Category: Training

Troubled tummies

Jess Guth3 Comments

I started drafting this post a few days ago and was saving it for a day when I felt confident and happy and would be able to cope with the inevitable embarassment I’d feel when posting this. Today is not really that day but needs must (as it were). I finished the draft post with:

‘I haven’t yet had a ‘serious incident’ and I have decided to just not worry about it. If it happens it happens. It’ll be embarassing, upsetting, horrible and then life will go on.’

Well it happened, it was all those things and life is going on. Let me explain – I did say I was going to be honest about this running thing so I can’t really spare myself the embarassment. I distinctly remember one run when we started training for the half marathon 3 years ago where I had to stop abruptly because I had, for want of a more delicate phrase, shit myself – or at least it felt like it. I hadn’t actually made a mess of myself but it was still horrible. We had run along the canal, turned off over the bridge to come up towards the Riddlesden Golf Course and were just turning down the hill to continue along the road that runs parallel to the canal.  I remember being quite upset about it at the time but had sort of forgotten about it by the time we started running again earlier this year. Or maybe I had just blocked it out.

As we’ve gone through our training this time there has been the odd run where my tummy has felt a bit dodgy and where I’ve felt like I might find myself in the same predicament again. It freaked me out a bit, well a lot, initially until I realised that this was ‘a thing’. It’s not just me, it’s a running thing. Apparently lots of long distance runners get the runner’s trots and apparently it affects novice runners more. So it may settle down. What I eat and when also obviously has an impact. In the draft version I had written:

‘and the good news is that I seem to do much better with morning runs where I’ve just had a banana about 20 minutes or so before the run.’

Yes, well that may not actually be true. That’s what I did this morning. I got up, had a banana, got sorted and we set off. I had been to the toilet but almost as soon as we set off running my tummy felt dodgy. Then at around 2.5 miles we had a little downhill bit and it all went horribly horribly wrong. There’s no point pretending, I did actually poo my pants. Not much but enough to be disgustingly uncomfortable as well as mortified for the rest of the run. I didn’t stop. I just cried, quietly and kept plodding. We finished the 7 miles in almost exactly and hour and a half with a pace of 12.55 minutes per mile

I am hoping that as I get fitter my body overall will get used to running and I will have fewer tummy incidents. I got home, had a bath and slowly regained my sense of humour but it’s been a tough day mentally. It’s hard to get excited about running when in the back of your mind you’re considering nappies. So –  happy thoughts. I have lost 1.5 pounds (perhaps not surprising) and we have finished page 1 of the training programme:

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Training during my week off

Jess Guth1 Comment

I’ve been on leave this week. Kath has been working and it has been a busy busy week for her. Dad is staying with us and we’ve been going on little day trips here and there. I was wondering how the running would fit into our lives when we’re not in our usual routine but it worked fine. We even went for 3 maintenance runs this week rather than the 2 – I feel better about no longer having a gap on the training schedule!

So here’s what we did

Tuesday: A relatively good pace for us of 12.14 minutes per mile running a total of 3.68 miles. I can’t even remember which way we went. I think we went up past the sheep and then along the canal but I couldn’t be sure. I don’t remember much about the run really.

Wednesday: We left our house, went down the hill and then along the canal towards Bingley. It felt really hard and I didn’t really enjoy it much. Having said that I must be getting better because in spite of not enjyoing it, I did see quite a lot. Dogs playing and getting their owners all tangled up, the acknowledging nods of other runners, the many cyclists who came flying past, ducks, a swan or two and Hugo the heron. It was, it turns out our fastest 45 minute run to date. 11 and a half minutes per mile exactly. 3.91 miles. We have gone faster once but that was on a 3 miler. This is encouraging!

Friday: Yesterday was a mixed bag. We tried out our new backpack/hydration system (more on that later) and I was struggling with a slightly dodgy tummy on the run (more on that later too). We slowed down a bit and ran 3.61 miles at a pace of 12.24 minutes per mile. It was a bit of a struggle particularly at first. With 6 run sections to go we turned for home along the canal and I settled into a really nice steady rhythm. It actually seemed easier to just keep going rather than stopping to walk and start again and the even rhythm was settling my tummy down. So I kept going, and going, and going and the first time I thought ‘a little walk would be nice’ there was only one left and it seemed a bit silly to take that one. So we ran to the end. 18 minutes of solid running at a completely even pace with just a little bit of an increase in speed for the last 30 seconds. And the most encouraging thing: I didn’t feel like I absolutely had to stop. I could have kept plodding along at that pace for a while I think.

