Category: Training

A decent 2 weeks

Jess GuthLeave a comment

Since returning from Ambleside a couple of weeks ago, I am finally making progress. I have done the first 2 weeks, that’s 4 rides, of the very basic training programme in Zwift. I have actually enjoyed it but it’s clear that doing the ramp test while still recovering from COVID was a mistake. I need to re-do it as it’s making the sessions that rely on that measure too easy.

I restarted yoga but really only managed the morning floor flow on and off. I have done 6 days of daily stretches from the Dynamic Runner app though and I do really like those. Just around 16-17 minutes a day and targeting all the areas that get tight with running.

Ah yes running – that’s why I’m doing all this, so I can run. It’s only 6 weeks to the Great North Run and we know I’d barely been out before I was poorly. I’d had a go at the first couple of short runs for Dopey week 1, then nothing for what would have been week 2. Week 3 it was Thursday before I made it out and it was a tough one. I felt like giving up after a mile but slogged it out another 1.66 miles to meet Kath at the hairdressers for a lift back up the hill. It was hot though. My pink laces seemed ridiculously bright in the unusually hot West Yorkshire sun.

This week is week 4. Monday I spent all day putting off going out and in the end I just walked. It was such a mental battle to get out though that even that felt like a huge win. Thursday I got out for a 3 mile no drama plod but I was getting worried about distance. It really felt like 3 miles was about as far as my body was prepared to go.

So today was a bit of a test. I needed to do a long run that was actually longer than 3 miles. We have a loop we call the farm loop which is roughly 7. It needs modifying a little at the moment because we have one canal bridge out so can’t loop home across it. I had absolutely no clue how this would go.

Well, it went surprisingly well. Let’s park any discussion about pace. I’m coming to terms with the idea that I just am a couple of minutes a mile slower than I used to be. So I set off using 30/30 run/walk intervals. I tried to go deliberately slow. Absolutely zero effort spent on pace. I really wanted to get past 2 miles without finding it hard. That worked. The 2 mile beep actually made me jump. All was good. Mile 3 was also fine. Just plodding along. I passed a few runners with race numbers on – I presume doing the It’s Grim Up North Sir Titus Trot. Mile 4 was a bit annoying as I dropped off the canal, through the farm that gives the loop its name and along narrow roads where I kept having to stand in to let cars pass. Still, running wise no drama.

Just into mile 5 I added an additional walk interval as I went up the slope back to the canal. I came out behind a couple of runners I’d seen in the distance earlier and they were walking with a few runs thrown in. I was walking slower than them but running faster than they were walking so over the next mile I slowly caught them up. I went past and then they immediately passed me again as they set off on a run. Their running was faster than mine and I stayed a fairly constant distance behind them for the rest of my run. they surged ahead when running, I caught up when they weren’t.

Mile 5 was fine. Mile 6 was fine but I was grateful for the distraction of two herons one of which led me to add a second additional walk interval so I could have a little chat with it. As I approached the final mile I began to try and work out where I would finish and really hoped it would not be too far beyond one of the canal bridges that we call the post office bridge. Running past that seemed like it would be tough because that was the obvious point at which to stop and walk home.

7 miles took me almost exactly to that bridge. 7 miles. No drama. Slow but within Disney pace. On reflection I probably could have done with some fuel for the last couple of miles (I only took water) but otherwise it was a good solid run.

The. I walked home very slowly up the hill. I stopped frequently to sip my water and stretch out the various bits of my body that were now cross with me. After food and a bath I’ve been doing very little- mostly watching random sport at the Olympic Games. I’ve stretched and nothing hurts. Happy.

Ambleside Not Running

Jess Guth1 Comment

What do you do in the Lake District when one of you has a broken toe and the other is recovering from Covid? We had booked the Ambleside Salutation Hotel and Spa for a Lakeland Trails running weekend. Given how running has been going we had already dropped distances to 23k and 14k respectively and then Kath broke her toe on the Fell Pony Adventures a couple of weeks ago and last week I got Covid. It feels like I was basically asleep from last Sunday to Thursday. Anyway, running was out of the question for either of us but the hotel was booked.

