Magic Mile Benchmark

July 12, 2017 Jess GuthLeave a comment

Kath has drawn up a new plan for us to get us ready for the Lakeland Trails Dirty Double in October. It’s a plan made for me that takes into account all my insecurities, weaknesses, obsessions, abilities and goals. The plan really started today – with 45 minutes steady including a Magic Mile.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned the Magic Mile before – ah yes I have here – but the basic idea is that you run as fast as you can at as even a pace as you can manage for one mile. The time you get is your Magic Mile time which can be used to predict race pace fairly accurately but more importantly for me, also shows progress quite nicely. I have a constant need to be patted on the head and told I’m doing well with running (funny, I don’t care in any other context) and the Magic Mile sort of does that as long as I run consistently and space them out sensibly. There are some 45 minute steady runs in the plan, some 45 minute runs with hill repeats built in or with surges etc, then there are the weekend long runs and the odd fartlek session. We’ll see how we get on.

So run 1 of the programme was to go out for 45 minutes and as part of that do a Magic Mile. We set off and ran down to the canal and when we had done one mile upped the pace for the magic mile. Here’s how those first two miles played out (Kath was there but the dialogue is mostly mine – in my head).

Happily jogging down Ilkley Road
Turned left, still down hill, happy
Glanced at watch – ‘ooh speedy’
Happy
What do you mean ‘ooh speedy’ – you’re supposed to be going slow
Meh – shut up. I’m happy
On the canal now, ‘hm, not going downhill anymore now, bit harder’
Kath said we were at 0.8miles. I glanced at my watch and giggled ‘oh fuck, I’m already running at roughly what I thought might be sensible for the Magic Mile – 11.30 pace
Kath: ‘And go’
‘Speed up legs, come on on, you can do it’
Legs: Ok
Lungs: ‘Fuck off’
Kath – a quarter done
Legs: Yay; Lungs: Fuck; Brain: a quarter? are you sure? Must be more. Lungs: Yes must be more
Dogs in the way, dogs in the way, DOGS IN THE WAY, ok past the dogs
Lungs: You have gone mad, you have to stop
Legs: No – we’re fine (Lungs: Weren’t talking to you, legs)
Half way
‘I wonder how slow this is’ – look at watch – doesn’t mean anything – shows average pace not current pace. Bollocks, stupid fucking piece of fucking junk
Brain: ooh sweary, you’re fine, keep going
Kath said something about doing well. Lungs: WTF, doing well, I mean seriously, Have you heard us?!
Kath: 3/4 done, you can do this
Legs (very quietly): We’re not sure we can. We feel a little wobbly now
Lungs (screaming): STOP
0.8
0.81, 0.82, 0.85 – ‘wait, what? What happened to 0.83 and 0.84?
0.9. Legs and Lungs in unison – WILL YOU JUST FUCKING STOP NOW
PLEASE
Kath: You’ve done it!
I resist the urge to curl up and die and walk instead, slowly

We make our way up the golf course, feed Dino and then set off back but Kath’s knee is a little niggly so rather than risking it we walk home. 3.6 miles to add to the total and a Magic Mile benchmark set at 10.34.

My next run will be in Seahouses and running did not go well there last time (I just looked and I don’t think I blogged about it fully – it was horrendous, worst ever in my journey and I nearly gave up running completely after that weekend – I should share that properly in another post!). Anyway, I have some demons to kill and a beach to conquer!

Getting out the door…

July 12, 2017 Jess GuthLeave a comment

Getting out the door is hard. I’ve been quite good at not getting out there door recently. Usual excuses, too tired, no time, too close to having eaten, not hydrated…. yeah yeah yeah.

So since Endure24 I have been out twice. The first time was miserable and slow and I was grumpy and I had to put in walk breaks for no real reason. I’ve been quite excited about running as long as I don’t actually have to run. I like thinking about running, planning running, booking races, reading about running. I look forward to running – right up until I actually have to run. Yesterday was another one of those days – I’d been looking forward to getting out for a run all day and then I got home and just couldn’t be bothered.

