Month: January 2017

Sunday Weigh In is back

Jess GuthLeave a comment

I stopped getting on the scales a while ago initially for positive reasons – I didn’t care at all what the number said, I knew I was getting fitter and stronger and healthier so the actual weight didn’t matter. Then the running got patchy and we fell off the food and booze wagon a bit – which is silly because when we were making the effort we were eating really yummy healthy food that we were both really enjoying. In the run up to Christmas I knew my weight was sneaking up again and just after I suddenly worried that it might even be getting as high as it was 2 years ago before I started running. Clothes don’t fit properly, running is so much harder than it needs to be. A good few pounds need to come off.

So on the 2nd January I set a new baseline – a stone lighter than the baseline I set 2 years ago but also over a stone and a half heavier than I was at my lightest during Dopey training. Hmph. I was determined to have a good food and exercise week but as I mentioned I was ill instead. I have lost 6 pounds but I’m not really celebrating that because it’s more due to being poorly than anything else.

We have a food plan for the week with lots of fresh, yummy things but also included comfort food to guard against the cold and grey ‘pass me the biscuits’ kind of feeling. We’re starting today with pancakes (a healthier version K once found a recipe for, possibly in a Runner’s World or from a Running Bug) – a lovely Sunday treat with yoghurt and raspberries. For lunch we’re having cottage pie with a mountain of veg and for tea a salad with a few nuts and seeds sprinkled in for crunch. This week is relatively conservative with food – familiar things to not upset my tummy which is still getting back to normal. Next week I think we will be more adventurous, we’ve seen some lovely recipes that look healthy and delicious. I’ll try and remember to share.

We’re also going to start running again this coming week. I’m not sure about starting the 10k programme – yesterday I was still quite wobbly after my 2 mile walk so I will see how I feel after a walk today and then see if I need a very easy, very short run week or whether I’m ready to have another go at week 1 of the 10k programme. The programme isn’t aligned with a race so it doesn’t really matter.

Happy Sunday

Moomin Butt not Moving

Jess Guth1 Comment

Running is a Rollercoaster. That Sunday run I blogged about last was so hard. So so hard and yet so brilliant at the same time. It was great to be out. Then on Monday we ran too – that was hard too, in fact worse because I have totally unrealistic expectations of myself. Our new 10k programme said 40 minutes slow so of course I wanted to run 40 minutes slow… I forget I can’t actually run 40 minutes, slow or otherwise and that intervals are required. Anyway, we did that 40 minutes with lots of walking and whimpering on ice patches and another 6km or so walking and I didn’t half feel that on Tuesday…. Tuesday was rest day and then on Wednesday the plan was to run 6 minutes 3 times with 3 minute walk breaks. We were going to do this in the evening when Kath got home from work. I was quite looking forward to it. I worked at my mum’s for a bit and then walked to the sheep. I felt a bit tired once I got there – a bit wobbly. I sat with the sheep for a bit and then walked slowly back home. Very slowly feeling decidedly dodgy.

Whatever bug I got, it wiped me out good and proper. I have been mostly asleep since Wednesday late afternoon (it’s now Saturday) and haven’t dared stray far from a loo. Add to that a tight neck and shoulders leading to migraine type headache in the back of my head and you get the idea. Yesterday I walked round the block – you know all 250 steps or whatever it is and my legs nearly gave way at the end. Today I walked the mile to the sheep and back and I feel stronger so maybe I’m winning. Also – the headache and tightness is gone – obviously or I wouldn’t be typing this. But why does this always happen just as I want to get back into the running. Now I’m scared about starting again again.

I have been thinking about running and reflecting on how far I have come. Well, there’s little else to do in between dozing when reading, screens and any sort of noise are out. A year ago we were about to embark on our Dopey Challenge. Just imagine that. I think the 5k was on the 7th January with the Challenge finishing on the 10th with the marathon. Oh the 5k. If only I could enjoy each run that much. Read about it here. Anyway, the WDW Marathon weekend is in full swing now except that the weather isn’t playing and RunDisney had to cancel the half marathon. Loads of Dopeys have been running on treadmills and in the parks to get their 13.1 miles in. I like that about running. It’s not about winning or coming first, people genuinely want to complete the challenge for them, they want to earn Dopey  – so they are. It is a shame though because they are missing out on what was maybe my favourite Disney race ever, certainly my favourite half marathon. I wrote about it here. But safety first and I can’t believe people are giving RunDisney a hard time!

