juneathon day 11: they say it changes when the sun goes down

So tired. And so hungry. And another weekend juggling parenting responsibilities, social engagements, domestic necessity and Juneathon.
I seemed to spend all day grazing… picking at bits of food between meals, finding myself walking through the kitchen and absent mindedly looking in the cupboards to see what else I could devour. And today, being a rest day, meant that I needed to get out and cycle. I did toy with the idea of getting out very early and being back home by 7am but a night of fitful sleep put pay to that foolish idea. Instead I settled on a bike ride at the opposite end of the day. We were planning to go to some friends for dinner this evening and I decided that I would cycle there and back whilst the rest of the family drove. I was a little wary of getting The Look from Mrs eatingtrees again, but she didn’t seemed as horrified by the idea this time so the bike ride was on.
A little tinker mid-afternoon to tighten the headset and fit some lights and then just after 6pm, the family set off in the car and I got going on the bike. It’s about 11kms each way so a nice short distance along mostly quiet country roads. The journey there was unremarkable but pleasant.
After an enormous dinner, dessert and coffee, it was almost 10pm when we made our excuses and left. I changed and jumped back on the bike and the first thing I noticed was how much colder it felt once the sun had gone down, something that I need to remember when packing clothing for the Dunwich Dynamo in July. Once I had got going, I warmed up quite quickly and got into a rhythm. Cycling the same route in the dark is a completely different experience… quite surreal too as everything is in darkness apart from a watery pool of light about 2 metres in front of me. I carried on at a comfortable pace and just daydreamed my way home. I find it very peaceful cycling in the dark and just hope that the Zen-like calm can be summoned up when needed on our Dunwich trip. So 21.5kms on the bike fulfils my Juneathon responsibilty for today. Tomorrow is a 15km run in the Vibrams…

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worms?

I am constantly hungry at the moment. No sooner have I tucked away an enormous meal, I start scratching around for something else to eat. Cheese. Bananas. Chocolate Biscuits. Perhaps I am looking to replace some of the calories used up in last weekends frenzy of activity? Maybe I am subconciously carb-loading for the 3 races I have in May (yes, an organisational SNAFU means I have 3 races in May… Grim Beast In The East, Wheathampstead 2k & 10k and the BUPA 10k) but what ever it is, I am devouring a huge amount of food.
Fortunately, the second Bank Holiday weekend afforded me a little time to spend eating and also a little time to spend running.
Thursday morning I crept out for an early morning run in the Vibrams. I have upped my mileage in them sufficiently to be able to run roughly 10k in them each time I venture out so a 10.7km run was executed before breakfast. A quick glance at the Garmin as I passed the 10k mark indicated that I had run my fastest ever 10k at 52:51 which set my good mood up rather nicely for the rest of the day. Thursday evening was spent with training partner, bad influence, inspiration, calibrator of the moral compass, epicurean and all round gentleman Hauling My Carcass at Kaslik in Soho, where we had arranged to meet, catch up and eat delicious Lebanese food.
Friday, there was a street party for the Royal Wedding and again the day was spent eating, chatting, eating and eating. Saturday we had friends round for a barbecue (yet more eating and chatting, obviously) and, by Saturday evening, my indulgences were beginning to play on my conscience. I went to bed vowing to get up and run first thing on Sunday.
Sunday morning was glorious and after making the family breakfast and powering down a capuccino, I set off. A beautiful bright crisp morning and I decided I should run off some of the excesses of the previous few days. There was quite a strong breeze and that kept me cool although as soon as the breeze dropped, the sun began to beat down and I tried where possible to run in the shade. I was feeling good so I just ran and ran and enjoyed running. A few deviations from my normal Sunday long route saw me complete 18.1kms. I was actually still feeling pretty good but cut the run short as to return home any later would have meant the rest of the day’s activities would have needed shuffling around.
So, it would appear that I am currently on a bit of a roll… enjoying running and getting just a little quicker without any kind of speedwork, fartlek or intervals. The VFF’s are fast becoming my shoe of choice as my regular running shoes begin to feel heavy and soft. I am intrugued to see how far I can comfortably run in the Vibrams – certainly a 10k race is do-able. Hmmm… then, who knows, maybe a Half Marathon..?

Soundtrack to this post: Zoo Music Girl – The Birthday Party

surrounded by disease

Bugged Out – Eating, Eating, Eating – My Arms Are On Fire

A friend of mine texts me today and says that I cannot go and see her when I’d planned to as her daughter has had a stomach bug which now seems to be spreading as her partner has it and she is not feeling too chipper either. There are also a few Juneathoners that seem to be suffering as well and, lo and behold, this afternoon SonNumberTwo appears to have caught the same nasty little bug. I hope that I will escape unscathed as I have a number of things on the cards for next week and I doubt very much if they can be rescheduled at short notice. At the moment, I appear to be OK apart from feeling very tired and very hungry (although Fit Artist, Tom Roper and iliketocount all seem to be mentioning a Juneathon hunger too) so decided that after yesterdays late night run, I would today only do some crunches and press-ups. I have to admit that I’ve surprised myself and seem to have made pretty quick progress with the press-ups but am really beginning to struggle now – my first set today was 70 and towards the end I was really struggling, burning forearms and shoulders, a slight sense of lightheadedness – at 67 I thought I was done but gritted my teeth and finished the last three. Not sure what tomorrow holds… maybe a run, maybe a cycle (hmmm… there’s a thought, I haven’t cycled for over a week…)

Juneathon Stats: 4 sets of press ups – 70 / 60 / 50 / 50 (230 total for day), 3 sets of stomach crunches – 100 / 100 / 100 (300 total for day)

Soundtrack to this post: The Lost Rivers Of London – Coil