Category: Training

Running in Paris

Jess GuthLeave a comment

We’ve just got back from Paris. It has been an interesting few days of conference, museums, sun, people watching, lots of walking and yes – a run. We were really aiming for two but somehow that didn’t happen. Although I was looking forward to running in Paris, the idea of running in the city wasn’t that appealing. After arriving on Tuesday evening we went for a little walk and found one of the running routes I had seen online. It was only about 5-10 minute walk from the hotel  – so a nice little warm up really. So Wednesday morning we got up and got ready to run. We walked towards the Jardin du Luxembourg and started our run at this rather odd looking fountain in the Jardin Marco Polo (according to Wikipedia it is the Fountain de l’Observatoire)

We went left along the garden/park. When we got right to the end, the gate wasn’t unlooked yet  (you can see the gate at the end of Jardin Marco Polo and the big ones to Jardin du Luxembourg in the first picture below)- there was someone just going round unlocking everything so we did a little circuit round that section and by the time we came round again the gate was open. I do quite like the turtles in the fountain even if the rest if pretty hideous – there was no water on yet when we went for the run but I’ve included one picture with water just for fun. At the end of Jardin Marco Polo, you need to cross a little road and then we entered Jardin du Luxembourg through the gates  and turned left to run clockwise round it (mainly because everyone else seemed to be running anti-clockwise). It was relatively flat with just a very very gentle slope in a couple of places and the gravel path all the way round was even and easy to run on. There were quite a few runners and I was quite surprised that they didn’t really bother me. Everyone was just doing their own thing and some were going quite fast and others were just plodding along – possibly even slower that we were. It was a spectcular place to run with the path taking you right in front of the Palais du Luxembourg, home of the French Senat and through the gardens which was nice. Here are a few pictures to give you a sense

I was too busy looking around to really think about running and it was quite warm and I wasn’t used to having to go round obstacles (usually metal chairs left randomly in the path) and other runners so it was quite slow. A pace of just over 13 minutes per mile but it was a good positive run around people so all good practice and doing two loops of the park before then heading back towards the hotel meant I got to see stuff I’d missed on loop one.

The second run didn’t happen because we slept in, bought a breakfast picnic and sat in the park rather than running round it. As far as excuses go we did pretty well because we decided that we were walking so many miles (we did walk most places just using the metro a couple of times) looking at the sights that we could get away with not running. As excuses go, this is one of our more plausible ones!

Just to be clear though – I’m nowhere near actually liking running as ‘a thing’. I’m doing it and I’m quite proud of myself for that but I am doing it because I want to raise money for Panthera, anything else is really just a bonus. So as a reminder of what this is all about here’s us in our Panthera t-shirts in a silly Paris selfie (do not get me started on selfie-sticks) and us training hard (ahem – celebrating Kath’s birthday, our run in Paris and my pretty successful conference).

Thank you to those of you who have already sponsored us – and for those of you haven’t, if you can please do so here –  we’d really appreciate the boost just before our first ‘race’ tomorrow – the Leeds 10km Run for All.

Looking forward to running in Paris

Jess Guth3 Comments

Yes, that’s right, I just used looking forward to and running in the same sentence without a negative. I am quite excited about running in Paris. I have just spent the last half hour looking at possible running routes and printing them off. We are heading to Paris on Tuesday (until Saturday). I am going to a conference and Kath is tagging along. I have been to Paris before, once but that was a long time ago and I really don’t remember all that much about it. I think it was in February and I think it was cold. Not likely to be cold next week!

It’s only a week to go until our 10km Leeds run. A week! I am a little anxious but actually I feel quite positive. We are sticking to the training. I am doing the runs, ticking them off one by one. I am getting stronger and I know I can do the distance. I am not setting out to go fast or finish in a particular time, I just want to re-learn what it’s like to run in a crowd, figure out how to make the run/walk intervals work without pissing other runners off and of course I want the medal at the end – obviously. There are only two more runs before then and at least one of them will be in Paris (travel times are awkward so we may go tomorrow and then do one run in Paris or we may not go tomorrow and then to Wed/Thurs back to back in Paris). I’m excited.

We did our weekend distance run yesterday. 5 miles. It was tough, it was hot. I had spent all day at our Open Day at work and most of that was spent at our stand in the main atrium of the university which has a glass (or whatever) roof. It’s a bit greenhouse like at the best of times but as the sun made its way up into the sky it seemed to focus all its energy on little me at the stand so by the time I got home I was hot and bothered and sweaty and tired from being on my feet all day. We debated putting the run off until this morning but I decided that as I was already sweaty I might as well get more sweaty. I coped better with the heat this time than last time we ran in the really hot weather, I didn’t have to shorten the runs and increase the walks. It felt slow but ok. I was also mentally stronger. I nearly suggested we just do 3 miles  – it was hot you know – then we passed 3 miles and I thought I might suggest that we stop at 4 miles but then I got distracted watching a moorhen and her chicks and suddenly Kath said ‘that’s 4.1 miles’. Well it seemed silly not do get to 5 then however much I was struggling.

I had no sense at all of pace etc. I just knew I’d found it really quite tough and that patches had felt really really slow. I was surprised when Kath said that our  average pace had been 12.54 minutes per mile and we’d been out 1 hour, 4 minutes and 37 seconds. It’s the first time our pace has been under 13 minutes per mile on anything over 3 miles. I walked up the hill happy, if a little puffed and very sweaty.

So, bring on Paris, bring on Leeds actually! Oh and it’s Sunday – weigh-in day. I’ve lost a pound in spite of the midweek pizza and quite a lot of bread and eating on the go more often that I would have liked.

