Day 48: Running under the influence

RUN: 1.6 miles

Well having to squeeze in supermarket shopping, cake-making and birthday partying today made my run a bit of a late affair.
After a couple of glasses of wine at Una's (Andy's mum) lovely birthday barbecue, I must admit running was not so appealing. But I did manage to go out for a respectable, if not ideal, 1.6 miles.

Here's my route - just up the main road and back, I'm afraid.

Day 47: Healing hands on my legs

RUN: 1.1 miles

After a very busy few days I've been a bit neglectful towards my legs.
No icing, no taping, just a couple of quick, short runs, having been veery short on time.
So my shins and calves must have been relieved when my friend - physiotherapist-in-training Amy Casey - got her hands on them.
She made suggestions on what I can do to ease the shin splints further and how I should be stretching and reassured me about the weird dints in my shin. She also massaged my muscles, working on a few knots in my calf. Hopefully I'll be able to get rid of the knots with some enthusiastic stretching and some more massaging.
Amy was impressed with the improvement in the dorsiflexion (I think that's right) in my left leg.
Here she is massaging my shins - Thank you, Amy!

It's surprising how getting to know how your body actually works changes the way you feel about it and makes you want to look after it a lot more.

Here's the info on my woefully short run for today

Day 45: Running and reading - chapter two

RUN: 2.0 miles

I ran just another couple of miles today, listening to more of my audio book.
The story is drawing me in now, so I'm rethinking my comments of yesterday. Listening to a story really does serve to take my mind off the running. I found today that the five-minute announcements from the MapMyRun lady seem to come surprisingly quickly when I'm lost in the story of Emma and Dexter and their strange non-love affair in One Day. So I just keep on going, and thoughts of tiredness don;t seem to enter my brain so easily.
Anyhow, a two-mile lap of High Royds tonight. Hundreds of rabbits were there, as well as hundreds of flies getting my mouth and eyes. Great.
Only another eight miles to go until I've done my first 100 - yey!
Here's my route etc for tonight.

Day 44: Running and reading (sort of)...

RUN: 2.1 miles

...Well more like being read to actually. For today's run I decided to experiment with my choice of audio motivation, rather than the usual iPod shuffle. I downloaded an audio book (One Day by David Nicholls) and put it on the iPod for my run.

I'm not convinced that running to books is the way to go, but I think I'll stick with it for the rest of this book. I've got another two hours 15 mins to go, so it will last me a good few runs.
On the positive side, it help to alleviate the boredom of running. It can't be denied that jogging is often a battle against the boredom rather than the body. So a book being read to you does give you something to focus on and takes the mind off any negative thoughts (ie I want to stop).
However, normally it's just me and the pavement and my thoughts, mind wandering, thinking things through, thinking of anything and everything. But if you let your mind wander while listening to a story, you obviously end up missing bits. Also, when the MapMyRun lady reads out my time and pace etc every five minutes through my headphones, my book gets faded down and I miss another bit of the story.

I'll let you know how the 'reading' goes, but tonight I just did a couple of miles. I'm trying to strike a balance between doing enough miles and not 'overdoing it'. So just 2.1 tonight - here's the map and info.

Day 43: A terrible case of Olympic fever

RUN: 4.0 miles

This evening I managed to tear myself away from the TV for long enough to do a four-mile run.
The Olympics is everywhere. I needn't have worried about missing anything because I could see all the action through every living room window I ran past along my route - everyone is watching. Britain is well and truly in the grip of Olympic fever.

I did two laps of my route into Guiseley and back. It wasn't even too difficult!
If someone had told me a few months ago that I would have been able to run four miles - non-stop, with relative ease (without every step beyond the first 100 metres being agony) - I would have found it hard to believe. But I can! Sometimes. So who knows what might be possible. Rio de Janeiro 2016 here I come!

Here's my two-lap route from this evening

Day 42: Dodging the downpours

RUN: 2.0 miles

My muscles and shins have been quite sore after yesterday's run. I expected my shins would possibly give me some grief, but my muscle aches have been a pain in the bum... literally. (It's the muscles on my bum, at the side, below my hips that hurt! Ow.)

The weather today was awful. There was torrential rain, thunder, lightning and even a tornado in Bradford according to Twitter. Check out this tweet and twitpic from @steduffy86!
Here's another video for you, this time of the rain today, taken from my window. I did NOT want to go out in this - I mustn't be as hardcore as the poor cyclist in the video.

