Category: Training

First ever ever ever solo run

Jess Guth4 Comments

I just did it. I just went for a run ON MY OWN. As you can tell from the blogs it has taken me a couple of days to work up to it. I was shattered from work but I’d talked about going for a run with Kath this morning and she promised to get me to go. I didn’t really want to but I also sort of did. So my first solo run was going to have to be along a route I know well and it also couldn’t be a long one or a hard one. To ease me in we’d agreed that I would run to the sheep, feed them and check them and then continue my loop. We also needed some bread and milk so I thought I’d stop at the shop after my run.

I didn’t want to use Kath’s garmin – that’s just a step too far for today – so I had my little stop watch on that we used before Kath got her fancy watch – that means there is no data other than time for my run. Off I went with my phone, key to our sheep field gate and a tenner in my little running belt. I set off from home and when I glanced at my watch I’d been going just over three minutes and still felt fine. I just kept going. I got to our sheep field in 9 minutes 20 seconds, no walk breaks. I stopped the watch and got a bucket of food out of the shed. Then I walked and fed the boys and then walked on to the next field and fed the girls. I probably had roughly 10 minutes out before setting off again from that field. I vaguely thought about walking up the slope and starting from the top but I thought I might be disappointed with myself if I did that so I ran it. I was ok when I got to the top so I kept going down the golf course, still fine. Then I turned left along the canal – aiming for the next bridge which would have completed the 2.5 mile ish loop we did the other day.

The canal was deserted. I didn’t see another soul, animal or human which was a bit odd but thinking about that kept me occupied for a bit. As I got to the bridge I glanced at my watch and it said 26.46. So I did the 2.5 mile loop minus the little stretch I walked between fields in that time, no walk breaks. I was going to stop at the bridge and then just walk to the shop but I thought I’d better try and run for 30 minutes so I kept going. It was hard to push past the bridge because I had been focused on just getting to it but finally I saw some ducks and a blackbird and then some more ducks and then it was over –  I made the 30 minutes.

I phoned Kath because obviously I had to tell someone immediately that I had done it and the cyclist who was stopped in front of me talking on his phone didn’t look much like he wanted to hear about my run. Then I went to the shop where I felt a bit self-conscious in my running gear but nobody fell about laughing.

Now I don’t quite know what to do with myself. I went for a run ON MY OWN.

Woman Down

Jess Guth3 Comments

Kath has hurt her knee. We don’t know when or how exactly. The 11 miler was fine and running the 2.5 miles yesterday she was fine too – a little achey as we walked back home up the hill. It got worse during the day. This morning she couldn’t put weight on it at all. The poor thing is in agony. The doctor was useless. She got a telephone appointment and was told to keep icing the knee, keep the leg elevated, use ibuprofen gel (she can’t take the tablets, they give her ulcers) and wait a few days. If there is no improvement in a few days she is to ring them back for further advice. She has made an appointment with her osteopath for this afternoon.

I should probably wait to blog until we know what’s what but it is on my mind and I am not concentrating properly and thus not getting anything done. I thought getting it off my chest might help with that! So I realise that this is totally selfish, self- centred and just a little bit out of line but I’m back to that honesty thing again: I am scared. Obviously I am worried about Kath’s knee and it is awful to see her in pain and to see her frustration at not being able to do anything. Empathy, worry, concern…all those emtions are there. And then there is also just being scared. Chances of Kath running again before the Nottingham Half Marathon are, I would think, zero. Hell, chances of her running the Nottingham Half Marathon are pretty slim looking at her hop her way through the house. So best case – Kath rests her knee and is ok to run in 2 week’s time. That means I have at least 5 runs to complete ON MY OWN. I have never ever ever run anywhere for any length of time on my own. The idea fills me with horror. I don’t have the self-discipline to do that. I’ll never make it through 3 minutes of running, never mind a full 45 minute loop.

