Janathon Day 7 – pink tights heaven

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Yesterday’s Janathon post should have been titled Day 6, not 5, but I’d already done the ‘five rhymes with alive’ thing and posted it on Facebook and Twitter and everything, so I decided to keep it. It was Day 6 though, I didn’t do Day 5 twice and slack off Day 6, honest.

As I mentioned the other day, the postie left a couple of pairs of running tights from Sportsshoes.com for me in the recycling bin (as you do). I said I’d model them for you when I wore them, so here’s the pair I wore for today’s run.

pink-tights

 

legs

Yes, I decided to do the whole pink thing and teamed them with a pink top and socks. (Did I really just type ‘teamed them’? Sorry, meant to say ‘I also bunged on a pink top and socks’.)

So, that’s my Janathon Week 1 done (that’s a normal ‘done’, not a Justin Lee Collins-esque type ‘done’), and here’s a screenshot of my SportTracks calendar to prove it.

sporttracks

Janathon totals so far:

Running: 6.49 miles
Cycling: 38.94 miles
Other (gym/body pump): 2 hours 20 minutes
Calories: 2,650

How’s your Janathon Week 1 gone?

Janathon Day 5 – I’m still alive

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There’s no actual reason to inform you I’m still alive, but it rhymed with five, so it seemed as good a title to give it as any.

I am still alive though, you’ll be pleased to hear, despite having achy legs – whether this was from yesterday’s 28 mile bike ride or the gym session the day before that or the run the day before that or just a Janathon accumulation of aches, I don’t know. But hey, aching muscles means I’ve been doing something, so yay.

It’s possibly not the best idea in the world to do body pump when you’ve got aching muscles but I was up early and didn’t want to wait for the gym to open at 9 before Janathoning as I needed to go to the Post Office and into town to the bank* and get back early enough to still have most of the day to spend doing my marketing assignment that I still haven’t done (tutor emailed me today and said she’d marked the first assignment and it was very impressive – didn’t tell me the flipping mark though, did she? Bah), so needed something I could do indoors (okay, I could have gone for a run but I don’t like to run on aching legs in case I make them worse, especially as I’ve only done one run in about the last two months).

So I did 30 minutes of my body pump DVD (yes, I skipped the floor bits and the stretching bits) and then found out how hard it is to put on mascara after doing body pump for the first time in ages. Oh, my aching biceps! Still, it didn’t look quite this bad (thanks to rundelrun for the pic).

mascara

Then I cycled into town and back and now my Janathon is over for the day. Back to university tomorrow, so this is where I might have to start getting creative with my exercise. Does exercising my brain muscles count?

*The bank has a snazzy new machine where you can deposit cheques and cash without needing to key in your PIN or use an envelope. You put your card in the machine, then the cheques and it scans the cheques and prints off the scans onto your receipt. So cool. Although not as cool as BigZigFitness’s bank – he can scan cheques on his phone into his account!

Janathon Day 5 – strangers, pub, cats and dogs

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I am too knackered to blog properly, so here’s my blog post in a list.

1. Saw tweet a couple of weeks ago about local bike ride, organised by Spokes.

2. Thought, I want to go on the bike ride and favourited the tweet to remind me.

3. Woke up and the weather wasn’t minging, so went off to meet a bunch of strangers.

4. Met the bunch of strangers who turned out to be a very nice bunch of people indeed.

5. Discovered I wasn’t the only one there who should have been at home writing a dissertation proposal instead of gallivanting around the countryside.

6. Cycled for about an hour until reached a pub in Smarden.

7. Spent a long time patting the dogs and stroking the cats in the pub.

8. Ordered cheese omelette and jacket wedges, then moaned my jacket wedges were chips, not wedges, and the chips were raw.

9. One of the group was perturbed her lunch didn’t come with the advertised bread.

10. One of the group said his jacket potato tasted old.

11. When we were asked how our food was, we all said ‘lovely, thanks’ in that good old British way even though we’d all just moaned about it.

12. Cycled for about another hour and went home and had two cups of hot chocolate to try and thaw out.

13. Went on Twitter and accidentally agreed to run Ashford parkrun with @TrevB1 in our onesies if he gets his workplace’s VLM place on Monday.

14. Spent four hours on Facebook trying to muster up the energy to blog. Remained unmustered.

15. Ate pie and mash and cabbage and gravy and wondered if I could be bothered to blog.

16. Realised I couldn’t be bothered to blog so wrote a list instead.

bike-capture

Janathon day 4 – a haiku and humiliation

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Here’s a stationary bike haiku for you:

Bike

Stationary bike
Why are you so crap? Station-
ary bike, you git.

