End of the year

It seems fitting to carry out something of a round-up.

Again a year dogged by injury (only a few broken ribs and something amiss with my shins, but just as the year was going well it knocked a good start on the head and made me wonder why I bother for a little while).

Only a few races, too. And one of them in injury recovery so with mates, not as a competitive outing.

And very few cycled miles. I blame the lack of summer combined with the ribs when I should have got going. But a site with no power and only a few days when a soaking couldn’t be all but guaranteed? Cycling to work wasn’t really ever going to happen.

Hopefully this coming year things will be different. And better, at that.

I’m not planning entering any races. If I do it’ll be for a social activity and to see how my ”fitness” is tailored to goals – can I put in a dedcent pace despite not having specifically ramped activity up to meet a goal in the shorter outings and, if I attempt a longer run, simply can I extend distance through slowing down a bit? I’m curious to find out.

Janathon is a seperate entity. I prefer Juneathon, it being a little drier and warmer, but Janathon has my mileage record. I’ll have another bash at decent distance this season, I think, but I’m making windows for the house so there’ll be no obsessing and ruining the year!

I’m planning on mountainbiking more as well as focusing harder on off-road runs, barely having explored the Greensand Way which runs along the end of the drive on the way to HamStreet in the 3 years I’ve lived here, as well as failing to explore all but a quarter of the Hythe Canal which got me excited as I recovered from my ribs.

I’ll not mention intentions to avoid injury. I’ll follow Colin McRae’s mantra “If in doubt, flat out!” whenever I can. If I get away with it, superb. If not? At least I’ll be satisfied I tried.

With any luck I’ll meet a few more decent folk along the way, too. Maybe mixing up my activities will assist there. Who knows?

Wishing all a very happy and healthy new year.

Janathon beckons! See you on the Janathon group of RunningFreeOnline!

End of year round-up

Overall it hasn’t been a disaster but around February/March time, it didn’t look good!

January saw Janathon and over 120 running miles. And a bit of damage to my foot that I simply ran through before having a poor February trying to work out why it felt broken and a rubbish March with no running miles while I rested to try and repair it. Cycling took on a bigger role as the months went by, though, so overall fitness remained reasonable.

April saw a week off and the opportunity to see someone about the foot. A temporary shoe insert helped recovery and this, combined with a week of cycling everywhere, saw monthly mileage go beyond 300 for combined activities…suddenly my 2011 mile challenge looked beatable, instead of growing ever larger as a weekly target in front of me.

May saw a return to normality with cycles to work increasing along with running confidence. A fresh pair of shoes (Adidas…never thought I’d wear a pair of these for running!) brought all sorts of advances in running. Never have a pair of feet been so revitalised as by a simple, well advised purchase.

June saw Juneathon. Two races, several million cycles to work (or so it felt in the rain and wind) and 699 overall miles, including my targetted 50 running miles as a return to normal.

July saw my first ever 5k race (on July 1st, so not entirely rested after the cycling and last day of June run) as well as a recovery into normal cycling and enjoying the summer. And it all went downhill from there, really! Mileage decreased but joy increased as both running and cycling became less something I “must” do and became things that I simply had fun doing again. As far as the weather went, it being a cooler than normal summer suited me fine. And so things progressed through August.

September saw me bemoaning the imminent loss of my hilly country lane for repeat sessions, and through the autumn (while the temperatures returned to April levels) I continued to hunt for enjoyable runs around Rye. Still haven’t found any, but alternative hilly routes at least exist to keep fitness levels up.

November was a dull month of repetition; December has ended at a whimper. Lows have been a cold knocking me back as I tried to rest to lose it before my trip to Paris; highs definitely the run through Paris to the Arc de Triomphe. The last week has seen a couple of short jogs and a few short cycles. Nothing to excite in any way but to simply get out and maintain activity through a Christmas of decoration and floor laying.

And so to Janathon 2012 and some 2012 goals.

Injury free is the main aim. I’ll try to run through Janathon and Juneathon this year. A target of 3 decent runs per week surrounded by single mile outings should see mileage sensible at around 75 total, I think. A cycle each weekend will keep me honest, too, I hope. Nothing epic but something to make the legs remember they’re for more than plodding is the plan.

Instead of a total mileage challenge (2011 saw the 2011 mile challenge beaten with a comfortable margin, even if the figures don’t look epic-I didn’t count many cycle rides after October, so totals dropped as the challenge end came into view), I’m going for a quality challenge this year. Several goals make it up.

