Juneathon Summary

So Juneathon is now over and I’m delighted that I took part. The end of May saw me do nothing – and I mean nothing – from a fitness perspective and it was hard to motivate myself. I saw Juneathon as a way to provide that extra motivation and that proved to be the case. So here’s a bit of a summary of the month.

Firstly the numbers. Before I started I said that I wouldn’t be running every day (partly as I’d be swimming, but also because I’d have some rest days), but I set myself a target of 25 days of activity. And although I didn’t state it out loud, I wanted to do 100kms in the month.

– Days of activity – 23 (the last week saw me have a couple of unscheduled “rest” days)
– Running – 70.18kms
– Swimming – 17.3kms
– Cycling – 18.4kms
– Total – 110.91kms (I count swim distances as double, but cycling as 1/3 distance)

But of course Juneathon is about much more than just the numbers, so what have I learned over the month:

– I enjoyed the month – let’s face it, without Juneathon I wouldn’t have been able to see things such as this heron in Hyde Park.

– I can run – I haven’t done much running at all over the last couple of years and when I did I got injured, but over the month I gradually increased the distances run (going as far as 7.7km) and now feel that I could train up to a half-marathon.

– I enjoy running – it’s funny that once it becomes a bit easier and I’m injury free I started to enjoy it. I didn’t enjoy every run, but I don’t think I had a single run that had nothing good to report from it – and I had plenty that I really enjoyed.

– I do have time – one of my excuses in the past is that I don’t have time, but with a bit of careful planning clearly I do. Also, now I’m enjoying it more I don’t need to spend as much time psyching myself up for it – I can just get changed, run, shower and then get back to my day.

– I do have the energy – another excuse is that I don’t have the energy after working hard. I’m sure I don’t work any harder than many people, but it does take it out of me and I don’t always fancy going out to run (or swim). What I’ve found this month is that the exercise is helping to give me extra energy and it’s when I don’t exercise that I don’t have the energy.

– I could do a triathlon – I’ve done a couple of triathlons in the distant past and I’d like to do more, but I’ve always been put off by the running, now that I’m confident I can 5km (enough for a sprint tri) easily enough I’ll enter some.

Now what I need to do is create my own “Julyathon” to keep the momentum going (yeah, right!)

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Rounding off Juneathon

So it’s the end of Juneathon and to round things off I went for a swim (yesterday) and a bike ride today.

I swam 2km in the pool and rode a lovely 18km around the local area, finishing off with a pint – a very nice way to spend a Sunday.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Juneathon and I’ll write a bit more about it soon.

Quick Friday Night Juneathon

This post is only being written to gloat to LucyHG because I went out running this evening and I can safely predict that she didn’t!

Of course Friday night is SouthwellRun night and of course no-one turned up! Never mind, I still enjoyed it. This week I managed 6.74 km. It wasn’t very quick, but I did it – and I bet Lucy didn’t!

Halted by a hangover

Yesterday I was in London all day and managed a run in Hyde Park before work. It’s a great place to go for a run with the park usually full of other runners and although it’s in the middle of London, it feels like the air is almost fresh. So it was nice to get out a do 5km in the morning.

One great thing is that I am getting faster with the running – it doesn’t feel like I’m really pushing too hard, but I’m now running at only just over 5min per km.

I was also meant to be going out in Hyde Park again this morning, but I didn’t.

Yesterday I went to a conference in London that I’d help to organise. And it went well. It went really well. So after the conference we went to the pub and because the conference was such a success we stayed in the pub. Which meant it was quite hard to go out for a run this morning, it was actually quite hard to even get out of bed and get dressed!

So, another unplanned day off, but you what, sod it!

Juneathon – rest days

Today was a scheduled rest day anyway – I’m down in London for client stuff and as I had an early start I decided that I’d designate today as a rest day.

However, as I was driving home after work on Monday evening I found myself really looking forward to that rest. I mean REALLY looking forward to it. So by the time I got home I realised that I didn’t have the energy or desire to run on Monday night, so I didn’t.

I’ve got my running kit with me in London, so the plan is to go out for a run in Hyde Park in the morning. Let’s see.