Before I’d got on the stationary bike, I’d been happily cross-training on the cross-trainer when Mr Coach Driver Man decided to park his coach outside the window a foot or so from my face. Nope, 50 people staring through the window at me while I’m on the cross-trainer wasn’t embarrassing at all, oh no.

bus

In case I haven’t humiliated myself enough yet today, here’s a photo of me planking in my PJs to make up for the penguin onesie plank I did wrong.

pj-plank

Model (ahem) wears:

Grey and pink soft brushed cotton pyjamas by DKNY (cheap from TK Maxx)

Slippers by Tesco

Cabinet by Ebay

Vase by Homebase

Floor by don’t know, ask Shaun

Hair by Toni & Guy about 2 years ago and needs a bit of a trim

My deputy HelsBels has lined up a prize for the best plank (hopefully more prizes will be arranged so we can have prizes for different categories), so keep posting them on your blogs, Twitter and on Facebook. We want them all – in your pyjamas, in your onesies, or just blatant exhibitionism, it’s all good.

Janathon Day 3 – you voted, I obeyed

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You were determined to put the ‘jog’ bit back into ‘JogBlog’, weren’t you? Well, you won. The votes came in and the outcome was:

Run: 17

Bike: 4

Body pump: 1

Swim: 1

Gym: 0

So out I went this morning for a run. It was bright and sunny, the first mile was muddy and I saw a girl walking a dog so small, she could have saved herself a trip outside and put it on a hamster wheel instead.

voted-run

One good thing about being FORCED out for a run was I got to wear my new running tights, yay.

tights

Yes, that’s a little black cat curled up on the bed and yes, I know the mirror needs cleaning. Oh, and yes, I did change out of my slippers into something more appropriate in which to run.

Before I left the house, a Tabata DVD came in the post. I have no idea what Tabata is – I think it’s a high intensity interval circuit training type thing? Oh well, I’ll find out soon enough, something new for me to try during Janathon.

I also found out my postie’s New Year’s Resolution seems to be to give up ringing doorbells. Our one, anyway, as he left a parcel for me in the recycling bin. Not the shallow one with nothing in it, but the four foot deep one with a lot of crap in it. Nice. Most people give up drinking or smoking for New Year, giving up ringing a doorbell is a new one on me.

Anyway, in my parcel was a couple of pairs of running tights from Sportsshoes.com, I’ll model them for you when I wear them.

Speaking of sports attire, something slightly less conventional to exercise in is a onesie or pyjamas. Remember HelsBels set a Janathon challenge for everyone to do a plank in their pyjamas or onesies and post photos? Well, I’ve done mine dressed as a penguin. Fairweatherrunner said I had to do it again though and properly this time, on my forearms, not hands, as apparently that’s ‘too easy’. Bah.

penguin-plank

More photos of Janathoners’ PJ planking have popped up on the Janathon Facebook Page and Not Much Of A Runner was brave and posted a photo of his plank in the buff. We want more though, so keep them coming!

Janathon 2014 Day 2 – unfit for purpose

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Slightly misleading title; my main purpose in life at the mo is to finish the final year of my degree and as students are known for being idle layabouts, I’m allowed to be as unfit as I jolly well like.

Still, after I looked at SportTracks yesterday and saw I’d only exercised on ONE day in December (Tuesday the 17th, when I did 40 minutes at the gym, if you really want to know), I thought it was probably time I got back down the gym. I don’t usually sweat much at the gym (unless I’m on the treadmill) and thought that was down to me not putting much effort in but today I was a right old Sweaty Betty after just a few minutes on the cross-trainer at minimal effort, so I’m putting that down to unfitness.

do-next-graphic

Anyway, tomorrow, I’m going to let YOU decide what I do. You can choose from:

Run (minimum 3 miles but I haven’t run for weeks so it’ll probably be more of a walk but I promise to get out there even if it’s raining)

Bike (minimum 10 miles but if it’s raining I’ll do it in the gym instead and believe me, I really don’t want to do 10 miles on a stationary bike)

Body Pump DVD at home (I promise to do the full hour and not skip the bits I don’t like; I’ll even do the stretching bit at the end)

Gym (30 minutes rowing machine, 30 minutes cross-trainer)

Okay, over to you! Let me know what you want me to do and I’ll see which has the most votes in the morning.

Janathon 2014–Day 1 with the lurgy

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Well, I wasn’t going to do a dressing gown dash in that weather, was I? In fact, because I’ve still got a cold, despite having the feeling a walk in the fresh air would do me the world of good, I had no intentions of leaving the house today. Especially when I remembered there’s a rowing machine in the conservatory. Janathon Day 1 = sorted.

I’m not sure my pulse monitor and app were being particularly accurate today; it reckoned my heart rate went up to 235bpm with an average of 172bpm and I burnt off 188 calories in 10 minutes. I’d spend all day on the thing if it really did burn that many calories in 10 minutes.

mytrek 009

HelsBels has set a Janathon challenge of planking in your pyjamas and posting photographic evidence. Running From The Zombies has already done this and posted it on Twitter and I’ll do it if I remember later but, in the meantime, get your pyjamas on, get planking and photographic proofing!

Fame! Janathon radio interview

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preston-fm-logo

Millie asked me if I’d like to do a radio interview on Preston FM. Eek, I said, I’m scared. Then I remembered I was an attention-seeking media-whore and said yay, I’d love to, thanks.

