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 ...)

Another day another run: Day 31 - 2

I mentioned yesterday that I've been feeling rotten, and as it continues I reckon it probably is a bug that I've managed to pick up - only a mild one, so no sympathy deserved here - exacerbated my exhaustion. I wonder if the Janathon has helped or hindered with the exhaustion? I suspect it means I am more physically tired and therefore sleep a bit better, but who knows. (In reality, sleep is a talent I have never managed to successfully develop to a reasonable level - I am in awe of those who go to bed, drop off, and get up full of beans the next morning raring to go. One day ....)

Anyway, with this stomach bug and general tiredness still getting me down, and having decided I want to get my bike out this afternoon for a brief outing, I actively concluded a short run would be wise - fulfil my obligations to the Janathon God, while being relatively nice to myself.

So on a cold but bright morning, avoiding many dog walkers and a couple of cyclists, I jogged 1.3 miles in 13 minutes. Pace reasonable, heart pumping enough, chill just about deterred, legs kept moving, and home again.

I have now showered, I have logged, and shortly I will have blogged. This means that for the first time for ages I feel fully up to date and can now forget Janathon for a few hours rather than having it hanging over me because either I haven't run or even if I have, getting the blog written seemed to be beyond me!

But yes, I am done.

Big smile today.

Tired but determined: Day 31 - 3

After a day when I almost left a work event early because I was feeling so awful, I thought any kind of run at all would be a successful venture, and I also knew that it was go as soon as I got in or don't go at all.

There isn't much to say - tech failure means I don't really know how far I went (suspect it was 1.7 but will go for a conservative 1.6 miles instead), but really, even doing a mile felt as good as it was going to get. I didn't run particularly fast or do anything exciting, but I went and I ran and I have maintained, thereby, my Janathon. Small smile :)

On a cold and frosty morning ... Day 31 - 4

It's been rather warmer than you would probably reasonably expect of January for quite a while. I am sure there are many who would say that is not a good thing because the cold is bracing and reinvigorating and inspires greater endeavours. I just think we have been lucky!

But yesterday was a morning when the frost was thick, the cars shining on every window,  and everyone was muffled up to the nines. 

I had only completed my mammoth over 3 miles (yes, still amazed at that that and taking every opportunity to boast) run a few hours earlier, or so it seemed. But I knew that with a long conference-type day ahead I needed to get up and go. 

So it may only have been 1.3 miles but I went out and I ran. And I logged. And now, only 23 hours later I have blogged. the eagle eyed may notice my blogging also got out of synch. But in the end analysis I am now fully jogged, fully logged and fully blogged ... until later today anyway!a

Late night running ... is good for me? Day 31 - 5

You've been home for a while after a long, slightly odd and rather challenging day at work. You eat a large if sensible meal, drink wine and then partake of caffeinated coffee. It's late.

In fact it's 11pm. And you haven't run.

So, reluctantly you change. You are determined. You will do one mile. It will not kill you. You are grateful it has stopped raining. And you will run.

You leave the house. Amazingly - oddly - but gratefully - you feel ok.

You walk for the regulation couple of minutes of "warm up". You start to jog. Not fast, but relatively comfortably. Most of your attention is on being aware cos it is late and dark of what's around you, and trying to avoid the mud under your feet. You carry on running. Somehow you've done the mile and you're feeling ok so you keep going. And then you've done just under 1 1/2 miles ... then just under 2 ..

Eventually at just under 3 miles, amazed and bewildered with home soon to be in view, you set your sights on "that speed limit sign at the beginning of the village" a short distance ahead. And somehow, as you finally slow to a walk, you realise you have not only broken the 3 mile barrier ... but you even feel ok.

The moral of this tale I know not. I was never aware that drinking wine was such a recipe for athletic prowess! But it seems so! Only minutes before my 24 hours are up, though, I am jogged last night, I am logged last night, and now I am blogged tonight.

Janathon Day 26 is done!

More an Exercise in Blogging? Day 31 - 6

It is nigh on a quarter to eight and I am fairly slowly walking home after 1.7 miles of fairly hot and reasonably sustained jogging.

