Category: Sunday Weigh-In

3 mile hell

Jess Guth10 Comments

After the positives of yesterday today’s run came as a bit of a shock. Our programme said 3 miles and I was actually looking forward to that. I woke up around 7.30 and slowly got up and we got ourselves organised to go. We had decided on starting at home, running down to the canal and turning towards Bingley. So off we went. It was awful. My gremlins were shouting at me, my silly black labrador puppy was back (see here) and I was convinced that a) I couldn’t do it and b) we were going very slowly. Kath kept pushing on and I kept going somehow. Every bloody step of the whole bloody way was bloody awful. Not a happy place in sight. 3 miles later it turns out it was our fastest yet. 11 minutes and 5 seconds per mile. It was still bloody horrible.

I also forgot to get on the scales this morning so don’t have a Sunday Weigh-In to report on. I may get on and have a look later or I may just not bother. After the awful run I’m not sure I want the scales to tell me that I’m a fat bugger, I am very well aware of that today.

So there we are, another week of training done. Go me.

Troubled tummies

Jess Guth3 Comments

I started drafting this post a few days ago and was saving it for a day when I felt confident and happy and would be able to cope with the inevitable embarassment I’d feel when posting this. Today is not really that day but needs must (as it were). I finished the draft post with:

‘I haven’t yet had a ‘serious incident’ and I have decided to just not worry about it. If it happens it happens. It’ll be embarassing, upsetting, horrible and then life will go on.’

Well it happened, it was all those things and life is going on. Let me explain – I did say I was going to be honest about this running thing so I can’t really spare myself the embarassment. I distinctly remember one run when we started training for the half marathon 3 years ago where I had to stop abruptly because I had, for want of a more delicate phrase, shit myself – or at least it felt like it. I hadn’t actually made a mess of myself but it was still horrible. We had run along the canal, turned off over the bridge to come up towards the Riddlesden Golf Course and were just turning down the hill to continue along the road that runs parallel to the canal.  I remember being quite upset about it at the time but had sort of forgotten about it by the time we started running again earlier this year. Or maybe I had just blocked it out.

As we’ve gone through our training this time there has been the odd run where my tummy has felt a bit dodgy and where I’ve felt like I might find myself in the same predicament again. It freaked me out a bit, well a lot, initially until I realised that this was ‘a thing’. It’s not just me, it’s a running thing. Apparently lots of long distance runners get the runner’s trots and apparently it affects novice runners more. So it may settle down. What I eat and when also obviously has an impact. In the draft version I had written:

‘and the good news is that I seem to do much better with morning runs where I’ve just had a banana about 20 minutes or so before the run.’

Yes, well that may not actually be true. That’s what I did this morning. I got up, had a banana, got sorted and we set off. I had been to the toilet but almost as soon as we set off running my tummy felt dodgy. Then at around 2.5 miles we had a little downhill bit and it all went horribly horribly wrong. There’s no point pretending, I did actually poo my pants. Not much but enough to be disgustingly uncomfortable as well as mortified for the rest of the run. I didn’t stop. I just cried, quietly and kept plodding. We finished the 7 miles in almost exactly and hour and a half with a pace of 12.55 minutes per mile

I am hoping that as I get fitter my body overall will get used to running and I will have fewer tummy incidents. I got home, had a bath and slowly regained my sense of humour but it’s been a tough day mentally. It’s hard to get excited about running when in the back of your mind you’re considering nappies. So –  happy thoughts. I have lost 1.5 pounds (perhaps not surprising) and we have finished page 1 of the training programme:

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Don’t like fast – do like food

Jess Guth2 Comments

And by fast I mean fast for me, not actually fast. Our weekend run this week was only 3 miles. We have previously talked about extending the ‘short’ weekend runs to 5 miles just to get some miles in the legs and get more comfortable at that slightly longer distance but then we decided that we would use the 3 miles to work on getting a bit faster instead.

