Category: Jogging

Due to me sleeping for over 12 hours which can’t be blamed on either a late night or too much drinking (as I left my wallet at home yesterday so I couldn’t go home via the offy, knowing I’d be too lazy to walk the two minutes to the shop once I was in), I decided not to do my new six mile route but because I was still in shock at my scales telling me I was 9 st 6 the other day (although they have now gone down to a more respectable 9 st 2) forced myself out for the government recommendation of 30 minutes.

I went to the park and was alone except for the dad/child combo doing laps of the park on their bicycles and I thought to myself they’re going to get dizzy going round and round the smallest park in the world.

I left the park after one lap and went up to the sports field and I could see a man on the other side of the field and I don’t trust men on their own in fields but then I could see he was with a small dog and although men with small dogs probably aren’t to be trusted, they are to be trusted more than men in fields without any dog at all.

When I got round to the other side of the field, I saw a group of people and I thought to myself oh no, there’s a group of people, what are they doing. Then I remembered I was in a sports field and so they were probably there to do some kind of sporting activity, and they started doing some kind of arm holding thing and so instead of interrupting their arm holding thing, I went onto the street and past the cricket ground where there’s always little kids playing football and never cricket and then I went back into the park where the dad/child combo were still doing laps of the park and I thought they must be really dizzy by now; then I thought that maybe it was a cunning plan and when he gets home the child will say waa, Dad, I’m really dizzy, and the dad will say oh dear, you must be ill, you should go to bed now for the rest of the day; while all the time thinking, hurrah my cunning plan worked, now I can watch Match of the Day in peace. But then as I passed them the dad smiled at me and I felt bad for thinking he was an evil parent and maybe they were just having a fun day out after all.

Stats:
Miles: 3.01
Total time: 30:56
Average pace: 10:16 minute/mile
Total calories: 260
Men with small dogs: 1
People doing arm holding things: lots
Evil dads making their children dizzy: 1
Music:
Stereo Total – I Love You, Ono
Calvin Harris – Acceptable In The 80s
Bobby Conn – King For A Day
Justice v Simian – We Are Your Friends
Voodoo Queens – Supermodel Superficial
Blur – B.L.U.R.E.M.I.
Echobelly – Great Things
Adam & The Ants – Young Parisians

I did toy with the idea of taking my Garmin and running kit to Frankfurt with me as I thought it would be cool to run in a foreign country and even more cool to get an aerial pic of it but then reality struck and I thought what are the chances of me getting up early and going for a run Saturday morning when we’re not even getting to the hotel until after midnight and I thought the chances are fuck all. Although I did get a run in on the way back when after going the wrong way twice on the way to the airport and arriving in the carpark 10 minutes before the departure gate was closing, me and my new running partners in the form of Tracey, Luke and Ian legged it to the departure gate and got there at the last second and because we had priority boarding, walked straight onto the plane in front of the people who got there on time. Result.

So in an effort to blow away some cobwebs and exercise some damage limitation after three days of over consumption and the pizza I ordered last night, I went for a quick spin round the park. I saw a blackbird but I still don’t have photographic evidence of the fact that I now know the difference between blackbirds and crows because I didn’t take my camera with me.

Stats:
Miles: 2.06
Total time: 21:27
Average pace: 10:25 minute/mile
Total calories: 199
Blackbirds: 1
Photographic evidence of blackbirds: 0
Music:
The Gossip – Standing In The Way Of Control
Calvin Harris – Acceptable In The 80s
Good Charlotte – Keep Your Hands Off My Girl
The Gossip – On The Prowl
Adam And The Ants – Whip In My Valise

As one of my goals for this week was to run 7 miles in preparation for my running commute home next week, I mapped out a route on the Gmap Pedometer website which I thought might be about 7 miles but it said it was 6.1 miles so I thought well, that’ll do, that’s longer than I’ve run before, except for the one 10k I did in October.

My new route took me through the usual bit of the marshes where I didn’t see any daisies but I did see these things.

And I didn’t see any crows (crows are big and have black beaks, yes?) but I did see a blackbird (blackbirds are small and have yellow beaks, yes?) but it flew away before I could take its pic but I did get a picture of a woman taking her horse out for a walk.

Then I had to leave the familiar part of the marshes and cross the road and rejoin the marshes where they turn into Hackney Marshes. I followed the river hoping I was going the right way and wasn’t going to get lost or shot or thrown into the river. In the middle of the marshes was this. What is it and why is it there?

When I got to the edge of the marshes, I saw they have a funky information board. We don’t have one at our part of the marshes. Not fair.

Across the road it looked like the marshes continued but as I didn’t know where I was and wasn’t sure if the road I had reached was the road on the route I’d planned, I decided not to go deeper into the marshes but to follow the road round and hope it would take me to somewhere I recognised.

I ran and ran and ran until I saw in the distance what I thought I recognised as the flats opposite the gym and so I followed them and then I came across Leyton Orient Football Club.

I thought hurrah, I’m not lost anymore. Although I’ve never actually been up close to the football club but sort of knew where it was as I used to be able to hear the football matches on a Wednesday evening in the house where I used to live.

