Juneathon Day #23

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I wake up and get up and then realise that I don’t know what the time is so I check the time and fuck me it’s only 5:45 so I go back to bed but I’m wide awake and I think I should just get up and go out for a run and anyway I’ve got new running kit to try on which is still in its bag and I haven’t even looked at it yet and then my alarm goes off at 7 and I think why the fuck did I set my alarm last night? and I get up and turn it off and go back to bed and then I fall asleep and wake up at 8:30 and I get up and wonder if the bottle of wine I had last night was a good idea when my half marathon training schedule has an 8 mile run down for me today and I decide it was a good idea although I probably shouldn’t have drank half of it before I made my dinner because trying to make my dinner of aubergine and smoked tofu parcels when I was pissed wasn’t very easy.

I decide to leave my camera at home for once and ponder whether to take my phone in case of any broken legs in the middle of the marshes emergencies and needing to call for help and I decide that I should take it in case of an emergency and I get all of a mile when the charge on my wireless headphones runs out. Fuck. And I don’t know what to do, I’ve got 7 miles left and I’ve never run without my iPod before and I can’t go back and get my other headphones as if I go back, I’ll never go back out again and so I continue without music and all I can hear is my heavy breathing and my feet banging against the ground and although I had no delusions about being a delicate little flower floating gracefully over the ground, I didn’t realise I sounded like a herd of chain smoking elephants either.

I get round the marshes and I have two miles left to go and I go up to the sports field and I can see someone running round it and I think fuck off out of my sports field and when I get up the bank I can see there’s loads of people in the sports field and I think bollocks, I’m not going up there then, what am I going to do? I can’t do two miles round the park, that’s going to do my head in but I don’t want to go round the streets so I’ll have to go to the park, so I go to the park and there’s someone running in there the opposite direction to the way I want to go and I think for fuck’s sake and I must have said it out loud because she leaves the park and I have the park near enough to myself and I think I’m going to lose the will to live if I have to go round the park four times and at 7 miles I stop to walk a bit and my feet are dragging along the ground and I start to run again and I think shall I continue ’til I get round the park as that will be over 8 miles but as soon as my Garmin hits the 8 mile mark I turn it off and walk home and then have the dilemma of whether to have a sausage sandwich or crunchy peanut butter on toast and I can’t decide and I wonder what a sausage and crunchy peanut butter sandwich would be like and I decide it would probably be crap.

Today’s route

Stats:
Miles: 8.02
Total time: 1:32:25
Average pace: 11:31
Total calories: 715
Headphones running out of charge: 1
Music:
Cardiacs – Plane Plane Against The Grain
Graham Coxon – Fags And Failure
Graham Coxon – My Idea Of Hell

Juneathon Day #22

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More Juneathoning down the gym at lunchtime today. I spend the afternoon wanting to kill my boss and anyone else really and I’m thinking that although I wasn’t going to drink tonight and even left my wallet at home so I couldn’t go to the offy on the way home I’m thinking I might have to rescue my wallet and go out to the shop and I’m thinking this week has been such a pain in the arse and I don’t appreciate being spoken to by my boss like a 5 year old with a less than average intelligence even if he does always apologise and when I get home there’s an answerphone message from someone in B&Q’s legal team who says that they’ve decided to settle my claim in full and pay my court fees. YAY GO ME FUCKING RESULT OR WHAT? And then I’m happy again 🙂

Stats:
Treadmill: 15 minutes
Distance: 2.3k
Speed: 9.5kph
Rowing machine: 15 minutes
B&Qs successfully sued: 1

Juneathon Day #21

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I read back the rules of Juneathon and re-read them and re-read them but I still couldn’t see where it says you’re excused from Juneathon if the night before you had consumed vast quantities of popadums, curry, nan bread, ice cream (in a cow cup), beer and wine and it didn’t say I was excused on my half-marathon training schedule either so off I duly went to the gym at lunchtime for another interval session (ooh get me, learning the lingo and everything).  I managed 18 minutes on the treadmill before it was looking likely that the vast quantities of aforementioned foodstuffs and drinkstuffs was going to make a reappearance so I wimped out of the last four minutes and went back to work.

