January Battle and parkrun

Every year in January, a battle takes place between running clubs around the globe, where the goal for each individual is to run 400km for the month of January. The top 5 men and top 5 women count towards the overall score, and should there be a tie, then it moves down to the 6th man and women, and so on until there is an overall winner. It's a team effort and purely just for fun, and it's a great way of getting people active in the new year and setting goals early on.

This is the third year that I have registered for the January Battle, flying the flag for Wild Rose Runners who meet weekly up in Edmonton, and they usually do pretty well as a team and always make the top 10.

Final run to hit 400km :)

For me personally, hitting 400km in a month isn't too much of a strain, especially if I include my lunch time wanderings and dog walks/jogs in addition to my scheduled daily runs. Indeed, today I hit the 402km which is 11 days ahead of the end date of the battle, and I have to say that I am feeling pretty good despite all those miles already being in my legs. I suppose one could ask why bother if I know I can do it, and the answer is simply because the mental aspect of the challenge drive me nuts!

I'm one of those runners that doesn't log those 2 or 3 mile runs every day - these are just part of my daily routine, and whilst they do contribute towards my fitness and overall general health in some way, they aren't a part of my structured training plan when preparing for races. Add to that that I really don't want people giving me kudos on Strava for a 3km dog jog, I don't tend to bother measuring time or distance. Yet for the January Battle, everything over 2km counts ..... needless to say, I find myself using my watch far more often, checking my mileage far more often, and whilst not obsessing over things, having to remember to record every single little run is both boring and frustrating to me. 

Does it really matter? No, not really, but it's good to put things into perspective and realise that the challenge isn't always necessarily physical :)

Another 3km run with my boy
to finish off the January Battle :)

Talking about all the dog jogs, these have become far more frequent this past few weeks, ever since Wilson went for his annual checkup just before Christmas. We already knew that he was turning in to a little chubby chubster and we were trying to control his food intake, but as an older dog, he isn't exercising as much, and he is definitely much slower and he inevitably started to put on the pounds.

Wilson has always been an active boy and he absolutely loves his runs, even when it's bitter cold outside. But when the girls come with us for a run or a walk, we tend to cut things short as they have far less tolerance for the extreme conditions, which of course means less exercise for Wilson. 

The visit to the vets confirmed what we had already guessed - he had put on another 2 lbs since his last visit - so action was needed to get him looking more like a Whippet again! I started running 2 miles or around 3km with him daily back in December, and he has been loving it! He had a minor blip when he tore his dewclaw for the umpteenth time and he was on forced rest for a few days, but when he could run, he was out there with me, clocking up those miles.

Wilson has certainly slowed down from his younger days - he can no longer run a 6 or 7 minute mile with me, and tends to average out closer to 9s these days, but given that he's now 12 years old, that is still impressive! He runs along with his tail held high, glancing at me every so often and smiling from ear to ear, and whilst he isn't exactly sprinting like he used to, he is still trying so hard to trot along at his own pace. I get emotional just thinking about how hard he tries to be the pup he used to be, but it really doesn't matter how slow he is when he runs with me - we just relish that time together, having fun and enjoying our running. Sometimes April will join us and she too is turning out to be an awesome running buddy, and the other day, even Tillie joined us for a little 4km dog jog. Watching all three pups run alongside eachother, shoulder to shoulder and looking so happy made me so proud of them all, and it was so clear to see how they look out for and support each other as a little pack/

The best dog team ever! All three pups on a 4km run :)

Of course, none of them join me on my longer runs, so I tend to do these solo, and I've had some pretty good sessions this past few weeks since recovering from Covid. A couple of weeks ago, it was really foggy and I had to do a speed session consisting of 8 x 400m repeats. I couldn't see a thing in the fog, and it was still quite slippery and icy underfoot due to being so cold, yet I somehow managed to hit my goal pace of around 6.40 miling. Last week, I did my first progression run in a while, and once again I managed a few sub 7s towards the end.

Extreme cold warnings and fog results in beautiful
hoar frost on the trees :)

Just another gorgeous but rather chilly winter's eve run!

Yesterday was another long run day with 30km on my schedule, which included the option of doing the River Valley parkrun. I hadn't done parkrun since just before Christmas when I ran with Wilson on Christmas Eve, so I was curious to see how I would get on if I ran comfortably hard. Much of course would come down the weather and conditions underfoot - we tend to have sub zero temperatures and an icy or snow covered route to contend with - but yesterday, the weather was around freezing and the pavements weren't too bad at all. I ran the 5km course as planned, not looking at my watch until the very end, and was pleasantly surprised to see 22.17 as my finishing time - just 30 seconds off my course PB that I set during the summer months last year. Given the mileage this month, given the lack of speedwork, I was very happy with that, and it certainly gives me some confidence moving forwards as I start to build things up in preparation for my forthcoming races in the next few months.

River Valley parkrun
PC: River Valley parkrun volunteer :)

So with just over a week of January remaining, I'm certainly happy with how things are going running wise. I was really hoping to get some camping trips in and get some videos posted to my YouTube channel, but we had a stretch of extreme cold a few weeks ago, and there is another one on its way for next weekend. We do have woodstoves and we do have a hot tent, but the tent isn't quite big enough for us and the three dogs, so we are on the lookout for something bigger that will provide us with space and comfort for the winter camping we love to do. I'm sure there will be something posted soon, so if you follow my YouTube channel, please stay tuned!

For now though, I'm looking forward to more runs and more fun with the pups over the coming week, making the most of the mild conditions whilst we can. Hopefully you can get outside and have some fun too, and I'll catch up with you all again soon!