Category: Training

Running on empty, or on too full or just running out of steam

Jess GuthLeave a comment

We were going to run 15 miles today. We didn’t. We did run though. Let me start at the beginning. It has been another stupid and stupidly busy week. Work has been relentless for both of us. We didn’t manage another run after Tuesday’s 45 minutes. Yesterday we flew out to Hamburg for my Dad’s birthday which is tomorrow. Our flight wasn’t until the afternoon so we decided to do the 5.5 mile walk as per our plan  before we set off. It was a nice walk and we stopped to feed out sheep on the way round and chatted about Disney plans and emptied our brains of work stuff. We were exhausted when we got home though. We were beginning to be a little pushed for time so we actually only walked 4.5 miles. We made up for the missing mile with a mad dash across Amterdam Schipol airport to make our connecting flight, just.

As I said I had planned a route that was 15 miles but it did involved 3 loops of the Alster. We got up at 6am, forced down about half of a porridge pot each, forced ourselves out the door and took some deep breaths. We hadn’t slept well, even a relatively quiet area in the city is noisy when you’re used to the complete silence we have at home and unfamiliar beds never make for a good night. Neither of us really wanted to go. Neither of us felt particularly bright. We walked, for about 5 minutes and then started the run. 2 minute runs, 30 second walks. The first mile and a bit was just along a residential street, then we hit the Alster an decided to go clockwise. It is quite a nice route and there were a fair few runners about.

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There were also ducks and geese and swans, a few dogs and walkers, some people just going about their business and some very serious, and not entirely happy looking, people with two walking poles engaging in what can only be described as skiing without skis.

It was hard going. We walked a lot and plodded along at a slow trot in between. It was unusual because we were both struggling so we made the decision to turn the run into a positive and just do one loop of the Alster. By the time we had done that and got ourselves back to a cafe that looked like a good option for breakfast we’d completed 7 miles.

I don’t know why we found it so hard, maybe because we hadn’t eaten the right sort of stuff at the right times yesterday, or maybe we hadn’t drunk enough water, maybe there wasn’t a long enough gap between porridge and running or maybe we are just tired, properly tired. We have decided to rest tomorrow and then possibly do another loop on Monday and see how we feel.

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Regaining perspective

Jess Guth1 Comment

I feel ok today. I completed a 12 mile walk/run yesterday and I feel ok today. That, I have decided, is a huge success. I slept pretty well although I started getting restless about 4.30am I think, probably not helped by the cats. I don’t really have any pain anywhere. My legs feel fine – just a little tired maybe. It’s all good.

We fly out to Florida 9 weeks tomorrow. We arrive Tuesday evening and the marathon is on Sunday. We’ll head for the expo and pick up our packs on Wednesday and we have a few days to adjust sleep patterns and food etc before the marathon day. It also means that there are only 7 more weeks of long runs before we taper off to rest before the big event. However much I might hate every long run – and I am not entirely convinced that I will hate them all, I can do another 7 weeks of this.

So I learned some things yesterday.

  1. I am not mentally anywhere near as strong as I need to be. The minute it gets really tough I forget to count, I forget my mantras, I get negative. I am going to practice  on the short runs during the week. Maybe by extending the time I run before taking a walk break or maybe by pushing the pace a little and seeing if I can maintain it… Yes I know I need to be careful not to push too much and risk injury. I know.
  2. I am extremely lucky that I don’t get blisters easily. My feet are in pretty good shape and any blisters I have had have been minor. The more I talk to runners the more I realise that I am increadibly lucky. Poor Kath’s feet are in bits.
  3. Chafing is a thing, and a painful one at that. I have to be honest here. I hadn’t, naively perhaps, given chafing much thought. Well I am giving it plenty of thought today. I will spare you details but let’s just say it took me a while to find underwear that didn’t cause intense pain this morning. I think this means I need to be even more careful about what underwear to run in and vaseline may be my new best friend. My bra was ok yesterday but I am beginning to see how this is an issue I am going to have to think about. Oh joy.
  4. Roast chicken with mashed potato and celeriac, turnip, cauliflower, broccoli and carrot is an excelleRunning T-shirtnt post run meal.

To help get back to a happy place yesterday I put my favourite running T-shirt on (here it is). Then I started looking at running routes for our next long run which will be in Hamburg next weekend. We are going over for my Dad’s birthday. We go on Friday evening and come back Monday morning. The plan is to do a gentle 6 mile run/walk on Friday and then a 15 mile run on Saturday. I think I’ve found a route that means we don’t need public transport and can walk 5 minutes or so as a warm up and cool down at either end. I’ll share the route once we’ve run it (I’ll stop for a photo or two!)

Yesterday was also incredibly good for my fitbit stats. I’ve had one for a couple of weeks. I won’t bore you with details but I don’t move much unless I run it seems. On days where I don’t run I often struggle to hit the recommended 10000 steps – I tend to get around 8000 ish. When we run our short loop I get the 10000 but yesterday, with a bit of pacing round the house just before bed I got over 30000 steps. I got quite excited about that. I’ll write about the fitbit some other time but it does work to make me move a bit more. I find myself wanting to hit the 10000 target and I am also more conscious of spending long spells sitting at my desk or on the sofa so at work in particular it makes me get up and walk about and stretch more.