General exercise (either weights, press-ups and sit-ups etc, use of the rowing machine) made a resurgence towards then end of this year and I feel better for it. To this end, I’m targetting 150 runs (over 1 mile to allow some slacking with the Jan and June runs all counting, but to be realistic and allow rest after a few planned races as well as a couple of down weeks with colds and the like). 100 “general exercise” sessions, be they weights or combinations of press-ups, rows, sit-ups, chin-ups or whatever co-ordinated into a 20 minute or more pulse raising activity. 50 cycles of 5 miles or more (to exclude commutes to the station and back unless they include a detour, even if it is on the BMX, but to allow two cycles from a commute to work – 16 miles each way counts! Also to exclude simple outings to buy a paper unless a detour is included in the route). That should give me about 60 days off through the year which will be increased with a few multi-task days reducing the burden.

The plan is a stronger, fitter man with some time to enjoy working in the garden but also the ability to take on a challenge or two without wilting at the prospect. Races will be an opportunity to see how well I’ve done as a rounded “athlete” rather than to destroy myself in the pursuit of pb’s.

Happy new year.

And let Janathon commence.

Phew!

Work isn’t doing my motivation any favours and plans for world domination at home this evening have fallen a little by the wayside as priorities have changed.

Busy doesn’t do work justice, everything is a dash and with holiday season doing us no favours at the moment it’ll take a while for the dust to settle, but at least I still managed to get away around 5.30 tonight with some plans afoot.

I got home and pulled my trainers straight on, heading out for a 3 mile loop encompassing The End Still Cries Out to purchase essentials. Which is where things went awry. A bit.

The loop out was ace – full of beans, I set a decent pace and ran very easily with zero reference to my Garmin, no traffic and a spring in my step. Shopping was for pasta for dinner, dry cat food and surgical spirit. The assistant behind the chemist bit interrogated me whilst I was dripping onto the floor about what I wanted the spirit for and she seemed a bit taken aback when I explained – I don’t think she expected me to say that one of Cathy’s friends has suggested it may help remove the smell the cat seems to have taken a liking to which means she shits on the rug in the living room instead of her tray now. But mum told me not to lie, so that’s what she was told.

Twice I’ve rubbed her nose in it but that doesn’t seem to be working so if I can’t convince her to stop, carpets simply aren’t going to be purchased only to be ruined by a stinking mog so solutions must be found (she did the same to the last rug and we had to bin it – the new one’s too nice to not try pretty hard to rescue). The chemist type person-assistant thing sold me a bottle, though, so the excuse couldn’t have been too implausible but her “Good Luck” send off meant I also purchased some proper cleaner, so between the two something must work, surely?

Getting home laden with shopping (ok, some Whiskas, pasta, surgical spirit and cat cleaner might not be laden but with no bag, it was quite a juggling match!) made me resolve to get the rug immediately and take it upstairs for stage one of the cleaning which involved the shower, some disinfectant in a spray bottle and amazement at how heavy a rug is when soaked – the smell of it when it got wet tells me action may not be a moment too soon. And how tricky it is to get downstairs without it dripping everywhere. Unfortunately, this and my half hour in the garden along with washing up, eating and blogging means the toilet will stay un-repaired for another day and no other chores got done.

Pesky bloody cat.

Ah, well. 460.15 miles to go, a plan to cycle tomorrow but a weather forecast showing rain for 07.00 and 17.00 might make me postpone it until Friday. But that will be after hill rpeats so I’d rather get the cycle out of the way first, really!

So many options

My day started with a fall out of bed, such was my bewilderment at the alarm claiming it was time to get up already, but a look out of the window dashed my hopes of another half hour in bed by proving to be sunny and bright.

Perfect cycling weather. Which kind of decided my Juneathon fate.

Having calculated that exactly 2 miles would finish me on 666.66, a new number was factored in which demanded a couple of minor cycling detours to round my total to something decent. So the trip out was a straight affair, enjoying the light breeze that was predomintly a side wind but which meant a t-shirt was too cool and a second top too warm.

No drama, though. Simply a rabbit-free (no new bunnies on the tarmac) journey to work.

On the way home, I overtook a few cars down the hill from site, another at the zebra crossing as I turned away from home to add a .75 mile loop to the journey via the one way detour. Haven’t done this before but it was quite fun – cars in both directions made a little queue of commuters behind me who were unable to overtake which might have been a touch longer had the striking long-weekend seekers been at work, clogging the roads with commuters on top of those already out. I always like an entourage and by the mini roundabout to take me onto my normal route, I had quite a following. Bet they were really angry at me. Oh, well.

The canal road was nice enough, with the same side wind as this morning. A cormorant made a change of feathered friend as it flew away from me by Scots Float sluice and nothing much else happened until I turned onto the road for home.