I have logged on my phone already and now my second test is tp see if I can type this and also blog before I am home! Getting in to work having j, l and b'd as they say would be a real bonus today, and so far it is looking good... though of course navigating getting it to actually upload on my blog remains a challenge. 

Here we go though ...

... and well no, that didn't really work! I am now home and (a bit) cooler and briefly on my laptop before I dash into the shower. I did thereby manage to use what I typed above, so that is progress, however I think I need to play a bit more with the tech before I try to be quite so clever again. Nevertheless, I am now - finally - jogged, logged and blogged. Now for the day to start ...!

Early to jog ... still means late to blog: Day 31 - 7

Today was a busy day at work, as I knew it would be; I was also overtired last night and needing sleep. So I got up as late as I could while still just about allowing time for a run, shower, breakfast etc. And somehow it all worked. I did my 15 minutes out along the canal and back, which is still nothing like what I should be able to do, but I reckon as good as I can hope for with current levels of fitness, time and so on. I made it into work a good half hour before I needed to be there (albeit also 20 minutes after I'd planned to be there in my head, but it was worth it for having ticked the J and L boxes!).

Sadly though it is now last thing before bed and I have only just got around to blogging. My creative juices, generally running low when it comes to the subject of 1 - 1.8 mile jogs along the canal in the morning half-light or the evening darkness, are today almost entirely dry. And so I shall close this blog with an apology to any poor soul who has stayed faithfully with me, and merely make gestures of hope that with a new day new inspiration will strike.

So until tomorrow, dear reader, until tomorrow.

Janathon Joys: Day 31 - 8

Tired, hungry, headachey, late home after shopping, and dubious about the frequent interludes of drizzle: these are the trials that Janathon sends to try us.

But I abandoned the shopping, changed and went, knowing that otherwise I might fail to find even the minimum of motivation required to get me out of the door later. 15 minutes later I am home - sweaty, a bit muddy underfoot, and even hungrier, but I have jogged, and I have logged. And now, as my pasta bubbles away on the stove I am blogged. I avoided the very worst puddles, I failed to fall flat on my face in the slippery muddy section, and I even somehow managed to choose one of those brief periods when the drizzle held off for my brief venture out. And of course, yet again, the wonder of Janathon came through as I defeated my own demons.

This morning I snoozed many times and got up late, thus the evening run today. I have to be in work quite early tomorrow but maybe I will set my alarm and jog early. And no, I'm not doing this by vote - the demons that work against me on a cold, dark evening aren't half as determined as the demons that fight me when my bed is warm and cosy!

Sunday light: Day 31 - 9

Today I ran in the light, which felt a pleasant novelty. Not much else to report really - I managed a loop for the first time, albeit with a long-ish walk back because my legs were complaining more intensely than my ability to fight them by 1.8 miles when, breath heaving, I slowed. (I think yesterday's 2.2 miles were still taking their toll!) But it was a very pleasurable walk back along the canal; for once I actually got to look around me which was an unanticipated benefit. I really am very lucky to live so near the canal: there's no doubt it has made this whole Janathon experience much more tolerable.

Anyway, I left, I jogged, I logged from my phone, and I returned home. And that is what Janathon is all about I think - not trying to be spectacular, just getting out, every day. And so far that is what I have done. Wish me luck, friends, for the days to come - the end of January still feels a long way off!

Determined to do a mile ... Day 31 - 10

Having only written my last blog an hour ago or so - if that - I went to get changed, looked out of the window to check (with a sigh of relief) that it wasn't raining, and headed out into the dark and chill.

After about half a mile the hood was pushed back, and I pushed on. My talking phone/GPS app told me at ten minutes I'd done just under a mile and I pushed on. At 1.3 miles I was back to my starting point ... and still I pushed on. At 15 minutes I'd done just under 1.5 miles and at 20 minutes just under 2. By this point my breathing was ragged, I had the traditional stitch, I was sweating profusely, and hooray ... my sofa was again within reach ... One last push to the edge of the village and I slowed to begin the last "warm-down walk home" at 2.2 miles.

