Category: Training

Pre Run Blog

Jess Guth3 Comments

I thought it might be interesting to share a pre run blog rather than just writing about running after the run. (For my academic friends and readers – I am in no way work avoiding, no, not at all, not even a little bit. No!)

I have just put the kettle on for yet more coffee but then remembered that we are going running after work so turned the kettle off again and filled my big bottle of water up instead. I am utterly rubbish at drinking water throughout the day. Always have been. Little and often doesn’t work – it takes discipline and willpower. Anyway, here I am sitting at my desk trying to remember to drink water so that I don’t start the run dehydrated… I don’t want to run.

I can think about it in the abstract – it would be lovely to go for a run along the canal and see if the heron is about, maybe even the kingfisher. It will be lovely to tick another run off the list…bla bla bla. The reality is I am already trying to think of excuses. So far I have:

  • too busy – loads of stuff I need to get done. I could really do with spending a few hours just filing emails
  • My legs are sore from the uphill run the other day (but they’re not really)
  • My calf muscle is a bit sore (it’s not, it is just a little tight)
  • We could do yoga instead (thus invalidating excuse number 1 on this list)
  • We could go for a run in the morning instead (actually we are going running tomorrow, too)
  • We need to spray our sheep against flies (yes we do – doesn’t impact on running though)

No doubt I will think of a few more before I get home. I have spoken to a few people recently who enjoy running and they complain about not finding the time and desperately trying to squeeze in a run here or there. Hm. I’m not sure what to make of that. I can’t imagine desperately trying to find time to squeeze in a run!

Anyway, I don’t want to go for a run. I don’t want to get all hot and sweaty. I don’t want to be reminded that the half marathon is in 10 weeks and I am rather a long way off being anywhere near ready. I don’t want to be conscious of the fact that Kath is a far better runner than I am and would be smashing our times if she was doing this on her own. I don’t want to run. There.

Don’t worry, I am not actually having a bad day. I will (probably) go running and it will (probably) be fine. I have this little battle every time. I had it the first time I put my trainers on to set out on the first run in the training programme and for every run since. This is what goes on in my head – sometimes very much consciously, sometimes just in the background. It’s just running – maybe – but actually it is so much more than that. It’s a big deal for me and as I keep going through this training programme I am beginning to realise how big that deal actually is. It’s a battle and I don’t do losing!

The one where Jess has an outrageous idea

Jess Guth3 Comments

Sometimes I really wish the filter between my brain and mouth was a little more effective. Before I had really thought through the implications of my thoughts I had said them out loud: ‘should we try a completely different route today and go up?’ What an idiot! Should we go up!?! Go up! Seriously! Up as in uphill. You stupid girl.

So there you have it – we went up, we left our house and turned right rather than left at the end of our road. What an outrageous idea. It is seriously up. Not massively steep but relentlessly, steadily up – even when you are going down a little slope you are actually still going up. Why oh why can’t I keep my mouth shut. We walked up the first stretch and then we set off. As well as going uphill we also extended the running section of our run/walk routine to 2 minutes 30 seconds, what an utterly brilliant idea, yeah really. By the time we got to the end of the second run my thighs were actually burning. We kept going – slowly, in some sections probably running slower than we could have walked, but we kept running until the watch beeped and told us to walk. It was an utterly outrageous thing to do. I huff and puff enough on the flat and too much going up the little slopes that our ‘going past the sheep’ route has. Stupid.

But sometimes outrageous ideas are the best. The uphill route is an utterly stunning road to run along. There is virutally no traffic – it is a dead end for traffic and eventually turns into a track which is unsuitable for cars  – we didn’t get that far though. That would be another level of up at the end. Not quite ready for that. If you keep going you get to Ilkley across the moors. (It’s about 5 miles I think). As we set off there was a curlew on a drystone wall watching us as if it was waving us off. We saw cows and sheep and lots of birds, curlews mostly but also lots of smaller ones. There was lots to see and that kept me going for a bit as well as the fact that running uphill had been my idea so I couldn’t very well complain now.

As we got about half way through run number 7 we were heading up a steepish bit  and I felt my right calf muscle twinge a little bit. I was also completely puffed so I’m actually not quite sure whether my calf twinge was just an excuse to stop. We stopped and walked the rest of that run interval and the 30 second walk break and turned round.

Now we were essentially heading downhill all the way and even when we were going up little slopes we were still essentially going down. I got my breath back and settled in. The views are spectacular. We were minutes from our house really and in breathtaking scenery. Obviously I know it is there but most of the time I take it completely for granted and don’t stop to look. While running I was enjoying looking. I took the next walk break out and then the next and the next. I was looking around and taking in the view. Then we caught up with a dog walker who turned out to be someone we know  – she was walking really fast so we slowed our jog and had a  chat with her for a couple of minutes – but kept on running. Then we carried on and I was still running. It was odd, it was fun. We ran all the way home. We finished a little early but it seemed silly to run round in circles round our street for the sake of it. It made sense to just stop when we got home. So, we ran about 41 minutes and just over 3 miles with a pace of just over 13 minutes per mile.