Money Saving Tip

As I was getting into the lake today I saw a woman get in wearing a belt made of cups – it looked like she was getting ready to serve choc-ices in the interval. However, we chatted and it turns out it was a resistance belt (similar to this one). She wears it to make the training swims harder so that the races feel easier. However, she hardly needs it by the sounds of it – she’s planning to swim Windermere in 4 1/2 hours! That’s quite a lot quicker than me.

But it got it me thinking, I don’t need to wear a specific resistance belt as I have natural resistance. I also don’t need to wear a wetsuit as I have natural insulation.

So, my money saving tip for you all – eat more!

As for the activities – 4km swimming in 1hr 44mins.

Juneathon Working Week

The running (and other activities) may have been happening this week – but the blogging hasn’t, so I thought I’d do a round up of the whole week.

Monday – this one I did manage to blog about, but it wasn’t the longest run so far (not only for Juneathon, but of the year) at 7.07km.

Tuesday – the plan was to get a quick run in before my train down to London, but… well it didn’t happen, so nothing on Tuesday I’m afraid.

Wednesday – however, no run on Tuesday meant that I packed my kit to take it to London, so on Wednesday morning I went out from the hotel. I persuaded my colleague to come with me and being the complete gentleman that I am I used this as an excuse to race and comprehensively beat her. The fact that she didn’t know we were racing should take nothing away from my victory! So, a speedy 3.84km.

Thursday – the routine for a Thursday is to go to Pilates – it really helps to stretch me out after a week mainly hunched over a keyboard. However, it doesn’t feel like enough for Juneathon so I went for swim before hand and did 2km in the pool.

Friday – another running club session. The great news is that everyone that turned up last week was there again this week, with no drop outs. I was tired again, especially after a day that involved both cake and champagne (we decided to celebrate a successful week), but still pushed on which I was pleased about. The route changed a bit this week and was a bit longer. It turned out to be 7.7km, beating the previous record set on Monday, so not a bad end to the week.

Tomorrow will be a lake swimming day, so looking forward to that.

Juneathon 16 & 17

Sunday, or Juneathon 16, was an unexpected rest day. Most Sundays I take my son swimming and we splash about in the local pool playing pirates. He dives off floats, swims to collect “treasure” and “fights” other pirates while treading water and I am the “crew” of his pirate ship (big float). However, he didn’t want to go this week, so we didn’t go.

I had then planned to go for a run with a friend before lunch, but when she cancelled I realised that I didn’t have the energy or will-power to go on my own, It’s alright I thought – I’ll swim this evening, but by 8pm I was ready for bed not the pool, so that went by the wayside too.

However, it worked out okay as Juneathon 17 (today) saw my longest run yet – 7.07km.

I prefer not think of it as slow (although at 5:42 per km it was), more as a relaxed and steady run. The ball of my left foot was hurting quite badly as if it has been bruised and my right calf stiffened up a bit, but other than that I enjoyed it and it didn’t as if I was pushing myself too far. So maybe even further to come later in the month.

Quick run, quick post

Saturday morning, dropped my son off at football training and went for a quick run around the country lanes near the leisure centre.

I did 4.6km in just under 27 minutes, including a couple of very steep hills, and was back in time to watch the last 15 minutes of football. A nice start to the day.

Inaugural Southwell ad-hoc running (and drinking) club

So all the runners met just after 7:30pm, pleasantries were exchanged and introductions made where necessary. The plan was to start at 7:45pm, but it was felt that it would be a good idea to wait for a few extra minutes to see if there were any stragglers, so the run started at about 7:50pm.

It was nice and easy paced and all the runners kept together. For me it was quite hard after a long week at work, but it was nice to be out and so I just gritted my teeth and got on with it. And then 4.9kms later with a lap of the village completed in just under 30 minutes, all the runners arrived back at the Burgage. All the runners then made their way home feeling quite satisfied with the evening’s work.

 

** If you haven’t already guessed, I was the only one there. But I was pleased with the run – including running to and from the start / finish line it was a 5.56km run at a 5:25min/km pace. And despite it feeling like hard work I got round and almost enjoyed it.

As I was the only runner I decided not to go to the pub, but I will be going again next week – more details here if you’re interested.