Just a quick one. Our schedule is a bit to pot because of my melt down and then having to get back to the 11 miles but we are trying to catch up -you know me and gaps on the training schedule. So we headed out for a short loop. The schedule said three miles but I’ve been getting a bit obsessive about schedules and it was just about going for a short little jog today to see if the legs would move after 11 miles on Friday so we just did a simple loop from our house – no doubling back on the canal or anything like that. 2.58 miles with a pace of 12.34 minutes per mile. Everything works, nothing hurt. Calf muscle and right hamstring are tight but ok. I didn’t feel great getting up, I feel better now I have run.
It’s Sunday so it’s weigh-in day. I seem to have stayed exactly the same which is fine. Judging by my clothes I suspect it is one of those funny weeks were my clothes feel big but the weight hasn’t shifted. I’ve just moved my belt on another notch. They weight may come off next week.
It’s also Great North Run day. I’ve got it on the telly now. I think maybe one day I’d like to do that run. Maybe that’s something to aim for to make sure we keep running after the RunDisney event. For a start it’s a half marathon and half is beginning to feel slightly less insane in my head. It is beginning to feel doable (just as well really – 2 weeks today I’ll have to do it in Nottingham!) Anyway, watching all those people slowly setting off is sort of emotional but how I think about it is changing and I’ve just realised something – I want to be there, I want to be part of it. Wow.
Good luck everyone – it’s just one foot in front of the other!
No running today as we recover from our 11 miles. I’m not sore as such but my left knee is definitely not happy. I’ve had ice on it and it’s got better through the day so I really don’t think it is anything to worry about. I started typing a review of our backpacks a while back so I thought I’d finish that. Here you are:
How do you keep hydrated on a long run? We’ve been worrying about this. Hand held bottle just won’t work. Carrying something irritates the hell out of me and throws my running rhythm out totally. Our water bottle belt experiment with the Camelbak stuff was a disaster and we haven’t seen any belts which look or feel any better. We had been thinking about a little backpack anyway because as the weather gets wetter and colder we’ll need a jacket etc. We’ve been looking at reviews and specifications etc online and in magazines for a while but we’d been our usual indecisive selves. Whenever we saw hydration backpacks in the shops our standard excuse was: ‘we should do some more research’. We could go on saying that forever.
We were in Leeds a while back – beginning of August I think – and popped into the Jack Wolfskin shop there. Kath had seen some hydration system compatible backpacks online and they had some in. Well, after a long chat with the sales guy and a lot of trying backpacks on we eventually settled on two. I got the Velocity 12 litre and Kath got the Moab Jam 18 women.
We also bought the 2 litre hydration system. Again, check the details on the web if you’re interested. Looking at others, they were probably a bit expensive but I do like the idea that they open at the top fully rather than having an opening in the side. They only come in 2 litres but the bladder fits nicely into the backpack and of course doesn’t have to be completely full.
So how was running with the backpack? A bit odd I have to say but actually quite comfortable for me. I put just under a litre of water in the bladder the first time I went out and nothing else in the bag so it wasn’t heavy at all. Initially I had the chest strap too low so felt like I couldn’t breathe properly but I just moved it up a little bit and then it was fine.
The straps on my shoulders moved a little bit but not too much and I suspect that even with just a phone or jacket or something in the bag it would sit even better because of the little bit of weight. I’m not sure I’m ready for having 2 litres in the bladder though. We’ll see.
I initially thought that the noise of the water sloshing about would drive me mad but I really quickly got used to it and almost tuned it out. No that’s not quite it, it formed a sort of rhythmic background which I found oddly calming and quite helpful. Kath said the same about the water but her experience was slightly less positive. The backpack on her was riding up a bit and bouncing on the shoulders a bit more. It may be that the straps need adjusting a bit more or that a bit of weight in the bag would help but it might also be that she would do better with my slightly smaller backpack. She tried my backpack on another run but that was the same really. Kath managed the 11 miles with the pack and seems to be getting used to it.
