Category: Training

Ready for GNR?

Jess GuthLeave a comment

Right, well that’s it. Last run done before the Great North run a week tomorrow. That’s not the big miles done though. The reason there won’t be any running during next week is because there will be lots of walking. Tomorrow we set off to Bowness-on-Solway to start our Hadrian’s Wall adventure. So we will be walking somewhere between 15 and 21 miles a day from Monday to Friday. I’m excited.

7 mile (ish) point on my 10 miler

Am I ready for the GNR? No, of course not. But whatever I do I never feel ready. I have done a few little ploddy runs of 45 minutes ish and then I forced myself out on the Bank Holiday Monday earlier this week to get into double figures. I did it. It wasn’t pretty but there were no tummy issues and I actually went pretty well until 7 miles with just a little hip flexor niggle which got worse as I went on making the last mile pretty painful. There were some mental battles along the way. The first 2 miles felt a bit sluggish and hard going so I got in my head a bit and nearly convinced myself I couldn’t do it. Mile 3 was ok and I settled down. Mile 4 was fabulous and fun. I saw a heron, I noticed things and I felt good. Mile 5 got a little hard and I had to give myself a good talking to in order to make sure I didn’t just turn round early. But having a landmark rather than a distance in my head for turning round helped a lot here. I had decided that I was going to the bridge in Silsden so that’s where I was going and the mile marker that came at was irrelevant (It was 6.06 miles if anyone cares).

After the turnaround point on an out and back I tend to get a lift. I am headed towards home. That’s good. That lift didn’t really happen on the 10 miler. It was a very short lived sort of ‘yay’. At just over 7 miles I stopped for a few minutes to try and stretch out hip flexors – they are hard to get at when you are out and about! Mile 8 was fine, I don’t remember it. I think I was just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. Mile 9 was painful and slow and I slipped in a few additional walk intervals. It was so tempting to stop and walk home at the 9 mile point. There is an obvious get off the canal and route home at that point. That would have made it almost 10 overall… close enough… maybe. From somewhere I found some willpower and kept run/walking to 10 miles. That last mile was just not nice though. Hip flexors continued to be bitchy and my calves decided they might just throw in a bit of campiness to join the party. I slowed a lot. But done.

View from the Aqueduct at Bolton Abbey Estate

Then I had to walk home. Home is uphill. And because I am an idiot I decided to walk the most direct but steepest route home. Well about 3/4 of the way up I felt very dizzy and pukey so I sat down for a minute or two before hauling my backside up the rest of the hill. A recovery drink, a bath and some food later and I felt pretty good. I was tired but not so tired that it took out the rest of the day. I pottered about in the kitchen and made an apple cake with our apples and sorted some apple jelly. I was achey for a couple of days afterwards but not so much that it stopped me going for a nice walk at Bolton Abbey on Tuesday and for a couple of runs finishing with today’s run. I am in sorting out and getting ready for adventures mode so I didn’t want to be out for long. I set off and felt good and ended up doing a really positive 2.5 miles at 13 minute mile pace. Now I realise that is slow in most people’s book. It used to be my forever pace but that was pre Covid and pre getting old. Now 13 minute miles is actually pretty speedy for me and about 2 minutes faster than I have been averaging over 3-4 miles recently. So I am very happy with that final run and ready to settle into a slightly slower walking pace for next week.

Why not me?

Jess GuthLeave a comment
Me at the end of 9 miles

I watched a bit of the Olympics and it is easy to just dismiss these super humans as irrelevant to our lives. I have watched runners like Noah Lyles and Josh Kerr declare to the world that they will win and one doing just that on one race and not the other and one not. I have watched amazing performances across a whole variety of sports and I have seen some of the interviews and pieces to camera that hint at the hard work done behind the scenes. I watched incredible marathon running and awful social media posts about athletes who ‘lost’. I flicked between being bemused by what an elite set of human bodies can achieve and noting that my body never has and never will be capable of anything spectacular in the sporting arena. I flicked between dismissing it all as irrelevant to me and being inspired. But a theme, as well as actually a quote (Noah Lyles I think, possibly Josh Kerr), that runs through so much of what I have seen is that idea that someone has to win, someone has to get the medals so why not you? It’s that notion that there are things out there to be done, to be accomplished so why shouldn’t it be you doing it. It somehow chimed with me the first time it was said at these Games and I have been thinking about why.

