JogBlog

Did two lots of 8 minutes running / 2 minutes walking this morning without stopping but stopped twice on the middle one. My excuse is that I was running on grass and mud which was a bit more tiring than a flat surface.

Still don’t think I’m running 8 minutes “comfortably” but don’t want to be stuck on week 5 forever, so I’m going to attempt 12 minutes next week. If I fail miserably, I’ll go back to 8 minutes. Seems a big jump though, another 50% of time added? 8 minutes 30 seconds would be kinder.

Probably feeble today as stayed up late drinking and posting nonsense on the Designers Block forum and if my pizza had turned up I wouldn’t have been drinking on an empty stomach. Actually the pizza did turn up but after an hour and a half and I’d already phoned to cancel it as I was mightily pi**ed off with them so I turned the lights off and hid upstairs pretending I was out. Pizza man was very persistent, he knocked on the door for 7 minutes. I felt sorry for him as it wasn’t his fault it was late and he’s a nice pizza man. Anyway, I’m not getting pizza from them again, looks like it’s back to Quattro Stagioni, they do nice pizza. I was whinging to the chaps and chapesses on the forum and Bones’ suggestion was ‘Shout down the stairs “I can’t come to the door; I have waited so long for my pizza that I am too weak to move!”‘ Heh heh, good one!

Am going to be healthy next week, honest! No pizza, no crisps, no chocolate, no chocolate brownies, no alcohol in the week. I want to get up to 12 minutes continuous running. I will do it!

Will have to do it, as have just signed up to do the Crisis Square Mile Run and I want to do it without stopping. Kate and Gary are going to run it with me. Well, Kate will if it’s not raining. I said if it’s raining we’ll go to the pub instead and she liked that idea. I have made myself a sponsorship page too so people can sponsor me lots of money. This was the only 5k run I could find that wasn’t for a charity that funds/does animal experimentation which is a shame as I fancied running the Tower of London one but the British Heart Foundation tests on animals and I was going to run it and not raise any money and then after the run tell them why I wasn’t raising any money for them but decided I didn’t want anything to do with them.

Rant over.

Stats:
Miles: 2.37
Time: 28:10
Average pace: 11:52 minute/mile
Average speed: 5.0mph
Max speed: 6.4mph
Calories burnt: 210
Music: The Killers
Friendly cyclists: 1
Other cyclists: loads
Magpies: 3
Horses: 3
Big black bird (blackbird? crow?): 1
Time stopped smoking: 2 months 1 week 1 day
Cigarettes not smoked: 1,008
Money saved: £100.80

Work was a right pain in the bum today, I don’t know what they’ve done, making six of us redundant, now they’re asking for miracles. We can only do so much work in one day! In case you’re wondering what this has to do with running, today was not good. Got to the train station in the morning and it was shut so had a nice 15 minute walk in the rain to the tube. Wasn’t actually that bad, as had my iPod for company. Then work was a right pain, then missed two trains on the way home due to the Central Line being crap, so was thinking shall I go home via the off licence or go out for a run? The run won! Wasn’t sure if work was being such a pain in some sort of quest to drive me back to smoking on non smoking day. Two women at work are currently taking steps to stop. One’s borrowed my Allen Carr book and another has bought it today, so good for them and good luck.

Anyway, this is supposed to be a running blog so here’s a running bit. Did all 3 lots of 8 minutes running / 2 minutes walking without stopping, so yay for doing that twice this week. Not sure it’s doing it comfortably though, so shall see on Sunday which I think is going to be my next run how easy I do it and whether or not I should repeat this week. But then again, I suppose Sunday’s run is going to depend on Saturday’s drinking but I think I’m staying in. Am out boozing with Joy, Mariana and Ilaria on Friday so will take it easy on Saturday. Heh heh, famous last words.