We’ve been home about 2 and a half hours – we’ve had breaded cod pieces and sweet potato oven chips with a yoghurt dip for tea and I am about to jump in the bath – if I can move that is. My legs have had to do all sorts of new things today – go uphill far more than ever before, go downhill far more than ever before and keep going for far longer than ever before without a walk break – no wonder they are protesting a little!

Food plans, 3 miles and neglected feet

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Sunday weigh-in. I wasn’t looking forward to this one. Last week was not a good healthy eating week. I was therefore surprised to have lost a pound and a bit. Still going in the right direction!

I could not wake up this morning, just couldn’t. I actually wanted to go for the scheduled run but I kept falling back alseep and when I did eventually get up we decided that we’d better brave our trip to Ikea before it got too hideously busy and postpone the run until this afternoon. We were going to do 5 miles. The programme actually stipulates 3 miles for this weekend but we thought it was important to get really comfortable at the 5/6 mile distance so we were planning on doing 5 instead of 3. However, once we got back from Ikea, we still had loads to do this afternoon and Kath wanted to try out a camelback water bottle belt thingy she got free so we thought we’d just do the 3 miles. That way we’d stick to the programme but could also get on with other stuff (haha – I’ve been curled up on our spare bed since we got back!).

The water bottle holder thingy was utter rubbish. It doesn’t sit tight enough and is obviously made for blokes and not for hips at all. Luckily we were going past Kath’s mum’s  on our run so she could discard it there. Taking water etc with us is going to need a re-think. Kath was obviously on a bit of a mission today and kept pushing so we got round with a pace of 11.41 minutes per mile. I was rather puffed but happy with that.

I mentioned that we had a better plan for food for the coming week (if we stick to it). We are going to have (no particular order) salmon steaks with sweet potato oven chips and a yoghurt dip, a veggie home made curry, quorn chilli, chicken and avocado salad, beef stirfry and if we really can’t be bothered a baked spud. Breakfast – the usual really: Scrambled eggs, mushrooms on toast, porridge, peanut butter on toast, fruit and yoghurt… Lunches will be mainly left overs and salads. We don’t yet have any naughty nibbles. I was going to make a banana loaf but our bananas were too far gone even for that. We’ve got some chocolate biscuits but that’s not really quite the ‘having a relatively healthy treat’ thing that we had in mind with our usual weekend baking. They might have to do though.

We stopped at mum’s after our run and as I stretched my leg out towards her she pointed out that I had blood on my sock. My feet have gone a bit weird recently. I have always had pretty solid feet. I don’t tend to get blisters easily but I’ve had a couple lately. Interestingly I didn’t get them on the longer runs – maybe I just take more care when setting out on them. The blood was however not from a blister but from a little cut on the inside of one of my toes. The nail from the toe next to it must have caught it. I have now cut my nails and cleaned it all up. It seems fine but I do think it is probably time to give my feet some tlc and pay a bit more attention to them, I probably have been neglecting them a bit!

5 months to go to the runDisney marathon – I really am insane.

Default setting ‘Hungry’

Jess Guth2 Comments

Well, since the Leeds 10k it seems my default setting has been ‘hungry’ and ‘not running’. It has also been a really busy week with work and other stuff. So here’s my weekly run re-cap

Monday: rest day (intended, went out for curry)

Tuesday: rest day (shearing sheep, drank lots of coke, had crisps and chocolate)

Wednesday: rest day (Yorkshire show, hot, walked a lot, had brownie and ice cream and who knows what else, went to see friends, drank lots of wine)

Thursday: rest day (graduation  – late-ish home, betteron food I think but there were crisps at graduation)

Friday: rest day (ran out of excuses, had lots of biscuits at work)

Today: 45 minute run – 3.72 miles I think. It was quite a nice positive run. No wobbles along the way, no ‘I can’t do this momements’ just a steady plod past our sheep, through the wood, down the golf course and along the canal. It was nice to be out but motivation for running has been at zero.

This evening I’ve been looking at the World Disney World site to start planning and think about booking a couple of nice restaurants etc which we know get booked up. Looking through everything and seeing the pictures I got a little bit excited and that running motivation I’ve been struggling to find this last week came back. If I am going to go to all these nice food places and if I am going to enjoy the trip I need to be able to run the marathon. Anything else would be disappointing – the only way I am going to achieve that is by getting my butt on the road now! I’m looking forward to heading out for our 5 mile run tomorrow and we’ve gone through our diaries to work out when we can get the weekly training runs in including making up for the one that we missed this week.

