Update Tuesday 24th

Just signing in because I am running a log in my head and it is getting too complicated by far so just to download to here:

• Saturday 14 April - 11.5 miles cycle (to end of canal and back plus - Burlescombe direction)
• Sunday 15 April - 4.5 miles walk (to the station/back, and in/around Exeter)
• Monday 16 April - 9 miles walk (to end of canal and back)
• Friday 20 April - 2.5 miles walk (to station/back)
• Sunday 22 April - 8 miles cycle (Halberton then Willand and home, circuit)
• Tuesday 23 April - 1.5 miles jog, 1.5 miles run (local 3mile circuit)

So I am now on ...

Week 1 - 46.5

Week 2 - 29.5 + 11.5 = 40

Week 3 - 4.5 + 9 + 2.5 = 16

Week 4 (so far) - 8 + 1.5 = 9.5

Total ... 122

Hmmm. Puncture last week didn't help, but all the same, definitely need to up the distance!

So how am I doing?

It's Friday evening, and I need to know how I am doing! So I am blogging to keep me up-to-date - at least in theory. I suspect I really need to update and then carry on using the runningfreeonline site as that definitely helps to track my mileage. Maybe I'll do that this evening or over the weekend at least ...

In the meantime though, I last blogged last Sunday, when I recorded that I had started the week with 8.5 miles. So let's summarise week two:

• Sunday 8 April - 6 miles cycle and 2.5 miles walk (as previously mentioned)
• Monday 9 April - 2 miles walk (to/from station - my wanderings around Salisbury I probably could have counted but didn't so it's tough, 2 miles is all I get credit for!)
• Tuesday 10 April - 5.5 miles walk
• Wednesday 11 April - 4.5 miles walk (again, while no doubt I covered a large amount of ground wandering around the garden centre I am afraid counting it in my miles probably just will not do!)
• Thursday 12 April - 7 miles walk (into Tiverton, first time I've done that ... it's a long way, though breaking it up with coffee, sandwiches, and much teen moaning about getting the bus definitely makes it easier if longer!)
• Friday 13 April - 2 miles walk (to/from station again - wandering around Exmouth I definitely should have counted as it turned out, but oh well ...)

In summary therefore with one day of week 2 to go I have done 29.5 miles. 

The challenge being #1000milesin6months I have worked out that breaks down as 167 miles a month, or 42 miles a week (well if each month had four weeks in, which it doesn't - but simplicity rules!). So tomorrow I have to get moving I think or I'm going to be behind already ...

I will report in tomorrow, hopefully with a good bike ride under my belt!

One week ...

So one week into the thousand mile challenge ... and what I have I done and what have I learned?

Well ...

I logged after two days and after three, so here's my week summary:

• 1 April - 1.5 miles run, 12 miles cycle 
• 2 April - 3 miles walk
• 3 April - 6 miles cycle
• 4 April - zero :-(
• 5 April - 6 miles cycle
• 6 April - 15 miles cycle
• 7 April - 1.5 miles run, 1.5 miles walk

So my end of week one total is ... 46.5 miles

That's ... ok. I think.

I have listened while walking to my first downloaded audio book (getting there ...). I have found my phone increasingly unreliable as a measure of distance as it periodically switches itself off, but I can usually work it out well enough (the above doesn't include a wander around Exmouth, or a wander around Tiverton, but does cover anything that was at least half a mile in a go ....). 

I have learned that having a challenge on does - as always - make me do more than I would otherwise, and get me out of the house, even when tired of an evening. One or two days off a week is only realistic, but means that the other days I have to get the miles done. Summer evenings will help, but the challenge will rely, I know already, on cycling the distances at the weekends. Walking and running are good - but I am not fit enough to run far and walking takes just so long ...

We shall see. I am cautiously optimistic. But a caution heavily tempered with the knowledge this is week one and only week one. Already it feels like a burden - as well as a badge of success. 

Week one is down anyway, with 46.5 miles logged.

And today, the start of week two, I have managed 6 miles cycling and 2.5 miles walking. (If only all virtuous activities counted then both yesterday and today's gardening would count as well ... but you can't have everything!)

So thus far I am on track and even very very slightly ahead. Though it is, as I mentioned the weekend, and without weekends getting me ahead I will not be even close!

Wish me luck, dear reader - or just a fair, following wind, a gentle warmth, rain at night when I'm asleep (for the garden!), and of course determination!

Week one of the #1000milesin6months done and dusted.

First drizzle

First drizzly evening of my new challenge tonight.

Looking out of the window from my desk at work it was sunny. All afternoon. I resolved to cycle on arrival home. The thought made me pleased. I was a dedicated soul and I was going to continue my challenge. It was all planned.

So plan enters execution stage: I exit the building I work in to walk - ooooh, 10 yards to my car? It is damping. No! That was NOT the plan. Disgruntled and downhearted I drive home. Itt throws it down on my windscreen most of the way. Ok ... so far so ... well actually, so far so dry given I'm in my car.