As for drinking. Well the first time we tried this was on a 45 minute maintenance run and it didn’t occur to me to have a drink as we completed our circuit. I did have a drink when we were finished. It works well. You just gently bite down on the valve and suck on the tube and you get a nice even flow without any effort. I suspect I might even be able to do that while running although there will always be the walk breaks! Sharing a backpack is a bit awkward with drinking because it’s a bit tricky to walk side by side and take a sip so we actually just stopped.
The verdict – I like the backpacks, I like the hydration system and I would quite happily walk miles and miles with mine. Running is a different matter. I’m such a rubbish runner that running with a backpack for longer distances seems like a big deal. I might just keep practicing on the short runs for now – the issue isn’t the backpack, it’s me. Yes they weren’t cheap but they weren’t as expensive as some and I suspect they’ll get a lot of use over the next 4 months and hopefully beyond.
I did it. I ran/walked my way from the start to the finish of our 11 mile route. Nothing seems broken or in serious jeopardy. I’m ok, I’m proud to have done it and pleased to be back on track. It was slow, very slow but I hardly care (I do a little bit but just because I’m an idiot). Our pace was about 15 minutes per mile but there are hills and gates and there were walk breaks all the way, sometimes additional short ones, sometines scheduled but slightly longer ones. So here are my thought on our longest training run so far:
Barden Bridge
I woke up after not a great night’s sleep (I think the kitten may have had something to do with that) and had a mug of hot water. Then I got up, had a porridge pot and another mug of water. Then I got dressed in what I think I will probably wear for the half marathon in a couple of week’s time (eek). Kath insisted on no back pack for me so we just took hers. You will have realised by now that I clearly wouldn’t be doing this without her. Basically, she carries my stuff, sometimes just keys, sometimes water, food, jacket…, she has the watch and controls pace, walk breaks etc and she keeps me going by almost constantly talking to me giving me encouragement, she also takes all my crap. There aren’t many people who’d do that and I don’t say thank you nearly enough. Thank you.
At Bolton Abbey we had the usual toilet stop and then walked to the top of the first slope, as we were walking we saw a deer off to our left and as we watched she moved gracefully away up the hill – bet I’ll be less graceful. We set off. I was anxious because this stretch is where it all went wrong before. I felt fine though. My right calf muscle felt tight but then it has felt like that on the last 3 short runs too. I was confident it would settle. We slowly plodded our way through the first two intervals. Last time I’d already been huffing and puffing here, today I felt fine. Onwards.
At ‘tantrum 1 point’ where I burst into tears last time I still felt fine. I made it up the slope, walked the ‘steps’ up past the Strid and off we went again. Still all fine. I managed the downhill bit and soon we were right next to the Wharfe with a huge swarm of goldfinches flying around us. Too many to count and far more than I have ever seen in one go. They were a noisy bunch and really made me smile. We were now approaching ‘tantrum 2 point’ where it had all fallen to pieces. I knew I was fine but it was still a relief to power past that spot. The route is stunning even if the path is a bit up and down. We’d stayed on the left river bank and just kept plodding along. All fine really. We came to Barden Bridge (see first photo – all pics from Wiki Commons – I don’t have the head space or coordination to take pics while running) and I was plesantly surprised. It came slightly sooner than expected. We crossed over the river using the bridge and then picked up the path again with the Wharfe now on our left (see photo – this must be a little further along). Still fine.
