I made two decisions this morning.
From one perspective, both were wrong. From my perspective though, both were right.

I could have run Market Harborough parkrun – flat, mostly tarmac. But I chose Corby – slightly undulating and 90% mud.
I could have run in trail shoes. But I chose VFFs.

Corby is my home parkrun. I’m on first name terms with lots of the folks there. And besides, I had a feeling the weather would affect the turnout, so I thought I’d show some solidarity.

My trail shoes aren’t especially effective in really slippy-slidey mud and have a habit of collecting it and enabling me to carry it round the course in some sort of mud redistribution programme. And I find wet shoes and socks – often before I start – uncomfortable. Wet feet in VFFs are somehow more natural and acceptable (I know; it makes no sense to me either).

So. I could barely stay vertical, corners and slopes were particularly interesting. But was fun. Wet, muddy fun. And speed was irrelevant. Staying upright and having fun were the order of the day.

Happy Janathon everyone.

I’m doing things a bit differently this year. I’m not planning to run every day this Janathon. I may not blog every day either. I am planning to do some sort of exercise each day though. And I am planning to read more of other peoples’ blogs.

This afternoon’s exercise was a run round the town in the rain. It was wet and cold, but it was nice to be out there again. Time to enjoy exercise again.

Welcome back Janathon.

I may have completely failed with the blogging half of the Juneathon contract, I did succeed in the exercising half.
Today, just as many of the days this month, was a compromise. I had joked on Strava that I should go out with a something special. Maybe a MonaFartlek perhaps. A few steps out of the door told me that it was far too warm for anything like that. It was a beautiful day, so plans changed to a gentle run along the river and round the rowing lake. It was definitely a hot one, but an enjoyable one – and 10k today takes me over 200km for the month.

I hope everyone else had a great month.

Juneathon stats
Today: 6.48M (10.43km)  [ https://www.strava.com/activities/336114086 ]
Total: 130.31M (209.71km)
Average: 4.34M (6.99km)

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I had a couple of beers. That’s a literal couple (i.e. 2) not “a couple or six” in the usual beer context. Just two beers.

Well, today I remembered why I don’t bother drinking very often. My body strongly disapproves. I felt rubbish. All day.
At lunchtime I just wanted to curl up and go to sleep. I managed a short walk, but couldn’t face a run. I still felt pretty lousy in the evening, but did get out for the most token of token runs. The streak lives on.
No more beer for a while though.

Juneathon stats
Today: 2.65M (4.26km)  [ https://www.strava.com/activities/331867223 ]
Total: 99.51M (160.15km)
Average: 4.33M (6.96km)
Extrapolation: 129.80M (208.89km)

I fell off the wagon today. In more ways than one – but fortunately not in runstreak terms.

We had a rare night without children. The Daughter is in southern Spain and The Son is sleeping out in the open on a cardboard bed to get an idea of what sleeping rough might be like and to raise money for local charity, The Bridge. Given the weather here today, I know which child I’d rather be!

The Wife and I went out for a lovely meal in town (at the fabulous Thai Garden) and spent some rare quality time together. I had my first beer for almost 6 months. And it was so good, I had a second.

So I confess, spending time with my wife and without my PC or phone means I failed to blog in a timely fashion (I’m a couple of days behind). But at least I got my run in at lunchtime, so I didn’t fail completely.

Juneathon stats
Today: 3.75M (6.04km)  [ https://www.strava.com/activities/330618053 ]
Total: 96.86M (155.88km)
Average: 4.40M (7.09km)
Extrapolation: 132.08M (212.57km)

I had planned to do a nice late afternoon/early evening 8 or 9 miles. And it was a really nice afternoon too. However, the day ran away from me again, so I didn’t get out until past 9pm

So. I went for a less enjoyable 4-and-a-bit mile plod.
Still, that’s three weeks now. 70% complete.
We’re nearly into the home straight… Stick at it everyone, we can do this.

I didn’t get to parkrun this morning and didn’t find much time during the day.
So it ended up being another late one, but it was a decent run.

Juneathon stats
Today: 5.16M (8.30km)  [ https://www.strava.com/activities/329584210 ]
Total: 88.48M (142.39km)
Average: 4.42M (7.12km)
Extrapolation: 132.72M (213.59km)

I didn’t run a long way today – about 6km – but I ran pain-free for the first time I can remember for a long time. This maybe because my memory is rubbish (perhaps I ought to write about the boring minutiae of my daily run in some sort of blog). Or it maybe because I’ve had niggling little pains since the turn of the year.

Today though was different. No hip flexor pain. No glute pain. No calf pain. No pain at the back of the knee. No pain, full stop.
That’s a good place to be. If I can trust my legs to take the strain, I can start to load up the cardiovascular system a bit more. I’ll take it a bit easy for the next week or so and then, who knows, I may be ready for an eyes-bulging, lung-busting assault on 21 minutes at parkrun next Saturday.

Juneathon stats
Today: 3.85M (6.20km)  [ https://www.strava.com/activities/328597899 ]
Total: 83.32M (134.09km)
Average: 4.39M (7.06km)
Extrapolation: 131.56M (211.72km)

I decided I needed a bit of RnR today to give my legs a bit of a break.

Part one took the form of a gentle 3M jog along the river.

Part two was Supple Strength, a sort of stretching, yoga thing that I go to in the vain hope I can unlock my tight hips. I’m often the only bloke and always the least flexible there, but it feels like it’s working – and I can really feel the hip and glute stretches…

Juneathon stats
Today: 3.47M (5.58km)  [ https://www.strava.com/activities/327955352 ]
Total: 79.47M (127.89km)
Average: 4.42M (7.11km)
Extrapolation: 132.45M (213.16km)

I’m tired. I need to find a second wind.

My legs are complaining a bit. They were a bit on the heavy side on my run today. They were positively mutinous during Insanity – the jumpy jumpy stuff was not popular.

The blog posts, which started in an average way are suffering from fatigue too – late night blogging in bed on a phone is not conducive to interesting prose.

And even the blog reading is suffering due to lack of time set aside for it.

Soon. The second wind will come soon. And I’ll be doing the 3Rs again (running, reading and writing).

Juneathon stats
Today: 5.36M (8.63km)  [ https://www.strava.com/activities/327246849 ]
Total: 76M (122.31km)
Average: 4.47M (7.19km)
Extrapolation: 134.12M (215.84km)