On the fourth day of Juneathon, I cycled a bit

I didn’t want to blog tonight but the control freak Judge and Independent Adjudicator said I had to, even if it was only for a couple of seconds so here’s my couple of seconds blog post.

For today’s Juneathon, I went the .37 mile extra to the station on the way to work and on the way home, after going to Tesco for some wine and strawberry beer, I went an even longer way home, thus using up valuable drinking time and therefore hardcore Juneathoning and therefore I am declaring myself the Juneathon Hero of the Day.

Stats (cycling):
Distance: 6 miles
Time: 35 minutes
Speed: 10.3 mph
Calories: 189
Extra .37 miles before work: 1
Extra 1.32 miles after work: 1
Hardcore Juneathoners: 1

The third day of Juneathon was powered by a banana smoothie

But I think it was a broken banana as I was absolutely knackered the whole way round. I think I must have had too much sleep as I was asleep by 11pm, then wide awake at 6am, but then dozed off and didn’t wake up ‘til 9:15am after having a strange dream about the shouty Masterchef bloke that’s not bald but in my dream he wasn’t a shouty Masterchef bloke, but a Changing Rooms builder type bloke sort of like Handy Andy and I was round his house and it was on the seafront and I wondered how he could afford a nice house like that and then I was having strange dreams about drinking red wine and being a smoker again and in my dream I was really pissed off about being a smoker again and then the people I was supposed to be with went without me and I was all on my own with no way of getting home but then I woke up and had a banana smoothie as I don’t usually have any breakfast and I thought that might fuel my run and I’ll be able to go faster but after .6 of a mile I wanted to stop and I thought oh no, I can’t stop now, I want to do three miles but after three quarters of a mile I stopped to walk and then started running again and I thought of my old schoolfriend Julia who is doing Juneathon for the first time and yesterday, or was it today? ran for the first time in over a year and not only did she run for the first time in over a year, she ran 2.5 miles without stopping and she also did it in 27 minutes which I think is pretty cool and so she is my Juneathon Hero of the Day which I just made up and I get to almost two miles and the Audiofuel girl is oohing her little heart out and I’m still walking and I think if the Audiofuel girl is making all that effort then maybe I should make a bit of effort too, as when she got the Audiofuel gig she probably didn’t envisage it being the running-music of choice for middle-aged women squeezed into running clothes that are too small and so I start to run again and I go down the path and then I’m walking again and there’s a runner running towards me and I don’t want to start running in case he thinks I’m only running because he’s running and hasn’t wimped out and I wonder if maybe he’ll think I’ve just finished a twenty mile run and am just cooling down on my way home and I think probably not and as he goes past I go to say hello but he just looks away and down and I don’t want to talk to him anyway because he’s a ginger and even though he’s sweating like a ginger thing, his face is all white and lumpy and pasty like he drank too much last night and then I’ve got .5 miles to go and I think I really should run the last .5 miles but then it gets to .6 miles and I think I really should run the last .6 miles and so I do.

Stats:
Distance: 3.01 miles
Time: 37:46
Pace: 12:33 m/m
Calories: 276
Broken bananas: 1
Juneathon Heroes of the Day: 1
Audiofuel girls oohing their little hearts out: 1
Gingers: 1

And on the second day of Juneathon, I slept through my alarm

I said to the Independent Adjudicator yesterday, can I count my cycling commute to the station and back as Juneathon? And he said no. So, after I’d finished sleeping through my alarm and cycled down to the station and got the train to Canterbury and went to work, I did some work, then left at my usual time and got the train back and got back on my bike and went a really really really really really long way home.

But by a really really really really really long way, I mean an extra 0.37 of a mile. So, not really that long at all, really.

Still, it counts as Juneathon as it was extra exercise. And if you want to complain to the Independent Adjudicator, feel free. Just remember who cooks his dinner for him every night.

Stats (cycling):
Distance: 4.82 miles
Time: 31:18
Speed: 9.2mph
Calories: 137
Alarms slept through: 1
Works gone to: 1
Juneathons completed: 2/30

On the first day of Juneathon, my true love said to me…

‘Happy Juneathon!’

And I said ‘nnrrggnn’ and went back to sleep.

Two and a half hours later, I got out of bed, ate some fruit (a satsuma and two plums), drank a cup of Liptons Pink Citrus tea and some summer fruit flavour squash, checked my emails and Twitter and Facebook updates, put the fact that my Open University End of Course Assessment had to be posted off this afternoon and the seven hundred word commentary hadn’t been written yet, got changed and went out for the first Juneathon since the last Juneathon which was, funnily enough, last June.

