Category: Training

Excuses excuses and more excuses!

Jess Guth1 Comment

Well it has been a while. Well a week and a bit. So after the 6.5 miles we did on the Sunday (see last post) we felt pretty good and were up for our shorter runs during the week. Then Monday came and we had our planned rest day. Then Tuesday came and we didn’t go for a run, then Wednesday, Thursday, then Friday and we hadn’t been. We went away for the weekend so knew we wouldn’t be going then either. We had all the usual excuses, too tired, too close to having eaten, feeling a bit low, can’t be bothered, we’ll go in the morning instead, didn’t get up in time, would be too much of a rush… Yep, if you can think of an excuse, we probably used it last week. And the thing is, as the week went on we felt worse and worse both physically  but also mentally because I certainly kept feeling like I was letting us down. We should have just gone for a run! So enough of that.

We had a lovely weekend away with friends who were amazing hosts and who helped us just relax and chill out completely. We had a longish walk with them on Saturday and it was good to be out. Our drive home Sunday was about five hours including a stop for lunch on the way so by the time we got home we actually both felt like going for a little run. I found it physically hard but I enjoyed stretching my legs a bit. We did 2.78 miles in 35 mins.

We couldn’t ignore the Sunday weigh-in either so when we got back from the run I hopped on the scales fully expecting a few pounds to have gone back on. I hadn’t tried to eat well and I hadn’t been running all week and then we had a lovely weekend with lots of yummy food and a couple of drinks. However the scales stubbornly stayed on the same number they were at last week. I think that’s what you call getting away with it!

Yesterday Kath persuaded me to get my butt on the road (well canal path) again. I didn’t really want to go, I had work stuff going round in my head and felt like I just wanted to hide under the duvet. But she was right, another 35 minute run did make me feel loads better. We went slightly further on this one 2.89 miles I think.

I am writing this on the train back from  Liverpool where I have been visiting a school for their UCAS week. I think I might actually quite like to go for s short run this evening. I’ve spent most of the day on the train. I feel like I want to move and be outside. I am also very very conscious that our first 10km run is in 19 days. More on that soon!

So, a crap week last week but this week has started pretty well. Let’s see if I can keep it going.

The one where Jess runs a long way and most definitely hates running but it’s ok because there’s brunch

Jess Guth1 Comment

Sunday, that means weigh-in day. I woke up when our kitten jumped on my head about 7.45. I don’t think he meant to, he was just running loops rounds the house and the loop took him across my head. Wish I had that much energy. Anyway, the scales. For once they were quite friendly and spat out reasonably agreeable numbers. I have lost 4 pounds since last Sunday. I really haven’t done anything special with food – can’t say I’ve been trying that hard but we have been out running a fair bit and it seems to me that moving more has always worked better for me than eating less. We are also eating pretty healthy meals overall with virtually no processed stuff so that will be helping too.

Sunday also meant a long run. 6.5 miles to be exact. I had a banana and some water and then we did 15 minutes of yoga just to get moving. My legs and hips felt tight doing that. I don’t really quite know how to desribe the run without swearing lots. We warmed up with a short walk and then a couple of short jogs. Then we set off. Then a very very very long time passed and we had got to a mile. One piddly little mile and I felt like my lungs were going to explode and my legs, well let’s just not talk about my legs. Then another eternity passed and we got to 2 miles. Two stupid miles. Completing the 6.5 miles seemed rather unlikely. Onwards I plodded. We got to three miles, my lungs had sorted themselves out, not sure when – somewhere between 2 and 3 miles. We turned round just by Bingley 5 rise locks at just over 3 miles. I do like turning round and heading for home. Amazingly we got to 4 miles. No idea how. Then 5 miles. I was taking every walk break as it came and my legs felt stupidly heavy. At 5 miles my back was aching a little and I know I was losing form and running completely inefficiently. Lungs were ok though and I’d come this far, it seemed silly to stop with only a mile and a half to go. We passed 6 miles. I took the walk break which finished at 6.1miles and then I just went for it. Not fast but determined because, frankly, we’d been out for long enough already and it was time to get it over and done with. So, 6.5 miles (10.4ishkm) in one hour 26 minutes and 57 seconds. Pace of 13.23 minutes per mile. Hated 6.4 miles of that. Loved 0.1miles of it and was quite excited about having done it.

We got home, had a bath and then the muchies set in. We had what is billed as a South American brunch to try and re-fuel (get me – running lingo!) and help with recovery. It’s basically a fried egg served on quinoa and back eyed beans topped with avocado and a spring onion and tomato dressing. The recipe is originally Jamie Oliver and we haven’t made too many changes to it really. We use packet quinoa which can just be done in the microwave in 45 seconds and usually a tin of black eyed beans but other beans will do. We don’t add any salt and we don’t add chilli sauce. It’s delicious and it looks like this:

South American Brunch

Enjoy.

