Happy Julianuary

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/king-julien-official-club/images/18075626/title/happy-julianuary-screencap

I didn't watch "Merry Madagascar", but I was in the room whilst the kids were watching it and my brain must have taken some of it in as for some reason today, I'm confusing Janathon with Julianuary.

The first thing to say about today is I ache. Particularly in my arms and my sides. I suspect that's because I used the rowing machine yesterday and (a) I haven't used it in ages and (b) I assume my technique was terrible. I thought it best to leave that particular piece of equipment alone today.

Usually I wouldn't go to the gym two days in a row (although equally, I wouldn't be looking to do some kind of exercise every day of a month in quite this way). However, whilst looking for something to do for the kids in November half term, Stellian found that the local leisure centre was offering tennis lessons and the kids took to them. After half term, one of the sessions the kids could attend was between 10am and 11am on a Saturday morning, so whilst the next Andy Murray and Laura Robson are whacking tennis balls on the court, Stellian and I can use the gym on the other side of the corridor (well there's not enough time to do anything else!).

Before I got to the gym, I thought I'd take it a little easier given I was quite tired and I had less than an hour available. However, when I was doing my warm up, I decided to just have a play and enjoy myself. My first kilometre on the treadmill after the warm up was at 12kph and after a short break I did another one at 9kph. I also did a couple of 'sprints' at 13kph (lasting 30 and 45 seconds) during my warm down, just to see whether I could.

The time spent on the exercise bike was nothing special, so I moved onto the cross trainer. Previously I'd used either no resistance or 5 resistance, so I pushed it up to 10 today (max is 25 apparently). Feels like I'm getting fitter, but I want this to be confirmed on the scales next Thursday as well.

Weather looks to be OK this weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to do day 6 outdoors.

Running:
Distance - 2.24 miles
Time - 25m 40

Exercise Bike:
Distance - 4.37 miles
Time - 14m 40

Cross trainer (Elliptical):
Distance - 0.79 miles
Time - 8m 30

Total today:
Distance - 7.4 miles
Time - 48m 50

Janathon:
Total Distance - 34.14 miles
Total Time - 6h 11m 29
Miles remaining - 75.86

Music to exercise to

So what do you like to do when you're exercising? Can you watch the TV?. Do you need the peace and quiet of just being on your own or can you have a conversation whilst getting fit?

I must admit at the moment, I need to have my earphones in and listen to something with a good pace. I don't necessarily care what order they come in but this is the 'Running' playlist on my iPhone (all links go to YouTube - I have NOT watched them all and accept no responsibility if you find any of the contents offensive or inappropriate).

"How You Remind Me" - Nickelback
"Children" - Robert Miles
"I Gotta Feeling" - Black Eyed Peas
"The Power" - Snap
"Sandstorm" - Darude
"Lola's Theme" - Shapeshifters
"Do Your Thing" - Basement Jaxx
"It's A Beautiful Day" - U2
"Mission Impossible Theme" - Adam Clayton/Larry Mullen
"Blue" - Eiffel 65
"Born To Run" - Bruce Springsteen
"Call On Me" - Eric Prydz
"Can't Stop Moving" - Sonny J
"Doctor Pressure" - Mylo vs Miami Sound Machine
"Don't Stop Believin'" - Journey
"Fascination" - Alphabeat
"Forget You" - Cee Lo Green
"Have A Little Faith In Me" - John Hiatt
"I Like To Move It" - Reel 2 Real
"I See You Baby" - Groove Armada
"I Thought It Was Over" - The Feeling
"Let Me Entertain You" - Robbie Williams
"(Mucho Mambo) Sway" - Shaft
"Once Upon A Dream Parade" - Disney
"The One And Only" - Chesney Hawkes
"Original Prankster" - The Offspring
"Pick Up The Pieces" - Average White Band
"Poison" - Alice Cooper
"Ready To Go" - Republica
"Rebel Yell" - Billy Idol
"The Rockafeller Skank" - Fatboy Slim
"Runaway Baby" - Bruno Mars
"Saturn 5" - Inspiral Carpets
"She's Got Issues" - The Offspring
"She's Got Nothing On (But The Radio)" - Roxette
"Sing It Back" - Moloko
"Sk8r Boi" - Avril Lavigne
"Stop The Rock" - Apollo 440
"Want You Bad" - The Offspring
"Weapon Of Choice" - Fatboy Slim
"What I've Done" - Linkin Park
"When Love Takes Over" - David Guetta feat Kelly Rowland

