The Virtual Runner Running Blog

Sorry I haven’t written anything in a few days but I’ve been very stressed and writing on my blog hasn’t been foremost in my mind.

My Uncle

My Uncle Gordon in Canada passed away last week and he’ll certainly be missed.  Unfortunately I couldn’t be there with the rest of the clan to say my good-byes but my thoughts and love are being broadcast across the Atlantic to my Aunt and all the family.

My Dad

On returning from her brother’s funeral, my mother had to take my father to hospital and he got admitted straight away.  My father isn’t very well at the moment (Parkinsons, Polymyalgia Rheumatica & Osteoporosis to name a few) and he’s quite frail.  My mother said he caught a cold and got pneumonia.  He was in the hospital and the doctors said his heart wasn’t strong enough to pump (congestive heart failure).

They’ve been medicating him and he’s not in intensive care at the moment.  Mum said he’s grouchy so he is stable.

My Brother (Best Friend)

My best friend (who is a brother to me) travelled across northern Canada by dogsled all the way to Alaska.  It took him a few months and he was out of contact with me and everyone else during the whole trip which lasted about four months.  At the end of April he sent a message via facebook to say he was back in civilization.  I couldn’t wait to hear his stories!  Unfortunately I never heard from him again until a few days ago.  I was getting really worried because I had no numbers for him or anything and he wasn’t responding to emails either.  I’ve spoken to him now and I’m so relieved.  I’m still waiting to hear the stories about his adventure though and get some pictures.  As soon as I get some I’ll post them here and you can have a look.  I might even get Rob to write or post some stories from his trip.

Our Home

About a week ago we received a letter from our letting agent advising us that our landlord would like to renew our rental agreement at £1000 per month.  £1000!  What a joke!  Sure, our rent is £950 at the moment and it’s only £50 more but our place isn’t worth £950 either even if it is a 4 bed detached property.  There is no double glazing and our heating bill in the winter period was well over £100 a month.  He never sorts anything out and we haven’t had a proper written rental agreement since 2007.  The place is run down.  Enough is enough.

The day I got the letter from our letting agent I went online and did a search for 2 bedroom properties to let in the area.  The first one I found was a 2 bedroom semi-detached cottage (£750 per month).  We promptly called and arranged to view the property on Monday (just passed).  It was lovely.  The letting agent said that the rent was so cheap because the property was so close to the motorway, but we didn’t care.  It has a huge garden and the house has been completely renovated throughout.

Ours is on the left:

This is the front of the house:

The kitchen:

It’s a lovely house and everything is new including the wiring and plumbing, the fridge, the kitchen, the cooker the flooring the lighting… everything.  We hope to get the keys to the new property on 01 July.

So, as we will be moving I may not have internet access during parts of July.  It depends on how long it takes our current broadband provider to transfer things etc.  It’s bad enough I gotta wait a month for the Sky TV to be moved over!  That sucks.

My Juneathon Efforts

Not enough running, that’s for sure.  I just haven’t been able to get myself up and out.  It’s been hard the past couple of weeks but I’ve made some effort toward Juneathon as follows:-

Monday, 15th June – 5 sets of push-ups (20, 22, 20, 20 & 20)

Tuesday, 16th June - 2 sets of push-ups (20 & 20) – I couldn’t really be bothered.

Wednesday, 17th June – 2 sets of crunces (50 & 30) – I couldn’t really be bothered and it was late.

Thursday, 18th June – 3 sets of crunches (50, 60 & 60) and 5 sets of push-ups (20, 31, 28, 26 & 20)

Friday, 19th June – 3 sets of crunches (50, 60 & 70) and 3 sets of push-ups (20, 20 & 20)

Realistically I should’ve done more running when I was feeling stressed to help reduce the stress levels.  Anyway, I’m happier now and I’m gonna get up off my ass and do some more running!  I promise!

I’m sooo happy about the house…

crunches, juneathon, push-ups, robby kilborn

A nice weekend and some more great Juneathon effort put in; even if I do say so myself!

