Day 382: Run 5k, volunteer

Thank you, Penny:



The GPS got a bit confused as to distance because we were running through built-up streets and it kept losing signal, but I did the route (3 miles) in 36:48 with an average HR of 161. The first mile took 11 mins, the second took about 14 and I tried to run for more of the last mile than the second, but still took 12 minutes. Stitch, although not as bad as the last time, and I had to walk in a couple of places, but all in all I'm quite pleased by it. Emil beat me hollow, obv.

Seen on the route: two people in gimp suits (how the hell do you run in those things?), a bunch of firemen, a whole load of people juggling, hula-ing, some people walking their dogs, far too many people just wearing pants and a whole load of red paint, some bloke in a spangly thong (my eyes!), and loads of corporate teams.

I got a medal, which was nice. And a prune. But the queue for tea was far too long.

Right, I now have a PB; time to start training properly for 5ks.

And, thank you for sponsoring me. You're all good bunnies. I raised £145 and counting! Not bad, not bad at all :)

Just for the record, though: I'm not considering 44 & 45 to be done yet. I have to do much more training and my aim for the summer is to get a sub-30 min on the 5k route. On the other hand, I am considering task #20, volunteer for something, to be COMPLETED. So far in this 101things I've helped raise well over £200 for charity and I'm not intending to stop, but I think I can tick #20 off.

Ask me next week and I'll probably change my mind :)

Bad Mike, no biscuit.

I've been very, very poor at keeping this updated. More details for the below will come along in the next couple of days (I hope!) but this is a quick state of the blog, a couple of days past one year into the experiment.

1. Training and running the 5k is still going ahead (tasks 20, 44 and 45). That's happening on Sunday 21st at 9:30, starting at Victoria Gardens in Leeds - cheerleaders welcome, as is anybody who would like to sponsor me.

2. I've not been visiting different swimming pools (task 38), but I have been consistently going to the same one twice a week before work. As this task was primarily an exercise one I think I'm doing quite well here.

3. I discovered that Open Street Map doesn't have my area particularly well covered. So I'm going to fill in the blanks as part of the "explore my grid square" tasks (5 & 6).

4. Thanks to some interesting pointers and online documents I've learned more about planning regs (task 75) than I ever wanted to. And I've discovered just how much commercial rents in nice areas go for (task 74). A lot, is the answer.

5. Walking isn't happening as much as I'd like - 30 miles in any given week is a lot. I can do 20-mile weeks reasonably frequently - I've done eleven so far - so task 4 is getting modified downwards, I'm afraid.

6. New lightbulbs don't get hot enough to make a proper lava lamp (task 84), so I'm having to rethink the original plan. Thankfully I came across this, which has given me ideas.

7. Wordle-ing the blog posts has dropped off. I think I'm more cross about this than anything else; they're there as a prompter for me to actually update the blog, and didn't work. I shall have to kick myself into writing proper updates to this, and expand on the things I've written about in this entry.

So: bad Mike, no biscuit.