A late lunch and a pair of wet socks - #Janthon Day 11

The picturesque walk to work

Apologies if you've seen half a blog today. I started writing it on the train this morning and hit publish as opposed to save as a draft.

At work, I do four short days (Monday-Thursday) so I can do the school run and a long day on a Friday. Even before Christmas, I had started to take my running gear with me on a Friday so I could take some time out of the office during my lunch break. Bleary eyed, I duly packed up my running stuff and set off for the station.

When do you start to write your blog posts? For some reason, my brain wants to try and compose my random ramblings at the point when I'm least able to record them - when I'm actually exercising! Today, although I was half asleep, my brain was starting to blog on the walk to the train (which explains the cock up on the train).

Gas Street Basin

The walking elements of my exercise today consist of my journey to and from the station. If you were watching Great British Railway Journeys yesterday, you would have seen Michael Portillo standing on Dudley Port station looking at his Bradshaw diary, no doubt trying to film in between the regular Virgin Trains that hammer past the very small station which is essentially a slab of concrete in between the two tracks. Despite my tiredness, I did remember to turn RunKeeper OFF before I got on the train (I have forgotten before only to be reminded a couple of hundred yards down the line when you get the audio update of your split times through your headphones).

On arrival at Birmingham New Street, it's a short walk to Brindleyplace where the office is located. My preferred route is through The Mailbox and along the canal towpath (surprise surprise). It's just nice to get that extra bit of peace and quiet before rejoining the hustle and bustle of city and office life.

You can never tell how busy you're going to be when you come back into the office after Christmas - not helped by a couple of colleagues hinting on facebook that a decision had been made they weren't happy about. On arriving at the office, I found there were only going to be about 6 people on my team (usually there are at least 10), so I knew it was going to be a busy one. The 'decision' was unexpected, but is at least logical and there's nothing to do but make the best of it. At least no job losses are required. For 2013, I'm adopting and modifying slightly the prayer of serenity as far as work is concerned:

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference." In the absence of wisdom keep your gob shut - or at least think before you speak!

Usually, I try and take lunch around 12pm, however with staffing levels and meetings, this was impossible, so I grabbed a bite to eat and then went to lunch at 2.15pm. It was quite a nice day outside and I had completely forgotten that it had rained recently. The towpath around the National Indoor Arena is nice and solid, however as you start to make your way out of the city, the surface is uneven enough to make lots of frequent puddles. In my dozy state this morning, I hadn't picked up a spare pair of socks so I was really trying to avoid puddles. At one point I wondered whether I was running, skipping or dancing as my stride was so uneven. Unfortunately, as hard as I tried, around the 1.75 mile mark, there were a couple of muddy puddles that were simply unavoidable so I was destined to spend the afternoon at my desk with wet socks.

Towards the end of my run, I realised that I was going to be a little short of 4 miles, so a quick change of route and a lap of Oozells Square completed my run and cleared my head for the afternoon. That's 15 hours of exercise done in Janathon so far and my 110 mile target looks like it should be easily met as I only need to average 0.84 of a mile each day. So I'm upping the target to 125 miles in total - something new to aim for!

Walking:
Distance - 2.67 miles
Time - 44m 25

Running: http://runkeeper.com/user/plockplock/activity/141309965
Distance - 4.02 miles
Time - 48m 45

Total today:
Distance - 6.69 miles
Time - 1h 33m 10

Janathon:
Total Distance - 93.18 miles
Total Time - 15h 37m41
Miles remaining - 31.82

 

They think it's all over... it is now (#Janathon day 10)

Tipton Swimming Centre

Tipton Swimming Centre - Interior

You'll be pleased to know that I'm talking about my holiday as opposed to quitting Janathon. My body is obviously getting ready to go back to work as I managed to sleep through the 06:00am and 07:00am alarms! (To be fair, I heard the one at 6, thought "That's loud" and went back to sleep again). If I don't get out of bed until 07.30am tomorrow like I did today I'm in trouble as I'll miss my train!

