Wednesday 4 January 2012

Janathon Day 4 - The Lazy One.

Aye, you read it right - L.A.Z.Y.

I was supposed to go to the gym this morning but was too lazy to get the finger out andget a shift on. I was up early enough no problem thanks to wee George (no. 2 son) who decided that 5am was a sensible and healthy time to get up, which was also 10 mins earlier than myalarm was set for. Why I just didn't get on with stuff like I should have done I shallnever know, I shall however without the slightest of doubt, not get on with stuff again.
The problem with not getting on with stuff is that I start work at 7am. You can see problems already can't you. I don't have the option of going to the gym in the evening soit HAS to be in the morning before work. The nearest gym to me is The Exercise Lounge in Didcot, who open the earliest in the area too, at 6:15.
For me to get a decent workout I have to be waiting at the door when they open. I then have to squeeze the workout into 30 mins before getting changed and leaving for work. I didn't leave the flat till 6:15 due to my idleness, so straight to work it was for me. The night officer was very surprised to see me beeping to get in at 6:30.

Today's run was also lazy, but by jebus didn't that wind pick up! The short route home (as requested by wifey), which was not a bad thing as my legs are still feeling the effects of the first 3 days of Janathon. Probably best not to go silly today anyway as I have a double run planned for tomorrow as well as my first TT match of the year.
I shall prob post tomorrows blog on Friday morning, or at least very late tomorrow night unless I get a chance to write it during the match.

Until next time chummies.

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Janathon Day 3 - The Windy Effer!

What? It was bloody windy, but luckily because of my route this morning - it's basically a rough "V" shape - it was only in my face in the 2nd half, which I think you will all agree, is the worst half of a run to have a head-wind. 1st half was lovely, not sure mysplits will show it though. I shall have a shufftee later, you can to if you like, just click here.
I was surprised by my average pace though, once I'd got to work. It was 5 mins/km. Iwas surprised because it was faster than last nights 10k run home though it felt a plop sight slower. I guess this is a good thing and that my running legs are coming back tome, which is jolly good news as I fully intend to train for a sub 40 min 10k in an attemptto hit sub 50 mins for Wantage Tri's run stage of 12k.
My goal btw for Wantage Tri is not just to finish, but to finish well - top 20 would be magic, & the only person who can help me do that is me.

Next planned run is tomorrow evening so i have a good few hours to recover. I do havea gym session planned for tomorrow morning which will mainly consist of a core, arms& shoulder workout. Legs, & in particular, squats, can wait till after Janathon as I think they are affecting my knee along with the cycling.

Anyway, that's enough spout from me. By reading this you're making an excuse for yourself not to get out and exercise, get out there dammit, its only a bit of wind and rain.

Cheery-bye.

Monday 2 January 2012

Janathon 2: The Return of the Icy Bastard

Yes, it’s back well and truly now, although it’s not yet especially icy in the Oxfordshire area. I can smell it in the air mind, it’s not far away by gum, oh good golly gosh no. Spikes are at the ready, all tucked away in my “running” drawer ready to leap to my rescue at the slightest hint of the slippy stuff. I say slightest hint, I’ll probably wait till it’s snowed before I put them on.

It being a bank hol today I had to work, and getting paid to sit on one’s chuff doing as little as possible is always a good incentive. It did however mean that I had to miss the shinier part of the day in which it would have been ideal to run in. Still, as I do 12 hour shifts, shiny parts of days are usually seen and felt through glazing and brickwork. Very boo indeed. I am usually relegated to running in the dark, especially when it comes to the winter months so it’s a damn good job I like running in the dark, except for on-coming traffic though, that can just about go and do one, stupid drivers and their obsession with turning everything into daylight and blinding all living creatures.

So anyway, to the run.
I was going to fanny out and just run the 6+ km from work to home but perversely, as the weather worsened throughout the day I found myself wanting to hit another 10k burn up for day 2. Seriously, the more the wind picked up and the colder it got, the more I wanted to do it, then it rained too. RAAAAHHHHHH! 10k loop it is then. Only semi-hardcore though, must be old age kicking in! Snigger fnarr fnarr.

Not as quick as yesterday but then the legs were a bit on the tight side, but I’m hoping that as long as I don’t crip myself again like I did in the Juneathon, by running too far too soon, I should be able to run through whimpy aches and hurty types.
It was a pleasant enough run though, and nice to listen to choonz again for a change rather than an audio book. May do the same route but in reverse tomorrow morning for day 3. Check back here to find out.

Laters, innit.

Sunday 1 January 2012

Hi ho hi ho, it's on a thon we go.

It's here b's n g's, the Olympic Janathon, and I'm buggered if I'm going to let this effer beat me this time round.
Firstly, happy new year to you one and each, I hope you all have a spankingly good year, with only the mearest hint of misery tucked in there at some point. Come on, you know it will happen!

Bugger it, I've drawn a blank!..........................

I would just bang on about my run but that would be boring as it was raining and only 10k into Didders and back. I am happy with my knee though, only the slightest touch of hurty right at the start which had worn off before the 1st km was in the watch, so that was very welcome and really rather spiffing.

I did carry out a little experiment on the internal GPS thingies in phones. I took both my new Samsung Galaxy S2 and my old skanky iPhone 3G just to see how much more accurate the GPS was now. The answer? - Really quite considerably. Both phones were using Runkeeper (the same account) with both the same settings with the only difference being I was listening to Alan Partridge (yes, again!) through the S2 and I had an audio cue telling me when I went through each km. This was done by the way so I knew what my splits were as for some random reason, this feature is not yet available in RK for Android. The route I took was, I knew, 10k so I was keen to see the difference. S2 won hands down!
I would love to give you the result of the 3G GPS but I retardedly deleted the thing before I realised I would want to put the results in here.

I was also going to were my cheapy HRM which I had (yes, had) yet to use properly, but as I was laying still trying to get my HR down to resting rate before the run, which I needed to do so it could work out my fitness level, the stupid thing would go from 49 bpm (just above proper RHR) to 130. This I knew to be twaddle. Guess where my cheapy HRM went? Yup, Dusty Bin got some techy lunch.
I kept the watch though just because its quite comfy to wear, and err, it's a watch and I like watches.
I want to get a shiny new HRM/GPS watch, and I know which one too. Anyone got £400 spare?

That's enough blather from me today. Fear not my dears, I shall return on the morrow.
Well done to all the Janathoners that made it out today. Here's to hopefully seeing you all at Hyde Park in Feb.

Chin chin.