In the busy-ness of the end of term and pre-Christmas and then the excitement of becoming a Run1000Miles Ambassador and then finding out that both Kath and I can run the London Marathon for Mind, the excitement of finding out the Dopey bib numbers and all that goes with that sort of got lost.
5km Course Map
The Dopey information was released last week. It seems people fixate on this. People spend a disproportionate amount of time worrying about which starting corral they will be in. I remember being very worried about this too when we did Dopey 2016. I was less concerned this time and actually would have been ok starting at the back. I’m more confident that I can do the marathon in the allowed time and I’m no longer concerned about coming last. The proof of time rules were not entirely clear – for anticipated finish times of 5 1/2 hours or less you had to submit a proof of time and it seemed that if your proof of time didn’t match that sort of time you’d be placed at the back.
Marathon Course Map
That’s a longwinded way of saying I was expecting to be at the back because our proof of time was just a few minutes outside what they asked for. I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. I was then pleasantly surprised to find out that we were in corral F with G and H still behind us. Corrals are massive with mini waves in each so there are likely still be thousands of people behind us and we’ll have a good time buffer. I’m hope I don’t need it, if things go to plan I won’t need it but it’s still nice to know it’s there.
I enjoyed scrolling through the information for the race days and looking at the course maps. I’m getting more excited about it and the expected emotions of anxiety, being scared, self-doubt aren’t… really there. Every now and again they pop up to say hi but they don’t linger – my favourite sort of Christmas guests. And here’s a reminder of my favourite dwarf expressing one of my favourite sentiments.
So my running successes and celebrations are a bit like buses! Nothing for some time and then everything happens at once. There was the longest run of the year last weekend and since then it just keeps on coming. Yesterday I shared the news about being a #Run1000Miles ambassador – the excitement of that is not wearing off.
What I didn’t tell you yesterday is that I was supposed to run 45 minutes but just couldn’t be bothered. I was tired and my feet were still really sore from the 20 miles. Not blisters sort of sore but impact, pounding too much road sort of sore. So I went out today instead. I wasn’t massively looking forward to going out, it was soooo cold (not really it just felt like it). I got changed and set off. I had my phone in my back pocket and it seemed to be pulling my pants down so I faffed with that and moved it to me jacket pocket. My pants were still falling down though so I spent more time faffing with trying to tie them tighter – I kept running though.
I got the first mile beep and took a sneaky peek at the time – under 12 minute mile pace which surprised me a little because I didn’t feel like I was going fast. I just kept running , dropped down onto the canal towpath and got lost in just running. I don’t remember thinking about anything. Then my watch suddenly beeped for mile 2 and I glanced. ‘Oh good’ I thought and then ‘what’ and then I looked again. ‘oh’. Mile 2 was 10.38 pace. I was confused. I kept running thinking that maybe I should just slow down a little. By about 2.5 miles it was actually beginning to feel quite hard. But somehow I couldn’t slow down and just kept running. I hit 5k just before I was turning off to go back up the hill so it was sort of perfect. Mile 3 was 10.33 minute/mile pace. I walked up the hill. I covered 3.65 miles. I was confused. I had just run 5k faster, 2 minutes faster, than my previous fastest.
I got home and popped the mileage into my spreadsheet. I have cracked 750 miles. So in one day I ran fast and cracked the target I set for 2018. I have had a celebratory cup of tea and piece of chocolate.
I live in a gorgeous part of the world. Yes, yes, I know, I live in Keighley which doesn’t immediately inspire visions of gorgeousness… but there is loads of amazing countryside on our doorstep and there are some lovely parks around too. I have lived here for quite some time now and the connection with this area is even longer and yet I had never been to Cliffe Castle Park apart from one brief run through it on the Keighley 10k and I have never been to the St Ives Estate in Bingley either – apart from once visiting a client at a care home there. That seems so totally implausible and it’s a bit embarrassing really. But maybe it’s also normal, we never spend enough time exploring what’s right on our doorstep do we.
