fairweatherrunner

running blog

Monthly Archives: June 2011


by 15 Comments

Heaven knows I’m miserable now

With thanks and apologies to The Smiths…

I was happy in the haze of a good run done
But heaven knows I’m miserable now

I was running everyday plus a log and blog
And heaven knows I’m miserable now

Juneathon
Why when we are having so much fun
Do you have to go and come to an end?

Two lycra clad guys pass me by
And heaven knows I’m miserable now

I was running everyday plus a log and blog
And heaven knows I’m miserable now

Juneathon
Why when we are having so much fun
Do you have to go and come to an end?

What the table said at end of the day
Got us running out the door

“you’ve got to run far more miles” it said
And I (naturally) fled

Juneathon
Why will I miss
The people who jog, log and blog so much?

I was happy in the haze of a good run done
But heaven knows I’m miserable now

“You’ve got to run far more miles” it said
And I (naturally) fled

Juneathon
Why when we are having so much fun
Do you have to go and come to an end?

Juneathon Day 30.

Hyde Park run with Badwabbit.  Too tired to go crazy, chasing the table of doom so we ran a loop of the serpentine and then had a cold coke to celebrate the end of Juneathon!

6.77 miles 63.23 mins

JUNE TOTALS.  101.61 miles run   11 BMF classes.

Well done Juneathoners!


by 4 Comments

Indiana Jones and the Table of Doom.

Juneathon day 29. 1 Day to go…

Oooh ahh um… what to blog about today? My legs are weary and my mind is not much better. Added to that, the absence of my creative assistant, (who is obviously having a good time, has not run out of money, and is being fed acceptable amounts of food, because I have not heard a single dot/text/whatever from him! Nor from his younger brother, also away, but then he’s always been far more self-sufficient!) has left me thinking …. well not much really.

This morning was BMF, it wasn’t as hot as Monday but it was still hot. Our delectable instructor, one of our favourites, gives a tough class and did so today regardless of heat, which at the time is not what you think you need but afterwards you do appreciate the benefits because there is no way in a million years that you could push yourself that hard on your own! We did quite a bit of sprinting uphill in individual bursts at the start of the class and then at the end 3 sprint races. Being competitive I gave it all I had, (nice to see that all these Juneathon miles are paying off with pace) so my legs were shouting a bit by the end!

The table of doom here was talking to me this afternoon. Inspired by Psychojog\’s determination to standup for girl power and keep in the top 10 (probably better) and stories of last-minute dashes to the top 10 or 20 and many of us reaching our goals, such as 100 miles.  Naughty Badwabbit had also published a totals list in his blog this morning and had included the top 21 .  Hmmm  the extra 21st out of politeness to include me at 21st?  Or a kick up the bum to encourage me to get into the top 20?  Anyway, inspired and in the spirit of the last days of Juneathon I went out for a late afternoon run. My legs far from being dead were sprightly after the sprinting so I made a good pace apart from any uphill bits (which they refused to tackle) so I had to run a bit further than planned to avoid any significant slopes!

Morning: 1 hour BMF class

Afternoon: 3.41 miles 29.35 mins

94.84 miles run  11 BMF classes.  1 day to go…

For inspiration and incase you missed the video of Darth Vader and the Table of Doom from Sunday here it is again…

Darth Vader and the table of doom

Good luck and happy running, cycling, swimming, walking for day 30!


by 7 Comments

Thunder run.

Juneathon day 28.  A first for fair-weather me, torrential rain, thunder and lightning!

