Grim

Following a pretty nice day at the Juneathon Awards Ceremony in Hyde Park yesterday, excitement may have got the better of a few of us and we agreed to have a go at the Grim “thing” on December 4th. Anyone else fancy joining us?

Nothing better than a few like minded folk to encourage a challenge and I reckon it’ll be a good focus through the depressing early winter. Cold, wet, muddy routes used to be fun on the mountainbike when I had a bunch of mates to rag around with, so hopefully a bit of a lark will come from a run. Of sorts!

Hyde Park rounded off a great feeling Juneathon. Meeting folk new to me was very nice, all a very good bunch, I just felt a bit annoyed that I’m still not up to running. Pretty close now, but to see them trot off around the park while I couldn’t brought home how frustrating and upsetting being broken is.

I’ve had a good leg weekend, though, with very little pain yesterday and none today despite 60 miles at race pace on the motorbike, so hopefully I’ll get a run in about a week or so. Door hanging next weekend may put it off until mid next week – Tuesday 27th is a nice sounding target and here will be the first place to be told if I manage it.

Fingers crossed.

It’s time to decide

That’s decide, as in make a decision, not Deicide (the late ’80′s death metal band, for all the metal obsessives who like a cross reference!). Just thought I’d clear that up.

Juneathon has, I think we’re all in agreement, been pretty spectacular this year. Bigger than before but (despite some grief in late May) still feeling like a little club that you want everyone to be a part of despite the worry that if they are it won’t be the same.

There have, truly, been some amazing days of work done. The weather has been incredible for the month – some of us have seen zero rain, others been drowned. A bit cooler would have been ideal, at least for me, but that’s weather. And that’s just in the UK. We’ve had participants as widely spread as Japan, America and Bexhill on Sea. Proper races from lots and lots of Juneathoners, from first outings to long old triathlons. Pregnant cross training to attempts to lose the likeness to pregnancy.

A broad church of exercise all focused on our (us, the Juneathoners. Yep, you. And me. And him. And her. Even a couple of dogs jogging along.) little event.

And now, despite not wanting to, at all, I have to call a winner.

But first some honourable mentions.

I implore everyone to spend some time over the coming months not to check EBAY or waste a lunchtime but dip into the blog list on Cathy’s blog and read some of the entries you’ve missed. All of them are inspiring and humbling in their own way…i’m merely picking a few standouts that made me chuckle (or something!) lots over the duration.

First honourable mention goes, of course, to Joggerblogger without whom, none of this would be happening. Contact Cathy when you can, Rich, you’re getting a one off prize. Well, two off, really – your daughter deserves special mention for the cycling and all, so she gets the same as you. Details when you get in touch – everyone else can check JB’s site or Jogblog or here when it’s sorted!

Sean at AudioFuel has been an inspirational participant, as well as prize giver to our runner (pun not intended) up. Urban gym and everything. As well as suggesting a meet up in London in July – see the Facebook wall for his proposal and join in! Nice work, Sean – I look forward to meeting you.

Adam has been superb at Fitness Footwear, too. As enthusiastic as the rest of us, again I hope to meet you if you can get to the meet-up with us. If for no other reason than talking you into running, blogging and winning next year!

The best example of how we should all really do it though is Emma. Absolutely perfect behaviour from enthusiasm to…well, nothing, really! An inspiration indeed – and check her previous posts if you get time and want a good laugh. Very funny. Truly slacker of the year!

JogBlog, of course gets the warmest mention. For putting up with me, really! Oh, and taking the effort to sort the difficult bits of this year out. A surprisingly stressful few days in May (robbers trying to take the Juneathon name as their own invention…be careful of imitations and report them immediately!) before it settled down, but well worth it even if it did lead to me keeping up with over a hundred entrants! But for claiming that two (count ‘em…One. Two. Ah, enough already!) sit ups, as well as an extra loop of a roundabout on the pushbike is Juneathon, there’ll be no special prizes for you. Nope, not even a Nutrageous bar. Oh, no!

Loads of Juneathoners have raised the bar this year, though. 13 people have posted exercise everyday. 30 days of blogging is so hard it’s improbable in itself. Combined with exercise, it’s a time consuming monster. Can’t mention you all (it will take me all night – i’m a bit slow at writing at the best of times.) but you know how hard it is and I salute you.