However, Kath had laid out my running gear and nudged me out the door. I was only going to feed our ram – so just about 3/4 of a mile there and the same back. I set off. I felt pretty good. One of those rare runs when everything comes together immediately. When I got to the bottom of Ilkley Road where I turn right I glanced at my watch and realised that I was going much much faster than I have for a long time – for well over a year probably and even then I never ran at the pace I was running consistently. In short, for me I was going at a ridiculous speed. It’s a steady pace for others but I was stunned – my watch most definitely said 10.12 minute mile pace. I started up the hill and glanced at my watch again – obviously I had slowed up the hill but I was still well under 11 minute pace and I decided that as I was only going to Dino’s field I would just keep pushing, just keep trying to stay under 11 minute pace. My lungs started protesting as I reached the last little push up the slope, my legs threatened to slow down but then I turned left and started the downhill and everything settled down. I kept running, reached the field and stopped the watch – 10.24 pace 0.8 miles. I got my breath back, fed Dino and had a little chat with him (he’s a talkative sheep) and started thinking about the way home.

The way I had just run is downhill – a longish gentle downhill, then a slightly steeper uphill, short down, flat, short down and flat/slightly uphill to the field. The way back is the reverse and it’s harder. The uphills are tougher and I can’t remember the last time I managed to run it. In fact I think I have only managed to run the up section of Ilkley Road a handful of times. So my aim for the way back was to run it all – never mind the pace, just keep running.

I set off – it wasn’t at all conformable initially, the breathing wasn’t quite right, no rhythm. Then the short sharp slope came and I remembered a line from one of the running books I read, maybe in Running Free (Richard Askwith), that was something like: ‘Head down, small steps and wait for the summit to come to you’. And miraculously it did. I didn’t think I could keep running, I wondered if I should switch to intervals and then thought that was just too easy. I could see a friend’s van parked about 30 metres away and decided I’d run to that and if I still thought I needed a walk I could walk then. I passed the van and kept going enjoying the brief moment of flat.

Then the road started sloping gently uphill, just keep putting one foot in front of the other and eventually you’ll get there I thought. The slope gets steeper but I didn’t really notice. I was at the top before I’d had time to worry about it. I turned right and got my breath back on the downhill. I knew the toughest bit was yet to come. Ilkley Road is just a bitch. It doesn’t look like that much of a slope but it’s just relentlessly unpleasantly uphill. I turned into the road. I felt ok. I didn’t dare look at my watch. I presumed I had slowed to actual snail’s pace. I was struggling now but the Pub had just come into view and there were people sitting outside. I’m too much of a stubborn bugger to walk while the people sipping their pints can see me so I kept going, one foot in front of the other. A few steps past the pub I glanced at my watch, 11.55 pace. Wow. I presumed I had been going much slower and that the overall average pace would have dropped to slower than that. I wondered if I could keep it under 12 minutes. I took a deep breath and pushed. As the road curves to the left and steepens a little I knew I wouldn’t make the hill, my legs were like jelly but I didn’t want to give up so I turned into the road before ours and picked up the pace further as I went down the slope. I stopped at the footpath linking this road to ours.

I stared at my watch. I couldn’t quite believe it. Given how my running has been going recently, I was beginning to resign myself to the number at the front of my average pace stats always being 13 or higher – whatever the distance. I wasn’t massively happy about that but just figured that was what it was. The number on my watch said 11.46. 11.46!

Getting out the door was worth it and I’m just going to leave that there: 11.46

Mexico Running

June 29, 2017 Jess Guth1 Comment

Last week I was lucky enough to attend a conference in Mexico City. I took my running gear – as I often do when I go away for work. More often than not the running gear stays in my bag but not this time. I arrived Monday evening and after a pretty good sleep hit the gym on Tuesday early morning. I got on the treadmill, saw that I could have a 5k trail on my screen and settled in for a very very slow 5k. I thought it would be nice to stretch my legs but was aware of being slightly tired and it being warm – even in the gym. So off I set, aiming for a pace of about 13 to 13 and a half minutes per mile. It felt like hell. I couldn’t breathe, sweat was pouring off me and I was nowhere near the pace. I was at about 14 and a half. I walked a little bit and tried again. At 1.2 miles I gave up and did 5k on the bike instead, slowly and grumpily. It began to dawn on me, altitude. That’s why I couldn’t breathe. I know Mexico City isn’t THAT high but it is still noticeable.

I didn’t really notice altitude generally although I’d been slightly dizzy when I first arrived but I put that down to tiredness. I also noticed that I was out of breath more quickly going up stairs or walking fast. Anyway, Wednesday morning I tried again – armed with a little more knowledge and understanding of why I found it so hard. I did a little better. I went slow and plodded my way to 2.2 miles. I was going to try for the 5km again but my knee started to niggle a little and then the treadmill programme stopped at 30 minutes with a 5 minute cool down and I didn’t bother re-setting. Instead I switched to the cross-trainer and did another 30 minutes on that. I was a sweaty mess. In the afternoon I went for a long walk and didn’t notice the altitude – I noticed pollution and heat.