I set off for my run at lunch time, it had tried to rain but had fizzled out so I took the risk of being rained on and went for it.  I noticed at about 3.5 miles that there was a certain amount of rumbling going on in the sky.  I turned off the Bee Gees and then could definitely hear thunder.  The sky was getting dark and suddenly Hyde Park wasn’t so busy.  The rain started just before 4 miles and got heavier and heavier.  I was a little worried about being in a park with all that thunder and by now lightning and was thinking about whether it was best to be under the trees or to run in the middle of the path as far away as possible.  I took off my iPod and (because of lack of pockets in my warm weather shorts) stuffed it down my bra in case the metal attracted lightning.  I also worried if my garmin was waterproof enough and if that would fit in my bra too!!  Running in a downpour was fun though! Other runners actually grin and laugh at the shared madness of it all and wearing only running vest and shorts I wasn’t hampered by soggy clothes and was warm as long as I kept moving.  I did think I should have brought the shower gel.  I headed for home and got plenty of strange looks running through Notting Hill, half-dressed, in the pouring rain by people cowering under umbrellas. Near home I checked my mileage and had only ran 5.5 miles when I’d planned to run 6.  By then the rain had eased and there was a warm breeze so I went on to add my local 2 mile loop as a ‘blow dry’ because I was feeling good and had the feeling that ‘table of doom’ was  pushing me on and on and on…  Until it started to thunder again and I high-tailed it home just in time before the really scary lightning and thunder started with more torrential rain.

Now before all the rain and thunder storms started, as I was starting out on my run my main problem was wondering what to blog about and what, in the absence of my creative assistant (school boy warning - he’s on a school trip in Yorkshire), I was going to do for Lego today.  I’d quite made my mind up to do a team pic of all the cast to-date and ask for nominations for the next two days.  But then, running via the back streets of Kensington I saw a man waiting for the AA to fix his Ferrari trying to look cool talking on his mobile while being sheepish at the same time.  Lego sorted.

7.65 miles   1 hr 11.15

2 days to go and 91.43 miles run…. (plus 10  BMF classes!)


by 6 Comments

Hot hot hot!

Juneathon Day 27.

Hot at BMF today, not that I’m complaining (too much) because that might have been our entire summer! Also it’s not too long ago that we were all winging and whining about doing BMF in the cold and snow. We just can’t win really! Anyway at least in this mornings class we tried to keep under the shade of the trees and much of the class was static resistance exercises rather than frantic running and sprinting especially as the temp in the shade was showing 30 degrees at 10am.

I decided to postpone plans to run again this evening to attack those 16 miles I need to run to reach 100 until tomorrow when hopefully it might be a little cooler.

1 hour BMF class.

20110627-222825.jpg


by 12 Comments

Short blog with a Lego treat!

Juneathon Day 26.

My day has been taken up with family stuff today. This afternoon I have been washing, packing and running around like a headless chicken trying to get both sons organised as they are going away (different trips) with school next week. I also had to spend the morning doing my termly door duty at the school swimming pool/sports hall which families can use weekend mornings. I did grab a quick dip myself so can count 10 lengths for juneathon (my first swim) plus I did many shuttle runs across the hard court to open the side gate and let people in.

250 metres swum

at least 10 shuttle runs.

Short Lego video from The Teenager (arabliz).

Darth Vader and the Table of Doom….

click here for link to video


by 10 Comments

Wormwood Scrubs Parkrun

Juneathon Day 25.

Today I ran my first parkrun. I’ve been interested in running one for a while, especially after reading about Abradypus’s exploration of England via a different parkrun each weekend,  but I never did manage to get myself out of bed on a Saturday morning and down to Richmond or elsewhere in time for 9am.  Then I heard that parkrun had started on Isle of Wight so I could make plans to run that one in the summer holidays.  I was very excited when I found out recently that a parkrun had started up at Wormwood Scrubs, only  a couple of miles from home.  Abradypus was also keen to add another venue to her tally so we arranged to meet up to run the 3rd Wormwood Scrubs parkrun.

The 5K course was 2 laps of the scrubs, run mainly on grass, it was a bit uneven and long in places so we got wet feet!  The run was actually more interesting than I imagined (afer a couple of BMF sessions there)because of some slight ups and downs and the scrub bushes mean  you couldn’t see the whole course all the time and a bit of variety in the landscape kept things interesting. They were a fairly small and friendly group so I will definitely be going back for more.

