JogBlog

Actually it was a grilled cheese sandwich (is there a difference? Maybe cheese in toast would be more accurate, although is bread done in a grilling machine toast? Oh, I’m confused now). A George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine makes a very nice grilled/toasted/whatever cheese sandwich anyway. In fact, it was so nice I had two last night after my dinner which wasn’t pizza as on Thursday after having pizza and Belgian beer, me and Gary decided that we would give up pizza until after the race in September. Eek! What have I done? No pizza for a month? I can’t even remember why we said we were going to give up pizza. He’s also giving up cider until then and I’m giving up chocolate. Not that I eat much chocolate anyway.

But anyway, my new junk food of choice powered me enough to get me through five miles this morning. Hee hee, yes, that’s right, five miles, woo, go me!! Took the circular route through the marshes, did a lap of the Asian Sports Field, then a lap of the park. I was going to carry on and do another lap of the park but as it had started to absolutely p*ss down, the park was empty except for the dodgy looking bloke hanging around outside it who’d been there since I got there, so I cut my run short and legged it home before he murdered me. Which was probably just as well as I’d done five miles which no doubt wasn’t a good idea with a dodgy knee but in a perverse way, being completely drenched and running in the rain with my iPod World Filter (tm joggerblogger) felt really good.

Gary got his race number which is 7. Shit. It’s not looking very likely that there’s going to be many people running which means I stand a good chance of being last. Hmm. Although there are people pushing buggies as well as walkers so I’ll probably do my fastest 5k ever to get out of the way of the screaming brat-type things. (You can see my maternal side just oozing out, can’t you? Heh heh)

I’m going to post some pics now. Now that those evil Casio b*****ds have fixed my camera (for free, yay, I won the battle with them) and sent it back to me.

Here’s the river. Sometimes people dump bodies in there. Nice.

Here are some purple flowers. I like purple. Flowers are ok too. Except for roses. I don’t like roses.

Here are some cows. I like cows. I’m not sure what the cows are doing over the marshes, they’ve been there about a week or so. Maybe they’re on holiday. No doubt they’ll be making an appearance in my local Sainsbury’s soon 🙁

I know we live in a permissive society, but what exactly is a permissive bridleway? The mind boggles.

And look, my trainers are dirty for the very first time! I feel like a proper runner now 🙂

Stats:
Miles: 5.00
Total time: 57.49
Average pace: 11.33 minute/mile
Average speed: 5.2mph
Max speed: 7.1mph
Total calories: 463
Weather: 68F and p*ssing down
Cows: 4
Dirty trainers: 2
Music:
The Prodigy – Out of Space
Transvision Vamp
Fischerspooner – Invisible
Paul Weller – Out of the Sinking
Manic Street Preachers – Love’s Sweet Exile
Auf der Maur – Head Unbound
Primal Scream – Stuka
Courtney Love – All the Drugs
DJ Zebra – Cmon F**k Me
Bobby Conn
Gary Numan – Cars
Strokes
Babyshambles – F**k Forever

My knee’s been playing up since my last run on Saturday so have been resting, ibuprofening and icing all week. 

I’ll attempt a run on Saturday and am out for pizza and Belgian beer tonight so maybe that will help 😉

As Mr Joggerblogger says, I’m powered by pizza, and I think it must be true. After seven (oops!) cans of Fosters and a pizza and only five hours sleep, I got up and ran my longest run ever. Almost four miles, yah!! And only stopping to walk up the steep bits, I don’t do steep bits.

Not much to report, saw another pensioner stealing blackberries, a record number of magpies (eight of them, but google tells me the rhyme only goes up to seven so I’ve decided eight means winning the lottery) and four cows. Cows are cool.

I need to speed up though if I’m going to beat Gary when we do the 5k. It didn’t occur to me to try and beat him, only to do my best for myself, but now Kate’s said that I should try and beat him and now that’s in my head… Hmm… Am I that competitive? 🙂

Stats:
Miles: 3.83
Total time: 45.30
Average pace: 11.52 minute/mile
Average speed: 5.0mph
Max speed: 8.6mph
Total calories: 326
Weather: 68F
Pensioners stealing blackberries: 1
Magpies: 8
Cows: 4
Music:
Catatonia – Goldfish & Paracetamol
Sex Pistols – I Wanna Be Me
Massive Attack – One Love
Bobby Conn – No Revolution
The Stone Roses – One Love
Sex Pistols – Problem
Strokes
Cardiacs – Dog-like Sparky
Bobby Conn – Angels

Now I know what they do in the Asian Sports Field and it’s not sport. Didn’t see anyone over the sports field on my way back from work so headed over there and approached what I thought was a black cloth or binliner or something. Gave me a heart attack when it stood up and I saw it was a Muslim girl just getting up from having a bit of a pray. I’m not sure who got the biggest shock – her with me running towards her or me with her standing up in front of me.

