Juneathon Day 27 – parkrun

One hundred metres into this morning’s parkrun and I thought “I really hate parkrun”. Today was my 60th parkrun, so that thought was either a lie, or I am very good at convincing myself to do things I find repugnant. 

So, maybe I don’t always hate parkrun, but I didn’t love today’s run. Based on my almost PB a fortnight ago, I had had high hopes for today, but it was not to be: I felt a bit off and it was sunny and warmish. I even forwent the run home when I was offered a lift. In the end my time was 28:07 which is not too shabby.

It was a quick shower once home and back out the door to meet up with a friend and her baby for a walk. We ended up back in Victoria Park and had an icecream and talked to the ducks, swans and coots (I think coot chicks have got to be the ugliest chicks around).

Juneathon Day 27 – 4 miles running and approximately 4 miles walking.

  

   

Juneathon Day 26 – A win for Juneathon

Had it not been for Juneathon, today would have been an exercise free day: I got home from work just after 3:00pm and sat on the couch, I ate some crisps, perused Twitter and read some Juneathon blogs. I made a cup of tea and ate two chocolate chip biscuits and some licorice. I looked at Facebook (cue some eye-rolling) and re-freshed Twitter. I then got off the couch and sat at my sewing machine and finished the patchwork top for a table runner for my mum. I listened to the News Quiz (bye Sandi Toksvig, it won’t be the same without you) and made my dinner. While dinner was cooking I did my calf raisers on the step and considered leaving it at that. I hopped around the kitchen and considered leaving it there. I ate my dinner (normally my line in the sand for exercise) and washed up. I lay down on the floor and did side leg raisers, planks with alternate leg lifts and bridges with alternate leg lowering. I even stretched my hamstrings.

Juneathon Day 26 – some core-strengthening that would never have been done if it were not for Juneathon.

   

Juneathon Day 25 – Club run in the rain

Today is the first day of the school holidays in Glasgow, therefore it rained and will continue to rain for most of the next 7 weeks.  

Thankfully I’m waterproof (though my clothes, socks and shoes less so).

I was jog leading the 7.5k group at running club this evening. After the whole group introductions, notices and warm up we moved into our running groups. Most of the group were relatively new runners who had completed recent 10k races in times over 60 minutes. When three super speedy guys turned up and tried to join us my heart sank at the thought of trying to keep everyone together. I gave them the hairy eyeball, which frightened them sufficiently and they ran away to join the 10k group. The rest of us headed off for a leisurely run around the West End and Kelvingrove Park.

Juneathon Day 25 – 4.5 miles

Juneathon Day 24 – Another Run

Yesterday after my lovely run in the sun and the very brief blog post, I met up with a friend and we went for a walk in the sun and had an ice cream (I had a waffle cone with a scoop of snickers ice cream and a scoop of Daim – since you asked). When I drove home at 10:45 pm the sky was clear and it was that perfect moment of dusk where the moon and (I think) Venus were visible and there was still a streak of red on the horizon.

It was lucky that I made the most of yesterday’s sunshine and clear skies as today I awoke to rain. It didn’t last but the sky never really cleared. I went for another 3.4 mile run after work. I don’t normally run on Wednesdays, but I realised on Sunday that if I run similar mileage this week as last, plus about 5 miles on Monday or Tuesday next week then I will hit the magic total of 100 miles for Juneathon! 

In other news, I collected a little parcel from the post office after work. It contained these lovely fabrics. I don’t really need more fabric…but I do have a plan for them, so that’s ok!

  

Juneathon Day 23 – Short & Sweet

This evening I went for a 3.4 mile run. It was leisurely and very, very pleasant. The sun even shined 😊.

Juneathon Day 22 – I’m ti-red

I struggled to wake up this morning, and struggled to keep my eyes open through breakfast and getting ready. At work each cup of tea was a life line, keeping me this side of consciousness. Luckily it was a busy day with visits outside the office so the constant movement kept me going. 

During the night I had woken with itching legs from the 30+ midge bites I had acquired on Friday evening. I managed to unearth a packet of anti-histamine (age unknown) and wondered if that was the cause of today’s fatigue. But then maybe it was just the 19+ miles I ran within 40 hours across the weekend.

For Juneathon Day 22 I went to spin, trying out a new, local spin studio for the first time. The studio is small with 20 bikes crammed in, but it was less than half full. The bikes at the council gym have the electronic displays that give information such as resistance level, revs per minute (RPM) and calories burned. The bikes in the new studio just have a dial and it takes a little practise to work out the appropriate resistance for the activity. Otherwise I enjoyed the class and think I will keep going back. The class is a wee bit more expensive, but it is slightly longer, the instructor is personable and knows the names of the participants and I like supporting small businesses when I can.

Right, I’m off to bed…after I’ve read a few more blogs 😀.

Juneathon Day 21 – Cheering on the fellas

Today was the Men’s Health 10k. For, hopefully, obvious reasons I was not running, however 27 of the guys from my running club were. The plan was for me to jog lead a group on a short run to various points along the route to cheer everyone on. It meant meeting at 9:30 instead of our usual meeting time of 10:45. Clearly the women in our club are complete slackers because only one other person turned up!