Obviously it is nonsense for me to think there are podium finishes in my future that someone has to win and it might as well be me. That’s not why this chimed. I think it is about something broader for me. It’s about deciding you want to do something, doing the work to get yourself there and then owning it. So, there is a Dopey Challenge open to what you might call recreational runners, I quite like the idea of running it again, people will run it, I might as well be part of it. But that very simple theme also incorporates a perhaps obvious point – if it might as well be you, you have to be in a position to get it done. I have to be fit enough to get round Dopey. Not to win obviously, but I have to do the work now, I have to prepare so come January I can say, with the same confidence I have seen repeatedly over the last week and a bit: ‘People will run and complete the Dopey, why wouldn’t I be one of them’. The ‘why not you’ has popped up before. I have often thought about the fact that someone has to comes last, why not me? Things happen – good and bad – why shouldn’t they happen to you? Isn’t that just the serendipity of life? Of course you can do things that might reduce the chances of bad stuff happening to you. And for some things the ‘might as well be me’ is hugely dependent on you doing stuff.

So it chimed because it is such a simple phrase and idea: Why not you? But it is also so complex, part serendipity and luck, part hard work, part within your control and partly not at all. I then listened to the High Performance Podcast episode with Michael Johnson where the theme popped up again. Both in the sense of someone has to win so why not you but then also in another sense – Michael Johnson talking about the stroke he suffered not in terms of how unfair it was or feeling sorry for himself but acknowledging the ‘well why not me’ question. Noting that if someone has to have a stroke then it might as well be him as much as the next guy and acknowledging that he was fortunate because he was in great shape and able to get back to full health. The why not me theme is so simple and so complex at the same time.

When I started this blog post the Olympics weren’t over yet. I had had a pretty good week of training. I felt good and I was going to write all about what I was doing to put myself into a position where ‘why not me’ is a reasonable thing to ask about finishing Dopey. The last week though hasn’t gone to plan and I have done absolutely nothing to get myself into that position.

But let’s re-wind. My good week. I cycled, I stretched every day, I did my runs and I was proud of finishing what was essentially a 10 miler even though that didn’t go as planned. We’d gone out for a curry on the Thursday and while the food was great as always, I felt sluggish for days after. I knew I wasn’t really ready for my long run, my tummy wasn’t settled but I also knew I just needed to get it done. I was ok-ish to 5 miles. At 5 miles I was beginning to be quite uncomfortable, by 6 miles I was in bother and by 6.5 miles running was basically impossible. I stopped and had a brief little tantrum and switched my watch to walk. I decided that I would try and walk the remainder of my 9 mile run/walk. As walking was sort of ok and dramatically reduced the danger of puking or worse, I decided I would see if I could walk the 2.5 miles remaining within the allowed Disney Pace of 16 minute miles. Unfortunately though the data on the screen of my watch is so small when using the walk setting that I couldn’t actually see the pace so I just had to march as fast as I could given the circumstances. I wanted to stop more than once but didn’t. I made it, and then very slowly walked the rest of the loop home – clocking in at something like 9.98 miles total for the day. And the 9 miles were at an average of 15 minute miles so all Disney Legal.

This week though I have done very little. I have done some random stretches most days but nothing more than a few minutes at a time and nothing from any of the apps. I haven’t run and I haven’t been on the bike. I have lots of excuses but they are just that. I easily could have got out there. I just didn’t make myself make the time.

Today was supposed to be long run day. I wanted to have another go at the route I did last weekend to see if I could make it without tummy issues. But my period started this morning and it’s a bad one. Tummy cramps, back pain, nausea and everything makes me cry. So mostly I have just been feeling sorry for myself. The usual painkillers had little effect and mostly I just didn’t know what to do with myself. I know it will be a bit easier tomorrow and then fine the day after but I have not been a happy Jess today. This afternoon I got so fed up with myself that I tried a Joe Wicks strength in menopause workout. I should have done one I already knew but I tried a new full body 30 minute one and I didn’t much like it and sort of just grumped my way through it a bit half heartedly. But I supposed it is still better than nothing. I’ll try that one again when I am not feeling as crappy.

So the week ahead. Somehow it feels busy. It’s not really in the grand scheme of things. Tomorrow the car is going in for its service and Storm cat is having her vaccination in the evening. Tuesday Kilian goes to the vet for his teeth extractions (the poor little bugger has a nasty infection and the icky gums and teeth the vet warned us about when he was a kitten have finally got the better of him), Wednesday I am going into the office on the train… it might be a week of excuses or it might be a week of managing to juggle successfully all the life stuff we all juggle. We’ll see.

I guess some people just have bad periods – why wouldn’t that be me? Some people are really good at excuses – that’s definitely me and some people can also laugh at their excuses and then get on with it – why not me?

Building Consistency

Jess GuthLeave a comment

I did not want to run today. I turned the alarm off at 6am, turned over and dozed for a bit. I felt creaky and didn’t really want to get up. I did still get up before 7am but it was a ‘sip coffee on the patio’ sort of morning. I had vague ideas about running at lunch time after some work calls in the morning but then I got busy and hungry. No excuses this evening. I just didn’t want to. I got as far as wandering into the bathroom to put a bath on before pausing. I want to get round the Great North Run and I want to do Dopey without being completely miserable. The time to put in the work for that is now. Not tomorrow, not next week or month, now. So I got changed. Still didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to go any of the routes from home, I definitely didn’t want to drive anywhere to run. I didn’t want to leave the house and be out for 45 minutes, I didn’t want to get sweaty. I just didn’t want to.