So I cracked, somehow the 2 mile barrier: big smile for me. Sometimes determination really does pay off! I will continue to marvel from afar at my fellow Janathoners running 5, 10, and even 15 miles a day; in the meantime though I will get on quietly with my target of completing the month, however brief my average outings and however entertaining it may be that a 2 mile stretch can be so noteworthy!

And with that in mind, so far so good. Day 21 is Jogged. Day 21 is Logged. Day 21 is Blogged. Yes!

Yet another syrupy reward! Day 31 - 11

Day 20 came ... and most of it went, starting early with a long day at work, then having a lovely dinner out with my sister, and then walking home in the drizzle knowing I still had to run but was full of food and full of pudding as well (yes, I know, probably not the cleverest thing I've ever done!).

But with more suety cake on offer, I changed, put my hoodie on with the hood up ... and 1.7 miles later I was walking home with a smile on my face (between the wheezes, obviously).

Getting out there is still hard, but I'm still doing it. I hope (and yes, this is being written the following day with yet another willpower exercise building, but I will do it, I will ...)

For now, though, briefly, I am up to date with my Janathon. Day 20 is truly JLB'd.

Late night run but with a syrupy reward: Day 31 - 12

Day 19 was one of those days when without Janathon there'd be no way you could even imagine forcing exercise into your day. 

Following an average work day - pretty full on, as so often - I jumped in my car and went straight to a sort-of social sort-of volunteer monitoring event for some stuff I do where I used to live back in Wiltshire. So a couple of hours drive, a diversion to buy cake (my "plate of food to bring") and I was all ready for what turned out to be skittles. Then 20 minutes back to my mother's where I was staying overnight, arriving at 10.30 pm … and straight out the door to do my run.

Mad, I tell you, just mad.

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Uhoh, the inevitable blog re blogging: Day 31 - 13

I remember this from last year. Just at the point when you begin to allow a tiny tiny kernel of hope to grow inside you that you might actually do this whole Janathon thing through, you realise you have run out of anything whatsoever to blog about.

I am someone who is happy writing. Usually. And unhappy jogging. Usually. But my creativity seems to have deserted me entirely again. This morning's run was consumed with worry: what do I write about my nth short outing along the canal in the half-light? how do I find new topics to amuse myself even let alone any poor soul who is driven by byways of the internet to read this blog so barren of ideas and originality? And the fact I have spent all evening procrastinating before pontificating shows my enthusiasm is as rich and expansive as my imagination.

Hmm. I know not the answer to these matters. Answers on a 21st C twitter-style postcard I suppose.

Still, that is nevertheless the problem solved for today. Jogged, logged and blogged. Time for bed and ... oh yes, it starts again oh so soon ... so til tomorrow dear reader!

In the deep midwinter ...: Day 31 - 14

It was a cold and frosty morning when she set out, wrapped up all warm with only a face peering out into the gloom ...

Yes, that was me this morning. Starting off - as always - with a walk to get the muscles moving, I headed up to the canal pondering the thick frost on the cars and noticing that it actually makes it easier to detect the path from the grass across the rec in the half-darkness. Brrrr. As yesterday I had put my waterproof on, which in answer to yesterday's comment* was all part of attempting to keep warm with an extra layer. It being a cheap jacket in fact of course once I have been going for a while I start sweating like mad and so it may not be the best idea overall. But given that I never go so very far it does the job and makes the afearsomed cold slightly less intimidating so at least I get out!

Now I sit here hot and sweaty, and only slowly cooling ready to hit the shower.

It is one of the marvels of #Janathon that having been out about 9ish last night I went out again at 7ish this morning. In a normal life can you ever imagine that? The things you do to get jogged (done), logged (done) and blogged (hooray, also now done)!


(*) ah, a comment, how fabulous - and it wasn't even my first - if you too are reading this please indulge me drawing attention to the fact someone has read at least a couple of posts!