Not a lot happened really. A woman with a buggy stopped to get out of my way and then I saw two men with sticks and I don’t like seeing men with sticks but then I realised they were gardening implements and they were doing some kind of gardening thing and I wondered if they were from the council as we need the council to mow the verge outside the house and then there was a cyclist on the pavement and I thought to myself ‘bollocks am I moving out of your way, you can get on the road’ and he did indeed get on the road and when I got back to the house, I’d only done two point eight miles and I wanted to do three miles so I carried on up the road a bit and I saw the cows in the sheep field and the cows and the sheep were very close together, and I didn’t know sheep and cows did mix and match and I wondered what they were talking about and then I turned round and went home and wrote the commentary for my ECA and cycled in the rain to the Post Office where the careless and reckless and totally thoughtless man behind the counter ripped the envelope when he put it on the scales but luckily I had sealed it with sellotape for extra security so it should be ok and then as I was nearly home I got back on the pavement and there was a man cycling towards me, also on the pavement and the pavement’s very narrow and I wondered how we would get past each other and the man stopped and went over to the edge and then he fell in the ditch and he fell further and further and I thought oooooooooooops, I hope he’s ok and as I got up to the man in the ditch I said ‘are you ok’ and he said ‘yes’ and I think he was a bit embarrassed and I said ‘thank you for letting me pass you, anyway’ and I cycled the rest of the way home trying not to laugh.

Stats:
Distance: 3.02 miles
Time: 32:52
Pace: 10:54 m/m
Women with buggies: 1
Men with gardening implements: 2
Cyclists on the pavement: 1
ECAs posted: 1
Men in Post Offices ripping envelopes: 1
Cyclists in ditches: 1
Fields with mix and match cows and sheep: 1
Juneathons completed: 1/30
Music:
Audiofuel

Juneathon runner’s up prize announced

audiofuel2

You may or may not know that I’m a huge fan of Audiofuel Running Music. I don’t know what magical properties they put in their tracks but they really work when I need a bit of a boost, whether I’m out running or in the gym.

You need Audiofuel.

And because you need Audiofuel, I asked that nice young man Sean (not to be confused with Shaun) if he could donate a track or two to the runner up of Juneathon. And because he is so nice, he said the runner up can choose four compilations from their music store.

This does not mean you can all slack off in the hope that you don’t get the first prize and you get the runner’s up prize instead. The Independent Adjudicator will be watching.

Polaroid Polarized Sunglasses

That nice Laura chick from Marketing Zone (aka Jim’ll) sent me some new Polaroid Polarized Sunglasses to try. I think she sent them to me when it was snowing, so it took a while to try them out. In the meantime, I just looked at them occasionally, admiring their stylishness.

image

They came in a hard case and with two extra interchangeable coloured lenses (ok, pedants, one is clear and not a colour. Well spotted). I said to Little Crutchey Man ‘is this so you can swap them round to suit the colour of your outfit?’ and he said no and started going into one of his long rambling too-full-of-technical-details lectures and so I emailed the nice Laura chick and said ‘hello, what are the different lenses for?’ and she said ‘Glad you asked. As it happens, brown is a polarized lens that’s great for very bright days and will give you clear contrasts. The orange is for not-so-sunny days  –  or if you’re out as the sun is setting or coming up. They’re easy-peasy to switch – so whatever the conditions you’ll have some Polaroids that are right.’

So there you go. (Probably best not to wear the orange ones with a green top though, eh?)

Because there’d been no sun, I hadn’t been able to try out my nice new sunglasses. And also, because I look really stupid in sunglasses (doesn’t everybody?), I’ve been too scared to try them out for fear of people pointing and laughing at me more than they do usually.

But today I had no choice. I was going running and it was sunny. So on they went and I went outside. The lenses are nice and dark and made my arms look nice and tanned, instead of the pasty pink they’ve turned over the last couple of days.

I set off for my scheduled two miles and the sunglasses stayed on perfectly and didn’t move at all. I felt quite cocooned in them, as if I was invisible and I wondered if I could wear them at races and eye up the fit blokes before the race started without them noticing. It’d have to be at the start of the race as there’s no fit blokes at the back, where I usually hang out at races. Yes, ‘hang out’ is the new ‘being really slow’.

Anyway, I think the sunglasses must have had extra magical properties too, as I even contemplated going further than my scheduled two miles. Or it might have been the scientifically proved magical properties of Audiofuel Running Music giving me a boost.

And speaking of those wonderful people at Audiofuel, they’re going to let the runner up of Juneathon choose four compilations from their website.