So I continued down the back streets of Leyton and then came to the road I run down on the way to and from the gym and then a little bit further on I see the finish line in the form of the Texaco garage and I get home and my Garmin says I’ve just run (give or take the occasional photo emergency) 6.42 miles. Yah!

Today’s route

Stats:
Miles: 6.42
Total time: 1:16:02
Average pace: 11:50 minute/mile
Total calories: 504
Reedy things: lots
Blackbirds, not crows: 1
Strange sculpture things: 1
Funky info signs: 1
Longest runs ever: 1
Things done from to do list (out of 13): 10
Music:
Maximo Park – Gone Missing
Depeche Mode – New Life
The The – Uncertain Smile
Levellers – One Way
Seahorses – 1999
Cristina – Drive My Car
Graham Coxon – Are You Ready
Stereo Total – Musique Automatique
Patrick Wolf – Bluebells
The Damned – Nasty
Scissor Sisters – Filthy/Gorgeous
Adam And The Ants – Vive Le Rock
The Shining – I Wonder How
Kaiser Chiefs – Try Your Best
XTC – This Is Pop
Babes In Toyland – Laugh My Head Off
The Cult – Shape The Sky
The Fiery Furnaces – Tropical Ice-Land
Freelance Hairdresser – A Diff’rent Stroke Of Genius
Hole – Playing Your Song

It’s my last day of being a lady of leisure. I’m going to miss getting up and going for a run, as I have done every day except Monday this week.

Today’s run was cut short as there were two dodgy looking women in the park. Apart from the fact that they were wearing matching red fleeces and one was sitting on the bench and the other was standing a few feet away, I don’t know why I thought they were dodgy but I took a detour rather than go past them and went home.

Before I went home though I did take another pic of a daisy. This one is particularly impressive because it’s pink.

And my attempts at taking a pic of a blackbird today were again ruined by the camera shy blackbirds flying off any time I stopped and got my camera out but I did manage to get a shot of this one that was too busy eating to notice me.

When I got home my cat has done a shit that Gillian McKeith would be proud of. What she wouldn’t be proud of, however, is the fact that she’s done it in the bath. I spent five hours cleaning yesterday and my evil git of a cat has pooed in my nice clean and shiny bath. I was going to buy her a new feeding bowl and litter tray today but I don’t think she deserves it now. Bad kitty.

Today’s route

Stats:
Miles: 1.99
Total time: 24:51
Average pace: 12:29 minute/mile
Total calories: 221
Pink daisies: lots
Blackbirds eating: 1
Dodgy looking women in matching red fleeces: 2
Cats pooing in bath: 1
Things done from to do list (out of 13): 9
Music:
Albert Hammond Jr – In Transit
Adam Ant – Beautiful Dream
Dollar – Hand Held In Black and White
XTC – Respectable Street
Cardiacs – Hello Mr Sparrow
Adam And The Ants – Hello I Love You
Black Wire – Hung Up
Cardiacs – A Bus For A Bus On The Bus

I woke up this morning and thought I won’t go running today, I’ll get on with cleaning the house straight away.  So I got into my running gear, grabbed my Garmin, iPod, personal alarm and camera and went over the park and then thought I shouldn’t have bothered bringing my camera, there’s nothing to take pictures of over the park.  I did a lap of the park then went up to the sports field where there’s even less things to take photos of and took a picture of a daisy because it was there.

Then I went back to the park and saw a blackbird.   Each time I tried to take its picture the little git kept flying away and hiding in trees, so it became a matter of principle that I got its picture.

Also in the park were two old men sitting on a bench.  Not talking but just sitting.  On the third lap of the park, one of them looked up and on the fourth and final lap, the other one looked up too.  Maybe they were sad at the news that John Inman died this morning.  I find that quite sad too.

Now I have to go and clean the house.  But in true procrastinator stylee, I have to have my breakfast first.  Although it’s practically lunchtime, so maybe I should have lunch.  Oh, decisions decisions.  It’s a hard life being a lady of leisure.

Today’s route

Stats:
Miles: 3.15
Total time: 34:40
Average pace: 11:01 minute/mile
Total calories: 287
Daisies: lots
Blackbirds hiding in trees: 1
Old men sitting on benches not talking: 2
Dead actors: 1
Things done from to do list (out of 13): 8
Music:
The Bravery – An Honest Mistake
The Fiery Furnaces – South Is Only A Home
Adam and the Ants – Dog Eat Dog
Disco Ensemble – Drop Dead, Casanova
The Fiery Furnaces – In My Thatched Little Hut
The Fiery Furnaces – Sweet Spots
Kaiser Chiefs – The Angry Mob

Oh yes, it’s nice being a lady of leisure. My leisurely ladyness this week has comprised cleaning the outside of the house (what are the little cocoony things?), sorting out the bathroom cupboard (it’s a floor to ceiling fitted cupboard and full of junk; do I really need two spare sets of straighteners and a waterproof fish shaped radio that doesn’t work?), sorting out under the stairs (I still can’t bear to part with my orange DMs even though I stopped wearing leather years ago), defrosting the freezer and shopping. The shopping was necessary as I needed a new kitchen blind and a new bathroom blind. And I put them up myself instead of waiting for Mark to come round and do it. And it wouldn’t be a week off work if it didn’t involve waiting in for deliveries or workmen so this afternoon I’ll be waiting for the floor man to come and put down a new kitchen floor.

