Tag: cars

Juneathon 2009 Day 16 – One of the locals

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I didn’t sleep well and decided to have a lie in because, um, I can and I get up about 8:45 and think today I am definitely going for a run and I’m going to attempt three miles but not go down the bad road but just go past the tree for half a mile then come back again and by the time I’ve wasted time it’s 10:30 and I had told myself that while I don’t have much work on, I’ll study in the morning and work in the afternoon but now the morning’s going to disappear by the time I’ve run and showered and washed my hair and everything and I also need to go to the library to return The Kite Runner DVD (brilliant book, crap film) and I think how come when I’ve got all day to do whatever I want to do I still don’t have any time? and I need to read my time management book that I haven’t found time to read yet and I go out for my run and a few cars come along and I ignore the cars and just look at the road so I can avoid the holes and the cars go around me and I get to the tree and I carry on for half a mile and The Veronicas start singing Untouched and I love the start of this as it sounds like something out of Flashdance or Fame or something and I want to put on leg warmers and start doing backflips and stuff but I’m not sure that would be appropriate in the middle of a country lane and although I could do backflips when I was about 9 and wanted to be Olga Korbut, I’m not sure I could still do them now, in fact I’m 100% sure I would probably break something if I even attempted one and I turn around and go back the way I came and ignore more cars and then I’m back out on the street and it’s a bit of a slope really big hill and I’m not sure I can run up it and I remember reading what RunningAmok said Fit Artist said Runner’s World said about looking at the floor and pretending it’s flat so I try this but it just makes me feel sick and I stop to walk and I think get running, it’s not far now, only a few hundred feet and a man’s indicating to turn into his driveway and he pulls over and I wave to say thank you but he’s not indicating to turn into his driveway, he’s stopped to ask directions and I think oh no, I’m not going to know where he wants to go, I can barely remember where I live most of the time and he asks me where Weald Golf Club is and I think huh? I don’t know about a golf club, there’s a bowls club and then I think aha, I do know, it’s where the gym is that I enquired about and I say is it the one in Sutton Valence? and he says yes and I point up the road and say it’s about two miles that way and he says thank you dear, sorry to have bothered you, and I say that’s ok and then I think woo hoo, go me giving directions, that almost makes me a local, I think.

Route

Splits

Stats Juneathon day 16 (running)
Distance: 3.05 miles
Time: 32:24
Pace: 10:38m/m
Calories: 278
Mornings disappeared: 1
Time management books ignored: 1
Cars ignored: a few
Cars ignoring me: a few
Flashdances done: 0
Men asking directions: 1
Mes able to give directions: 1
Weight: 9st 4
Juneathon’s completed: 14/30

Stats Juneathon day 16 (rowing)
Distance: 1.4 miles
Time: 30 minutes
Count: 1028
Calories: 67.5

Juneathon 2009 Day 9 – Hold back the rain (but not the mince pies)

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I thought I’d put the jog back into my blog today, and switched on my iPod to hear Simon Le Bon singing “Hold Back The Rain” which was quite appropriate really, as it was pissing down.

I get to the corner and there’s a man parked there and I wonder why he’s parked there and he’s got a suit hanging up in his car and I wonder if he’s a salesman or something and a car comes up behind me and I remember what Adele said about being confident and letting them go around me or something and it does go around me and I see a man coming out of the bushes and I wonder what he’s doing in the bushes but then a dog comes out too and I get round the corner and there’s a runner coming towards me and this pleases me greatly as I’ve only seen one other runner out since I’ve been here and I smile at him and he looks at me in a strange way and I think sod you then, next time I see you, I’m going to trip you up and I don’t know why he didn’t recognise me as a fellow hardcore runner as I’m out in the rain and got a Garmin and everything and I get to the tree and go back the way I came and there’s a woman with a Doberman up ahead and the dog is looking very interested in me and keeps turning round and I don’t know whether I should stop to walk but I don’t want to stop as I’ve done enough run/walk lately and I’ve got a 10k coming up in a couple of weeks which is going to be difficult enough but she’s keeping the dog close to her and she moves to the side and I move to the other side and run past and I don’t get mauled by the devil dog and I get home and have a mince pie and some hot chocolate to warm me up in this freezing summer weather.

Stats (running)
Distance: 2.16 miles
Time: 23:03
Pace: 10:40 m/m
Calories: 188
Simon Le Bons singing Hold Back The Rain: 1
Men coming out of the bushes with dogs: 1
Ignorant unfriendly runners: 1
Women with Devil Dogs: 1
Freezing summers: 1
Weight: 9st 4
Juneathon’s completed: 9/30
Music:
Duran Duran
Manic Street Preachers
Hole

p.s.  Don’t forget to enter my competition to win a copy of the Crisis Cook Book

Juneathon 2009 Day 2 – A narrow escape

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After being woken at 3:30am by my lovely boyfriend apparently trying to break my wrist, I wake up and politely ask him what the fuck he’s doing and he comes up with the lame excuse of having a bad dream where big boys were bullying him.  A likely story.  I go back to sleep keeping one eye open in case of any more “bad dreams” but after three hours I’m getting eyelid ache so I get up and check the house for booby traps but the kettle hasn’t been set up to electrocute me or anything and I go into the garage carefully in case there’s been a guillotine set up in there overnight but the coast is clear and there’s no guillotine in the garage waiting to chop my head off so I get out my little Raleigh Shopper, complete with its new basket and drink holder

Raleigh Shopper with basket and drink holder

but I haven’t got any tassles for the handlebars yet but as I’m owed big time by the little bloke for trying to murder me in my sleep I think there might be some on their way.