So this weekend I ticked off those two place – now I can at least say that I’ve been and that I am more than just a little bit likely to go again. So let’s start at the beginning. Saturday’s Dopey Plan called for a 5.5 mile walk. We thought we’d jog down to our fairly new local parkrun at Cliffe Castle. I thought it would be just over a mile – it’s actually almost exactly 2 miles. We jogged the first mile or so, then walked the bit cutting through some backstreets where we weren’t too sure about direction. We arrived with about 10 minutes to spare and then my 3rd and Kath’s 4th parkrun were ago. Kath trotted round in a rather impressive 32 minutes something as I plodded my way round slowly. I felt fine and was actually enjoying myself but I didn’t feel strong. The course is nice. It starts off with a down hill on a wide path before turning left onto a gravel path which is quite narrow – no matter for me, I just let everyone go ahead of me on the downhill! It is mostly flat as you come off the gravel path onto a tarmac one and into the wood. Then the climb starts. You turn left and start going up. You just keep going up for quite a while.
It’s a bit narrow and on the first lap I got stuck behind a group of people walking slower than I would normally while the parkrun frontrunners lapped us. While the climb is a bitch, once you’ve done that it’s easy – downhill mostly. On my second lap I tried to power walk the hill too fast and had to stop on the steepest bend to get my breath back, on the third lap I got it right – a fast positive walk at a pace I could sustain all the way and from which I could start running again immediately when I got to the top. As I ran past the house for the final time Kath saw me and came to join me so we ran the last bit together. Just up to the finish is a slope, I wasn’t sure I really wanted to run it but as we headed for it Kath told me I could do it and the music speakers blasted out Born in the USA. I ran. It was a slow 5k but it felt like I was finally getting back to normal. We walked back home and, though tired, I felt good.
Today we were to tackle about 15 miles. I was a little apprehensive but also really looking forward to a new route and having a little adventure and it was a gorgeous morning. We set off along the canal towards Bingley, we ran down and then dropped into run/walk intervals of 2 minute runs and 30 second walks just before a little footpath that cuts through from Riddlesden to Morton – about half way along that there was a sheep on the path. We had several attempts at letting it come past us but it always changed it mind and kept going forward. It was clearly concerned about getting back to its field though so we hoped that it would go back as soon as as we had reached the end of the footpath where we could get past. It did. Along this stretch we also saw a sweet little black cat and for a brief moment we were running side by side with a sheep and a cat. Then the sheep went back and the cat changed its mind and left us to it.
I was tired by the time we got to Bingley. Kath saw a Kingfisher which briefly took my mind off things as I searched for it. As we came off the canal I started to really doubt that I could do the distance and suddenly felt really anxious. I think it was probably the traffic noice and busy-ness that seemed really noticeable after the quiet of the canal towpath. We walked through Bingley and headed into Myrtle Park and followed the path to Beckfoot Lane which is basically where the UP started. It was quite a lot of up after this. A lot of up. Once we got to the top of Beckfoot Lane we crossed over into St Ives Estate for a bit more up. Then we crossed the main drive up into the Estate, climbed a stile into a field and then another into a bigger field and made our way across. It would actually have been quite nice to run this bit – it’s flat. But the fields were full of cows. Gorgeous fluffy black and white cows (Belted Galloways), some were this year’s young I would imagine. It was a little nerve-racking walking through the fields but the cows weren’t interested enough to actually come and have a look, they just stared a bit. At the end of the 3rd large field there was a little metal gate into a wood and more up. The up was taking its toll now and I felt really quite tired, we passed 6 miles.
The UP!
The route continued through the wooded areas of the Estate, past the Coppice Pond and
Felt how I look
eventually (more up) past Lady Blantrye’s Rock and a monument . Then we continue on along the edge of the golf course until we eventually reached Altar Lane. After a brief stop to look at the view we jogged down until we reached the Druid’s Altar turn off, we thought we might as well have a look and the views before heading back down. After that we headed all the way down the lane until we dropped into Bingley again. The traffic noise hit me again and my neck and back pulled tight. I couldn’t shake the tightness and over the next half a mile it gave a horrendous headache. It was definitely the tightness rather then dehydration or anything. It eased every time we walked and I could roll my shoulders or get Kath to rub my upper back. I was really struggling now and at 10 miles could quite happily have just curled up and cried. We carried on the canal and walked a bit to try and settle. At the top of the 5 Rise Locks I managed a few more running intervals but with every step it felt like there was an explosion in my head. In the end we switched the running and walking intervals and I just ran for 30 seconds leaving the 2 minutes to try and relax my shoulders and get rid of enough tension so I could do the next run. We couldn’t just head straight home, we needed more distance so kept going to the next bridge and walked up through our local little wood. I now had nothing at all left. We stopped at one point and I wasn’t sure I could get home. I really thought that trying to do this distance had been a mistake and it was far too much so soon after that cold I’ve had.
