Ah yes – the famous Leonard Cohen song. ‘Like a Bird on the Wire.’ Famous throughout the world, like many such classics this song has many people trying to record their own, unique version; to stamp their own personality onto it. (Yes, I am thinking of Jennifer Saunders as Edina Monsoon in ‘Ab Fab’ at this point).
However I think the lovely village where I live might have out done itself, and Edina Monsoon, this time. Forget “Like a Bird on the Wire”, I give you “Like a Duck on the Hedge”.
Like a Duck on the Hedge. Leonard Cohen eat your heart out
So we all know that Hill training is excellent for running, but what about for running mojo?
After the muddy goodness of my last race I finally succumbed to a cold and spent most of the week sniffling and feeling sorry for myself. A few slow plods to get my Jantastic runs done and that was it. Down in the valley of my hill training wondering where my mojo had gone.
The following week, giving myself a swift kick up the backside I went out running. 3 miles one day, then 4 miles on another, and then 10 miles on Friday. Wonderful. The sun was shining, I ran the 10 miles 5 minutes faster than last time but best of all it felt great. I wasn’t sore or stiff afterwards and I really enjoyed it. I even then popped out for a 5K sprint on Sunday which, if my Garmin hadn’t messed up the start, might have been a new (unofficial) 5K PB. I’d reached the peak, I’d scaled my Everest. Hooray for hill training.
Then came this week. Four enthusiastic miles on Monday. A day painting doors on Tuesday (I lead a very exciting life). Then the plumber turning up early on Wednesday to help the builder rip out one shower room and plumb in a new one, with the water switched off all day. I wasn’t going to hang around being sweaty all day, so that put paid to a mid week run. Today, Thursday, I’m spending the whole day killing time in Swindon waiting for a car to be serviced. No running today either (see earlier comment about hanging around being sweaty all day). However I’m spending much time in coffee shops today so maybe I could fit in a caffeine-fuelled dash later. Is that a good idea? I don’t know, but I do now know one thing about this mojo hill training thing. Unlike running where the uphills are hard and the downhills are easy, with running enthusiasm it feels easy on the way up and miserable on the way down. I never thought I’d say it, but “Bring on the uphills” in that case, say I!
The fourth in this series, the third I’ve run, and the second on the new course from Bath Racecourse. Also the first time I’ve run in shorts*, in February. Most of this race was the same as the January running, so just read my report of it so I don’t have to write it again.
Differences this time? I really wasn’t feeling it before the race. I even Tweeted about it, but moaning didn’t help (it never does). The waves seemed much smaller today – maybe only 50 people lined up with me for the start of wave 4 – so there was never any waiting or queuing at stiles or puddles. Once we set off, I cheered up somewhere between being told I was wearing the best socks, and getting said socks covered in mud.
Rockin’ the shorts and long socks look – the ‘Before’ picture
The puddles were just as deep as last month, but the overall slippiness was less which made it more enjoyable -it was possible to stagger up the hills rather than crawl up. Chatting to a man in the car park afterwards, he said in the section that climbs back up through the trees it looked just like groups of zombies staggering along. I reached the top of this section, came back out onto the footpath and told the marshall “I’m a broken woman!” so I know how they were feeling.
Also on this hill, a very practical Northern lady passed me saying “I hope them socks’ll come up alright!”**
I hope they’ll come up alright as well. Also my shorts seem to have disappeared
So another muddy hilly race done, and the final part of the interlocking medals collected.
I wasn’t sure if I’d run a series of races like this again, they have messed up my longer runs. Then I saw Relish Running have another series that goes through old railway tunnels in (under?) Bath that has a train on the interlocking medals …. I like trains!
* Showed my son the “shorts and long socks” look, and he sighed and said “at least you’re not wearing sandals as well”
** Translation for Southerners “I hope all of that mud will wash off those socks”
As I posted yesterday, I suddenly realised on Saturday morning that I still needed to fit two runs in this week in order to complete my 3 runs a week for jantastic. Truth be told I was still in a post-Janathon, post-lurgy slump and have been enjoying not running much this week, so this was an unpleasant realisation.
