Category: Training

Trying to go faster – sort of

Jess Guth2 Comments

I have been trying to get back in the game ever since we got back from Florida. The last run was hard but done but that was Tuesday, the rest of the week was a bit of a write off. I’ve been tired. Probably because I went back to work and put a lot of effort into not getting caught up in work stuff and just letting it go (oh look Frozen’s Let it go on a loop in my head). We were supposed to run Thursday, we didn’t. I meant to go to the gym at the hotel I was staying at Friday, I didn’t (ok so I freaked out over trendy London types spilling over into the lobby area from the bar and the idea of having to walk past them all in my gym stuff – totally pathetic but at the time a real issue) and then I meant to go again on Saturday, I didn’t (didn’t get up in time).

So Sunday came. With some trepidation I looked at the training plan we are now using although I knew what it said anyway: 4 X 1 mile. That means running a mile at about 30 seconds faster than race pace and doing that 4 times with 5 minutes walking in between. I don’t do fast. This is part of a Jeff Galloway plan so it’s all still about run/walk and really shouldn’t be a drama. To help me build mental strength and stamina to keep running for longer we agreed that we would run each of the miles without walking. Seemed like a good idea at the time…

Mile 1: We were both off like coiled springs in spite of having agreed to go out slow. We ran down the road stretching our legs nicely, turned right and started the hill, still felt fine. I took a deep breath as we levelled out for a few steps and then pushed hard up the last bit of the hill. Then there was downhill, a bit of flat and more downhill and then I suddenly started really feeling it. The last quarter of a mile (ish) was hard, really hard and I could feel my lungs like I haven’t for ages. On the slow long distance plods it’s my legs that give in eventually, here it felt like my lungs were about to explode. The walk break came. Time – 10.22

Mile 2: we started just as we come out of the wood and onto the golf course so this mile included the dreaded downhill section. I made it safely and then felt OK for about half a minute. Half a mile in my lungs reminded me they were there and working far too hard and a bit after that my hips started protesting. Kath asked if I wanted to take a walk but as much as every bit of me was screaming to walk I said no. I’d set out to run this bloody thing so that was what I was bloody well going to do. It was awful and then over. Time – 11.21

Mile 3: I felt good for a quarter of a mile. I was running in a nice rhythm and running seemed to make sense. My breathing was working with rather than against me and it felt easy… And then it didn’t. Then it got hard again, so hard I muttered something about just giving it all up and then swore. I was really trying to focus on positives and tap into that memory bank. I wanted to think about that amazing feeling of jogging gently through Epcot on 5 k day but my mind kept dragging me back  to the endlessness and pain of the ESPN Wild World of Sports complex on marathon day. But this mile did end. Time- 11.29

Mile 4: Last one. I was done with this running thing. My brain was not helping at all. It seemed to have come to the conclusion that because I ran Dopey, this should be easy. I was questioning why it was so hard. I mean I did Dopey FFS. But  I forget that Dopey was bloody hard, that the training up to Dopey was hard and that running is almost never easy. And then it was over and within seconds I was thrilled to have done the 4 miles even if I did hate almost every step of the way. Time- 11.31

So the pace is probably a little faster than I do when I go out normally but then I usually run/walk so it would be. After the first mile I wasn’t really thinking about pushing the pace I was just focussed on running the whole mile without walking. I counted in my head a lot today and that seemed to help.

Then we met my friend for her first run. We did the first run in a Jeff Galloway 5K programme which was 30 minutes of running for 15 seconds and walking for 45 seconds. She did really well, much better than I did when I went out for the first time! I remember not being able to do it so it was really nice to see her complete it with relative ease and it was nice to see how easy it was for me to do it while chatting. It was a little reminder that I have made real progress.

We just missed a bus home and it being Sunday there was a big gap between busses so we walked the 3 ish miles back home. Once there I reluctantly got on the scales for the first time since the 29th December. I weigh exactly the same as I did then. I’m happy with that and I feel like I am back in the game. I went fast- ish today for a bit and spent a good chunk of the day outside and moving. I feel a good sort of tired now, a physically tired rather than just mentally drained. Happy.

Life post Dopey

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I went for a run yesterday. It felt odd. A week and a half ago I completed a marathon after having done a half, a 10k and a 5k on the days before. Somehow going out to run felt a bit pointless. At the same time going out to run felt like the most exciting thing, ever. It felt good to be out. It was cold, I had been cold all day so I wore two long sleeved tops and my running jacket, gloves and my new RunDisney hat. I was too warm after about a minute.