In sticking with my plan not to use the gym today, I checked the times for the swimming pool and was pleased to see that public swimming was 07:15am until 11:00am. Stellian was due to work from home today, so I convinced her, it would be a good start to the day to take a dip. She cleared it with her boss beforehand, but said that an hour would be the maximum she would be able to do without taking the mickey.

The plan was to drop the kids at school and then head straight to the pool, however Stellian got an urgent e-mail at just the wrong moment, which meant I dropped the kids off and then came back for her. It was pretty cold outside and I was suddenly questioning the wisdom of going swimming as the pool building is quite old and the changing rooms can get quite cold.

We arrived at 09:00am to be told that the swimming session would finish at 09:30am as there was a school group coming in to use the pool. This posed a dilemma as it was nowhere near the length of time we wanted, but I decided to go in anyway.

Yesterday, I had mentioned to Stellian that I could run home if I wanted to stay longer than she did. The temperature this morning, led me to question the wisdom of this decision, however I made sure I had all my running gear with me to keep my options open. The decision was promptly made for me when Stellian decided that 30 minutes wasn't really going to be a benefit and that she was taking the car home to get on with some work.

With only half an hour to play with, I decided to go for it - as many laps as I could get in within the allotted time. The pool felt busier than the other day and there were a fair amount of side-to-side-ers, which made doing lengths quite tricky. Every so often I'd come across a mobile chicane as the person in my way wasn't there when I started the length. Doing breast stroke, I looked at my watch as I passed 19 laps (the 400m that I did as a part of the triathlon swim the other day) and the time was showing roughly 11 and a half minutes, which is faster than I did last time. I decided to see how close I could get to 50 laps in half an hour. When I reached 32 lengths, it was looking distinctly unlikely, but fortunately, the pool was clearing. This gave me the opportunity to switch to front crawl. This was quite tiring, but was getting me closer to my target. At the end of every other length I'd check the clock and glance at the lifeguard to see whether I'd be told time was up. When they didn't, I'd set off again, giving backstroke a go to try and preserve some energy. As I reached the end of my 48th lap, my luck ran out and was asked to leave. (In the end, it was just as well as a class full of hyperactive boys came barrelling into the changing rooms just as I finished getting changed).

At Tipton, the new and old Birmingham mainline canals meet. This provides a variety of opportunities with regards to routes home, ranging from 1.3 miles to 2.98 miles. My iPhone was quoting the temperature outside at a balmy 1°C, so given I still had wet hair, I decided that the shortest distance would probably be best. It wasn't the most comfortable run I've done (which is clear from my pace - 13:10/mile), but it served its purpose (I got home)!

As a reward (and to warm me up), I nipped out to McDonalds to buy a couple of coffees. I swear she took her time to take my order at the drive through to give me enough time to look through the breakfast menu. I was good and resisted the urge to order a sausage and egg mcmuffin meal, remembering that Thursday evening is my weigh-in day. I'm just hoping to have lost weight this week given I put on last week.

The walking total may increase later if I decided to track this afternoon's pick up from school, but in case I don't I've still done over 2 miles today. Depending on how things go, I may need a new total mileage goal for Janathon as I've got less than 25 miles left and we're not halfway through the month yet!

15:33 Edited to add:
I had been looking at some of the local pubs online, but none of their menus were highlighting what healthy food they were service. We thought we'd try The Village in Dudley as we hadn't been for a while, but the prices were much higher than we wanted to pay for a lunch. In the end, we settled on Pizza Hut, which would be our main meal of the day. We both went for a Pizzetta (which was only 460 calories) and helped ourself to the salad bar whilst we were waiting. The unexpected bonus was that Stellian found an offer through Vouchercloud to get both our meals for the price of one. Result!

I was feeling rather full after that so the extra mile walking to get the kids from school both contributes to my Janathon total and starts to work off a delicious lunch. Hopefully the scales will be kind later!

Walking:
Distance - 1.38 miles
Time - 24m 27

Running: 
Distance -1.3 miles
Time - 17m 11

Swimming:
Distance - 0.65 miles
Time - 29m 04

Total today:
Distance - 3.33 miles
Time - 1h 10m 42

Janathon:
Total Distance - 86.49 miles
Total Time - 14h 04m 31
Miles remaining - 23.51

Acknowledgement:
Photograph of the interior of Tipton Swimming Centre taken from http://www.slt-leisure.co.uk/leisure-centre/tipton-swimming-centre 

Do I have to? (#Janathon day 9)

Yesterday, I made no plans as to what exercise I was going to do today.