I associate Ambleside with walking, being outside all day, moving… so it seemed odd to be there without really doing anything. We went to the cinema and had a lovely meal on Friday. On Saturday we drove up to Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s house because we’d never been and with out National Trust Membership got in free (wouldn’t want to have paid 16 pounds each for that experience!). The house is interesting for a fairly quick walk through but very quickly got too busy to really look at anything. The garden was nice to have a look at and then we sat and had a coffee on a bench by a fruit tree. The National Trust attracts a certain type of volunteer I think and we spent some time giggling about the fact that although they were clearly ready they did not open the ticket hut until bang on 10am, that the volunteer at the gate gave you the welcome speech whether you wanted it or not and also summoned you back to her spot by the gate to do it if somehow you did manage to get past her initially.

We also had lots of giggles about the token that you have to collect from the ticket hut at the car park (they don’t tell you this so I left Kath at the house a couple of minutes up the road to go back down to get our tickets scanned). You then carry the toke that they didn’t tell you you needed, past the insistent welcome woman up to the house where you give it to the next volunteer – there seems no reason for the tokens. It kept us amused for a little while anyway.

We slept a lot, we watched tennis while reading, we lounged around in our room which was huge due to a lovely upgrade. We also had a sauna in the room which was nice but didn’t get all that hot and a huge jacuzzi bath. I actually think all the rooms are probably really nice but somehow the upgrade felt like the universe just nudging us to look after ourselves, to take advantage of the huge bed, the bathroom the size of an average London hotel room and the really good coffee. The staff were lovely when I randomly asked for ice so Kath could ice her toe and ankle and overall we felt well looked after.

We had more lovely food, had a look in the shops and bought some cards and notebooks and some new walking shoes, then more food, more sleep… This morning we finished our weekend with a hot stone massage. So if you’re in Ambleside and can’t run, it seems you eat and sleep lots and intersperse that with a few shops. It’s what we needed but it was also frustrating to see the runners of the various distances set off on their races, smiling and full of energy at that point. It was also upsetting because of our interaction with Lakeland Trails this time. I’ll see if it is resolved before writing any more about it. It was particularly frustrating because before I got ill, and after the Fell Pony trek, I had put together a really positive week of running and stretching and it felt like things were slowly beginning to come together.

On Friday I walked just under 10000 steps, so really not much and I was sooo tired, Saturday was a little better and today I feel better again. So much so that I made myself go on our new fancy bike (more on that soon) and do the FTP ramp test in Zwift. I have no real idea of how it works but let’s think of it as a fitness sort of test and I thought I might as well set a benchmark. It was ridiculous and I know from previous cycles that I can normally do better – or at least I think so because the previous set-up was far from accurate. Anyway, I know nothing about cycling or Zwift really so I’ll come back to all that.

All I can do at this point is dust myself off and start again and keep trying. That’s all any of us can do.

parkrun for Pride

Jess GuthLeave a comment

After I wrote out my plan I had a pretty good week and while I did not stick to the plan, I did something equivalent and event enjoyed some of it! Then I had an off week, then we went to Coniston to head out on the Lakeland Trails 10k. We didn’t start as neither of us felt right and we ended up sleeping lots and not really doing very much at all. We have both been really tired and not particularly up for doing hard things. So apart from a bit of stretching and yoga I didn’t really ever get going.

This morning though we went to parkrun. Kath ran there and I drove across to Saltaire. I can’t really say I enjoyed the running because it just felt stupidly impossible and I was really conscious of people around me. I had a bit of a wobble around 2 miles but, as it always does, putting one foot in front of the other got me to the finish.

It was the Roberts Park Pride parkrun so I popped my Pride T-shirt on over my running top – not the best idea I’ve ever had as it was too warm really but marking Pride month seemed important and given that I find Pride events generally too people-y this worked for me. Thanks to Roberts Parkrun volunteers for the photos!

Birmingham run

Jess Guth2 Comments

I’m in Birmingham for work and currently sitting in the Clayton Hotel restaurant hoping that writing this on my phone will make me look unsociable enough to stop any of the others joining me for breakfast. There should be a very clear rule against joining others for breakfast unless explicitly agreed beforehand.

Anyway, I am feeling quite pleased with myself because I actually got out for a run. I was awake early but couldn’t really be bothered to get up. I felt dehydrated and quite creaky. I dozed for a bit, had some water and decided to at least go for a little walk in what seemed to be glorious morning sunshine. I got my running gear on and set off. I walked up the slope towards the cathedral and after about 5 minutes dropped into run/walk. I carried on to symphony hall and then looped back to say hi to the Floozie in the Jacuzzi before coming back past the still closed shops, Moor Street station and the seemingly ever expanding HS2 building site.