As I turn into the village it lightens off. I get from car to house house barely dampened, change and look out the window to peer at the path. Wet? Very wet? Getting drier? Hmmm. I put on a waterproof and zip up.

I am brave. I leave the house. It is damp but only damp. Six miles later I return home, having been damped on, drizzled on, and briefly even rained on ... but largely dry again, with my waterproof having done the job. My legs are damp, my hair tousled, I am cold and tired, and my legs are complaining about the whole idea of such a daft self-challenge.

But I have done my bit for the day and so the challenge goes on.

A New Challenge

Just a brief note as I am still not sure this is a good idea ... But I have decided to set myself off on a new challenge - 1000 miles in 6 months. I started yesterday, 1 April - yes I am a fool, and the challenge may be foolish, but it remains a far-too-real plan, at least for now - and the aim is to cover 1000 miles by running, walking, cycling, canoeing, swimming ... whatever (!) by the end of September.

Yes, sensible, who, me?

So far I have managed ...

• 1 April 1.5 miles run, 12 miles cycle
• 2 April 3 miles walk

I am not going to try to blog every day, and week 1 is a real test, with month 1 definitely a trial. But I will see how it goes, and try to record as a minimum at least once a week how I am getting on distance-wise.

2 days down and the doubts are already seeping in, but thus far I remain determined ...

(I haven't tweeted as yet even though I've decided on my hashtag - back to front I know but just for the record if I do ever dare tweet it will be labelled thus: #1000milesin6months)

J-Day: Day 31

Yes! Day 31 Welcome!

My bed was warm and cosy and I knew the air around was chilly. But up I got (eventually!), layered on the gear, and out I went. A short walk, a couple of dogs avoided, and I was off. It was chilly but I practised my controlled breathing through my scarf and concentrated on keeping going. At half a mile I allowed myself to think I'd do this. Then at one mile a huge smile broke all across my face. I had done it! I had Janathoned! I pushed back my hood and took my gloves off; the renewed burst of chill kept me going just a little bit longer to get to around my mile-and-a-half average, and as I walked my last few yards home my smile broadened.

I have run every day for 31 days without fail. I have run in sun, wind and sleet; in darkness, daylight, twilight and darkness again. I have got up early and have run late at night after wine and dinner at the pub. I have stepped in puddles and grimaced and my feet have tensed and frowned as they became cold and wet, and I slipped and slid in the mud but - somehow - not actually fallen. I have called on inner reserves to keep myself moving, and - more rarely, but more pleasingly - I have even relaxed on occasion as I found a brief moment of rhythmn.

Above all though I have kept at it. Every day I have run, and every 24 hours I have logged and I have blogged. We all need to set our own targets. For many the Janathon is an opportunity to get race-fit, preparing for an Iron Man, triathlon or their first half-marathon. For me it has been simply about getting back into doing regular exercise of some kind, and getting myself out there. I am sure February will not see me running every day, and I shall definitely diversify with more cycling and walking, and maybe a few more zumba classes. Finding myself a yoga class somewhere between work and home is my next target. But I shall continue to force myself out if I possibly can (though maybe not after skittles nights or full of pizza!).

And that is my Janathon done. Well done to all who have been daily jogging, logging, and blogging with me - and a huge respect to all. Regardless of what else is happening in your life it is a huge commitment and deserves respect. Finally, though, a huge Thank You to all my friends, colleagues and family who - underneath the despairing shakes of the head and gentle teasing - have I know been willing me on throughout. You are all fabulous and here's to you all.

Janathon 2012, I have you vanquished!

February freedom in sight: Day 31 - 1

Today was dark, cold, sleety/drizzly, overcast and generally miserable. The promised snow didn't really arrive, so no sparkling (or, to be fair slippery) glamour, just an unattractive darkness without even stars or any kind of feisty brittle chill.

I knew I was still not 100% though, and wrapped up in layer on layer - hoodies, snood things, waterproof etc - all designed I knew to make me sweat after half a mile, but also designed to get me out of the door. And thus bundled up, and I am sure looking more like a panto character than would really be considered ideal, I set off.

Only a mile-and-a-half later I was doing the 200 yards past my house, round and back as warm down. Without a shiny sky I'd failed to see the reflections in the puddles, so my feet were wet and my legs in their lycra chilled through; in contrast I had pushed back my hood and was sweating through my t-shirt under all those layers on my top half! I also had painful shins (I did go cycling in the end yesterday so that may have had something to do with it?) and so wimping out or not, a mediocre 17 minutes was definitely my lot.

I was done though. As it says in the title, Day 31 - 1. Tomorrow is definitely J-day, I can't fail now, surely!

Wish me luck dear reader, for tomorrow is the culmination of all my willpower and all your tolerance in one last dash to February freedom ...


(Copied up today, not tomorrow, in case you are confused - and just heading off for my J-day run now ...)