Juneathon Day 30!!

It’s the last day of Juneathon and I’m struggling to keep track of the days: It definitely feels like it’s Wednesday – probably because I rarely run on Monday and always run on Tuesday, so running yesterday and not today has put me out of sync.

Anyway for my final act of Juneathon I did 4 x 30 squats, 3 x 8 single leg squats and my calf raisers on the step. And sigh, it is done.

So, in case you missed it, here is Juneathon in summary: 

• Blog posts – 30  woot!!
• Running – 100.4 miles   woot woot!!
• Spin Classes – 3
• Races: a Half Marathon, 10k, and several parkruns (only one of which I hated by the 100m mark)
• Blog post typos that make me look like a trail running legend – 1
• Core-strengthning – lost count, but not as many as I should have 
• Broken teeth – 1
• Photos of Highland Cows – 0 😔
• Maiden runs through Clyde Tunnel – 1

Thank you for the company everyone! I’ve really enjoyed Juneathon this year and to  celebrate the end of a month of exercise and excuses, I rewarded myself with this (it’s pistachio flavour, since you asked!):

  

Juneathon: The Penultimate – Inner chat

Today I wanted to run at least 5.2 miles and to incorporate an interval session of some kind. The bargaining started when I got home:

Lazy Me: Hills are too hard, let’s just run the flat route.

Energetic Me: Ok, well if we’re running the flat route, we may as well do sprint intervals.

LM: Grumble, grumble, we’re too tired

EM: *Sets intervals on watch*

LM: Eight repeats will be plenty, we’re tired, we’ve not done this in months, eight will do.

EM: *Sets 10 repeats* heads off

LM: Oh, our legs are tired, let’s not worry about doing the intervals. Five miles easy is plenty after yesterday’s long run.

EM: Ok, well maybe we could just start and do some of them, some are better than none.

LM: *begrudgingly* maybe, but just 5.

EM: *Starts interval session* see this isn’t so bad, we may as well do all of them.

So for Juneathon Day 29 I ran 5.5 miles with 10 x 1 minute hard efforts, 40 second recovery 😃. 

Juneathon Day 28 – In search of a Heilan’ Coo

My goal for this morning’s long run, was 10 miles. I headed out when the rain cleared at 9:30, starting with a 1.5 mile loop near home as this helps extend my usual routes to the desired length. Only today I decided to go off course and headed to the southside. Juneathon needs a photo of a Highland Cow, and for that I would have to go to Pollok Park.
I figured that I would run for 6ish miles and then turn around and head home the way I came and (minus the original loop) that would work out to be about 10 miles. Despite feeling completely knackered, I plodded on, managing not to get lost in the back streets of Govan.

At mile 5 I passed the entrance to Bellahouston Park. I briefly considered a photo of House for an Art Lover and a mile around Bellahouston, but no, I definitely needed a photo of a Highland Cow, and that meant another mile down the road to Pollok Park. I trudged on entering the Park at the Rugby Club, starting point of last week’s 10k race. “It was just a few hundred metres from the start line to the cow field” I thought to myself. 

Apparently not.

My Garmin ticked over to 7 miles just as I ran past Pollok House and onto the long avenue with the field that always has Highland Cows in it.

This is what the field contained today:   

A very pretty field devoid of Highland Cows. Hmmm. I could keep looking, they must surely be somewhere nearby, but with a return trip of potentially 5 miles I had had enough and was ready for home. I got my phone out and turned on the Google Maps App for the most direct route . It appeared to be a 4.5 mile direct line, starting back the way I had come. Only as I started to follow the route, it suddenly had me veering to the right and up the hill into the depths of Pollok Park. Against my better judgement I did what I was told until the blue dotted line wanted me to turn into dense woodland where there was no path in evidence. It was becoming patently obvious that Google maps really had no idea where I was nor how to get me out. 

Following my nose, and taking left turns where possible, I was eventually spat out of the park at a familiar point, about a mile further away from home than if I had just retraced my steps from the cow-free field. I re-set Google maps and continued on, wishing that I had money for a bus or the underground.

By this point, the sun was, at least, shining, my legs had perked up and it was probably the stretch of the whole run that I enjoyed the most.

It was at 9.6 miles that my Garmin ran out of battery, and also the point where I examined the Google maps route a little more closely and discovered that it involved a ferry crossing across the Clyde. A ferry crossing that I’m pretty sure does not exist, and even if it did exist I had no money for anyway.

I had two choices: 1. Continue to the nearest bridge, with an extra couple of miles onto the route or 2. Go to the much closer Clyde Tunnel and brave the scary pedestrian access tunnel. 

I opted for 2, run-walking toward what I hoped would be the pedestrian entrance. The pedestrian/cycle tunnel runs alongside the car tunnel and is accessed by pressing a buzzer which is released by the control workers. They count any pedestrians in and out again at the other end, and limit the numbers accessing the tunnel at any one time. 

The tunnel was eerie, although well lit and relatively clean. As the Clyde at this point is deep enough for large ships to navigate, it is not surprising that it is a steep hill down and then back up the other side. I ran the down section and walked the other side. 

   
   

I met only one other person coming the other way, a young woman who stood aside as I ran past. Once safely out again it was only a half mile home which I walked.

Juneathon Day 28 – 11.5 miles run

• Running – 11.5 miles
• Highland Cows – 0
• Stupid Technology Fails – several

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.