Juenathon Day 6

I'm pretty glad I didn't go to speed training on Tuesday. I spent most of the day feeling as though I had a head full of cotton wool and pretty low on energy levels. Not good when you know you've got a 6 mile run later in the day that you're not sure you're prepared enough for. I found myself eating liquorice at 9:30 in the morning in an attempt to perk my self up.

 

I was meant to be running with a friend from work, Anita. We ran together at the Frimley 10k back in May and ever since she's been suffering from shin pain. She reckons it's shin splints but given she stopped running and it seems to be most of the time I reckon she should get scanned for stress fractures. She went from not running to doing 4/4.5 miles four or five times a week at least in preparation for her wedding. I had shin splints once and they were nowhere near as bad as she is describing. So unfortunately she didn't run with me tonight.

 

This is the first of 3 runs at Yateley, held every summer on the first Wednesday of June, July and August. I did the August one two years ago and won a spot prize (probably for looking so knackered) and I'm really looking forward to doing all three this year. Anita signed up for runs 1 and 3 so I really hope she's better for the third one. I'm starting to really enjoy running with other people.

 

There were big black clouds in the sky all day but the weather held and we even got some sun in the evening. I met up with some of the Farnham Runners and decided I'd try and pace one of them who was aiming for a sub hour which would have been brilliant for me but I lost her around 3k when I started to feel really sick and had to stop for a moment. The rest of the course consisted of running to a km marker, having a short walk break then running to the next one. As I rounded the corner back into the school I heard someone yell out "Go on Vikki, you can do it!" and Ian, the FR who has been coaching the beginners and always shouts encouragement at parkrun, was there. Bless him, that moment meant so much to me. I knew I was the last FR to cross the line and I feel pretty bad about that, I know I can do so much better. I've got times to beat and the opportunity to train better.

 

I finished in 1:06:43, got my medal and a mini milkyway and popped over to Anita's for a cuppa.

Juneathon Day 5

Made it to parkrun this morning to a super big turn out and with the OH and his mate in tow. There were plenty of Farnham Runners there which I always love because I get cheered on from the sidelines and push for a sprint finish. There was a lovely jubilee atmosphere and tea and cake afterwards which we stuck around a bit for.

The course was dry and although I felt a bit tired I somehow got a PB for the year with 29:47. I'm very pleased with that. The OH ran in something like 23:40 and his mate was a little way behind.

I don't think I'll be doing speed work tonight, not least because it is raining and actually it's probably not wise given I'm running the Yateley 10k tomorrow. I had hoped I'd have felt a bit more springy but alas, not. Besides... OH's mate has brought Game Of Thrones over so it's another marathon session!

Juneathon Day 4

Today I did another abs session. I actually get pretty warm doing these. If I feel up to it later, or if OH's friend doesn't come over with Game Of Thrones episodes then I *may* do a run as well but frankly I think that's unlikely. I'm feeling sluggish after too much party/BBQ food this weekend and my middle is a bit wobblier than usual so the abs exercises are definitely a good thing.

What is more likely is that tomorrow I will do a double whammy of running. Frimley parkrun has been moved to Tuesday which I'm going to do because I want to get to 40 of them before my birthday in August (I'm up to 32 I think and the summer is busy), and then in the evening it's speedwork with the running club. Double running probably isn't wise because I've got a race on Wednesday evening but it's Juneathon so these things have to be done.

Last time I did an "athon" I got all wound up because I knew I wasn't going to win any prizes but I'm just glad I have an excuse and another motivation to do something everyday, even if that is core work, fitness DVD or running. I get guilt and beat myself up if I don't meet the goals I set myself you see. I will get fitter this summer or suffer so much guilt I stop eating. Either or ;)

Found a Groupon today for wakeboarding... now THAT sounds fun and must surely count as exercise right?

Juneathon Day 3

Recovering from last nights jubilee/birthday party has meant today was the day of 200 crunches 10 press ups and a glute bridge held for five minutes. It'll get logged tomorrow (within the 24hr window) and better exercise will happen from now on. Obviously I won't be getting anywhere near the chap who has already run 22 miles!

Juneathon Day 2

Ran the Egg and Spoon race and the Balloon-between-the-knees race at the Jubilee street patry in my road yesterday. I won the egg and spoon and got a curly-wurly :)

Logged!

Juneathon Day 1

So here we go, Juneathon is here and I can see a dozen things this month that will keep me from completing it. Not least this weekend (I mean really, couldn't we have delayed it a few days?). Today is done and dusted already thank goodness. Oh how I loathe running before 9am. It was so HOT! I was slow. But I ran. My thighs are still achey from double speedwork with running club earlier in the week.

I did just under 2 miles in just under 20 minutes. I recorded it on RunKeeper and on RunningFree so you can check I'm not telling porkies.

Tomorrow I'm going orbing then we have two parties so I guess I'll have to slip out for a run at lunchtime or do some Davina DVD. What am I DOING?! Stupid Juneathon.

Great London Swim

Hi reader! I'm bringing this blog back from the dead for at least a short while as I'm going to be trying to take part in Juneathon 2012 (see the badge over there?). But I've got quite a lot of other active news to share as well so I'll be posting about a few things I *have* done to get back into the rhythm of things.

First up is the Great London Swim. I am not a swimmer. I like swimming. I just don't do it very much. I'm pretty hopeless at front crawl, I've never done open water swimming (I don't count bobbing about in the sea when bodyboarding) and I hate the post-swim pfaffing. I'm not *entirely* sure why I entered this event but I really really enjoyed it. The event is a one mile swim in the Thames in Royal Victoria Docks. I don't think I've ever swum a mile before but I felt confident when I worked out that it was about 64 lengths of my local pool. So I printed out a training plan, followed three sessions, swam a mile in the pool, and sort of stopped training.

Turns out that was enough. I don't advocate the method but I didn't drown and I on the day I swam faster than I had in the pool so WIN!

Looking sexy... no?

I though the event itself was exceptionally well organised. I was in the third wave at 10am. There were waves of about 250 people every half hour from 9am to 3:30pm. Each wave had a different colour cap and an allocated time to check in and go through acclimatisation and warm up. I'm used to things being a little laid back at running races so I almost missed check in. That said all other aspects were very relaxed. There were people with goals and people who were happy to get round with a friend whilst having a bit of a natter en route. It didn't feel crowded, I didn't get kicked in the face or swum over at the start as I could hang back a little and there were loads of kayakers acting as marshalls all the way round who were very friendly and up for a chat.

I finished in 51:36, which I was VERY happy with. My mum and dad came to support me so I got some cool photos. It took me a while to get my land legs back!

The goody bag was pretty good too and the chappy in charge of giving them out was doing a great job of "selling" them. A t-shirt, flip-flops *and* a medal as well as snacks and drinks. My favourite item were the pistachios...

I really couldn't get over how friendly and lovely everyone was. I had a fantastic morning and I reckon I'll be doing it again next year, if not another open water event.