Janathon Day 27 – running to the finish line

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It just crossed my mind that for the last few days of Janathon, I could run every day to finish with a flourish. But then I realised this is an uncharacteristically busy week for me and running every day isn’t going to be an easy thing to achieve. But, I feel kind of committed now and Janathon’s supposed to be a challenge, isn’t it?

low-fat-muffin

So, you heard it here. I ran today and I’m going to run on each of the last four days (not promising they’re all going to be outside runs though).

When I came back from today’s run, I had one of the low fat sultana muffins I made yesterday (recipe on my Planet Veggie blog), as Anita Bean (whose book – Food for Fitness – I got the recipe from) said they’re the ‘perfect refuelling snack that no athlete should be without’, which just sounds to me like an excuse to eat cakes at 9:30am, but hey ho. 

Good luck with the rest of Janathon, those of you who are doing it. Who’s got something special planned for the finish?

Don’t forget there are prizes for the best planks (details on Helen’s blog), so keep your photos coming in.

Janathon Day 26 – 10,000 steps by 11am

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I slept really badly last night, the only good bit was the dream I had about finding a puppy hiding in the toilet, although it was disappointing when I woke up and there was no puppy.

My Fitbit tracks my sleep and it told me I woke up eleven times, which is probably about right but it also said I slept at 97% efficiency. Waking up eleven times doesn’t sound like 97% efficiency to me.

sleep

My Fitbit also tracks how many steps I take (in fact, it seems to be just an overpriced pedometer really, although some people absolutely love theirs – I’m still waiting to love mine) and when I got back from the gym this morning, it sent me a badge to say I’d done my daily target of 10,000.

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When I got to the gym, there was a tall bloke on the treadmill and it reminded me of one of the guests on Friday’s Room 101 when he said he gets annoyed when people go up to him and say ‘you’re tall’ like he doesn’t know he’s tall and I thought uh oh, I may have once or twice* gone up to a tall bloke and poked him in the chest and said, ‘you’re tall’ but, in my defence, I haven’t said ‘you’re tall’ to inform him he’s tall in case he hadn’t noticed, I’ve said it to take his mind off me poking him in the chest.

 

*every time I’m drunk and there’s a tall man in my vicinity**.

**not a euphemism.

Janathon Day 25 – Fitness Blender kettlebells workout

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fitness-blender

After trying out the Fitness Blender kettlebells workout I’d found on youtube yesterday (the video is on yesterday’s post), I thought I’d do the whole 33 minutes today. It comprises a 3 minute warm-up (mostly jogging on the spot), then 3 rounds of kettlebell exercises. Yesterday I’d only completed the first round so I was excited (that may be a slight exaggeration) to find out what exercises were in the other two rounds. I wasn’t excited for long though, as the second two rounds were exactly the same as the first round.

Oh.

I had a look at their website just now and they have dozens of free workout videos on there, for all kinds of exercise (cardio, yoga, strength, etc.). You can search for the kind of workout you want, including type, difficulty level, duration and calories burned, or the equipment you own (including ‘slosh tube’, whatever that is).

I only discovered Fitness Blender yesterday – is this a website everyone else in the world had already heard of?

Janathon Day 24 – my first foray into kettlebelling

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I have no idea if ‘kettlebelling’ is a valid word – it sounds a bit rude, doesn’t it? Still, Argos delivered my kettlebells today (I say ‘delivered’, I mean the delivery man dumped them on the ground and left me to lug them indoors) and I was desperate to try them out.

kettlebells

Not having any kettlebell workout DVDs, I looked up kettlebell workouts on youtube instead and came across this beginner’s one from Fitness Blender.

Choosing the lightest weight (2.5kg) because I’m such a weed, I skipped the warm up (it involved jogging on the spot and I was wearing normal clothes, i.e. not gym kit and sports bra) and did ten minutes of the kettlebells bit.