Quite an eclectic mix!

Another goal?

When I left the house, I wasn't sure I was in the mood to do much at the gym, however it's not too bad when you get into the swing of it.


All the machines in the gym are set to kilometers by default and even if you change some of the settings to imperial, the course it tracks you on is either a standard 400m athletics track or a 5k circuit, so if you're wondering why the times/distances seem a little weird, they've been converted from metric). My first run on the treadmill today was a 0.5k warm up at 6kph (5 minutes) followed by a 2k run at 11kph (10 mins 54ish) followed by the treadmill's standard warmdown (which happened to be 3 mins on this occasion). Some problems do arise, however when the touchscreen on the gym equipment doesn't accept your commands straight away.

My mind likes to have something to do whilst I'm exercising, so I was trying to work out what distance I'd already covered so far this month (although as I was relying on my memory, I think I may have added in a couple of sessions I did between Christmas and New Year by mistake as I thought I was round about 60k!)

Still, if I'm on day 4 and I've already covered 26 miles, where should I aim to be at the end of the month. According to my stats at runkeeper.com, the most exercise I've logged in a month is 106.8 miles in September last year. If I say I want to beat that and, say, log 110 miles, that's an average of just over 3.5 miles a day. That should be OK for the next week, whilst I'm still off work, but will I manage to do that during the week once the kids are back at school and I'm back into my routine again?

After my initial run, I added in some time on the rowing machine as well since I can't remember the last time I tried that. (I vaguely remember it taking me over 10 minutes to row 2,000 metres at who knows what resistance, so I'm quite happy to go under 10 at resistance 5). I followed that up with 5k on the exercise bike (plus warm-up and cool down) and another 2.5k on the Cross trainer before returning to the treadmill for another kilometre-ish at the slightly slower speed of 9kph.

Onwards and upwards!

Running:
Distance - 1.76 miles & 0.99 miles = 2.75 miles
Time - 18m 58 & 12m 24 = 31m 22

Rowing Machine:
Distance - 1.24 miles
Time - 9m 42

Exercise Bike:
Distance - 3.88 miles
Time - 15m 09

Cross trainer (Elliptical):
Distance - 1.57 miles
Time - 16m 24

Total today:
Distance - 9.44 miles
Time - 1h 12m 37

Janathon:
Total Distance - 26.74 miles
Total Time - 5h 22m 39
Miles remaining - 83.66

 Edited 8/1/13 to include badge:

 

Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do

Yes, I know that's the wrong type of scale. I said I wanted a more interesting daily blog title, I didn't promise it was going to be funny!

I'm not sure whether the scales have been kind or not. They didn't tip over into the 15s, but they were too close for comfort. The only positive I guess is that without the trips to the gym, the damage could have been a lot worse. It also confirms that tomorrow's exercise is going to have to be a trip to the gym. (As we still have some of Stellian's delicious Christmas cake left!)

Feeling slightly frustrated, I broke out the WiiFit and WiiSports. Checking the Janathon website, the rules do say 'or do some form of exercise every day' so I'm counting it!

Until tomorrow!

Additional time today (WiiFit/WiiSports)
Time - 56m

Janathon:
Total Distance - 17.30 miles
Total Time: 4h 10m 10

Janathon day 3

It would be nice to think I can get to #Janathon day 31, but I'm going to need a slightly more interesting title each day (as if exercising and blogging isn't hard enough!)