Kath was on the bike so I couldn’t make an excuse and cycle instead. Although the Dopey plan has two 45 minute runs during the week, I decided to sod it and just go a short loop and at least just get out (still didn’t want to). I pulled my shoes on and went outside. At least it wasn’t as hot as it has been. As I set off I suddenly wondered if I could run a mile without walking. I almost never run continuously and have mostly been running 30 seconds run and 30 second walk intervals. I upped the running interval on my 45 minute run on Wednesday but I can’t remember when I last ran continuously for several minutes, never mind a mile. Well, I thought, I could just try and run a mile and then come home. That seemed like a good thing to do. Given my mind was playing tricks and being annoying, giving it something to actually battle would be good training for one things actually get physically hard. So off I went. I ran a mile. There wasn’t really a mental battle. I just ran. A lot of it is downhill. It was all fine. Then there is a slight slope. It’s not much but really but it’s noticeable when you are running and I have struggled with it. It was hard and I was huffing and puffing and briefly thought about sneaking in a walk break but then it was over and I was back on the flat and then downhill. So now we know I can run a mile.

I walked back trying to keep a reasonable pace walking but not marching flat out. I was out a total of 30 minutes – just over 12 of them running. I am happy with that. In fact, I am happy with the week. I did nothing much on Monday. It was mum’s birthday and we went out for food in the evening. Tuesday I re-did my FTP test on the bike. Now that I found ridiculously hard. I am not a cyclist. I can’t get myself into the same mental place on a bike as I can running – I can’t do hard on the bike. I give up much more quickly mentally. Maybe it’s just what I am used to and it will come. I do think the new FTP is a better reflection of reality and the workout I did yesterday suggests the level is now more accurate. So I have done 2 runs and 2 rides this week so far. I have also now done 11 consecutive days of daily stretches with today’s still to come. I am not overly tired and nothing hurts. In fact I probably have slightly more energy and am sleeping better. Exercise, whether run or bike, is also becoming more just what I do rather than something that I have to force myself to do every single time. I know I didn’t want to go today – but I did. Just a couple of weeks ago I would have run that bath and then watched Olympics in bed.

Consistency is everything in running (and it seems in cycling too) so I am very happy with this week. I am having another go at a long run tomorrow and will see how I got with the 45 second running intervals over the longer distance (they were fine on the shorter run on Wednesday).

Happy running!

A decent 2 weeks

Jess GuthLeave a comment

Since returning from Ambleside a couple of weeks ago, I am finally making progress. I have done the first 2 weeks, that’s 4 rides, of the very basic training programme in Zwift. I have actually enjoyed it but it’s clear that doing the ramp test while still recovering from COVID was a mistake. I need to re-do it as it’s making the sessions that rely on that measure too easy.

I restarted yoga but really only managed the morning floor flow on and off. I have done 6 days of daily stretches from the Dynamic Runner app though and I do really like those. Just around 16-17 minutes a day and targeting all the areas that get tight with running.

Ah yes running – that’s why I’m doing all this, so I can run. It’s only 6 weeks to the Great North Run and we know I’d barely been out before I was poorly. I’d had a go at the first couple of short runs for Dopey week 1, then nothing for what would have been week 2. Week 3 it was Thursday before I made it out and it was a tough one. I felt like giving up after a mile but slogged it out another 1.66 miles to meet Kath at the hairdressers for a lift back up the hill. It was hot though. My pink laces seemed ridiculously bright in the unusually hot West Yorkshire sun.

This week is week 4. Monday I spent all day putting off going out and in the end I just walked. It was such a mental battle to get out though that even that felt like a huge win. Thursday I got out for a 3 mile no drama plod but I was getting worried about distance. It really felt like 3 miles was about as far as my body was prepared to go.

So today was a bit of a test. I needed to do a long run that was actually longer than 3 miles. We have a loop we call the farm loop which is roughly 7. It needs modifying a little at the moment because we have one canal bridge out so can’t loop home across it. I had absolutely no clue how this would go.

Well, it went surprisingly well. Let’s park any discussion about pace. I’m coming to terms with the idea that I just am a couple of minutes a mile slower than I used to be. So I set off using 30/30 run/walk intervals. I tried to go deliberately slow. Absolutely zero effort spent on pace. I really wanted to get past 2 miles without finding it hard. That worked. The 2 mile beep actually made me jump. All was good. Mile 3 was also fine. Just plodding along. I passed a few runners with race numbers on – I presume doing the It’s Grim Up North Sir Titus Trot. Mile 4 was a bit annoying as I dropped off the canal, through the farm that gives the loop its name and along narrow roads where I kept having to stand in to let cars pass. Still, running wise no drama.

