Janathon ended but what happened next?

A week after, here is some stats of the 2014 Janathon:

I ran 211 km in 30 consecutive runs in 3 different countries. The temperatures oscilated between -10 to +30 Celsius. Most of my runs were outside but I lived through one week of the treadmill torture as well. My longest run was a 1/2M and it went well. I also counted some rather short ones (3 km being the worst) but those were mainly due to time constrains. Physically, no problems what so ever. No, I am nowhere near my ideal weight yet but funny enough, my knee is holding well and so are all other body parts :-).

My deep apology to all Janathoners whose blogs I did not visit quite as frequently as I am used to. I hardly had enough time to note my own runs, let alone to write daily blog reports. Somehow, I think you will forgive me.

And last but not least, my big THANK YOU to my beautiful girls and to all my friends who supported me throughout the lonely runs…

Now a couple of days into February, my running mode is a bit more relaxed (I had a three day break from running!) but there are still interesting plans to discover some new routes later this week and there might be a surprise waiting for me in March as well.

Janathon Part III.

I successfully survived 20 days of Janathon, finished off with my own private Idaho half marathon and here I am, still in Cyprus, entering the last third. I tend to run early in the morning now. It is light, not too warm and I feel rather fresh. Surprisingly fresh I should say, considering the long working hours and growing mileage 🙂

Update: Finishing the third part of Janathon by a midnight double run (counts for 2 days 🙂 with 60.8 km:

Day 30/31: 5.8 km
Day 29: 4.8 km
Day 28: 4.2 km
Day 27: 3 km (!)
Day 26: 10 km
Day 25: 8.2 km
Day 24: 6.1 km
Day 23: 7.1 km
Day 22: 4.5 km
Day 21: 7.1 km

My private 1/2M

While Janathon is in full swing, due to extensive work load and some travelling this month, I had to skip my attendance at the 1/2M in Egmond, a race that I was looking forward to since Christmas. The idea of matching my longest run so far (Leiden 1/2M back in spring of 2012) kept sitting in my head, though. I thought I had the legs for it and after the last week treadmill torture there was even the mental prep. The only thing I did not have was a plan.

Last night, I went out with a friend – just one beer as we both had a looong working day behind us. But then as we were almost leaving the pub, our waitress by mistake served us double scotch on the house and what do you do? Letting the ice melt in the long glass filled with whisky was not in my books. And I still had my Janathon run to make! By the time I dragged myself through 4 painful and sleepy kilometers, showered and hit my bed, it was way past midnight.

This morning I woke up with the “I’ll never drink again” feeling and somehow, almost automatically started pouring water in my camel bag. The thing is, I thought, when carrying a water bag, I will be motivated to run further than just a few miles. If only my head was not sore…

Little by little I gathered my running gear, a package of caffeine chewing gums to substitute my morning coffee and once my Garmin (“Did we change continents AGAIN?”) found its position, off I went. I decided to run westwards following the Coastal Road until I passed the Old Port and the new marina.

There at the crossroads I chose the southern unpaved road to Lady’s Mile. By then, I was about 5 km into my run feeling good. The surrounding scenery quickly changed from industrial views of the harbor to the semi desert landscape around the Akrotiri salt lake.

Unfortunately, the flies and other unidentified insects equipped with wings and stungs wanted to join me… And so we were all running/flying through hard sand and over the salty plains up until the point where we could enjoy the sea view. Despite my habits I drank quite regularly as the temperature started to climb and I was really happy with my water bag. Around 11th km I stopped for a while and still felt surprisingly fresh. Nevertheless, I decided to turn back and run towards the city again.

After 14 km I finally started to feel some discomfort and slowed down a bit. Unfortunately the caffeine chewing gums turned to be of no use for me (unless I wanted to keep them whenever I need to turn my stomach inside out) so I threw the whole package away and bit 2 pieces of fruit sugar instead. That helped for another 4 km or so. I think that is where I had a small crisis. Being me, I covered it by a short break at the ATM machine as I needed to withdraw some cash anyway.
These magical 5 or perhaps 10 minutes did the trick again and the rest of my run was luckily as easy as the beginning. By the time I was approaching the starting point, I figured that with a tiny D-tour I could press the Garmin stop button at 21.1km. By then, I clocked 2:26:30.

Can one’s day start in any better way?

P.S. The pictures are not mine this time…

Janathon Part II.

This year, Janathon caught me in a warm and sunny place and I have all the conditions to run daily and extend my mileage as much as my body allows. Not that I am complaining (the first third brought me to very reasonable 67 km) but there is again a constraint on my way: this time, it is my mind. Even though my body feels strong enough to run further, somehow I cannot cross the invisible marker of 8 or 10 km. I feel I could go further if only my head was not restricting me to do so.

“Why bother, you have done enough today!” and “Let’s face it, you will never become a long-distance runner anyway!” are the most common LOUD voices in my head. They usually appear around mile 2 and want me to return home. What kind of mental block is this and why is it happening to me? Despite the fact that I am 40 years old tired mum of 2 babies with a body not even remotely resembling an athlete, I do like running and I am happy that these days I can run every day.

So this morning I tried to pass the invisible border and to ignore the imaginary voices. Not that I ran VERY far but it was my first run this year longer than 10 km and I even achieved negative splits. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

Finishing the second third of this year’s Janathon with 83.3 km:
Day 20: 6.6 km
Day 19: 4.3 km
Day 18: 21.1 km
Day 17: 4 km
Day 16: 6 km treadmill
Day 15: 8.6 km treadmill
Day 14: 9 km treadmill
Day 13: 6.5 km treadmill
Day 12: 5 km treadmill
Day 11: 12.2 km city run

Janathon 2014 – Part I.

It has become somewhat of a tradition to enter the Athon participation list. This is going to be my 4th Athon (after Janathon 2012, Juneathon 2012 and Juneathon 2013). This time, however, I am not a total running greenhorn anymore, nor am I injured, pregnant or merely out of the delivery room. This time, there are no excuses but to RUN…. hence I am finishing the first third of Janathon with 66.9 km’s:

Day 10: 7 km city run
Day 9: 6.5 km city/beach trail
Day 8: 8.1 km city run
Day 7: 7.5 km city run
Day 6: 7.5 km city trail
Day 5: 5.4 km city run
Day 4: 6 km city run; 3 km walk
Day 3: 6.3 km city run
Day 2: 5.4 km city run; 5 km bike
Day 1: 7.2 km stroller run; 3 km beach walk

Given the circumstances (two beautiful soon-to-be-one-year-old daughters, moving to a new country, lots of work,…), I am happy with my running. What I am NOT happy with is the lack of time to blog and to read other bloggers’ posts. Definitely something to improve!