Anyway, 45 minute run scheduled for the morning before work. I hope it’s not quite as foggy as it has been today.

12 – I can’t f-ing do this – miles

Jess Guth3 Comments

It’s Sunday which means weigh-in day. Kath has done amazingly well and has lost 4 pounds. I’ve lost half a pound if you take pre run reading which I usually do or 2 pounds if you take post run reading. That’s it for good news.

I hated every single step of our run today, each and every single step. We set off on the flat. I had the backpack with water and a porridge bar to have around half way. The backpack was fine. I wasn’t. I felt really sluggish and tired from the start. We were running 90 seconds and walking 30 seconds. I really wanted to be able to do those intervals all the way. I was struggling much more on this route than I did when we ran it one way last weekend.

Nothing worked, counting didn’t work, my mantras didn’t work, my legs barely worked. I’m sure the canal was stunning, in fact Kath told me it was several times. I don’t remember. We got to Saltaire eventually, I hadn’t been able to think of a plausible excuse which is the only reason we made it that far. We kept going a bit to hit the 6 miles. Just over 6 miles we turned round, had some water and a chunk of a blueberry and honey porridge bar. We took one of the 90 second run intervals as a walk while we did that. Then we set off again. I made it back to Saltaire. So far so very slow and horrible, plodding but no real niggles. Not physical ones anyway. I was full of doubt though, full of ‘this is stupid, WTF am I doing?’. I got a tiny little boost as I passed a colleague running the other way and we recognised each other just in time to high 5 as we passed.

I asked Kath to tell me when we hit 8 miles so that I’d know when we had done two thirds. We’d already done 8 miles. That made me marginally hate the run less for about 30 seconds. We crossed over the canal, the little tiny tiny hill up onto the bridge was brutal. I swore under my breath. It’s followed fairly quickly by a slope up the side of one of the locks on the canal. More swearing followed by a shorter run because I ran out of steam as I got to the top and just managed a couple more steps. The longer walk was needed. I kept trying but I’d gone mentally and tiredness in my legs was giving way to niggles. My left knee didn’t hurt as such, it just felt  weak. My right calf felt tight and my lower back was starting to protest. We kept going taking the 90 second intervals one at a time and occassionally just running a minute walking a minute. At some point Kath also took the backpack off me although that made no difference really.

Melt down came at the Five Rise Locks. I just couldn’t do it. I was so disappointed. As we were coming up to the largest slope a women commented saying how we could always start again at the top. I snapped at her. She said something else and Kath did say thank you. I’m sorry if that was you. It’s just that you were tall and athletic and walking far faster than I felt capable of running. Sorry and thank you for taking the time to try and be encouraging. You did help!

At the top of the slope Kath suggested stopping at the cafe and getting a drink and having a rest as well as time to get myself together. That would have been too much like admitting defeat so I kept pushing and managed to get to crossflatts using 1 minute runs and 1 minute walks mostly. With roughly 2 miles to go I think I was in pain. The thing is, I don’t really remember. We walked almost all of the last two miles. Then, just because finishing a run with a walk is so utterly depressing we managed a little jog for the last 200 metres or so to the end.

So are there any positives? Well I guess I’m not still out there! I am not too broken now I’ve been home for a couple of hours, have done some yoga, had a bath and a roast chicken dinner and inspite of the 2 miles walking and the meltdown in Bingley which saw us actually completely stop for a few minutes we came home well within Disney pace requirements. We were at 14 and a half minutes per mile.

At mile 10 I was ready to give up and never run again. I was convinced it was a stupid idea to even attempt the marathon and wondered if I could persuade Kath to just run the half or ideally not run at all or maybe run it on her own – I’d be an awesome supporter. Now I’m disappointed and a bit anxious about distance and how I am going to manage those additional miles but I want to try. I am grateful that nothing is injured. The long runs will inevitably highlight weak spots and I’ll keep doing the yoga and the exercises I’ve been given. I am back to really wanting this. That doesn’t make me hate today’s run any less but it’s 12 miles ticked off the list, it’s 12 miles closer to where I need to be. 15 miles is next for the long runs – well I could have walked another 3 miles today – it may not have been pretty but it would have been possible. So, because today has to be all about me and I am feeling bitchy (mostly at myself), I leave you with this:

#RunningMeme Friday: I Don’t Know Who You Are… Be careful of Liam Neeson, y'all. He has a certain set of skills/ Have a running meme you want to see featured here? Click here to submit it.

Bolton Abbey and Halloween running

Jess Guth3 Comments

We didn’t run Wednesday or Thursday. I can’t really remember why. Oh yes I do – Wednesday I went out for food and drinks with a friends from work. Thursday we were shattered and ran out of daylight. Friday I was working at home so took the opportunity to go to Bolton Abbey in the afternoon. It’s been a while since we did any sort of hills really (I’m beginning to not think of the little hills on our route from home as hills any more – that’s got to be good, right?).