Got home to find Gary on my doorstep with a chocolate brownie. This is a big chocolate brownie, as he works in a bakers and they make slabs of it. Not really the food for a finely tuned athlete (heh heh) but I’m sure it won’t go to waste. Then while he was waiting for the bus, he opened a bottle of Budvar. I’m sure today people are trying to make me crack and be unhealthy, but they won’t get me! Am hungry though, better go and try out the chocolate brownie. I’m going to take some to work tomorrow so it would probably be best to test it first and make sure it’s ok.

Stats:
Miles: 2.52
Time: 29:50
Average pace: 11:49 minute/mile
Average speed: 5.1mph
Max speed: 6.5mph
Calories burnt: 194
Music: The Killers
Chocolate brownies: 1

I’m repeating week 5 again this week as the nice people on the Runner’s World forum said I should, until I can do 8 minutes running comfortably. Christmas then? Wasn’t too bad tonight though, did all three repetitions without stopping. Will try and do 3 lots this week as only went out twice last week due to er, can’t remember what it was due to, but probably due to couldn’t be botheredness. Going to have to try and fit it in round going out on Wednesday and Friday though, so I think I’ll go out tomorrow night and then maybe Sunday if I stay in on Saturday.

At least on Sunday I can go over the marshes. Next time I go out running round the streets I think I’m going to take a gun so I can shoot anyone I see spitting. Saw four blokes spitting tonight, the dirty, dirty peasants. I f*****g hate people spitting in the street, urgh! Some bloke made some comment to me but luckily the Kaiser Chiefs drowned him out. Must have been something in the air tonight (other than dirty peasants’ spit) as saw quite a few people out running.

Stats:
Miles: 2.44
Time: 30:29
Average pace: 12:29 minute/mile
Average speed: 4.8mph
Max speed: 8.7mph
Calories burnt: 221
Music: Kaiser Chiefs
People spitting: 4

Impatience got the better of me but for the better for my health so maybe patience isn’t a virtue after all and impatience is?

Couldn’t wait any longer to try out my Garmin Forerunner 301 so although I was feeling lethargic this morning due to a week off work and doing a lot of sitting around (mostly on the pc being distracted by the Designers Block forum) and going out drinking and eating crap, I put my trainers on and went out for a run. It’s taking me a long time to get ready to go out to run now though, as I’ve got my iPod, my keys in my gloves (don’t know what I’m going to do with them in the summer?), my stopwatch and now my Forerunner 301, which along with the wristwatch type thing also has a heart rate monitor. Anyway, I love my new gadget even though it tells me I’m an incredibly slow runner. Just above walking speed, I think.

I saw two power walkers when I was out. I’m going to refrain from commenting in case I offend anyone. I also saw a chav. And people flying kites. And a flock of cyclists (do they come in flocks?)

Think I’m going to have to repeat the 8 minutes running / 2 minutes walking again next week, as although it wasn’t a completely feeble effort this morning, I didn’t actually do all 3 repetitions without stopping. But it was either stop or have a collapsed lung. Can a heart rate monitor give you pain? I haven’t a clue if my average heart rate means I’m seriously unfit or not. I shall investigate.

And why did I want a cigarette when I got back? Have stopped 2 months now, hurrah! Sometimes I forget I don’t smoke anymore.

My week off work is over. That is not a good thing. Ah well, I’ve still got 11 and a half days left to take off before the end of April. Yay for me.

Stats:
Miles: 2.86
Time: 36:34
Average pace: 12:48 minute/mile (stop laughing!)
Average speed: 4.7mph (if you stopped laughing, don’t start again!)
Max speed: 6.8mph
Calories burnt: 308
Average heart rate: 172bpm
Max heart rate: 217bpm
Music: Black Wire, shuffle (Baby Teeth, Franz Ferdinand, Bobby Conn)
Chavs: 1
Power walkers: 2
Kites: 1
Cyclists: ‘kin millions of them
Horses: Lots

Wow, not so feeble today, completed all 3 lots of 8 minutes running / 2 minutes walking today, yay for me! I think I did anyway, my stopwatch stopped on the last one, seems to do that a lot, it needs to do more watching than stopping.

