Author: Jess Guth

Dr Jess Guth is a Legal Academic. She blogs at jessguth.com She also doesn't really run - reallynotarunner.com

Wimping out (sensibly?)

Jess Guth3 Comments

I have spent much of the night listening to the wind and rain. At just before 6am we gave up on sleep and instead studied the weather forecast and radar pictures. There is a weather warning in force for this area for wind and rain and the forecast radar looked wet indeed. So we decided that being out in this weather for several hours wasn’t a good plan. It did say that the rain would clear by midday and give way to showers but that would still mean running for 2.5 ish hours in heavy rain and then still have another 2.5 ish hours to go – possibly in showers and definitly in a biting, strong wind. Going later doesn’t work either because we’d run out of daylight. No 23 miles for us today.

At this point I really need to get to the start line without injury and without any major setbacks. Getting a cold because of being soaked and cold for 5 hours would be a major setback and sustaining an injury because of slipping on the mud would be a disaster. So the plan is to do a 23 mile run on whatever day looks more favourable next weekend. Thinking about it we should probably have prioritised the run over the walk this weekend – we would have been wet but it was probably doable yesterday…

The thing is, I am oddly calm about the distance. I walked 10 miles yesterday and I feel no different today than if I hadn’t walked at all. No tightness or soreness, not even in my right calf muscle. 26.2 miles will be fine – it will be slow and it will be tough and I’m sure there will be times along the way where I just want to stop but it will be fine. How slow exactly it will be might well depend on the weather over the next few weeks and how much confidence I can get from a couple more long runs – or not

I was perfectly happy with the decision we made but now it has cleared a little and I am second guessing. Maybe we should have got organised to go… although just as a type that it’s started persisting it down again..

I feel like I’m wimping out but I also feel like that might be a sensible sort of wimping out.

Happy Sunday

 

 

 

Walking in the Rain

Jess Guth3 Comments

The marathon training plan had a 4 mile walk yesterday and a 10 mile walk today. I was quite looking forward to both of these because walking isn’t scary – I can walk. The 4 miles yesterday we did once Kath had finished work and we fed the sheep on the way – it was just a nice little walk really even though neither of us could really be bothered. We just walked round in almost, but not quite, grumpy silence and ticked it off.

Today we had the 10 miles to do. We walked the 5 ish miles to Saltaire, had lunch and looked round Salts Mill (I bought a pair of shorts!) and then walked back. It’s probably a bit more than 10 miles door to door because the 5 miles were measured from the canal rather than from home when we ran it I think. It was drizzly on the way there but on the way back it was raining quite heavily for most of the way and we got soaked to our knickers. Still, it was nice to be out.

Walking doesn’t help with my depression/anxiety in the same way running does. Running gives me clarity and headspace that I am very conscious of, walking just helps me not think about anything at all. It’s probably at least as valuable because I suspect it is just letting my brain do its thing to get itself better. I noticed that after a little while surrounded by people I was overwhelmed by noise and busy-ness in my head. I was desperate to get back onto the near deserted canal towpath.

It was a good day for seeing birds along the canal. We saw a kingfisher early on and then a kestrel a bit further on. There were lots of ducks, geese and a few swans on the canal and we also saw some gulls. There were the usual blackbirds and blue tits, a few chaffinches and great tits but we also saw goldfinches and long tail tits. I do like them, they’re like little darts whizzing around and they always sound cheerful

It was good to get home and get into a warm bath and thaw out. It is funny how perception of distance changes – walking to Saltaire used to feel like a really really long way. Today walking there and back didn’t feel like such a big deal really. I was ready to be home with about a mile to go but that was just because I was soaked and getting quite cold. We’ve had a lovely tea of pasta with feta cheese, avocado and chorizo and are now both resting and drinking stupid amounts of water ready for our 23 mile training run tomorrow. I’d rather not think about that too much…

Minus 5 plus hills

Jess Guth6 Comments

I didn’t want to run today. Not-at-all. But there is something magically pulling me towards that marathon and making me go. I needed quite a nudge to get me out the door today though and I have to say a big thanks to my friend Liz who sent me a message asking if I’d got my trainers on yet at just the right moment.

