Tag: blog

Halfterm Funtime

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 1 Comment

After the shenanigans of the last term, this halfterm I had decided that it was to be full up with stuff. And it was. I had homework to complete.

Plenty of parkrunning and long runs, Samaritans, gigs, meals out, reading, allotment action and general merry making was had.

I’m feeling ready for a very important term back at school.

#project365 #7

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ Leave a comment

Day 7 RED January

After not running at all in December (and barely in November) because of the niggle in the calf, this RED January is a godsend. It means I can very slowly increase distance and speed.

So today I was at the gym – 4 miles on the treadmill – slowly increasing the speed of each mile.

I’m hoping that by the end of January I might be somewhere need where I was about 3 months ago so that I can start building up the mileage and getting back to some faster parkruns.

RED January stats:

  • 1 parkrun
  • 1 gym session
  • 2 bike rides
  • 2 runs
  • 1 walk

Here we go again! #juneathon

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Monday sees June begin. But more importantly it sees the start of Juneathon – a month of daily exercise.

In the past Juneathon, for me, has always been about running. I've aimed to run every day and rack up a load of miles. But this time I'm approaching it slightly differently – I'm going to mix it up a bit. Mainly because for the last 4 weeks I've been struggling with a bit of an achy calf muscle. So less running this time round and a bit more other stuff. Not sure what, but have plenty of ideas….

  • Some nice gentle jogs – walking/running?
  • Head to the gym a bit more – cross training, rowing and a few weights?
  • 100 press-up challenge?
  • 200 sit-up challenge?
  • Plank challenge?
  • Get out on the bike a bit more?

So not only will the exercise be a bit different – it might mix-up the blog posts a bit as well.

 

I’m in! #janathon

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 1 Comment

It's that time of year again. The over-indulgence of Christmas is seemingly far behind us, hiding in the cupboard under the stairs, whilst the spectre of the New Year Celebrations are creeping up on us faster than a crowd of chavs heading for the one discounted 40″ TV at Asda on Black Friday.

So what is one to do? Well, signing-up for Janathon is a good way to start. If you have been living in a cupboard for the last few years you may want to head over to the website and have a look. But, in a nutshell:

So there you have it, first plan is to partake in a spot Janathoning. Also, I quite fancy the idea of 2015 being another attempt at project365. I did it in 2011 and it is a great way to track the year: posting a photo every day.

 

 

 

 

 

A Blogiversary!

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 7 Comments

I have been blogging for three years! How do I know? Well the lovely people at WordPress told me…

So I had a look at my first blog post; it's not very exciting:

“These are my attempts to begin AND continue with a blog”

What followed were three years of 'stuff': 2011 was project365; 2012 was a year of monthly projects; and although 2013 has been a bit quieter on the blogging front I've managed to keep it going.

So the past three years in numbers:

  • 668 posts
  • 736 comments
  • 20,612 views

I've enjoyed blogging over the past few years. I'm still not entirely sure why I blog; I just quite like doing it. I realise I'm not the most amazing of writers, and I know that my posts do not contain super reflective musings that change the way I live, or that my ramblings have any impact on anybody else.

I'm just amazed people have actually taken the time to read and comment on my 'general wonderings' and I'm looking forward to the next three years. Cheers!

 

Day 13 #juneathon ….but why?

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 9 Comments

Come September, and the start of the new academic year, our school is changing the structure of the school day. We have new start and finish times, longer lessons and Wednesday afternoon students will be able to choose an 'elective'. As well as a couple of other things I decided to offer a running club.

The students are in the process of choosing 'electives' for next year. Today, one of my Y9s was asking me for details of the running club, I couldn't really help with any details because I don't actually know them myself. But whilst chatting the conversation turned to our experiences of running. This lad is very keen on running and whilst talking, the topic of Juneathon came up. When I explained to him what Juneathon is all about he looked slightly surprised and said, “What? You actually run every day of the month?” I tried to explain to him that I do and he seemed reasonably happy with my answer. However, a bit later in the lesson, the subject had obviously been playing on his mind, he said, “You run every day? Isn't that bad for you? Shouldn't you give your body a chance to recover?” I tried to explain to him that some runs are short, some runs are long, some fast and some slow, and that as long as you listen to your body it should all be ok.

Which brings me to the purpose of tonight's post….why am I actually taking part in Juneathon?

  • Exercise. Seems obvious I know, I do plenty of running without Juneathon, or Janathon for that matter, but I suppose by taking part in these activities it actual forces me to keep exercising throughout the year.
  • Challenge. I like a challenge: 2012 was proof of that, setting myself something different to do every month; before that in 2011 it was project365; even this year I am taking part in '1 second every day'. I like the challenge of completing something, Juneathon is great for that, because when you get 25 days into the month it all starts to become a bit of a struggle.
  • Music. I love listening to all kinds of music. Juneathon gives me the chance to download some tracks onto the phone, get out of the house, and enjoy an hour or so of listening to everything and anything with no distractions.
  • Thinking. It gives you a chance to just think….and I think we all need that.
  • Blogging. I've been blogging since December 2010 – so Juneathon is just an excuse to do more of that.

Today's mileage = 6.29

Total Juneathon mileage = 65.44

Mojo level = very high