Janathon Day 9 – silver tights are mine

Not quite up at 5:30am as planned. Not even up at 6:30. Just about made it up by 7, although it was dark and I was warm but unless I slept through January, it was still Janathon and I wanted to go for a run before going to university, so that meant getting out of bed. Hang on, did I say ‘wanted to go for a run’? Blimey, Janathon is doing strange things to me, that’s three runs this week; I’m not sure I’ve run three times in the last three months.

Because I went out bang on school run mum time (despite it mostly being school run dads from what I could see this morning), my run was a bit stop/start for the first half a mile on the road where the primary school is, then it was stop/start for the next half a mile because of all the mud and puddles, then it was stop/start again as I collided with another school run going to another school. Still, three miles was done, just mostly at a walk.

Then, because the lifts at the station are being renovated, I had to carry my heavy mountain bike up the stairs and when I got to university, I ended up walking up and down three flights of stairs three times, then two flights of stairs twice and if I’d known that was going to happen, I’d have counted that for today’s Janathon exercise, especially as I asked on the Janathon Facebook page if I could carry some of it over to tomorrow and was told ‘no’.

Bah.

Still, my run this morning meant I got to wear my new silvery grey running tights.

grey-tights

 

grey-tights-2

I’ve got an assignment due tomorrow, can I count writing as exercise?

Janathon Day 7 – pink tights heaven

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 competition winners announced!

I was secretly hoping that no one had exercised and blogged every day and I could keep the running shoes from SportsShoes.com for myself but alas, no, the entries poured in and I had to choose a winner.

And the lucky winner of a pair of running shoes up to the value of £90 is:

Louise Ayling, who blogs at abradypus. Not only did Louise exercise every day, but she ran every day. And not only did she run every day, sometimes she ran more than once a day. And not only did she sometimes run more than once a day, she also racked up 231 miles during January. So, a worthy winner indeed and probably in need of a new pair of shoes. Well done, Louise!

The winner of the Deep Heat competition is:

Angela White, who blogs at Health Transformation. Although this giveaway was also open to slackers who didn’t exercise every day, Angela did exercise and blog every day, so another worthy winner. Well done, Angela!

Both winners were picked at random, using Random.org.

Thanks to everyone who took part in Janathon and I hope you’ll all be signing up to Juneathon!

Janathon Day 15 and an incentive for you to carry on

Last night’s plan for today:

Get up at 7am, go for a short run in a field at 8ish to try out these New Balance Minimus Zero trail shoes

new-balance-minimus-zero

with their snazzy (do we still say ‘snazzy’ or do I sound like an 80s throwback?) Vibram soles

new-balance-minimus-zero-sole

but when I got up I remembered that it snowed and rained all day yesterday and the field would be a bit yuk.

So, Plan B, then:

Get up at 7, go for a road run at about 8.

What happened in reality:

I got up at 7, looked at my university timetable for tomorrow and decided that tomorrow would be better for a run and the gym would be better for today and so I would go to the gym at 9am when it opened.

At 8:30 I fancied some hot chocolate, so I made myself some then decided to do a Janathon mailout as it was the halfway mark. I sent out the Janathon newsletter then stared at the Mail Chimp stats showing me how many people had opened it/clicked a link in it/complained about it, etc. for about an hour then decided it was too late to go to the gym and so I went downstairs to the conservatory and did 20 minutes on the rowing machine. Pathetic, I know.

I haven’t forgotten it says ‘incentive’ in the title.

I mentioned a Janathon incentive. I have waved my Sooty wand (not to be confused with a fairy wand according to Travelling Hopefully but ‘pah’ to her) and magicked* up a pair of running shoes courtesy of SportsShoes.com worth up to £90 to be given away to one lucky Janathon participant who has been hardcore enough to exercise and blog every day.

Oh, what’s that? You’ve been a bit of a slacker? Never mind, I’ve also got some Deep Heat goodies (a tube of Deep Heat, a tube of Deep Freeze and a tube of Deep Relief) that I’ll give away in a draw open to all Janathon participants (although, if you’ve been slacking, you probably don’t need any muscle rub type stuff, do you?)

For more information, visit the competition page on the Janathon website (don’t enter the competitions yet though).

Stats
New pairs of almost barefoot running shoes: 1
Runs in fields done: 0
Road runs done: 0
Gyms gone to: 0
Rowing machine: 20 minutes
Sooty wands: 1
Fairy wands: 0

*asked their PR if I could have some.