Happy Sunday

Shhh….I might have enjoyed that

Jess Guth1 Comment

I’m a little confused this evening. It seems I actually enjoyed a run. And I mean actually enjoyed the running part of the run, not the having done a run bit of the run. And not enjoyed the surroundings, the moorhen running alongside us almost, the lambs in the field, it wasn’t about all that. I think I might have enjoyed running. I’m not quite sure what to make of that. 45 minute run from home, including hills and it was sort of fun. I got a silly pain in my side again going downhill. I don’t like going downhill on uneven ground so I think I tense and breathe funny resulting in a stitch quite high up my side. It disappeared almost as soon as we were back on the flat. I liked running, no that’s not quite it, I liked being able to run. I think I enjoyed the being able to do it. Rather than struggling with trying to get to then end, for the first time I was conscious of doing something I couldn’t do not that long ago and that felt really positive.

So 45 minutes – running 2 mins, walking 30 secs, 18 times – Pace 12.15 minutes per mile giving us a distance of 3.67miles

Kath might also have solved the underwear problem for me (see here). She ordered some pants from Under Armour. I have to say I was sceptical, even more so when she told me that they were one size fits all. In my experience one size fits all usually means ‘one size fits all unless we think you’re too large to wear this’ and too large to wear this is then about size 12.  The pants arrived today so I thought I might as well get it over with and try them. I stand corrected.  They were comfy and they stayed comfy even when sweaty. In fact, I don’t think I really felt sweaty. I was, and the pants still needed careful peeling off after the run but they didn’t feel sweaty during or straight after the run. No chance of chafing either and it means I don’t have to get my head round the no underwear thing which was the most popular suggestion following my original post on the issue. I am not ready for no knickers when running, just no.

Heatwave

Jess Guth7 Comments

So how many of you are braving a run in this heat? Well, for England this is hot hot hot – for northern England this is insane. How do those of you who live in hot countries ever do any running? I’m not complaining about the weather, don’t get me wrong, I like hot but I do prefer it when I don’t actually have to do anything much!

Yesterday was the 30th June and that meant the start of our marathon training programme. That means it is 28 weeks to the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. Oh my goodness – 28 weeks! Given the heat the sensible thing would have been to give running a miss and perhaps walk instead or to at least postpone the run until later on in the evening when it got a bit cooler (although I don’t remember it getting cooler!). But no, we went at about 5pm. The first run of the programme is a 45 minute run. In fact all the runs during the week are 45 minutes.There is then a distance run at the weekend, 3-5 mile one weekend and a long run the next – the mileage for the long runs builds up by 2 miles every other weekend.

We are continuing to follow the run/walk approach to running  – sort of adapted a bit from Jeff Galloway who has also created the training programmes for runDisney.Our run/walk intervals are still at 2 minutes running and 30 seconds walking but we did talk about increasing the running bit soon. Not in this heat though. So off we toddled in the heat. We probably started at fairly strong pace for us but that didn’t last long, even in the shade it was a struggle. In the sun I just couldn’t breathe. We kept going though and on a few runs started walking up to 15 seconds earlier. We got to the end. The pace was 13.23 minutes per mile so actually not that bad given that it was so hot and we went for 10 minutes longer than we have done on our weekly runs before.

I didn’t hate that run, I quite enjoyed it, I just found it very very very hard. I am excited to have ticked off the first run of the training programme. It feels like we’re in the game now. Next one is tomorrow, the forecast suggests a slightly cooler day. I’d like that!

Getting back in the zone

Jess Guth1 Comment

As I write this there are gorgeous smells coming from the kitchen where Kath is making healthy blueberry bran muffins as well as our late lunch/early tea of quorn chilli; we’ve had a lovely morning (after a very long sleep for me) at Bolton Abbey where we went for a roughly 3 mile walk and we have spent most of the time talking about training, the runs we’d like to do from home as well as from starting locations locally. I am in a much better place mentally today. A number of things have contributed to that.

1. The little messages of support and tips on here, Facebook and Twitter and the very generous sponsorship/ donations made to Panthera. Thank you

2. It is Sunday which means weigh-in day and I have lost another pound. If I can shift another 2.2 pound I will drop into the next stone and it is exciting to see that first number go down rather than be an irritating and slightly depressing constant. I will be close to being the lightest I have been in over 3 years and not far off being the lightest I have been in over 18 years.

3. Our next run will be the first run of our marathon training programme. Now yesterday this freaked me out. Today I am excited about this. I am even more excited because Kath has bought me some smileimagey star stickers so I can mark of each run (yes, I know I probably need to get out more – but smiley star shaped stickers!). Here is the first page, blank. I’ll post again when it is full of happy little stars

4. Our first ‘race’ is two weeks today. That was just stupid yesterday but today I see it differently. Today I see it as part of my learning curve. It won’t be fast, in fact it will be very slow but it has been a very long time since I’ve run in a crowd, the timings for when to eat, when to pee, when to warm up…. are all different so it will be a great, if difficult experience. I know I can do the distance. I’ve done it twice now in the last 4 weeks and once I did it when I really really wasn’t in a happy running place.

So, yesterday running  made me miserable, and it really did. Today I feel better. Today I am pleased that the 6.5 miles yesterday haven’t resulted in any niggles or even stiffness. My legs were a little tight but the walk sorted that. Today I am proud of how far I’ve come and (while still totally unfit) how much fitter I am than I was. I am back in that tiny little zone in my head that knows that I can do most things I really put my mind to. It’s a little zone, a tiny one, one that I don’t manage to get myself into very often, one that shuts the door on my depressive black Labrador and on all the doubts, questions and negativity. It’s the zone that knows that this girl can and it is the zone that is learning to shout and be heard over all that other crap. So, Leeds: here’s my number. Look out for me. I won’t be running fast but I will be running because I have decided I am doing this so whether I can or not is actually irrelevant, I am doing it.

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