After announcing the winners of a previous giveaway where I incorporated a haiku into the post, I foolishly told Facebook that from now on I would announce all giveaway winners in haiku form.
Me and my big mouth
So, thank you to everyone who entered the Kinesio Tex Gold Tape giveaway and so:
Who won the tape, eh? Lauren, @poweredbypb: I believe it’s you!
Well done, Lauren, I’ll email you.
More stuff to win
If you didn’t win the tape but the postie’s just delivered a mag with a bee on the front, you should check out my marathon race pack giveaway. You should check it out anyway if you regularly run further than a parkrun.
The less said about my marathon training the better. Despite having a plan, and planning to stick to my plan, my plan so far hasn’t really gone to plan.
I did, however, sort-of successfully complete a 12 mile run a week or so ago, with ‘sort-of successfully’ meaning I managed to do the twelve miles within the minimum 13 minute miles I need to do to finish Dymchurch Marathon within the six-hour cut-off time and claim my medal and goody bag before everyone’s packed up and gone home, a-la London Duathlon 2013.
But since that twelve mile run, I’ve done what I believe the technical term for is ‘fuck all’. I haven’t even been to the gym or gone on a walk. I cycled to the station on Saturday but although I would count that as a valid form of exercise during an ‘athon, I’m not sure I can call it cross-training for a marathon.
Despite all this slacking though, I’ve entered the Folkestone Half Marathon which is taking place this Sunday. If I run it this time as badly as I ran it last time (limping over the finish line in about 3 hours) then I’ll probably decide the marathon isn’t for me and hope Helen, Cassie and Rachel don’t find out I’ve wimped out and never talk to me again.
Don’t be a loser like me – enter my giveaway and win stuff
Anyway, just because I’m a loser who has lost the ability to run quicker than I can walk, doesn’t mean everyone else is and so, if you’re training for a marathon and would like to win some stuff to help you fuel before, during and after training and the race itself, then I’ve got just the giveaway for you.
Win all these things
What’s in the box
Suitable for vegetarians, yay
The winner will also receive a case of 6 chocolate protein shakes
Iso gel plus x 1
• Iso gel x 2
• Energygel plus x 4
• Energygel x 8
• Protein Sachet x 1
• Energybar x 1
• 10 tube zero x 1
• 3 x sachet zero X’treme
• Run Bottle
• Run Lounge membership (3 month membership FOC)
• Marathon Nutrition Guide
So, that’s everything you see in the photos (don’t worry, you’ll get a nice new one sent directly to you; you won’t be getting my battered and opened one).
How to enter
To be in with a chance of winning the High 5 Marathon Race Pack, just leave a comment below letting me know which marathon you would love to do if time, money, family commitments, etc., were no problem.
I’ll draw a winner at random after the closing date of Saturday, 24 October 2015.
My computer ate my marathon training schedule. Is that the best excuse ever for slacking, or is it up there with ‘the dog ate my homework’?
My guess is the latter, especially as there is obviously more than one training schedule in the entire universe. It’s just that I liked that one – it could be downloaded and imported into my Outlook calendar and if I didn’t fancy training that day, I could satisfyingly click the delete button and – whoosh! – it had gone like it never said ‘go and run, you lazy moo, you’ve got a marathon to train for’ in the first place.
However, neither a) pressing the delete button; nor b) having my computer eat my training schedule means that I don’t actually have a marathon to run at the end of November, so I thought I’d better get myself a new training schedule. This new-found motivation was partly helped by getting inspired after nipping down the road to Wye on Sunday to see Louise shortly after she’d finished running the Centurion 100. For those of you who don’t know what that is, the Centurion 100 is a running race of 100 miles. I know… hardcore. Louise is especially hardcore as it’s the third 100 mile race in a series of four she’s done this year and if you do all four you get a special t-shirt and a piggyback from Mo Farah. (I might have made up the Mo Farah bit.)
Louise enjoying a veggie sausage sandwich after running 100 miles
So, off to the Hal Higdon website I went to get me a new marathon training plan. Here it is.
Hal Higdon novice marathon training plan
Because I had to buy a new computer and my new computer doesn’t have Outlook or any decent email program on it, I couldn’t get an electronic schedule and had to go old school and print one off on to paper. Then, because it’s an eighteen-week schedule and my marathon’s in sixteen weeks, I had to use one of those old-fashioned pen things and cross out the first two weeks.
But, as you can see, I successfully completed day one by resting and I even successfully completed day two by going out for a three mile run this morning. And, yay me – I did it without stopping to walk like a lame-o and even managed sub-11:30 minute miles. This might be because I left the house at 8:20am and needed to be back by 9am for a delivery but you’ve got to get your incentive to work harder from somewhere, haven’t you?
As an added bonus, I even inadvertently GPSd myself a moose’s head.
A moose, do you think?
I usually manage to slack off Wednesday’s running by going on a walk, but I haven’t got any walks planned for tomorrow, so I might just do the 4 miles Hal wants me to do.
Pretty flowers seen on today’s run (although this pic was taken a couple of weeks ago)
Yesterday, I said I was going to do this coming Saturday’s long run tomorrow, but today I changed my mind as I decided doing 7 miles the day after doing 4 miles wasn’t a good idea. Not because I’d be overdoing it but because I would undoubtedly end up walking 6.5 miles of the 7 miles and there wouldn’t even be a pub lunch at the end of it and I only walk for lunch.
