Running through the Wall and Running Q & A

Jess Guth5 Comments

After the two disasters I was dreading running yesterday but I was also sort of excited about it. I had decided I was going to complete a run and be positive about it. I wanted to be back on track. We drove to Bolton Abbey to do the loop I described previously. It was raining which meant there weren’t many people around. We set off and I wasn’t doing too bad except on the downhill bits which scared me. In fact I think I screamed on one of them. It was fine really but I’m a wimp. I started to really struggle coming up to the aqueduct. We walked up the steps, ran across the bridge and then walked down the other side. The next bit is a bit of a slope and looking at it it just seemed impossible but it wasn’t. I felt physically just as I had on Monday when I stopped but this time I was mentally stronger and also ready for it. The next running interval was hell and then it got easier again. I managed the rest with just one additional walk up the steeped hill and then even took the last two walk breaks out. Not only did I do it, I did it faster than last time. A pace of 13.10 which considering hills I am quite happy with. So much more positive even if my legs are a bit sore today.

The lovely people at BritsRunDisney tagged me in a running Q&A so while I am thinking about running, I have answered the questions below.

Would you rather run along a beach path or a mountain trail?

Tricky. I like the idea of a nice flat beach path but I can also see the attraction of the views from a mountain trail! Both are so much better than running along a road or on a treadmill

If you could choose the flavour of Gatorade at your next race’s aid stations, what would it be?

Do we have Gatorade in the UK? I don’t like any sports drinks particularly. I hate the artificial flavour. I’ll stick to water

If you are given a $100 git card for a running store, what would you purchase with it?

I need to start thinking about the winter and I need a waterproof running jacked and some full length pants

Do you prefer to use a training plan or wake up and then decide how far or fast you want to run?

I need a plan. If left to getting up and deciding the answer will be ‘not far very slowly’. A plan motivates me because I wnt to tick off the runs one by one

Would you rather start your run with the uphill and end with the downhill or start your run with the downhill and end with the uphill?

Can I cheat on this? I’d like the hills somewhere in the first half of the run. Not right at the beginning but definitly not at the end either.

When you can’t run, what kind of cross-training do you choose to do?

Yoga is working well for me at the moment and I do like walking. I’m not a gym bunny, I get bored

What is your preference –> out and back, point to point, or loop runs?

All have their good points and it depends on distance and mood. Out and back is good for mid distance where the turning round gives me a little boost. Loops are nice but only if you just do one loop – I’d get bored having to do two or more laps of the same loop. I will try the first point to point of our training on Saturday when we need to do 9 miles. We are going to get the train out to Skipton and then run home. I like the idea of running home

If you could recommend ANY running related item to a new runner it would be?

Hm. Don’t know. A training plan and a pack of smiley stickers to mark your achievement

Do you see any wild animals while out on your runs?

Herons, ducks, swans, rabbits, deer, kestrel, lots of little birds like finches, swallows, long tailed tits…

Ever gotten lost while out on a run?

Not yet, not gone far enough yet really and it is difficult to get lost along the canal!

If you could have one meal waiting and ready for you each time you got home from a run for the next 30 days… what would it be?

A big South American brunch (quinoa and black eyed beans, fried egg, avocado and a tomatoe/ arping onion vinegarette)

Capris or short? What do you run in most?

I don’t run in shorts – shorts don’t stop my thighs from wobbling

At what mile (or how many minutes) into your run does your body start to feel like it is warming up and ready to go?

Usually after the 2nd running interval so at about 6 minutes at the minute but sometimes it takes longer and sometimes it’s only towards the end that I feel like I’m just settling into it.

What do you do with your key when you run?

I give it to Kath, she usually has pockets

If you could re-live any race that you have done in the past, which one?

I don’t want to re-live any of the races of my previous running life. They were all pretty awful. The half marathon I did was quite spectacular but it was emotional, I wasn’t prepared and it was very slow.. Hm. I have only done one race in this running life – the Leeds 10km and it wasn’t bad. I am looking forward to the Scarborough 10km on October.

What type of run is your least favourite?

Short and fast. I don’t like fast. I also panic about not being fast enough. I’m more comfortable with the idea of just plodding away and slowly ticking off the miles. I find trying to do, say 3 miles, at a fast (for me) pace quite stressful.