(That doesn’t mean you can all slack so you don’t win the VFFs, even if the Audiofuel tracks are a better prize.)

Juneathon 2010 logo and prize unveiled!

Woo hoo, how exciting. Today I have:

a) the new Juneathon logo to unveil, thanks to the mega-talented [rich] (aka Joggerblogger); and

b) details of the prizes. (Ok, prize. Singular. (Actually, there will be another prize but that remains secret and not just because I don’t know what it is. I do know. So there.))

Here we are then, courtesy of that JB bloke, the new logo.

Feel free to copy it onto your own blog posts. In fact, I insist.

Ok, so you’ve scanned to see what the prize is. I’m getting to that bit now.

Today I got an email from a man called Andy from Fitness Footwear. Actually, his name is Adam but as he addressed the email ‘Dear Carly’, I thought it only fair to call him a similar it-starts-with-the-same-letter-and-has-the-same-number-of-letters-in-it-but-that’s-where-the-similarity-ends name.

imageAnyway, Adam asked if I’d like a pair of Vibram Five Fingers Classics to give away as the winner’s prize* and so I said ‘yes please’.

In case you don’t know what they are or what they look like, that’s them on the left. Yes, I know they look weird. But runners look weird anyway, so it’s not like anyone’s going to laugh at you more than they do now, is it?

I’m going to keep the roll call where it is, so if you want to join in, add a comment to the Juneathon 2010 FAQ and Roll Call and I’ll add you to the list.

(p.s. Today I went for an interview for a job in a running shop. Can you all send either a) positive vibes my way; or b) a big bribe to the owners of my local running shop please? Ta.)

*Legal stuff:

The winner is entitled to choose one pair of Vibram Five Fingers Classic shoes from FitnessFootwear.com. Prize cannot be exchanged for cash. The judge’s decision is final.

Juneathon FAQ

What is it?

It’s a month of exercise. Running, cycling, walking, rowing, weights, whatever. Just do something every day in June.

Then what?

Then blog about it on your blog, on Twitter, or on the Facebook page.

Why?

Because you’re a fat lardy bloater and you need some exercise. Because it’s fun.

Who’s idea was this in the first place?

Joggerblogger is the man to blame.

How long has it been going?

This will be the fourth year.

Who else is doing it?

So far, the roll call is as follows:

Me
Phil – http://www.sorelimbs.co.uk/
Andy – http://andystriblog.blogspot.com/
Travelling Hopefully – http://www.travellinghopefully.wordpress.com/
Ash – http://run-bootsy-run.blogspot.com/
Caspar – http://www.uneducatedguess.org/ @caspararemi
Sheri – http://runningawayfromthegrownups.blogspot.com/ @sheri3004
Tom Roper – http://www.roper.org.uk/marathon2005/
Iliketocount – http://iliketocount.wordpress.com
Adele – http://fitartist.wordpress.com @adeleprince
Jo – http://irunbecauseilovefood.wordpress.com
Run DMT – http://deniseisrundmt.com @denisermt
Gene – http://www.genesoboleski.blogspot.com @boutdrz
Hauling my Carcass – http://www.haulingmycarcass.com @haulingmycarcas
Eating Trees – http://eatingtrees.wordpress.com/
Sam – http://www.runningandthinking.blogspot.com
Adele – http://fitartist.wordpress.com/
Shunning Running – http://shunningrunning.wordpress.com/
Breandán – http://www.aroundtheyearin24pints.blogspot.com/
Emma – http://emmavinyard.blogspot.com/
Pete – http://peteschallenge.wordpress.com/
Trying to Run – http://www.tryingtorun.co.uk/
The Red Bucket – http://www.theredbucket.co.uk/jogblog/
Ev – http://seasidestrider.blogspot.com/
Joggerblogger – http://joggerblogger.wordpress.com/
Highway Kind – http://runningmatters.blogspot.com/
Jay McNeill – http://bigmanruns.wordpress.com/
Kirsty
Carl & Claire – http://carlsjogblog.wordpress.com/

How do I join in?

Post a comment here and say ‘I’m in’ or something.

How do I win?

Juneathon was originally meant to be a month of running, so if you’re the only person to run and blog every day, then you’ll be the winner. If there’s more than one person who runs and blogs every day, then one of those will be the winner. If no one runs and blogs every day, then someone else will win. Yes, I just made that up.

What do I win?

Last year Eating Trees won a little monkey. This year I haven’t a f**king clue it’s a surprise.

Where’s the new logo?

Coming soon. Be patient.

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