Just into mile 5 I added an additional walk interval as I went up the slope back to the canal. I came out behind a couple of runners I’d seen in the distance earlier and they were walking with a few runs thrown in. I was walking slower than them but running faster than they were walking so over the next mile I slowly caught them up. I went past and then they immediately passed me again as they set off on a run. Their running was faster than mine and I stayed a fairly constant distance behind them for the rest of my run. they surged ahead when running, I caught up when they weren’t.

Mile 5 was fine. Mile 6 was fine but I was grateful for the distraction of two herons one of which led me to add a second additional walk interval so I could have a little chat with it. As I approached the final mile I began to try and work out where I would finish and really hoped it would not be too far beyond one of the canal bridges that we call the post office bridge. Running past that seemed like it would be tough because that was the obvious point at which to stop and walk home.

7 miles took me almost exactly to that bridge. 7 miles. No drama. Slow but within Disney pace. On reflection I probably could have done with some fuel for the last couple of miles (I only took water) but otherwise it was a good solid run.

The. I walked home very slowly up the hill. I stopped frequently to sip my water and stretch out the various bits of my body that were now cross with me. After food and a bath I’ve been doing very little- mostly watching random sport at the Olympic Games. I’ve stretched and nothing hurts. Happy.

Ambleside Not Running

Jess Guth1 Comment

What do you do in the Lake District when one of you has a broken toe and the other is recovering from Covid? We had booked the Ambleside Salutation Hotel and Spa for a Lakeland Trails running weekend. Given how running has been going we had already dropped distances to 23k and 14k respectively and then Kath broke her toe on the Fell Pony Adventures a couple of weeks ago and last week I got Covid. It feels like I was basically asleep from last Sunday to Thursday. Anyway, running was out of the question for either of us but the hotel was booked.

I associate Ambleside with walking, being outside all day, moving… so it seemed odd to be there without really doing anything. We went to the cinema and had a lovely meal on Friday. On Saturday we drove up to Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s house because we’d never been and with out National Trust Membership got in free (wouldn’t want to have paid 16 pounds each for that experience!). The house is interesting for a fairly quick walk through but very quickly got too busy to really look at anything. The garden was nice to have a look at and then we sat and had a coffee on a bench by a fruit tree. The National Trust attracts a certain type of volunteer I think and we spent some time giggling about the fact that although they were clearly ready they did not open the ticket hut until bang on 10am, that the volunteer at the gate gave you the welcome speech whether you wanted it or not and also summoned you back to her spot by the gate to do it if somehow you did manage to get past her initially.

We also had lots of giggles about the token that you have to collect from the ticket hut at the car park (they don’t tell you this so I left Kath at the house a couple of minutes up the road to go back down to get our tickets scanned). You then carry the toke that they didn’t tell you you needed, past the insistent welcome woman up to the house where you give it to the next volunteer – there seems no reason for the tokens. It kept us amused for a little while anyway.

We slept a lot, we watched tennis while reading, we lounged around in our room which was huge due to a lovely upgrade. We also had a sauna in the room which was nice but didn’t get all that hot and a huge jacuzzi bath. I actually think all the rooms are probably really nice but somehow the upgrade felt like the universe just nudging us to look after ourselves, to take advantage of the huge bed, the bathroom the size of an average London hotel room and the really good coffee. The staff were lovely when I randomly asked for ice so Kath could ice her toe and ankle and overall we felt well looked after.

We had more lovely food, had a look in the shops and bought some cards and notebooks and some new walking shoes, then more food, more sleep… This morning we finished our weekend with a hot stone massage. So if you’re in Ambleside and can’t run, it seems you eat and sleep lots and intersperse that with a few shops. It’s what we needed but it was also frustrating to see the runners of the various distances set off on their races, smiling and full of energy at that point. It was also upsetting because of our interaction with Lakeland Trails this time. I’ll see if it is resolved before writing any more about it. It was particularly frustrating because before I got ill, and after the Fell Pony trek, I had put together a really positive week of running and stretching and it felt like things were slowly beginning to come together.

On Friday I walked just under 10000 steps, so really not much and I was sooo tired, Saturday was a little better and today I feel better again. So much so that I made myself go on our new fancy bike (more on that soon) and do the FTP ramp test in Zwift. I have no real idea of how it works but let’s think of it as a fitness sort of test and I thought I might as well set a benchmark. It was ridiculous and I know from previous cycles that I can normally do better – or at least I think so because the previous set-up was far from accurate. Anyway, I know nothing about cycling or Zwift really so I’ll come back to all that.

All I can do at this point is dust myself off and start again and keep trying. That’s all any of us can do.