Janathon day 31: Hitting the 100 Milestone with a thump and and ouch!

Well, I did manage to get to the end of the month without any falls so that's a general improvement on my usual performance! Also serves me right for running in the woods when its getting dark. Some uneven ground led to me going over my ankle 3 miles in but managed to hobble on. There was a critical point where I could have gone thru the estate but I chose to run thru the woods leading me to trip and fall on my face . Thankfully there was noone around to witness this...then who in their right mind would be wondering in the freezing cold woods after dark ?! But with just under a mile still to go I carried on not noticing all the leaves and dirt still stuck to my face and body.
Am now sitting nuraong my sprained ankle with a bag of frozen carrots and sipping a nice glass of wine which will be my last for the next 28 days.... I do love puniahing myself!
Anyhoo i managed to hit my January target and getting a lovely sunset view to boot so it's not all bad!

 Stats!
Distance: 5 miles (101 in total for January )
Ankles sprained: 1
Cheeks bruised: 1 (on my face if you were wondering!)

Janathon Day 24:Running running off the PMT

So if discussion of 'lady issues' makes you uncomfortable for you, firstly, go have a word with yourself and stop reading now.

Right... Anyone else who suffers the evils of PMT but still manages to drag themselves on their winter workout routines should get some sort of medal. Fighting against not just the usual winter excuses not to venture outside but also the bloaty/heavy feeling and just a general 'screw you life' feeling you get at that time of the month that usually sees me wanting to hide under my blankets in bed. However, I will say  getting out running actually helps me with the dreaded PMT.  Not only do I find it helps with working off the related feeling of rage i tend to get at this time (who am i kidding, I get those most times!) but it seems to help with cramps and staves off some of the tendencies to crave unhealthy food.

Today I ran to the hills. I'm lucky to have some nice trails right beside my work. Cant get bored of the views :

Stats!
Distance:4.4 miles
Time:47 mins
Hills ran up :2

Day 22: Danger running in the dark

With the weather being in the sub zero area  there is always the danger of freezing your appendages off but winter running has a whole bunch of other hazzards  as my run today demonstrated 

There I was thinking that the days are getting that bit longer. Like it wasn't pitch black at 3pm. So having got to work ridiculously early, instead of going for my usual lunchtime run which always feels like such a faff, I thought i would have time for a post work run before it got too dark.

It started off not too bad, but having decided to go thru the Hermatige, which is a nice wee wooded kind of 'nature reserve', I discovered that the ice hadn't made it into this part of the world but was still pretty muddy and having my road trainers on gave me an extra edge of slippy danger.

The Hermatige 

Having come out the other side I was back on pavement but by this time the darkness had properly decended  Having forgotten that there are no street lights along the braid hills i had to rely on car lights to ensure i didn't trip on the many potholes along the way. You'll be pleased to know i got back to the car in one, albeit rather frozen piece. There was also a nice sunset 

On the subject of running in the freezing cold , what's with people who can run in mid winter in shorts and t-shirt?! They either have no nerve endings that feel the cold or they are showing off how hardcore they are while tempting frostbite.

Several hours after my run, my arse is still like a over sized icecube!

Stats! 

Distance 4.3 miles 

Time: 44 mins

Times I narrowly avoides falling on my face : 3

Day 17: The Smugness of a lunchtime runner

There's always 2 overall feelings when I go running at lunchtime at work.  The first is always feelings of 'ooooh do I have to?!?! Why?? It's cold, I'm hungry already, and I really can't be bothered'.
And then there's the self-consciousness passing colleagues in my running gear and feeling jealous of those wandering into the warm canteen for food.

Then, eventually the smugness will set in...If it is nice day it can come on during the run when I can feel the sun on my face and I take comfort in the knowledge that while I'm out burning the calories and getting fit, those colleagues I was regarding jealously and now feel sorry for as they will not be as fit and healthy as me, are sitting looking out of the canteen window in awe of my heroic lunchtime running. (Or are perhaps just thinking 'what a nutter, why on earth would you want to spend your lunch break doing that!) .

I do find the smugness will wear off as I spend the rest of the afternoon with smudged eye-makeup, bright red cheeks wishing I had brought more than just soup to eat for lunch.

Bring on the spring where I can go back to running after work!

Stats!
distance: 3.3miles
time: 33mins
time spent feeling smug: 10 mins

Day 12: Trailing around

I hate running in the city. I never used to mind it until I ran my first trail race. It was a game changer. Even tho I live in the middle of a city  thankfully Edinburgh is small and I dont have to go far to get an opportunity to get off road. I have hills and beaches. I also live right next to a hill - Arthur Seat :)

Today, as it was the weekend and I needed to do a long run, I jumped in the car to go to Aberladywwhich is just outside Edinburgh on the coast. Started off going thru a nature reserve. You go over a wee (rather rickety) bridge. On this bridge it tells you about 4 times that no dogs are allowed yet i saw a group of people walking with 4 dogs... I assume they are either blind or more likely stupid and don't care. I felt like saying something but wimped out  They looked pretty grumpy anyway .