We ran 45 minutes, mostly along the canal, no walking, just a slow plod. We didn’t have the Garmin so no idea about pace or distance but it was just nice to be out. It was funny how a 45 minute run felt like hard work, really hard work but yet it was so nice to only have to be out for 45 minutes. The last time I had running gear on I was out for nearly 7 hours.

Completing the marathon has given me something to draw on. Toward the end of the 45 minutes I was starting to struggle but the memory of just putting one foot in front of the other combined with the realisation that I was only going to have to keep going for 5 more minutes rather than 10 more miles made finishing the run easy.

As we started walking up the hill home I decided that it had been a good run and then I started feeling really sick and dizzy. I had some water and nuts when I got back and felt fine but I can do without that!

So it seems life post Dopey just goes on, nothing has really changed. 45 minute runs are still 45 minute runs, they are still hard, they are still awful and brilliant in equal measures and I don’t really feel any different about running. Or maybe I do because every now and again during the run I smiled to myself ‘I am 100% Dopey’.

So that’s it then

Jess Guth4 Comments

Training done. We went for our last training run earlier today. Just over 6 miles and then we walked the 3 miles ish back home after having coffee at the Bingley 5 Rise Locks Cafe with our friend.

I feel a bit lost. The next time I lace up those trainers I will be running Disney! I’ve got a couple of posts lined up for while I’m away  – a couple of review type posts – but the next time I blog and post immediately will be after the marathon on 10th January.

See you on the other side!

Final Push

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We went for a short run this morning. Temperatures have dropped a bit and it felt cold. We both struggled a little. Kath was really struggling to breathe in the cold air and I wore some trainers that I bought ages and ages go and hadn’t worn to run in yet. I think I picked them up cheap and I don’t think they’re right. My feet were aching a mile in. It might all just be taper paranoia though.

One more training run left. Just one more and then we travel and then the big event is here. The countdown says 5 days – that’s to the Expo at the start of the Disney event. I can’t decide if I am excited or terrified today.

We’re really not far off our fundraising target overall although it would be lovely to get a bit closer to it online! Can you help? Can you make the hours on the road, the sore muscles and the chafing in places best not mentioned all even more worthwhile?  If you can help, our justgiving page is here. Thank you.

As a reminder of what this is all about – we are running for Panthera, a conservation charity focusing on the Big Cats. They do great work and you can read all about it on their website and follow them on twitter (@pantheracats) and facebook.

Thank you to all those of you who have already sponsored us – you are brilliant and you help ensure  a future for gorgeous creatures like this:

Lion cub Panthera
Picture from Panthera

The morning after a taper run

Jess Guth8 Comments

Paranoid much? Yep! It is the day after a 6 mile run and I’m a week and a half away from the Walt Disney World Marathon. Let’s just be clear, I am fine. I can’t feel any after effects from the run and yet with every step that isn’t 100% steady, with every little twist and every time I am aware of a muscle, part of me just freezes and goes ‘was that a tweak, is my hamstring tight, that wasn’t my hip flexor was it, oh goodness, my calf muscle…’ And then it hit me. I am going to have to travel to London on the train, sit in a theatre, get on a flight and spend a few days in the resort with OTHER PEOPLE. Just think of the germs, just think of how much more likely it is that I’ll catch a bug. What if I get ill…

But there’s no time for this paranoid nonsense. It is what it is. Our travel documents arrived.

image

This sent me into excitement overdrive which required a little dance round the living room and a shriek or two. I know, I know, im a 37 year old professional woman…. Who cares, I’m excited. I have basically packed – couple of bits and pieces still need washing/ironing- and I am probably taking too much. I have loaded my iPad with books although I am not sure when I am going to read them. We have so much fun stuff planned that with all of that and the running I can’t see myself spending much time just lounging about!

Breakfasts and Dinners are booked, various lists of lunch locations, rides, activities etc we want to do have been made, US dollars have arrived, credit card companies notified we will be abroad, mothers are primed to look after the house and all our critters (they just move in so the cats have company!) all the pre travel stuff  for the US is done and I even know where my passport is. I am good to go!

Again today I am more excited than terrified. I think it might be because I am beginning to realise that this is really happening and it is happening now. I am going to do this thing and all that I can do now is trust in the training I’ve done. It’s too late to do anything else. Fuelling sort of starts now, the focus is on making a conscious effort to drink more water and on eating healthily to make sure we don’t put on any weight – 26.2 miles is a long way to carry an extra pound or two.

Anyway, I have more lists to write and a suitcase to re-pack several more times over the next few days and I need to do some yoga to make sure that really isn’t my hip flexor niggling…. Oh and the weather forecast is predicting marathon day to be the hottest of our trip. Lovely.