Entries are open for Juneathon 2015!

Juneathon

Juneathon: A yearly festival of activity and excuses

I know it doesn’t seem long since Janathon but, yep, it’s that time of year when I pester you to sign up for Juneathon.

In case you don’t know what a Juneathon is, it’s a month of daily exercise – running, cycling, gymming, swimming, extreme sunbathing, whatever and after you’ve done your exercise, you blog about it or if you can’t be arsed to write a whole blog post, you can just tweet your efforts (using the #juneathon hashtag) or post about it on the Juneathon Facebook Page.

New for 2015! Because Louise said on Facebook she wasn’t Juneathoning this year because a) it’s hard; and b) it’s not on Strava and if it’s not on Strava it doesn’t count, I created a Juneathon Strava Club. You can join the Strava Juneathon Club here but it only appears to count running, not cycling or anything else, so if anyone knows how I can change that, please let me know (and not just because I don’t want to be bottom of the Strava leaderboard. Okay, it’s because I don’t want to be bottom of the Strava leaderboard).

Juneathon is fun and it’s free and it’s a great way to make new friends/followers and we even meet up in real life after it’s all over and done with to stuff our faces then go to the pub to drink like the finely tuned athletes we’re not.

Sign up now at the Juneathon website and, remember, slacking is not an option.

Juneathon Giveaways – Winners Announced!

All Juneathon participants were eligible to enter one or both of this year’s giveaways – a JoggBox and/or a 90-minute Tension Release Exercise class – and the winners are:

JoggBox

Millie Lavelle (Run For The Quiet)

Tension Release Exercise Class

Tor Hamilton (Running From The Zombies)
Rachel Kain (Rachel Joy Kain)
Angela White (Health Transformation)
Jacqueline Wilson (Jaxamaline)
Millie Lavelle (Run For The Quiet)

Well done, everyone – I’ll be in touch!

Juneathon 2014 – Days 29 and 30 – Diseased With Juneathonitis

As is usual for a Sunday, my exercise was a walk to Tesco and back. But guess what I did on the last day? On the last day, I was diagnosed with Juneathonitis. Okay, so the word the doctor used was shingles, not Juneathonitis, but he said it can be brought on by physical exertion so I’m diagnosing myself with Juneathonitis, especially as that sounds better than shingles, which sounds like some kind of Victorian plague.

So, that’s Juneathon finished for another year. Well done everyone for your efforts and I hope you enjoyed it. I’ve got an extra week to do but I think it’ll be restricted to walking. 

Juneathon 2014 – Days 27 and 28 – Walking and Running

Yesterday, I walked to the station. I know what you’re thinking – you’re thinking, ‘Hang on, just because you’re the Queen of Athons, that doesn’t mean you can go round making rules like “walking to the station” count for Juneathon.’ Well, actually, because I am the Queen of Athons, it does mean I can go round making rules up willy nilly but yesterday’s walk to the station counts. It counts because the station is over two miles away and I could have cycled or got a bus but no, I walked it for Juneathon. So there.

Today, I ran three and a half miles, although I am still being feeble and walking most of my runs. I have told myself, next time I do a parkrun, I’m not going to walk any of it, not even the hilly bit.

So, just a couple of days left! For you lot, anyway. I’ve got another week to do as I told my uni friend, Shelby, she could start Juneathon a week late because she was on holiday the first week and if she exercised every day and blogged properly each day up to the end of June, I’d do the extra week with her for moral support. I actually thought she wouldn’t last the month but I clearly underestimated her as she appears to be doing brilliantly. I have asked my deputy, Helen, to be the independent adjudicator and thoroughly check Shelby’s blog for any signs of slacking to see if I can get out of my extra week. I don’t think she’s going to find anything though, dammit.

Juneathon 2014 – Days 25 and 26 – All The Exercise

Well, I certainly can’t be accused of slacking yesterday, even if I didn’t blog in the evening. I’m not much of an evening blogger – I’m not much of an evening anything, really. I used to blog all the time in the evening as I used to blog as soon as I’d come back from a run, whatever time that was, even if if was straight after a run commute from work. So, yes, my blogging over the years has definitely slacked off – a bit like my running, I suppose.

