the wobbles

A bit of a Janathon wobble today. One of those "why am I doing this?" days. Of course one of the reasons I'm doing it is as training for this year's Six Foot Track. My rough training plan is a ton of base in January, go long once in February and hope for the best on the second Sunday of March. That seemed to work for me last year, and I figure it is the least I can get away with. Said it before and I'll say it again; old guys need to train smarter, not harder.

But I can do a reasonable base-load in January with a couple of days off...I blame Paul Lewis. On the one hand I don't want to get involved in a Janathon race, but on the other I don't want to open up too much of a lead and allow the wobbles to creep in, that devil on the shoulder saying "go on, have a rest, you'll be fine..." I know he can thrown down some big runs in exactly the same way that I can't. So that leaves me in a bit of a rut; I churn out (the equivalent of) a half each day, running mostly the same routes (or variations on a theme to make sure I go via enough bubblers to prevent dehydration getting on top of me.) It can get a bit dull. I've got a 10k on the last day of the month, so I know I need to keep on top of things in the mid-section in order to have a bit of a rest before Saturday 31st. After all, I'd like to do a respectable time in The Sun Run.

Once again choice was a bit limited. I try to run at times that have the lowest possible impact on the rest of the family and fit around the things I need to do. The dogs needs a walk, and in the summer it has to be early. He's a big hairy lump and struggles in the heat of the day. Hence a lot of my posts starting with something like "So I walked Rowlf..."

So I walked Rowlf down to the Spit and he had a swim and an early breakfast of dead fish. He spotted the fish first but I managed to keep him away from it and distracted while working on fetching from the Harbour. But then I got a bit distracted and he nailed it.

Back home and it was off to Darling Harbour so the kids could play in some fountains and on some

swings and slides and wot-not in the play park. It was a warm morning and I was sweating with the effort of just standing there, which was a little concerning. But it was nowhere near as hot as yesterday; it was about 27 in the shade, so still pretty warm, but I can do that. I set off at ten past midday.

The girls had had a good time, mum had loaded them into the car while I changed - unenthusiastically - into my running gear and set off. Mad dog at home, Englishman out running in the midday sun. Nothing new there. The plan was to bimble about in the city for a while, clock up a few km then head over the bridge and home via a bike route. The plan changed a little as it went along. I thought I might do 23km to get to 400 for the month, then I thought I'd do a half and eventually I thought sod it and headed home a little shorter than that. I did run a few yards past home and back to clock up 20km for the day. I was in credit from yesterday so still managed a marathon distance for the weekend, and given the weather I figure that's OK. Happy to do a single run.

Janathoned out

I had a bit of housework to do when I got home, then the girls woke from their lunchtime snoozes Sal headed out. Fortunately the girls have some sort of bead-craft-plaything that a more engaged father would probably know a bit more about. I'm not him. They entertained themselves and I fell asleep on the deck, under the ceiling fan. AJ took a picture of me - Janathoned out - wearing my Janathon T-shirt. Represent!

Janathon total 397km

Edit: Six Foot is the second Saturday in March. I nearly added 24hours to my personal worst. Glad I looked...