Category: Janathon

Janathon Penguin Prance Dressing Gown Dash Video Challenge

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You know I mentioned in the last Janathon newsletter that I was going to set up a Dressing Gown Dash Video Challenge? (If you didn’t receive the newsletter or you’re not taking part in Janathon [eh? why? whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?], you can read it here.) Well, seeing as on the very first ever Janathon my *ahem* effort was to run round the garden in my dressing gown, it seemed appropriate that I kick off Janathon’s 5th birthday in the same way but with slightly more elegance, sophistication and finesse.

So I did it in my penguin onesie.

Here’s the introduction:

And here’s the run.

Now it’s your turn. I want to see videos of you in your onesies/pyjamas/dressing gowns/anything except ‘normal’ running gear running round your garden/park/front room. I’ll post all the videos on here at the end of Janathon and the public can vote for their favourite and I’ll sort out a prize for the winner.

I can’t wait to see your videos!

You Can’t See Tits On The Radio

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Fellow Janathoner, Millie – who blogs at Run For The Quiet – asked me if I wanted to talk about Janathon on her Preston FM radio show. Last year, I managed to weasel out of this by claiming to have a sore throat (actually, I did have a sore throat and was gutted I couldn’t do it), so Deputy Helen stood in for me and you can hear the fine job she did here.

This morning, however, I checked I didn’t have a sore throat by speaking to the cat and all vocal chords seemed intact so I had a shower and mooched about in my dressing gown until I decided that, although no one would know what I was or wasn’t wearing, I wanted to look presentable for my radio interview debut and put some clothes on.

Despite a bit of an awkward start when the line was crackly and I couldn’t hear what Millie was saying, the interview went well. I managed not to swear (I almost said ‘arsed’, as in: ‘if you can’t be arsed to blog’) or take the piss out of anyone and I also squeezed in a reference to bar push-ups and dressing gown dashes.

Anyway, you can hear the interview in all my dulcet-Essex-toned glory below.

Millie spoke to Cathy about Janathon by Geek On Radio on Mixcloud

Thanks Millie, for inviting me onto your show.

If you haven’t signed up for Janathon yet, sign up now at www.janathon.com and if you need more reasons to sign up, we’re offering prizes from New Balance, Helly Hansen, Audiofuel and more and if you need further persuasion, read Deputy Helen’s post about how Janathoners have more fun.

Janathon 2015 – Entries Are Open For Janathon’s 5th Birthday!

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Janathon 2015

Yeah, Janathon is 5 – where did that time go? As it’s the fifth birthday, it’d be great if as many of you as possible would sign up and make it the best one yet. Remember, you don’t have to blog every day – microblogging is fine, so if you’re feeling a bit typed out, just tweet (#janathon) or post on the Janathon Facebook page what you’ve been up to exercise-wise (you can post what else you’ve been up to, too, if you like, we’re all friends here).

With the help of Deputy Helen, we’re hoping to get some fabulous prizes lined up to give away in a draw open to all participants. So far we’ve got fitness writer Julia Buckley’s bestselling book The Fat Burn Revolution  to give away and I’m going to be adding prizes to the website as they’re confirmed, so keep checking to see what’s up for grabs.

Not one to get my priorities muddled, I’ve set the date for the post-Janathon meet up. As in previous years, it’ll be held in the Holborn branch of Strada. More information on the Janathon website – I hope you can make it.

So, have you signed up yet? Remember, slacking is not an option. Enter Janathon 2015 here.

Janathon Pyjama Plank Challenge: Winner Announced!

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I know, I know, this is looooooooooooooooooong overdue but I’ve been working hard (okay, and pissing about on Facebook) on finishing my university assignments. But, they’re all done now and I am no longer a student. Yes, it’s gone quick, hasn’t it? I think I’m not a student anymore, anyway – or am I officially not a student until I get the official results in July? Or maybe I can pretend to be a student until my 16-25 Railcard runs out in October.

Anyway, the pyjama planker with the most friends – sorry, I mean votes – is Tor (who blogs at Running From The Zombies) for her gorgeous happy smiley-faced plank. Tor wins a pair of eGloves.

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In second place, is Mark (whose blog appears to be down at the mo), who planked over his little doggy friend. Mark wins a copy of Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.

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Unsurprisingly, this was one of my favourites, too. I’m not going to say which is my other favourite but it might be the one of Pete (who blogs at Running Still) with his kit off. But it might not be, as obviously I am not that shallow.

Well done to Tor and Mark – please email me your addresses and I’ll get your prizes sorted.

Thanks to everyone else who joined in the fun and posted their Janathon Pyjama Planks. Shall we do it again for Juneathon?

Janathon Pyjama Plank Challenge Giveaway!

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Well, this is a teensy bit late, eh? Still, here are the entries we received for the Janathon Pyjama Plank Challenge. As mentioned on Helen’s blog about a billion years ago, eGloves will let the winner – as chosen by you – choose a pair of gloves from their range, up to a value of £30.