Thursday I had a rest day but I did walk a fair bit too. Friday morning was the biggy. The conference fun run. A 5km, non timed early morning run. Secretly I’ve always wondered what it would be like to run one of these conference runs. I’ve never even considered joining them. I don’t know what possessed me to do it this time. I’d agonised over it but all my Facebook support groups were very much of the opinion that I should go. So on Friday morning I pulled on my 2016 London Marathon Finisher’s T-shirt – as if it somehow gave me the right to be there – pulled my pants and trainers on and headed to the lobby. There were two people there already, disappointingly they looked like runners. Such a silly thing to say but as I stepped out of the lift I thought ‘Fuck, proper runners’. Soon we were joined by a few more people – a serious half marathoner, an ultra marathoner, other experienced and speedy looking people- but it stayed a small group. Great. I desperately wanted the ‘Fat Lass at the Back’ gear because that was really the only way to describe the scenario – everyone was thinner and faster. I nearly made my excuses. But I was already up and dressed for a run, I might was well set off with everyone and go for a run anyway. I chatted with a couple of people – fairly serious runners all round really – there was talk of taking it easy at around 30 minute pace. Yeah right, I nearly (but not quite) ran a sub 30 minute 5k once at the height of Dopey training and that nearly killed me.

So we set off. It was clear immediately that the pace was too fast for me. After an initial pang of disappointment and feeling crapy about it, I was actually ok with that. I dropped back and settled into my own pace and watched, vaguely amused, as the rest of the pack disappeared off into the distance. I nearly caught them a couple of times as they’d stopped for traffic lights but they were soon off again. After a little while I noticed that one of the couples had dropped back a bit from the main group and the woman was walking a bit on and off. Eventually I caught up with her and asked her how she was doing. I vaguely thought about pushing past her – maybe I could run the 5km at my pace without walking – but that didn’t seem right and anyway, I wouldn’t mind a little walk. Well, it turns out that she too was struggling with the pace and that she was from West Yorkshire too. We run/walked and chatted our way round the rest of the course with her partner running ahead and waiting on and off – and I really enjoyed it. The rest of the group waited at the entrance to the park but that was really the last time we saw them. By the time we got to the hotel they’d all disappeared.

So, the fun run. My thoughts. In so many ways it was exactly the way I imagined it and why I have never ever joined before – and probably won’t again. The pace is too fast, the people are all ‘yeah we’ll take it really slow, it’s just fun’ when they actually don’t mean that. They also don’t mean that they’ll stick with the slowest person. They wouldn’t have had one or two people drop back to run with me. The only reason I wasn’t on my own was because Jenny was happy to put up with me when I caught up with her. It was too small a group to really split into sub-groups so having a faster and a slower pack just wouldn’t work. I enjoyed the run. I also would have enjoyed it had I done it on my own – but I was ready for that and resigned to it. However, I’m a long way along my running journey now and I’ve accepted that I am slow and will often be at the back. I am generally ok with that and I still found it incredibly hard to not get disheartened as everyone jogged off away from me. It took a few deep breaths and I swallowed some tears and reminded myself that this was my run and they didn’t matter. Once I got that in my head it was fine but that’s not that easy a place to get to. All the things I had always feared about conference fun runs came true: everyone was thinner, everyone was sporty, everyone was faster, nobody waited…

So why did I go. Well I always presumed that runners would laugh at me and be dismissive – but I have had so much support from the Too Fat to Run? community and Clubhouse lovelies there that I do now firmly believe that my substantially sized arse has a right to be out there doing its thing. More importantly though, I have also got amazing support and encouragement from another FB group – the Trail Running Magazine’s Run1000 miles Challenge. There are some amazing, inspirational and phenomenal runners in that group and they don’t seem to care that I am fat and slow. They cheer my achievements and celebrate my successes with me, however small and they made me re-think my perception of runners. They’re not laughing. They’re telling me to go out there and do it. They’re lovely. Somehow I had started to think that most runners are lovely and that my fear of conference fun runs is mostly based on my own prejudice of runners. So I went. I think maybe I was a little disappointed at the end of the run. I’m not really sure what I expected – certainly not for everyone to wait until I’d made it back or cheer or tell me how well I’d done (I would have found that patronising and embarrassing) but maybe I did expect someone to be there in the lobby making sure all runners got back safe. Maybe I did expect one or two to say ‘hi, how was that? Bit warm out there isn’t it?’ Maybe I expected to be able to say ‘Wow, you must have sped up a fair bit that last mile, I couldn’t even see you’. Instead, I said bye to my two new friends and went for a shower and then some breakfast.

