Proof I've Not Been Totally Idle

I may not have been blogging or tackling those 30 Day Challenges, but I've not been completely idle.

As proof, I offer this photo of my race number and finishers t-shirt from the Wymeswold Waddle 2012 which I ran on May 13th.

It was a 5 mile road race, 2.5 uphill and 2.5 down. Downhill was more fun! My official time was 51:48.

For my next trick, I intend to run parkrun in my Vibram FiveFingers on Saturday. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

I fell off the wagon.

I allowed work to get in my way.

I abandoned my 30 Day Challenges.

I'm sorry :-(

I guess I got carried away and took on far too much too quickly. I'll revisit the 30 Day Challenges in the future but right now, I've got to focus on the challenges that are of greatest importance to me.

To that end, I'm going to focus on a running goal from The List.

In honour of the blog's title, the goal I've chosen to tackle is: "Log a cumulative mileage of > the circumference of Earth". The world will then indeed be mine!
According to Dailymile, I'm only 1/153th of the way there so I better step it up!

Another Day, Another 10k, Another T-Shirt

I ran the race and I have the T-Shirt to prove it!!

Today I ran Leicester's Big 10k 2012. It was a sunny morning, not much wind and a reasonably flat course. I finished 431st out of a field of 509 runners in 1:07:18.

Powering towards the finish line

Not too bad. Still, I think I could do better. My training over the past 4 weeks has suffered to be honest. I allowed work to get the better of me once again.

Must regain my momentum. Onwards to a new challenge!...

Great North Run 2012

Today I received word that I have a place in this years Great North Run!

This is the most iconic half-marathon in the country. Not a bad choice for my first.
So its off to Newcastle and South Shields for me come September. May God have mercy on my soul!!

State of February's 30-Day Challenge (Week 1)

This challenge did not start well. First, I forgot to charge the battery for my DSLR camera so all of the pictures were taken with my iPhone. Also, I missed 3 days because life got in the way.

Below is a map showing the locations where a photo was taken this week.

View Photography 30-Day Challenge 2012 (Week 1) in a larger map

I will endeavour to do better and catch up next week.

My First 10K (And My First Trail Race)

Me approaching a checkpoint. South Stack lighthouse visible in the background. The wind almost tore off my race number from my leg!

Today I completed my very first 10K race. It was also my very first trail race!

It involved dragging my backside up to the highest point of the island I grew up on. To say it was hard work would be an understatement! The climbs were steep, so steep even the serious fell-runners power-walked up them! The downhills were treacherous to say the least with loose rocks, mud, exposed roots, etc. And the wind. My God, the wind! I got properly sandblasted by the spray from the Irish Sea as well as nearly blown off my feet on occasion. To get a sense of it take a look at this screenshot from my RunKeeper page:

My actual time was 1:45:21 (I forgot to deactivate the auto pause feature!) 

The views though were spectacular! I lived on Anglesey for 18 years and never ventured up Holyhead Mountain before. It goes to show how little some of us know about our immediate surroundings. Certainly food for thought.

My finishing time was 1:45:21. I'm happy with that given that 2/3 of the course had me climbing from sea level to nearly 200m and that I had to seriously apply the brakes on many of the downhills! Not sure of my overall position, I'll learn that on Monday when all the results are collated. Do I care?...

Not especially, I'm just glad to have completed it!

My finishing time

All the commemorative paraphernalia, my race number, a red wristband, the slip with my time, a commemorative dog-tag and I even got the t-shirt!

My finisher's dog-tag

As arduous as I've made it sound, it was certainly good fun! Would I do it again?...

In a heartbeat!

Update 23/1/12 17:56:
The official results are in. I was 129th out of 146 runners.

30 Day Challenges

I've drawn a measure of inspiration from this video:

In addition to any other challenge I set myself, I've decided I'll do eleven 30 day challenges, one each month for the remainder of this year.

February
Take one photo every day. [FAILED]

March
Try the paleo diet for a month. (See Steve Kamb's Nerd Fitness article on the subject). [FAILED]

April
Do 15 minutes of yoga every day throughout April (I'll be using Wii Fit Plus for this one). [FAILED]

May
Walk 10,000 steps every day throughout May. (I'll track this with my FitBit). [FAILED]

June
Drink eight 375ml glasses of water every day in June. [FAILED]

July
Get up no later than 06:00 every day in July (except when on night shifts). [FAILED]

August
Practice piano for half an hour every day. (Using Garageband lessons). [ABANDONED]

September
Avoid buying lunch throughout September. [ABANDONED]

October
Avoid coffee throughout October. (This one will certainly be difficult for me). [ABANDONED]

November
Write a 50,000 word novel as part of nanowrimo. The daily target is 1,667 words. All I need now is an idea and an outline but I've got ten months to figure that out! [ABANDONED]

December
TBD [ABANDONED]

I'll post progress reports for each month's challenge. If I find any of the habits beneficial, I'll keep them up. I'm also open to suggestions for future 30 day challenges.


UPDATE: I've abandoned my 30 Day Challenges. See the July 3rd post.