Friday we ran our Bolton Abbey 45 minute loop. I’ve outlined it previosuly. Same route. I was a little apprehensive. The last time we ran at Bolton Abbey was the 11 miler and by the time we’d get to where our loop ends we’d be at the point where I was in pain and mentally shattered last time. I wasn’t looking forward to it but I was also determined to have a real positive go at the hills. So we set off.

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It was busy – really busy with kids mostly. We’d forgotten it was half term and that there would be the pumpkin trail. I thought I might feel self-conscious and I did a little bit but actually I just found people infuriating. People seemed to take up the entire path, they’d stop randomly in front of me or step out and block my path. It was a pretty horrendous obstacle course of push chairs, toddlers and dogs until we got the the Strid. I was mentally exhausted. After that it quietened down and we settled into the running more. We briefly stopped half way as we crossed the aqueduct and took a couple of pictures. The colours were stunning.

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We were slow – just under 14 minutes per mile but it was an enjoyable run once we’d left people behind and it was a first attempt at hills in a very long time. The colours were fantastic – the pictures don’t really do them justice and the wharfe was higher and faster than I have seen it in a very long time – possibly ever.

20151030_161728[1]20151030_162437Today we dressed up as runners (not really but I’m going with the Halloween theme!) and headed out for a 3 miler. We were running out of daylight which meant that I struggled. I was fine until we got onto the path past our furthest sheep field. I suddenly lost confidence in my footing and within seconds everything that has ever niggled while running niggled – my right calf, my left knee, my right ankle, my lower back… I kept plodding but freaked out on the downhill and walked most of it. Once on the canal we settled into a really nice jog and I started to relax, the niggles disappeared and I started enjoying seeing the canal in a different light. With the mist coming off it it looked a bit spooky – probably only because it is Halloween though. We passed a white duck which stands out – the others were nearly invisible. There were owls screetching their encouragement and midges just making us want to run a bit faster. The usual canal sounds were still there too but more muted in the mist and a little unfamiliar in the dark. Again we weren’t fast but it was positive in the end.

Tomorrow we are getting back to trying some distance. We’re going for flat and we’re playing mind games – we’re going to run the route to Saltaire and then turn and run home. We both felt good after our run to Saltaire last weekend and both said we could easily have kept going at the end of that. Well, we’ll find out tomorrow if that’s true! We’re aiming for 12 miles. I’m scared!

Sunday Slog and October One Big Fat Run

Jess Guth4 Comments

We did our 45 minute run today – it wasn’t fun. It wasn’t really that hard either. It was grumpy. Yes that’s it, it was grumpy running. No idea why, it just was. We ran 1 minute/30 sec intervals again. We were going to go to Bolton Abbey but that doesn’t open until 9am and we were ready earlier (thanks mainly to the clocks going back) so we went from home, past our sheep which also gave us a chance to check on our ram (he’s been poorly with an infection) and still gave us some gentle hills.

Just past our sheep, on the slope I probably dislike most in terms of uphill running round here, there was a bullfinch puffing out his bright colours. There were also several robins along the way. I wondered if there are more robins around or whether their red chests just make them easy to see at the moment. The autumn colours are getting more vibrant and stunning every day but of course soon they will disappear (oh look grumpy again). There were amarous ducks on the canal and one or two other people, walking dogs mostly. We were passed by a runner who said something about ‘…isn’t going to be any help to you’ – I didn’t hear what he said though so I initially decided that it was positive but I couldn’t shake off the niggle that he wasn’t particularly complementary. It bothered me.

I bought ‘Run Fat Bitch Run‘ by Ruth Field yesterday. I have got through Part 1 and I wonder whether that has something to do with my grumpiness. There is quite a lot in there that I agree with but I also found it incredibly patronising and not at all motivational or inspiring. I may just be in that mood – I will review the book properly when I have finished it and when I have given it a fair shot. I think possibly I like and totally agree with the idea but not with the approach. We’ll see.

This weekend is the October iteration of the One Big Fat Run which I think is a great idea. It’s a virtual 5km run and it’s just about getting that run in at some point over the weekend and sharing the achievement of getting our butts out there. Time doesn’t matter, there is no coming last because the ‘race’ isn’t a race. It’s about us – you and me – getting out there and doing it at our own pace in our own way. You print your own race number (it’s the same for everyone 001) and you can even buy a medal in the Too Fat to Run shop. So our 45 minute run today was our Big Fat Run for this month – we did a little over 5km, 3.48 miles. Because I was all grumpy though I forgot to print race numbers and I also forgot to take a finish line selfie. Sorry. Maybe you can do better! Get yourself out there and round 5km, hop, skip, dance, walk, crawl, run your way round and then share your achievement on social media using #onebigfatrun.

Oh yeah – Sunday – weigh in – stayed the same – grumpy