. I knew drinking wine would prevent me from getting up early enough to go to my local parkrun but I really fancied some. It didn’t take long for me to find a reason – two reasons, in fact. The first was when I saw the weather forecast predicted 25mph winds and the second – which had me opening that bottle of wine faster than you can say ‘corkscrew’ – was when I saw parkrun had teamed up with a charity that tests on animals. Bad parkrun, bad bad bad!

Still, Janathon doesn’t care about windspeed or any other reasons for not running so I decided to do a parkrun distance on the treadmill at the gym and I must have ran like the wind because I GOT A MUTHAFUCKING PARKRUN PB, WAHOO! Okay, so I didn’t actually get a parkrun PB what with it not being done at an actual parkrun and it probably wasn’t accurate what with it being on a treadmill, but it’s the fastest I’ve run in at least five years and so I’m keeping that wahoo. It’s mine – all mine.

Oh, and in case you think I’ve been slacking the last few days – I haven’t. I’ve just been slack with the blogging but I’ve been gymming and body pumping and cycling and spinning and stuff and if you don’t believe me, here’s my calendar on Running Free Online.

Slacker? Me? Nope.

Slacker? Me? Nope.

Workout To The Beet

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Did you watch Food Unwrapped last night? The girl with the bad hair (okay, so I’m not going to be offered a part in a Timotei advert any time soon, but I wish she’d sort that bale of hay on top of her head out; it’s worse than that restaurant critic woman on Masterchef’s hair) checked out the benefits of beetroot by checking out the muscles on some rugby types and also by having her stamina checked on a stationary bike – once with having beetroot before and once without. The results showed she had far more energy after having the beetroot and so I put it to my own scientific test this morning by having some beetroot juice (I would have gone for the checking-out- the-muscley-rugby-types method but, alas, we were all out of those and, to be honest, rugby players just don’t do it for me anyway).

No, it's not vodka and cranberry juice.

No, it’s not vodka and cranberry juice.

This juice is made of 2 apples, 1 beetroot, 2 carrots, 3 celery sticks, 1/2 a cucumber and 1″ ginger and it really energised me. It energised me so much I lifted heavier weights while doing body pump this morning, despite me not having done any strength-training for weeks, if not months (if you don’t count the 20 minutes of kettlebells I did the other day).

Beetroot works!

Let’s Talk About Pants, Baby

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This morning, I spent far too long trying to remember if I usually get a wedgie when I’m running or at the gym. Then I thought, ha, yes, I distinctly remember standing on a treadmill hoping no one could see me picking my knickers out of my bum. Whether or not this was a common occurrence, I couldn’t remember but, seeing as I haven’t been banned from the gym because of complaints about constant unwedgieing, I reckoned this probably wasn’t on the list of runner’s ailments such as, say, black toenails or that foot injury no one knows how to pronounce.

Still, there was a reason for my wedgie wondering and that was because I’d been sent a pair of pants known as Edgies.  They work on the premise of ‘Don’t get a wedgie with an Edgie’ (which isn’t actually their slogan but it certainly should be and if it appears on their website, remember where you heard it first and let me know so I can send them an invoice).

Edgie no wedgie pants

Look, Ma – no wedgie!

They work by having silicone banding round the edge of the legs. My first thought was I DON’T WANT TO WEAR RUBBER PANTS. I AM NEITHER A) INCONTINENT; NOR B) A GIMP but once on, you don’t feel them at all. In fact, Edgies are beautifully light and comfy.

You too can have a rubber band in your pants

You too can have a rubber band in your pants

We all know you don’t get clothes that are targeted towards *ahem* sportspeople without the word ‘wicking’ or ‘breathable’ appearing somewhere and the blurb for the Edgies was no different. I’d never thought about breathable pants before and not only because the phrase ‘wicker knickers’ sounds itchy but now I’ve tried these and without wanting to go into too much detail, after my run, I was perfectly fresh and dry ‘down there’ and I want to buy some more as I don’t want to go back to running in cotton knickers now. And yes, I know you’re wondering, and the answer is no, I didn’t get a wedgie. Thank you for asking.

Edgies come in a range of styles, which you can have a look at on their website.

Janathon stats

Pants in the post: 1
Wedgies: 0

Oh yeah, I ran 3.1 miles.

Sgt FitFlo’s Going To Help Me

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Don't be deceived by the lack of mouth. Sgt FitFlo can ROAR.

Don’t be deceived by the lack of mouth. Sgt FitFlo can ROAR.

FitFlo called me a slacker on my blog yesterday. She said – and I quote – ‘Slacker – get out and do some running!’ Well, I never knew she had it in her to be so Sergeant Majorish, so I did what I was told and this morning I went to the gym and along with 20 minutes on the rowing machine and 20 minutes on the cross-trainer, I did 15 minutes on the treadmill, listening to Audiofuel’s Thru The Gears. If you haven’t got Thru The Gears – get it. It’s fabulous and free and has plinky plonky pianos and at the finish it speeds up and WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH – there’s engines and guitars a-blazing – you’re full of adrenaline and you get to the end and think HELL YEAH! and if you weren’t in the gym, you’d be lying back, lighting up a cigarette and/or turning over and going back to sleep.

You can download it here.

At least FitFlo outing me for being a slacker reminded me of this song, which is one of my all time favourites.

Love it.

 

Making The Most Of What You’ve Got

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Okay, I admit it – I was a *bit* of a slacker yesterday. And to be honest, today wasn’t holding up to be much better at first. I didn’t have the energy to run but I still fancied a walk in some fields – especially as the postman brought me a bright red bodywarmer and I could have looked like a proper countryside person and everything – but the weather was, as I believe the official term is, minging.

But, I couldn’t slack off two days in a row, could I? No. So I peeked into the conservatory where Shaun’s been making new worktops for the kitchen (despite me pleading for shiny black sparkles, he’s making them himself out of wood) to see if there was enough room for me and there was about two foot of spare rug, so I reckoned I could do a bit of a kettlebell workout without too much danger as long as I avoided tripping up on that sticky-out-bit of wood (which I did. Thank you for your concern).

2015-01-03 15.51.35

I used the 10 Minute Solution – Kettlebell Ultimate Fat Burner DVD which – strangely – doesn’t actually contain any kettlebell exercises but dumbbell ones instead. You can use kettlebells for the exercises but I don’t think you’d be very comfy. Still, if you have dumbbells, they’re good workouts.

I did twenty minutes and I promise I’ll do better tomorrow.

2015-01-03 16.13.32

At least I haven’t tried to make out reading a book about sport is actually a sport.

 

I’ve invented a new exercise (again)

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Oh dear. After seeing Rachel’s photos on Facebook of a walk she did in the countryside (I cleverly detected it wasn’t in her home town of Shepherd’s Bush and she admitted it was ‘oop north. Well, Midlands, anyway’), I was inspired to go out for my own walk in the countryside, especially as I only have to cross the road to do this and not travel a hundred miles.

So, what I had planned was this.

The hills are alive with the sounds of a smiley sun face

The hills are alive with the sounds of a smiley sun face

What actually happened though was this.

The hills are alive with the sound of snoring

The hills are alive with the sound of snoring

And when I re-emerged, it was dark and time for dinner and Eastenders and then I went to bed. But then I felt guilty so I invented the Bed Sit Up.

Janathon Day 2 

Walks in the countryside by Rachel: 1
Walks in the countryside by me: 0
Eastenders: 1
Bed sit ups: 2

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