I pulled myself together and managed another little jog and then another before walking the last quarter of a mile home to finish on 14.5 miles. It was slow, so slow and I was initially so disappointed. But now that I’ve been home a while, had a bath, a recovery drink and some food and now that the fire’s lit and I can smell our roast chicken cooking, I feel pretty good about it. I am not broken at all. I am tired, really tired but nothing hurts, no major chafing, and no major muscle soreness or stiffness (yet). I covered the distance this weekend and it feels really good to be back on plan. Recovery so far has been sitting on the sofa with a cuddly cat, writing this blog and watching rubbish TV to just unwind. Dinner won’t be long and then it’s time to curl up with a film and give in to the tired. Yeah I was disappointed but actually, it’s done, it was a lovely route and we had an adventure.
Oh yeah Sunday weigh-in – I jumped on the scales before the run and I’m another pound down.
It’s been a good day and I like this trail shoe selfie!
Muscle soreness is always worst on the 2nd day after doing something, right? Well I was (and sort of still am) feeling pretty good about how I feel 2 days post half marathon. Walking around and just going about our ‘being a tourist’ stuff I can barely tell that I ran a half marathon. I feel good. The plan for today was to head out to Toronto Island and go for a run out there. We checked online and from one end to the other should be roughly 5km. 5km, well I reckon I can do that.
We woke up early again after another pretty disturbed night. We decided we would ask if there was another room available that wasn’t opposite a service door where staff seem to chat and where some work is obviously done at 11pm and around 1.30am. I have no idea what but that’s when the conversations and banging happen. They then start up again around 5am so sleep is not easy. We were told there would be a room available so we packed all our stuff, left it with bell services and headed out. We got the 8am ferry to Hanlan’s point and then ran across the islands all the way to Wards Island ferry port. Oh my goodness.
So walking and running use very different muscles or the same ones differently! The minute I started running I realised just how tired and tight my hamstrings were. They
were screaming at me to not be an idiot and just stop moving. Had I not been in such striking surroundings I might have listened. I kept putting one foot in front of the other and with encouragement from Kath made it to the other end. I didn’t dare stop running because I didn’t think I’d get going again if I walked. At the other end we stopped, had a little walk along the lake front on the beach and then realised that the boardwalk that we thought was closed was actually open. It was too tempting. We decided to run at least a short stretch of it. As I started running again, my hamstrings filed for divorce. They did not want anything further to do with this madness. They felt like they had shortened by about 3 inches and just didn’t really fit me any more:
Hamstrings: You’re being unreasonable
Me: Why?
Hamstrings: Come on – 13.1 miles just 2 days ago and now this?
Me: 13.37 actually and shut-up, you’re fine
Hamstrings: No we’re not, we’re too short
Me: Nope, you just feel too short
Hamstrings: Same thing
Me: No, just get on with it.
Hamstrings: That’s it, it’s definitely you and not us. You’re just unreasonable. Stop it.
Me: Nope. See, you’re fine really
Hamstrings: Ok, maybe, maybe… ok.
Me: See
Hamstrings: Hmph. We hate you.
Me: There, done.
Hamstrings: Unreasonable, just unreasonable.
Left calf:I agree with the hamstrings!
