Sunday lunch and a pair of old trainers (Janathon day 6)

I started planning today's run yesterday. Ever since I moved to the West Midlands in 1995 (when I started university), I have had Sunday lunch with my family. This was originally at my Nan's house, but since she passed away, my Auntie Jen has cooked the Sunday roast. Knowing this, I decided that I would run home and Stellian agreed to take the kids straight home in the car.

I decided quite quickly that I would use the canal towpath as this tends to avoid elevation changes. Using runfinder.co.uk I worked out that I could either do a route that was 2.81 miles long, or a route that was 3.41 miles long. The shorter of the two, I knew exactly where I was going. The longer of the two - pretty much, but there were a couple of vague areas towards the start of which I wasn't absolutely clear. Also, to hit my target of 110 miles in January, I needed to do at least 3 miles, and that kind of made the decision for me. I dug out a pair of old trainers that I had wrecked running through a quite deep, but unavoidable puddle to be on the safe side as although it hadn't been raining recently, I wasn't convinced that this run wouldn't destroy another pair!

There were a couple of points I could have started my run after my initial warm up, immediately after crossing a main road or when I was on the towpath itself. As the route from the main road to the towpath wasn't one of the bits I wasn't familiar with, I decided to extend my warm up a little longer. This proved to be a good idea as the path was fairly steep with a couple of sets of wooden steps, but most of all it was muddy.

The towpath between Wolverhampton and Birmingham is the route for the Birmingham and Black Country half marathon (http://www.bbchm.co.uk/) which takes place in July each year (on my birthday in 2013). Their website says:

"All entrants are reminded of the 360 yard long tunnel at apx mile 6 – this can be dark and whilst reasonable steps will be taken to light the tunnel athletes should also consider their own options such as carrying a small hand or head torch."

My route today effectively started immediately before the tunnel (the 2.81 mile route would have avoided it!) I had seen the tunnel before when as a family we walked along the towpath last year. However, we didn't actually go through it and what it looks like on a nice sunny May afternoon is completely different to a dull day in January! I knew it was less likely to be muddy compared to the rest of the towpath, but I didn't count on it being very uneven cobbles. Even with a guardrail between the path and the canal, I wasn't comfortable running through it.

Coseley Tunnel: Photo by Scorpio Sphinx : (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeanettet1960/5350176522/)

Once out the other side, I was quite comfortable with the pace I ran at - details on runkeeper here. When I got home I sat down and thought about having a shower, but actually felt like I wanted to do more exercise - how times have changed!

About 18 months ago, my Dad and Step-Mum moved from Bristol back to Swanage, and having done so realised they didn't need their exercise bike anymore and they kindly gave it to us as a Christmas present in 2011. As with most exercise equipment it's been under-used, however it gave me the opportunity to keep on with my workout. Every so often, my gym stuff goes for a walk. I'd bought myself some padded cycling shorts for use on the bike as the seat isn't as comfortable as the bikes in the gym. Even so, I set off on a 30 minute ride. The program I use steps up the intensity in two intervals, six minutes apart before reducing it again. My vague recollection of the last time I used the bike was that I covered about 8.5 miles in half an hour. I was therefore happy to surpass that, covering 8.9 miles, although I was disappointed not to be able to round it up to 9 miles exactly. Even so, today marks the most amount of distance I've covered in Janathon so far.

Tomorrow, Stellian is back at work but the kids have an inset day at school. I'm guessing that I'll be heading off to the gym when she gets back.


Running:
Distance - 3.43 miles
Time - 43m 39

Exercise Bike:
Distance - 8.9 miles
Time - 30m 00

Total today:
Distance - 12.33 miles
Time - 1h 12m 39

Janathon:
Total Distance - 46.47 miles
Total Time - 7h 24m 08
Miles remaining - 63.53