As this was my first time doing this route I expected to get lost at least a couple of times but amazingly I managed 4 miles before my first wrong turn. But overall i didn't go too far off course. One of my detours saw my running along gullane beach (which brought back memories of annual school summer trips here even when it was chucking it down with rain) in a brutal head wind. But the lovely view distracted me from this..
My other miss turn meant I didn't get to see Saltcoats castle which is a nice wee ruin along from the path i went along.
Will def be doing this route again!
Stats : 7.8 miles
Time: 1 hour 33mins
Wrong turns: about 4?
Trailshoe sefies: a few but only posted the best one (see below )

Day 7: Windy as Fuck!

At least the grey went away....to be replaced by gale force winds, Yay!

7 days into Janathon, it feels longer, and I'm thinking i should be feeling like some kind of elite athlete by now. But no, it really isn't that long and I still feel like a sack of potatoes with legs - slow moving legs at that. But on the up side, I am still managing to get out there without too much interior discussion on whether I can be bothered or not so I'm taking that as a win. 

Stats! 

Distance: 5km 

Time 30mins 

Speed of wind:40mph (at least thats what it felt like!) 

Day 6: and the greyness continues

Right  I'm now bored of this grey, dreich January weather. It is utterly soul sucking.

Nothing looks nice in this climate and I live in one of the prettiest places there is (well, alot of it anyway).

Not sure if it was this, the pain in my neck, recovering from yesterday's 10km or all the gin, win and mulled cider i had last night (maybe a combination of all this) but dragging myself out of the flat and round the park for 2.4 miles was not in the least but fun. But I did it and that is what this is all about :)
Stats!
Distance: 2.4 miles
Time:22ish mins
Greyness: a depressing amount

Day 5: cant be bothered writing so I blogged memes

I have places to be and people to meet, this no real time for writing a Janathon blog ... I did however have time to run 10km and download a bunch of running memes. I may keep a few for future blogs cause, who doesn't love a meme!
Stats! Distance :10km. Time: 1hour 2mins

Day 3: Back to grim reality (sort of)

Ah well, the honeymoon period is over. Had a nice couple of days where the sun was shining and I had no work to do so had the luxury of running when and where I liked (I realise many folk were back at work yesterday but here in Scotland we need an extra day to recover from Hogmanay!

However, today it is a return to normal service..grey skies and fitting in Janathon around work. Though in the spirit of easing myself back into the new year, I was working from home so that still meant that I have been sitting at my laptop in my PJs eating leftover cheese and trifle for meals, in total denial of the end of the holiday season! Forget dry January, I'm having a wet January and doing Dry February instead as it has 3 whole days less to torture ourselves!

Anyway. I tore myself away from the couch and 'new website hell', and did a circuit of Holyrood Park. No photos today, for as previously mentioned it is dull and grey out there, plus I didn't have my phone.  On the bright side, it's Friday tomorrow!

Stats:
distance: 3.4 miles
Time: 34 mins
cheese and trifle eaten: lots!

Day 2: Hot hands, freezing bum

Was a double whammy today. Did a 4 mile walk in the Pentland hills and a 4 mile run over the Braid hills. 

Was a beautifully clear and sunny day but this meant that it was also -1 degrees. Luckily I had my sealskin winter gloves with me so my hands were toasty warm. I wish I could say the same about some other parts of my anatomy...namely my bum. No matter what, if it is anything under 10 degrees I always end up losing much of the feeling in my derriere whilst out for a run.

Already feeling very positive about my good start to my running year :) 

And just for Cathy: Pics of my favourite local highland cows!

Stats!

miles ran: 4

miles walked: 4

Hot body parts: hands

cold body parts: bum

pictures of cows: 1

Day1: Well, this is a first!

For the first time in a long while, it is the 1st of January and I have come back from a proper run! Not a half hearted, hungover, shuffle round the block but a decent run.
I won't lie - I partied and saw the new year in with a drink in my hand and didn't get to my bed until 5:30 this morning but I had sleep and re-hydrated and actually felt OK as I hit the park. 
My feelings of total smugess were slightly dampened by the sight of hordes of people doing the New Years Day Triathalon, which I have found out consists of a 400m swim (8 lengths of the Commonwealth pool, 11 mile cycle and a 3.5 mile run round Holyrood Park.

But I may have only done my 3.6 mile plod but still it's more than I have done most years.

It is also a good start to this years challenge: run 1000 miles in 2019. This is a challenge set by Trail Running magazine - https://www.trailrunningmag.co.uk/run1000miles/   I came to the hallenge late last year and due to injury and other obstacles I ended up just stopping counting the miles (turned out I only did under 400 miles in total last year) but this year I'm in right at the beginning with a sense of determination only the start of a new year can give you so here's to a good year of running, and what better way to start it than Janathon!

Stats:
distance: 3.6 miles
time: 37mins
feeling of smuggness: some