January Stuff and a bit of Running

February 2, 2018February 2, 2018 Jess Guth1 Comment

So, that silly month which starts out with you not quite knowing what planet you’re on, what day it is or whether it is still acceptable to have mince pies and prosecco for breakfast and ends in you running out of money and in a perpetually frazzled state wondering how it is possible that that you really only just had ‘a break’ is finally over. One of my friends replied to a text asking how she was saying that she was a bit ‘januaried’. Yes, that’s it isn’t it. We’re all recovering slowly from having been januaried – sick of people and enforced frivolity and craving solitude and quiet.

January sees resolutions, new fitness regimes, healthy eating crazes… all the things that don’t work and can be hugely damaging. I hate running in January. I hate going to the gym in January. I hate buying a salad in January. January is the month we seem to get all judgy – or even more judgy – of each other. Obviously I am only running, going to the gym and eating a salad because it’s January and my resolution is to lose weight. Obviously. That must be it. Why else would a fat woman run, go to the gym or eat a salad?

Well that’s not been my January. I didn’t make any resolutions. I’m working on the basis that I was fabulous last year and will be fabulous again this year. Clearly I don’t actually believe that. I’m a woman and an academic and I’m fat and unfit, I have my issues and imposter syndrome is my normal. However, I’ll let you into a secret – I like salad! I don’t eat any differently in January to any other time. I eat healthily overall except when I don’t. I eat out too much and I have a sweet tooth. I could do better, I could also do a lot worse. Second secret (it’s not really) – I have been to the gym once so far this year. I don’t give a toss. I enjoyed that session, I’ll enjoy the next when it eventually comes.

Now, this one really is a secret, I may have enjoyed my running in January. My friend Liza said she wanted to print t-shirts with ‘I’m not a beginner, I’m just fat’ on them and I would wear that. I think it’s what us fat, slow runners need in January. No people, I’m not out here plodding along for the first time because it’s January and I want to lose weight. I don’t need your unsolicited ‘Good for You’ comments. I’ve run two marathons and several halves, trust me, I’ve got this. I know what I’m doing and it has very little to do with losing weight! I am actually just trying to keep my black puppy at bay but you go ahead and judge, it’s fine, you’re januaried too. And yes of course you are just being supportive and encouraging, I know this and when it’s not January I love you for it!

I have undoubtedly had the best January ever in running terms. I have run just short of 62 miles for the month. Yep. 62 miles. I am thrilled with how my #Run1000Miles Challenge is going. Yes, I am a little behind schedule but I am ahead of where I ever thought I could be. I haven’t pushed for miles. In fact I had a week where I just ran 4 miles. I have cut a few runs short because my feet and calf muscles have been sore and had one disastrous run where I just felt shocking. I have run at home, at Bolton Abbey and in London this month. My shortest run was just 1.45 miles and my longest 5.8 (although most miles in a day were 8.66). I’m not sure I enjoyed the runs, some I did, some I didn’t but looking back over the month I enjoyed the running. In spite of having gone back to basics with run/walk and being slow I feel like I’ve made progress and I have enjoyed being outside, I have made fewer excuses, I have been more consistent and I have pushed through ice and mud. I’ll make a decent trail runner yet!

So here’s to February, to the quality of light changing, the greyness giving way to something a little more hopeful, to days slowly getting longer and running continuing to be something I actually want to do. It started well with a stunning moonlight run which was partly terrifying because it was slippery in places and I didn’t cope well with that. But it was undoubtedly utterly beautiful.

Almost Lurgy, Running Errands, Mud and Sheep

January 27, 2018 Jess GuthLeave a comment

I was secretly quite smug about having completed 8 miles on Monday and even more smug when I woke up Tuesday and there was no aching, no pain, nothing. Result! Tuesday was a rest day and I was in London for work anyway and wouldn’t have had time to run anyway. Wednesday I felt pretty tired, went into the office for a bit and came Bolton Abbey selfie home early to try and get a run in while the weather was decent. The minute we set off I felt sluggish, tired and like I was running on empty. I had eaten sensibly and should have been well fuelled. I was possibly very slightly dehydrated – I’m rubbish at drinking enough at work – but not obviously so. I barely made it a mile before I nearly threw up and then we turned round and walked home. For the rest of the day I felt like I had been run over by a truck. I went to bed early. I slept and on Thursday I felt a bit better. Not great but better