Yesterday was a non-running day for me and I opted for even more push-ups and did 5 sets of 20, 25, 20, 20 & 20.  The push-ups have felt great and I’m looking forward to continuing them into the future.  I may even consider doing the 100 push-ups training again if I can actually be bothered.  Last time I attempted it I was put off by the ridiculous number of push-ups you were supposed to do for the last sets.  I’ll wait for a few weeks and I’ll give it a go again.

This morning and last night I was debating on whether to go to the Wargrave 10k, Dinton Pastures or to just run around here.  In the end I opted to go for a run around here.  I was going to go to the Wargrave 10k but I’m picky about the runs I do and if there is no medal or t-shirt then I really can’t be bothered.  This event has t-shirts only and those are only for the people who pre-register; which I didn’t do.  As the event wasn’t that important to me I wasn’t bothered about just going to do it for the sake of doing it.

Dinton pastures is nice although generally flat (one short hill) all the way around.  I’ll probably go there next Sunday for a longer easy run.

This morning I left the house and set out around here and crossed the motorway on the disused bridge.  I ran up a lot of long gradual hills and ended up stopping to do some walking on quite a few occasions.  I was also suffering from those damn shin splints again for the first half (30 mins) of my outing which caused me to keep stopping and stretching.  They really piss me off and I’m sick of them because I could run for ages if it wasn’t for my damn legs getting knackered all the time.

Anyway, I did 11.01km (6.84 miles) at a 05:47 min/km (09:20 min/mile) pace.

This Wednesday evening I’ll be heading to running club (Reading Roadrunners) with my friend Tony for some training.  We were going during the winter when it was cold and dark so it should be a nice change to go during the summer.  I have no idea what the weather will be like for Wednesday but if it is raining I’m not going (curse of wearing glasses – can’t see anything while running).

I’m off to have a read of some other blogs and see how everyone else if doing.

juneathon, pains and niggles

The running continues and it’s feeling great!  Yesterday I did 10.86km (6.74 miles) at a total average pace of 05:30 min/km (08:52 min/mile).  I built some speedwork into that run and did a few kms of 250 metre repeats.  250 metres at faster than usual pace followed by 250 metres at slightly slower than usual pace.

This morning I ran 10.55 km (6.55 miles) at an average pace of 05:40 min/km (09:09 min/mile).  This morning’s run felt good, even though my right butt-cheek and lower back is a bit sore from the speedwork yesterday.  My sciatic nerve plays up a bit once in a while but with some constant stretching it usually goes away.

To cap it all off I did some push-ups and crunches this evening -

Push-ups:  3 sets of 20,22 & 22

Crunches:  3 sets of 60, 50 & 70

I think I might head out to Wargrave to take part in the Wargrave 10k on Sunday morning.  It’s something to do and it adds another medal to my collection.  After that we’re heading over to my friend Tony’s place for a bbq.

Tomorrow I might go for a short run of a couple kms around here on the cycle paths… I’m still undecided.

I’ve been reading everyone’s Juneathon blogs and most people are keeping it up which is very impressive (one person hasn’t posted anything in 10 days!).  I think we should all give ourselves a pat on the back for getting this far and remember that we are just about half way!  Keep it up Juneathoners!

juneathon, planned races, training

I wasn’t going to post anything today; I was just going to save it until tomorrow.  As you can see I have changed my mind.

I received an email from my sister in Canada (my whole family lives in Canada – where I’m originally from) saying that my uncle (mum’s brother) is in the hospital and they were concerned as to whether he would make it through the night.  She sent that email last night and I got it this morning.  I haven’t heard anything since and it sucks.  I really hope he’s doing okay and my thoughts go out to my family over there.

I suppose that’s one of the down-sides to settling in a different country so far away.  I can’t just drop everything (can’t afford it) and fly back when things happen.  It gets me down sometimes as I would like to be there for people as well and to offer support where possible.  For now I’ll have to hope everything is going okay and that someone will let me know.

As for running, I did none today.  I did my usual push-ups and crunches (not full sit-ups) as follows:-

Push-ups:  5 sets of 20, 25, 22, 22 & 20

Crunches:  3 sets of 70, 100 & 100

I have been reading other people’s blogs about Juneathon and I’m impressed how everyone is trying their best to stick to it and do some sort of exercise each day. 

Keep it up everyone.

2 years ago today I started logging all of my runs.  Happy anniversary to me!

juneathon