Weather after lunch was pretty good so I bribed the kids with a trip to the local soft play area if they would come for a walk with me. Kind of makes it sound like they had a choice - they didn't, but they were allowed to take their scooters so fortunately there wasn't too much resistance.

Swapped the Sheepwash nature reserve for the canal towpath today. This will need a rethink for next time though, as although the route I picked wasn't muddy (despite the recent rain), according to DD it's bumpy enough to be uncomfortable when scooting. (Not a problem I'd noticed when running last year).

Letting the kids blow off steam gives me time to write most of this blog (as well as trying to work out 1- what jobs need doing later, 2- starting a shopping list, 3- listening to 5live and 4- deciding on what exercise to do on day 4).

I'm due to step on the scales for the first time in 2013 this evening. I'm a little apprehensive about this as obviously I have 'enjoyed' my Christmas and New Year. Still that's the reason I'm doing Janathon - to get back / stay on track.

Total today (walking) http://runkeeper.com/user/plockplock/activity/139375906:
Distance - 3.34 miles
Time - 1h 03m 47

Janathon:
Total Distance - 17.30 miles
Total Time: 3h 14m 10

Janathon day 2

So that's day 2 done - so far so good!

My first visit to the gym in 2013 (but my third since Christmas - if I'm going to allow myself to indulge over the festive period, I don't want the scales to go too far the wrong way!)

The thing is, I never thought I'd take to the gym. I always thought that running on a treadmill would be boring, especially since when I've been running previously, I've been on a canal towpath. The free scenery and fresh air of the outdoors are fine in nice weather, but fortunately the local council-run gym is cheap and dry for long winter nights.

Last year, @stellian was watching "The Biggest Loser" re-runs on PickTv and I must admit I got a little hooked as well. One of the trainers in the Australian series (Shannan) advocated variety in your exercise regime, so that's what I did today:

Running:
Distance - 3.17 miles
Time - 38m 27

Exercise Bike:
Distance - 7.53 miles
Time - 27m 28

Cross trainer (Elliptical):
Distance - 0.94 miles
Time - 10m 02

Total today:
Distance - 11.64 miles
Time - 1h 16m 07

Janathon:
Total Distance - 13.96 miles
Total Time - 2h 10m 23

@Stellian is going to the gym tomorrow, so will need to work out how I do my exercise tomorrow with the kids in tow!

Edited 8/1/13 to include badges:

 

Janathon 2013

 
I'm not sure what's going to be harder - doing exercise everyday and logging it or blogging about it afterwards.

In terms of where I'm starting from in 2013, 2012 was a good year for me weight-wise. I was more disciplined about what I snacked on (and what I didn't), I did exercise relatively regularly and I dropped from 17 stone to 14 stone 8.75lbs. Whilst the good news is that I'm now only 1 stone away from a healthy BMI, I'm under no illusions that the next stone is likely to be the hardest.

Signing up for the Sport Relief mile last year gave me something to work towards and I know there's a Black Country half marathon in July and a Birmingham half marathon some time in the autumn. Whilst there's a part of me that would like to give it a go, there's another part of me that doesn't think I'm ready for it.


In terms of yesterday, for Christmas the kids got scooters from their Grandparents who had come down to see us for new year. @Stellian wanted some peace and quiet to be able to cook lunch, so the adults went for a walk whilst the children went for a scoot over to the Sheepwash nature reserve. It was a lovely sunny day and not too cold and apart from Gillian, who managed to fall off her scooter, a nice time was had by all.

So that's my Janathon underway. Details at runkeeper

Thanks to @Soggous for drawing my attention to Janathon 2013 through her blog.

Distance: 2.32 miles
Time: 54:16 minutes
Total distance covered in Janathon: 2.32 miles
Total time spent on Janathon: 54:16 minutes

Edited 8/1/13 to include badges: