Final Push

Jess GuthLeave a comment

We went for a short run this morning. Temperatures have dropped a bit and it felt cold. We both struggled a little. Kath was really struggling to breathe in the cold air and I wore some trainers that I bought ages and ages go and hadn’t worn to run in yet. I think I picked them up cheap and I don’t think they’re right. My feet were aching a mile in. It might all just be taper paranoia though.

One more training run left. Just one more and then we travel and then the big event is here. The countdown says 5 days – that’s to the Expo at the start of the Disney event. I can’t decide if I am excited or terrified today.

We’re really not far off our fundraising target overall although it would be lovely to get a bit closer to it online! Can you help? Can you make the hours on the road, the sore muscles and the chafing in places best not mentioned all even more worthwhile?  If you can help, our justgiving page is here. Thank you.

As a reminder of what this is all about – we are running for Panthera, a conservation charity focusing on the Big Cats. They do great work and you can read all about it on their website and follow them on twitter (@pantheracats) and facebook.

Thank you to all those of you who have already sponsored us – you are brilliant and you help ensure  a future for gorgeous creatures like this:

Lion cub Panthera
Picture from Panthera

Happy New Year

Jess Guth2 Comments

I hope 2016 is a good year for you. I am looking forward to lots of running adventures, to headspace, to me time, to walks along the canal, to giggles and laughter, to cuddles with cats, to conversations, to smiles and hugs. But for now I am pre-occupied with the marathon – my first big adventure of 2016. What’s yours?

Keep calm run disney

There is still time to sponsor us and help us reach our target. Our justgiving page will stay open for a little while after the event, too.

The morning after a taper run

Jess Guth8 Comments

Paranoid much? Yep! It is the day after a 6 mile run and I’m a week and a half away from the Walt Disney World Marathon. Let’s just be clear, I am fine. I can’t feel any after effects from the run and yet with every step that isn’t 100% steady, with every little twist and every time I am aware of a muscle, part of me just freezes and goes ‘was that a tweak, is my hamstring tight, that wasn’t my hip flexor was it, oh goodness, my calf muscle…’ And then it hit me. I am going to have to travel to London on the train, sit in a theatre, get on a flight and spend a few days in the resort with OTHER PEOPLE. Just think of the germs, just think of how much more likely it is that I’ll catch a bug. What if I get ill…

But there’s no time for this paranoid nonsense. It is what it is. Our travel documents arrived.

image

This sent me into excitement overdrive which required a little dance round the living room and a shriek or two. I know, I know, im a 37 year old professional woman…. Who cares, I’m excited. I have basically packed – couple of bits and pieces still need washing/ironing- and I am probably taking too much. I have loaded my iPad with books although I am not sure when I am going to read them. We have so much fun stuff planned that with all of that and the running I can’t see myself spending much time just lounging about!

Breakfasts and Dinners are booked, various lists of lunch locations, rides, activities etc we want to do have been made, US dollars have arrived, credit card companies notified we will be abroad, mothers are primed to look after the house and all our critters (they just move in so the cats have company!) all the pre travel stuff  for the US is done and I even know where my passport is. I am good to go!

Again today I am more excited than terrified. I think it might be because I am beginning to realise that this is really happening and it is happening now. I am going to do this thing and all that I can do now is trust in the training I’ve done. It’s too late to do anything else. Fuelling sort of starts now, the focus is on making a conscious effort to drink more water and on eating healthily to make sure we don’t put on any weight – 26.2 miles is a long way to carry an extra pound or two.

Anyway, I have more lists to write and a suitcase to re-pack several more times over the next few days and I need to do some yoga to make sure that really isn’t my hip flexor niggling…. Oh and the weather forecast is predicting marathon day to be the hottest of our trip. Lovely.

Post-Christmas running

Jess Guth4 Comments

Those of you who have been following the weight loss bit of this journey may have noticed that I’ve been silent on that and have stubbornly ignored my Sunday weigh-ins. Two reasons for this, one I forgot to get on the scales first thing on the Sundays and it just didn’t seem important enough to do it later. Can you see th headline ‘woman doesn’t care about her weight – the end of the world as we know it’… Anyway, then just lately I did start caring because with lower mileage and festive food I felt like I might be piling on pounds which is tthe last thing I should be doing just before a marathon. So I just didn’t get on the scales to avoid that disappointment.But today I hopped on the scales for the first time since the beginning of the month: I am actually half a pound lighter than I was last time I weighed myself. Next weigh in 1st Jan to get the baseline for 2016.

We have been struggling to get our runs in but today we went out together. It felt like ages since we actually went for a run together. The sun was shining, it was ridiculously warm and it was such hard work. I felt heavy, sluggish, unfit and like all the mince pies, sausage rolls and prosecco in the world were congregating in the pit of my stomach. I felt decidedly like I was plodding along slower than ever, but, I kept telling myself, I was plodding not sitting on the sofa stuffing my face.

At about two miles the towpath was blocked by a fallen tree so we had to turn round and go the other way. We’d run roughly the first mile and had then dropped into our run/walk intervals (as planned for marathon, 2 min run,1 min walk) and I needed the walk breaks. We checked our time at 5 km so that we could count that as our December One Big Fat Run and I thought 37 mins, 35 seconds was pretty good going for a post Christmas 5km that’s part of a longer run.

At about 4 miles I started feeling better. The sluggishness was giving way to just enjoying being out. At just under 5 miles we turned again and ran the last mile and a bit back to the ‘home’ bridge. The 6 miles took us an hour, 12 minutes and a few seconds and it was a nice run. We chatted for all but the last few minutes and the sun was lovely.

Walking up the hill to get home I felt a bit dizzy but I think I was dehydrated. I haven’t really been paying attention to drinking enough water. We’ve had some food and I’ve drank about three pints of water and feel great now.

One more 45 minute run and one more 6 mile run left. 6 more sleeps before we travel, 7 more before we fly to Florida. Today I am more excited than terrified. Bring on the marathon!

 

Christmas Running

Jess Guth3 Comments

I’ve just got back from a quick 2 mile run. My goodness that was awful. I hadn’t run since the 23rd. Yesterday was supposed to be a 6 miler and I was looking forward to it but the weather here was just too horrendous – most roads not passable – we couldn’t even get to our sheep. It was awful but of course we were extremely lucky. While our backgarden was under 6 inches of water at one point, we weren’t flooded and we only had to deal with water running off the hillside and aren’t at risk of river flooding or anything. My thoughts go out to all those dealing with the flooding.

Anyway, I spent Christmas eve, Christmas day and my birthday yesterday eating too much of the wrong the stuff. Lovely as it was, that coupled with a few glasses of prosecco for Christmas and champagne for my birthday I felt like I couldn’t run a mile today. I felt full and sluggish and just bleurgh. I did and didn’t want to go run in equal measures. I decided I would at least get out for a short loop and break the cycle of not moving and eating too much. I packed some birthday cake in a lunchbox, packed it and a running jacket in my backpack and ran a just about 2 mile loop to Mum’s.

If every run felt like that nobody would ever stick at it! I’d barely got to the end of the road when I felt like I couldn’t breathe. By the time I go half way down the hill I realised I wasn’t wearing a running a belt and my pants were slipping down. That gave me something to focus on for a bit but didn’t keep my mind of the hideousness of the running for long – it was just so hard work. 5 minutes in I was ready to give up.

I kept going though and eventually, after 2 miles at a pretty good pace I arrived at Mum’s, dropped off the stuff and then walked home up the hill. I’m glad I went, we will try for another run tomorrow morning and that one had better be better!