Worst case? I feel quite sick thinking about this. Worst case, Kath is out for a while and not back for the Nottingham run. I need to keep training – Kath is fitter than I am by loads so she’ll catch up. I can’t stop. That means I need to run 13 miles in 2 weeks whatever happens. I will have to run Nottingham by myself. Just me. I may have to run the Scarborough 10km by myself. Just me. I may have to ramp up the mileage to 15, 17, even 19 miles by myself. Just me. Oh hell

Ok let’s try and be positive here. Kath is pretty fit, she doesn’t have underlying knee issues and hasn’t had problems before. She didn’t feel anything tear or pop, she’s had ice on it and has looked after it well since it got bad. She has an excellent osteopath. Surely nearly two weeks’ rest should do it and we can carefully potter our way round the half marathon and then kick on from there. I want to do this together and not just because I’m not sure I can do it on my own but because this is our thing, our challenge, something we said we’d do together. Kath has always promised she’d never leave me behind and she always crosses the finish line right next to me although she could clearly outrun me in every finish – she could just leave me for dust. We are going to cross the RunDisney WDW marathon finish line together but if she is going to be out for a while that means that I have to keep going on my own. Kath might be able to deal with several weeks of not training and I don’t think it will have an impact on her ability to finish a marathon at my pace. If I stop and wait for her to come back I will be too far behind schedule and risk not being able to make it round at all. So for us to do this together I have to keep going on my own.

Just me.

A steady 2.5 miles

Jess Guth1 Comment

Just a quick one. Our schedule is a bit to pot because of my melt down and then having to get back to the 11 miles but we are trying to catch up -you know me and gaps on the training schedule. So we headed out for a short loop. The schedule said three miles but I’ve been getting a bit obsessive about schedules and it was just about going for a short little jog today to see if the legs would move after 11 miles  on Friday so we just did a simple loop from our house – no doubling back on the canal or anything like that. 2.58 miles with a pace of 12.34 minutes per mile. Everything works, nothing hurt. Calf muscle and right hamstring are tight but ok. I didn’t feel great getting up, I feel better now I have run.

It’s Sunday so it’s weigh-in day. I seem to have stayed exactly the same which is fine. Judging by my clothes I suspect it is one of those funny weeks were my clothes feel big but the weight hasn’t shifted. I’ve just moved my belt on another notch. They weight may come off next week.

It’s also Great North Run day. I’ve got it on the telly now. I think maybe one day I’d like to do that run. Maybe that’s something to aim for to make sure we keep running after the RunDisney event. For a start it’s a half marathon and half is beginning to feel slightly less insane in my head. It is beginning to feel doable (just as well really – 2 weeks today I’ll have to do it in Nottingham!) Anyway, watching all those people slowly setting off is sort of emotional but how I think about it is changing and I’ve just realised something – I want to be there, I want to be part of it. Wow.

Good luck everyone – it’s just one foot in front of the other!

11 miles tomorrow

Jess Guth4 Comments

Another morning run. I was indifferent about running this morning. We decided to go the other way along the canal today. My leg is much the same – a bit sore but not getting worse. So off we went slowly down the hill. I found this one harder than the last two. It wasn’t comfortable at any point. I didn’t enjoy it, it was one of those that just needed doing and I don’t remember there being anything to see which must be nonesense, there’s always something to see along the canal. I just wanted to get to the end, get home and have a shower. It’s not that I was miserable or that it ever occured to me to not finish or anything, it just wasn’t fun. I think it was about 3.7 miles in 45 minutes.

Anyway, I want to write about tomorrow. Tomorrow we are having another go at the 11 mile run that caused my meltdown last weekend. I am, to say the least, a little apprehensive. I don’t really know what went wrong which means I don’t feel like I can stop it from happening again (over-thinking much?!?). I do sort of feel quietly confident though. Preparation for tomorrow is good. I have been drinking water all day and am pretty hydrated, I have eaten the right sort of stuff with fajitas at lunch and a bowl of pasta this evening and I haven’t really done anything this afternoon – just resting, watching crap on tv, chatting and enjoying being at home.

So, physically I know I can do 11 miles and I do think mentally I am learning to be a bit tougher. I have the sayings up all around the house so I see them all the time and they are lodging in my brain. I have tried my little mantra and it got me through the tough patches today. It’s ready for the next test. I also tried counting backwards from 100 and discovered that I am not very good at it. I particularly struggle in the 60s so my aim is to do a backwards countdown without making a mistake – that should keep my mind off running for quite a while!