So, the 7 miles will be done on Thursday and I’m not sure why I didn’t think of doing it on Thursday in the first place (and in case you’re wondering why I don’t do it on Friday, I’m going out Thursday night and no running ever takes place when I’ve been out the night before).
Back to today though. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that, if you go to bed with the hump but without any dinner, you’re not going to have much energy in the morning. But, although I woke up still in a bad mood, when even the thought of trying out my new running shoes didn’t cheer me up, I wasn’t in a bad enough mood to tell my marathon training schedule to fuck off, so I decided to do an out and back to get my 4 miles in.
While I was out, I wondered why I’d chosen to do an out and back, seeing as I hate out and backs. Then I realised it would be good training for the marathon because, not only is Dymchurch marathon an out and back, it’s an out and back and out and back and out again which made me wonder why I’d signed up to it in the first place, then I remembered the goody bag contains beer, crisps and chocolate.
Will run for chocolate, crisps and cider
I’ve got to admit though, after being in Dymchurch on Sunday and looking up the sea wall at the route, I’m not looking forward to running up and down it for six hours in the freezing cold end-of-November weather.
Running Free Online calendar showing the Juneathon activity so far
Last time I posted, I said I was off to London the next day and my activity would probably be a bar press up. Although I did visit a few bars – my favourite being the one with the skull disco ball, safari wallpaper and cocktails in teacups – I forgot to do a bar press up.
Skull disco ball pleases my inner goth
I did, however, walk the two miles to the station in the morning instead of getting a lift. That definitely counts.
On Sunday I did fuck all except walk to Tesco to buy wine. I’m not sure that counts.
On Monday I didn’t even walk to Tesco. That doesn’t count no matter how many ways I try to change ‘didn’t even walk to Tesco’ into something more strenuous.
Tuesday should have been the start of my marathon training but after three hours of trying unsuccessfully to tell myself to get out the door and go for a run, I decided I’d rather get dressed instead. I’m not sure ‘getting dressed’ counts.
Wednesday I cycled seven miles and walked seven miles. That even more definitely counts than ‘walked two miles to the station’.
Thursday was another ‘can’t be fucking arsed’ day, although I did go to the designer outlet and look at Asics running shoes, so maybe that counts?
Today – Friday – my marathon training schedule said I had to run three miles and I decided I would really hate myself if I slacked off another marathon training run, especially in the very first week, so I forced myself out the door and although I mostly walked the three miles, at least I did it.
Tomorrow, my marathon training schedule says I have to run six miles, so I’m hoping the motivation fairies visit me in the night.
Stats
Running: 3 miles (most of it walking)
Juneathons completed: some of them
The first week of Juneathon is over and now begins a whole new fresh week – a week in which I can hopefully redeem myself after the slackathon that began the first week.
I had planned to run today but when I got up, my legs were still aching from last week’s run (although I don’t think they can still be aching from last week’s run; it must be from something else. What that something else is though, I haven’t a clue. Maybe lack of crisps or something.) so I decided to go to the gym and go on the rowing machine which usually sorts any DOMS out.
But because I had planned to run though, and because I am supposed to be marathon training training – especially as marathon training singular starts next week, eek – I thought I’d do some intervals on the treadmill when I got to the gym. Intervals are an integral part of training, after all.
So, I did 30 minutes on the rowing machine, then as I was scrolling through my Audiofuel playlist looking for the Pyramid Max 180 interval session, I saw the Sennheiser Thru The Gears track which is my absolute favourite Audiofuel track as it gives you such a fantastic workout on the treadmill, so I gave that a blast, then I went on the cross-trainer for 20 minutes.
Not a bad workout for a Monday, eh?
Well done everyone on your efforts throughout the first week of Juneathon – I hope you’re all enjoying yourselves. Personally, it’s given me the boost I needed to motivate me to get back into exercising as I’ve been a bit slack over the last few weeks. Hopefully it’ll give me a good base for the beginning of my marathon training too.
Oh, and I promise to run tomorrow. Punky promise. (That’s pinky promise as autocorrected by my phone.)
I’ve obviously become a complete wuss since moving to Kent. In London, it’d have to be at least minus-something before I even slightly pondered wearing long sleeves. This morning, although it was 9 degrees, I put on long sleeves, my Hippsy, my touchscreen gloves and because the top I was wearing had a rather wide neck, my Buff.
I’d worn my Buff a few days ago on my bike. It’s great on a bike if you don’t like strangling yourself by doing your jacket right up, they keep the draught out perfectly. And if you don’t mind looking a bit of a div, you can pull it up over your nose to keep the chill off your mouth. You can even wear it on your head. In fact, there are so many ways to wear a Buff, when you buy one, they’ll send you a booklet and a DVD demonstrating all the different ways.
Today’s run was a 2.5 miler to see how unfit I was. It was also to make me feel slightly less bad about the scales showing me in the dreaded double figures for the first time ever. I had been expecting it – I haven’t exercised properly for weeks and I’ve been eating and drinking loads, the weight didn’t come on by accident. Still, marathon training and Janathon should sort that out. Won’t it?
Stats: Distance: 2.5 miles-ish Time: 30 minutes-ish Pace: Slow Walking breaks: 0 (yay) Long sleeve tops: 1 Hippsys: 1 Pairs of touchscreen gloves: 1 Buffs: 1 Too many pieces of clothing: 3 Digits on the scales: Double Music Courtney Love Knifeworld Mark Ronson Gay Dad Stornoway