Me: Shush, nobody asked you
After that we were hoping to at least get some coffee but nothing opens on the island until 11am it seems and even after walking around Centre Island a little it was only about 10am. So we decided to head back, get a coffee and pastry and Queens Quay and then walk to St Lawrence market before going back to the hotel. At the hotel we picked up our new room keys and had our bags sent up to us – seemed easier. The room initially seemed fine – smaller than the original one and a lot lower down obviously but fine. Then we realised that the air conditioning vent on a lower roof below was rattling badly and banging and even with the window closed was incredibly noisy – we tried again and this time got a room on the 10th floor which seemed fine. We went to retrieve our luggage from the 6th floor room and the key cards didn’t work. We were by now a little irritated with going up and down the hotel’s various lifts. We spoke to a manager and she sorted it and we could get our bags. As a gesture she has given us a voucher for breakfast tomorrow – suppose that’s fair.
Once settled we had a little swim and 10 minutes in the whirlpool. That seems to have made my hamstrings reconsider their position. They seem a little friendlier even after walking to the CN Tower for dinner and back (it was fab) but then I haven’t tried to run so I’ll let you know how my relationship with my hamstrings develops over this week.
So I managed to get out in spite of the ice the other day but then Monday and Tuesday there were the usual excuses – to dark, too tired, too late now, too full from food.
Wednesday I got home earlier so we went for a run. We went uphill. Up up up towards Ilkley Moor. I forget how relentless it is but Kath took us from landmark to landmark run/walking. My calves held up ok but were tight by the time we got to the top. We turned round and ran all the way back down. It’s a lovely run down. It’s undulating but down all the way if that makes sense. It means that I can run faster than I usually do and sustain it for longer which helps me get used to what a higher pace actually feels like. It was a good session.
Thursday we did our speed work for the week. I don’t like speed work. I find it mentally really hard. I’m actually sure I could physically run faster but somehow I can’t make myself sustain it. Most types of speed work make me really miserable and grumpy. However, the runners world fartlek session which I have blogged about before is sort of ok. This was the 4th time I’ve done it. I could feel the hills in my legs from the day before and I was quite tired. I was fairly sure my pace would be awful. I was therefore pleasantly surprised that I was actually in line with previous attempts. With some more consistent running, hill, speed and strength work I may even improve a bit! (previous attempts in brackets)
The worst section of this is always the 3 minute run, always. It’s when I nearly give up every time. 3 silly little minutes. Well, I’ll have another go in a couple of weeks or so.
My legs welcomed rest day Friday!
Today we were originally going to do 8 miles at Bolton Abbey but we had a lazy morning instead. We switched our days around and did our 1 hour run today. We set off at the same time but went in different directions – Kath turned back because she wasn’t feeling great – I think I must have passed on my non-distinct crappy feeling from yesterday. I had been running for about 15 minutes when my ankles seemed to just set and my calves went tight. I kept going a little bit but then stopped to walk a little bit. It didn’t ease so I stopped at a bridge and stretched my legs out a bit. Running continuously obviously wasn’t a good plan. I re-set my watch to run/walk and to 5k. That went fine, in fact I was pleased with the relative ease of that run/walk. At the end of the 5k I reset the watch again and walked the 3/4 mile home. 5.6 in total and I have now done more miles than I did in all of January last year.
So this weekend I ticked off those two place – now I can at least say that I’ve been and that I am more than just a little bit likely to go again. So let’s start at the beginning. 
looking forward to a new route and having a little adventure and it was a gorgeous morning. We set off along the canal towards Bingley, we ran down and then dropped into run/walk intervals of 2 minute runs and 30 second walks just before a little footpath that cuts through from Riddlesden to Morton – about half way along that there was a sheep on the path. We had several attempts at letting it come past us but it always changed it mind and kept going forward. It was clearly concerned about getting back to its field though so we hoped that it would go back as soon as as we had reached the end of the footpath where we could get past. It did. Along this stretch we also saw a sweet little black cat and for a brief moment we were running side by side with a sheep and a cat. Then the sheep went back and the cat changed its mind and left us to it.
(and sort of still am) feeling pretty good about how I feel 2 days post 
We woke up early again after another pretty disturbed night. We decided we would ask if there was another room available that wasn’t opposite a service door where staff seem to chat and where some work is obviously done at 11pm and around 1.30am. I have no idea what but that’s when the conversations and banging happen. They then start up again around 5am so sleep is not easy. We were told there would be a room available so we packed all our stuff, left it with bell services and headed out. We got the 8am ferry to 
until 11am it seems and even after walking around 
really (not) a runner 