Month: August 2016

6 x 800 metres

Jess GuthLeave a comment

I have agreed to a run at lunch time. I don’t really want to run. I am struggling today. I am head-achey and tired and grumpy from sleeping later than I wanted to and from not being able to do all the things I want to do because I can’t get my butt off the sofa. I don’t want to do it. Can’t. Kath wants to do the 800 metre repeats. I don’t. I can’t do them. I can’t think of an excuse though, there isn’t one. So I’ll go. I’ll try.

Right, so, 6 x 800 metres with 3 minute walks in-between. I really didn’t want to go and do them. I barely managed 4 repeats last time and when we tried on Saturday my leg hurt. These are also the sorts of sessions where Kath and I are least on the same wavelength. So I wasn’t looking forward to it at all.

Actually it was fine. The first one felt easy – the stats show a little dip in pace in the middle but otherwise it’s pretty even and a decent pace. The second and third reps are the most even in terms of pace, the 4th is bit more ragged and also a little slower whereas 5 and 6 are even again but a little slower than the early ones. Overall the objective of going a bit faster than normal was achieved and although I found the 3rd and 5th one in particular hard and wasn’t sure I’d be able to do the 6th when we started it,  I did. It felt really good to have done that. Now I just want to conquer the sheep loop backwards run again and see if I can do better on that.

Anyway, as these things sometimes happen, the universe obviously knew I needed a bit of a boost so it sent our postie with our goodies from the runDisney Shorts series we did back in May/June. I blogged about the first of the runs here. Well Disney can do bling and it was lovely to get these medals and the tumbler is fun too.

Because it seems so long since we did the runs and actually, they coincided with me being a bit grumpy about running, I decided I would award myself the Yellow Shoes medal for today’s run and save the others for other runs to come when I feel like I need to celebrate an achievement or milestone. So I think I’m keeping one for when I manage the sheep loop backwards with just walking up the  golf course, one for when I complete 9 miles, which is our next long run, and then maybe the series one for when I next manage to set a Magic Mile personal best.

One Big Fat Run

Jess GuthLeave a comment

The last weekend of the month means it’s One Big Fat Run (#OBFR) time. #OBFR is a monthly virtual 5k. You can read more about it via the link above or search for it on Facebook. Anyway, the plan was to do 6 x 800 metres with 3 minute walk breaks in-between as my #OBFR – it would amount to nearly 5k of running and would overall be more in terms of distance – but close enough. Alternatively, if we also managed to get out for a 45  run on Sunday, I’d use that. We set off on Saturday, walked down to the canal and set off for the first 800 metres. All fine. Then we walked for 3 minutes, turned round a little earlier than we really wanted so as not to get tangled up with a group of dog walkers, set off running for the second 800 metres. All fine for the first 500 metres. Then I felt a little niggle along my left shin. Then, with maybe 150 metres to go, a sharp pain across my left shin and simultaneously a twinge just below my butt on the right. It brought me to a halt.

I was so upset and pissed off. Just when the running was actually going quite well I was going to be injured. I had a little panic and strop and walked home grumpily. There was no pain when walking and no pain when I ran my hand across my shin – so maybe it was ok after all. I did a few stretches on Saturday and had a busy day in the garden. I then did almost nothing at all on Sunday other than a walk to the sheep. I felt a bit crappy for not getting my #OBFR done at the weekend but I slept lots so maybe I just needed a rest.

Today we went out at lunchtime to run a 45 minute loop. We did our sheep loop the ‘wrong’ way round. We set off and it was fine, no pain and feeling relatively comfortable. I managed to run downhill slowly without too much of a panic and settled in along the canal. Mile 1 was fine. We had agreed before that we would walk up the golf course from the car park but that still meant I had to get up to the car park! I started struggling from probably about a mile and a half in. I don’t think I was struggling physically, I think it was all in my head and I couldn’t make my legs go faster or even keep at the pace I was at. I was still breathing fine and my legs were a little heavy but ok but my brain wouldn’t work. As we crossed the canal bridge and started the shortish sharpish hill to the car park I thought I’d never make it but gave myself a bit of a talking to, gritted my teeth and pushed. I got to the top and then we walked.

At this point everything sort of hurt but not really. I didn’t really want to walk up the golf course, I most certainly didn’t want to have to start running again when I got to the top. But to the top I did eventually get and run I did. Slowly. I knew I was physically fine. I wasn’t finding it physically hard – I knew this because I was breathing fine and my legs felt ok and yet my brain was telling me that it was far too hard and I couldn’t do it and I needed to walk. I didn’t walk, not yet. We made it past the sheep and up the little slope when Kath called a walk break. I’d just surrendered here and did as I was told. I didn’t want to think or make decisions. I was quite happy to run when told and walk when told. Kath took us towards home with 1minute/1minute run/walk intervals. As we hit the bottom of Ilkley Road something clicked in my brain and I decided I wanted to run home from there – up the slope, all the way, just because I can. At times for those last few minutes it felt like I was going backwards. Any slower and I would have been rooted to the spot. I was screaming at myself (in my head, not out loud, I don’t think) to just stop and walk and then screaming back that I didn’t bloody well want to walk.

So with head down and terrible running form I pushed up the last little bit of the hill and turned the corner into our road. I looked up, straightened my back and kept putting one foot in front of the other and just as the watch beeped for 45 minutes I stepped onto our drive. 3.23miles, one of my slowest 45 minutes ever but done.

This run was not about being physically able to run a certain time or distance – I am perfectly capable of running 45 minutes or 5km. This run was all about the mental. Running is mostly about learning to take your mind with a pinch of salt and not believing everything it tells you. I am far more likely to be convinced by the negative messages about not being able to do it than I am by the positives. When I am not in a good frame of mind and when I have self-doubt I need to really focus on doing the opposite of mind over matter because it’s my mind that needs pushing on and/or ignoring. I proved to myself that I can do that today by running up Ilkley Road when before that, really, I’d given up. I’m proud of that because not so long ago I would have given up on the golf course and just walked home. Now I just need to find a way to get to that point sooner. I need to think about what changed mentally when I turned into Ilkley Road. What made me decide that I wanted to and decide that I can? What made me lose it on the golf course? Up to that point I’d struggled but managed to keep pushing. What could I have done there to make the walk a positive (it was planned in anyway) and then keep running after without having to drop into intervals? Why can’t it just be simple – you know like run a certain distance regularly = distance becomes easy…

Still #OBFR is a fabulous thing. Without it I may have come up with all sorts of excuses to not run at all today and it gives me a monthly 5k marker which gives me the opportunity to reflect on all things running and most of all it reminds me that there are lots of others at various stages of their own running journeys and we’re not in this on our own.