day 31 - Going out in style

Last day of Janathon and one of the best runs I have had all month :) Pretty good considering running was the last thing I felt like doing on the way home from work. But somehow I managed to psyche myself up and went out feeling positive. Am also wondering if it was my thermal tights I had dug out - my thighs and bun were  definitely feeling less cold than before and it seemed to make my legs feel lighter and faster. I didn't think I would manage the 6 miler that my training plan said I should be doing, especially with the hills that I threw into my route but I managed over that around the hour mark.

I always have mixed feeling at the end of an 'athon - while I am looking forward to my first rest day tomorrow and getting some of my free time back, I will miss the community of brilliant people that take part in the events and reading everyone's stories. My running will not be letting up though as I have a pretty intense 11 weeks of half marathon ahead of me.

My last stats:

distance: 6.6miles
time: 1hour52seconds
calories: 884

AND NOW THE GRAND JANATHON TOTALS....

distance: 116.3miles running only (a big improvement on last year!) 118miles including cross training
time: 21.4 hours
calories: ooooh thousands!!

Hope to be back in June for another 'athon but for now, I plan to carry on my training and hopefully find time for a few blogs along the way.

day 30 - and the end is in sight....

Mondays are always a struggle...I am usually tired after the weekend lack of sleep and its always a long day at work with meetings in the afternoon...the last thing I usually feel like is exercising, yet it is always the day I have my body pump class which is always painful. Don't know why it is but I am really struggling with building my upper body strength - I have been doing the class for a while but still find it hard to get above a certain weight on my bar - bicep curls are one of the worst. I sweated through just over 3 miles on the treadmill before sweating even more through my class. The gym is still stupidly busy - would the January part timers please just give up and go home now??

I have another stupidly busy week so kind of looking forward to a rest day on Wednesday though I am really supposed to be getting stuck into my half-marathon training!!

Hope other fellow Janathoners are looking forward to be bit of a rest - I will definitely miss the banter and support come February though :(

Here's to the penultimate day!

stats:
distance- 3.2miles
time: 29mins34secs
calories: 284
press ups managed at bodypump class: 10 (only 2 of which were proper ones!!)

day 29 - healthy hedonism

Another Sunday run following 4 hours sleep so only 3 miles today round the meadows. Not much to report on it really, wasn't too slow, wasn't too fast. Instead I'll tell you about my day yesterday  - I had a brilliant one overall - experiencing all the variety that life can offer sometimes. After my very healthy morning of running I went shopping, coming away with a PVC skirt and a new black and purple corset both of which looked awesome. Also bought some long overdue new music. After the shopping spree, I went to the theatre to see The Infamous Brothers Davenport which was brilliant. After which I went and had a delicious meal, complete with pre-dinner cocktails and rather scrummy red wine. After that I went to a fetish themed night at a near by club, rather fittingly called Violate. Thankfully I wasn't really drinking so not really hungover today, just very tired. So all in all a rather bizarre collection of activities. To balance all this out, I am having a very relaxed day with the Sunday papers.

Not very run-themed this time but it wasn't that exciting today...

stats!

distance: 3miles
time: 27mins29secs
calories: 384
evenings of hedonism: 1

day 28 - 100 BOOM!

103 to be exact. So have actually beaten my planned goal with 3 days to spare!  Was done in style as well. It is a freezing morning (I still have goosebumps post-shower!) but sunny and I felt pretty good as my night wasn't too heavy and was in by 11pm after eating my body weight is Chinese food. I felt like a nice long-ish run down by the seaside in Portobello. There were plenty of people braving the cold morning: runners, cyclists and quite frankly insane swimmers!! Yes, people swimming IN THE SEA on a very frosty January morning. 3 of them! Despite Scotland's reputation as the sick man of Europe and our terrible diet and lifestyle, there was no evidence of this here - just lots of people getting fit in various and crazy ways.

Was very happy with my run this morning. Not sure my effort tomorrow will be as good as I am out on a fetish club night tonight...for which I now have to go buy an outfit made of PVC (its the rules according to the friend I am going with!). Looking forward to some good dancing to industrial goth music :)

Stats:-
distance: 7.3 miles
time: 1hour8mins12seconds (am into triple digits!!)
calories: 928
insane swimmers in the sea: 3
Goals well and truly beaten: 1
PVC outfit to buy: 1

days 26&27- my first fail

Yesterday was my first day where I had a Janathon fail. I left for work at 6:30am - I had an event in Perth to get to. I was on my feet filming all day and didn't get a lunch break so couldn't even get a cheeky mile in. The day event finished at 4:30pm and everyone went off for free time and to check into the hotel...I on the other hand had a 5min video to edit from all the footage of the day (lots of water industry guys doing team building activities) in an hour and a half in order to show it before everyone had dinner. Thankfully everything went to plan and got everything done...I celebrated going straight to the bar to get a pint of well deserved beer. Then it was dinner and more drinking and not surprisingly no running or exercise of any kind, unless you count wandering around Perth with video equipment and a laptop. I fell into bed around about 3am.  I got up today rather hungover. I felt marginally better later in the afternoon so went out for a lap of Holyrood Park...I must have looked a bit tired as a lovely smiley lady gave me some encouragement as she came past me on her way down the big hill I was struggling up.

Thankfully it was a beautiful day and the sun was shining and didn't actually do too badly time-wise. And now I'm off for round too for dinner and drinks for my friend's birthday party...may be another hungover jog tomorrow!

stats:
distance: 3.5miles
time: 33mins
cals: 410
whiskys, pints of Guinness drunk last night: too many

day 25 - treadmill struggle and more excuses

Another treadmill day...just not liking the cold, windy weather at the moment. I was hoping for another 5miles today but could only manage 4.2miles, and felt every inch of it. I had to walk for bits of the session and didn't really get above 10.5 speed wise (I usually find this speed fairly easy).

Tomorrow is looking even worse - I need to leave the flat at 6:30am and due to be working til 6:30pm at least, then a work dinner thing so unless I get up at 4am I do not see much exercise being acheived. Having said that I have video camera equipment to lug around to and from the train station so thinking, maybe that can count?? Will also be taking my Pilates resistance bands with me so may get some weight training fitted in at the hotel between networking with collegues and bedtime!!

I hope others Janathoners are managing to struggle through and make it to the bitter end.

Stats time:

distance: 4.2miles (every one fully felt)
time: 44mins34secs (better that I thought!)
calories: 410 (roughly)

day 24 - and the proper training starts

A gym session today as despite my car thermometer saying it was fairly mild, it felt cold and miserable thanks to the constant drizzle. As my half-marathon training was supposed to start today it was a hard session. I was supposed to do about 6miles but didn't manage it - was really feeling tired towards the end. I am trying to work to a maximum of 2 hours for my half-marathon (though it is not really the flattest course), the Paula Radcliffe 'new intermediate' training plan is pretty hard and not sure I will stick to it but I am going to try!
I was hoping to do a decent weights session but the gym was far too busy and there were even people waiting in a line for the machines - I am way too impatient for that.


stats:
distance: 8.48kms
time: 50mins