This is the end (nearly)

One day to go and assuming I wake up early enough to get a few miles in before the nursery run then I’ll have completed my first Janathon at my 4th attempt.

I’m very busy tomorrow so this is my smug “I’ve done it” post, lets hope I don’t get run over by a bus before I get to log my last run.

Too many times I’ve approached Janathon unfit, putting off any sort of exercise knowing I’d be making a fresh start on the first of Jan. Continuing to smoke and stuff crap food down my gullet throughout December safe in the knowledge that my amazing will power and love of blogging would see me through a gloriously healthy 31 days.

I lasted 30 days in 2011 although that was somewhat tempered by plantar fasciitis meaning I couldn’t do any running after the first week.
2012 was a bit of a washout though to be fair I was the father of a 3 month old
2013’s last blog post on the 20th is a sorry tale of a few token pushups, I’d given myself shin splints two days previous with my over exuberance.

The main issue each time has been that my participation in Janathon has actually hindered my efforts to get fit/run a marathon/walk without discomfort.

This isn’t the fault of Janathon, it’s a great idea and when done correctly the perfect start to your year however it should come with a single piece of advice;

Don’t push yourself too hard. If you’re not used to running daily then don’t. Build up slowly and fulfil your quota with low impact exercise.

I’ve done that this time, I’ve limited my running (17 runs assuming I get out tomorrow) and that’s allowed me to be more consistent with my other activities. It’s been a varied Janathon for me and it’s been an eye opener too. Highlights include;

Planking with a child on my back
Planking in a rudolf onesie
Discovering Parkrun, and loving it!
Beginning heart monitor training – and finding it suitably geeky enough to keep me interested long term
Not being a new years noob at the gym!
Finding I’m incapable of vegetarianism

Mostly though I’ve enjoyed it, and I’ve slipped into a nice routine that I’m hoping to carry on for a while longer, Gym Monday to Thursday before work, Badminton Tuesday and Thursday, Football Wednesday and Friday, Parkrun Saturday and recovery run Sunday. I need to slip another run in there somewhere (intervals) but there are only so many days in the week!

I am looking forward to an enforced rest day on Saturday though, planning to seep through Parkrun this once!

This indecision’s bugging me

If you don’t want me set me free.

Don’t worry, I’m not having love life issues. I’m referring, of course, to my on/off off/on cold.

As you will all know (being avid readers of this daily drivel) I cured the common cold on Wednesday, incurred it’s wrath on Thursday, shook it off again on Friday and ran a PB at Parkrun yesterday (though admittedly I was suppressing the urge to vomit for much of the last half mile).

Had a non-stop day yesterday and rolled in (pun obviously intended such is my rapier like wit) at around midnight following the roller derby after party.

No hangover this morning was a welcome touch but was somewhat overshadowed by the fact that I had, at some point in the night, gotten an acid marinated cactus lodged in my throat. The luminous snot and greeny/grey throat mucus were an unexpected bonus as was the crippling lethargy.

At this point readers are split, chances are if you’ve got a womb you’re thinking “man-flu” and not feeling terribly sympathetic. Well, to highlight the seriousness of my plight let me explain that Mrs Webb appears not only afflicted with the same but has not left the house (nor ventured far from the sofa she slept on for 3 hours in the afternoon) while I, brave, and strong and manly have taken the child to waitrose (ok, I couldn’t face ASDA but that’s not illness related) cooked twice and even managed a run.

A run is not something I really wanted to do today. In fact, after fearing I might faint in the supermarket I did consider that my health might just be more important than Janathon. Fortunately for us all I managed to man up and convince myself that as I’d be wearing a heart rate monitor I would probably be ok, or at least if I weren’t I would have advance notice of my demise.

It was a recovery run day anyway and funnily enough it wasn’t difficult to keep the pace slow and my heart rate down.

Managed 2.7 miles in a painfully pedestrian 26 minutes before deciding that my recovery was probably best carried out indoors.

p.s. Should I Stay or Should I Go was on the radio after Parkrun and such was my buoyant mood that I could apparently be heard approaching the house with the windows down, singing away (badly)

I’ll be brief

Just a quickie blog today on the basis that I’ve had no time at all to sit down yet and am out for a rare couple of beers with the wife in a moment.

Parkran this morning and posted another PB (not all that hard when you’ve only done 2 parkruns) 22:25 which smashes a target I set myself to do a sub 23 min run by the summer. My little reward to myself is a new target of sub 20 minutes. Have some of that, legs!

Have been non stop since getting back in from Parkrun as it was the wife’s first roller derby bout today. She was awesome, Grace was tiring. We also fitted in a mate’s 40th birthday party and are now off out (as mentioned above) to the roller derby after party. I don’t even skate so conversation had better come round to running at some stage!

 

Parklife

I get up when I want, except on days with a Y in them because I have a 2 year old daughter and a gym addiction.

PARKLIFE

Parkrun actually today. I was was nervous as I blogged yesterday and so woke at 2:30 am thinking about it and then again at 6 whereupon I was unable to resist checking that I knew where to go in 3 hrs time and where to park and what to do and if I had my barcode, and oh shit, did I have any clean shorts? and what if it rained and maybe I’d run too quick and have to stop at some point and everyone would think I was a divvy and so on.

Arrived half an hr early and sat in my car until I was sure that all the running attired people walking/jogging past were there for the Parkrun and that it wasn’t just some giant coincidence. I was then also unsure about taking my coat (a gap hoodie, tres technical and runner-y) in case there was nowhere suitable to leave it and then I’d have to run 5k with it on and overheat and possibly self combust.