There was an epic scrap mid month among the hard-core runners of the group. Last year, Grant won the event. And this year was in a mileage battle with Phil before good old Sorelimbs went over the edge, as only Juneathon can make you do, and lost it! I thought a challenge to Joggerblogger Rich’s record June total 182 miles was on the cards at one stage, but it all made sense after a while! Eva looked strong until other commitments eased her entry, too. Particularly in her favour was the level of support she showed everyone through comments both on blogs and Facebook. Mentions in despatches indeed. A proper Juneathoner in all but missing a few runs!

Facebook has given a new dimension this year. Opening the event up and making judging more complicated. A good thing, I feel, and several worthy members. But not a winner.

The winner. Ah, yes.

Unfortunately i’m going to be hard and heartless. You see, my heart says reigning champion. My heart says EatingTrees. My heart says blogging abroad. My heart says massive mileage. My heart says races. My heart says London to Brighton on a fixed gear bike. My hard side says a dodgy  internet connection means a missed blog day and so not a winner. Unfair, I feel. But not on the winners.

All had problems. But all ran every day. All blogged every day. It comes down to that.

All were…women.

Uh?

Eh?

What?

Yep. Proof that they’ve got something special.

And difficult to split. But I must.

We don’t yet have a third prize, but are working on one. Each of you, please contact Cathy by e-mail through her blog or however and we’ll get you sorted. By hook or by something, you all get rewards! Music, courtesy of Sean and Audiofuel and for the first prize the Vibram Five Fingers. Who gets what?

3rd: Sheri. An Impossible decision, to be honest. Just ran further over the month than the next two, a superb race included, but I need to split hairs. A delay on a proper blog post (did get one in  though, unlike EatingTrees, hence the difference) and no blogs away from home are the reasons and I feel bad, but have to adjudicate. Independently. So I have. And hope I’m not hated for it.

2nd: Travelling Hopefully and even harder to split. Support on other blogs, blogging away from home (but close to my home…stopping 2 miles from our door is a bit coincidental!), consistent mileage…to the point of an extra run in sheer determination to get the job done! Purely a hair splitting second place owing to lack of a race and fewer overall miles. I feel bad.

1st. And Juneathon winner, 2010.

Drumroll, please…..

Adele!

Or, as we know her in blog land, FitArtist. Run, holiday, race, photos, comments, support and, in hair splitting land, mileage! A complete package this year who deserves respect, congratulations and a rest! Last year, she went for a run in an evening dress at a party but Grant beat her at the post. I wonder if that made her resolution just a touch more intense than everyone else!

So congratulations to everyone, especially Adele.

Hopefully my decisions aren’t too unpopular. Judging is horrible and I vow to hand the reigns to someone (anyone!) else next year. Maybe as a dis-incentive, the winner should adjudicate the following year…Emma wouldn’t be alone then, I’m sure! The time taken to keep up is amazing. The feeling of impending doom as more people posted more blogs than I could keep up with was horrible. My “scorecard” looks as battered as many of you, I’m sure, feel.

So. Same time next year? With added Juneathon t-shirts?

ps. I promised to post this on Friday. It was 9.30 when I started typing. It’s 00.10 now, so I’ve slacked even on the awards post. Very poor. Could try harder. And next June, without a broken leg, I will!

Try out

Having been unable to “properly” participate in Juneathon has, to be honest, been a bit of a disappointment.

There’s only so much enjoyment I can garner from the weights, a rowing machine and few and light effort (realtively) outings on the mountainbike. So I made a promise to myself that, no matter what state of repair the leg was in, I’d attempt a run on the last day of Juneathon 2010.

So I did.

It proved far too early in the recovery process, it seems, since I got back about three minutes ago and now have a throbbing shin (not badly, but worse. Bah). But 0.16 miles at 10.16 pace let me know that I can’t put a proper step in, let alone a stride; that I can’t roll through my foot yet; that each running pace puts a stress through the leg far greater than a good walking stride at work on the soft (ish) grass.

But I saw out Juneathon with sort of a run. Pathetic, but as good as I can manage and at least something to tease my body with over the coming weeks of full(er) recovery.

Everyone else’s efforts have been great.

I went out last night straight after work so have the last two days to catch up on before final judgement of the overall event. I may well be out tomorrow evening, too, so am going to defer the final result post until Friday night. It’s not going to be easy since there aren’t enough of you who’ve slacked sufficiently to make things simple, but there are a few standout runners (forgive the pun) who deserve far more than we have available as prizes.