I don’t know what I was expecting but those ten minutes were fun and more of a workout than I thought it’d be – my heart rate was definitely raised, although I couldn’t tell for sure as my heart rate monitor decided not to work. It was a weights/cardio hybrid I’ll be giving it another go at the weekend when I’m more appropriately attired and not about to make my dinner.

fitbit

Argos also delivered to me (and this was handed to me, not dumped on the ground) a Fitbit which I was mega-excited to get as it’ll track my steps and sleep and stuff. And it’s orange, which is obviously the best thing about it. I’ll write more about that another time, when I’ve played with it for longer.

Janathon Day 23 – from featherweight to slightly heavier featherweight

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Despite energy and enthusiasm still eluding me this week, as I’ve been doing body pump almost every other day during Janathon, I thought it was time I upped the weights. So, this morning, I doubled the weights for the warm-up, squats and power press (not the bicep curls though, oh no; they still kill me). Please don’t let this alarm you though; in the JogBlog world of body pump, this only involves making each weight as heavy as two feathers, rather than one.

feather

While I was body pumping, it occurred to me that, out of the five instructors on stage on the DVD, only one was female. This seemed odd as the classes in gyms are usually instructed by women, and women also make up the majority of attendees at the classes. Tut tut, Les Mills – less sexism, please.

Janathon ends a week tomorrow – my stats so far:

Running: 17.92 miles
Cycling: 126.99 miles
Cross-training: 9:13 hours
Calories: 9,206

Janathon Day 22 – sitting is apparently the new rowing

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I almost turned into one of those silly obsessives this morning. After drinking a bottle and a half of wine last night, one of my first thoughts this morning was GOTTA BURN ALL THOSE CALORIES OFF but we all know it’s thoughts like that that lead to eating disorders and so instead I thought GOTTA DO MY JANATHON and dragged myself off to the gym after I’d finished offending a friend on Facebook (I don’t know why she was offended, I only said she looked like a prostitute).

paris

I was happily rowing on the rowing machine when a man sat down on the one next to me. And continued to sit. And sit. And sit and sit and sit and I thought JUST ROW ON THE MACHINE, DAMMIT but he continued to sit and this annoyed me so much I got up and flounced over to the cross-trainer and he continued to sit for another two and a half minutes then started to row, yay, but only for four minutes, then he stopped and sat again.

Another thing that annoyed me in the gym today was people talking. People should not be allowed to talk in gyms unless it’s ‘ouch’, ‘help’, or ‘call an ambulance’.

Janathon Day 21 – a serious attack of the couldn’t-be-bothereds

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dog

Yep, I had a serious attack of the couldn’t-be-bothereds today. It started off okay; I woke up early, thought I’d be out for a run by 8, then decided I couldn’t be bothered to run, so I’d go to the gym instead but by the time the gym opened at 9, I decided I couldn’t be bothered to go and then I decided I couldn’t be bothered to go to university either, so I emailed my tutor to say I wouldn’t be in today but I thought I have to do something for Janathon, so I went on the rowing machine here for ten minutes which I know isn’t very long, but after five minutes I’d decided I couldn’t be bothered to do any more, so at least I stuck it out until ten minutes.

If anyone’s got any positivity, motivation and can-be-bothered vibes handy, please chuck them my way.

Janathon Day 20 – powered by CherryActive Concentrate and baby penguins

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Did you know The Montmorency cherry has been discovered to be a rich source of powerful antioxidants and flavonoids which promote a host of health and recovery benefits including healthy joint function, normal uric acid levels, a healthy cardiovascular system, regular sleep patterns, and muscular strength & recovery? No, nor me (I don’t know what uric acid levels – normal or otherwise – are either).

cherry-active-concentrate

Still, it all sounds like a good thing, so I gave some CherryActive Concentrate a go. It contains 100% cherry juice (over 3,000 cherries in a bottle – that’s a lot of cherries), so no preservatives, flavourings, sugars or colours and stuff.

Because it’s a concentrate, you don’t need much – a 30ml serving provides one of your five a day. I originally tried some in water but I didn’t like it. It was sour and bitter – maybe I used too much, but I tried it again in a banana and blueberry smoothie and it worked well.