Anyway, yesterday morning I went for a five mile run, then in the evening I went to the gym and spent 30 minutes on the rowing machine, then 15 minutes on the cross-trainer, before going to a 45 minute spin class. This morning, I had planned to do my body pump DVD (the 30 minutes of it I like, anyway) but I couldn’t be bothered. However, as we all know, in Juneathon slacking is not an option, so I got on with it.

I do need to do some walking later though as I was perturbed to see I’d lost my number one position on the Fitbit leaderboard and after holding the top spot for a few days, I’ve become pettily competitive about it and I want to be number one again. Stupid Fitbit.

Juneathon 2014 – Day 24 – Back To The Running Group

Usually when I go along to something, at the end when saying goodbye and I’m asked if I’ll be along next time, I always reply with ‘yes, definitely’, then am never to be seen again. This isn’t because I haven’t enjoyed myself – when I say, ‘yes, definitely’, I mean it (except for that time I went along to the local writing group. I most definitely did not mean it that time) – I just seem to not go along again, at least not for a long time after, anyway. But last night saw me going along again to the Tuesday session of a local running group. They do meet at other times – on a Wednesday night when I’m at my spin class and on a Saturday morning when they meet too early for my liking and so Tuesday suits me. It especially suits me as, on a Tuesday, they do things like hills (see last week) and speed sessions. Last night was a speed session. I thought this would be a bit of running fast, then stopping for a break, then doing it again a couple more times. Oh no. We got to the field and the leader said while pointing at each corner of the field, ‘start at that corner, then run to that corner as fast as you can and don’t stop until you get to that corner where you can slow down a bit then when you get back to the first corner run fast again and repeat for thirty minutes’. Um, okay. Not.

We all started off well, then I was out of breath in about twenty feet but I managed to carry on until I got to the corner where we could slow down and I slowed down and slowed down until I was walking and then I ran again then I walked again and then I thought I need some sort of system here and everyone else was going round the field doing their own thing and so I decided to run round to one of the corners then walk for a minute and repeat until I’d done the thirty minutes. I got back to the start at about 28 minutes so I decided that was near enough thirty minutes, then every one got back and the leader said to me, ‘did you enjoy that?’ and I said, ‘yes, and I must have won, as I was back first’. Yay, I am the champion.

Juneathon 2014 – Day 23 – Top of the Fitbit Leaderboard

My days are usually extremely sedentary when it comes to putting one foot in front of the other, so it’s been a bit of a surprise to find myself at the top of my Fitbit leaderboard the last few days. This is despite my Fitbit’s best efforts to boot me back down to my rightful place near the bottom by running out of battery yesterday morning, therefore only logging 32 steps and not noticing any of the sixty-four miles I cycled yesterday (it doesn’t actually count cycling but it does give you something towards your steps I think).

fitbit

Still, I’ll enjoy my no. 1 position while it lasts. I’m mentioning my Fitbit because I just did a 1.91 mile walk for Juneathon to get me some steps in and not just to show off at being top of the leaderboard. Honest. 

fitbit-no1

If you have a Fitbit and would like to add me as a friend, please email me an invitation via the Fitbit website.

Juneathon 2014 – Day 22 – Great Kent Bike Ride

I’ve taken part in the Great Kent Bike Ride twice before, but only doing the short route of 35 miles. This year, I thought I’d do the long route but then the bastards decided that the long route wasn’t long enough at 60 miles and added a new 100 mile long route. So the long route is now the medium route and so it was the medium route I did.

In previous years, I’d ridden my beautiful Pashley Poppy although I rode it into town the other day and because I’m now used to my lighter, nippier bike, it was like riding a tank, albeit a pretty pink tank and I have no idea how the hell I’ve done 35 miles on it in one go.

I was up bright and early, got all dressed up in my cheapy cycling gear from Sports Direct (don’t knock Sports Direct – it may look like a jumble sale and you always feel like you might catch something in there but they do have some great bargains) and I almost looked like a cyclist.

great-kent-bike-ride

That’s not fat squidging out the back of my top, it’s flapjacks, honest. Trek Bars to be precise. Peanut & Oat and Mixed Berry to be even more precise.