The starting point for the race was the Transport Museum on the Clyde. Nicky and I ran down to the 3k point and cheered the guys through, before running through town to the finish line at Glasgow Green. We then met everyone under the G banner for a photo call and the caramel slice I had made and brought along in my hydration pack.

   
 I then had a mile and a half slog back up High Street to my car at the Glasgow Caledonian Univerity. I decided to take a small shortcut, but ended up in a dead end housing block. I cut through a garden and up a steep, grassy bank and down the bank on the other side. I then found myself in a housing estate, and briefly considered resorting to Google Maps but followed my nose instead and eventually emerged on a familiar street a block from the car.

Juneathon Day 21 – 5.2 miles in three parts.

Juneathon Day 20 – I probably should’ve rested

I did plan to go to parkrun this morning, but it was probably a wee bit ambitious after last night’s race. I snoozed my alarm once when it went off, but the second time I switched it off altogether and went back to sleep, not waking again until after 9:00. 

My morning was lovely and lazy, but I managed to dress and leave the house to get to the post offfice before it closed. After my weekly chat to the parents in Aus, it was time to head out for a mid-afternoon run. Probably it should have been a short recovery run, but I was determined to make it a long one, as I won’t have a chance tomorrow. I decided on a a route and headed towards Maryhill and the city end of the Forth and Clyde Canal. 

Three miles in and I was feeling very weary. Five miles in and I decided to cut my route short and head for home. The last few miles were hard and I was more tired than I had been at the end of some of my long marathon training runs last year!

I managed 8 miles in the end which brings my Juneathon total to 62.9 miles.

   
   

Juneathon Day 19 – Brian Goodwin 10k Race Report

The Brian Goodwin 10k is a race hosted by The Bellahouston Harriers*, a southside of Glasgow running club. Unusually the race is held at 7:30pm on a Friday evening, with a 2 lap course that starts in the rugby club and passes through the middle of Pollok Country Park before heading out around the pavement along the northern boundary of the park.

I got home from work at 4pm and was really tired, so I headed straight for the couch and pulled the quilt over me, waking 45 minutes later when the phone rang: Apparently I’m not eligible for government subsidised solar panels as I live in a mid-level flat – who would’ve guessed!?

I ate my usual pre-run breakfast of bagel and cup of tea, then went to pick Jason up at 5:30pm. Club mates Jason, Eric and Greg were all volunteering as marshals. Our club is organising its first race in August, so the guys were looking for experience in race organisation. I was the sole club rep in the race and marked the occasion by wearing my Glasgow FrontRunner vest for the first time.

As this is a club race it tends to attract club types (ie fast runners) so I positioned myself towards the back of the 400+ runners. By the 3k mark I had settled into a steady pace and found myself beside a runner named Julie (according to the people cheering her on). I positioned myself at Julie’s shoulder and stuck there for the next 7k. My watch hit 28 minutes just before the 5k mark, which surprised me as it seemed to have passed much more quickly than a parkrun does. Through the second lap, discomfort in my tummy told me I was pushing myself, and I was left to consider (again) that it is this, rather than breathing or sore legs that seems to limit my pace. 

I crossed the finish line, and immediately threw up in the bushes, getting attacked by the stinging nettles in the process. This basically mirrors my experience of two years ago, so was no real surprise. I recovered just as quickly and lined up for my free burger and beer. 

When I ran this race two years ago, I knew no one in the running world, I sat in my car until the start, ate my burger quickly and headed for home. This year I chatted to work colleagues, fellow parkrunners, club mates, former club mates and my old walking club friend, Stephen who has recently joined a running club and who ran a scintiallating 39:45!! By 9:30pm the guys had finished their marshalling duties and I had been eaten alive by midges (to add to the stings from the nettles) so we headed home.

I forgot to stop my watch when I crossed the finish line (too busy with my head in the bushes) so Greg kindly retrieved my time from the Timing Man. The race is chip timed and there is a man who prints out your time on a slip of paper. My time: 57:44, exactly equal to my PB! 

This was a low key, good value, well organised race and a nice way to start the weekend!

  
*Not to be confused with the Bellahouston Road Runners and their Jimmy Irvine 10k – a confusion that I’ve only just untangled.

Juneathon Day 18 – A few more excuses

The summer is really spoiling us this year: 10.5C according to my car at 8:00 am and at 5:00pm. And there was steady drizzle all day too. 

Mid summer is 3 days away. The weather might be crap but the long days never get old. This is the view from my flat at 10pm last Sunday night. 

  
My running club organised a bleep test for this evening. I had planned to go, really, I had! But having never done one I was not sure how hard it would be so I asked my running mate who described it as ‘essentially running until you drop’.

Hmmm, sounds like fun 😒.

As I have a 10k race tomorrow evening  I decided to forgo the bleep test tonight. Instead I went for an easy 2 1/2 mile run around the block. I also did some core strengthening (leg lifts in side lying, planks with alternate leg lifts, bridges with alternate leg lowering) as well as some hopping about the living room and standing on one foot on a cushion.