When I went to get G from Brownies last night, it was bucketing down - that would rule out the towpaths (which may cause a problem on Friday, but not going to worry about that now). The open swimming session at the baths isn't until 4pm, so I decided to leave the decision until this morning.

Today is the first day I've thought "I'm not sure I want to do any exercise today" and my legs are helpfully reminding me that I have been doing quite a bit lately. However, I've only got today and tomorrow then I'm back to the full work routine, which will definately reduce the amount of time I have available to do exercise and more than likely reduce my inclination to do so as well. I decided to take the kids to school and defer a final decision until later.

The school is well within walking distance of home, however most days I take the kids halfway there in the car so I can then drive straight to work in Birmingham City Centre. When I'm off, however, I'm not going to waste the fuel and will quite happily walk them all the way. It's amazing how much the kids love playing the lamp post game. (You can run off - but only as far as the next lamp-post, then you have to wait for me to catch up)! Chalked up a mile's worth of walking though (and with all the exercise I've been doing, I'm running out of deodorant fast, so a walk to Boots may be on the cards on the way to get the kids as well!)

Ken Bruce's Popmaster quiz on Radio 2 has been a fairly good marker for me in the past in so far as that if I'm intending to do something and haven't started, the end of the quiz is when I should get going. I made the decision I was going to the gym and off I went.

Unsuprisingly, for 11am on a Wednesday morning, when I arrived, I was the only person there. That gives me an opportunity to post a couple of photos of where I've been exercising recently. OK, so one gym is pretty much the same as another, however I don't think it's bad given it's council-run.

Given my earlier lack of enthusiasm, I decided to just use the treadmill and the exercise bike today, but I covered a good distance on both and most definitely broke a sweat, so I'm happy with what I got done. That took my total milage past 75 for the month to date.

During a mid-afternoon walk to the shops on the way to pick the kids up, I decided to use a short section of the towpath, which I knew was grass and earth as opposed to anything more solid. It was slippy! Glad I was only walking as opposed to running as I'd be worried about my footing, however it reminded me that I'm going to need to do some exercise on Friday. The towpath in the centre of Birmingham is more solid (depending on which side of it you run on), but it can be uneven enough to provide some fairly big puddles, so obviously I'm hoping for some dry weather between now and then. I might get lucky with this wish, but then the temperature is due to drop as well, so it may be ice as opposed to water that I'm having to deal with.

Tomorrow is my last day on holiday before I have to go back to work and I've decided I'm not going to spend any of it at the gym. I have a vague idea as to what I'd like to do in my mind, as doing nothing is NOT an option. (Hopefully, if I keep thinking it, typing it and saying it, exercise will become something that's a part of my regular routine as opposed to something that gets tacked on when there's nothing else to do).

Walking:
Distance - 2.87 miles
Time - 00:49:12


Running: 
Distance -3.22 miles
Time - 35m 36

Exercise Bike:
Distance - 8.26 miles
Time - 28m 03


Total today:
Distance -14.35 miles
Time - 1h 52m 51

Janathon:
Total Distance -83.16 miles
Total Time -12h 53m 49
Miles remaining -26.84

Super Sprint - Try (Janathon Day 8)

I've been thinking about this off and on for a couple of days and so whilst the kids went back to school today, I still have a couple of days off. This gave me the ideal opportunity to try... a triathlon.

Looking through the pages on Wikipedia, I decided that a Super Sprint should be attainable. That's 400m (0.25/mile) swimming, followed by 10k (6.2 miles) cycling, followed by 2.5k (1.5 miles) running.

I kind of did it and I kind of cocked it up (both accidentally and on purpose). When preparing, I worked out that I would be able to drop the kids at school and get to the local baths in sufficient time to be able to do 400m, which would be 8 laps of the pool. This would have been right had the pool been 50 metres. It wasn't, it was 22. A quick calculation later and I would have to do 18.18 laps. Clearly it was going to be impossible to measure .18 of a lap, so I decided to round it to 19.

