First week

Well at last I have got around to writing my first Janathon post to make my efforts official. Almost as amazing as the fact that I have been running every day this month so far.
Although the idea of Janathon is to do some excercise every day in January, for me Janathon is going to be a run every day.

Before I start I should first excuse the inevitable catalogue of errors and blunders on this blog as it if my first attempt and I will have to learn as I go.

I should begin by saying that while I have been an enthusiastic runner for most of my life I am probably the worlds most inconsistent one. I am lucky enough to be able to run quite well considering my embarrassingly poor dedication and erratic training.
But despite this promise I have never managed to motivate my lazy ass to train properly and so when a friend recently mentioned a 2012km in 2012 challenge to me..... (a friend who I had met through the riddlesdown parkrun, a fellow runner who genuinely deserves the term runner, who runs regularly every week, who sets goals and achieves them, and even gets up for early morning runs, the holy grail, thanks Steve) .....it sounded like a great idea but to be honest I did not believe for one second that I would be able to do what amounts to 1247 miles in a year considering I only managed about 400 last year and that was not a bad year for me.

Janathon seemed like a good idea for the new year and a great step toward the 2012km goal.

So all that half hearted effort is in the past now as I have finally embarked on a momentously awesome training schedule....for me.



Day 1 was easy, New Years Day Parkrun at riddlesdown. I was always going to do the new year run despite a cold especially with the additional bonus of lunch at the pub after, I ran a steady 23mins as I hadn't run for three weeks (this is not uncommon).

Day 2, Ok, this I did not expect to be a problem, I had the day off of work so expected to easily get out for a run, and yes, hurrah!, I notched up a gentle 3.5 miles around Warlingham.

Day 3, In all the years of running I have only managed three days in a row a hand full of times so this was an additional boost. Actually at about this point I started to feel more confident about success, I don't know why but I really felt I should stop being such a lazy sod and do some decent training like normal runners do, I am getting theoretically further and further away from my prime running years and if I don't do it now I will probably always wonder how fast I could go. So with this seed of determination taking root I chalked up another 3.5m. Steady again, about 7.5min/mile pace.

Day 4, Uncharted territory now 4 runs in 4 days, wow, fairly normal for most people but a life changing moment for me......ok maybe that's a bit strong but small beginnings can lead to great stuff. 3.5m again steady pace.

Day 5, Thursday, this was a real test because I had a long and tiring day, typically the sort of day I would comfort myself with the fact that I had the perfect reason to 'go running tomorrow', but oh no! no way especially as I had remembered the response from Sara, my wife when I mentioned the Janathon challenge and she just smiled a sort of 'yeah right' smile.
Normally she would be spot on but not this Thursday, 5 out of 5 was in the bag.

Day 6. By this stage I really was starting to feel unstoppable, I still hadn't shaken off my cold but had notched up a run every day for nearly a week, despite numerous opportunities to delay or put off. I didn't even know this alien who had taken over my brain, would I start remembering where I leave my keys and start getting up early now too..........no hang on lets not get carried away.

Day 7 Saturday Riddlesdown Parkrun, I ran at a pleasantly sedate pace with Steve (who had set this whole revolution in motion), he was nursing an injury and I was keen to keep this first week fairly low impact. We had an enjoyable chat only further cementing my resolve.


So the first week was complete in almost perfect fashion. No long or hard runs, a nice gentle start to the challenge. A real week of discovery for me, all I've got to do is keep forcing myself out the door and it is even possible that I will become addicted to this dedicated approach.

Will try to keep future blogs a little more succinct and less rambling.