Anyway, it carried on, on and off like this all day, but I managed to nip out for a quick few miles between the downpours. Here's my route and stats from today.

PS. Speaking of lightning, I've just watched Usain Bolt win the Olympic 100m at London 2012. Magic.

Day 41: Quitters don't look like Jessica Ennis

RUN: 5.9 miles

Well here I am sat in Roberts Park in Saltaire on a beautiful sunny day. I'm having a little rest half way through my run from Baildon to here, and back along the canal.

Here's a little video of what I can see now. The bell ringers are practicing at the United Reformed Church and there are plenty of people playing in the park and a cricket game in the distance, as well as people drinking and eating outside the Boathouse pub across the river.

It's very warm and I must admit I thought about cutting my run short (well, to four miles rather than six).
I stopped under a bridge - probably looking like a sweaty, red-faced troll - felt a bit sick and really wanted to turn back. But I didn't.

Quitters do not get to look like Jessica Ennis (who is about to win gold in the London Olympics triathlon). Quitters also don't reach their goal of running 1,000 miles in a year.
I have to run back yet, though. Here it goes...

Part two
Well I made it. 5.9 miles - my longest run yet.
I'm no Olympian, but I am quite proud of today's run. It was a very nice day on the canal, too.

Here's my route and graphs and all that stuff

Day 40: Running... out of time

RUN: 1.0 miles

Today I returned to the old one-mile route - but it was down to bad planning rather than bad legs.
I'm on a late shift at work today, and after a rather late night last night I decided to have a bit of a lie-in and then chill out reading my book.
Well time ran away with me and I left it just too late to run any sort of distance.
It's probably for the best, though, since I'm planning quite a long one for tomorrow. Watch this space.
Here's the map and details for that well-trodden one-miler

Day 39: Getting the figures right

RUN: 1.4 miles

Just a mile and a bit around the block today.
If you're wondering why my runs are sometimes in very convenient round numbers, it's partly down to route planning and partly down to a bit of rounding off.
Of course I don't add on any distance that I haven't run (hell, no!) but if I get back and the clock is on 1.98 miles, say, I just run up and down outside home a few times to saves losing that precious tenth of a mile!
So if you see me running backwards and forwards like a loon, you know I'm just rounding off my route.
Here's all the maps and graphs for today.

Day 38: Note to self - must eat better

RUN: 2.0 miles

I'm on a late shift at work today, so I went out this lunchtime to put in a few miles.
I must admit, I did not want to put on my running gear and leave the house, let alone put one foot in front of the other.
But, that's what this is all about - motivation. I would never have gone out on one single run if I wasn't doing it for a good cause. And I wouldn't have chosen this challenge if it was going to be a piece of cake.

Speaking of cake... I know the reason I felt so sluggish this morning was down to my poor eating habits over the past few days. I've skipped lunch and eaten junk.
I partly blame my mum. Last night she made me eat fish and chips for tea. I've eaten more fish and chips in the last 38 days than I have in the past five years! Must do myself a favour and get back on the veg.
Mind you, having thought about this all the way round my run, the first thing I did when I got back was open a nice cold Coke from the fridge (how did that get there?)

As I type, this message is staring up at me from the cover of a magazine on the coffee table.

Too true

Anyway, here's my route and info from today. Note I did stop twice. No more chips!

Day 37: A couple of laps of Lister Park, Bradford

RUN: 2.4 miles

Today I went to Lister Park, Bradford, on my way home from work. It's where they do the Bradford Race For Life, so I thought I'd give it a try.
I parked up near Cartwright Hall (below), down towards the boating lake and back round - twice.

There were a few people around, walking and hanging about in the park, but the weather was pretty grim, so it was quite quiet. It was nice weather for ducks (or even geese) but even they didn't seem too impressed as I passed the boating lake, trying to avoid slipping on the wet concrete.

I'm more than ten per cent of the way into my challenge now, so should - technically, ideally - have done 100 miles by now. I've done 71.8. Not too bad. I'll keep stepping it up.

Here's my route and information on my run round Lister Park

Day 36: A fine few miles before tea

RUN: 2.0 miles

This evening I went out for just a couple of miles straight after work.

I'm not aiming for speed really, but the quicker I run, the better. Anything less than 10 mins per mile is a good run at this stage, I think. So today's pace - 9m 7s per mile wasn't bad.

