June has the potential to be a pretty busy month. I have to complete the first draft of my paper on rivers with artificially augmented flows. If I don’t complete my paper I won’t be able to attend a hydrology conference in the USA in August. I also need to finalise my thesis corrections while I can still remember my research. There is also the small matter of continuing to look for jobs.

The 16-week training plan I’ve created for my target event of 2015, the Great Birmingham Run, also starts at the end of June. Add in a couple of smaller conferences and the tennis tournament I help to organise and June suddenly looks quite busy.

As I enjoy being busy I’ve also decided to attempt the Juneathon challenge.

So what is Juneathon?

Juneathon is “primarily a running challenge but if you can’t or don’t want to run every day, you can still join in by cycling, walking, rowing, weights, swimming, jumping in puddles, extreme sunbathing or whatever. Just do something every day in June.”

Source: Juneathon website.

I quite like the sound of extreme sunbathing! I suspect that most of my exercise will consist of my attempts at completing the 30 Day Shred, running and walking. I’m not a member of a gym and don’t own a roadworthy bike. If you are after reviews of gym classes, I’m afraid that this isn’t going to be the blog for you.

What are the rules?

The rules of Juneathon are simple (always good)…

1. Run or do some form of exercise every day.
2. Blog* or tweet (#Juneathon) about it within 24 hours.
3. Visit other blogs and leave comments, giving your support.

Source: Juneathon website.

Why am I attempting Juneathon?

I’ve decided to participate in Juneathon for what will probably sound like quite selfish reasons…

I’ve become a lazy blogger and a lazy runner.  At the moment I’m spending far too much time sitting on my arse at my desk writing academic papers. After spending the day writing I haven’t felt like blogging. In May there were far too many exercise-free days, there were days when I didn’t even leave the house.

In addition, since the start of 2015 my diet has been terrible, as a result I’ve put on a lot of weight. I’ve decided to be brave and to share my weight at the start and at the end of the challenge.

So participating in Juneathon will give me an incentive to get off my arse, to get outside and to exercise regularly. It will also encourage me share my experiences and to blog.

Hopefully my ramblings might inspire someone somewhere, I can always dream. I’m really looking forward to Juneathon introducing me to a new set of blogs and to interacting with more runners on twitter (I don’t really use Farcebook).

Here’s to a successful (and injury-free) Juneathon.

Sign up to the Juneathon challenge here and join the Strava Juneathon Club here

*To hopefully make my blog slightly easier to follow, all of my Juneathon posts will be categorised in the Juneathon category.