I really did have ice cream out of a cow cup, look:

Stats
Treadmill: 18 minutes
Distance: 2.95k
Speed: 9/11kph

Juneathon Day #20

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Despite still being partly crippled from Monday’s body pump class, I am not as crippled as Joggerblogger who apparently is now sporting a rather fetching wrist strap (photographic evidence to be produced shortly) and what with him being a show off hardcore still managed to go out for 8 miles before 6:30 this morning, I ignored my rumbling stomach which was telling me to forget Juneathon and do Lunchathon instead and went to the gym.  I jumped on my new best friend the treadmill and did a v. slow 10 minutes, then turned up it up for another 5, then up again for another 4 then up again for the last minute then got on the rowing machine for 15 minutes but stayed on for 20 and left the gym feeling energised and returned to the office to stuff my face.

Stats
Treadmill: 20 minutes
Distance: 3.1k
Speed: 9/9.5/10/11kph

Juneathon Day #19

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Although yesterday’s body pump class (description here for those of you who want to know what it is) left me unable to move my arms this morning, my legs weren’t so bad so I packed my rucksack in preparation for a running commute.  But as I sit at my desk for 99% of the day my legs were beginning to stiffen up and so I went for a walk at lunchtime to loosen them up but because I don’t do walking for the sake of walking I went shopping and bought some clothes which I was in dire need of because I hadn’t bought any new clothes since this morning when I bought some on the way to work.

During the afternoon I was still feeling pretty stiff and was wondering if I should maybe wimp out of the running commute and just take my new purchases home to try on instead, because not only had I made two shopping trips today but my delivery of new running kit had also arrived and I wasn’t sure I was patient enough to leave everything overnight in the office and I had a shitload of stuff to do tonight anyway and then at about 5 o’clock it starts raining and I think oh no, it was warm and sunny all day and now it’s raining, maybe I should wimp out of my running commute and I check my email and there’s an email from Bear saying don’t think you’re wimping out of your running commute just because it’s raining and I think ha, how little do you know me, I don’t do wimping out and I say I’m not wimping out, and I leave my purchases on the floor under my desk and go out into the rain although it’s not actually raining any more and my Garmin takes about three weeks to get a signal and I eventually start running and as usual after about two feet I want to stop and it’s chokka at Angel as usual and I go past a pub that says it’s the coolest pub in London and I think that needs investigating one day and then it starts raining which is nice and cooling and I’m doing a lot of walking and I’m thinking this running commute really does go through the dullest, grimmest and most boring route possible and I’m wondering if I can do six miles on the treadmill instead  without dying of boredom because this running commute thing isn’t really doing it for me and I get to Pembury Road and I decide it’s a hill and walk up it and then I’m still walking and still walking until I get to Murder Mile and I take a little jog to the roundabout and get to Lea Bridge Road and I think I’ll go through the marshes because it will be more scenic and also has the added bonus of saving me the trauma of seeing B and bloody Q and not having cyclists running me over every three feet so I go through the marshes and I try to run but I end up walking again and I get to the stables and stop to stroke a horse and I manage to jog a few feet but have to walk again and again and again and I think when I get through the factory I’ll run the rest of the way but that doesn’t happen either and I end up walking home like a lightweight and when I get home there’s a card from the Post Office to tell me there’s a package there for me and that’ll be my new pink digital watch, hurrah.

Stats:
Miles: 5.99
Total time: 1:26:28
Average pace: 14:25
Total calories: 484
Music:
Calvin Harris
The Damned
Bobby Conn
Courtney Love

Juneathon Day #18

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For the first time this year I’ve managed to get on the body pump class, now that all the new year people have buggered off. So after a day of me wanting to kill my unreasonable tosser of a boss and hoping he hasn’t heard me mutter fucking prick under my breath for 99% of the day I try and remember where the gym where the class is held is and I eventually take the right turning and get there and I have half an hour before the class starts so I get on the treadmill and I’m thinking about my dream last night where someone broke into my house to attack me and I asked him if he could come back another day instead and he said ok and when I woke up I thought that’s pretty handy, I’ll have to remember that and it reminded me of my conversation with Gary when he said that it was really hard to strangle people and I said yes because you could just tickle them, and after 10 minutes on the treadmill I turn the speed up to 10 and then up to 11 for the last minute and then I get off and go on the bike for 12 minutes then go to the body pump class which I haven’t been to for over six months and the music’s better now and I think I’ll stick to the lightest weights as I remember not being able to move my arms or legs for about three days after the first time I went last year and so just about get through the class and stagger out of the gym and my arms and shoulders are stiff and I think oops, I don’t think I’ll be able to do the running commute I had tentatively planned for tomorrow. Ho hum.

