JogBlog has moved!

Due to Angela letting me know that you can now move WordPress comments along with the posts to a new server, I get unduly excited about this and in true geek fashion go and buy myself two domain names, jog-blog.co.uk and jog-blog.com and have migrated everything over to my new home at jog-blog.co.uk so please come and visit. So as not to confuse too many people, I’ve kept the same design while I’m in the process of customising it to my little heart’s content which will undoubtedly take about a billion years but in the meantime house-warming gifts would be very welcome.

(Oh and can you all update your links please, ta)

Stats:
New domain names: 2
New blog houses: 1
Years it will take me to decorate new blog house: a billion

Another milestone reached

Due to there being no trains tomorrow to St Albans, getting to tomorrow’s 10 mile race on time would mean leaving the house at about 6am, so I drop out of my sixth race in a row and decide to do ten miles locally at a civilised hour; today’s civilised hour of choice being lunchtime.

It’s raining which is my favourite running weather and it’s quite busy with runners and dog walkers over the marshes but today the runners are a bunch of miserable fuckers and don’t smile or say hello like they usually do when it’s raining and I think they must be new year people but they are out in the rain which is usually only the preserve of the hardcore but then I see the man that I’ve seen three or four weeks in a row over there and he says hello and I say hello back and I’m wondering if he just runs round Hackney Marshes all day as I see him every week and I’m always out there at different times and I think maybe he’s my stalker and then I think he might be thinking the same about me. Hmm.

I get back to the marina and past the rowing club and remember that I was going to take a mile detour up Tottenham Marshes then come back down to the street as that should take me up to ten miles by the time I get home but then I think it might be too far and I’ll just get back to the park and go round there until I get to ten miles and I get to the park and I’ve only done 8.9 miles and I think shit, I thought back to home was 9.3 miles so I go round the park a couple of times and there’s a speedy type in there and he laps me and I think bloody hell he’s quick and quite cute too and I wonder how often he runs in the park and then I’ve done ten miles and I seem to have done it without walking or without stopping to take photos of cows or without walking over bridges or without walking up the steep bits, in fact I’ve run the whole ten miles non stop but I did make sure I ate properly yesterday so maybe there’s something in this eating malarky after all.

Today’s route

Stats
Distance: 10.20 miles
Time: 1:52:12
Pace: 10:59
Calories: 959
Races missed tomorrow: 1
Music
The Wombats
The Killers
Cardiacs
Hole
Tori Amos
The Like
Bobby Conn

Training with the SAS

The Hyde Parkers are no more. We are now the SAS which stands for Sweet As Swans, the Swan being the most important part of the evening, i.e. the pub.

Four of us braved the weather and did 5 miles in the pouring rain then dived into the pub to rehydrate on beer, as prescribed by this month’s Runner’s World magazine which says beer is better than water after a run. Yay.

And if there’s anyone reading this that can get to Speaker’s Corner on a Tuesday evening by 6:30, come and join us, the more the merrier.

Stats:
Distance: 5.2 miles
Time: 1:00:06
Pace: 11:33
Calories: 489
Pints: 3

You can look at the route and more stats here

Food for fuel

My hangover wasn’t as bad as originally envisaged so I got up early to go and do my scheduled 9 miles although I wasn’t sure how far I was going to get due to not having eaten since yesterday lunchtime which I wasn’t sure was the best training strategy nutrition-wise.

I get a mile and a half into the marshes and I stop to look at the sign to see how far Clissold Park is as londonjogger said there’s deer over there and it says 1.5 miles and I think cool, there’s deer just a mile and a half away but I don’t know how to get to the park and I remember that I was going to look in the A-Z but I’d forgotten and I think I can’t go now, I’ll get lost, so I continue down the marshes and the church has gone and they’ve replaced the grass they ruined by dancing all over it or whatever it is Christians do and I get to Hackney Marshes and a couple overtake me on the bridge and I think fucking cheek and they stop to walk round the puddles and I think lightweights and they turn off the way I want to go and I think bollocks, I’ll have to run alongside the river and dodge the puddles and when I get back to the path I see the lightweights ahead of me and I think fuck, I hope I’m not going to be following them all the way round but when they get to the edge of the marshes they turn back and I’ve spent the first 3 miles with the sun in my eyes and the sun must live in Hackney as when I get to the edge of the marshes the sun is huge and right in front of me, blinding me and I have to stop as I can’t see and then I get to the forest bit and there’s still loads of new year people out and I think I should be pleased as I’m usually scared when I’m on my own in the forest bit especially as the Cure song “Forest” always comes into my head at that point which doesn’t help me be any less scared and then I’m back in Walthamstow Marshes and I’m walking and thinking I’m hungry now and when I get home I’m going to have a bacon sandwich and then I remember I have sausages too and I think I’ll have a bacon and sausage sandwich and then I’m in a quandry because then I think maybe I should have one of each and I can’t decide and I think it would be nice if the only thing to ever worry about is whether to have a bacon or sausage sandwich or a bacon and sausage sandwich and I’m running and walking and I’m thinking I’m not going to make 9 miles oh fuck and there’s still loads of new year people and I think oh well they’ll be gone by the end of the month and then I think maybe they’re training for the London marathon in which case they’ll be gone by April and I get up to the rowing club and I’ve got about three miles left and I’m still walking loads and my legs are aching and I’ve got no energy at all and I think that will teach me for not eating and going to the pub instead and I walk most of the remaining three miles and think to myself that next week I will stay in and eat pizza and not drink because next week comes my next milestone of 10 miles, oh yes.