RUNSportsShoes event, Brighton, 14 September 2012

Outside the pub opposite Preston Park station is a sign that says ‘don’t walk past, pop in’. Tempting, but I was on my way to pretend to be sporty and athletic, and alcohol wasn’t on the day’s agenda.

The venue for the RUNSportsShoes event was the Preston Park Velodrome in Brighton and as I was wondering if I was in the right place, I spotted a black van with SAUCONY written on the side in giant red letters. Aha! I thought, mustering up my finely honed detective skills, this must be it. I went over and was greeted by the organiser – Sophie, the PR from Propellernet, and the SportsShoes team.

A run was on the itinerary, but I thought the rest of the day would be us being given advice, followed by lunch, followed by a talk, followed by a BBQ. Oh no, just after I’d got there and changed into my running gear, Neilon Pitamber – a personal trainer based in Brighton – gave us hands-on strength, gait and agility training advice. 

Here’s me grabbing hold of Lesley’s (who writes the LilB blog) ankle. I was supposed to grab the other one too but she collapsed in a heap before I could.

jogblog-lilb-neilaon

After the exercises, the Saucony team analysed my gait, declared it neutral and gave me some Saucony Progrid Ride 5 running shoes, then told me off for being pleased they were pink (yeah yeah, I know it’s not all about the colour but a cool colour is a bonus).

saucony-progrid-ride-5

Then it was the bit I wasn’t looking forward to – the group run. I’m not a social runner. I love the atmosphere of races, but running with other people? No thanks. Not wanting to look like a killjoy though, I joined the rest of them.

SONY DSC

This was a ‘Kin Run’ (Yes, I did ask if they’d left some letters off) which meant that, theoretically, no one gets left behind as whoever’s in front, turns round and goes to the back so everyone gets a go at being in the front (so much for me skulking at the back on my own then, dammit).

Not looking like a killjoy didn’t last long as, more than I hate running with a group, I hate running on grass and the run consisted of running round in circles on the grass*.

SONY DSC

So, I sloped off back to the clubhouse, hoping no one noticed I’d gone (I think I got away with it, yay).

After the runners had finished their kin run, they did some stretching that involved laying on top of each other

SONY DSC

and group hugging.

group-hug

Then we had lunch. Vegetarian sandwiches (as well as meat ones) were provided, including the rather random potato salad sandwiches.

After lunch we went back outside to hear a talk from Lucy McCrickard from LGM Nutrition. Before the talk, she’d given us all a questionnaire to fill in where we had to tick on a scale of 1 to 5 questions like ‘I still feel tired 20 minutes after getting up’, ‘I often have energy slumps during the day or after meals’. The ideal target was 16 and after I’d added mine up, it came to 31. Oops. I felt better though when I peeked at Kim’s (who was there to write about the day for Yahoo Lifestyle) score and saw she had 37. Ha! Even more ha! was Lesley’s score of 39.

Lucy talked about our questionnaires and about keeping our blood sugar levels stable, to ward off any sweet cravings or tiredness. At the end of the talk, she gave us all a booklet full of nutrition advice.

As the sun went in, so did we to meet the expert panel of [left to right in the photo] Mike Scholes (Mike only has 15% vision but this hasn’t stopped him getting a marathon PB of 3:18. I went off him though when he said people who race with MP3 players are selfish), David Bradford (who has a marathon PB of 2:38 but doesn’t think he’s fast), Kevin Betts (who ran 52 marathons in 2011 but didn’t enjoy any of them and with 27 of them being run on a treadmill, I’m not surprised) and John Shippey (an ultrarunner – not pictured).

 

mike-scholes-david-bradford-kevin-betts

After a fascinating and inspiring insight into their achievements, there was a Q&A. Then we all headed up to Yellow Wave for some volleyballing. Well, some people volleyballed, I sat down with a mug of hot chocolate. I also bailed out of the BBQ and headed off to get my train after what had a been a long, but fun and interesting day.

Thanks to SportsShoes.com for putting on the event, Saucony for providing the shoes and gait analysis, and Sophie from Propellernet for organising it – I had a great time.

For more about the day, SportsShoes have posted a video that I and others appear in.

*The run didn’t consist solely of running round a tree. So I’m told, anyway. I’d buggered off by then.