Got round the other side of the field and there was a man on a bench having an illicit drink. I’m assuming it was alcohol and not a carton of Ribena he was surreptitiously drinking from a blue plastic bag.

F**k it then, I’m going to use the field whenever I like, at least I’m doing sport over there!

Went past the enclosed football bit and there was a girl’s football team playing. Will have to tell Gary, he’ll be straight over for a bit of a lech. Girls and footy, his favourite, and if there’s any redheads he’s going to be in heaven 🙂

Anyway, it was a pathetic effort tonight and gave up after 15 minutes and walked home. Maybe I overdid it with the 2 mile walk in the morning and the gym at lunchtime and attempting a run was just too much for my feeble self.

Aah, my lovely lovely neighbours have just brought round my fixed camera (it’d better be bloody fixed, anyway. Casio, grrrrrrr) that Parcelforce left with them. I think I forgive them for throwing meat in my garden when they had a BBQ.

Stats:
Miles: 1.28
Total time: 14.50
Average pace: 11.37 minute/mile
Average speed: 5.1mph
Max speed: 5.8mph
Total calories: 106
Weather: 71F
People praying: 1
Men drinking out of blue plastic bags: 1
Nice neighbours: 1 (well, actually my other neighbour is very nice too)
Music:
Sex Pistols – (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone
Nirvana – Stay Away
Hal – Worry About the Wind
Hot Chip – Playboy

Something strange happened this evening. I ran for 35 minutes without stopping, I don’t even think I did that before I’d hurt my knee, woo, go me! Look what a weekend away and copious amounts of beer, pizza and pasta can do for a girl, I should do it more often 🙂

Didn’t actually get very far though but all good progress for my new 5k on 23 September. I’m not collecting sponsorship for my next race although it is for charity but if anyone wants to sponsor me let me know. Especially people who promised faithfully to sponsor me last time and didn’t 😉

A girl was running behind me so I moved to let her pass and then my competitive streak wanted to overtake her but given that we were over half a mile from where I wanted to turn off, I didn’t want to sprint past her and immediately collapse and have her leave me for dust. But in my defence she was about 10 years younger than me, probably didn’t have a bad leg and probably hadn’t spent the weekend drinking a tad more than the recommended 14 units for women.

And speaking of competitive, Gary’s going to do the next 5k with me. I’m sure he just wants to beat me at something as I beat him at Scrabble every single time we play. (Although now I’ve said that I’ll probably lose next time.) He also gets to train in the Asian Sports Field even though he’s not Asian as his gym membership allows him to.

I did want to run up the road where some of the terrorists that got arrested over the weekend live but I didn’t fancy getting shot if the police mistook me for one. Well, if they can shoot random Brazilian electricians, they probably won’t be bothered about taking a potshot at a random female jogger.

I finished off this evening’s run with a lap round the park. There were a couple of ginger chavs with a spliff who decided that I was most amusing and gave me the funniest looks. They didn’t even have the excuse that they were stoned as their spliff was unlit. I should have grabbed it off them and run off. Aw, why didn’t I think of that at the time? Bloody cheek, ginger people laughing at me, I don’t know what the world’s coming to.

There were loads of chavs in and outside the park tonight, I must have brought them back with me from Plymouth (and no I don’t mean Stu, Emily & Mik), why do chavs look at you so funny?

Off to the gym tomorrow lunchtime and another run tomorrow night hopefully as going out to drink coconut beer on Wednesday and I should probably try to work off the weekend’s beer and the four pizzas I’ve had in the last week. Oops, so much for “I’m a finely tuned athlete and my body is a temple” 🙂

Stats:
Miles: 2.92
Total time: 35.26
Average pace: 12.09 minute/mile
Average speed: 4.9mph
Max speed: 6.7mph
Total calories: 217
Weather: 64F rain (it wasn’t raining, my Garmin is fibbing)
Ginger chavs smoking a spliff: 2
Finely tuned athletes with templelike bodies: 0
Music:
Primal Scream – Rocks
Elysian Fields – Fright Night
Cardiacs – Dirty Boy
Manic Street Preachers – She is Suffering
The Police – Next to You
Gary Numan – That’s Too Bad
The Rolling Stones – Time is on my Side
Northern Uproar – Town

Back out in the wild today, didn’t fancy the marshes so went to the park but then the thing that bugs me the most – another runner running along the path in the wrong direction (i.e. the opposite direction to me so we keep passing each other face on) – happened, so took a little detour and went to the Asian Sports Field (yes, that’s what it’s called), as when my train goes past it in the morning, I see people walking their dogs over there so thought I’d take my chances and risk getting arrested for not being Asian.

