Tag: bourne woods

Juneathon Day 17

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 1 Comment

Sunday, the home of the long run, and today I completed the longest run of Juneathon so far: a 7.07 mile run around the woods.

Didn’t want to have soggy feet today so had to do a couple of ‘about turns’ and kept mainly to the path. It was quite warm this morning, so also made it to the ponds on a couple of occasions so that Billy Boy take a dip to cool off.

Summary
******
Distance: 7.07mi
Time taken: 01:02:45
Average/Max Speed : 6.75/9.23 mph
Average/Min Pace : 00:08:53/00:06:30
Calories: 823

Total Juneathon mileage after day 17 = 61.19

Time spent writing blog = 3mins

Subject matter/ideas skimpily presented, limited depth and detail = Band 1

Juneathon Day 16

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 3 Comments

You may be feeling a bit of deja vu going on….

WOT! NO DAY 15?

Yes, once again, I have managed to fail in my attempt at running everyday. Although, given that I now have a new lazy relaxed approach to the whole Juneathon challenge, I’m not beating myself up about it. The excuse I offer to the Gods of Juneathon, to quote many a teenager: “I couldn’t be bothered!”.

Anyway….onwards and upwards….Day 16….

After a lovely lay in, some blog reading and some bacon sarnies, I was ready for a run. A nice relaxing dog jog around the woods – not heard that phrase before!!? (Not to self: must make the runs sound more dynamic).

Headed off for the woods and some trail running. Weather forecast said: “Very windy and possible scattered showers”. It was very windy but once in the shelter of the woods it was pretty pleasant, until the said showers appeared! But as true to their wood as the weather people are, they were ‘scattered’ and didn’t last for long. A pretty uneventful run, I took in most of the trails, as you can see by the route. I don’t want to start the #runart off again, but does it look like a man sat on a rock contemplating the future?

One mildly interesting thing happened, I passed the same hiker three times. On the first time he said, “Good afternoon,” on the second time he gave me a knowing smile, and on the third time he completely ignored me! I’m sure this means something….but I can’t think what!!??

iPod was on shuffle and it came up with some great tunes. I also heard some great lyrics that I hadn’t heard for a while and feel the need to share them with the world:

It’s hard to see the light when the fridge door is closed.
Tip-Toe down the hall, open the door, found out that God is a small sausage roll.

‘Full Fat’ by Newton Faulkner

I think Newton Faulkner is great. He is a genius with the guitar and a fantastic songwriter. Saw him at Cambridge Folk Festival last year and he comes across as a really nice bloke. Definitely on the list of gigs to see.

Who’s that gut lord marching, you should cut down on your porklife mate, get some exercise.

‘Parklife’ by Blur

I was never a great Blur fan, I preferred Oasis, but I love that line, and rather relevant with Juneathon in progress.

Total Juneathon mileage after day 16 = 54.12

Juneathon Day 14

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 2 Comments

WOT! NO DAY 13?

I have had an epiphany.

When completing Janathon, earlier on in the year, I made a point of running every single day of the month, even if I really didn’t want to. Whereas for Juneathon will be taking more of a relaxed approach. I know the rules are ‘run every day’, but I’ve decided I can do without the pressure of having to run everyday. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve not given up and I still hope to run as much as possible, but just don’t want it to take over.

So now would be a good time to explain exactly why I’ve come to that decision. I didn’t run yesterday, for a number of reasons:

  • I wanted a rest after Tuesday’s club training – where I worked hard.
  • I didn’t get out of school until late – I was on late busy duty and, due to the Queen’s visit, coach was late picking up kids.
  • Stressful night – phones calls to various people – attempted fraud on bank account.
  • Euro 2012.
  • Drama cooking the beef – needed longer in the oven!

So my new relaxed approach to Juneathon lead to a nice relaxing dog jog round the woods. I grabbed the ipod, whacked it on shuffle, and ran 5.53 miles in round about 45 mins. Sweet deals!

Total Juneathon mileage after day 14 = 48.57

Juneathon Day 9

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 1 Comment

A morning dog jog was the plan. Got downstairs in running kit and, looking for a bit of sympathy, told Helen I was feeling a tad achy. Her reply:

“Well you will do these silly challenges!”.

Enough said, and off I went….

By the time I got to the woods my lethargic state had evaporated and I enjoyed a nice gentle jog. Lots of people about this morning, dog walkers, runners and even a man walking backwards!? I didn’t ask.

Summary
******
Distance: 3.15mi
Time taken: 00:26:37
Average/Max Speed : 7.11/9.03 mph
Average/Min Pace : 00:08:27/00:06:38
Calories: 374

Total Juneathon mileage after day 9 = 34.54

Runners passed = 4

Music accompaniment = Frank Turner – ‘Love, Ire and Song’

What with Euro 2012 underway, how about taking a listen to the Unofficial England Euro 2012 Song by Frank Hamilton….

Juneathon Day 7

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 5 Comments

I woke up this morning and unbelievably it wasn’t raining. So I got changed, grabbed the dogs, and headed for the woods. After working hard during Tuesday’s night training and last night’s 5k race I had already decided on a very gentle jog. What with all the rain lately I was ready for it to be a bit muddy and the woods are definitely looking green and lush.

 

We began very gently and managed to avoid the worst of the mud by sticking to the main path. After a few minutes we came across a family out walking their dogs. I did notice that one of the dogs had a ball in its mouth and ran past praying that Sam (the dog we are looking after) wouldn’t notice. He did. This meant I had to run back and attempt to persuade him to give me the ball. I was either not very persuasive or the dog is just plain stupid. Therefore I had to physically yank open his jaws and grab the drool covered ball, handing it back to its owner. At this stage in the slapstick incident Sam noticed that the other dog also had a ball. So we then went through the same process and finally were able to leave the family in peace.

So in an attempt to avoid the stress of meeting anyone else we headed for the tracks through the woods. All was going reasonably well, I had managed to avoid most of the mud and still had dry feet. We had passed some of the statues that were placed around, including some oversized mushrooms.

All was going well, that was until we came to a particularly muddy downhill section….

As I slowly started jogging down the hill, the lack of grip meant I began going faster and faster, meaning avoiding puddles became more of a problem, resulting in very wet and muddy feet by the time we reached the bottom. As the track continued we also had various obstacles, fallen and overhanging trees, to avoid.

This reminded me of a blog I read recently, Run For The Quiet, which mentioned the Tough Mudder. This got me thinking, I wonder if once we have completed the Zombie Evacuation the boys would be up to take on the Tough Mudder?

Distance today was 3.26 miles.

Total Juneathon mileage after day 7 = 27.95

Number of wet, muddy and cold feet = 2

Number of families annoyed = 1

Number of dogs nearly taken to the vet to be euthanised because they don’t listen = 1

Juneathon Day 4

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Day 4 of Juneathon was a dog jog round the woods. And taking the lead from Mark here’s a picture of Billy Boy on our return home enjoying his bone:

He’s a bit soggy because we always somehow manage to make it to the ponds for a dip (the dog, not me).

It was late afternoon when we finally got out and the woods were surprisingly quite, in fact we didn’t pass a single runner, dog walker or human being, which is very strange. Maybe everyone was preparing for the Queen’s Jubliee Concert.

Today’s run was 5.39 miles.

Total mileage after day 4 = 16.88

Music accompaniment = Beach House and Frank Turner

Dignified pigeons spotted = 0