The Dalesway path isn’t a path as such for quite a lot of the way. It’s well marked but it is sometimes just a little track, sometimes very uneven, sometimes just a field so there were gates to negotiate, holes to watch out for and tree roots to hop over. It is utterly stunning. I now get muddled with how the path continues and what comes when etc but I was still doing pretty well. We saw a heron, a small rather scraggy looking one who flew off as we ran past. He looked grumpy. We had an energy ball (more on them some other time) which I don’t really like but they seem to work. I was beginning to find it quite hard going in places now and a couple of longer walk breaks sneaked in. At one point we’d done a little de-tour up the wrong footpath and then found the right one which suggested Burnsall was 2 miles away. That two miles seemed like a very long way. We approached Burnsall and my legs were tired. I was trying to be positive but I did wonder how I was going to make it all the way back. We crossed the bridge into Burnsall, found the postbox and turned round. I was excited to have come half way. In fact though it was more than half way. We’d done 6 miles.
We headed back the same way. I was struggling a little now but we just kept plodding from gate to gate, little jogs of 40 seconds or so. The route is gorgeous and it made me think that I want to get fitter so that I can run it while taking in more. I was getting to the point where it was just hurting. We had another energy ball and not long after that we had a series of about 4 pretty good running intervals. We’d done 8 miles. Then 9.5. The last mile and a half were awful. At around 8 miles my back had started to niggle, by 9.5 it was pain. When Kath said we had a mile left I didn’t know whether I’d make it. My left knee hurt, my right calf hurt and my back was in agony. I was also losing the battle in my head. I forgot about the mantra, I’d stopped counting, I was focused on the pain. I’ll learn from this I’m sure but it was awful.
The last quarter of a mile started with a downhill and then moved straight into the toughest slope on the route. I’ve not managed to run it even on a short run. I sort of gave up. But Kath wouldn’t let me, we walked but then she said we should finish with a run and set off to show me the finish point. I ran. I finished. I cried. Just after our finish there is a little shelter with a bench in – it seems to be a bird feeding station and we sat for a few minutes watching a nuthatch, robins and all manner of tits and other small birds. We had some water and some brazil nuts, almonds and pumpkin seeds. Then we walked the mile and a bit back to the car. I wrote my postcard to myself over coffee and we drove home.
Burnsall
I’ve had a bath and a rest. We’ve been to check and worm the sheep and the pain I had for that last 1.5 miles has gone. Yes I’m a bit stiff, yes I may be a little sore tomorrow but I’m ok and I ran/walked 11 miles!
Another morning run. I was indifferent about running this morning. We decided to go the other way along the canal today. My leg is much the same – a bit sore but not getting worse. So off we went slowly down the hill. I found this one harder than the last two. It wasn’t comfortable at any point. I didn’t enjoy it, it was one of those that just needed doing and I don’t remember there being anything to see which must be nonesense, there’s always something to see along the canal. I just wanted to get to the end, get home and have a shower. It’s not that I was miserable or that it ever occured to me to not finish or anything, it just wasn’t fun. I think it was about 3.7 miles in 45 minutes.
Anyway, I want to write about tomorrow. Tomorrow we are having another go at the 11 mile run that caused my meltdown last weekend. I am, to say the least, a little apprehensive. I don’t really know what went wrong which means I don’t feel like I can stop it from happening again (over-thinking much?!?). I do sort of feel quietly confident though. Preparation for tomorrow is good. I have been drinking water all day and am pretty hydrated, I have eaten the right sort of stuff with fajitas at lunch and a bowl of pasta this evening and I haven’t really done anything this afternoon – just resting, watching crap on tv, chatting and enjoying being at home.
So, physically I know I can do 11 miles and I do think mentally I am learning to be a bit tougher. I have the sayings up all around the house so I see them all the time and they are lodging in my brain. I have tried my little mantra and it got me through the tough patches today. It’s ready for the next test. I also tried counting backwards from 100 and discovered that I am not very good at it. I particularly struggle in the 60s so my aim is to do a backwards countdown without making a mistake – that should keep my mind off running for quite a while!