Anyway, why am I telling you this? Because sometimes we need to stop and think about what we have achieved. As I sit here watching athletics on the TV, following the Dopey adventures  and other running successes via  Facebook groups and worrying about starting again and not being able to run and how hard it all is, I am challenging myself to remember that a year ago I did Dopey. And a year before that I couldn’t run at all. So yes, it’s a bit hard out there at the minute. But I want to get back to something close to Dopey fitness and that won’t happen unless I get out there and keep putting one foot in front of the other. So, tomorrow I will walk my 2 miles again, a bit faster and then throughout the week I’ll try a run and just keep working at it – sing it with me: Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho it’s off to work we go…

Moomin Butt Moving

Jess Guth4 Comments

There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?! 2.5 mile run done this morning. WTF? Wasn’t so hard? Wasn’t so hard?!? Wasn’t so fucking hard? My black puppy is mocking me. It was hideously hard. It was only 2.5 miles and I completed it with run/walk intervals and slowly. Here’s how it went (in my head):

  1. Setting off from home, turn left downhill, feels pretty good. Yep, we can do this, this is fine
  2. First walk break, secretly quite please we’re at the first walk break
  3. Bit more downhill, turn right, have-to-go-up-hill-now-can’t-really-breathe
  4. Walk break, love walk breaks
  5. bit more up the hill – come-on-just-a-bit-more
  6. downhill section, breathe, breathe, breathe
  7. walk, yay, walk
  8. run past the sheep, wave at the sheep but focus, keep focused, shit can’t breathe
  9. when’s the walk break?
  10. Not yet
  11. Surely now? Yes now
  12. Breathe, oh shit I’m going to have to run uphill in a minute, walk fast, can’t, no seriously walk faster or you’ll have to run all the hill, fuck, walk
  13. Hill, don’t like this hill but after this it’s steep downhill. I hate downhill. I might fall, run faster to get to the top so you can walk down.
  14. Come on you Dopey
  15. Nearly at the top, nearly at the top – nearly-at-the-top. Yay walk break
  16. It’s called walk break, not collapse in a heap break – keep moving
  17. Oh ok I have to run down, ok, steady, slowly, yay I’m down
  18. Plod plod plod plod – don’t mind this. Wish I could breathe though
  19. Walk break – come on walk faster to get down the nasty steep bit
  20. Time to start running but I’m going to walk the steep bit
  21. Ok I’m down, flat to home now. You’re Dopey, you can do this
  22. Left turn onto the canal, find a rhythm (fuck off), no really, it will help (oh shut up)
  23. Found a rhythm, picked up the pace, this is hard but ok
  24. I wonder if there are any kingfishers about? Or a heron? I’d like to see a heron
  25. Oh walk break, ok
  26. And another 2 minute run, it’s two minutes, I can do two minutes. Is it over yet? It must be! Hello lungs, please stop burning
  27. Yay walk
  28. Hm, I might be able to run to the end from here. I can see the point at which i’ll be able to see the bridge and if I can see the bridge I can run to it. Maybe
  29. Run. Ok, I feel pretty good. Count, that’ll pass the time…counting to 105… what comes after 105? I’m lost, where was I? start again! ok 91… That’s not starting again, silly, ok but I like 91.
  30. Look the bridge. Look the bridge. Look the bridge. Look the bridge!
  31. Why isn’t the bridge getting closer (because you’re not running fast enough!)
  32. I’m at the bridge. Lungs, legs, everything, please stop screaming at me.

So the puppy may sit an mock but it’s got to do so from outside because this moomin butt is moving and even though it was sort of hideous and most certainly horrible, I loved it