It was gorgeously sunny outside and I needed to go to the post office and we needed (well no, wanted) some crusty white bread to go with lunch so I put my big girl pants on, found my trainers and set off. I didn’t feel too bad as I made my way down the hill. I had decided to just to a very short run, take the pressure off and walk if I needed to. As I headed into the estate towards the bottom of the hill I wondered whether I should walk. I 3D9E1B8C-5A16-4D49-94CB-BF270E80E69A 2 felt like I was going backwards. I looked at my watch wondering just how slow I was going and if maybe it would be more sensible to walk. I stared at my watch for so long that I nearly ran into the back of a parked car – I was running at 11.30 minutes per mile pace. That’s speedy for me. Well never mind walking, Could always just slow down a little. When I heard the 1 mile beep I glanced again and my first mile had been 11.31 minutes. I stopped at the post office, posted my stuff and walked to the co-op where I bought the bread, some reduced peanut butter and some reduced malteasers. Then I walked up the hill with my provisions.

Friday was rest which was good because I didn’t feel much like getting off the sofa although I did walk down the hill to see Mum and back up again. This morning we wanted to have another go at doing a little recce of the bit of the Bolton Abbey half marathon that we haven’t done before – the one where something always comes up and we end up not doing it. As we pulled in we saw a sign saying ‘orange route closed’. Sod’s law if the orange is that route, we thought. But it wasn’t. We set off on run/walk intervals of 1 minute/30 secs. I knew the first part of the loop from Cavendish Pavilion towards the Priory Church and Ruins but then instead of dropping down to the Stepping Stones and bridge, we turned up a slope to the left and followed the path until it opened up into fields. It’s a lovely route alongside the Wharfe.

The route was muddy. I don’t usually do mud. You know, mud is like icy – slip inducing. I don’t like slipping. I tend to walk through mud or possible mud. Today I ran more than I would normally have done. I was close to losing my sense of humour when we reached a flock of sheep and seeing them cheered me up and I suppose walking slowly past them helped too. I even ran a downhill on a vaguely muddy slope after seeing them. In spite of being mostly terrified I actually had a really good time. The mud was quite energy zapping but I felt pretty good at the end of the 3.67 miles. It was a good run. Just over 50 miles for the year so far and 8.27/100 Bolton Abbey Miles. And here are the sheep:

Bolton Abbey Sheep

4 mile week to 8 mile Monday

January 22, 2018 Jess GuthLeave a comment

I started a grumpy blog post yesterday but because I was grumpy and unfocused I never actually finished it. It has things in it I want to talk about but not right now. I’m not grumpy today. I finished last week on a grand total of 1 run and 4 miles. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to run as such, I just never made it my priority and then missed my chance. Monday was a genuine rest day and that was fine, Tuesday I thought I’d go at the gym and run as that was the only chance I’d get and I was at the office early and instead of going then I thought I’d use the quiet time to get some work done. Well after the quiet came the crazy and I never got another minute to pee never mind go to the gym. Wednesday, can’t remember. Wednesday was icy. Thursday we went to London (for work for me) so didn’t get chance to run then. Friday though was a day off and we had planned a long tourist run through Hyde Park, St James’ Park and down to the river…. Yeah, well that kind of distance requires getting our arses out of bed and that just didn’t happen. We both felt lazy and content having a cuppa in bed and slowly waking up and then having a slow breakfast… We didn’t run in the morning as planned. We went to see the Winnie The Pooh exhibition at the V&A instead (it is just gorgeous).

However, the weather was stunning, Hyde Park was just there across the road from our hotel really, it was crying out for a run. So at lunchtime we got ourselves out there and plodded our way to 4 miles. Neither of us really feeling great but sort of enjoying running somewhere we didn’t know, stopping to take pictures and hurdling tourists, geese, ducks and pigeons. I also nearly trod on a squirrel who misjudged my pace, or its pace or both. We saw loads of runners, loads, and not one of them said hello or smiled or nodded in acknowledgement. What is that all about. People seemed actually quite freaked out when we said hi. In fact, I think we got most of a response from a couple of herons who at least gave us an acknowledging sort of look.

Saturday was more work and then home and Sunday I really just felt like I had been hit by a truck. I vaguely toyed with idea of a run. Kath went but when Kath went it still looked icy – you know me and icy. When she got back and I thought I might go, I was hungry and by the time we’d eaten and my food had settled enough it was snowing and the road was slushy. Slushy is as bad as icy.

