Tag: 5km

Training Plans and an Uphill Waddle

Jess GuthLeave a comment

I went for a run. It’s run day on the training plan and I actually went for a run. Lately, you see, I have done anything but what it says on whatever plan I’ve been supposedly following. When it said long run I’ve gone short, when it said hills, I’ve just sworn, when it said short run I didn’t go, when it said rest I went long… chaos basically which is fine. In fact I quite like chaos, it adds a surprise element to life.

It’s quite hard to make any real training progress with chaos though, particularly when you’re like me and chaos basically means you don’t do the hard stuff. A little order was called for, not regimented ‘you must do this’ sort of stuff but just following a basic framework. It’s Tuesday and Tuesdays is 45 minute run day. Some Tuesdays have  45 minutes with stuff (like surges or hill repeats etc) but not this one, this one was just ‘easy’. The notion of ‘easy’ running amuses me. Easy pace is basically walking! Anyway. I got home after a good day and couldn’t really be bothered. I hadn’t drunk enough water, drunk too much coffee, eaten too much for lunch and it was hot. But nonetheless I set off.

I kept reminding myself to go slow in the sun and not worry about pace – just plod out the 45 minutes. Enjoy, look around… I puffed my way up the hill then towards the wood, past our Dino and up the slope into the wood. I nearly walked on the slope – I suspect I would have been quicker if I had walked. Down the golf course and along the canal. Bloody hell this was hard. One foot in front of the other. I wanted to stop at the bridge but I wasn’t anywhere near 45 minutes yet. So on I went. Somewhere between the next two bridges I decided that I would plod out 5km and then try and march up the hill home. It’s a steep hill. Almost immediately after I made that decision I started doubting whether I’d make the 5km. I did but it felt like wading through treacle. I was surprised when Strava told me I got a personal best on that last section. It also tells me it was 5km in 39 minutes dead.

Anyway, for the walk home – I went the most direct route – directly up in an almost straight line up a little snicket. I was hot, bothered, slightly dizzy in places and thought I was going to puke. I felt like I kept marching, stopping, marching, stopping but it was probably more like waddle, stop, waddle, stop. I got home. I had ticked the required 45 minutes off the list  – there is some order.

I collapsed on the living room floor and just stayed there a few minutes contemplating life (actually just sweating so much I was surprised not to have left a noticeable wet patch – can your eyeballs sweat?). Then slowly I got myself together and did some fairly random post run yoga – I couldn’t be bothered to get my mat or the iPad to follow an actual sequence so I did my own. My hamstrings are little bitches and totally intent on making my life miserable so they need a good stretch to keep them in check: ‘half monkey’ seems to really work for me for that. I thought my hips had been a bit tight but alternating ‘bridge’ and ‘happy baby’ a few times sorted that. Then I went in search of water (wasn’t hard, Kath had given me a full glass as I walked through the door). In spite of the uphill waddle I now felt pretty good about that outing.

I haven’t really done enough yoga today – I’m trying to do more but let’s take the small victories – I did manage 20 minute morning yoga yesterday which always sounds like such a lovely thing but the morning one on my yoga app is actually quite tough and after moving from downward dog to plank for what felt like the 150th time (ok, 3rd), my arms didn’t work anymore and I face planted. I have therefore settled on a new ambition in life: being able to do that sequence without putting my nose in danger. I also did strength exercises much to the cats’ amusement/bemusement. Ernest stared at me intently as I side-stepped with a resistance band. Actually maybe he just got a bit excited every time I got near the food bowls. Anyway, it’s only Tuesday and I already feel pretty good about exercise for the week. Tomorrow is strength yoga day. Next run on Thursday.

 

Mexico Running

Jess Guth1 Comment

Last week I was lucky enough to attend a conference in Mexico City. I took my running IMG_6369gear – as I often do when I go away for work. More often than not the running gear stays in my bag but not this time. I arrived Monday evening and after a pretty good sleep hit the gym on Tuesday early morning. I got on the treadmill, saw that I could have a 5k trail on my screen and settled in for a very very slow 5k. I thought it would be nice to stretch my legs but was aware of being slightly tired and it being warm – even in the gym. So off I set, aiming for a pace of about 13 to 13 and a half minutes per mile. It felt like hell. I couldn’t breathe, sweat was pouring off me and I was nowhere near the pace. I was at about 14 and a half. I walked a little bit and tried again. At 1.2 miles I gave up and did 5k on the bike instead, slowly and grumpily. It began to dawn on me, altitude. That’s why I couldn’t breathe. I know Mexico City isn’t THAT high but it is still noticeable.

I didn’t really notice altitude generally although I’d been slightly dizzy when I first arrived  but I put that down to tiredness. I also noticed that I was out of breath more quickly going up stairs or walking fast. Anyway, Wednesday morning I tried again – armed with a little more knowledge and understanding of why I found it so hard. I did a little better. I went slow and plodded my way to 2.2 miles. I was going to try for the 5km again but my knee started to niggle a little and then the treadmill programme stopped at 30 minutes with a 5 minute cool down and I didn’t bother re-setting. Instead I switched to the cross-trainer and did another 30 minutes on that. I was a sweaty mess. In the afternoon I went for a long walk and didn’t notice the altitude – I noticed pollution and heat.

