Tag: challenge

Categories
Great Eastern Run

This is a ‘proper’ challenge….

Forget your project365, your monthly projects*, your Juneathon, your Janathon**, your 1SE***, and any other pathetic ‘little’ challenges.

This is the mother of all challenges. Run a half-marathon. Run a half-marathon I hear you say?!? Sounds rubbish I know, but let me fill you in with the details. No it’s not dressed as a donkey, a gorilla, a fairy, or any other ridiculous outfit. Nor is it running backwards, or juggling, or any other ridiculous combination of activities. It is simply to beat my PB. Simple.

My current PB stands at 1 hour 36 minutes 30 seconds. Which, even if I say so myself, is pretty quick. I ran this time four years ago when I was running and entering a lot more races than I have been lately. So this challenge is a proper challenge. It will require some actual training, something I have not done since 2006 when I completed the London Marathon. I have a training plan: a tweaked Runner’s World half-marathon training plan. The chosen event, Peterborough Great Eastern Run, the same race I ran current PB on. This is a good flat, and they say, fast course. Race takes place on Sunday 13th October, so I have plenty of time to build some speed into my legs.

I do have a couple of concerns:

  • Time. The next four weeks are ok, I’m on holiday, but finding the time at the start of a new school year maybe slightly more tricky.
  • Pace. To complete the 13.1 miles in a PB my target pace is 7.22 min/mile. It is very rare that I’m ever running at that pace, except maybe club training nights, but anyway never at such a long distance. Hence why I plan on actually doing some ‘proper’ training.

I was planning on running this half-marathon a while back, but since then the school where I work is now entering a team and raising money for Cancer Research UK, I think under the rather fetching name of ‘The CBEC Stars’. I’m sure there is an online site somewhere to donate, but I have absolutely no idea where. But don’t be despondent, I know you are all eager to sponsor such a worthwhile charity, so will post a link in the coming weeks.

So let me just clarify, the time to beat is:

1.36:30

So what about some sort of fantastic mantra for the challenge? An inspirational phrase that will see me through to completion? I thought long and hard about this….

“Fortune favours the brave.” Publius Terence

…..it’s hardly brave running a half-marathon….

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” Vince Lombardi

….too long, I’ll never remember that whilst running…

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never have tried to succeed.” Theodore Roosevelt

….sounds a bit negative…..so discounted them all in favour of…..

“Get Better” Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip

* Failed – the unicycle is REALLY hard to ride

** Failed – cba

*** Failed – updated app and it deleted all previous video clips!! Grrrr!

Categories
Blog Juneathon

Day 13 #juneathon ….but why?

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