I check it to make sure there’s no bombs attached to it, ready to explode as soon as I get to the dizzy heights of 5mph but it would seem untampered with and so off I go for today’s Juneathon.

As it’s nice and sunny out, I decide to wear my new supercool sunglasses as sent to me by the modern day Jim’ll (i.e. the nice lady from the marketing company) and wonder if it’s the rush hour and will there be loads of cars and Shaun would have wasted his time trying to kill me when the rush hour will do it for him or maybe that was his Plan B, if Plan A  failed, as he knew I’d get up early if I woke up early and then the rush hour will get me instead and he’ll be exonerated.

Still, off I go, fearless in my quest to fulfil today’s Juneathon and not letting a little thing like attempted murder bother me and I’m on the pavement before I go to turn off where there aren’t any pavements anymore and a man’s walking towards me and I wonder if he’s going to move even a little bit and I can’t move any further over otherwise I’m going to fall into the road with the traffic coming in the wrong direction and I’ve already had enough near misses this morning what with boyfriends trying to kill me and invisible booby traps and guillotines and bike bombs and the man doesn’t move even a little bit and as I go past I scrape him with my handlebars and I say sorry and I carry on and I wonder if I should have stopped and said sorry but it’s too late now and I get round the corner and it’s quite dark and I’m wondering maybe I shouldn’t have worn the sunglasses if it’s going to be dark as I won’t see all the holes in the road, of which there are many, and I go through the tree tunnel and I hope the cars can see me and I think they’ll probably be able to see my bright white bike and then I see a dead crow and I go round the corner and there’s some horses.

 

Horses

I carry on going down the road and it’s nice and quiet and there’s nothing around except lots of greenery and blue skies

Nothing except a lot of green

and a beasty lands on my arm and it’s the same kind of beasty that came and sat with me in my room yesterday until I chucked it out of the window carefully placed it outside

Beasty

so I stop and flick it off my arm and there’s a truck coming out of a driveway and I wonder if I should stop and let it go first but I carry on and then there’s a bus and there’s hardly room for it to go past me but I don’t end up under its wheels and then I see another horse

Horse

and I stop and stand my bike up on its stand and it promptly falls over so I pick it up and try to stand it up again and it does and I stay and stroke the horse for a bit

Horse

and I say bye to the horse and carry on and then I’m on a busier road and the cars are going fast and I look at my Garmin and it says I’ve got another two miles to go and I don’t want to go another two miles with all the cars going so fast and then I see some houses and I don’t remember seeing houses yesterday and I realise I’m nearly home and I’m on a proper road with houses and cars and stuff and I’m cycling in the road like a proper cyclist and not freezing with fear every time I see a car and as I pass the primary school I realise I’m slap bang in the middle of the school run and there’s cars everywhere and I get on the pavement then get back on the road when some people walk up the pavement towards me and then I go back on to the pavement so I can wheel my bike up the hill like the lightweight I am and then I’m back home unscathed and unmurdered despite everyone’s best efforts.

Route

Splits

Stats (cycling):
Distance: 7.31 miles
Time: 48:25
Speed: 9.1mph
Calories: 201
Weight: 9 st 6
Bad dreams cited as reason for attempted murder: 1
Invisible guillotines: 1
Bike bombs: 0
Men cycled into: 1
Dead crows: 1
Horses: 4
Cars going fast: lots
Juneathons completed: 2/30

Juneathon 2009 Day 1

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Juneathon IIII hate my scales.  Last week they said I was 9st 2, today they say I’m 9st 6.  I haven’t put on 4 lbs in a week so scales, f**k off.  But as if my scales lying to me weren’t enough to push me out the door, today is obviously the start of Juneathon III (and if you don’t know that, why not?) and as Juneathon is mostly about running, I decide I should go for a run although I want to get out on my lovely little Raleigh Shopper (which is now complete with basket and drink holder) for 7 miles.

I decide to just do the two mile route, partly because I ran yesterday and I don’t usually run two days in a row and partly (ok, mainly) because I’m a wimp.

I take my little quiet route where there aren’t any nasty bends but there are a couple of cars and I wonder why I’m scared of them when I’m running but not so scared anymore when I’m cycling and it shouldn’t make any difference as, if they can get round me when I’m cycling, then they can get round me when I’m running as I don’t suddenly expand to twice my width when I’m running, at least not as far as I know anyway and then I see the tree and think hooray, half way there and then I realise it’s not the tree, it’s just a tree and I have to go further before I can turn round and then there’s some dirge playing on my iPod and I realise it’s Radiohead and Thom Yorke’s singing (and I use the term “singing” loosely) about cutting a kid in half or something and then I get to the tree and I’m tempted to touch it and say tag before turning round and going back the way I came but I resist the urge and the tree remains untouched and then I start to walk and I say to myself stop walking and get running you wuss and so I do but then I hear a strange noise and I stop to see if I can see what’s making the strange noise that’s like a cross between a duck and a pig or something but I can’t see anything and then the noise stops and I’m still walking and so I tell myself I haven’t got any reason to keep walking now the noise has stopped and so I start to run again (and I use the term “run” loosely) and I can see the main road and I want to walk again and when I get to the pavement I turn up my iPod and skip through it to see if there are any motivational tunes on there and Terrorvision’s Perseverance comes on and I think that’s quite appropriate for a lightweight like me.

Splits

Stats (running):
Distance: 2.16 miles
Time: 23:39
Pace: 10:58 m/m
Calories: 202
Weight: 9 st 6
Lying scales: 1
Duck/pig hybrids: 1
Juneathons completed: 1/30

Stats (cycling):
Distance: 7.32 miles
Time: 48:29
Speed: 9.1mph
Calories: 202

Music:
Radiohead
Blur
Terrorvision