My 3 mile plod on Saturday was fine for one of those runs, but I’d also said I’d complete a long run of 6 miles this week, so that was what I needed to do yeaterday. Unfortunately I also needed to get the paint brush and huge pot of emulsion out and do a bit more painting upstairs and on our newly replastered dining room ceiling. 4 hours of painting and I was shattered. And I still had to do this 6 mile run.
If this was Janathon, I could quite happily have recorded painting as my day’s exercise. (In fact I did, on several days this year). But Jantastic? Oh no – painting’s not good enough for them. It has to be running. Sigh. Oh – and it’s February now – what’s with the Jantastic thing? Eh? Mm?! You see – Janathon is better than Jantastic – I rest my case.
So at 4 o’clock I put the paint roller down, put on my trainers and set off. The sun was just about setting, it was starting to get cold again, but I did discover that going up a hill, with the sun setting behind you, means you can take photos like this:
*That’s* what I call legs!
Actually – whispers – if it was Janathon I wouldn’t have got out for a 6 mile run, so maybe there is something to this Jantastic thing after all …
Of all the feeble excuses not to run, “I’ll have to wash my running kit in the shower” Is up there with “but the plasterer’s here and I’ll have to make lots of cups of tea”.
Yes it’s been that kind of week. Our dining room ceiling has been replastered, and the washing machine gave up the ghost and can’t be fixed until next week. This has meant lots of hand washing and visiting my parents with a big bag of dirty laundry. (Thanks Mum and Dad!)
On Saturday morning I suddenly remembered about Jantastic and realised I need to fit two runs into two days so as not to fail. So off I trotted around the village, determined to stay as clean as possible to make it easier to wash my kit in the shower afterwards.
All went well, until I took a short footpath that I haven’t been down for months. There was no frost today, so of course it was very soft and muddy, and despite being absolutely flat I managed to slip over. Just a few strides from the stile to take me back onto the road, my foot slid from under me and down on my knee I went. Fortunately the verge was so soft I didn’t hurt myself. Unfortunately I ended up with a very muddy pair of running tights to wash in the shower. But most importantly, no one saw me fall over (and that’s what matters!)
So I finally made it to the end of Janathon. Thank heavens for that! My cold is also still lingering -not so thankful for that. Full of snot and all out of ideas and enthusiasm, I asked my son to suggest what I should do for my last Janathon exercise. He simply answered “star jumps”. Sadist.
So 10 star jumps done. Janathon 2015 done. I think I might spend February under my duvet.
Full of cold. Haven’t had a cold for a very long time, so wallowing in self pity. Not good for the penultimate day of Janathon, but in the spirit of hanging on to the bitter end I attempted a pyjama plank before bed.
A feeble 41 seconds and I had to give up because my nose was dripping onto the floor. Glamorous.
Cold lurgy is in full flow today, but cabin fever is also setting in, so today’s Janathon activity was a successful end to the wheelie bin hunt and a walk around the block. Well, I say successful – I’m presuming it was my bin – the two cottages at the end can’t possibly have three wheelie bins between them, can they?!
The walk was an official walk (i.e. I wore my Garmin), it measured 0.6 of a Mile and took me 10 minutes. And three tissues *sniff*.
Good News! Wiltshire Council took my Christmas tree to be recycled today.
Bad News. My wheelie bin has disappeared, After leaving it at the end of the drive to be emptied we had some really windy weather, and now it’s gone.
More bad news, my cold lurgy is settling in nicely (sniff).
To end with some more good News, today’s Janathon activity did involve going outside today, but only to go up and down the lane looking for the runaway bin. No sign of it so far …
After Sunday’s excesses and Monday’s recovery plod, today was pathetic by comparison. I think I might have finally succombed to the cold lurgy that’s been doing the rounds for the last couple of months (my own fault for feeling too smug about not catching it).
I also had a house full of people working on the house – two builders, two window men and one tiler. That’s lots of cups of tea and coffee to make and carry up and down stairs, especially for someone who still has “bungalow legs”.
I did manage to drag the very large and heavy Christmas tree round to the front of the house in a final attempt to catch the council recycling van tomorrow morning. I think that counts as strength training (it was a huge tree and put up quite a fight).