So Monday. I had a research meeting this afternoon. The nice sort, not the admin idiotic sort. I also needed to deal with my once again almost full mailbox and prepare for a pretty important thing I have in London tomorrow. I was trying to figure out how to get a run into what was promising to be a slightly mad Monday in terms of work. Then it occurred to me that I have to travel to the meeting and that actually it wouldn’t take *that* much longer to run the 6 ish miles there than it would to walk down the hill and get a bus or drive and spend ages finding somewhere to park (which is what happened last time).

So once I dealt with the most urgent crazy in my inbox I transferred what I needed from work laptop to MacBook (so much lighter!), packed the MacBook, lightweight fleece, hairbrush (why???), money and phone into my little backpack and set off. I didn’t pack deodorant – I had it in my hand at one point when I was getting sorted so goodness knows where I put that down. Anyway, the route is, as it turns out, exactly 6 miles and after the initial downhill is flat along the canal towpath. I started running continuously. Silly really! I should have started run/walk. I felt good for mile 1. After mile 1 not so much. It felt like I was running out of fuel (but I’d had porridge) and my legs were heavy and lungs not really playing. I kept going a bit but annoyingly kept stopping to walk. So just after 2 miles I gave in and set my watch to run/walk alerts and kept plodding along at 1 minute runs and 30 seconds walk.

This was not a fun run. It was bloody hard. Every time there was an opportunity to come off the canal and get a bus instead I had to force myself to keep going. At half way I was knackered – in spite of having taken over 40 minutes to get just over 3 miles. I walked down the 5 Rise Locks (because I’m a wimp and because I love my knees) and kept plodding along. 4 mile beep, 5 mile beep. I went through 5 miles in an hour and 8 minutes – slow but I’m not arguing, I was amazed I hadn’t had a tantrum and gone for a bus or gone home. The last mile seemed to pass quite quickly (it didn’t actually) and before I knew it I was there. ‘I enjoyed that’ I thought. WTF? I did not enjoy a single step of that but my brain seemed dead set on telling me that I had. Who am I to argue with my brain. I took a selfie with an Octopus and headed to our meeting place.

So we had a productive few hours and then I heard myself saying that I might set off back now because there was still enough light to get at least part of the way home along the canal towpath. What? When exactly had I decided I was going to run back, at least part way? That was news to me as I said it but there we are. My brain had decided that’s what I was doing. Well if I had known I may not have had the last coffee and I might have eaten fewer chips with my baguette. Anyway, I set off on run/walk and was actually having a nice time until I started needing the loo, badly. I made it to just over 2 miles before running became so uncomfortable that I decided to call it a day – no real toilet stop options on the route. I was also running out of light and unusually for me I was feeling cold. I walked the last half mile with a few little jogs thrown in, jumped on a bus and walked up the hill home. Total miles today 8.66.

Not 8 miles but not all bad either

January 14, 2018 Jess GuthLeave a comment

Well that 8 mile loop isn’t meant to be is it. First there was the ice, then Kath was going to recce it after an appointment in Skipton but forgot her trainers and today my right quad didn’t want to play. It was a bit tight yesterday but I gently introduced it to the foam roller and stretched and it seemed on again then.

We set off at Bolton Abbey on a run/walk. I could feel my quad from the start but it wasn’t really painful. We just kept plodding along, still really nursing my legs generally and walking the steepest bits and taking it easy. Barden Bridge came easily and we crossed and headed back along the Wharfe. I enjoyed running that stretch. We ran a few more of the hills once back in the wood and that was probably a mistake. Once we’d walked my nemesis hill and run down the other side my quad niggle had developed into a deep achey pain and I had to admit defeat. We ran/walked the rest of the way to the Pavilion and I knew it was the right call because my quad no longer recovered in-between run segments. Still frustrating though.