But there is one standout man who gets special early mention and that’s, of course, Joggerblogger. The whole reason for Juneathon. An inspiration who ran the first part this year on legs that should no longer run (I’m sure it was your phenomenal mileage over the previous two years that did you in!) before cycling whenever he could with the youngest Juneathoner (I think – hope I’ve not missed anyone!) in England. We salute you.

And I salute all this year’s participants.

The winner is….(drumroll until Friday…)

Pathetic

Knackered when I got home so got the chainsaw out and cut one dead tree down, trimmed some bits off the willow (but it needs large scale action that demands a professional, really. I might have to get my wallet out. Eek) and converted some odd branches already removed to firewood size logs.

Then, still feeling tired, I did a few sit-ups and a few press ups. Not a few as in “three” (unlike Jogblog who did a couple of sit-ups. Yep, Two. Must try harder) but not that many, either.

Not good enough, but i’m enjoying being a slacker.

Too

Everything seems to be exaggerated in the present scheme of things.

The winter had snow and ice and silly low temeratures for far longer than I can remember. I have heating bills and memories of outside meetings every morning at 9 o’clock to prove it.

Spring seemed to skip a beat. The marathon training was cold throughout – I think I blogged 4 runs of a neutral temperature when shorts and top (either long or short sleeve) weren’t in question. Things then seemed to change to dry, dryer and driest in an instant. Not a personal problem since my new site is reliant on lack of rain while we divert over a mile of highway drainage and re-route 29 acres of land drainage through a new ditch, but shortages seem inevitable in the near future.

The wind blew from the start of this site until 2 weeks ago, always predominantly from the East. Now there isn’t a breeze.

And despite promises during the winter that I wouldn’t say it, I have properly struggled today with the heat. Went out on the mountainbike for the proposed hack about Bedgebury Pinetum at 9AM and it was still massively warm. My boxers had the white sweat stains to prove it.

The good news is that, despite being swollen this evening, the leg pain hasn’t hindered me at all. I rolled the jumps and decided against a drop off or two as a leg protection measure, but generally the pain was at a minimum whilst enjoyment was still high. Very encouraging. I just need to find out why it keeps swelling so much.

The odd news is that while I had hoped for empty roads while a football match kept everyone indoors, my ride in black leathers in ridiculous heat wasn’t as lonely as hoped for. Traffic was lighter but still too heavy for absolute hooliganism to ensue. I had a good tussle with a Renaultsport  Megane on a road section I don’t know very well, put in 60 pleasant miles, had some squirrelly tank slappy moments on some rougher roads but generally, things were no better than an early weekend morning. I guess the advantage of the heat was to give me confidence to get my knee down on even the oddest corners (tyre temperature is a constant niggle on cooler days, diesel a worry on the rest!). The disadvantage was getting in, changing and having a proper dizzy spell as I went from cool garage to hot drive to put the bike away.

I simply can’t drink enough to replace sweaty losses.

Still, could be worse. I could be running through the heat like some of the other Juneathoners!

Now, I must remember to remind myself that it’ll never be too cold in the winter and that I shouldn’t moan about the weather!

1977

Yesterday evening, I forgot to mention, saw a man from a few decades ago finding his way home through Rye.

He seemed to be driving a Black Jaguar which has, in the past, been likened to a “Mike Baldwin” car. He had hair that has, over the past 14 months or so, morphed into a Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen crossed with James May type mess. He had a shirt that was skinny and hugged his body in a fashion that time forgot. And he was playing Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne which, while released in 1980, was certainly a product of the seventies.

It wasn’t entirely a bad look, but not one I’d choose for myself.

Which was odd, considering I found it to be me when I observed the oddity of the situation.

Today, the seventies theme continued as I completed the skateboard deck I’ve been working on. Here it is

complete with ACS 651 trucks, blue Kryptonic 70mm wheels and accessories straight from 1977 or thereabouts. The bearings need a good service, by the feels of them, but nothing I can’t sort over an evening.

I’ve got a gorgeous Fibreflex deck, GullWing HPG IV trucks and immaculate green Kryps as another board but don’t want to murder it while I rediscover my skate abilities so these wheels and deck are going to take a massive pasting over what’s left of the summer.

It might be a mid-life crisis, but by jiminy i’m going to enjoy it!

And Juneathon was achieved by taking the BMX to Halfords to buy some nylock nuts for the trucks so that I won’t be riding on two diagonally opposite truck baseplate fixings where the other two have vibrated right off the board. Unlike the ’70′s! The leg felt kind of ok, so i’m pleased enough to have agreed to meet a few idiots at Bedgebury tomorrow morning for a mountainbike play before too much heat gets into the day and I get out on the motorbike.