I got up not long after 8am an got ready to go for the 3 miles. The first run section didn’t go well, I’d obviously not tied my pants properly so at about a minute in my belly had escaped and I was desperately trying to pull up my pants, keep running and not get cross at Kath who was, with some justification, falling about laughing. At the walk break I tied a knot in the elsastic to keep my pants up come hell or highwater – it will probably have to stay in there forever.

I struggled on the run from the start really. I think possibly the less said the better. It was quite fast for us – 11.24 minutes per mile. 34 minutes 11 seconds. I’m happy with that but I didn’t enjoy a single second of that run. The good news – I’d recovered pretty well by the time we got home.

The guys over at BritsRunDisney are following a very similar training plan to us to get ready for the Wine and Dine Half Marathon soon. They’ve been thinking about fuelling for their runs and we’ve been thinking about that too. We need to get better at eating the right sort of things before and after running to help us on our runs and to help recovery. We’ve been on with that, experimenting with what to have before a morning run (we’ll get to the afternoon/evening runs eventually but they seem less crucuial as our marathon will be a morning run). What we haven’t yet got our heads round is fuelling during a run.

Pre-Run

Kath quite likes to do the morning runs on an empty tummy. I struggle with that (it was ok today but it was a short distance). I like a banana about 15 – 20 minutes before we start. If I am going to be up much longer than 40 minutes or so before heading out then porridge 90 minutes to an hour before, followed by a banana about 15 minutes before works well. I also want to try peanut butter on toast and see how that works – bascially I just like peanut butter.

We will have to start thinking about the day before etc soon too but let’s take one step at a time

Post-Run

We’re relatively good at this as we both like things like tuna steaks on quinoa with a bit of salad or just a big salad with feta cheese and seeds or a chicken and avocado salad. So for the longer runs we tend to plan a pretty good recovery meal in.

During Run

Hm, we are rubbish at this. So far we haven’t even been taking water. I haven’t felt like I needed it yet. I try and drink a bit before we head off and I drink quite a lot of water when we get back. As the distances get longer we will have to fuel as we go though. Our attempt at taking the Camelbak water bottle the other week failed (the belt and little bottles that go with it are now in a charity shop donation bag). Carrying a hand held water bottle for any distance doesn’t work either so I’m not sure what the solution is there.

As for anything other than water – I don’t like the idea of the gels. I don’t really know why, I just don’t. we might try jelly beans – I was given some giant ones as a present a while back – they might work. We might also try some dried fruit and nuts, something like a trail mix or something. I suppose using a run/walk strategy means that any nibbles can be comsumed during a walk break making it far easier than trying to learn to eat on the run. Whatever we ultimately come up with, it needs to be something that I can take with me to Florida because having to find something else when there will probably mess with my tummy and will almost certianly mess with my head.

Oh Sunday Weigh-In. I lost a whole two ounces – we’ll call that staying the same!

The one where… oh f-it I can’t be bothered

Jess Guth6 Comments

I’ve been feeling a bit like that recently. And tired, really tired. I have struggled to drag my butt out of bed in the morning and have been ready to roll it back into bed by 9.30pm. One more day at work and then I have just over a week off – I’d get excited about that if I had the energy.

Anyway running… My last post was a pre-run post and I had a head full of excuses. Kath had her own list of excuses so we went up to get changed and collapsed on the bed instead, talked through our excuses and then went for a run. I think we went up the hill again, and this time I got to the top with only a little bit of extra walking – I could check the pace etc on our log but – yep you’ve guessed it, I can’t be bothered. Friday the excuses did win and we didn’t go for our catch-up run for the one we missed the other week. As far as excuses go though, they were fairly solid. Work was quite busy and then our living room carpet was finally fitted. Saturday was also busy – I forget with what but we went food shopping and helped our friend with his sheep but we did manage to fit our 5.5 miles in. It went ok, it was fine, I did it (actually I think I felt pretty good about it at the time – but I’ve forgotten that). Sunday and Monday we didn’t go. Sunday was furniture delivery and then furniture put together day as well as more sheep stuff. Monday I just could not be bothered at all. I just felt tired and grumpy after work. That brings me to today. I again couldn’t be bothered. But it was the kind of ‘can’t be bothered to take the rubbish out, or can’t be bothered to get out of bed or whatever it may be – the kind of can’t be bothered where you do it anyway and you always know you’re going to. It was a 45 minute maintenance run along the canal. Pace of 11.38 minutes per mile running for 2 and a half minutes and walking for 30 secs. It was uneventful. It was probably our fastest yet so I should probably be a little bit excited that I can keep going at a slightly higher pace for longer. I’m not excited, I can’t be bothered to be excited. I just feel a bit flat about it all.