The pool was quite busy, which made the swim a bit like dodgems. At least everyone was doing lengths - it can be a real pain when you have a couple of people who only want to do widths.

Half way through, I realised I was having the benefit of a wall at each end of the pool, giving me a kick off and this was something a real triathlete wouldn't have, so I added another lap to make it a round 20. As it's the first time I'd been swimming in a while, I did breast stroke to complete the laps as I wasn't sure how my body would react if I tried to do front crawl for 20 laps given the exercise I've done recently and that there was more to come! I did, however, tack an extra couple of laps on the end of front crawl giving me an initial time of 15 mins 47 seconds for 22 laps of 22m (484m). [Assuming an average pace, I reached 400m at 13m 02].

By this point, I'd only been in the pool 16 minutes and there were still about 25 minutes of the session remaining, so after a short break, I decided to do it again! As I approached lap 22, I was desparately trying to work out what I'd have to do to reach 1k. I decided to carry on to lap 25 whilst I tried to work it out, but my brain was having none of it this morning. Even though the pool was clearing so I wasn't having to play dodgems as much, I just couldn't get my head around the sum. Finally, I gave in and decided to complete 28 laps. That way, I'd covered 50 laps of the pool and that would have to be good enough.

In triathlons, there is a transition zone between events where competitors change from wetsuit into cycling gear. My transition zone went via the changing rooms to the car park, so I could drive myself home. I'd got a drinks bottle and my headphones set up near the bike so I could do a quick change into my exercise gear and get on with it. Usually, I make set up an exercise bike so there's some kind of resistance - not today. Easiest setting and just got on with it.

Finally, it came time for the run. I'd mapped out the 2.5k distance to start after a minute's warm up, which was a nice loop round the back of the estate. I have to confess, I didn't manage to run all the way. The first 1k was fine, but I walked 0.5k before breaking back into a jog again. A short walk was also required up a hill, before managing to complete the rest of the distance.

So in terms of the triathlon distance, I reckon - Swim: 13m 02. Cycle: 18m 44. Run: 18m 47 (when you deduct the 1m warm up and the 5m extra at the end after the 2.5k finished). This gives me a total of 50m 33 excluding transistions. Could have been worse! Obviously this is in no way scientific, but it does give me something to aim for if I have the time and want to give it ago again.

Walking: (School Runs)
Distance -1.33 miles
Time - 20m 09


Running: (Triathlon Part 3) http://runkeeper.com/user/plockplock/activity/140524608
Distance -1.94 miles
Time - 25m 01

Exercise Bike: (Triathlon Part 2)
Distance - 6.3 miles
Time - 18m 44

Swimming: (Triathlon Part 1)
Distance - 0.68 miles
Time - 34m 22

Total today:
Distance - 10.25 miles
Time -1h 38m 16

Janathon:
Total Distance - 68.81 miles
Total Time - 11h 00m 58
Miles remaining - 41.19

Janathon Day 7

So I'm awarding myself two of my very own home made badges. I don't think I've ever exercised for seven straight days before, so even if I don't make it to the end of Janathon, I can still say I've accomplished something.

Originally, I'd only planned on going to the gym after Stellian got home from work, however today was an inset day for the kids and although we'd been out to Merry Hill for G's eye test and returned a borrowed item to a friend, it still felt like cabin fever was setting in. It was therefore a return to the Sheepwash with the kids on their scooters for an afternoon walk. It was quite a nice day outside. The PCSOs certainly thought so as we either saw 6 (or maybe the same set twice) as we took in the fresh air and they came past on their bikes.

