Janathon - day 5

Today, me and Becca decided to tackle some of the Roach Valley Way.  It's a route we have been looking at for a while as a good "long trail run" option but we have never been quite sure how to choose a section or known how well it would be signposted.

We needed to do this long run today as we have entered the Benfleet 15 in a few week's time which, according to pretty much every review we have ever heard or read is "horribly hilly and muddy". Entering this was one of the more stupid of our many stupid plans. Becca has never run further than a very flat half, we have both never run further than today off road and we haven't run more than 10 miles even on roads since ... I don't even want to work out how long actually, probably about 9 months.

When talking to about the 15, we heard some of the Flyers (our local running group) talk about the Roach Valley Relay as a similar type run.  We were helpfully signposted to the website of Benfleet Running Club where Mike had provided maps and written brilliant directions. 

I drove my car to the finish point, Becca gave me a lift to the start and then we got going. It had rained all night and until about 8:30am but by the time we started around 10:30am it had stopped and brightened up quite considerably. 

Up to Canewdon Church (home of Essex witches) - wish this photo did this hill justice. It was so long and steep.  And muddy. My poor lovely, new shoes!

From this point, it got a bit easier for a while. Some lovely downhill sections until we got to another field full of mud, rabbit holes and maybe a bull!

Luckily we didn't see the bull but the sea wall at the end was a very welcome sight as it was, for a few miles at least, flat and fairly easy to run on.

A few miles along here were a very welcome rest but after a while, when we got even more tired it did become a little repetitive. There was nothing to see other than river/marshes/fields in any direction and we had to run much further than we could even see which made it mentally difficult.  

We pretty much gave up running at 9.5 miles as we had expected to be back by then and were exhausted but eventually we made it back.  A very emotional moment when Becca spotted my car and said how she had never been so happy to see it. Followed by an equally emotional moment when I realised that my car keys were still in Becca's car! After a few moments of persuading her that no, I wasn't joking, Becca remembered exactly what I had done with my keys and kindly admitted joint responsibility for my stupidness for not thinking that I should bring them with me!  In defence of my (our!) stupidity, we usually run circular routes and leave one set of keys behind so we don't have to both carry them. Despite the whole purpose of today being a point to point run, and the fact we left my car at the end hours ago, neither of us had realised!

Luckily we ended at a lovely pub so we had a drink while waiting for a taxi (no public transport in the middle of nowhere! ) to take us back to Becca's car - so we could get again make our way back to my car!

An eventful run, both brilliant and terrible in places but always, full of lots of chats and laughs as well as bit of swearing! Not sure if it has made me more or less optimistic about our chances at the 15 but we'll give it a go.

Day 5 - 10.42 miles 

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1004331141

Janathon - day 4

No running today ... No excuses either, Monday night is RPM night.

I've never had a job and an "athon" at the same time before. I love my job but it's very inconvenient sometimes, I can only usually manage 2 classes a week but this is one that I will always get to when I can.

It took me quite a while to get into RPM but now I've found a fab instructor and got the hang of things, I love it. 

(I love it so much that I drove half an hour on Christmas Eve to be at the 8am class at a different gym to go to the launch of the new release! - and then do the BodyPump new release after!)

I think the new release is a harder workout than previous ones I have done ... But I enjoy it a lot more. I may feel like I'm about to pass out sometimes and my legs may feel like they're going to give way when I walk down the stairs out of the gym ... Yet I always end up feeling amazing!

Janathon day 3 = RPM

Janathon - day 3

The weather has been awful today. Strong wind and torrential rain and I just didn't have the motivation to go out in it.

Instead, I decided I would do a couple of miles on the dreadmill. After not quite 4 minutes, I realised I couldn't take it any more! I knew I didn't like running inside but I forgot just got hot and boring it is. 

I messaged my friend Kelly who lives round the corner and started running a few months ago and persuaded her to come out. 

Luckily, the rain slowed to a drizzle and we had a really nice plod/catch up :-)

Janathon - day 2

I'd love to pretend the photo is blurred as we were just too fast but it would be a total lie.  Managed to get out of bed and pick Becca up to get to parkrun, an achievement in itself! The run, however, didn't go so well.

For around the last 6 months we have changed our "home" parkrun. Many reasons that I don't really want to go into, but a major part in the decision was that our new run, Hockley Woods, is impossible to have a lazy run at.  Where we went before, was very flat and boring and apart from the occasional bad weather along the sea wall, was easy enough to just chat/plod around. 

Today was our slowest ever on this course, nearly 36 minutes!   A good judge of our runs is how much we get to chat ... Nowhere near as much gossip as usual today! 

But still ... About 3 miles (it always measures short on Garmin) of mud and woods and hills and a bit less chat than usual ...  Better than it would've been if I'd stayed in bed!

And then we have a crazy off road run in a few weeks so I had to buy new shoes ...

Janathon - attempt 4 - day 1!

Yet again, I'm attempting Janathon.

I completed it in 2013, and gave up a few days in with good reason in 2014 and with no reason last year!

This year - I'm feeling better about sticking to it.  I'm not going to force myself to run every day like I did the first time - that will only lead to injury and I have too many plans for that to happen.  Some days I will run, some days I'll do a class, others .... I haven't really decided but it will definitely involve me not being as lazy as I have been the last 6 months or so.

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Day 1 - 2 miles run