When you go for a run, do you leave from your front door or drive somewhere to start?

Both. Tend to start from home for the weekly maintenance runs and mix things up at the weekend

When running in daylight, are sunglasses a must or an annoyance?

I only wear them when it is really bright. I wear a cap since I’ve had my hair cut and can’t tie it back anymore and that keeps the sun off enough. The couple of times I’ve worn sunglasses they steamed up and I couldn’t see at all

When you get tired, what keeps you from quitting?

Usually Kath keeps me going but also trying to focus on why I started this in the first place and remembering how far I’ve come.

If anyone fancies the Q&A just go for it. I’m not going to tag people, it’s all just a bit of fun.

The puppy won

Jess Guth4 Comments

After my 3 mile hell (see last post) things got worse. The plan was to get up early-ish  yesterday and get our working week off to a good start with a nice positive run. My gremlins and stupid depression mutt had other ideas. I did get up, tempting as it was to hide under the duvet. We set off. It felt physically hard but ok. I was doing it. My legs felt quite tired, I felt quite tired but hey, I was out, I was doing it. I dragged myself to the golf course – downhill from here for a bit. I get scared going downhill but it was ok, I felt pretty ok, just a bit tired. We turned towards Silsden on the canal. It was hard, really hard. Nothing really wanted to quite move. One foot in front of the other… I was slowing down. We got to where the nice path turns into track, just keep running. We turned and I was now definitly running slower than walking pace. I’d hit a physical brick wall. Everything hurt, one foot in front of the other just wasn’t possible and I had nothing left mentally to push through. Nothing at all. I did something I haven’t done for about 6 months (other than because of injury), I stopped. I was too exhausted to block out the negative voices, too drained to give the black stupid puppy dog a good kick, too ’empty’ to fight that sense of ‘I can’t do this.

It was a long walk back. I cried.

I will try again today

3 mile hell

Jess Guth10 Comments

After the positives of yesterday today’s run came as a bit of a shock. Our programme said 3 miles and I was actually looking forward to that. I woke up around 7.30 and slowly got up and we got ourselves organised to go. We had decided on starting at home, running down to the canal and turning towards Bingley. So off we went. It was awful. My gremlins were shouting at me, my silly black labrador puppy was back (see here) and I was convinced that a) I couldn’t do it and b) we were going very slowly. Kath kept pushing on and I kept going somehow. Every bloody step of the whole bloody way was bloody awful. Not a happy place in sight. 3 miles later it turns out it was our fastest yet. 11 minutes and 5 seconds per mile. It was still bloody horrible.

I also forgot to get on the scales this morning so don’t have a Sunday Weigh-In to report on. I may get on and have a look later or I may just not bother. After the awful run I’m not sure I want the scales to tell me that I’m a fat bugger, I am very well aware of that today.

So there we are, another week of training done. Go me.

Early mornings, herons and stunning views

Jess Guth6 Comments

We were struggling to to fit in all our runs this week with work being a little insane (A-level results week and University Clearing are manic for me) so our schedule has gone to pot a bit. We’re just about fitting everything in though.

  1. Running with Herons

Our first maintenance run this week was on Tuesday – still on schedule. I was a little worried given the tummy incident the run before. We also needed to go really early in the morning to fit it in.We set the alarm for 4.30, got up and dressed and set off. I decided not to try food and go on empty. My tummy was slightly bubbly but ok. It was a gorgeous and completely still morning and somehow our footfall felt loud and like we were intruding on something. Nature was going about its business and we weren’t part of that business. Rabbits were bobbing about, cats were mousing, birds were coming to life stretching their wings, ducks were slowly emerging onto the canal and a group of cows came down to (and into) the canal for a drink. As we ran towards Silsden we saw Hugo the heron and he flew off and landed ahead of us as if teasing ‘you’ll never catch up’. We didn’t, we turned round before we reached him. About half way back along the canal we saw another heron and this one also kept flying a little ahead and landing again. Suddenly it was joined by a second, so we now have three Hugos and 2 of them were right there with us. I briefly wondered if they felt threatened by us and we were actually chasing them but they didn’t seemed worried. Rather they seemed to be enjoying themselves. It really was like we were running with them and just as we got to our last bridge and last 20 seconds they turned and flew off over the fields. I’d forgotten about running, it was a lovely moment.