I had planned to go to the gym this morning but thought I might not get back in time for the floor man, especially as I forgot to go to the cashpoint yesterday and he’ll probably want paying as workmen are funny like that, so I went for a quick run instead.

I did the route that takes me over the scary footbridge and past the horses but the horses weren’t out today, so maybe they went to visit the cows or something, and when I got to the other side of the bridge where two women have been attacked there was a dead pigeon. Although I’m not sure it was dead. It didn’t look like it was injured but just having a little sleep with its head under its wing but I couldn’t see it breathing. Poor pigeon.

Then when I go to the last stretch, there was a man taking a picture of an action man or some other kind of toy figure that he’d placed on the fence round the reservoir. Weird.

Today’s route:

Stats:
Miles: 3.06
Total time: 31:42
Average pace: 10:22 minute/mile
Total calories: 276
Dead or sleeping pigeons: 1
Weird men taking pictures of action men: 1
Things done from to do list (out of 13): 8
Search engine query of the day: soggy goose
Music:
Manic Street Preachers – The Intense Humming Of Evil
Placebo – Infrared
The Bravery – An Honest Mistake
Adam and the Ants – Kick
Heaven 17 – Penthouse and Pavement
Stereo Total – Le Diable
Scissor Sisters – Available (For You)
Cardiacs – Faster Than Snakes With A Ball And A Chain

I’ve got the week off work, yah!

I was going to do the four mile route but the sun came out and I decided to further explore the marshes and decided that I was glad I was over there and not at work. This is a better view than I get from my office overlooking High Holborn.

I don’t see any boats in Holborn, either.

I only discovered the marshes when I started running. I knew they were there as I could see them from the train but I didn’t know exactly where they were. I knew there was a park at the bottom of my road but I hadn’t been in there either ’til I started running.

My little detour in the marshes only took me back to where the cows used to live so I left the marshes and explored outside and found a little park then continued my journey by road forgetting that I was going to have to go past B&Q. Boo hiss. Here it is, it’s the one in Lea Bridge Road, if you go past it, throw bricks at it please.

Then just as I’m getting nearer to where I live, I turn round the corner and there’s another big yellow sign. I don’t like it when I see the big yellow signs. I think that’s about six now in six months. Grr.

I gave up getting in dodgy taxis. One of my better decisions I think.

And with the marshes being quite marshy today, my new shoes are now muddy. Hurrah.

Now I’m going back to being a lady of leisure although I have a to do list, which I actually did four things from yesterday. Woo, go me. My to do list usually gets ignored but yesterday I did get a quote for my kitchen floor that B&Q ripped and they’re (not B&Q, those bastards are coming nowhere near my house ever ever again) coming to fit my new floor tomorrow. The man said it’ll cost £70 including fitting. I said that’s really cheap. He said that’s because we buy so much flooring. I said does that include moving the fridge and taking up the existing floor? He said no, that’s another £40. I said you’d better put that down then. It’s still cheaper than the floor I had down originally. Tracey’s friend Maureen paid £1,000 for her kitchen floor. Next time she wants a new floor, I’ll give her the number of these guys.

Also from my to do list I bought a new bathroom blind and a new bin for the bathroom. On my to do list is to clean the house, so when I’ve cleaned my new bathroom, I’ll post a pic of it in all its completedness glory. Although, if I had the money, I’d pay for someone to come round, rip it out, and do it all over again and get rid of any trace of B&Q.

I also defrosted the freezer and bought some new clothes. Ok, the new clothes weren’t on the list but if a shop’s going to sell a stripy purple t-shirt, then I’ve got to buy it haven’t I?

Today I’m going to sweep outside. Why do all the leaves collect in the front of my house and no one elses? Or do people sweep their front gardens every day? Surely not. And I’m going to attempt to get rid of all the cobwebs and stuff from around the front door. No one else seems to have them either. Why have I got the dirtiest house in the street?

And at some point this week I want to run 7 miles because that’s how far my work is and now I have my new running rucksack, I want to run home one day next week. Although according to the AA routeplanner, it’s 7.4 miles but I’ll worry about the .4 later. Or get the bus.

Today’s route:

Stats:
Miles: 5.66
Total time: 1:04:49
Average pace: 11:26 minute/mile
Total calories: 527
Big yellow signs: 1
Things done from to do list (out of 13): 5
Music:
Beastie Boys – Intergalactic
The Police – The Bed’s Too Big Without You
Cristina – Is That All There Is?
Abba – Summer Night City
Babyshambles – Loyalty Song
Manic Street Preachers – Born To End
Adam and The Ants – 21 B-Side Baby
Peter Bjorn and John – Objects Of My Affection
Ludes – Dead Man’s Music
The Kooks – Match Box
P J Harvey – Rub It ‘Til It Bleeds
The Young Knives – She’s Attracted To
Courtney Love – I’ll Do Anything
Cardiacs – Is This The Life
Soft Cell – Insecure Me