It worked so well in aiding muscular strength and recovery, I’ve got the beginning of a bicep. That could, of course, just be the effects of doing body pump every other day during January. Who knows – body pump, or magic cherries?

If you’d like to buy some CherryActive Concentrate, you can order it online from the link above, or from Holland & Barrett.

After drinking this morning’s smoothie, I went to the gym. My Monday mornings are usually reserved for hangovers and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the inside of the gym on a Monday morning before but because I haven’t had a drink for a few weeks (don’t worry, I haven’t gone tee-total or doing that stupid ‘I’m-an-alcoholic-please-sponsor-me’ dryathlon thing; I’ve just had other things to do and find hangovers not particularly conducive to a) getting out of bed for long bike rides; or b) getting assignments done on time), I was up bright and early and raring to go(ish).

The gym was flipping packed. I’ve never seen it so busy. All three treadmills were in use, as were both rowing machines, so I had to start my workout on the cross-trainer (my usual routine is rowing machine, then the cross-trainer and I was mightily miffed at having to do them back to front). When I’d finished on the cross-trainer though, the rowing machines were still being used. I tried standing there staring at the people on them but that didn’t work so I got on the stationary bike and kept turning round to see if the rowing machines had become free and after five minutes, yay, one became empty so I got off the stationary bike and did some rowing.

Oh and by the way, today is Penguin Awareness Day, so here’s a baby penguin for you.

Baby-penguin

Janathon Day 19 – a parkrun PW, one day later

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tortoise

As mentioned yesterday, as I got up too late to make it to my local parkrun, I promised to do the parkrun distance on the treadmill instead. Unfortunately this plan was scuppered because all three treadmills were being used, so I parkrunned on the cross-trainer instead. So, today, I decided to cycle to the park and do my own parkrun there. Then I decided to ask iliketocount if he wanted to come with me. He originally said no, he had to wash the car, so I started mumbling about how he never wants to spend any time with me so he relented and said he’d drive down there.

When we got to the park, I remembered I don’t like running with people. Although, iliketocount hasn’t really grasped the concept of ‘with’ as he spent most of the time ten feet ahead of me, only turning round occasionally to tell me to stop walking.

I didn’t stop walking though and it’s probably a good thing I didn’t do parkrun on Saturday as, when we got in, iliketocount looked up Saturday’s results and said if I’d done it at today’s speed, I’d have come last.

Oops. 4/10. Must try harder.

Janathon Day 18 – parkrunning on a cross-trainer

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Dammit, because I got up too late to go to my local parkrun, I told the WHOLE INTERNET I’d do a parkrun distance (i.e. 5k) on the treadmill instead. I got to the gym and went on the rowing machine first and in the mirror in front of me, I could see all three treadmills behind me were being used (and being used by walkers, bah) and I thought, would it be really rude to go and stand next to a treadmill, queueing up, like people used to do in the gym in London when all the machines were in use? I decided it would be really rude, so I decided to do the 5k on the cross-trainer instead.

Before I’d got to the gym, I’d handpicked my own playlist and I was reminded Julia Buckley posted her playlist on Facebook the other day. Julia said it was her ‘trendy’ playlist and I debated her use of the word ‘trendy’, as it – as far as I could tell – had nothing post-90s on it (which isn’t a bad thing. I am a huge 90s-indie-Britpop fan). While I was on the cross-trainer though listening to my playlist, the words ‘pot’, ‘kettle’ and ‘black’ came into my head as Ben Folds Five, Elastica, The Cult, Hole, etc. popped up and I thought I’m hardly down wiv da kidz either.

playlist-18012014

But then ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ by Jake Bugg  came on, and a little later ‘Reflektor’ by Arcade Fire came on and I thought yay, those songs were out last year – I am down wiv da kidz after all. Get me, I’ll be watching X-Factor next.

And because I’d told the WHOLE INTERNET I was going on the treadmill, I did ten minutes on it to make my gym session up to an hour.

I’m now pondering going to the park tomorrow to do my own parkrun, but I reserve the right to postpone my ponder if it’s pissing down.

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