2. Running on the moors

Today we finally managed to fit in our second maintenance run and we initially thought we’d do it at Bolton Abbey again but then thought it might be busy so decided to head up onto Ikley Moor instead. We drove up. It was a really hard run (my lungs are still rattling a bit) but it was stunning. I was up there last week going for a walk with Dad and took some pictures. Today is a very similar day so here are some of the views we tried to enjoy while running:

It wasn’t always easy to enjoy the view – the path is quite uneven. It starts off like this:

summer 2015 272

but a little further along the path is made up of big stones which are uneven and wobbly on the moor. I wouldn’t like to run it when the stones are wet but it was a dry and slightly breezy day. It was an odd sort of run in terms of fitness and how I felt. My legs felt fine all the way but my lungs were struggling. They were burning after the first run interval (which was uphill) and never really recovered. I was struggling to suck in the air all the way but still didn’t really find it that difficult to keep going. I just couldn’t go faster. We took a few walk breaks out towards the end but I enarly needed to put the last one in – I was saved by the downhill at the end of the path (the bit you can see in the photo but coming the other way).

I loved that run. I actually really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it being hard and I enjoyed finishing it and having done it and having seen the views and managed the uneven bit. I just enjoyed being out.

As for distance and pace – who cares? I wrote it down, as we always do and I think both were somewhere around the 12 and a half minutes per mile but both were gorgeous runs and that, I have decided, it was matters.

Troubled tummies

Jess Guth3 Comments

I started drafting this post a few days ago and was saving it for a day when I felt confident and happy and would be able to cope with the inevitable embarassment I’d feel when posting this. Today is not really that day but needs must (as it were). I finished the draft post with:

‘I haven’t yet had a ‘serious incident’ and I have decided to just not worry about it. If it happens it happens. It’ll be embarassing, upsetting, horrible and then life will go on.’

Well it happened, it was all those things and life is going on. Let me explain – I did say I was going to be honest about this running thing so I can’t really spare myself the embarassment. I distinctly remember one run when we started training for the half marathon 3 years ago where I had to stop abruptly because I had, for want of a more delicate phrase, shit myself – or at least it felt like it. I hadn’t actually made a mess of myself but it was still horrible. We had run along the canal, turned off over the bridge to come up towards the Riddlesden Golf Course and were just turning down the hill to continue along the road that runs parallel to the canal.  I remember being quite upset about it at the time but had sort of forgotten about it by the time we started running again earlier this year. Or maybe I had just blocked it out.

As we’ve gone through our training this time there has been the odd run where my tummy has felt a bit dodgy and where I’ve felt like I might find myself in the same predicament again. It freaked me out a bit, well a lot, initially until I realised that this was ‘a thing’. It’s not just me, it’s a running thing. Apparently lots of long distance runners get the runner’s trots and apparently it affects novice runners more. So it may settle down. What I eat and when also obviously has an impact. In the draft version I had written:

‘and the good news is that I seem to do much better with morning runs where I’ve just had a banana about 20 minutes or so before the run.’

Yes, well that may not actually be true. That’s what I did this morning. I got up, had a banana, got sorted and we set off. I had been to the toilet but almost as soon as we set off running my tummy felt dodgy. Then at around 2.5 miles we had a little downhill bit and it all went horribly horribly wrong. There’s no point pretending, I did actually poo my pants. Not much but enough to be disgustingly uncomfortable as well as mortified for the rest of the run. I didn’t stop. I just cried, quietly and kept plodding. We finished the 7 miles in almost exactly and hour and a half with a pace of 12.55 minutes per mile

I am hoping that as I get fitter my body overall will get used to running and I will have fewer tummy incidents. I got home, had a bath and slowly regained my sense of humour but it’s been a tough day mentally. It’s hard to get excited about running when in the back of your mind you’re considering nappies. So –  happy thoughts. I have lost 1.5 pounds (perhaps not surprising) and we have finished page 1 of the training programme:

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