I am trying not to be too annoyed and upset. I have still clocked up a total of just over 19 miles this week (I only ran a total of 22 ish in all of January last year) and there are lots of positives to take from today:

Bolton Abbey was gorgeous this morning. It was still and calm. The Wharfe was moving slowly like it was recovering from the franticness that was Christmas and New Year. It was meandering leisurely like it didn’t have a care in the world.
The ducks seemed to have adjusted their pace to that of the Wharfe, they seemed content in the slow moving water and happy to just be.
There were nuthatches, blue tits, great tits, chaffinches, robins, woodpeckers and herons
There were excitable but friendly dogs taking their humans for a walk
The Barden Bridge loop now feels normal – it no longer feels like the longer route or the extension to the normal loop. The 4.6 miles really was quite easy. I know I was walking some but then I used to do that on the Aqueduct loop too and there was a time I couldn’t have contemplated going further
4.6 miles is 4.6 miles. It’s not nothing
Sunday Weigh-In. I’m down a pound. Again better than nothing. Also not actually a positive from the run today, I got on the scales before we went but it seems to fit here anyway

So another week of running. I have now run nearly 32 miles this year. A little behind the #run1000miles challenge schedule but close enough and roughly where I wanted to be at this point. Some of you may also know that the Bolton Abbey Estate challenged me to run 100 of my 1000 miles on the Estate and I, of course, accepted that challenge.

So my Bolton Abbey miles are 4.6/100. 95.4 to go. That’s doable, right? Well as long as I can get coffee and a bacon sarnie or cake at the end of my Bolton Abbey runs I’m there.

Happy Sunday

Hills and speed and some continuous running

January 13, 2018 Jess Guth2 Comments

So I managed to get out in spite of the ice the other day but then Monday and Tuesday there were the usual excuses – to dark, too tired, too late now, too full from food.

Wednesday I got home earlier so we went for a run. We went uphill. Up up up towards Ilkley Moor. I forget how relentless it is but Kath took us from landmark to landmark run/walking. My calves held up ok but were tight by the time we got to the top. We turned round and ran all the way back down. It’s a lovely run down. It’s undulating but down all the way if that makes sense. It means that I can run faster than I usually do and sustain it for longer which helps me get used to what a higher pace actually feels like. It was a good session.

Thursday we did our speed work for the week. I don’t like speed work. I find it mentally really hard. I’m actually sure I could physically run faster but somehow I can’t make myself sustain it. Most types of speed work make me really miserable and grumpy. However, the runners world fartlek session which I have blogged about before is sort of ok. This was the 4th time I’ve done it. I could feel the hills in my legs from the day before and I was quite tired. I was fairly sure my pace would be awful. I was therefore pleasantly surprised that I was actually in line with previous attempts. With some more consistent running, hill, speed and strength work I may even improve a bit! (previous attempts in brackets)

10 minute warm up: 12.46 (12.27,12.20, 12.43 pace);
5 minutes: 10.35 (10.37,10.26, 10.27);
1minute 30 second rest
4 minutes: 10.09 (10.30, 10.11, 10.18) pace;
1minute 30 second rest
3 minutes: 10.23 (11.03, 9.56, 10.18) pace;
(then 5.5 minute rest);
2 minutes: 9.37 (10.17, 8.56, 9.52);
1minute 30 second rest
1 minute 30 secs: 9.05 (9.41, 9.09 ,9.47) pace;
1minute 30 second rest
1 minute: 8.50 (8.41, 9.28, 9.29) pace;
1minute 30 second rest
30 seconds: 7.54 (7.39, 9.17, 8.37) pace;
1 minute rest
30 seconds: 7.36 (7.38, 8.28, 7.39) pace.
10 min cool down 18.38 (14.23, 14.17,15.16) pace

The worst section of this is always the 3 minute run, always. It’s when I nearly give up every time. 3 silly little minutes. Well, I’ll have another go in a couple of weeks or so.

My legs welcomed rest day Friday!

Today we were originally going to do 8 miles at Bolton Abbey but we had a lazy morning instead. We switched our days around and did our 1 hour run today. We set off at the same time but went in different directions – Kath turned back because she wasn’t feeling great – I think I must have passed on my non-distinct crappy feeling from yesterday. I had been running for about 15 minutes when my ankles seemed to just set and my calves went tight. I kept going a little bit but then stopped to walk a little bit. It didn’t ease so I stopped at a bridge and stretched my legs out a bit. Running continuously obviously wasn’t a good plan. I re-set my watch to run/walk and to 5k. That went fine, in fact I was pleased with the relative ease of that run/walk. At the end of the 5k I reset the watch again and walked the 3/4 mile home. 5.6 in total and I have now done more miles than I did in all of January last year.

really (not) a runner

rambling about my running journey

Author: Jess Guth