The runs this week have been really tough mentally and physically but also really enouraging. Our early ‘really fast’ pace is now our normal ‘running fairly hard but looking about’ pace and our fast pace is getting faster. We are also getting stronger and are able to sustain our slower place for much longer. And, importantly for me and my ‘you can’t do this’ gremlins, our slowest, ‘dragging our butts up steep west yorkshire hills’ pace is still faster than the minimum pacing requirement of 16minutes per mile for the RunDisney Marathon.

Next up – 7 miles tomorrow. I’m not dreading it.

Don’t like fast – do like food

Jess Guth2 Comments

And by fast I mean fast for me, not actually fast. Our weekend run this week was only 3 miles. We have previously talked about extending the ‘short’ weekend runs to 5 miles just to get some miles in the legs and get more comfortable at that slightly longer distance but then we decided that we would use the 3 miles to work on getting a bit faster instead.

I got up not long after 8am an got ready to go for the 3 miles. The first run section didn’t go well, I’d obviously not tied my pants properly so at about a minute in my belly had escaped and I was desperately trying to pull up my pants, keep running and not get cross at Kath who was, with some justification, falling about laughing. At the walk break I tied a knot in the elsastic to keep my pants up come hell or highwater – it will probably have to stay in there forever.

I struggled on the run from the start really. I think possibly the less said the better. It was quite fast for us – 11.24 minutes per mile. 34 minutes 11 seconds. I’m happy with that but I didn’t enjoy a single second of that run. The good news – I’d recovered pretty well by the time we got home.

The guys over at BritsRunDisney are following a very similar training plan to us to get ready for the Wine and Dine Half Marathon soon. They’ve been thinking about fuelling for their runs and we’ve been thinking about that too. We need to get better at eating the right sort of things before and after running to help us on our runs and to help recovery. We’ve been on with that, experimenting with what to have before a morning run (we’ll get to the afternoon/evening runs eventually but they seem less crucuial as our marathon will be a morning run). What we haven’t yet got our heads round is fuelling during a run.

Pre-Run

Kath quite likes to do the morning runs on an empty tummy. I struggle with that (it was ok today but it was a short distance). I like a banana about 15 – 20 minutes before we start. If I am going to be up much longer than 40 minutes or so before heading out then porridge 90 minutes to an hour before, followed by a banana about 15 minutes before works well. I also want to try peanut butter on toast and see how that works – bascially I just like peanut butter.

We will have to start thinking about the day before etc soon too but let’s take one step at a time

Post-Run

We’re relatively good at this as we both like things like tuna steaks on quinoa with a bit of salad or just a big salad with feta cheese and seeds or a chicken and avocado salad. So for the longer runs we tend to plan a pretty good recovery meal in.

During Run

Hm, we are rubbish at this. So far we haven’t even been taking water. I haven’t felt like I needed it yet. I try and drink a bit before we head off and I drink quite a lot of water when we get back. As the distances get longer we will have to fuel as we go though. Our attempt at taking the Camelbak water bottle the other week failed (the belt and little bottles that go with it are now in a charity shop donation bag). Carrying a hand held water bottle for any distance doesn’t work either so I’m not sure what the solution is there.

As for anything other than water – I don’t like the idea of the gels. I don’t really know why, I just don’t. we might try jelly beans – I was given some giant ones as a present a while back – they might work. We might also try some dried fruit and nuts, something like a trail mix or something. I suppose using a run/walk strategy means that any nibbles can be comsumed during a walk break making it far easier than trying to learn to eat on the run. Whatever we ultimately come up with, it needs to be something that I can take with me to Florida because having to find something else when there will probably mess with my tummy and will almost certianly mess with my head.

Oh Sunday Weigh-In. I lost a whole two ounces – we’ll call that staying the same!

3.2 ish miles at Bolton Abbey Estate

Jess Guth5 Comments

We were going to head out to the coast today and drive to RSPB Bempton Cliffs to see if the puffins had all already gone or if we could spot one or two before they do. However, we’ve had Kath’s mum staying with us because she hurt her back and couldn’t anything much, least of all stairs (we have a downstairs bathroom making life much easier for her). She went back home yesterday. My Dad arrives for a 2 week visit tomorrow. The house is a tip and we are exhausted. We decided therefore that we would have a potter sort of day at home, get the house organised and just spend some time together, too. The spending time together bit came in the form of a run at Bolton Abbey. If you are every around this part of the world, it really is worth a visit. We set off from the Cavendish Pavillion, through the Strid Wood, past the Bodger’s Camp towards the Strid. I didn’t really notice whether the Strid was in full flow looking spectacular as it often can or whether it was more of a trickle – I was too concerned about the upcoming hill. If I can run the Bolton Abbey Estate hills I can run at Disney World. RunDisney has no hills! Once I’d puffed my way up the hill, we kept going north following the path’s ups and downs – mostly slopes rather than hills at this point. My next concern was the Bridge – the Aquaeduct. I’m rubbish at running up steps. We walked. Once on the bridge I took a deep breath in, remembered to take a look at the stunning views and set off again.

