21st day of Janathon - The Bodysnatchers Have Landed!

Shaun started work at 5am this morning (or as we like to call it "stoopidoclock").  This meant double dog walk for me as well as the Sainsbury-Lidl dash for fruit, veg and bread.  Consequently no run for me which is fine because I think I should save myself for a long run tomorrow.   I'm now beginning to feel like a bodysnatchers victim - my lower half does not belong to me it must belong to some 90 year old who forgot to take their cod liver oil!

So lovely 10k walk in 2 hours over the Downs this morning - windy and cloudy, a few spots of rain and a little bit of sunshine.  We did a bit of the path we haven't done since the summer because it's a 2 hour walk which means either doing it in the morning or going out soon after lunch to complete before it gets dark.

A quick dash to the supermarkets for fruit, veg and bread and back for lunch.   The afternoon walk was a more sedate affair - a quick 3.7k in an hour along the riverbank to the boating/fishing lake which is our regular quick walk.

Hopefully my body parts will be returned to me by tomorrow morning as Sue and I are going for our long run.

Janathon day 21 totals

2 x dog walks 13.7 km in 3 hours

Day 20 of Janathon - Archie Doesn't Like my Wii Avatar

Writing yesterday's blog was hard enough but I'm running out of time and again I'm on my daughter's netbook whilst Shaun is trolling the net for a holiday on my laptop - so no photos.   I will make up for it tomorrow.

So today's Janathon effort is a dog walk down to Tide Mills, 6.24 km in 1 hour 37 mins.   I must remember not to run in my walking boots - my ankles are now killing me!

When we got home there was nobody in - Dani is staying in Lewes for the evening with mates, and Shaun was late home from work!   The ideal opportunity to fire up the Wii and do some cross training - so 20 mins Zumba  & 30 mins on Wii Active and my legs feel completely done in.  Today Archie decided he didn't like my Wii Avatar on the telly - he spent 30 minutes barking and growling at it which was most offputting!

So today's totals are :

Walk (including running after dog & ball in walking boots) 6.24 km 1hr 37 mins
50 minutes of cross training (including squats, lunges and running on the spot for 5 minutes)

Time to get on with reading some blogs!

Janathon the 19th - Some Improvement & Race Booking

So day 19 - the local football team, the Seagulls, played against some unknown Welsh team last night!  I don't mind people talking about their hobbies etc but my god - my colleagues gave up work this morning  and spent it doing a match analysis.  So I sat and started to write my blog in readiness for adding my Janathon efforts.  Luckily the main culprit moved to the basement just after 9.30 so that helped a little!

I had a lovely walk with Archie today - we went down on to the riverbank which is a regular dog walk and means that he gets a good off lead walk for an hour or so.  He wasn't really interested in ball games today so we just walked and he sniffed and got left behind lots.  The river walk is also a busy thoroughfare for people living in the lovely village of Piddinghoe where some friends live.   Today was no exception and we met up with them.   Unfortunately this then meant not much walking as the afternoon descended into girly catch up chatter.   It was good to have a laugh with them as we haven't seen each other since the New Year.   It gets quite muddy and Shaun and I haven't bothered going that way.    All in all a nice 4.2k walk which took us 1 hr 30 mins (don't think it normally takes that long!)  I was going to put some photos of the river and boating/fishing lake but I'm doing this bit on my daughters notebook - therefore no photos!

My run tonight was a repeat of Tuesday (17th) up through the industrial estate and then down on to the river wall and back home, except that Sue came with me tonight.   She did make the comment that she thought I was speedy so I think Janathon is making my running better after all.   I even managed to get up the hill that I never do when we run together - another achievement !   A nice run (with not much talking but lots of puffing) 5.6k in 41 minutes.

We're going out again on Sunday and are going to try a new route so that will be interesting, we have no idea what the distance will be but I think we'll just keep going until we get to the end of the lane - update to come!

In other news, we have entered the South Coast Run 10k in August, which is on the same weekend as the South Coast Triathlon.   It'll be Sue's first event - only my third 10k event.   It was way to easy to sign up, didn't even have to get my credit card out of my purse - you've got to love PayPal!

Janathon 19th details

Walk & girly chatter 4.2k  1hr 30mins
Run & puff   5.6k  41 mins
Dog mess run through : none (yippee)

Janathon Day 18 - The Rebel Yelled - You Can't Touch This

Not really sure what to write today apart from the weather being rubbish.  Didn't see the sun today as it was just foggy, foggy, foggy.   I have decided that I prefer it clear, cold and icy (but that's only in January & February!)   I wasn't really sure if I was going to be able to do anything but walk the dog today and maybe use the Airwalker.   Shaun came in at 5 and asked what my plans were.  As soon as I uttered the words "well I ought to go for a run" he was handing me my running kit.   I'd planned at some point to repeat the hilly circuit I did the other week in the rain and wind.   Not a particularly awe inspiring route but not many roads to cross - and this time no letchy men smoking on their doorstep!  So off I went, someone had tweeted me earlier in the day saying "slow & steady" so that was my mantra, unfortunately my Ipod had other ideas.  A replay of Rebel Yell followed by MC Hammers You Can't Touch this - one way of powering yourself up a hill!


Last time I'd only managed to run up the hill 1.5 times (mainly because of letchy smoking man) - today I really pushed myself and managed to do a second bottom to top without stopping.   The only problem with running these roads is the amount of dog poo one has to avoid - which I didn't manage!   Not a great distance covered but I was chuffed to get up the hills easier.