Three cyclists rode past the end of the road as I was stretching my legs just before joining it and, with about a 50 yard gap, they slowly pulled away for a bit before I decided Juneathon commuting needed cheering up, so started to accelerate toward them. The little upslope helped me wind them in, the bloke at the back was taking the piss by freewheeling as his mates put in the effort to drag him along but it took a VW Polo which was unable to pass them on a few corners to give me enough tow to catch onto the back of them as it overtook, allowing me to chat.

Seems they do two 25 mile rides a week, they apparently take it in turns to lead (don’t think my comment about the tail ender being lazy was very appreciated), but maybe they’ll look up Juneathon if they remember to see what it’s about having been harrassed in all their poncey cycling clothes and flash equipment by a small bloke with the wrong pedals and baggy shorts and rucksack bulging with work clothes on a filthy commuting bike which is being ridden far more than it deserves.

It was fun for a couple of miles, though, until I diverted off route to add another loop to the end of the ride and bring my commute up to just over 18 miles.

Which left the small matter of a jog to relieve me of cycling woes and to take me over 50 miles for the month.

JB’s 0.75 mile route seemed ideal for several reasons. The main one being how short it was.

It really isn’t a run, to be fair – my legs didn’t want to move and about a half of the run was just trying to get them to do what I wanted. The pace is unrealistic with so many variations in footfall but if it says I was below 8 minute miles, I’ll take it. It put me over 50 miles which was my June goal and that’s the main thing.

June totals are:

Juneathon failed for not blogging on Monday (saves any sarky comments from poor poets about independance of adjudication, if nothing else). 30 days of logged activity, 29 blog posts about it.

June total miles 699.89 at 15.2 mph average.

June running total 50.49 miles.

2011 challenge 489.43 miles to go…which, with 6 months still on the board, is a slightly easier prospect than it seemed at the end of March!

July target – put the two wheels away for much of the week and become a half marathon training runner again while developing some upper body definition to make my clothes fit like they should.

It hasn’t been a bad month, on the whole. Not sure what to do for my next challenge but the time I can spend on “normal” stuff will be welcomed. The drive to work tomorrow is going to be one of the best of my life, though, I think. Nothing like a hard journey or two to remind me how good life can be.

Well done everyone who’s taken part – we’re all winners if being slightly healthier (allowing for injuries!) is the measure and thanks to JB for getting us motivated again. If Joggerblogger hadn’t been so inspired those few short years ago, I’d have a tidy garden now!! I look forward to being able to do a full blog catch-up over the coming days and meeting a few of you in Hyde Park next weekend.

Now I fancy a sleep.

 

 

Prince Goes Crazy?

I harvested the first successful courgettes I’ve grown in aeons last night (the past three years have been a write off for them – all have failed whatever I’ve done to encourage them) and tonight saw a request for JB to add one of them to the stir fry she was preparing for dinner. Since they’re of a yellow variety, the colour wouldn’t be out of place and they turned out to be a highlight; cooked just so they still had some texture, retained a little flavour and made me happy to have bothered growing them despite previous failures.

The downside was the incessant singing to nasty, nasty Prince songs driving me insane for an hour or so as the “Red Corvette” was replaced by “Red Courgette” despite mine being yellow (and the ones delivered in the veg. box being green. Courgette soup for a while, I fear!). Ah, well. A small price to pay.

The Juneathon effort today was brought to me by the conduit of a cycle to work (only one fresh dead rabbit) with a little detour thrown into the return journey by way of a mile or so loop of a local lane just to break the cycle. With only a day to go now, I thought I may as well throw something different into one of the legs at least and since it didn’t mean being late for work, that seemed the sensible option. More tomorrow? Probably not.

I had the little matter of a couple more miles to run to take my jogging total to 50, though, so despite shattered legs the calling of buying some milk from That Enterprising Social Conspiracy Office encouraged me to take a roundabout route to get there via the medium of running.

A slow plod was all I could manage, to be fair, with the first quarter of a mile being so wobbly I wondered if I’d make it all the way. As usual, however, I remembered what to do and a few minutes later I was at home in time to water the greenhouse and get this done before bed and sleep.

Nearly there…and how welcome a good rainstorm would be just as I’m about to leave tomorrow morning so i can justifiably take the car!

524.66 miles to go.

49.72 Juneathon running miles (just leaves enough to get a cycle out of my legs as the month closes, not too much to risk damaging the foot again).