Ah well, tomorrow I’ll hopefully pick up my new toy from the post office tomorrow. The card says it came at 7.56 but I was awake so must have been one of the posties off the telly that aren’t allowed to post parcels so just drop the cards through the letterbox. Complete pain too, as the post office shuts at 1.30 in the week, just as well I’ve got the week off I suppose. I hope it is there as on the card it says to wait 48 hours but I’m too impatient to wait. I don’t do waiting.

Quite a productive day. Cleaned the kitchen (including the inside of the oven – woo!) and did the hoovering and had food shopping delivered. OK, having food shopping delivered isn’t exactly productive but it means that I can cook proper dinners for a few days instead of eating frozen rubbish out of the freezer.

Speaking of productive, Devil7, Boris, JimmyH and Actionscripter from the (now pretty much defunct) TWD forum have been very productive setting up a new forum, Designers Block. And very nice it is too. I don’t think much (paid for) work is getting at the mo while everyone’s spending all their time on the new forum. I’ve been quite quiet, I will have to rectify that and post some nonsense.

Out on the piss with Gary tomorrow to a new bar that’s opened round the corner. It looks like it’s trying to be upmarket and failing miserably. Out on the piss tomorrow means no running (or probably not) on Thursday, so look like it’s going to be Friday then I’m not sure if I’ll get another run in this week as not supposed to do two days in a row and I very much doubt I’ll be capable of running on Sunday after Bernard’s birthday bash.

Stats:
Miles:2.46
Calories burnt: 220
Music: Black Wire

Aah, more feebleness today, must stop running after a night of lager, crisps, chocolate and takeaway! Didn’t even complete one whole lot of 8 minutes, will have to repeat this week’s schedule again next week I think. It was very windy though so that’s partly my excuse.

Thanks to Ben I have a new route to get to the marshes which doesn’t involve going anywhere near ex-boyfriend’s road. It’s a good route actually, nice and quiet with hardly any traffic. Scary footbridge though. And why do people dump rubbish opposite the tip? Sometimes I hate people. People who dump rubbish, anyway.

Saw some horses over the marshes. Not that surprising really, what with there being a riding school there.

Stats:
Miles: 2.6 (probably not very accurate, hard to tell how far I went on the marshes on google maps, need to get me a Garmin Forerunner 201)
Calories burnt: 240
Music: Black Wire, Pixies
Horses: 5

A pretty feeblish effort today. Seemed I was too tired to run tonight, managed 2 lots of 8 minutes but wimped out on the last one and only did 5 minutes 30 seconds. My excuse is that there were people at the bus stop and I didn’t want to run past them as I’d already had some little kid take the piss out of me although he probably had good reason to. I’d have given him a slap but I think it’s still illegal to hit 7 year olds, isn’t it? Even if they deserve it. Damn shame.
Maybe I was feeble because I got stressed at work this afternoon. They want to give me more work but I don’t have time to do it and even if I did have time, I don’t want to do it. I like spending lots of time browsing the net and not doing work type things. I was going to speak to my boss about it but he was too drunk. He wasn’t capable of finding my desk but said he was capable of cycling 10 miles home. Aah, the rationale of a pissed up person is a wonderful thing.

There was almost a car crash this evening which was quite fun. Some idiot decided to overtake a bus. Duh, it’s a very busy road, with cars parked up on both sides of the road, why did he think nothing would be coming?

Got back to my road and there was a fire engine there. And you know what that means, don’t you? Yes, FIREMEN!!! Woo hoo! Oh yes, it means fires too but I didn’t see any of them. Yay for firemen.

Stats:
Miles: 2.43
Calories burnt: 220
Music: Arctic Monkeys, Ash, Baby Teeth
Firemen: 3

I’m back on my schedule after a week off.  I was a bit poorly last week so decided to stay in and eat chocolate instead of going out running.  Everyone said that I’d have to do the 5 minute running schedule again but I did do the whole 8 minutes – woo!  And not only did I do the whole 8 minutes x 3 with 2 minutes walking in between but it was surprisingly effortless, I must be getting better at this!

