Juneathon 2021 Days 7-13

Whoops – knew I’d forgotten to do something! A quick catch up of my Juneathon activities from the last week.

Monday 7th June – work, so a round trip bike commute of 5.5 miles.

Tuesday 8th June – run with my friend of 3.75 miles (although Garmin had a blip and reckons it was 3.94 miles).

Wednesday 9th June – an hours tai chi lesson.

Thursday 10th June – running again – just over 7 hot, hilly, mainly off road miles. Within the first mile I met overly-interested cows and decided to retreat, retrace my footsteps, and go round by the road. Not a great start, but the rest of the route was bovine-free and enjoyable despite the heat and hills.

Interested cows beyond a stile
Absolutely no way!

Friday 11th June was back to work, and so another cycle-commute.

Saturday 12th June I nearly ran out of time but just managed to squeak in 20 minutes of tai chi practice before midnight.

Sunday 13th June – knowing this day was bound to go the same as yesterday, I enthusiastically took myself off for a short walk before going out for the day. As I left the shady shelter of the trees I realised I should have applied sun cream and worn at least my sun glasses, if not a sun hat as well. 2 1/4 miles walked down and up a hill in 40 minutes.

Juneathon 2021 Day 6. Run for Frank

A lovely, sunny Sunday stretched ahead me and before I could slope off and simply potter the day away I decided to go for a run. As a change from my usual plods I thought I’d see how close I could get to a 30 minute 5K (just in case parkrun ever returns).

Despite stopping to take photos along the way, I was impressed that my “moving” time was 30:29. Much faster than I’d hoped.

One of my running club colleagues, Frank, was taking part today in an Ultra race, the Suffolk backyard ultra. In this unique race, entrants have to run 4.16 miles every hour as many times as they can. Winner is the last runner still going. The course record is 41 laps – do the maths! Why 4.16 miles? Well it’s the distance to cover every hour in order to complete 100 miles in 24 hours. The day was warm and humid, and I was tired after 5K but in a nod of appreciation to Frank’s amazing challenge I decided to run on a bit further. I ran past my house, and ran another 1.2 miles (I had mis-remembered the distance).

Frank did so well, and finally stopped after 116 miles. He had struggled with the temperature, and eating and drinking. To think I was tired after 1 lap!

Sign I spotted today.

Juneathon 2021 Day 5. Wandering walk

I always knew weekends were going to be a challenge for this year’s Juneathon, because I have exercise scheduled for every other day (which you will see repeated throughout the month).

After a leisurely start to the day, I then spent hours pottering around the garden. As the afternoon wore on, I debated talking up the amount of activity I’d just done and calling that my Juneathon day. However, as we know, slacking is not an option (certainly not in the first week!) so I put my walking shoes on and set off for a wander down to the woods.

I haven’t walked this way for a few weeks, and I was shocked at how both tall everything has grown (grass, stinging nettles etc) and how flat the freshly ploughed part of the field was.

Stopping to empty grit and dust out of my shoes whilst standing on one leg at a time in a field should be a Juneathon activity itself. However just in case it doesn’t count, my walk was 3.2 miles and was beautiful. I was glad I’d made the effort- thank you Juneathon!

Photo of poppy in field with dramatic sky.
My how you’ve grown!

Juneathon 2021 Day 4. Will walk for Wine

Another cycle commute today, 5.5 miles on the bike. 7 1/2 hours standing at work (not trying to claim that as a Juneathon activity, just seeking sympathy). In case that wasn’t enough, I also walked down to a friend’s house to deliver a birthday card and present.

We had a a lovely chat and a glass of wine, then I walked back up as the sun set. Another 3 1/2 mile, and a very chilled start to the weekend.

Sunset walk home

Juneathon 2021 Day 3. A run at last

At last – a run! Nothing too adventurous as my running buddy has a sore knee which hurts going uphill. She lives down the valley from me, so we currently start every run with her run/walking up the hill to mine, and then we run round and back down another hill to take her home.

Today we did well, and after I’d dropped her off at home I struggled back up the steep hill (running all the way) and then realised I was trotting along again quite nicely – the hill hadn’t finished me off.

Pleased with this, I ran past my house (we all know how difficult that is!) and added on a little loop across the fields.

In all about 5.5 miles (watch didn’t start at the start), and it was my first run in shorts of the year. Very pleasant!

Buttercup fields

Juneathon 2021 Day 2. Tai chi

After several lockdowns, furloughed, with time to fill, I now have an array of pre-arranges activities throughout the week. In lockdown these were the only things that marked the passing of time, and I was extremely grateful for them. You will see which ones they are over the course of Juneathon’s blogs.

Wednesday is Tai Chi day. Over Zoom still, and as I am working on the days the classes are held in person this will continue for the time being. At least I’m the only person in the house on Wednesday mornings now, and I can have all of the meagre WiFi

Even so, I’ve still never managed to remember the entire form all the way through. Maybe by the end of Juneathon…

Juneathon 2021 Day 1. Cycle commute

And suddenly, it was June! Equally surprisingly, it was Juneathon. After my success in completing the Mad March Mile of course I’m motivated for this year’s Juneathon.

So day 1, which I would have forgotten about, is fortunately covered by cycling to and from work. 5.5 mile round trip is just far enough, thank you, especially on the way home after a day on my feet.