So, as I lower myself into the past, i’ve had a good day.

Friday

And the week’s caught up with me.

I’m tired and will have a bit of a lay in tomorrow before attacking the garden, doing a bit on the skateboard (got to cut and fix the grip tape soon – that’ll be hard to do as I want so I may have to resort to plan “b”), popping in to work (combined with a motorbike ride) and squeezing in a bike ride.

Today’s Juneathon was a lazy weights session which, if i’m honest, probably achieved next to nothing apart from making me even warmer and more tired.

Ah, well. I’ll soon be running again.

Goodnight.

Attempt

Today saw the second anniversary of the greatest union of the twenty first century. Forget anything that happened in America; forget any political conjuring; forget all reference to science.

After a few months thinking she was safe, two years ago today finally saw JogBlog see sense (through the bottom of a Hoegarden glass) and succumb to my obvious attractiveness.

So we went to the pub that saw witness to the event, followed by a visit to the Indian restaurant that makes me want to move back to Headcorn (but I had Indian Thai fusion food that is simply irresistable), followed by a pint of Flowers in the pub over the road. And here I am, having to get up before six o’clock, still to Juneathon at 11.25pm.

So tonight, Matthew, Juneathon is going to be press-ups.

Specifically: “How many press ups can I do after a big meal and two pints and a coke. When I’ve been up since 5.45. In 30 seconds.”

One way to find out…

Ok, I did 5 to warm up. Then rested for 10 seconds. And then, in what may be the shortest Juneathon in history, having not done quick press ups for a good few years (how many excuses can I make for not doing as many as I used to?!), the result is:

(Drumroll…..)

49.

So, one anniversary. One very tired man. One marvellous evening. 49 press ups in 30 seconds. (The 5 done in preparation, if it can be called that, don’t count). And a need for sleep.

I’m going now.

Ride

Got home after the most productive day at work for a fair while and decided not to waste such an evening inside on the rowing machine, so instead got out the mountainbike and went for a trip around the block.

The leg feels good for many things now but walking still isn’t one of the better things. I’ve dispensed with the crutch and am keeping things slow in an attempt to straighten my gait out where i’ve been leaning off the bad side for 8 weeks. The result is, at all but the slowest grandad pace, a wince of achy pain with each step. Not good, but bearable. And at least the direction feels ok.

Not being sure if it would be ok for pedal pressure, the mountainbike was chosen over the BMX and my 8 mile loop was my target. It was fine in most respects and certainly better than Cathy’s route home which went up every hill on the downs without seemingly going down much, ending with her lost-ish 6 miles from home and in need of the train. I wasn’t nearly as exhausted as her despite 16.4 average mph, which is reasonable for me with the knobbly tyres and soft suspension I was pulling and a good workout was had.

I wouldn’t fancy much more at the moment, though, as aches are setting in as I write. Hopefully i’m moving things up at about the right pace.

Fingers crossed it won’t be too long before I run but the 30th is looking very remote at the minute.

The right way

Pantera was the soundtrack to my weights session this evening. Vulgar Display of Power, to be more specific. Lovely. Just a shame that listening reminds me that, despite Phil having died and been revived through self abuse, Dimebag didn’t take getting shot very well and the chances of a reunion are therefore nil. The live experience is one which, despite being nearly 20 years ago, has lived on in my mind with crystal clarity.

My skateboard painting continues (i’m really going to be quite annoyed when I either crash and ding it or break it, whichever comes first…both seem inevitable!), I plan to complete it on Saturday if the grip tape arrives, then i’ll probably add a broken wrist to my leg as I won’t stop myself going for a ride and jump off, only to have the leg give out under the strain, resulting in a fall onto my impressively small and weak wrists.

Which is another statistic – in 1988, April 24th, I fell off the motorbike and broke my right wrist in two places and chipped off the sticky-out bone on the top which then healed onto the outside. In 1992, April 24th, I fell off the skateboard and broke exactly the same bones in my left wrist. Including chipping the sticky out bit on top. 4 years later to the day. Remarkable. The marathon this year, while not being day perfect, fell on the nearest weekend available to 19 days after my birthday. A resulting broken bone makes me wonder if I should begin to avoid this weekend in future.

Good job I’ve all but retired from skydiving…