I knew that on this side of the river (the Wharfe in you were wondering) the hills were a little more taxing than they had been – just slopes to start off with though. My legs were burning though, as were my lungs and that voice inside my head was screaming at me letting me know in no uncertain terms that I must be totally deluded to think I could get my fat butt round something like this. I had no idea how far we’d come and was absolutely sure that there was still far too much left to run.I absolutely, totally couldn’t do it. Just couldn’t. Except I did. The hills felt brutal but there was always a view, always something to focus on, always something to run to and always a sort of excitement at having made it round the next bend, up the next slope or safely down the next hill. I didn’t quite make the steepest of the hills. We added in an extra 30 second walk. Then, actually quite suddenly, there were only 4 more running intervals left. 4 more was possible, only just but possible. Then 3. Then 2. Ok I can do two, in fact I can do two without taking a walk break. I can do two at a pretty decent pace. Yes. Maybe. No? YES.

It was one of the hardest runs I’ve done and also one of the most stunning. I’ve forgotten the exact miles – It was 3.2 something at a pace of 13.47 minutes per mile. It was hot, it was hilly, it was – in some places- bloody awful but it was always stunning, I was always going to finish and it was fun having done it.

Happy.

The one where… oh f-it I can’t be bothered

Jess Guth6 Comments

I’ve been feeling a bit like that recently. And tired, really tired. I have struggled to drag my butt out of bed in the morning and have been ready to roll it back into bed by 9.30pm. One more day at work and then I have just over a week off – I’d get excited about that if I had the energy.

Anyway running… My last post was a pre-run post and I had a head full of excuses. Kath had her own list of excuses so we went up to get changed and collapsed on the bed instead, talked through our excuses and then went for a run. I think we went up the hill again, and this time I got to the top with only a little bit of extra walking – I could check the pace etc on our log but – yep you’ve guessed it, I can’t be bothered. Friday the excuses did win and we didn’t go for our catch-up run for the one we missed the other week. As far as excuses go though, they were fairly solid. Work was quite busy and then our living room carpet was finally fitted. Saturday was also busy – I forget with what but we went food shopping and helped our friend with his sheep but we did manage to fit our 5.5 miles in. It went ok, it was fine, I did it (actually I think I felt pretty good about it at the time – but I’ve forgotten that). Sunday and Monday we didn’t go. Sunday was furniture delivery and then furniture put together day as well as more sheep stuff. Monday I just could not be bothered at all. I just felt tired and grumpy after work. That brings me to today. I again couldn’t be bothered. But it was the kind of ‘can’t be bothered to take the rubbish out, or can’t be bothered to get out of bed or whatever it may be – the kind of can’t be bothered where you do it anyway and you always know you’re going to. It was a 45 minute maintenance run along the canal. Pace of 11.38 minutes per mile running for 2 and a half minutes and walking for 30 secs. It was uneventful. It was probably our fastest yet so I should probably be a little bit excited that I can keep going at a slightly higher pace for longer. I’m not excited, I can’t be bothered to be excited. I just feel a bit flat about it all.

As if to confirm all that – the scales for the Sunday Weigh In were totally indifferent to my pleading for good news – I stayed exactly the same. Now that is again a week of getting away with it given the amount of cake, biscuits and other rubbish I’d eaten (haven’t started this week any better and it is mum’s birthday tomorrow).But staying exactly the same is just the worst. Putting weight on might have given me a kick up the backside to refocus on eating better, losing would have been another step in the right directions; staying the same is just, well it’s just dull.

I’m sure I’ll perk up. It may be that I need a challenge – well the next long run is 7 miles – further than we’ve done before so there’s the challenge (wohoo – said in an eyore-ish kind of tone), it may be that running a different route would help, it may be that I am just tired. It may be that it is all a bit pointless. We’ll see. Next scheduled run is Thursday, one catch up run still outstanding.