On It: Focused and Head Down

Jantastic Weeks 2 and 3
This week Jantastic runners broke the milestone of 100,000 runs since the start of the challenge! Team Naturally Run are doing awesome with 171 runs completed by our 20 team members so far. It's really inspirational seeing everyone else logging their runs each week and is definitely motivating me to keep going!

The Jantastic team have also introduced badges, which I have 2 of currently- one for a perfect weekly score (completing all of my planned runs) and one for being one of the top 10% most consistent scorers in my location. Another incentive to keep running, as now I want to collect all 28 badges! This week you can now choose your goals for February too - in addition to setting a personal target for the number of runs you'll do each week, in February you also set a distance target for your longest run each week which is useful as I'm aiming to race a 10k in March...

Week 2 (week 5 of HM plan)
Tues- 30mins. 2 x 10min run/5min walk
Fri- 45mins. 5 x 6min run/3min walk
Sun- 50mins. 4 x 8min run/2min walk + 5min warm-up/cool down

I'm still running at least once a week at lunchtime, along with my friend Alice. It's a great opportunity to get out of the office and have a chat!

Week 3 (week 6 of HM plan)
Weds- 30mins. 20min run + 5min warm-up/cool down
Fri- 45mins. 5 x 6min run/3min walk

Fri was my first evening run so far this year - I'm finding it really hard to be motivated when I get home from work after a long day, in the dark and rain and cold! Once I'm out there I love it, so maybe I need to change into my kit before I leave work so I just dump my bags and run when I get home!

Sat- 60mins. 4 x 12min run/3min walk

I'm much more of a sunny daytime runner, and Saturday's run was perfect conditions. It was beautiful!

I went up to the river in Walton, the floods have subsided now but it was pretty muddy!

I loved it, although I had to take it a bit slower than usual so I didn't fall on my face!

I took a High5 Energy Gel at about 40mins- I hadn't had one before and was a little apprehensive, just in case of stomach issues 4miles from home! It was ok, although I didn't really love the taste and the texture seemed really watery compared to the sticky thickness of Gu. Perhaps a good thing as it was easier to swallow without needing loads of water, and is apparently made with real fruit juice rather than artificial ingredients.

I have a few other flavours to try, so I can see if they grow on me! I do really love the Zero High5 electrolyte sports drink- the citrus flavour is great and refreshing and they're really helped with any post-run headaches from dehydration.