I think I was spurred on by my rumbly tum. It doesn't help that within 100 yards of our front door we have a pub, a Subway, an Indian restaurant, a Chinese takeaway and a big fish and chip restaurant/takeaway. There seems to be temptation and lovely foody smells everywhere I run, especially at teatime while all the cooking smells are drifting out from people's kitchens and everyone seems to be tucking in while I'm plodding along.

Hunger aside, I felt reasonably good tonight - just two miles, so not overdoing it!
I really want to start going further more often. I might just give it a go, shin splints or no shin splints. Grr!
Here's my (familiar) route and info from this evening.

Day 35: More than four miles!

RUN: 4.4 miles

After returning from camping tonight I (surprisingly) felt quite good as I set out on my run towards the centre of Guiseley. So when I got there, I just carried on to the retail park. Then when I got there I just carried on to Yeadon, and then the JCT600 roundabout. Then I thought I'd better go home.
So almost four and a half miles, and I feel just fine. Quite pleased with that. I didn't even stop, other than to look around and decide I was going to turn back.
My time was not too shabby either, actually, all considered - 9m 38s per mile. Quite good, for me.
I'm icing the shins now so I'll hopefully be able to walk tomorrow. Watch this space

All the top Olympians use tea towels to secure their ice packs, you know

Here's my route and info for today's run

Day 34: Running and camping - not so compatible

RUN: 2.1 miles

Camping and running are not the most compatible activities. Squeezing into your skin-tight gear in the confines of a tent, stretching out while your campsite neighbours are gathering round their barbecues and having to contend with a cobwebby shower block when you get back is not ideal.
Actually, the campsite we stayed on was really good - not too many cobwebs.

We stayed at the Centenary Way campsite near Filey Beach, just outside Filey

So after my not-so-smooth run yesterday, I tried the same route and managed to remember the way.

The other thing about going camping is that I haven't been able to ice my legs and I've been sleeping on a rather uncomfy camp bed and crawling round on the floor quite a bit, so my legs were protesting a little bit today.
Here's my map and info for today's route

Day 33: Lost on the Yorkshire coast

RUN: 2.1 miles

This weekend we are camping in Filey, North Yorkshire.
Having finished work, packed up the car, driven to the coast and pitched the tent, the sun was going down.
So I quickly dived into my running gear and set off on a short-ish route from the campsite. Only I didn't really know where I was going (not as well as I thought I did).

Here I was looking back down the track towards Filey Brigg

(the big cliffs in the distance)... very picturesque

Thank god for Google Maps. MapMyRun let me down by losing connection, then I ended up running the wrong way - twice! - but I found my way using Google Maps and made it back to our tent before dark.

Here I was lost among the static caravans... not so picturesque!

We did end up cooking soup in the dark though!
Here's the little bit of run I managed to record. And here's the same route (recorded properly, minus my little detour) on Saturday.

Day 32: Is it ok for vegetarians to swallow flies?

RUN: 1.4 miles

The thing about running later in the evening is that there are so many flies around, you do end up with a few finding their way into your mouth. Then you start coughing and spluttering and lookoing stupid and not getting rid of the fly, so then swallowing and cringing as you run along.
This evening I did a shorter run up to Hollins Hill and back to preserve the old shins. I stuck to the main road, so it's just a straight route. Here it is.
Tonight I've been getting ready to go camping, so this weekend I will be mostly jogging round Filey... Get ready for some seaside-y running photos.

Day 31: One month in, 57 miles done

RUN: 2.0 miles

Well I'm 57.5 miles into my 1,000 - a mere 942.4 to go!
Tonight I went out on a different two-mile route to yesterday - up towards Hollins Hill, down Park Road and along Back Lane. Here's my route and info.
My shins hurt at first but, as usually happens, the pain stops after a while. I'm icing my legs once again as I type. I've still got my fingers crossed that my legs start to co-operate soon.
I learned a little fact today. It's quite apt for me. RUN is the word with the most definitions in the English language. It has 179 meanings, apparently.

Day 30: A horrible hot, humid hobble

Run: 2.0 miles

Well today's run was a bit of a disaster.
Not to worry, though - sometimes you just have bad days, I guess.
My legs felt stiff and it was a struggle to keep going. The fact the weather is really warm and close didn't help...I'm sure I'll run in worse weather over the coming year though!
Anyway, I made it round my two-mile route and my legs feel ok now, which is the main thing. I've got them elevated on some cushions and wrapped in ice as I type - can't be too careful!
The fundraising is going very well... I'm up to £208 online and about £150 offline! So a massive thank you to all the very generous people who have donated so far.
Here's today's route and info