614.87 Juneathon cycling miles.

A ride, a pub, too little sleep and another ride

Sunday finished harmlessly enough as it turned out. A reasonably early night had a little sleep caught up on but Monday dawned earlier than my sand-encrusted eyes wanted, as usual. Nothing entirely unusual there, then.

The unusual bit was that the sun was up, the day was already hot and the sweat was dripping from my nose almost as soon as I’d crested the first rise a quarter of a mile from home. Fluids needed.

And that summed up the day. The ride in was ace – no wind, little traffic, many sheep and a smooth journey.

The ride home was a more unsettled affair – attempting to balance speed with effort having drunk as much as possible throughout the day, an evening in the pub was to be executed as can be seen from JogBlog‘s post, hence the further failure of Juneathon by not blogging yesterday. Getting home at past 6 o’clock, removing a sparrow from the house, getting showered, going to the pub, getting back and going to bed were prioritised…starting a wheezing, slow computer and putting in another rubbish blog about 31.5 miles cycling wasn’t.

And today, after far too little sleep (the house heated up to about a billion degrees yesterday without keeping the windows open through the cooler evening…I awoke bathed in sweat. Not a good look. Or feel.), the ride in was much the same as yesterday.

A little cooler, similar windless conditions but about 15 dead rabbits…odd, considering I was dodging rabbits all the way home last night on the roundabout route I selected (well…partly selected. Instead of returning home, a circuitous route of Romney Marsh was undertaken with many tight bends resulting in bunny suicide candidates at every corner). Maybe there was, indeed, something in the air!

So work was again done (a bad news day for continuity on site with the client unable to secure sales on units at the moment…fingers remain crossed) and as the wind picked up a bit, a battle was fought on the return leg into a continual breeze which wanted me to get home later than the vet appointment demanded. Drop bars were used more than normal, uphills were beaten (slower speed equals less wind equals more efficient gain in overall pace for similar effort, as I convinced myself when all I wanted to do was click down the gears and slow up even more) harder than usual and home was reached after the spending of much perspiration and many drips from nose and forehead.

Very nasty.

But another 31.5 miles to add to the total. I’m wondering when to do the final running outing. Whether to do two quick trips, finishing Juneathon with a short run, or leave the 2.5 miles until Thursday. With a 5k race on Friday (assuming I make it) I fancy the two trips. Tomorrow will tell.

559.52 miles to go.

47.57 Juneathon running miles.

582.16 Juneathon cycling miles. Which means that tomorrow will see (assuming no downpours as I leave in the morning) 600 cycling miles for the month. Crikey.

Anniversary

Many things occurred today, one of which was the marking of 1095 days since myself and JogBlog started going out as a couple. To celebrate such a momentous occasion, a restaurant table was booked in the village I used to live in and where our first proper date kicked off, presents were exchanged and a pleasant time was had (is indeed still being had…I’m blogging while a piss-poor soap opera is being caught up on by JB before I pop downstairs before bed). Apparently, however, an anniversary can easily be spoiled by careless words. Such words apparently include “no I haven’t got you a card yet; I’ve been busy and I’ll pop over the road and get you one while we’re in the pub before the meal”. Also “Oh, you’ve wrapped my presents…should I have done the same to yours?”. And when the love of your life utters the words “This dress makes me look fat” it seems the done thing isn’t to say “Yes, it does”. Certainly not on your anniversary.

I think I’ve got away with it, though. Fingers crossed.

Today’s Juneathon experience included the traditional cycling commute which was interspersed with joy that it was sunny and bright with little wind this morning as well as the joy of a little air punch (I was overtaking cars at the time) as I cycled through Rye on the way home and passed the 500 mile erm…milestone. 500 cycling miles this month so far. Phew.

The wind for the return leg had picked up a bit and was a three-quarter headwind but it didn’t seem to lower my spirits…just a shame that I’m so tired after a week of activity and a disturbed sleep last night that I hadn’t the fight in my legs to make the most of things as my direction changes made the wind an advantage.

But it was dry if less bright, so a fair outing.

A little run tomorrow, I feel and a race on Sunday – if the temperature picks up as the forecasters suggest it might, that may be a challenge in itself but the final weekend of Juneathon 2011 deserves to be seen out with a punch.

631.56 miles to go.

43.04 Juneathon running miles.

514.66 Juneathon cycling miles.

Edkisut

I don’t know if the title translates into anything in any language but inspiration for a title wasn’t forthcoming today and, what with the Juneathon activity being a cycle to and from work which wasn’t particularly thrilling in itself, the first letters that fell to fingers got hit and posted.