Once I got out there I actually felt better than on the last run. Because of limited daylight hours it made sense for me to feed the sheep on my run.  I ran to the field, stopped the watch and fed them and then carried on running. When I got to the point where we normally do a little ‘there and back’ thing I really couldn’t face running the same stretch twice so I turned left across the canal bridge and therefore significantly shortened the loop. I kept plodding to the next bridge and hadn’t even hit 30 minutes yet.

I kept going over the bridge and started heading for home and that way home starts with a bitch of a slope. I don’t think I’ve ever run it before but I got to the top of it  – which is also the bottom of an absolute killer of a hill. I walked up that and then started running again once I got to the top and then kept going until I got home – including running up the slope leading up to our road. I looked at my watch and it said 40 minutes. I wasn’t prepared to run round in circle for 5 minutes for the sake of it so stopped at our front door and nearly scared a woman delivering something for Kath to death as I stepped onto the drive right behind her but didn’t have enough oxygen left to announce myself.

So I didn’t run the required 45 minutes and I had a break after the first 10 minutes to feed the sheep –  but the plan said nothing about hills. So there, I’m minus 5 minutes but plus some serious slopes.

I did and now I don’t

Jess Guth3 Comments

I managed to get out and do my 45 minute run. I did it step by step, getting dressed in running gear, telling myself I could just go as far as the sheep and that I could walk lots if I wanted to… I set off. I said in the blog post early today that my body felt rested and ready to run – hm. I think someone came along and stole my legs and replaced them with lead. I felt so heavy and sluggish but I just kept plodding. I ran the loop I showed you the other day. I had turn round a bit before the usual point at the bridge because there was a sheepdog without a human and I’m scared of dogs. Other than that it was non-eventful. I took a walk break about half way to take my jacket off and then took the next one as well because I just couldn’t get going again. Other than that I ran the entire 45 minutes and ended up doing 3.85 miles with a pace of 11.42 minutes per mile. Then I crawled up the hill. Did I enjoy it? Nope, but I am glad I got it done.

Not long after I got back we had back to back deliveries. The first was for Kath and she disappeared upstairs with it. While she was doing whatever she was doing another parcel came. A lovely hamper  (from Keelham Farm) sent to me by my work colleagues with a note telling me to ‘sit down, have a brew and relax’. They sent flowers yesterday, too – feeling completely overwhelmed. It’s just as well I got the run in before the parcels arrived because Kath appeared with a gift wrapped book – the Illustrated Herdwick Shepherd – so that’s me – I will be on the sofa stuffing my face and reading for the foreseeable future!

 

Do I or Don’t I?

Jess GuthLeave a comment

Yesterday was a rest day on the training plan. No running, no clarity, no headspace… Yesterday was a funny day and in many ways a day of two halves. I felt ok-ish in the morning. Worrying a lot about not being at work and all the stuff that therefore will never get done but I felt relatively calm. Then I went out for lunch with a friend I hadn’t seen for ages and it was good to have a catch up even though neither of us was firing on all cylinders. It was lovely to be out and lovely to see my friend. Then I got home and was exhausted, totally exhausted and drained and tearful and crappy. I retreated to the sofa for the rest of the day – literally.

Today my body feels rested and ready to run – no effects from the long walk left at all. My calf muscle is normal and any little aches I had Sunday are now definitly gone. Kath’s knee is still creaky so if I am going to do the 45 minute run today it will have to be by myself. Hm. I’ve only just had breakfast so I will have to wait a while before going anyway. Here’s what’s going on in my brain:

  1. I need to do a 45 minute run today – the plan says
  2. I want to run today – it will be good for my head
  3. I am already panicked about the marathon, missing a run will make that worse
  4. I should be panicked about the marathon, I can’t do a marathon
  5. I don’t think I can even run 45 minutes
  6. So I best not go because then I’d find out that I can’t run 45 minutes and then the marathon really is out of the question
  7. So if I just stay on the sofa we can all pretend that I might be able to do the marathon
  8. But then I definitly won’t make it round the course in January and then everyone will think ‘I knew she couldn’t do it’
  9. I’ll say ‘I knew I couldn’t do it’
  10. But I want to say ‘I didn’t think I could do it BUT I DID’
  11. So run your 45 minute run then you stupid woman
  12. Yes
  13. BUT
  14. No but – the plan says 45 minutes
  15. It’ll be good for my head
  16. Missing a run will make me worry more about the marathon
  17. I should be worrying about the marathon
  18. ..

This may take a while to resolve. I’ll let you know if I make it out the door.