I did it. I enjoyed it but I enjoyed it because I decided I would do my run and would let the fun run go do its thing. I also enjoyed it because I met two lovely people on the way. I don’t think I’ll be a conference fun run regular – other than maybe to use them as an incentive or excuse to get my butt out of bed and go for a run, my run, with my rules and my pace

The Thing with Consistency…

June 17, 2017 Jess Guth6 Comments

The thing with consistency is that, well, you have to be consistent. I like the idea of consistency generally. Consistency is sensible and safe and likely to see success in whatever it is you are being consistent about. The problem is, I’m rubbish at consistency. I don’t consistently blog, I don’t consistently file my emails or anything at all, I don’t consistently eat well, I don’t consistently exercise and I most certainly don’t consistently run. It’s been a month since my last running blog post and oh goodness has it been a fun sort of running month. Let’s see.

Just after my last blog post we went away to the Northumberland coast for a few days and I nearly threw in the towel completely. I didn’t seem to be able to run, I couldn’t do it, it stressed me out and I just felt crap about it all. Instead of a gorgeous 6 mile happy plod along the beach, I had a couple of barely a mile, tears, snot and general tantrum sort of events. I was quite ready to never really run again.

Once home, I got myself together again and decided that actually, yes, I do want to run. I managed 3 miles and then a couple of days after I managed 5k non-stop. Then we went to Bolton Abbey and I did the little loop while Kath went on to the next bridge. It was good to do it and I didn’t walk that much but neither of us were really feeling that one. Then we had a go at some speed work which I bizarrely sort of enjoyed – it was a sort of fun fartlek for beginners where you simply count strides and do the same amount fast and to recover going up in increments of 10 (starting from 10). I made it to 80.

Then we hit June and I did a couple of short runs including one in the gym on the treadmill which was horrendous but, accidentally, very fast. I thought the treadmill was set to km rather than miles – reasonable assumption because that’s what it usually is – and therefore set it to run a steady 5k at 8minutes per km pace. That should have been easy but felt impossible so I quickly dropped to 10 minutes per km pace which still felt impossible so when I hit 2km I stopped, wheezing, huffing, puffing, sweating like mad and very very very very very grumpy. As the workout summary flashed across the screen I realised that the treadmill had been set to miles. I’d run 2 miles in just under 20 minutes, not 2km. Madness

Next I wanted to go out for a 5 mile little run but couldn’t do it. Head shut down and then my feet started hurting so I gave up half way and walked home. Two days later I thought I’d better have another go and I managed 5 miles non-stop running feeling pretty comfortable all the way. Then I had a gym session with lots of stretching and a bit of strength work the next day but no more running during the week until today. Today I managed 6.5 miles. I’m not sure how because it was awful, hideous, vile running.

We set off from Bolton Abbey Cavendish Pavilion and crossed over the bridge and ran towards the Abbey. I felt tired before I’d run 100 metres. I was a little worried because my tummy has been a bit uncomfortable for days – days of work travel, eating on the go and eating crap! It remained uncomfortable but more in a painful way than a ‘I’m going to wait until you’re as far away from the loo as possible and then make you really need to go’ kind of a way. I plodded, walked the hills, plodded. Bleurgh. We got to the car, had a sip of water and energy drink (more on that another time I think), nipped to the loo again and then set off again on our usual loop. I did not at all want to go, not one little bit but I just silently gritted my teeth and kept trying. We dropped into intervals of 2 minutes running and 1 minute walking and that’s how I got round. An eternity and 6.5 miles after we set off we got back to the car. The running was a whole new level of awful but at the same time it was fabulous to be out. We saw lots of ducks, blue and great tits, sparrows, chaffinches; we saw a dipper chick being fed by its parent and we ran a few metres with a sandpiper before it flew off showing us the way. A little further on we saw oystercatchers and then a heron flying across the field. On our way home we saw a further 3 herons.