It was a quiet ride this year – the only reason I can think of is because of the new 100 mile route as I reckoned the people who usually do the 60 mile route would have gone for the longer route this year and they had to start between 7 and 8am, unlike the lightweights doing the shorter routes who didn’t have to start until between 8 and 10 (‘between’ being taken literally by me, as I turned up at 9).

Despite the info saying there was a refreshment stop every 10 miles or so, the first one didn’t appear until 22 miles and even then there was no tea on offer, just water. The next stop – at 40 miles – was a cafe but you had to leave your bikes round the back and as there were only a couple of people around, I didn’t want to leave my bike unattended and I hadn’t brought a lock with me. Someone told me the next stop was only 5 miles away though so I carried on and, hurrah, the next stop was indeed only 5 miles away and they had tea, yay.

The ride was great and the weather was perfect, except for the wind in places, especially down the really boring long road along Dungeness – the struggle on that road not made any easier by the dents in the road every two feet. In fact, the only real moan I have about the ride is because of the roads in places – there had been a lot of resurfacing taken place recently which is obviously a good thing, given the state of the roads, but it’s not a good thing when you’re on a bike and the resurfacing means the roads are basically made of gravel with a good chance of skidding.

At 54 miles, the route split again with an arrow pointing one way for the short and medium riders, and an arrow pointing the other way for the hardcore long route riders. I briefly pondered whether I fancied doing another 46 miles but decided I didn’t, so I followed the arrow that took me to the finish line where I was handed a certificate and a bottle of water.

Then I cycled the two miles home and spent the rest of the afternoon in the garden with my Kindle and cold cans of Budweiser.

Juneathon 2014 – Day 21 – An Unofficial Parkrun

Hmm, yes, I can see now setting my alarm for 7am when I didn’t go to bed until 2am so I’d get up with plenty of time to get to parkrun was probably a tad optimistic. I totally slept through my alarm and although when I did wake up I could have rushed to get ready and got there on time, I prefer to take my time in the morning, so I cycled down to the park later on to do my own unofficial parkrun. Without the motivation of other people running nearby and without other back-of-the-packers to try and pick off and beat, my time was hideously slow – three minutes slower than the proper parkrun I did last week.

Still, a run is a run and a Juneathon done is a Juneathon done. Ha, I’m so poetic and deep. Feel free to stick that on a meme. Alternatively, feel free to ignore it completely and laugh at my feebleness instead.

Juneathon 2014 – Days 13 –17 – Including A Run With Other People

I haven’t slacked as much as you might think, so there. On the 13th (last Friday) I went for a run/walk along the Greensand Way. It would have been more run than walk but the second field had hip-high grass and even a walk was difficult.

The next day I redeemed myself by going to the local parkrun. Despite going along on my own as usual, Helen said she was going to hers and also on her own and she was sure she was going to be really shit as she’s still getting her fitness back after having a baby. So, we decided to telepathically encourage each other round the course. It worked, too, as we both ran it a lot faster than we thought we would. Virtual high-fives all round, yay.

Sunday I walked to Tesco and back. IT COUNTS.

Monday I did some kettlebells and on Tuesday I decided to go out with the local running group (not to be confused with this local running group who were horrific and quite literally pushed me out the door when I said I didn’t know they were running so far and I’d come back another time) and join them for their speedwork/laps session. What they failed to mention on their schedule is that sometimes these laps are HILLS. I hate hills. We slowly ran up to the bottom of the hill and were told to do as many laps as we could in 30 minutes. I tagged along with a couple of the others who have just finished their beginners schedule and after three laps (half the lap is the hill, the second half is a lovely downhill) we decided we’d had enough, but then one of the other girls came along and said ‘come on, you can do one more’ so we gave another lap a go and ran some of the hill and I was pleased with my three and a bit laps as usually when I see a hill, I don’t even attempt it, I just stop and walk up it.

Today, so far I have done 30 minutes of body pump and I’m going to the gym later and then to a spin class.

See, told you I haven’t been slacking. Just slacking on the blogging.

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