It was great over there, had the place to myself except for 17 blackbirds, must be the local blackbird hangout spot. There was a dead blackbird too, must have been from another area and stumbled onto their patch and got a kicking.

The sports field is twice as big as the park and must be quite high up as I got a nice view of Canary Wharf, the Gherkin and the NatWest Tower. Wanted to take a pic but camera is still in the camera hospital and when I got back in there was a letter from Casio wanting me to pay £84 to have it fixed. What? I’ve only had it about 2 months! Bastards, I’m going to have to ring them and I hate using the phone 🙁

Apparently grass is better for running on as it’s softer and I could really feel the difference when I got back onto concrete, think I’ll make that my new running place, when there’s no one over there playing football.

It started to rain, which was great, I love running in the rain 🙂

Anyway, managed just over two miles without stopping. Hmm, maybe I can enter that 5k in September I’ve got my eye on, although at my current speed, I’m going to be so far at the back, they’d have started next year’s one by the time I’ve finished 🙂

Off to Plymouth tomorrow so no more running ’til next week. But I’m soooooooooo glad I’m out there again, fingers crossed my knee doesn’t go funny again! (Yes Bernard, I know I was limping on Saturday and probably shouldn’t be running again yet)

Stats:
Miles: 2.28
Total time: 26.52
Average pace: 11.47 minute/mile
Average speed: 4.7mph
Max speed: 6.4mph
Total calories: 193
Weather: 71F partly cloudy
Blackbirds: 17 (ish, stopped counting after 17)
Dead blackbirds: 1
Music:
Rolling Stones – Ruby Tuesday
Duran Duran – Hungry Like the Wolf (oh dear, that’s as bad as joggerblogger’s Jermaine Stewart)
Arcade Fire – Rebellion
Ween – Sketches of Winkle
Bobby Conn – Cashing Objections
Longpigs – She Said
The Damned – Smash it Up (perfect running music)
Manic Street Preachers – Repeat
Big Boi – Bowtie
Cribs – Direction

Well, well, well, after yesterday’s little excursion, thought I’d have another go today and just go up to the marshes and back as didn’t fancy the park, as there’s a new climbing wall/mountain thing in there which was covered in kids so took a little run up the road which turned into me doing the whole 3 mile circuit round the marshes 🙂 A bit of stop and start but I did manage 20 minutes without stopping which isn’t a bad effort I think. And what is an even better effort is that I managed to even say a “morning” to a fellow runner. I even got a “hi” back and just as I was thinking that with the dog walkers, horse riders, cyclists, runners and pensioners picking blackberries, maybe it’s not all joyriders, muggers and burglars round here, on the last stretch back I ran past a huge yellow sign asking for information about a serious sexual assault. It also says it happened between 10pm and 4am. My heart goes out to the girl but what the f**k was she doing over the marshes at that time? I’m nervous enough over there at lunchtime in broad daylight.

Lovely day over the marshes today, very sunny but with a nice cooling breeze 🙂 Now I’m going to have to finish the website I’ve been procrastinating about for over a week, and everything else I haven’t done.

Couldn’t take any pics today because my camera broke after my day trip to Brighton and it’s at the camera hospital.

And why is running such a love/hate thing?  When I’m out there, I’m thinking “this is really hard, why am I doing this?”, then when I’ve finished and got home, I want to do it all over again!

Stats:
Miles: 2.93
Total time: 37.55
Average pace: 12:55 minute/mile
Average speed: 4.6mph
Max speed: 6.3mph
Total calories: 242
Weather: 75F Scattered clouds
Music: Idle Vice Pirate, Ween, The Presets, Straw, Gary Numan, Cardiacs, Junior Senior, Franz Ferdinand, Manic Street Preachers, Tricky

Yay, I went for a run limp around the park today, go me! Managed a grand total of 13 minutes which I thought wasn’t too bad, thought I’d only manage about 5.

Shared the park with a man and his dog. The dog was much cuter than the man. Little doggy started trotting along next to me which was quite appropriate as Iggy had just started singing I Wanna Be Your Dog 🙂

Saw three magpies which is a lot better than just seeing one of them which means impending doom or something. Although three means I’m going to have a boy which doesn’t really appeal, think I might prefer the impending doom.

Stats:
Miles: 1.13
Total time: 13:11
Average pace: 11:37
Average speed: 5.2mph
Max speed: 6.2mph
Total calories: 79
Weather: 69F Rain
Music: Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, Morcheeba, Ween, The Kooks