And then there was the thought of other people. I’m quite good at meeting other people, I tend to tone down the swearing and I think I make a good impression but I have this horrible habit of never asking names are nor offering mine. and then I always feel terrible because I should have done.

With trepidation I followed a lady in a pink top (who was jogging a bit too fast for my liking given that we should be conserving energy!) to the start line bit and tried to look like I knew what I was doing. Yeah, stretching, jog on the spot, star jumps, the odd lunge, why are people looking at me like that?

I decided to ask a marshal chap if I could stow my coat somewhere and ended up chatting to him for 5 minutes about Janathon and how slowly I intended to take my first run and so on. He was genuinely lovely and interested and it put me at ease. We then had a noobs briefing about barcodes and chips and stuff and then another guy just said hello and commented on my being new and introduced me to his friends and gave general niceties. (of course I didn’t ask his name nor offer mine)

I wanted to run at about 25 mins as that’s roughly 8 min mile pace so I started mid pack and primed my Garmin.

GO! and forget all that stuff, run!!

Mostly got overtaken to begin with but stuck with my plan and tried my best not to be competitive (was funny watching a chap not quite as disciplined absolutely sprint down the first hill and then walk up the next one) certainly for the first lap.

At 2.5 miles I felt good and decided to kick on, ending in near sprint and in 23:50, a fair bit better than I thought I’d do considering that I’ve only been running again for 18 days.

What was especially nice was that at the finish I could hear (if not see) a workmate cheering me on and then also the group of guys I’d met at the start who were just as keen to see me finish as they were their regular running partners. It was just a small thing but it really made me feel welcome and as I climbed the hill to the scanners I told myself that I’d definitely be back, hell I have a PB to beat!

If anyone hasn’t done a parkrun then please do, find out more at http://www.parkrun.org.uk/

The Fear, the inexplicable fear

Parkrun tomorrow. I am afraid. I’m not sure why.

I asked a forum full of runners if i should be nervous and they said:

“What are you nervous of? The distance or crowds of friendly strangers?”

After much discussion about annoying parkrunners I felt a bit better because I think my main fears are about me doing something stupid like going the wrong way or falling over or having to speak to strangers. I was then provided the following advice;

Just don’t forget your barcode. There’s nothing worse than pelting around 5K only to find that you’ll be recorded as ‘unknown’ in the results. Definitely don’t do what my mate did – ‘forgot’ her barcode and then ran a pb – and then found she hadn’t forgotten it at all but it was in a pocket she hadn’t checked.

There’s no need to actually carry the barcode while you run. Soggy unscannable barcodes help no-one.

In your bag will be fine.
just get it laminated at work and stick it down your pants with your house key

I’m on scanning this weekend, and would like to actively encourage any parkrunners NOT to do this thanks

So that’s decided. Don’t speak to anyone, don’t fall over and break your ankle and don’t forget your barcode (or stick it down your pants)

Did football today, lost but did a lot of running about.

Nice and Regular

This was how I was greeted this morning at the gym, the PT at pains to point out she meant the time of day I arrived, I was worried for a second what she knew. 

My regularity established I had a little trot on the treadmill, painful really. Not physically but the more I use the thing the more bored I become by it. It’s also in front of a mirror so I just spent 10 minutes looking at my legs and wondering why one seemed to be bigger than the other. 

150 situps, 30 of these (not me in video), 3 sets of the shoulder press and a shit-tonne of dumbbell work left me pretty much unable to wash my hair in the showers afterwards.

I also went for a (very) short walk at lunch and made the mistake of using runkeeper just to see how far a lap of the road around work is. Runkeeper of course gets very excited when you’ve done anything and automatically posts your activity to twitter and facebook complete with self satisfied comment “webb has walked 15 feet in 12 minutes isn’t that awesome? what have you done today? click this link to bask in the glory of webb, praise be” 

One of my followers replied to the smug runkeeper tweet by claiming to have fallen further out of bed this morning. It seemed fair enough really as anyone not joining in with janathon is likely sick to the back teeth of being told that I’ve been to the gym or run 3 miles, or walked to the bottom of the garden etc. To those people (who won’t be reading this, understandably) I promise to tone it down after the 31st Jan.  

Still, I registered for parkrun today and ordered 3 issues of runners world (to get the free training/eating guides) so there may be a few more boring, running based, statuses for you to enjoy. You may need to take up running to stay sane… 

Lazy Sunday afternoon

…only made possible by having run 3 and a half miles before lunch. 

Still sore from yesterday’s target practice (with I the target) and with the temperature about freezing (Garmin helpfully said it was 1 degree Celsius but would feel like -2) I donned my tights, buff, merino wool top and gloves and set off.

Was OK actually, I went the long way around the park and back in for another lap and then avoided the chance to duck home before the hill meaning I ended up doing my longest run of the year at 3.5 miles dead. 

“Sprint” finish owing to the chemical brothers coming on my mp3 player as I turned into my street left me a gibbering mess when I got in and there had been gnashing of teeth up the hill and slippery Icy moments on corners but overall it was pretty comfortable. 

Along the way I think my 5k time was around 27 mins which is some way off where I’d like to be before I do any park runs (In my head I’m a 20 min ish type of guy so I want to be near that before I go I think, certainly sub 23 mins) although there were 2 noticeable stops to cross the road and I was a bit within myself. 

Have to keep reminding myself not to push too hard, too soon though, lots of running to be done and plenty of time to do it in.