Stats:
Treadmill: 15 minutes
Speed: 9/10/11kph
Distance: 2.3k
Bike: 12 minutes
Class: Body Pump
Arms working properly: 0

Juneathon Day #17

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After being harassed, harangued, hassled and other words not beginning with H by email to get out the bloody door and do my half-marathon training of 7 miles, especially as I wimped out of my 6 miles on Thursday, although I did do intervals on Tuesday which weren’t in my schedule, I blanked out the memory of last night’s not very finely tuned athlete stylee menu of wine, lager, cider, pizza, crisps and chocolate and set off for a trip round the marshes.

And on the other side of the bridge where Ben came off his bike and broke his jaw, was this flower with a bee on it.

And then I get up to the marina and see the boats.

And I think it would be nice to live on a boat although I think they’re a bit high maintenance and I will settle for my house by the sea when I get it and this boat has a cat on it.

And then I remember that it is actually someone’s home and I probably shouldn’t be taking pictures of it as if someone stood outside my house and started taking pictures I don’t think I’d be too happy really and so I get on my way and go past the pub on the other side of the river.

And I haven’t been to this pub so I think it needs investigating in the near future, and it does have this view of the marshes so would probably be quite handy in beer drinking weather.

And I’ve only gone 2 miles and I’m already knackered and want to stop for an unofficial walking break but I think to myself I can stop when I get to the ice rink and have to cross the road and then I get to the ice rink and get to my new favourite pub which is so posh even the ducks have a floating buffet and the only thing to spoil it was a dog almost pissing on me and a fat man singing Kinks’ songs.

And then I’m in Hackney Marshes and trying to forget that bodies found in the river is a regular occurrence and I practice my don’t fuck with me look in case it’s needed and I stop for another photo based emergency in the form of this tree.

And over Hackney Marshes is a big mound of sand and I wonder what it’s for and decide that the river’s probably too full of dead bodies and now they just bury them here.

I eventually get to 10k in 69 minutes and I think that’s quite fast for me, especially considering all the photos I’ve stopped to take and I’m almost home and less than a mile to do so I go along the sports field into the park to finish off my 7 miles and then I go home and bastard Sports Tracks says I’ve only done 6.91 miles but my Garmin and Training Centre say I’ve done 7.02 miles, so I’m going with that one.

Oh and happy father’s day to Mr Sore Limbs and Mr Joggerblogger 🙂 (It is today, isn’t it?)

Today’s route

Stats:
Miles: 7.02
Total time: 1:18:17
Average pace: 11:09
Total calories: 635
Bees in flowers: 1
Cats on boats: 1
Pubs by the river: 2
Music:
Cardiacs – Dirty Boy
Bobby Conn – Vanitas
Bobby Conn – Mr Lucky
The Damned – Gigolo
Cardiacs – Faster Than Snakes With A Ball And A Chain
Courtney Love – Sunset Strip
The Damned – Eloise
Courtney Love – Never Gonna Be The Same
Hole – Northern Star
Bobby Conn – Things
Cardiacs – Breakfast Line
Bobby Conn – Sinking Ship
Courtney Love – Uncool
Courtney Love – All The Drugs
Bobby Conn – Love Let Me Down
Hole – Old Age
Courtney Love – Life Despite God
Cardiacs – Mares Nest
Bobby Conn – (I’m Through With) My Ego
Cardiacs – She Is Hiding Behind The Shed

Juneathon Day #16

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Halfway through the Juneathon and I’m going to miss it when it’s over, I think that’s probably weird.  We’ll have another one next year though, eh, and Joggerblogger should approach the government with his Juneathon idea and get the nation’s fat backsides off their sofas for a month of exercise.  He can start a campaign and be the Jamie Oliver of the running world.

I do my usual warm up of playing on the internet for an hour and decide to go over the park and maybe the sports field for a quick mile and I go round the park and I’m thinking about how last night Kate said that her work’s Summer party is the day before the RfL in July and I say that if she wants to go to the party and not do the race that’s fine by me and she says no, she wants to do the race and I say ooh, you’re going to be as bad as me, I keep saying things like no I can’t go out on Saturday as I have a race the next day and then a little while later Tracey turns up and says are you coming to the Live Earth thing and I say I can’t, I have a race the next day and anyway it’s in Wembley and that’s miles away and there’s so many bands they’ll probably only come on stage and mime one song and then bugger off.