Afterwards as we headed off for a nice cuppa tea, I just about managed to restrain myself from joining BMF who were just setting up for the Saturday Wormwood Scrubs class!

This evening I went out again for another brief run as my younger son decided to join his friend when he scooted home so I volunteered to accompany them and grab a few more miles in case I don’t have much time for running or it is too hot tomorrow.

Parkrun  3.09 miles  25.16 mins

Evening  2.11 miles in 22.15.


by 12 Comments

Donuts and Bananas

Juneathon Day 24. BMF again today.

Things are getting a little competitive in Juneathon world.  There’s quite a bit of friendly banter and elbowing for a position in the top 10!  It’s catching too.  I’m not near the top 10  (just want to meet my target of 100 miles) however when badwabbit tweeted that I was 19th (for a brief moment) it did make me have some daft thoughts (for more than a moment) about running lots of extra miles!  So this morning when I happened to be at Hyde Park early for BMF and I happened by chance to have my garmin with me, I went along with the daft idea and decided to go for a brief warm up run before the class and grab and extra mile for Juneathon. Shame I  didn’t have longer for a couple more!

At BMF I didn’t have to try very hard to make sure I wasn’t in the fast group because after yesterday’s long run my legs weren’t up for big efforts and the pretty tough warm up and split down were rather exhausting.   My calves and achilles, which have been tight on recent runs, were not too painful so the warm up run obviously did them good.  So much for middle group for an easier ride!  We ended up doing the exercises for Beat the Instructor a challenge BMF is running with Mens Fitness and Maximuscle (BTI) which the instructors at our park have been trying to persuade us all to participate in.

The challenge consists of 10 (20 for men) burpees, sit ups and pressups then 3 return shuttle runs (where you lie down and your chest touches the floor after each return), all repeated three times.  Sounds straight forward? Except that, on each burpee you have to lie down fully in between (not just a squat thrust) and your hands must be lifted off the ground and similarly between each pressup and the back of your hands must touch above your head for situps.  Oooh hard work, I don’t think it was all to do with my 10 miles yesterday.  The burpees were the worst.  I’m normally not too bad at them because I find I can get a decent rhythm going but you can’t do that when you have to lie down and lift your hands off.

Needless to say I don’t think any of us set any records today.  We were joking that we’d need a time handicap for being old! (Ok,  well I was.)  Even if handicaps were possible I still don’t think I’d be in any danger of even getting anyway near the leaderboard!

After class as we gathered ready to go for  coffee, somebody was handing out donuts.  Many of us accepted one out of politeness without thinking but not really wanting to eat one (well certainly not a whole one)…. Until rescued from our bad habits by our wonderful Guardian Angel and reminded that they were the worse kind of donuts, pure hydrogenated fat and white sugar and that we would be ranting and raving on a sugar high in 20 mins if we ate one!  Two of us had the donut literally removed from our hands as we raised it to mouth and thrown in the bin!  We sulked a little and were offered a banana at the cafe in compensation.  By then I’d actually tasted the mouthful I had eaten and was very happy for a banana instead.  At least, as we discussed later, it gave me a humourous theme for today’s Lego scene and something to blog about.  Shame I couldn’t find that Lego banana, but the real one and the latte went down a treat!

1 mile  9.08 mins

1 hour BMF class


by 12 Comments

Hyde Park Thursday

Juneathon Day 23. Hyde Park Thursday and the Sun was shining.

Such a huge change from last week, I even needed my sunglasses rather than flippers! I ran the 2.5 miles to Hyde Park where I met badwabbit and although I wasn’t there first, because we were both early, we agreed that the forfeit of 10 star jumps for being late was not relevant.  (phew!)  We had coordinated our running attire after criticism last week that we clashed so today we were sophisticated in black and navy rather than soggy in flourescent pink and red.  We ran a circuit of part of Kensington gardens and Hyde park, about 4.5 miles in total.  Hyde Park was very busy with tourists, Boris bikes, runners, cyclists, dogs, horses, police men and combinations of all and any.