18th day of Janathon totals


5.66 k walk in 1 hour 34 minutes
2.08 k hilly run in 16 minutes
Dog poo avoided - lost count
Dog poo run through - at least 1 pile
Pairs of shoes washed & disinfected - 1


Carrying on from yesterday's favourite photo theme, whilst out with the dog this afternoon I spotted the Cormorants sitting on the Cormorant Statue in the middle of the river.   I took this photo in 2010 during the snow.   They're great little birds to watch as they dive in and out of the water looking for food.  

Janathon day 17 - Rebel Yell in a Town Called (Newhaven) Malice!

This morning Mark suggested we put our favourite photos on our blog so I thought I would share some of my favourites from my holiday to Egypt in 2009 when we had the opportunity to go to Luxor

Me and daughter Danni crossing the concourse to the Temples at Karnak (something very strange happened here - I was blubbing like a whale - some people have told me that I'd found my place!)

Another blubbing moment - hot air balloon across the Valley of the Kings & the Nile Delta - awesome

Red Granite Cleopatra's Needle (a real one). Conspiracy theory that the heiroglyphs were carved by aliens!

This was on the day of my birthday - Shaun had to ride the camel (no lead) all the way along the beach while I rode in style in a clapped out old carriage.   The best bit was riding back to the Hotel beach with him - very romantic!

Danni and I on the banks of the River Nile (yes lots of Madness singing & silly walks that day)

A sunrise over the sea - Shaun has a thing about taking photos of sunrises and sunsets!

The Tomb of Hatchepsut - it was so hot there!

Such a brilliant holiday!


Back to Janathon 2012 and day 17 I was supposed to be going out with Sue this afternoon but she cancelled.  Fortunately I'd already got changed so there was no getting out of going for a run.   I felt quite good when I got out until I got to the level crossing which was down waiting for a train to leave the station.  Train gone, barriers up and I headed off into the industrial estate that we'd done the circuit of the other day.  I was only going to do one circuit of the industrial estate but felt ok so carried on and linked in another short run we regularly do.  All in all I managed just under 6k in 41 minutes which is brilliant considering over the last few weeks running with Sue I've been struggling to run 5k without stopping.  I've come to the conclusion that we talk too much - she always seems to ask a question when we're going uphill!   Sabotage I think!  


Two more great tunes played on my Ipod which always up the stride & speed - Billy Idol's Rebel Yell and the Jam's A Town Called Malice.

Janathon Day 16 - Just Another Manic Monday!

So here we go again apparently it's Blue Monday - for all I care it could be Red Monday - get over it, it's just another bloody Monday!  Shaun did tell me some good news - dawn is breaking earlier and today broke before 8am, sunrise was at 4.30pm - yeeha the days are getting longer - summer is on its way!  In the meantime getting up is still a struggle when it's dark and 3 alarms still didn't help the situation - not to mention that some plum had left the bedroom window open all night - brass monkeys was an understatement!

I did manage the "uphill bus dash" again this morning!  I've also walked 5 flights of stairs 3 times today.   I was hoping to get out for a short run but I'd arranged the online shopping delivery for between 4 & 6, so it was a dog walk and Airwalker day.   The dog walk was hard enough and the cold really got down in the lungs, and hubby decided for me that I wasn't running!    I'd forgotten what a great workout the Airwalker is - I found some muscles in my back and shoulders that had been lost!  One really good track I've got on my Ipod is Rock this Party by Bob Sinclair - I stayed on the Airwalker for an extra 3 minutes because it came on!

Hoping to get to a Zumba class soon, Dani wants to go as she's been doing it in PE at school and loves it.   I want to give it a go but don't know if a middle aged, unco-ordinated mother escorting her teenage daughter is quite right.   Apparently I will be standing nowhere near her!  Nice to know she has confidence in my dancing abilities!

So, Day 16 totals :

Dog walk 5.5k in 1hr 30 mins
Airwalker  33 minutes

Janathon Day 15 - How Cold?

I'd arranged with Sue to run at 10am today, so up at 8.30 for some porridge and then got ready to go.  Whilst waiting I decided to hang some washing on the line - blimey how cold was that?  When I got back inside I looked at the weather station we have indoors, 5C!   So, out came the gloves, scarf and headband to protect the ears!  I prefer the headband to a beanie - the head doesn't get so hot!

Sue couldn't stop laughing at me when she called for me - she was running in 3/4 length capris (nutter)!


Not a brilliant run, we decided to do the route with the long slow hill out of town to the next and run as far as we could.   The hill was pretty hard going and we did have to slow to a walk, mainly because the cold was getting to my lungs and my legs were a bit sore.   We got to the top of the hill and it's a gentle downhill into the next town.  We had to walk some of it because it was quite windy too.   All in all not too bad but we could have done better - 8k in 1 hour 4 minutes.  My fastest for 8k is well below this so it must be down to the walking & talking - must do better.   Variety of people met on our run, including a woman who obviously wasn't wearing a sports bra, a couple who look like professional athletes, a man who'd only just taken up running who applauded us coming back down the hill and two cyclists who were on the path - luckily it was daylight!


We've decided to enter the 10k in Seaford in August - hopefully there will be other races before this.  I've decided not to do the Tempest 10 miles this year as I really don't think I'll be ready so a few 10 and 5ks during this year and then up the mileage for next year.   That's the plan!


Lovely dog walk to the beach and back, lots of families out walking and cycling, lots of dog walkers. 




Day 15 Totals : Run - 8k 1 hr 4 mins
Dog walk - 6.4 k 1 hr 43 mins


Time for some ironing! zzzzzzzzzzzz