The evening has consisted of mowing the rear lawn in an odd fashion – instead of stripes along the length or across the width, I’ve taken the option of first going from kitchen to damson tree (the one in the far corner, not the centre right of the plot) on an oblique, then crossing through this from greenhouse to willow (the dead one for which I need the services of a tree surgeon – it’s too tall for me to risk doing myself a proper injury) before skirting the plum and shed corner to complete a lap. The difficulty is now tying in the fruit bush area of the garden having exhausted tidy possibilities by outing the bit by the silver birch too soon in the proceedings.

It looks odd with varied striping, but I quite like it and feel it needs a change from routine to avoid trenches being forged by the wheels hitting the same patch too often.

I’ll try to finish the job before the weekend and then come up with something different to do for the front.

694.78 miles to go.

43.04 Juneathon running miles.

451.44 Juneathon cycling miles.

Fresher than before

So I awoke this morning with hope that the deluge of the year wouldn’t be upon us for a third morning this month and my hope was upheld. Overcast and breezy but not wet. Damp on the ground but nothing falling.

Marvellous.

The best part of this wasn’t even, perhaps, that I could cycle to work. The best part was, I feel, that I didn’t have to drive the Vauxhall Vectra to work that’s standing in for my car while the headlights are being sorted. It really isn’t the nicest car I’ve ever driven. Not the worst, but not better than cycling on a June morning.

So I set off into a mildly irritating headwind thinking I’d simply grind out the miles when I realised I was actually enjoying them. Fresh legs do that to a commuting man. The bit through the woods was simply ace and the best start to a day a man can achieve on two wheels.

The drag along the flat straight bit was a bit nasty into what was developing into a stiff headwind but a few miles in the dropped bars and I was into the shelter of Rye and soon at work. And the drag was transformed into a breeze of a ride on the way home as the sun allowed me to race the clouds which were low enough to cast a decently sharp shadow across the road as they scudded past, something I was only too eager to chase and allow a decent speed home without thinking that my legs needed to be fresh in the morning if the wind didn’t ease.

But once home a recovery was allowed with some potatoes in a sauce for dinner before purchasing petrol for the lawnmower and a subsequent quick mile up the road and back to complete another Juneathon day.

And a nice one at that. Longest day  of the year and I’ve enjoyed most of it.

Smart.

726.37 miles to go.

43.04 Juneathon running miles.

419.85 Juneathon cycling miles.

It started dry…

When the house was disappearing behind me this morning I was a few seconds from having opened the greenhouse since despite the forecast, sunshine was bathing all in glorious warmth.

As I cleared the woodland section before Kenardington my view of the oncoming weather indicated that, while I should get to work in the dry, the weather wouldn’t hold forever. And as the ride wore on so the wind picked up in strength forcing much down-shifting of gears and gnashing of teeth.

But teeth that were dry.

Around 9 o’clock the rain started. And, apart from a little period around 3 this afternoon, has been pretty much non-stop since. Much needed for crops (which will probably be ruined by too much, too late!) and gardens (my water butt is all but full again), less welcome for cyclists.

Still, I donned my waterproof jacket and headed out at the usual 5ish to start my journey. A stream of cars were despatched on the downhill off the site (1 stream = 5 cars as of now…) due to the lead vehicle only wanting to crawl along but tired legs and lack of spirit made this the only swift part of the journey.

Steady but light rain leaving Rye was fine all across the marsh and as I climbed up the hill from Appledore the intensity grew with altitude. Wetter and wetter I got until the last section of underwear was soaked by mile 11. Some of this was undoubtedly wet from the inside out (the rucksack was dry inside still but my back bathed in sweat – breathable jackets clearly can’t cope with reasonable physical exertion quantities of moisture – never have, I doubt they ever will) but moist it still was. And as I again cleared the woods 3 miles from home, I was impressed by the intensity of the deluge. Absolutely soaking roads gave some distraction with my slick  tyres simply spraying the water everywhere instead of the old treaded things that typically spray it all up your back and into your face so small improvements over old were experienced but it was a joy to get home, dry off and have some food. The experience wasn’t too bad with little wind but gales included might have made me head for the train…fingers crossed June returns and pleasant riding conditions will return next week.

An early night is due to catch up on some energy and I won’t be lingering long before heading bedwards.

772.43 miles to go.

31.02 Juneathon running miles.

385.82 Juneathon cycling miles.

Today saw my cycling mileage for the year exceed 1000 so another benchmark reached in what will surely be a year of records (well, measured ones at least. No idea how many miles I used to run and ride when I didn’t measure it and used self-propelled transport for everything but I don’t think it was ever the intensity of this year so far. Maybe it will be a highest yearly mileage ever. I’ll take it, considering the current effort.)