Walking: http://runkeeper.com/user/plockplock/activity/140326231
Distance - 2.57 miles
Time - 50m 21







The gym was the busiest I'd seen it. I got there around 5.30pm and I'm not sure I've been on a Monday before, however I was pleased to see there was a treadmill free. Until I got on it. Unfortunately, the touch screen was slow/non-responsive. All I want to do is plug in my USB stick and music and get going. I hit quick-start as usual, and it took nearly 4 of the 5 minutes of the warm up I usually to try and get it set up the way I wanted, but it wasn't playing ball so I gave in. Fortunately, after I did about a kilometer and a half the girl on the treadmill next to me decided she'd had enough, so with no-one waiting for it, I told the treadmill to stop and asked it to save the data to my USB stick. This doesn't always work so I've use my phone to take a photo of the screen so I can ensure my data IS captured. Today, this wasn't possible as the treadmill accepted 'Exit' as the command instead of 'Save'. Fortunately, I was able to remember my distance and I use a stopwatch to help me with split-times, so I have a rough idea how I did. Changing machines did break my rhythm and I quickly decided to move onto something else.

With a busy gym, it's easy to get distracted so I started playing a game when I was on the cross-trainer. (I've called it "Operation Moving Target" as my brain needed something to do.) It's very easy and it works like this. If you can see the screen of someone who is doing the same activity as you and who started before you, you're not allowed to stop your activity or hit cool-down until you pass the distance on their screen. I tried this on both the cross-trainer and on the exercise bike, but they decided to finish their activity before I passed them. Knowing what was on their screen, I passed it anyway, but it did lose some of the fun after that. If you're thinking I'm very sad, don't worry, I know Stellian will agree with you.

Running:
Distance -2.16 miles (total)
Time - 26m 04 (total)

Exercise Bike:
Distance - 4.97 miles
Time - 18m 10

Cross Trainer (Elliptical):
Distance - 2.39 miles
Time - 23m 59

Total today:
Distance - 12.09 miles
Time -1h 58m 34

Janathon:
Total Distance - 58.56 miles
Total Time - 9h 22m 42
Miles remaining - 51.44

The 100% unofficial Janathon blog badges

I like to be rewarded for a job well done and several quizzing sites I participate in award badges for achievements earned. At the end of the first week of Janathon, I decided I'd create a badge to go on my blog to show that I'd completed my first week. However, I then realised I'd broken the 50 mile barrier as well! So, one thing led to another and I've created 13 (cheesy as they are)! As the blog title suggests, they are 100% unofficial and no copyright infringement is intended. I am happy for anyone to use them in their blog should they wish. If anyone wants a badge making, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

And They're Off

Award yourself this badge when you've completed your first exercise in Janathon.









 
Walking

Award yourself this badge when you've completed your first walking (or treadmill) exercise in Janathon.







Running

Award yourself this badge when you've completed your first running exercise in Janathon.

Rowing

Award yourself this badge when you've completed your first rowing (or rowing machine) exercise in Janathon.

Rowing

Award yourself this badge when you've completed your first cycling (or exercise bike) exercise in Janathon.

Swimming

Award yourself this badge when you've completed your first rowing exercise in Janathon.








50 miles

Award yourself this badge when you've completed 50 miles of exercise activity.

 

75 miles

Award yourself this badge when you've completed 75 miles of exercise activity.







Ton up

Award yourself this badge when you've completed 100 miles of exercise activity.

1 week

First week down - well done. Award yourself this badge after 7 days of consecutive activity.









2 weeks

Second week over - nice work. Award yourself this badge after 14 days of consecutive activity.







3 weeks

Over half way now! Three weeks in - keep it going. Award yourself this badge after 21 days of consecutive activity.






4 weeks

The end is in sight - just a couple of days left - you can do it!. Award yourself this badge after 28 days of consecutive activity.






 

You're a Star

You have completed all 31 days of exercise activity in Janathon. Award yourself this badge and go for a long bath.


 

Edited 8/1/13 to include more badges:

 
Triathlete

Swim, Cycle and Run. If you complete one of each activity on the same day, award yourself this badge.

5 Hours

04:59:58, 04:59:59, 05:00:00. You're five hours fitter, so award yourself this badge.







10 Hours

Are your muscles aching? You've been exercising for 10 hours now. Award yourself this badge in recognition of your effort.

15 Hours

15 hours of exercise - what a great effort. Have a badge.







20 Hours

You've been working so hard to clock up 20 hours of exercise. Here's a badge just for you.

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