Janathon Day 4 – a cool pair of gloves!

January 4, 2012 in Exercise, Janathon, Product Review, Running | 10 comments

A while ago, the lovely people at eGlove sent me a pair of gloves to try out. I said “yay, freebies” and bragged about them to some of my friends. And then I didn’t use them because I didn’t think it cold enough. And then it was cold enough and I didn’t use them because I didn’t run because my foot decided it was mangled. And how many times did I just say “and then”?

Please forgive the terrible photo of my left hand, but you get the idea.

Anyway, these gloves have cool alien sensors conductive fingertip technology on the fingertips meaning that you can use your smartphone/mp3 player whilst out running. For me, this is perfect as I use Runtastic on my HTC to time and map my runs and I don’t want to have to mess around with taking off my gloves to see my progress. Additionally, these gloves are lightweight and really comfortable, whilst keeping your hands warm. In fact, the only thing wrong with them is the fact I don’t have a pink pair, but they did a great job keeping my hands warm and allowing me to use my phone on the run.

Now for the all important Janathon Day 4 stats. My throat was pretty sore this morning and it was still chilly out. Being prone to chest/throat infections, I didn’t want to be out for too long so I just ran 2 miles in 18.45, a pace of 9.22. I feel a bit like I’m back at the start of my running days at the moment, but I’m confident that it will come back before too long.

I must go now to do some cramming for the pub quiz tonight with Jimmy.

And to finish:

On the fourth day of Janathon, my true love said to me
Cool sensor gloves
It’s windy
Lamp the old man
And run and I’ll buy you pastry!

Janathon Day 3

January 3, 2012 in Exercise, Janathon, London, Running | 6 comments

The weather is vile. I don’t mind running in the rain. I actually quite enjoy it, assuming that it doesn’t start hammering down until I’ve started my run. Actually starting a run in it is a different story.

Anyway, today I did a rather puny token mile. I had planned to jog an easy 5k round the streets, but lack of sleep last night left me feeling rather exhausted. Dreaming about your own death is not nice and makes sleeping tricky. I also have a slightly sore throat and I am blaming Jimmy for that, naturally. Needless to say, running was the last thing I felt like doing and so I just took myself off on my mile loop, running in at 8.54. This is fine as I wasn’t really trying too hard and the wind is awful!

I plan to do my gentle 5k tomorrow instead and then the plan for Thursday is to take Jimmy down to the Waterlink Way. I haven’t been down there for a while and it is a rather pleasant route. It’s only really worth doing if you do a few miles, so hopefully it will be a longer run.

This is not a particularly inspired blog post. I leave you with The 31 Days of Janathon…

On the third day of Janathon, my true love said to me
It’s windy
Lamp the old man
And run and I’ll buy you pastry!

Janathon Day 2

January 2, 2012 in Exercise, Janathon, London, Rants, Running | 9 comments

It’s still not great, but a little better than yesterday. 2 miles in 18.39, a pace of 9.19 minutes per mile. Not too bad.

I woke up to a glorious day in South East London – it’s absolutely gorgeous. Blue skies, sunshine and chilly. This is how all days in winter should be. When I rule the world, this is what I will deliver.

Anyway, I forgot to get a couple of bits in the shop yesterday so I decided to run in a 2 mile loop, finishing at the supermarket and then walk the last half mile or so home. I was feeling fairly positive as I finished as I don’t think it will take too long to get my fitness back and on a day like today, how can you not smile? However, my good mood didn’t last long. I was mooching my way along the supermarket aisles, studiously ignoring the urge to buy pastry, when an old man felt the need to pass judgement. In my lycra with rather dishevelled hair and a lack of make-up, I had quite obviously been running. He decided to comment that it was a good thing I’d been for a run as I was looking a little chubby, but being in a supermarket wasn’t running. Bloody bastard. Sadly, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened; I was spat at in the street and called a fat pig last Janathon.

Because I am a typical girl, I have a bit of a thing about my weight. I was nearly 2 stone heavier a year and a half ago and I worked hard to slim down from a 16 to a 12. I keep telling myself that he doesn’t matter, but it’s comments like that which can really get to a person. I’m fine now, but the world doesn’t need people like that. Thank you Twitter peeps for your lovely replies – I felt the need to reference one of you below!

To continue with my carol…

On the second day of Janathon, my true love Millie said to me
Lamp the old man
Run and I’ll buy you pastry!

On the first day of Janathon…

January 1, 2012 in Exercise, Janathon, Running | 6 comments

I’ve just realised that I haven’t added the Janathon badge. Oops. I will do that tomorrow as I am tired now and my FTP doesn’t want to connect to my webspace. You all know the Janathon drill by now; for the unaware, it involves exercising every day in January and then logging and blogging it. The lady we must thank for this is the wonderful Jog Blog who today wins the prize for the Garden Gallop.

I haven’t blogged for a while and I have a lot to talk about, including a wonderful trip to Denmark with Jimmy, however that can wait for another blog as I am struggling to stay awake right now. I’ll update another time with details of that and also my exciting 2012 plans. Yay.

Sooooo, Janathon Day 1. I am not running fit at all at the moment due to running the grand total of about 8 miles in December, following a busted foot in November. We were at a NYE Party in Essex last night and this afternoon after we’d got up, Jimmy and I donned our trainers and took ourselves off for a gentle jog of about 1.6 miles in 15 minutes. He could have done more and gone faster but my back was hurting and I’m out of shape. The pastry I ate afterwards probably won’t help the getting in shape cause. However, not eating cake for a month may help and no, pastry is NOT cake.

A couple of weeks of Janathon will sort me out, no doubt. I plan to go out for a gentle 2-miler tomorrow and build back up gradually again.

I must apologise for the incredibly boring blog; I am not feeling very motivated or awake right now. However, I will leave you with the first chorus of a Janathon Carol I plan to write throughout the month called “The 31 Days of Janathon”.

On the first day of Janathon, my true love said to me
Run and I’ll buy you pastry!

The Bowling Blues

December 14, 2011 in Bowling, Rants | 4 comments

I should be working. Alas, I am blogging.

I am suffering from what I call “The Bowling Blues”. Everyone who knows me well will know that I like to bowl. Actually, “liking” would be an understatement. I love bowling. I love to play and although I get frustrated watching, I do really enjoy watching quality players.

Needless to say, the past couple of months have been of utmost frustration due to a slightly funky looking knuckle on my right hand. I’ve been watching my team play and wanting to play myself. I led the qualifying rounds of back to back national ranking events before eventually retiring for the year. I finished 18th in the national rankings this year, having played fewer events than most. Had I played the last few events, I’m fairly confident that I would have nudged my way into the squad.

I hate sitting on the sidelines. I want to be the one playing and playing well. On the plus side, despite not being physically able to play, I have not felt this passionate about the sport in a really long time. 2012 will be my comeback and my return to form.

Now I need to stop looking at bowling balls…

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