As if to confirm all that – the scales for the Sunday Weigh In were totally indifferent to my pleading for good news – I stayed exactly the same. Now that is again a week of getting away with it given the amount of cake, biscuits and other rubbish I’d eaten (haven’t started this week any better and it is mum’s birthday tomorrow).But staying exactly the same is just the worst. Putting weight on might have given me a kick up the backside to refocus on eating better, losing would have been another step in the right directions; staying the same is just, well it’s just dull.

I’m sure I’ll perk up. It may be that I need a challenge – well the next long run is 7 miles – further than we’ve done before so there’s the challenge (wohoo – said in an eyore-ish kind of tone), it may be that running a different route would help, it may be that I am just tired. It may be that it is all a bit pointless. We’ll see. Next scheduled run is Thursday, one catch up run still outstanding.

Food plans, 3 miles and neglected feet

Jess GuthLeave a comment

Sunday weigh-in. I wasn’t looking forward to this one. Last week was not a good healthy eating week. I was therefore surprised to have lost a pound and a bit. Still going in the right direction!

I could not wake up this morning, just couldn’t. I actually wanted to go for the scheduled run but I kept falling back alseep and when I did eventually get up we decided that we’d better brave our trip to Ikea before it got too hideously busy and postpone the run until this afternoon. We were going to do 5 miles. The programme actually stipulates 3 miles for this weekend but we thought it was important to get really comfortable at the 5/6 mile distance so we were planning on doing 5 instead of 3. However, once we got back from Ikea, we still had loads to do this afternoon and Kath wanted to try out a camelback water bottle belt thingy she got free so we thought we’d just do the 3 miles. That way we’d stick to the programme but could also get on with other stuff (haha – I’ve been curled up on our spare bed since we got back!).

The water bottle holder thingy was utter rubbish. It doesn’t sit tight enough and is obviously made for blokes and not for hips at all. Luckily we were going past Kath’s mum’s  on our run so she could discard it there. Taking water etc with us is going to need a re-think. Kath was obviously on a bit of a mission today and kept pushing so we got round with a pace of 11.41 minutes per mile. I was rather puffed but happy with that.

I mentioned that we had a better plan for food for the coming week (if we stick to it). We are going to have (no particular order) salmon steaks with sweet potato oven chips and a yoghurt dip, a veggie home made curry, quorn chilli, chicken and avocado salad, beef stirfry and if we really can’t be bothered a baked spud. Breakfast – the usual really: Scrambled eggs, mushrooms on toast, porridge, peanut butter on toast, fruit and yoghurt… Lunches will be mainly left overs and salads. We don’t yet have any naughty nibbles. I was going to make a banana loaf but our bananas were too far gone even for that. We’ve got some chocolate biscuits but that’s not really quite the ‘having a relatively healthy treat’ thing that we had in mind with our usual weekend baking. They might have to do though.

We stopped at mum’s after our run and as I stretched my leg out towards her she pointed out that I had blood on my sock. My feet have gone a bit weird recently. I have always had pretty solid feet. I don’t tend to get blisters easily but I’ve had a couple lately. Interestingly I didn’t get them on the longer runs – maybe I just take more care when setting out on them. The blood was however not from a blister but from a little cut on the inside of one of my toes. The nail from the toe next to it must have caught it. I have now cut my nails and cleaned it all up. It seems fine but I do think it is probably time to give my feet some tlc and pay a bit more attention to them, I probably have been neglecting them a bit!

5 months to go to the runDisney marathon – I really am insane.