The route should be stunning – all along the Wharfe so I could also count ducks. I will certainly be looking out for herons and wildlife generally and it would be really fab to see something unusual or something I don’t see on our usual runs round here. I also have another little trick to try and keep me going. It’s silly, totally silly but it should help for this run as well as for some future ones. The plan formed after the aborted last attempt. I went to the shop at Bolton Abbey and bought two postcards, one with a picture of the Abbey ruins and another with pictures fron Burnsall. We will turn round at Burnsall and I have written the postcard showing Burnsall. I am going to post it in the village as we go through. It says: ‘You know you can do this because you are doing it’ and is addressed to me from me. The second card I will write once we are back at the Cavendish Pavillion at the Bolton Abbey estate enjoying a bacon sarnie- again from me to me. What I write will depend on how I feel then but the idea is to have something other than the voices in my head. I will actually have postcards from me to me telling me that I can do this. So obviously I have finally lost the plot!

Morning Runs and Mantras

Jess Guth2 Comments

I actually made it out of bed early this morning to go for a run. It was touch and go, particularly because I turned the alarm off rather than putting it on snooze but just after 6am we left the house and headed out on our usual route pastimage our sheep, down the golf course and along the canal.We went slow and it felt like a comfortable sort of pace. Leg issues remain. It niggles without being painful as such and it isn’t getting worse. It actually feels better running than walking!  I took the walk breaks out once we’d turned round and I think we managed to go just a little faster than last time but it didn’t feel like we were pushing  – it was just nice to be out. There’s a very calming sort of stillness at the that time in the morning. Just as I was about to comment on the absence of wildlife other than ducks, a heron flew out of a tree to our right and headed down the canal in the direction we’d just come from. It was nice to see ‘him’ (I don’t know if it was male of female – how do you tell?).

image

Anyway, after my meltdown on Saturday and my decision to keep going, I was looking for tips and tricks to stay mentally stronger. Now, I am not a mantra sort of person, I like clever little quotes and sayings but they tend to be silly or academic – I’ve always found the motivating or the soppy stuff kind of nauseating. Well, there is some research which I read about in a Runners Wolrd magazine I think (I could check but I am far too lazy to get off the sofa) which suggests that having a mantra to repeat to yourself really works. In addition there is also simageomething about seeing words/phrases all the time that makes me remember. I have tried this with language learning – sticking post-it notes on everything imaginable to try and learn the spanish word for it as well as sticking up phrases so I see them all the time. I just wondered whether I can trick my brain into holding onto some positive messages when that ‘you can’t do this’ voice kicks in. I have accepted that the voice will come but I need to learn to argue with it (I’m a lawyer, I can have an argument in an empty room – how hard can this be…)

When we went for the run on Sunday it was the first time I really used a mantra when running. It is dead simple but it fits into a rhythm which means it also helps focus and calm my huffing and puffing. I just count 1-and-2-and-3-and-4, I can do this, I can do this, 1-and-2-and…(oh dear writing that down makes it sounds so cringe worthy and embarassing). It sort of works. It hasn’t really been tested yet because it hasn’t yet got really tough but I used it both Sunday and this morning to keep the rhythm on the hills (both down and up).

The fridge
The fridge

As for tricking my brain… I went online to look for some of the motivational mantras/sayings and to try and find some I could sort of identify with and which I thought might help. There are loads that really wouldn’t work for me because they’re all about faster/fitter/stronger which I just don’t get. I printed them out and was going to find places to stick them up. Well, when I got home yesterday Kath had cut them out and found places to stick them – where they kind of made sense. How amazing is that?!  The pictures scattered through this blog post are of the mantras stuck up on our front and back doors, the fridge and various bits of furniture. Do they work? Who knows. For now they are making me smile and partly laugh at myself for even trying this but there was a point this morning where I was beginning to struggle a little and the ‘I can’t do it voice’ was starting to get vocal and a few of the pictures and their corresponding mantras flashed through my brain.

Back door - the door I head out of
Back door – the door I head out of

I’ll let you know how I get on but for now just remember that ‘however slow you go, you are still lapping everyone on the couch’ (Thanks to my lovely friend Donna for posting that on my FB timeline very early on in the running journey – it is the one I come back to most often!)