It was great to run and chat again.  The time and the miles really fly by when you’ve got company and I find I maintain my pace better.  Again we ran at a decent pace – a couple of miles at 8.44/8.48 pace which is probably the best pace I can maintain and talk at the same time.  Great training, I’m going to recruit Badwabbit as official Juneathon Half Marathon pacer for training. (If he wants a word in edgeways he just needs to increase the pace a tiny bit!)

I then ran the 3 miles home and didn’t slow down too much.  Coincidently my average pace today 9.17 was exactly the same as last week.  I felt pretty good on the last few miles home, considering the distance, but the last mile is down hill!  Home to a bucket of chocolate milk, ice pack on the legs (precautionary), lunch and more pretending to work. Oh, and most importantly a delivery of food shopping!

10.14 miles   1 hr 34.14 mins


by 13 Comments

Someone didn’t have their Weetabix!

Juneathon Day 22. This morning I slept my way through a BMF class.

Yes, I do have to admit, I was fairly pathetic today. I turned up rather sleepy and was quite happy to lie on the grass and pretend I was back in bed while we waited to start. I then carried on to give my poorest effort at BMF for a long time. Generally dawdling along at the back of the group, yawning, barely able to hold my hips off the ground in the plank, running at half speed and using my sore ankle as best excuse not to do jump squats (or anything else that looked like too much hard work).

I did rally a bit towards the end, by which time I was almost awake and able to pick up some more speed on warmed up legs. At the end I atoned, a little, for my slothness by churning out a minutes worth of near perfect (we’re a modest lot) burpees!

Now some might blame todays weariness on the fact I’ve either run or been to BMF everyday for the past 22 days (and ran a race at the weekend). Pah no, nothing to do with Juneathon! – It’s all because I didn’t have my Weetabix this morning because the cupboard was bare. Younger son has taken to eating 4 a day and I’ve been too busy running to catch up with the shopping!

1 hour BMF class.


by 7 Comments

Dragons, Pirates and a Badger

Juneathon day 21. Yes I have gone bonkers! The builders are still drilling next door you see…

Although the title is not all to do with my loss of sanity. Yesterday Travellinghopefully, commented on my blog, ” Tomorrow I would like to request a tableau involving a dragon, some pirates and a badger. You know, just in case something snuffly, piratey and fire-breathing occurs…” Now not to pass up a challenge I thought, mmm, fine with the Lego bit (leave that to the Teenager, my able assistant), but how could I make something snuffly (huffy and puffy, I can do), piratey or fire-breathing happen on my run?

So mid-morning I went out for a run and a little sanity time. I had an idea and so headed towards Kensington Gardens where there is a pirate ship in the Diana playground.

Unfortunately I didn’t see any pirates, dragons nor badgers although there were lots of trainee pirates running around.

Next stop was to see Peter Pan.

After all he talks to animals and knows a lots about pirates.

Now Peter Pan is a magical figure and eventually when the crowd of tourists cleared he agreed to help me but only on the condition that I promised never ever to breathe a word of it to another human being over the age of 15. Needless to say there were plenty of pirates, a badger and some close shaves with a large fire-breathing critter !

I tried to take it easy today after the past few days. Even so my calves were very tight and a bit painful. At one stage I was plodding along getting slower and slower, even the Bee Gees weren’t helping much. My motivation and faith in human nature was restored however, when I ran past 3 Squadies marching fast with big back packs. I smiled and was rewarded by 3 big grins and a high-five!

I then went on to bump into a good friend en route home so had a ’not so brief’ stop and a good catch-up.  All in all a good run.

4.53 miles.  43 mins.
3 weeks completed! 67.44 miles.

Legs massaged with tigerbalm and foam rollered so hopefully fit for another day…and another…

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,019 other followers