Who needs fartlek with Russ Abbott CU Jimmy lookalikes about?

My own personal version of fartlek today was to try and reach a certain pre-defined distance before each track in my playlist finished, based loosely on length of aforementioned track. Maybe I was already a bit on my guard, having read this story about five men threatening someone walking along the towpath (where I used to live and run before I moved last year) with a Stanley knife, but rounding a corner and being presented with the sudden sight of a guy sitting on a bench in a field staring at me with hair deliberately dyed like this (I mean, why?)




scared the living whatnot out of me and never have I run so fast up a hill.

Perhaps it really was him, which is even more scary.

Distance: 4.21mi
Time: 41:20
Pace: About 11 minute miles until I saw dodgy ginger peroxide bloke and put a bit of a spurt on.

Music:
Agnetha Faltskog
Buddy Rich
Carly Simon
Linda Lewis
Anita Baker

Smoke-free Zone

Two days ago marked the end of my first Juneathon, but being a very busy bee (even though I work from home), I just have not had the time to blog my results, what with all the sunbathing work I've been doing.

But as Cathy is apparently bored, I have been instructed to blog. How reading about my dull, eventless life is going to ease someone's boredom is anyone's guess, but as hardly anyone will ever read this, I might as well ramble on a bit before I get round to plugging my Garmin in.

Earlier this month I took delivery of some nice new glass coffee tables, and here they are (the empty wineglass is from last night, by the way, not breakfast time. I had beer this morning for a change):


Other exciting news this month is that I gave up smoking. I smoked my last cigarette on my birthday on 2nd June - no thanks to a certain seller on Amazon Marketplace who shall remain nameless until I get VERY angry, as I ordered Allen Carr's book 12 days ago and it still hasn't arrived and nor have they replied to my email. Just because this seller donates some of their profits to charity does not mean they can provide rubbish service. And you'd think with said charity being the British Heart Foundation they'd pull their bloody finger out before I start smoking again and increase my chance of heart disease and therefore increase the amount of money they need to raise.

Well, rant over.

Well done all Juneathoners. Here are my Juneathon results:

I ran 17 days out of 30.
I walked at least a mile (normally 4 miles) every day, whether I ran or not (I have a dog)
Total miles run: 45.42
Total miles walked: Quite a lot, actually
Cigarettes smoked: None after 2nd June
Books received from Amazon Marketplace seller: None
Books received from kind ex-smoker and Juneathoner (Cathy): 1

Juneathon 24

Not a very exciting post title, because not much exciting happened. A delivery I had to wait in for arrived by lunchtime (minimalist coffee tables that I thought were perspex when I ordered them but are actually glass which is nicer but a bit worrying as I'm like a bull in a china shop* when it comes to hoovering round things), so I was able to go out in the midday sun, this time without yesterday's Houdini suit, aka a sports bra top thingy.

The Garmin took hours to get a signal even though there wasn't a single little cloud in the sky, and I can't be arsed to walk all the way to the other side of the room to read the numbers off it, but it was about 2.6 miles and took about 25 minutes.

*One of my mother's peculiar phrases

Bad News and Good News

Bad news - according to the scales I have gained yet another pound, which I am not very happy about. But the good news is that, despite ridiculing the idea previously, it might actually be muscle tone. I say this because when I decided it would be a good idea to go for a run in the midday sun today, I decided to wear a vest top that a few weeks ago was too tight and accentuated disgusting rolls of fat round the beer belly area. But today it looked OK, so I must have lost some fat. Bra straps however did not look OK, so I dug out an old sports top bra thingy (or whatever the technical name is). It was a bit tight but did the job. Until I got home from running in aforementioned midday sun, rather hot and sweaty, when it took ten minutes to get it off, and for a while I thought I was going to have to resort to cutting it off with scissors. So I won't be wearing that again.

Today:
Distance: 3.49mi
Time: 34.33
Pace: 9:53
Fastest Pace: 6:30

Total miles this month (not including all of the walks): 43.28
Juneathons: 23/30

Skipathon

No, I didn't do any skipping for Junathon, but I skipped running yesterday due to lack of time, with it being my other half's birthday (I know... excuses, excuses...). But I walked about 4 miles with the dog, so that will have to do.

I've been wondering for the past few days what these little insects are that are everywhere in the fields where I run:

They are shiny and black with bright red spots, and according to my friend google, they are six spot burnet moths, and the reason the have really bright red spots on them is to warn predators not to eat them as they contain cyanide. So today I have learnt something new.

Today's stats:
Distance: 2.8mi
Time: 28:34
Juneathons: 18/30
Educational content of run: 10/10
Smokeathon: 15 days (that's days I haven't smoked, obviously)
Music: Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances of WSS

Happy or Hazy

The reason I haven't blogged about my Juneathon efforts in the last few days is mainly because some friends and I (and our five dogs) went for a spontaneous weekend away in Norfolk, renting a little cottage in Happisburgh, which, according to the queer folk of Norfolk (apologies to any queer folk of Norfolk reading this), is pronounced Haze-borough. Which they happily point out while taking it upon themselves to point and laugh at the non-locals' pronunciation of Happies-burgh, even though that is how any reasonably educated human being would think it was said.

Anyway, we were happy as we had a lovely time in Happisburgh, however you like to pronounce it, with lovely hot weather and sandy beaches, staying in a quaint flintstone cottage:

I didn't manage to fit in any running unfortunately, but we did do lots of walking on the beach with the dogs. I forgot to switch the Garmin on until we were nearly back at the car, so I can't give exact distances, but this shows whereabouts in the world we were:

So to update my stats from last week:

Weds 10th June: Achey legs, so gave them a rest and just dog walked about 3 miles.

Thurs 11th June (running):

Distance: 1.85mi

Time: 19:33

Pace: 10:34

Fri 12th June (running):

Distance: 4.35mi

Time: 43mins

Pace: 9:52 (NEW RUNNING SHOES!!!)

Sat 13th & Sun 14th June: Beach walking in Norfolk

Mon 15th June: Dog walking c.3 miles (massive thunder storm prevented running this evening)

Tue 16th June (running):

Distance: 2.73mi

Time: 27:28

Pace: 10:03

I'll add up my totals next week, but here's a total for you:

Days without smoking: 13 and a bit

Weight: 9 stone - is this due to giving up smoking? Or a weekend away eating takeway and drinking alcohol?

Update

I am still here, and am still Juneathoning every day, but just haven't had the time to blog properly. I'm off now but will update in the next 24 hours!!