Category: Viceathon

As this stupid challenge was (sort of) my idea in the first place, I suppose I’d better write an update to let you know how I’m getting along.

Hmm, well, um, er… I haven’t been in credit yet this month. This has been a month of debt. I almost caught up last week and was only two Viceathon units in debt, which I had planned to erase on Friday at the gym. But then on Thursday night I decided to have a bottle of wine, so that caused the double effect of a) getting me further into debt; and b) me not being arsed to go to the gym on Friday.

Then it was the weekend. I was feeling wiped out on Saturday (wiped out enough for me to cancel a much-looked-forward-to night of absinthe and pesto with my fellow first-class and soon-to-be-published poet Lisa) so didn’t do any exercise (although I did manage to drag myself across the road to the pub later on in the evening). On Sunday, I decided I wanted to find some lambs and so Shaun and I went on a bike ride to find some.

After 8 miles, Shaun decided he was too cold to go any further and I didn’t want to cycle on my own so that was 4 Viceathon units knocked off the total. More wine-drinking took place on Sunday night and so my total debt at the mo is 17 Viceathon units.

So, that’s 255 minutes in the gym, or 34 miles cycled, or 17 miles ran (or a mixture of the three) just to break even.

Eek.

Shaun has a drink problem. Only, the problem is that it’s not his drinking he has a problem with, it’s mine. So, last night, as I came out of the supermarket clutching eight cans of Budweiser (‘that’ll see you through’, he said), Shaun thought up a little challenge for me: ‘For each drink you have, you have to run a mile’.

Usually, I just tell him to shut up if he moans about me drinking but he’s a sneaky little chap, and knows I’m fond of challenges and so I thought about it and said ok, but I’m adding in cycling miles too.

So, this morning, after telling Twitter I had a new challenge for everyone (oh, sorry, did you think I was going to do this on my own?), a little discussion was born between me, Helen, Adele, Rachel and Jo who were all up for it.

I am aware that there are lots of moderate drinkers out there and so 1 pint = 1 mile isn’t going to be much of a challenge for someone who only drinks 2 pints a month so, if (like Adele) you’re more of a cakehead than a pisshead, you can use baked goods. Shaun, who is neither a pisshead nor cakehead, is going to run a mile for every 5 minutes of Peggle (a game on his phone) he plays.

It’s a personal challenge, so you can use whatever you like, e.g. 1 prostitute = 10 miles. (I appreciate that you might not want to write on your blog that you’ve been shagging prostitutes, so if you want to substitute the word ‘prostitute’ for ‘cake’ that’s fine.)

You don’t even have to run or cycle or go to the gym. If you want to walk a mile for every half hour of TV you watch, that’s ok. Unlike the other ‘athons, there’s no need to blog every day, but if you want to share what you’ve been up to, I’ve created a Viceathon Facebook Group.

The challenge starts on Sunday 1 April, so you’ve got a couple of weeks to think about what your vice miles will be. You don’t need to do your miles the next day, you just need a balance of zero by midnight Monday April 30. So, if you’re planning to eat a lot of cakes or go to the pub for six hours on 30 April, make sure you’ve got enough vice miles in the bank to cover it.

My personal challenge is:

1 drink (1 pint/glass of wine) =

1 running mile; or
2 bike miles; or
15 minutes in the gym

If this is too easy, I’ll up the bike miles and gym minutes.

Got it? Cool!

If you’re in, leave a comment below (with what you’ll be doing if you’ve decided yet) and I’ll add you to the list of Viceathoners in the sidebar.