We have also got a plan for food next week and went shopping based on that plan so I think we are back on track and a better food plan might help me nudge my default setting to something that doesn’t result in me eating my own body weight in biscuits, crisps and other crap! I am not looking forward to the weigh-in tomorrow but I am back in the game (again).

Leeds 10km Run for All

Jess Guth4 Comments

Today was the day. Our first race. I use the term loosely – I don’t race. I plod along. Be that as it may, today we were tackling our first running event since the half marathon 2.5 years ago. I was excited and scared in equal measure. We had a cup of tea in bed and then got up, got our running gear on and had a bowl of porridge. We set off about 7.30am for the 40 minute drive into Leeds. We couldn’t find the way into the car park we had planned on using and Leeds is an absolute pain at the best of times, with road closures it was impossible. So we had a rather stressful 20 minutes getting on and off loops and eventually finding a car park that had an entrace we could get to. Once parked, we walked over to the Headrow amd I munched my banana on the way.

We joined a queue for the loo (I’ve used worse) and then we just waited around for a bit – actually our delayed arrival meant that we didn’t really have to wait that long once we had found our assembly area. It wasn’t that clear where we needed to be or how to get into it – it all seemed blocked off so we just ducked under a tape to get into the ‘green’ area. The blue and red runners went first and then the greens followed. The mass warm up was just stupid – mostly because they had told us all to move to the front and fill any gaps so there was no room to actually do the warm up. They sent the blues and reds on their way and then walked us up to the start. We set off towards the front of the greens and off we went:

First km – well it went quite quick but didn’t help me settle. Given our run/walk intervals we knew we’d get in people’s way if we weren’t careful and at the start everything is so bunched up that walking didn’t make sense so we kept going and took a walk out. That’s not something I have practiced though so it unsettled me a bit. We did eventually settle into quite a nice run/walk routine and the markers for 2 and 3 km came and went. It was hot. It was getting harder. I was coping with people though. 4km and a water station later (I didn’t get any) it was all still ok but I was beginning to really wish we could turn back and head for home. It was hot.

I missed the 5km marker completely. As we executed our 180 degree turn, one of the marshalls said 5.5 km and I presumed she meant that’s what was left. I could see the next marker ahead and kept thinking, right nearly half way, nearly half way… and then the marker said 6km. More than half way! Yay! I did take a couple of walks out, not quite sure where actually. Aorund what I now know was between 5 and 7km. I also ignored the 2nd water station but didn’t have the energy to avoid the water spray eventhough I didn’t really want to be sprayed. Poor Kath was to my left and closer to the spay so she got a proper soaking.

At 8km I was struggling, really struggling and just about hanging on until each walk break. Have I mentioned it was quite hot? But 9km came. My calf muscle felt horribly tight and it took me a little while to decide if it was pain that required me to do something or whether it could just be ignored. I added in a short walk (much to Kath’s dismay who of course knew what our pace was). She urged me on to start running again and I now know why. We passed the 400m to go flag. Just keep running Jess! All I remember is Kath telling me repeatedly that we could do this. Then I could see the finish line and I saw the clock. It said 1.24.something… I hadn’ t seen the clock when we started but the race pack had said that the green runners would start 10 minutes after the blues and reds. I didn’t really think it was possible but just in case I pushed hard. My (not so) little legs somehow still had something left and could go faster – and there it was: Kath’s watch confirmed it – 10km in under 1 hour and 15 minutes, a pace of under 12 minutes per mile. Wowsers. Our official time was 1 hour 14 minutes and 18 seconds.

As far as I can see, looking back at what we managed in our previous running life, that’s about 3 minutes faster than our previous best at the distance. Not that we are measuring against what we did before because we started from nothing this time round. I looked because it gives me confidence that the training is working, that the run/walk method is working, that Jeff Galloway’s plan with our slight adaptation is working and that means that if we stick to the training plan we will be able to do the RunDisney Walt Disney World marathon in January. The idea of me running a marathon is obviously totally ridiculous but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

I do need to remember to eat something after running though. I didn’t want anything when we got back to the car and then we decided we would just have a quick shower and go out for food so I didn’t have anything when we got back home either. By the time we were sat waiting for a food to come I felt decidedly dodgy and lightheaded – this will have been about 3 hours after finishing the run. As soon as I had some food (a trio of mini Yorkshire burgers at the new Keelham Farm Shop in Skipton if you must know) I felt better. Won’t leave it so long next time!

Well even running a 10km event doesn’t get me out of the Sunday Weigh In – I lost nearly 2 pounds which drops me nicely into the next stone and keeps me going in the right direction. Talking of right directions – thanks for all the donations to Panthera! Keep them coming in on our JustGiving Page