I’m not sure if this blog’s working properly as my about page has managed to drop to the bottom of this page for some reason.  Ho hum.

Gary said he’s going to do the Tower of London jog with me on 10 May.  He reckons he doesn’t need any training.  Why am I the only person who thinks you can’t just get up off the sofa and go and run three miles without any training?  Weird.

Stats:
Miles: 2.7
Calories burnt: 250
Music: Cribs

Up and out at 8am this morning, not bad for a Saturday! Seemed I wasn’t the only early riser today, Lorraine and Tony both texted me at 7.30am. I don’t think they were together! Lorraine texted with her usual nonsense and Tony asked me if I want to go to Braintree with Mark next weekend. Would be fun (although possibly fatal and definitely detrimental to my health) but Ben’s going out for his birthday then and if I wasn’t doing that then I’d be going to Nikki’s engagement party.

Was going to the marshes this morning so v. near to ex-boyfriend’s house and was hoping not to bump into him. so did I? Course I f*****g did! What was he doing out at 8am on a Saturday morning? Bloody typical.

Made a nice change going over the marshes although the actual marshy bit is quite far down the road so didn’t actually see much marshy bit. I did see a fox though which was nice. Saw a magpie too which wasn’t nice as only saw one and I’m superstitious about magpies. But if I see the same one twice then I think that counts as two magpies.

I did all my four lots of 5 minutes running today, not too much hard work either which makes a change for a weekend run which is usually completely pathetic and feeble and I normally give up after about 2 minutes. Maybe because I didn’t have any alcohol, pizza, crisps or creme eggs yesterday?

Next week three lots of 8 minutes, eek!

Wow, just realised that I’ve been up, done my washing, turned the dishwasher on, been out for a run and didn’t think about smoking once, until just this minute – woo, that’s a record!

Stats:
Miles: 2.51
Calories burnt: 226
Music: Courtney Love

Funny how I started off thinking in the first minute of running this evening that there’s no way I’m going to be able to run for four lots of five minutes then the last five minutes was a breeze! Probably because I start off going uphill (well a slight incline, anyway) so it’s more difficult. Have decided today that I’m going to do a 5k in June. Yeah, ok, it’s not exactly a marathon but it’s something and more exercise than sitting on my sofa eating crisps and watching Eastenders. Which reminds me, what am I doing tonight? Oh yes, sitting on my sofa eating pizza and watching Eastenders. I haven’t actually seen Eastenders yet this year, no point since they bumped off the only decent bit of male totty.

Kate says she’s going to do the 5k with me, so we can spur each other on when we start getting knackered and thinking that going to the pub is probably a better idea. Actually, going to the pub is always a better idea.

As I was running I noticed the appalling state of the pavement in the market, they’re so uneven, I could trip and injure myself and then sue them. Just as well I work in litigation, huh? Except they’re defence lawyers and they’d be acting against me, oh dear.

Speaking of work, I found out in the toilet this morning (which is how a professional law firm conducts its business these days) that today (instead of tomorrow) we were finding out which 5 of us are for the chop. Got an email at 10:20 telling me my redundancy meeting was at 10:30. Lot of notice, huh? Anyway, I was told “I’m pleased to tell you that you’re being offered a position in the company …” whatever that means. I thought I already had a position in the company? Oh well, looks like I don’t get to laze around for a bit watching daytime telly after all. I was convinced I was up for the chop, too. 3 of the 5 had opted for voluntary redundancy, so they’re happy. The 5th person to get the boot is still a mystery at the moment, so we’ve decided it’s either one of the girls on maternity leave or a girl who was off today.

Turned into a bit of a rambling post so here are the

Stats:
Miles: 2.39
Calories burnt: 215
Music: Strokes (definitely good running music)