Well, it's hard to believe the end of Juneathon is finally here and I am now composing my last blog of the month! It's been a lot of fun; It's played havoc with my training plan but it's encouraged me to participate in things I might not otherwise have bothered with in order to have something more interesting to say (!) and it's given me an opportunity to engage with other runners online. I'm not sure it;s done much for my fitness as I've not exactly had much rest or recovery but it doesn't seem to have killed me either, which is interesting to discover as some would have you believe that your legs would implode if you didn't take at least two rest days a week! There we are anyway, that's the end of it and what a month it's been! Going out with a bang however, I have a couple of other things to note today, not least of which is the eventual arrival and contents of my first Joggbox! Joggbox is a start up company who basically operate like a vegbox scheme... for runners. Each month (assuming you choose a monthly subscription you get a box of running related 'goodies' mostly trials and samples of things you might not otherwise try. You can then order these from Joggbox as extras in the future if you want to. It's a luxury, guaranteed, there's nothing about this which is a necessary outgoing but I was tempted and there's no minimum term so I thought I'd give it a go.
| First things first, if you're going to spend cash on something you don't need, you want it to be a good experience from start to finish. I contacted the company first off to enquire about the contents and see if I could get 'swaps' for non-vegan products. I got a very fast and personal response assuring me that whilst the June box was 100% vegan anyway, I could certainly request it in the future. A good start and with very approachable customer service I decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, I had some issues with the delivery. I've had problems with this particular courier before; they don't have anywhere for you to collect from and if you're not in three times they return the package to the sender. Fine, if you can contact them to rearrange delivery for an appropriate time but they only deal with the sender, not the recipient. I ended up contacting Joggbox on a Friday night, having seen a second delivery attempt had been made despite my email to the company. It had all the makings of a real saga, however to their credit, Joggbox not only responded to my out of hours email but got it sorted it seems so that when delivery was attempted again on Saturday the box was actually left outside my door and so it was waiting for me when I got home after the trail run. Good timing! Attention to detail is also pretty important for a non-essential spend product and things like packaging make all the difference (especially for a visual artist like myself!) so I enjoyed the quality of the box itself and the pleasing contrast between the the colour of that and the tissue paper wrapping my bundle! I spent about 2 minutes trying to carefully pick off and preserve the 'Run Eat Repeat' sticker before discovering that i needn't have bothered; there was a fresh one in the box! yay for stickers! Brownie point one to Joggbox! I was also pretty chuffed with the train ticket holder... pretty random but very useful, especially as mine was falling to bits and this is much nicer than the National Rail offering anyway! Cool! I then got into the contents, following the info leaflet inside that explains all the goodies. |
| Sure enough, there were a couple of products that I already knew and used but that didn't mean it wasn't worth having them. I'm also gettign to try a couple of things I have seen but not ventured towards, the beetroot juice shot and Hi5 energy gels (I use SiS), so that'll be interesting, just to give a different product a go. I think runners tend to stick with what they know works, so this could be a really good scheme to encourage a bit of brand comparison! I think my favourite thing was the Footrubz ball. This is for use as a self foot massage and as I do get some soreness, mostly in my left after longer runs, much appreciated. I've been using a tennis ball up until now but this is much better, harder and smaller, easier to use and getting to the right 'bits' quicker! Now this strange water bottle. apparently it is designed to hook on to your waistband (see my sexy modelling!) I wasn't convinced but I tried it out today. It was in my hand before I was 50 meters from the door and stayed there the whole run. Sorry but I just didn't get on with it! What is good about it is the lidless top; handy for a quick drink without cap-faffing and I think the hooking bottle idea will be useful, for things like popping on the cross trainer in the gym... just not for running with, unless you don't mind something in your hand. It is easy to hold after all. |
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Clumber Park TrailBlazer 28.06.14
| Generally, I have enjoyed the Joggbox. The careful packaging and well selected products made it a fun treat, going through all the little bits and bobs and deciding how and when to use it was a bit like getting a Christmas stocking! I'm going to stick with and see what is in my next one at least. £18 a month isn't an insubstantial outgoing on my (part time) budget but it won't break the bank if I'm careful. Assuming we manage to sort out the delivery issues and the quality of July is as good as June then I could be persuaded to be a regular customer I think! In other news, the official results from Saturdays TrailBlazer came through today! Turns out I was 8th female (out of 331) in a time of 46.30! 1st came in at 44.02, so I didn't do too badly for a 'fun' run! |
And yes, I have shamelessly 'stolen' the above image. I make no apologies for using a very low-res image of myself for non-commercial purposes that I didn't ask to have taken in the first place! I'm glad I look like I was enjoying myself as much as I actually was! I've see race photos where I look like I'm suffering when actually I was having a great time!
| So, all that was well and good but possibly the most exciting update for today was that at lunchtime I received an email confirming my place in the 2015 London Marathon! I was really surprised to discover that it only cost £31 too! That makes the cost of one or two other races seem really extortionate by comparison! To celebrate, I took myself off on a 13.2 mile run! (well... It was the long run I should have done yesterday instead of going to Leeds but I'm nothing if not flexible!) I headed back to Heaton Park as it was a lovely evening, did a loop and and then shot across to Middleton before dropping back down to Manchester not far from the Salford Harriers club house, so it sort of turned into a dry run of that journey too, in case I don't feel like getting the bus one night! I had to stop and check directions in Middleton and it always makes me laugh when people look a bit worried and tell you it's 'quite a long way' as if you had somehow teleported there in the first place! :) | 
My Confirmation email!
The Final Run of Juneathon!
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Run Route
| So there you have it. Good bye Juneathon, it's been fun! Life (and training plans!) go on however and tomorrow I will be back on the speed intervals, though possibly not at the track as it sounds like everyone will be at a race in Rochdale. I doubt the cessation of the challenge will have much impact on my mileage but I hope I will be able to focus back on my sub 40 10k goal now and keep working on my speed (I think I am on track for that if I refocus now and do what I am supposed to be doing!) I also need to get back on my core work as I've been a bit lazy with that over the last two weeks. |
I will maintain the blog as I've had a surprising amount of positive feedback (Thanks everyone, hope you've enjoyed reading!) but I am very much looking forward to not having to do it every day. So much for the short updates. I just have too much to say! Well it has been a busy month... but a really exciting one. I can't wait to find out what July has in store... The Newham Anniversary Run and the We <3 MCR 10k at the very least, though I somehow expect a few other things might pop up as they seem to have a habit of doing... Watch this space!