Just a quick one

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I don’t feel like writing about running today, I feel like writing about other stuff which I will do shortly but I’m all for celebrating successes and I like a pat on the back etc. We had a rest day yesterday and did a 35 minute run today. Pace: 11.55 minutes per mile. Distance 2.94 miles. So just to be clear – PACE 11.55 -as in UNDER 12 MINUTES PER MILE.  Just saying

A month to our first race

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A month exactly to our first race – The Leeds run for all 10km. Can’t decide if I am looking forward to it or not. I am sort of keen to see our progress and whether we can post a half decent (by my standards, not by actual runner’s standards!) time. I don’t like crowds though, particularly not at the moment, and I’m a bit worried about how I’ll cope being surrounded by people who actually know what they’re doing. However, I am holding on to the notion that maybe, just maybe we also know what we’re doing. Or at least we are trying to follow the guidance of someone who does by following the RunDisney plans designed by Jeff Galloway.

That brings me to another little rant about Runner’s World (I am actually beginning to quite enjoy reading the magazine and would actually recommend it – my rants say more about me than the mag!). I was looking at the April issue which had something about training which has easy runs/sections and hard sections and less of the middle ground. All sort of made sense (except that ‘easy’ in my case would have to be walking) until I looked at the table for a sample week. According to that table a 6 miles ‘easy’ run would result in 50 minutes of easy running. 8 miles in 65 minutes. What? 6 miles in 50 minutes? I know that’s doable. I’ve seen people do it but that IS NOT an easy pace; that’s an impossible pace for me. Runner’s World is full of stuff that to me just seems impossible. And when everything in a magazine is just so far out of reach it is easy to get completely disillusioned with the whole thing. So I stopped reading and instead took another look at the Jeff Galloway website. Ok, looking at this I do feel a little bit like a runner. Here the numbers make sense, they are possible, even now. We haven’t quite stuck to the run/walk ratio suggested and we haven’t really done the magic mile measurement since the beginning but we are working with the principle of walk breaks from the start and not worrying about having to keep running for long stretches. We are comfortable at 2 minutes running and 30 secs walking for now. It gets me to the end of the longer distances without injury and without feeling that I can’t do it. It means I finish each run strongly and usually feel pretty positive about it even where I’ve had a wobble along the way. Other than when I had my little calf niggle the other day, there hasn’t been a run I couldn’t finish or one I could barely finish.

I also love the fact that his advice is to not worry about time for a first time marathon. He says:

“I don’t recommend that first-time marathon participants try for a time goal. Do the first one to finish, running/walking at a comfortable training pace.”
Yes! I can do that. I actually believe I can do that. And what is even better, the examples he lists include the sort of pace we’ve been working at. Jeff Galloway also says:
“You are the one who determines how much you run and how much you walk. One of the wonderful aspects of running is that there is no definition of a “runner” that you must live up to“
Oh my – is it possible that I am a runner after all?

What to wear and reading Runner’s World

Jess Guth1 Comment

I found something to wear for today’s run (uneventful, 35 mins, 12.31 minutes per mile pace. 2.79 miles, tight calf muscle). It’s a compromise. I braved my lycra 3/4 length pants. Then I went looking for a top. I have loads of t-shirts but I’m fussy when it comes to running. It needs to be comfy, it needs to be long so it covers my backside but not too huge so it’s all baggy and sack like.  It needs to be light and ideally no sleeves. Ok I don’t have anything that meets all those criteria. Then I remembered a t-shirt I ordered a while ago because it made me laugh:

Running T-shirtGiven the slogan I can cope with the fact that it actually doesn’t cover my bum and sort of sits on the widest part of my hips. It’s cotton but not really heavy and it is comfy. That did mean that my wobbly thighs were on full view – sorry about that people of Riddlesden.

Kath has bought Runner’s World magazine on and off for as long as I can remember really and I’ve never so much as glanced at them until recently. Now there is a magazine that isn’t for me – pictures of fit skinny people in lycra and features on how to run yor fasted 10km ever… Urgh. Then there was the issue ages and ages ago which had a recipe for Courgette/Chocolate buns in – hm maybe it is worth a look after all. No, that recipe was pretty much it. In a rather classic work avoidance moment the other day I picked up 3 past issues and started flicking through them and today I sprawled out in the sun with the latest issue . Some of it is quite interesting actually – the science stuff appeals to me. What is clear though is that so much advice about running is contradictory. One expert says one thing, another the exact opposite. Sometimes the Dos are the Dos and sometimes they’re the Don’ts and vice versa. Runners agree on very little other than their love of running.

There were some things, some basics if you like, that people did seem to agree on: Regular running is good for you, Eating right is important particularly for long distance runners (but no agreement on what ‘right’ is), rest is also important (how much, when etc – no agreement) and running is the best thing ever. Well I accept the first – science shows me that, the second is also sensible and must partly be about what works for you, the third I can wholeheartedly embrace – rest is awesome, the fourth I have issues with. I do not love running, it is not the best thing ever, I do not feel free, happy or whatever when running (mostly I feel like there’s still a bloody long way to go or I’ve already gone a bloody long way and must be nearly there). That proves that then – I am really not a runner!