Helen has also nicked her boyfriend’s copy of Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, which will go to the planker with the second highest number of votes.

To vote, leave a comment below with the number of your favourite planker.

If I’ve missed anyone out of the gallery, please email me your planking photo.

Voting will be open until 31 March 2014.

 

 

Janathon Day 31 – Janagone!

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Got up late, got detoured by a flooded subway, got lost, got my hair cut, got wet, got a cup of hot chocolate and some toasted Bara brith, got warm.

Okay, I lied about the last bit, I haven’t got warm yet.

So, Janathon is over; I’ll write a longer post tomorrow but well done everyone, hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Janathon 2014 totals:

Days exercised: 31/31
Running: 26.66 miles
Cycling: 151.89 miles
Cross-training: 11:42 hours
Calories: 11,745

Janathon Day 29 – forgetfulness

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I did a new body pump DVD this morning then went to the gym and went on the cross-trainer and went on the treadmill then when I got home I was going to blog but ran out of time because I was going out to lunch

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and when I got back, I’d forgotten all the things I was going to put in my blog.

Probably wasn’t very interesting anyway, although I do seem to remember it was going to contain the word ‘wankers’.

Janathon Day 28 – Promises, promises…

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Woke up. Remembered yesterday I’d sort of promised to the Janathon community I’d run on each of the last days of Janathon. Swore a lot.

A promise is a promise though – even if it’s only a sort of promise – but I toyed with the idea of asking if I could be let off because my running shoes were still wet from yesterday’s run, but then I remembered the whole of the internet has seen my shoe rack

shoerack

so probably knows I’ve got a few spare pairs (to my shame, I’ve got running shoes I haven’t even tried on yet), then I also remembered Louise went out in damp running shoes the other day which is even more hardcore than those fifty mile ultra-marathons she takes part in and so I realised damp shoes probably aren’t a good enough excuse to back out on my sort of promise.

I had a good reason to go out though – I’d asked the Janathon sheep expert, @Jovial Gnome (who has pet sheep and assures me they are only pets and not future roast dinners), if he knew what the dumpy sheep with the squashed faces were, as there are some near me and I was too scared to Google ‘sheep with squashed faces’ for obvious reasons and he said to take a photo and he’d have a look.

So, armed with my phone, I set off on my run and when I got to the sheep field the bastard sheep were right over the other side and even if my phone had a 20x optical zoom (which it doesn’t), the bastard sheep were facing the wrong way and I’d only manage a close up of their woolly bums, which would be nice, but not what I was after.

A couple of fields down though were some more sheep facing the right way but I’m not sure if this is the same type of sheep I saw before with the squashed faces.

sheep

Still cute though. Any other sheep experts out there?

Janathon Day 27 – running to the finish line

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It just crossed my mind that for the last few days of Janathon, I could run every day to finish with a flourish. But then I realised this is an uncharacteristically busy week for me and running every day isn’t going to be an easy thing to achieve. But, I feel kind of committed now and Janathon’s supposed to be a challenge, isn’t it?

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So, you heard it here. I ran today and I’m going to run on each of the last four days (not promising they’re all going to be outside runs though).

When I came back from today’s run, I had one of the low fat sultana muffins I made yesterday (recipe on my Planet Veggie blog), as Anita Bean (whose book – Food for Fitness – I got the recipe from) said they’re the ‘perfect refuelling snack that no athlete should be without’, which just sounds to me like an excuse to eat cakes at 9:30am, but hey ho. 

Good luck with the rest of Janathon, those of you who are doing it. Who’s got something special planned for the finish?

Don’t forget there are prizes for the best planks (details on Helen’s blog), so keep your photos coming in.

Janathon Day 26 – 10,000 steps by 11am

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I slept really badly last night, the only good bit was the dream I had about finding a puppy hiding in the toilet, although it was disappointing when I woke up and there was no puppy.

My Fitbit tracks my sleep and it told me I woke up eleven times, which is probably about right but it also said I slept at 97% efficiency. Waking up eleven times doesn’t sound like 97% efficiency to me.

sleep

My Fitbit also tracks how many steps I take (in fact, it seems to be just an overpriced pedometer really, although some people absolutely love theirs – I’m still waiting to love mine) and when I got back from the gym this morning, it sent me a badge to say I’d done my daily target of 10,000.

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When I got to the gym, there was a tall bloke on the treadmill and it reminded me of one of the guests on Friday’s Room 101 when he said he gets annoyed when people go up to him and say ‘you’re tall’ like he doesn’t know he’s tall and I thought uh oh, I may have once or twice* gone up to a tall bloke and poked him in the chest and said, ‘you’re tall’ but, in my defence, I haven’t said ‘you’re tall’ to inform him he’s tall in case he hadn’t noticed, I’ve said it to take his mind off me poking him in the chest.

 

*every time I’m drunk and there’s a tall man in my vicinity**.

**not a euphemism.

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