The route should be stunning – all along the Wharfe so I could also count ducks. I will certainly be looking out for herons and wildlife generally and it would be really fab to see something unusual or something I don’t see on our usual runs round here. I also have another little trick to try and keep me going. It’s silly, totally silly but it should help for this run as well as for some future ones. The plan formed after the aborted last attempt. I went to the shop at Bolton Abbey and bought two postcards, one with a picture of the Abbey ruins and another with pictures fron Burnsall. We will turn round at Burnsall and I have written the postcard showing Burnsall. I am going to post it in the village as we go through. It says: ‘You know you can do this because you are doing it’ and is addressed to me from me. The second card I will write once we are back at the Cavendish Pavillion at the Bolton Abbey estate enjoying a bacon sarnie- again from me to me. What I write will depend on how I feel then but the idea is to have something other than the voices in my head. I will actually have postcards from me to me telling me that I can do this. So obviously I have finally lost the plot!
I actually made it out of bed early this morning to go for a run. It was touch and go, particularly because I turned the alarm off rather than putting it on snooze but just after 6am we left the house and headed out on our usual route past our sheep, down the golf course and along the canal.We went slow and it felt like a comfortable sort of pace. Leg issues remain. It niggles without being painful as such and it isn’t getting worse. It actually feels better running than walking! I took the walk breaks out once we’d turned round and I think we managed to go just a little faster than last time but it didn’t feel like we were pushing – it was just nice to be out. There’s a very calming sort of stillness at the that time in the morning. Just as I was about to comment on the absence of wildlife other than ducks, a heron flew out of a tree to our right and headed down the canal in the direction we’d just come from. It was nice to see ‘him’ (I don’t know if it was male of female – how do you tell?).
Anyway, after my meltdown on Saturday and my decision to keep going, I was looking for tips and tricks to stay mentally stronger. Now, I am not a mantra sort of person, I like clever little quotes and sayings but they tend to be silly or academic – I’ve always found the motivating or the soppy stuff kind of nauseating. Well, there is some research which I read about in a Runners Wolrd magazine I think (I could check but I am far too lazy to get off the sofa) which suggests that having a mantra to repeat to yourself really works. In addition there is also something about seeing words/phrases all the time that makes me remember. I have tried this with language learning – sticking post-it notes on everything imaginable to try and learn the spanish word for it as well as sticking up phrases so I see them all the time. I just wondered whether I can trick my brain into holding onto some positive messages when that ‘you can’t do this’ voice kicks in. I have accepted that the voice will come but I need to learn to argue with it (I’m a lawyer, I can have an argument in an empty room – how hard can this be…)
When we went for the run on Sunday it was the first time I really used a mantra when running. It is dead simple but it fits into a rhythm which means it also helps focus and calm my huffing and puffing. I just count 1-and-2-and-3-and-4, I can do this, I can do this, 1-and-2-and…(oh dear writing that down makes it sounds so cringe worthy and embarassing). It sort of works. It hasn’t really been tested yet because it hasn’t yet got really tough but I used it both Sunday and this morning to keep the rhythm on the hills (both down and up).
The fridge
As for tricking my brain… I went online to look for some of the motivational mantras/sayings and to try and find some I could sort of identify with and which I thought might help. There are loads that really wouldn’t work for me because they’re all about faster/fitter/stronger which I just don’t get. I printed them out and was going to find places to stick them up. Well, when I got home yesterday Kath had cut them out and found places to stick them – where they kind of made sense. How amazing is that?! The pictures scattered through this blog post are of the mantras stuck up on our front and back doors, the fridge and various bits of furniture. Do they work? Who knows. For now they are making me smile and partly laugh at myself for even trying this but there was a point this morning where I was beginning to struggle a little and the ‘I can’t do it voice’ was starting to get vocal and a few of the pictures and their corresponding mantras flashed through my brain.
Back door – the door I head out of
I’ll let you know how I get on but for now just remember that ‘however slow you go, you are still lapping everyone on the couch’ (Thanks to my lovely friend Donna for posting that on my FB timeline very early on in the running journey – it is the one I come back to most often!)
really (not) a runner 