The run was almost exactly 2 miles and felt like a positive loop to start the day with. My right hamstring and calf are tight and might need some tlc but other than that it just felt nice to be out.

I ran….

Jess GuthLeave a comment

…it was pretty horrible. But I ran. So that’s good. It means that I have managed 2 back to back days of actually doing something. I have an extra day off today. The University gives us a number of what they call grace and favour days that follow a bank holiday. Today is one of them. That means that there were really no excuses about time or when a run might fit in or anything else my brain might come up with. I had a couple of things to do this morning, as did Kath and then she had a couple of things to post so we walked to the parcel drop off and then the post office and then did an out and back run/walk along the canal.

Walking down my feet hurt. I was wearing my new(ish) Brooks Cascadias – I am not sure about them really. They feel hard and unforgiving compared to any of my other Brooks. So maybe I am not going to move over to all Brooks. I like the road shoes but maybe they’re not right for me for trail shoes. We’ll see. So after some adjustment of the laces at the post office we set off along the canal. 30 second run/walk intervals. I started reading a run Disney book last night so I was trying to think about the advice in there. One was to slow down. Most beginner runners go too fast. Well I might not be a beginner runner and it feels like if I slow down any more I’ll be going backwards but the author is right, going at a slower pace means it’s marginally less vile. The other bit I read was about thinking like a runner…. Hm. What they mean here is focusing on the positive self talk, the mental tricks we can play, the distractions and the way we use what our body is telling us to adjust or react. So instead of ‘oh I am out of breath, this is so hard, I can’t do it’ you think ‘My breathing is a bit laboured, can I slow down a little to be more comfortable, can I relax anywhere to reduce some tension, oh look I’ve already done one mile’. So a little while into the run I remembered what I had read and tried the self-talk – here’s how that went for me:

‘Hey you, look at you, you’re out running. Well done’

‘Really? We’re doing this are we? We’re trying the self talk. Weirdo’

‘No seriously, well done. You’ve got this. It’s just 45 minutes’

‘Ok, we’re doing this. By the way, your calf hurts’

‘No it’s ok, just a bit tight it’ll ease’

‘Hahaha, you’re funny. Out of breath much?’

‘It’s ok, everything is fine, can I slow down a bit maybe’

‘Yep, we can do slow’

‘Where can I relax? Where am I tense?’

‘EVERYWHERE’

‘Oh come on, that’s not true’

At that point Kath said something and made me jump because I’d sort of forgotten she was there. I never really went back to my inner dialogue (monologue?) but I sort of imagine it as a conversation between Joy from the Pixar Film Inside Out and another emotion (character) – I am not quite sure what she is but I imagine her dressed all in black with stunning black eyeliner and a sort of perpetually bored ‘Whatever’ kind of demeanour. She’s not unkind, sometimes a little too sarcastic and calls it as she sees it. Optimism and enthusiasm aren’t really her thing. If you know Lily from DuoLingo – maybe a bit like her. Anyway, the conversation had got me to a mile or so.

With about 10 minutes to go I started finding it really hard and I was annoyed at that because running for 45 minutes, never mind run/walk for 45 minutes didn’t used to be hard. I tried to remind myself that I’ve just got to take me as I am now and also that 10 minutes in to the run I didn’t think I was going to be able to keep going much longer and yet here I was 25 minutes later still going. I counted down the run segments and it began to feel possible. Kath helped encouraging me along and I thought that actually running in the rain was quite nice. Before I knew it there were only 2 run segments left and it suddenly felt doable. Ah yes, the impossible – this is fun part of impossible. I am trying to take the win. I got out, I ticked off 45 minutes and while it wasn’t exactly fun (it was horrible), there wasn’t really any drama either. I am trying not to think about pace. It feels like I am working really really hard just to be at least 2 minutes a mile slower than my comfortable long run pace used to be and I have to adjust to that new normal. I know that with consistency, a stronger pace will probably come. So it’s about patience – and we all know I have an abundance of patience (ahem).

Anyway, the ‘exercise lifts your mood and gives you energy’ tribe will be pleased. I feel much more positive and I have sprung into action making bread and granola and sorting out some writing stuff. So it seems the way to being Little Dr Positive Pants is to put on running pants and then use them for their intended purpose rather than curl up under a blanket on the sofa.