Distance:
9.22 miles
Time: 2:00:44
Pace: 13:05
Calories: 779
Churches: 0
Suns: 1
Sausage and bacon sandwiches: 1
Music:
Faith No More
Cardiacs
The Police
Boomtown Rats
Bee Gees
Bobby Conn
Catatonia
Devo
Primal Scream
Joy Division vs Missy Elliott
Kasabian
Manic Street Preachers
Muse
Sex Pistols

Running commute #7

I get soaked on my way to work this morning and although I put my rucksack in front of the heater to dry, it doesn’t occur to me that the contents might be wet so come 5:00, I open my rucksack to find my running kit cold and damp.  Nice.  Still, because I am hardcore, this does not deter me and I go and get changed and do my commute which is pretty uneventful really, in fact it’s not eventful at all, as I don’t even stop at Somerfield to buy wine as a) I’ve got some at home; and b) I’m going to the pub.  Where I shall probably get drunker than will be good for me but today I think I did the right thing and I don’t think I’ve done that before.

Stats:
Distance: 6.61 miles
Time: 1:18:43
Pace: 11:54
Calories: 619
Somerfields: 0
Right things: 1
Music:
Hole
Faith No More
Polyphonic Spree
Bobby Conn
Devo
Rollins Band
The Cure
Manic Street Preachers

The Hyde Parkers

Yesterday saw the first outing of the Hyde Parkers and I would have blogged immediately as I usually do had I not been in the pub stretching, refueling, resting, and, er, that other stuff proper athletes do.

We did a slow 4 miles around the perimeter of Hyde Park then me and Jo sloped off to the pub while we waited for those speedy types to do another lap before coming to the pub to get the beers in, then much beer was consumed and many chips were eaten but proper athletes need carbs right?

And in the unlikely event that the scumbag who stole Jo’s bag a) can read; and b) is reading this blog:  I hope you get hit by a bus.  And I don’t mean a small Hoppa bus, but a really big bus.  Maybe a bendy one.  They’re quite big.

Yesterday’s route

Stats:
Distance: 4.31 miles
Time: 51:14
Pace: 11:54
Calories: 405
Pubs: 1
Bags nicked: 1

Blog (part 2)

Yeah ok, I’m out of bed. In fact, I’ve been out of bed for a few hours as, after getting out of bed to write those 30 words in my previous post, I did manage not to crawl back into my pit and hide from the world.

If it wasn’t for the fact that both my Garmin and my N95 tell me that I ran 9 miles today, I wouldn’t believe it as, when I woke up I vowed never ever ever to run again; told myself I wasn’t doing my 10 mile race on 20 January; and not going to bother with my half marathon either and even hid in the Yellow Advertiser the Runner’s World mag that came through the door this morning in a timely fashion just to piss me off further.

But I eventually stopped feeling sorry for myself and got out of bed and went to the marshes for my scheduled 9 miles. And I did see the cows and they were close up but I forgot to take the multi-grain bread that I am reliably informed is made for cows to feed them with.

I did also see a lot of New Year runners, I had been wondering who all these new people were over the marshes running and thought they didn’t look like the normal runners I see over there, especially the man in combat trousers although he was definitely a runner and not just running for the bus or something (not that there are many buses over the marshes, in fact, there aren’t many at all, in a none at all kind of way) because he was with a running-kitted-out girl and they were in front of me but I somehow managed to catch them up even though I was going really really slowly so I stopped to walk but still managed to catch them up when I started running again so I stopped to walk again but then caught them up again so then they started to annoy me so I overtook them and I somehow managed to get round my 9 miles and go home and go back to bed.

I saw a cute puppy though and it made me smile.

Stats:
As below.

Blog

I ran round the marshes.  I saw cows.  I saw lots of New Year runners.  Then I went back to bed.  I think I’m going to stay there all day.

Stats:
Distance: 9.09 miles
Time: 1:52:48
Pace: 12:24
Calories: 824
Cows: 6
New Year runners: lots
Beds: 1
Music:
Faith No More
Bobby Conn
Hole
Polyphonic Spree
Stereo Total
X-Ray Spex
Libertines

First run of the year

I, not very surprisingly, slacked off from the Serpentine New Year’s Day 10k, deciding that staying where I was was far preferable than dragging my hangover round Hyde Park for over an hour, although I did keep checking my watch to keep up with how far I would be round it, so I think that almost counts as actually running it.  So, as I have just about recovered now from New Year’s Eve, I thought I’d better get unslack and get out there even though it was looking a bit gloomy but I had it on good authority that murderers only come out in the dark and anyway, on a weekday lunchtime, they should be at their day jobs.

I wimped out of sitting on the wall while my N95 and Garmin GPSd themselves up, and put them in the garden while I stayed in the warm for a bit longer then ventured outside to see if I still knew how to put one foot in front of the other.

I did an incredibly lame 7 miles round the marshes which included a lot of walking but didn’t include any photo based emergencies, even when I saw a strange yellow bird, so I think the no photos cancels out the walking bits.  Hurrah.

Now I need to decide on my drinking in January plans.  Kate’s cut out completely, Tracey’s only drinking free alcohol and Gary’s cutting out drinking on his own unless it’s Friday or Saturday.  I think I like Gary’s idea best.

Stats
Distance: 7.12 miles
Time: 1:26:21
Pace: 12:07
Calories: 664
Walking breaks: lots
Photo emergencies: 0
Music
Babyshambles
Polyphonic Spree
No Doubt
Manic Street Preachers
Cardiacs
Idle Vice Pirate
The Cure
Au Pairs
Hard-Fi
David Bowie