I first tried to take part in Juneathon in 2015, and managed to just about drag myself to day 7 before pitifully failing and never mentioning it again. (You can see how it went over on my other blog, but it’s not inspiring.) Of course, I’m a tad more active these days, so it seemed a whole lot more doable this year and threw myself into giving it another go.

But hold up, “what’s Juneathon?” you ask. Juneathon — as described by the official facebook page — is:

“An annual festival of activity and excuses. Run or cross-train every day in June and blog about it.”

So here I am. Running (although mostly cross training) every day in June. I’ve also set myself the extra challenge of doing something new each week to keep things fresh. I’ve been keeping a log over on instagram and have so far managed:

Day 1: 45 minutes of taekwon-do

I don’t take my phone with me to taekwon-do so instead snapped this picture of me attempting a side piercing kick later that day to represent my activity.

The kick itself isn’t great. My standing foot should be turned outwards more, and the heel of the kicking foot should be slightly higher than the toes. (Also, my arm should be straight but I have weird elbows that don’t allow fully extend.) My leg muscles look great though.

Day 2: 15km run

Sunday run day! A very hot, very muggy 15km run around the trails connecting Ironbridge and Broseley. A fantastic (albeit hilly) route and a great view of the now defunct Ironbridge power station cooling towers.

I was bitten by something insect-y though, and it’s taken all week for the redness and swelling to go down. :S

Day 3: weight training

Leg day! Slowly re-introducing leg day now that I’m backing off from marathon training. Did some baby squats at 40kg as well as a bunch of accessory work.

(Click image to launch instagram video in separate tab.)

Day 4: 45 minutes of taekwon-do

After a bad day on Tuesday 4th which saw me mentally and physically drained, I had to force myself to go attend taekwon-do but as always, I’m glad I did. I got some great feedback from my instructor on my latest pattern which will help me improve.

I’m quite lucky in that I have yet to feel worse after a workout. That mardy face though…

Day 5: netball, gym AND running

A triple whammy on day 5 with an hour of netball (which I’m totally counting as my “new” thing even though I’ve been doing it a few weeks), 45 minutes or so at the gym and then helping my husband with his couch to 5k progression (week 2 session 1). I was properly knackered by the end of it all though, as work and a meeting had prevented me from fitting in all my meals for the day.

Day 6: 8km run

A very hot, very sweaty 8km with the Broseley Joggers Thursday night crew. Distracted myself from hills with a good rant and managed to nail the #2 slot (women) in strava for a local segment (and I’m pretty sure the woman in #1 is either secretly faster than the world record holder, or she was on a bike)

Day 7: deadliftssss (& other weight training)

Finishing Juneathon week 1 with a back and biceps session including this nice little 90kg deadlift:

(Click image to launch instagram video in separate tab.)

My form is slightly off — I round my back slightly during the pull — but nothing extreme and easily fixed. A nice end to a shit (albeit very active) week.

Feeling like I well and truly smashed week 1 and looking forward to week 2. If you’d like to follow my Juneathon shenanigans (amongst other things) or just love my range of facial expressions, follow me on instagram for all the fun as it happens. Or shortly after when I’ve got wifi, you know.

Lead photo from the Juneathon facebook page

I wrote this last week but have been a tad busy – oops! Juneathon day 7 saw me take another slightly unorthodox activity day. No, not more vacuuming (although there was plenty of that), but the second Sunday spent totally gutting my home ‘utility’ (that is, brick lean-to outside the back door). The utility is… read full entry »

I have to admit the past few days effort at Juneathon have been pretty pathetic, hence me not rushing to blog about them. My excuse is that after my epic (for me) day 2 workout and then the intervals on day 3 I was knackered. Day 4 I wussed out and took the kids on… read full entry »

After yesterday’s badass workout I was prepared to do a nice slow and steady 5k run tonight so as not to hit my leg muscles too hard, but then a friend reminded me that some local runners were meeting at the nearby park for some speed/intervals work so I went along to that instead. BIG… read full entry »

Today’s an easy Juneathon day for me because Tuesday is always badass workout day. For some reason it’s the one workout I rarely skip – probably because it’s early in the week, I’ve usually had a shit day (there’s something about Tuesdays!) and I need that release to get me into Wednesday. So, here’s my… read full entry »

Last week I saw people talking about Juneathon and as a lover of weird and wonderful challenges I figured it’d be something new to take part in and entered as a participant. The general gist is as follows: Run or do some form of exercise every day. Blog or tweet (#juneathon) or post on the… read full entry »

Juneathon might not be going brilliantly well, what with one reason and another, but after a second 10k recently in Brackley with Rachael and Sarah I have been well and truly bitten by the race bug (despite ending that one in tears) and gone on a race entry spree. I’ve got a 5k Race for… read full entry »