496km Running Challenge

December 28th, 2020

I’m such a sucker for undertaking challenges, and sometimes I even complete them! So when I seen Sean Conway is starting a challenge to run 496km in January to kick off 2021, I started drooling and can’t resist giving it a go!

On the first of January I’ll run 1km, on the 2nd, 2km and on the 3rd, 3km etc. So by the end of January I’ll run 31km. If you total that up it comes to 496km. I would love for some of you to also do this with me. Who’s in? #496challenge

This will coincide with my main goal of dropping the weight and help shift some of the Christmas weight too. Also, this challenge is 31 days instead of the usual 30, so a tad harder!

I have a few days to prepare and this is a bit daunting to be honest, so I’m just going to take it one day at a time and see how I get on.

EDIT: Ok, it’s the 1st – Let’s do this!

Current total distance

91km completed. 405km to do.

Notes from my #496challenge

Day 1

Just a quick jog around the block this afternoon to kick off the first kilometre of the #496challenge.

It’s mad, I undertook my first running challenge when I first moved over to London seven years ago to the day 🙂

Day 2

Got out early for an 8am run around the marina. 2km felt so much tougher than yesterday… 28 more runs to go.

Day 3

3km done this morning and it was another cold but lovely one. Taking it very easy as adding on an extra kilometre a day is going to ramp up quickly and as I’m not giving my body any breaks I’m aware of the damage I could do. Slow and steady.

Day 4

Had a bit of a lie-in this morning so didn’t venture out too early. I had a package to collect from John Lewis so ran to Canary Wharf, collected my package and ran the extra 1.5km home with it in arm.

Day 5

Very early start for me this morning. Get out at 5am. It was a nice enough jaunt as the streets were empty and peaceful.

5km down, and I feel this challenge starting to get more… interesting.

Day 6

I decided to have a proper rest this morning and do my run later in the day. I managed to get out at lunchtime for my 6km and it was beautiful out with the sun shining but still damn nippy!

Day 7

I ran after work, it was cold, lots of people were about, and it was pitch black. I also changed my phone / watch to the Spanish language and selected indoor run so no route was saved…

Worst run so far.

Day 8

I decided to just get my run out of the way and do it before work so I wouldn’t be thinking about it all day.

I did a loop of the Isle of dogs and finished in Canary Wharf to grab a cheeky pastry 🥐 from Waitrose.

Day 9

I managed to get out for my 9km run this morning for 7am. It took a few minutes to warm up as it was baltic out! Honestly not sure I can keep this up especially with work when the runs get longer…

Day 10

Ran towards central London this afternoon to complete my 10km. It was nice being a bit of a tourist in the city I live in – It was also great that there weren’t many people out.

Day 11

Birthday today so I had a very chilled day eating my bodyweight in cake and takeaway food!

It was getting late and I was on the fence about doing it. Just before 10pm I headed out, and it started to lash rain…

Day 12

Post work run today and I headed towards central London and made it to Blackfriars Bridge and looped back. The whole of the run I felt pretty crap and just wanted to be back home in the warmth. Right knee has a niggle too.

Day 13

Alarm was set for 5:30, lay in bed thinking procrastinating about getting up. Finally got out the door at 6:45. It took me about 5km to wake up and I was questioning why the hell am I doing this. This is where it’s starting to feel like a challenge.

DayDateDurationAvg PaceDistance
101/01/217:046:40/km1km
202/01/2113:326:45/km2km
303/01/2121:477:15/km3km
404/01/2126:366:39/km4km
505/01/2134:526:58/km5km
606/01/2139:076:31/km6km
707/01/2154:347:33/km7km
808/01/2159:317:26/km8km
909/01/211:06:187:22/km9km
1010/01/211:06:336:39/km10km
1111/01/21*1:14:476:48/km11km
1212/01/211:22:436:53/km12km
1313/01/211:29:056:51/km13km
1414/01/21
1515/01/21
1616/01/21
1717/01/21
1818/01/21
1919/01/21
2020/01/21
2121/01/21
2222/01/21
2323/01/21
2424/01/21
2525/01/21
2626/01/21
2727/01/21
2828/01/21
2929/01/21
3030/01/21
3131/01/21

Comments

  1. Keep hammering

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