When we got to the car I grabbed the water bottle and wobbled across the car park to the edge of the River Wharfe and collapsed in a sweaty mess. Kath came over and she brought me the first of the RunDisney Virtual Shorts medal for completing my run. I may not look it but I was excited and happy to get that! I earned that one. What a slog! The virtual run series is supposed to be for 5km runs really but in my head I had sort of decided that I wanted to keep them for the bigger wins in each of the months the series covers and running that route, just over 10km, is huge. We’ve attempted it a few times and I’ve never made it and I haven’t run over 5 miles since I abandoned the Half Marathon at Disneyland Anaheim in November. I got this monkey off my back and I feel better – even if the actual running was hideous.

But anyway, consistency. I have been running but not consistently enough. I seem to manage 2 back to back runs and then there’s a huge gap to the next. It’s ok in terms of maintaining that bit of fitness I have but it is not enough to build and it doesn’t make increasing the miles easy. I’m off to Mexico City for a conference on Monday, I have packed my gym stuff and I will run. I’m not sure about treadmill running but I’ll try!

Trail Slope Repeats and Planning

May 13, 2017 Jess Guth3 Comments

Ooh slightly behind on my running blogging. It’s marking season. Life sort of stops during marking season and I’ll emerge feeling a bit fuzzy and disorientated in a couple of week’s time.

Anyway, I’m sort of sorting paperwork and hanging about after lunch waiting to go for an afternoon little jog. Kath has a slightly sore knee so is sitting this one out. I’m not really sure how far I want to go or where but I’ve got a couple of hours to decide. However, I haven’t told you about Thursday morning’s run yet.

If you’ve been following this blog a while you may know that I don’t like hills. I have always ignored hill repeats if they appeared on a training plan (even if I put them on the plan). I mean, running up a hill once is bad enough, why on earth would I want to walk/jog back down just to run back up? Anyway, on Thursday morning we did hill repeats. Well, we did slope repeats. We used the slope on our sheep loop which isn’t steep but it’s uneven and very much trail territory and it’s a slope I have always struggled on. So we happily tootled along to that slope which starts just after our far field – so just about a mile away. Then we took it in turns to run up the slope as fast as we could and then jog back down. Kath went first and she went all the way up to the top. I went second and I went to where the slope levels before a final little climb. The first run took me 45 seconds exact and it was hard! I was tempted to walk back down and I was huffing and puffing like I haven’t in a long time. But I jogged.

Then Kath went again. Then me again and I think it was faster. I don’t know exactly because my watch battery gave up as I set off. The temptation to collapse in a heap was quite overwhelming but I managed to jog down. Kath went for round three. She’s too bloody fast. She was back in no time which meant I had to go. This was definitely more measured and my legs were screaming at me to stop from about half way. I got there, whimpered, turned round and sort of rolled back down. Kath went for the final time. Then she was back and off I went. I tried to keep an even fast-ish pace all the way up. My legs were a bit jelly-ish as I got to where I’d been turning round. I walked a few steps and decided I would take the last one right to the top so set off again as fast as I could (which wasn’t very fast at this point!) I made it. I jogged down and we walked a little, had a little jog and then we walked home running just a couple of hills en route. 3 miles total. It was a really good exercise actually. It was really hard work but also sort of felt doable. Choosing a slope rather than a hill was a good start to get used to it and choosing trail terrain meant I could practice going faster (rather than slowing almost to a stand still) on an uneven surface. I wouldn’t exactly say I enjoyed it but it felt good to have done it.

Yesterday was a rest day. Today we were going to run several loops with breaks in between but Kath’s knee needs a rest and I don’t fancy going out on my own repeatedly. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow but for today I will just do something which allows me to feed the sheep on the way. We’ve also been planning though. We are going to run the Dirty Double in the Lakes in October. Lakeland Trails does a 15km Helvellyn Challenge on the 14th October and a 14km Ullswater Challenge on the 15th October so we have booked onto those. I really like this idea – there is a race version with a tighter cut off time and then a challenge option with a more generous cut off so you can still do it if you’re slower or if you just want to take it easy, enjoy the scenery and not race. Given these challenges, I suspect I will be doing a few more hill repeats between now and then! The week after we’ll be off to Scarborough to do the Yorkshire Coast 10k there. It should feel lovely and flat after the hills the weekend before!

really (not) a runner

rambling about my running journey

Category: Training