Unfortunately, lurgy struck and a sore throat left me barely able to speak; not a good look for radio. So, a deputy was needed and I asked my trusty sidekick, Helen, if she’d stand in for me and she said ‘eek, I’m scared,’ then she remembered that she too is an attention-seeking media-whore and said ‘yay’.

And what a brilliant job she did of it too. A worthy deputy indeed. All the core facts about Janathon were mentioned; dressing gown dash, bar press up, excuses, beer and pizza. She also used the word ‘glamorous’ and ‘Preston’ in the same sentence, which probably doesn’t happen very often (my apologies to people in Preston, I’m just kidding – I’ve never been but I’m sure your town is lovely).

You can listen to the interview here:

There’s still plenty of time to sign up for Janathon, enter here.

The JogBlog Guide To Not Being A Lardarse Over Christmas

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You know all those posts that are out at the moment? The we’re-going-to-piss-on-your-party posts cheerfully piping up with ‘advice’ such as ‘run three miles to burn off a mince pie’? Well, forget all those clichéd depressing doom-mongering party-poopers -  here’s the fun and easy JogBlog guide to not turning into a tubster over Christmas.

In the Pub

Got a work do or meeting friends for a drink? Get some exercise and get into their good books at the same time by offering to go to the bar for everyone, even when it’s not your round. Don’t get so drunk though you forget it’s not your round and you pay for all the drinks each time. Oh, and while you’re there, do a bar press-up.

athon-bar-press-up

Do a Santathon

Most of these provide – and let you keep – the costume, so, not only do you get to run a fun 5 or 10k with loads of other Santas, you also get bonus points by being able to dress up as Santa for your kids (if you have them. If not, I’m sure your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/dog/cat/hamster/goldfish/dead worm collection will be equally thrilled).

I took part in a Santathon with Shaun a few years ago. We’d only been seeing each a few months then, otherwise I don’t think he’d have agreed to do it quite so cheerfully (yes, I know Shaun needs to work on his ‘cheerful’ face). 

santathon

Supermarket slalom

Run to the supermarket, then make shopping into A Fun Thing by making a game out of slaloming around everyone fighting over the prawn rings and Ferrero Rocher. When you get home, pretend you’re in a body pump class by putting on some Christmas classics on the stereo using the bottles of port and Champagne you’ve just bought as weights.

Opening presents early is an act of kindness. Honest

Is there a bike shaped parcel in the garage? You’d better open it (carefully, as you’ll need to wrap it back up again) and give it a spin to make sure it’s in perfect working order. Imagine how disappointed the person who gave it to you will be if you open it on Christmas Day and find out it needs to go back to Halfords for a service? I’m not an expert on Halfords’ opening hours but I’m willing to bet a bottle of Babycham they’re not open on Christmas Day.

And if it gets a bit dirty while you’re test-riding it, you can blame whoever gave it to you for leaving your nice new shiny bike in a dirty old garage. 

bike

Make a fitness advent calendar

Chocolate advent calendars? Pah! What you need is a fitness advent calendar. Get a chocolate advent calendar, eat all the chocolate, then write down a different exercise (body pump, spin, circuits, yoga, running, cycling, walking, etc.) on the door of each day. It’s a fitness lucky dip!

Go to the gym

Yes, this sounds like a normal thing to do. But there are three very good reasons for visiting the gym over the Christmas period:

1. If you go now, you won’t look like a New Year Newbie.

2. All those annoying people who walk on the treadmills are at home on the sofa, watching Elf while munching their way through a tin of Quality Street.

3. You can buy yourself some new kit. It is Christmas, after all.

Janathon practise

Oh yes, Janathon is looming and what would Janathon be without a dressing gown dash? Practise those dashes now!

dressing-gown-dash

Hand and wrist exercises

Don’t forget other parts of your body this Christmas and exercise your hands and wrists by writing down all those New Year’s Resolutions you’re not going to keep.

Play Temple Run

Okay, so you really can’t be arsed to do anything. Fine, let Usain Bolt run a few thousand metres for you instead on Temple Run. He even wears a Santa hat for you to laugh at. Let’s hope he got paid a lot for this.

usain-bolt-temple-run-santa-hat

So, that’s my guide to keeping fit over Christmas, what are your top tips?

Hi ho, hi ho, off to Janathon you go…

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Yeah, okay, I’ve left it to almost the last minute again, but the Janathon website is now updated and ready to take entries for Janathon 2014. If the website had been updated a month ago, it would have been ready for the people who visited after they’d seen it mentioned on The Guardian running blog and Healthista but I didn’t know it was going to be mentioned so ho hum.

janathon-participant-logo

New for 2014 is microblogging, which is a posh way of saying if you can’t be arsed to write a full blog post, you can tweet your ‘athon efforts instead. Although, I am expecting the usual level of hardcore from the regulars, so no slacking now. Not unless you have a good excuse, anyway, such as Painted Runner, who is training for an Ironman. So, no wimping out with rubbish like ‘but I just did a parkrun in 48 minutes and now I’m too knackered to do anything except eat more cakes but I suppose I could probably manage a tweet’.

Okay?

Off you go then. Sign up at the Janathon 2014 website.

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