I go round the park and as I’m coming up the bank into the sports field I’m looking forward to having the place to myself, lost in my little iPod world, but then I see two men running round and I think bollocks bollocks bollocks, and over the other side of the field I see lots of people and I think bollocks bollocks bollocks but I carry on anyway but then I think na, there’s far too many people over there for my liking and they might be playing football and football and running don’t mix, so I turn round and go back the way I came and back into the park and go home.

Today’s route

Stats:
Miles: 1.16
Total time: 10:40
Average pace: 9:11
Total calories: 105
Music:
Good Charlotte – Beautiful Place
Jamiroquai – When You Gonna Learn
Peter Bjorn & John – Paris 2004

Juneathon Day #15

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Eek, I missed the midnight deadline to blog as I was too pissed tired to blog when I got in last night and it was after midnight anyway but I didn’t wimp out of the Juneathon in favour of going to the pub with Kate and Tracey as I walked from Chancery Lane to Soho instead of getting the tube so that was yesterday’s Juneathon done and dusted 🙂

Juneathon Day #14

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One of the things I like most about Juneathon is the fact I don’t have to think of titles for my posts and as I have plans for -athons lined up for July and August, it means I don’t have to think of titles for posts for ages. Hurrah.

In case anyone read on my blog yesterday that I was going to do a running commute today, I lied. Yikes, I lied on my blog, I’m never going to get into heaven now. Ho hum. I had planned to do a running commute and took into work my running gear but then I decided that a) I was absolutely f**king knackered; b) it was raining; and c) I wouldn’t have enough time to get home and have a shower and un-ming myself before Gary came round to drink beer and eat pizza get thrashed at Scrabble.

But I didn’t completely wimp out as I went to the gym after work instead and when I got to the gym there was a big sign saying that from Thursday 14 June 2007 (i.e. today) all members MUST have a valid membership card with them and I thought bugger, typical that the only time I’ve ever come without a card, they change their system and they must really mean it if they’re writing their signs with capital letters, so I went up to the girl on reception and say I haven’t got my card, can I still come in and she says yes, the new system doesn’t really come in for another week and she asks me my surname and I say white like the colour and spell it for her and then think that maybe she thinks that maybe I think that she can’t spell the word white and I ponder very briefly if I should explain that everyone gets confused by my name and asks me to spell it and I think no I should just shut up and she gives me a temporary card and I say thank you, it’s typical that the only time I’ve come without my card you’ve changed your system and she says really? and I decide not to tell her that the only reason I haven’t got my card is because I was going to run home and not come to the gym but then I decided not to run home but had to do something because of Juneathon because unless she is an avid reader of runners’ blogs and not even all runners’ blogs but just a small collection of runners, she won’t have a clue what Juneathon is. And she probably wouldn’t care anyway.

And I think to myself I will do 15 minutes on the treadmill and there’s a man on the rowing machine in front of me just sitting there with his legs open like a teenager on the tube and I think why is he just sitting there and then he starts doing sit ups on the rowing machine and I’m thinking why the fuck is he doing sit ups on the rowing machine, aren’t there mats and things to do that on? and he keeps doing sit ups and it’s really annoying me and then I’m thinking that must be really uncomfortable and I’m thinking how much longer can I stay on this treadmill with him directly in my view irritating me and he eventually stops doing sit ups and I think I will do 5k on the treadmill as that’s half a running commute but the timer is ticking away so slowly and I’m thinking I’m sure the time ticks quicker when it’s on miles on my Garmin and I’m thinking would the numbers tick away faster in miles but I can’t think because numbers do my head in but my brain is trying to work it out despite my best efforts to tell my brain that I don’t do numbers and then I think if I put the speed up it’ll go faster anyway and then I can go home so I put it up to 9kph and then a bit later I put it up to 9.6kph which bugs me as I didn’t want to go over 9.5kph and I can’t be arsed to turn it down and then when it gets to 4.5k I put it up to 10 and yay at last I get to 5k and I do the 5 minute cool down thing and go and get changed and go home.

Stats:
Treadmill
Time: 34:32
Distance: 5k
Speed: 8.5/9.0/9.6/10kph

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