Musings and Madness from Pucegreen

Day 4/31 Janathon – Holidays are nearly over

Posted on January 4, 2011 by pucegreen

Today was officially my last day of holiday before I’m back to work and the school run begins.

So today was a day for organisation – starting with my son’s bombsite of a bedroom but it was also a day for spending some one to one time with my little man. Don’t get me wrong, both Deaghlan and I have had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends but we actually didn’t have much time on our own together until today.

In between cleaning and organising, we found time to play Top Trumps, Scrabble and had an extra long read at bedtime. Time to draw the holiday to a close and start getting back into early mornings, homework, a lot of ‘I dunno’ responses when I ask what he did at school plus a lot more exercise for me.

Headed back to the gym this evening and completed another 3km run which I have to say I found hard tonight. But I finished it in a good time (for me) and didn’t slow the treadmill down when the going got tough.

Treadmill

Distance: 3km

Time: 22.35

Average: 7.45 mins/km

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Janathon 3/31 – No sleep til Gatwick

Posted on January 4, 2011 by pucegreen

I knew that day 3 of Janathon may result in no activity completed or logged and that was exactly what happened.

Sleep evaded me the previous night and I had an early start to get my nephew to Gatwick by 7.30am.

It seems that whenever I have to set my alarm early in order to get to the airport on time, I never sleep properly.

I spend the night waking up practically every 30 mins to an hour, checking the time or checking that the alarm has been set correctly. I drive myself mad doing this and ultimately spend the entire night dozing. When the alarm goes off, I actually feel relieved rather than grumpy that I didn’t get a good night sleep.

Does this happen to anyone else? Or am I the only one torturing myself?

Anyway, we got up and made it to Gatwick on time. No traffic on the M25 certainly helped.

I did manage a fair bit of pacing round the South Terminal after my nephew was signed over to airline staff as I wasn’t allowed to leave the airport until his plane was in the air. But I can’t really log that as my contribution to day 3 of Janathon.

Drove the 2 hours home and promptly fell asleep on the sofa!

Day 4 will be a more productive day!

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Janathon 2/31 – Off the blocks

Posted on January 2, 2011 by pucegreen

I set the alarm last night with all good intentions of getting back into a morning routine before I head back to work next week.

Alarm went off at 7am, I turned it off and promptly went back to sleep. I managed to drag myself out an hour later and headed straight to the gym.

I ran a comfortable 3km on the treadmill and increased my speed for the first time since I stated running again.

Afternoon walk was cancelled due to one of our’s being ill so friends are coming round for Chinese tonight instead. Hoping to rain-check and do our walk next weekend.

Treadmill

Distance: 3km

Time: 22.35

Average: 7.45 mins/km

Really pleased with my time today and celebrated with a chocolate milk when I came home. I’m also really enjoying reading everyone’s blogs and achievements and will really make the effort to read as many as possible throughout January.

Posted in Running | 3 Comments

Janathon Day 1/31 – Family Angst

Posted on January 1, 2011 by pucegreen

So New Years Day is usually a day in which to tenderly hold your head a swear never to drink again or one where you resolve to start the year on a positive note.

My aim was to avoid both – I successfully out-manoeuvred a hangover by taking it easy on the champagne last night but a family problem put paid to the ‘best foot forward’ approach to the first day of 2011.

So I’ve spent most of today on the telephone to my sister in Ireland and calming my stressed nephew who has been staying with me for a few days. All was resolved by the time darkness fell and nephew promptly fell asleep on the sofa leaving me with no opportunity to run. (My high level of clumsiness in the daytime means that I’m not trusted to run in the dark alone)

So I dusted off an old yoga dvd and spent half an hour trying to contort myself into positions that apparently will ‘trim my midriff and strengthen my spine’ according the the monotonous lady who doesn’t say much else.

Not an ideal start to Janathon but I’m pleased that I managed a decent level of activity. Tomorrow the gym re-opens and we have also planned a long walk with friends in Constable country so I can only improve – right?

Total activity – 30 mins of yoga

Posted in MusingsandMadness | 4 Comments

Back to reality and preparing for Janathon

Posted on December 30, 2010 by pucegreen

Christmas was the usual festive but chaotic affair involving family, friends and lots of food. My excuse for over indulging is that most of what I ate was homemade (Gingerbread, Christmas pudding, Chestnut stuffing) except for copious amount of chocolate, of course

I did manage to fit a visit to the gym into my hectic social schedule this week but now my thoughts are turning to completing Janathon.

Run Helen Run‘s post about a Janathon checklist got me thinking about essentials like chocolate milk! The weather and the sales have ensured that I have a new pair of running tights and long sleeved top.

Now all I need to do is complete 31 days of running/exercise in addition to juggling my 7 year old son who always thinks up some interesting after-school activities, his homework and an already packed work schedule.

But first things first, New Years Eve party.

Cheers everyone!

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Bake-athon and more running

Posted on December 15, 2010 by pucegreen

I would have been quite happy to have finished work tonight, collapsed on the sofa with my fish n chips and not moved. My 7 year old son had other plans and the bake-athon commenced straight after dinner. Cookies and shortbread to take to his Child-minder tomorrow to share………..

Once the disaster zone aka the kitchen had been cleared of flour and son was tucked up in bed I headed back to the gym.

Treadmill

Distance: 2.15km

Time: 17.25 mins

Average: 8.02 mins/km

Didn’t manage 3km tonight as I’m now proudly sporting a blister on the arch of my foot but 2km is better than nothing

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First run in forever

Posted on December 14, 2010 by pucegreen

Ok, so I signed up with a local gym a couple of weeks ago in order to complete the Janathon next month. Generally speaking I find gyms a bit boring and monotonous. I love running outside but I am most definitely a ‘fair-weather’ runner!

I thought I had better find my running mo-jo before I start running every day in January so headed to the gym this evening. One of the main things I liked this particular gym out of the many to choose from is their ‘dark’ room – plenty of treadmills, cross-trainers and bassy music and no-one able to see if you can work the equipment properly!

So first run in forever is done……..

Treadmill

Distance: 3km

Time: 25.12 mins

Average: 8.37 mins/km

Not fantastic but gives me something to improve on. I would love to run 5km in 35 minutes by the end of January 2011 so am setting this as my first goal for 2011.

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Janathon 2011

Posted on November 30, 2010 by pucegreen

Feel it’s time to get my running mojo back.

Signed up with a local gym yesterday so that I can have a month to get back into a rhythm before Janathon begins.

You can sign up at http://www.janathon.com/participants.html

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