Janathon Day 13: Bowling and a short run

January 14, 2012 in Bowling, Janathon, Running | 2 comments

I only went for a short run yesterday. I had a little touch of shin splints and bailed out at 1.3 miles. I went out for a mile or so earlier today though (day 14, blog coming later) and felt ok, so hopefully it was just a one off.

My mind is more on bowling at the moment. I’ve been out of action for a couple of months thanks to a rather nasty injury on the middle finger of my right hand. Following the initial and incorrect diagnosis of arthritis, I took myself off to see a specialist who diagnosed it as a tendon issue. It was fairly severe; the tendon almost felt like bone and the lump on the side of the knuckle was very visible. It was also causing my finger to twist to the right and following a brief moment of hope (a 275 game, two days after the arthritis diagnosis), it sent my bowling down the pan as I was unable to put any rotation on the ball without being in agony. Eventually, Jimmy and the rest of the team made me see that I was damaging myself more in the long term and so began two months without playing and some painful treatment.

Now I am back and yesterday was my return to the Friday night league. Jimmy stepped in as a regular sub and has played brilliantly, but last night he came along to carry my bowling balls and offer some support. How did it go? I was initially disappointed, shooting only a total of 566 for my 3 games, a set that I would generally consider below par. However, in this set, I only missed 4 spares – one of these being a single pin and the other three being splits, two of which were fairly harsh leaves. I left an awful lot of 9 counts throughout the night which on another night may well have gone over. With this in mind and considering the lack of play and the fact that I now need to get used to throwing a bowling ball properly again, I suppose it wasn’t so bad. Luckily for us, we got the win and a good thing too as our team captain has an irrational hatred of the bowler I went head to head against – lucky for me that I took 2 out of the 3 personal points!

I desperately want to be shooting the big scores again though! It will come…

On the thirteenth day of Janathon, my true love said to me
Run and then go bowling
Sleep! You are rambling
Look, a scary looking dog
Runner, blow your nose
Crazy running peep
Run off your roast spuds
Eat some roast potatoes
6 balls a-striking
Wrap up warm
Cool sensor gloves
It’s windy
Lamp the old man
And run and I’ll buy you pastry!

Janathon 12: Plankaday and ramble

January 12, 2012 in Exercise, Janathon | 3 comments

I really did intend to run every day. Really. But then, last Saturday, I walked. Today I meant to run, but I ran out of time. So I did a single plank because I am hardcore. And I did a hardcore 1:37. Minutes, not hours. For more plankathon fun, I recommend you read this rant by Shaun.

So then I started thinking about my Janathon carol and today takes it up to 12 days, but I’m going to take it to 31 because Janathon is 31 days and not 12 and if it was 12, then it wouldn’t be Janathon, it would be a third-of-a-janathon. I’m rambling. Anyway, then while I was thinking about my carol and I started wondering what do I do on the 37th day of Janathon when there are too many syllables and then I remembered that January doesn’t have 37 days and so I was worrying about nothing.

On the twelth day of Janathon, my true love said to me
Sleep! You are rambling
Look, a scary looking dog
Runner, blow your nose
Crazy running peep
Run off your roast spuds
Eat some roast potatoes
6 balls a-striking
Wrap up warm
Cool sensor gloves
It’s windy
Lamp the old man
And run and I’ll buy you pastry!

Janathon Day 11 – dog mess

January 11, 2012 in Janathon, Running | 2 comments

Hooray, just twenty days to go.

Back to work today and my first full day in the office in almost a month. I’m off to Ireland next week and I realised that I only have five and a half working days left where I am. Then it’s time to try surviving as a full time educational consultant. Exciting, but scary!

I took myself off for a run when I arrived home from work. It was a lovely evening for it and I spotted three other runners as I ran along the streets of Hither Green (not Lewisham). The only unpleasant experience was an owner letting a dog making a mess on the pavement. We have a bit of a problem with that here at the moment and it’s disgusting. I did think about saying something but the dog was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Now, I have a rather soft spot for the Staffordshire Bull and it does not deserve the reputation it has; they are lovely, friendly dogs and I quite happily would have stolen the one in the pub last week if Jimmy had let me. However, this one was on a chain and the owner was wearing a hoodie, so I decided better of it. I know it’s wrong to judge a book by it’s cover and all that, but having had a nasty experience with an assault last year, I decided to leave it.

Anyway, another 2 miles in the Janathon bank today. It wasn’t particularly fast, but it was comfortable and I wish I’d carried on for another mile now. Never mind. 2 miles, 18.19.

On the eleventh day of Janathon, my true love said to me
Look, a scary looking dog
Runner, blow your nose
Crazy running peep
Run off your roast spuds
Eat some roast potatoes
6 balls a-striking
Wrap up warm
Cool sensor gloves
It’s windy
Lamp the old man
And run and I’ll buy you pastry!

Janathon 10 – a speedy, single mile.

January 10, 2012 in Exercise, Janathon, Running | 10 comments

My effort today was once again a single mile, but this was a serious effort. I’m not sure if it was my fastest ever mile or not. In November I received the incorrect diagnosis of arthritis in my middle finger on my right hand. This is the most important finger for a bowler and I honestly felt like my bowling career was over when I left the surgery and sat outside and cried. When I got home, I decided the best way to work out the anger was to go for a run and I blitzed 2 miles in 15 minutes and 56 seconds. I don’t have the individual splits.

Today was my first day back in the office and come lunchtime I was feeling pretty morose and stressed out about various things in my life and decided to run until I hurt when I got home. And I did indeed run until I hurt, clocking a 1.05 miles in 8.06, a pace of 7.42. I think this was helped somewhat by this runner on the other side of the road doing that disgusting grunty type of sniff that I really can’t abide and because he was also pretty quick, I had to seriously pump my legs to get away from him! I’m really unfit at the moment and this really hurt, but there was also a certain satisfaction to be had from it and some of the cobwebs from my head cleared.

I’m going to nail a sub-25 5k at some point.

Oh, I also spent much of my day lugging boxes of school uniform about. I broke a sweat. That counts, right?

On the tenth day of Janathon, my true love said to me
Runner, blow your nose
Crazy running peep
Run off your roast spuds
Eat some roast potatoes
6 balls a-striking
Wrap up warm
Cool sensor gloves
It’s windy
Lamp the old man
And run and I’ll buy you pastry!

Janathon Day 9: A single mile

January 9, 2012 in Janathon, Running | No comments

Jimmy has just tweeted me to ask if I’ve blogged yet. I responded that I only went for a run three hours ago, but I think this is a revenge-nag after me nagging at him to blog. Or something.

I didn’t put in a whole lot of effort today as I thought I would take advantage of the empty flat this afternoon to actually get some work done. I was fairly productive in that I made a list of what I needed to do, ignored an email and had a really good telephone conversation with a potential new customer. However, 5.00pm rolled around and I decided it was probably time to go out and get the run out of the way before the housemate returned and the “crazy running person” comments resumed.

I only did a mile, but it was a slightly more nippy mile run in 8.27. I can go faster, but I am currently unfit so I will happily take that. I also managed a plank for 1.26, but that hurt my back. Ouch.

Back in the office tomorrow, so I plan to join the 6.00am club. Of course, whether this actually happens is another matter  – place your bets!

On the ninth day of Janathon, my true love housemate said to me
Crazy running peep
Run off your roast spuds
Eat some roast potatoes
6 balls a-striking
Wrap up warm
Cool sensor gloves
It’s windy
Lamp the old man
And run and I’ll buy you pastry!

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