IMG_6361Thursday I had a rest day but I did walk a fair bit too. Friday morning was the biggy. The conference fun run. A 5km, non timed early morning run. Secretly I’ve always wondered what it would be like to run one of these conference runs. I’ve never even considered joining them. I don’t know what possessed me to do it this time. I’d agonised over it but all my Facebook support groups were very much of the opinion that I should go. So on Friday morning I pulled on my 2016 London Marathon Finisher’s T-shirt – as if it somehow gave me the right to be there – pulled my pants and trainers on and headed to the lobby. There were two people there already, disappointingly they looked like runners. Such a silly thing to say but as I stepped out of the lift I thought ‘Fuck, proper runners’.  Soon we were joined by a few more people – a serious half marathoner, an ultra marathoner, other experienced and speedy looking people- but it stayed a small group. Great. I desperately wanted the ‘Fat Lass at the Back’ gear because that was really the only way to describe the scenario – everyone was thinner and faster. I nearly made my excuses. But I was already up and dressed for a run, I might was well set off with everyone and go for a run anyway. I chatted with a couple of people – fairly serious runners all round really – there was talk of taking it easy at around 30 minute pace. Yeah right, I nearly (but not quite) ran a sub 30 minute 5k once at the height of Dopey training and that nearly killed me.

So we set off. It was clear immediately that the pace was too fast for me. After an initial IMG_6363pang of disappointment and feeling crapy about it, I was actually ok with that. I dropped back and settled into my own pace and watched, vaguely amused, as the rest of the pack disappeared off into the distance. I nearly caught them a couple of times as they’d stopped for traffic lights but they were soon off again. After a little while I noticed that one of the couples had dropped back a bit from the main group and the woman was walking a bit on and off. Eventually I caught up with her and asked her how she was doing. I vaguely thought about pushing past her – maybe I could run the 5km at my pace without walking – but that didn’t seem right and anyway, I wouldn’t mind a little walk. Well, it turns out that she too was struggling with the pace and that she was from West Yorkshire too. We run/walked and chatted our way round the rest of the course with her partner running ahead and waiting on and off – and I really enjoyed it. The rest of the group waited at the entrance to the park but that was really the last time we saw them. By the time we got to the hotel they’d all disappeared.

So, the fun run. My thoughts. In so many ways it was exactly the way I imagined it and why I have never ever joined before – and probably won’t again. The pace is too fast, the people are all ‘yeah we’ll take it really slow, it’s just fun’ when they actually don’t mean that. They also don’t mean that they’ll stick with the slowest person. They wouldn’t have had one or two people drop back to run with me. The only reason I wasn’t on my own was because Jenny was happy to put up with me when I caught up with her. It was too small a group to really split into sub-groups so having a faster and a slower pack just IMG_6366wouldn’t work. I enjoyed the run. I also would have enjoyed it had I done it on my own – but I was ready for that and resigned to it. However, I’m a long way along my running journey now and I’ve accepted that I am slow and will often be at the back. I am generally ok with that and I still found it incredibly hard to not get disheartened as everyone jogged off away from me. It took a few deep breaths and I swallowed some tears and reminded myself that this was my run and they didn’t matter. Once I got that in my head it was fine but that’s not that easy a place to get to. All the things I had always feared about conference fun runs came true: everyone was thinner, everyone was sporty, everyone was faster, nobody waited…

So why did I go. Well I always presumed that runners would laugh at me and be dismissive – but I have had so much support from the Too Fat to Run? community and Clubhouse lovelies there that I do now firmly believe that my substantially sized arse has a right to be out there doing its thing. More importantly though, I have also got amazing support and encouragement from another FB group – the Trail Running Magazine’s Run1000 miles Challenge. There are some amazing, inspirational and phenomenal runners in that group and they don’t seem to care that I am fat and slow. They cheer my achievements and celebrate my successes with me, however small and they made me re-think my perception of runners. They’re not laughing. They’re telling me to go out there and do it. They’re lovely. Somehow I had started to think that most runners are lovely and  that my fear of conference fun runs is mostly based on my own prejudice of runners. So I went. I think maybe I was a little disappointed at the end of the run. I’m not really sure what I expected – certainly not for everyone to wait until I’d made it back or cheer or tell me how well I’d done (I would have found that patronising and embarrassing) but maybe I did expect someone to be there in the lobby making sure all runners got back safe. Maybe I did expect one or two to say ‘hi, how was that? Bit warm out there isn’t it?’ Maybe I expected to be able to say ‘Wow, you must have sped up a fair bit that last mile, I couldn’t even see you’. Instead, I said bye to my  two new friends and went for a shower and then some breakfast.

I did it. I enjoyed it but I enjoyed it because I decided I would do my run and would let the fun run go do its thing. I also enjoyed it because I met two lovely people on the way. I don’t think I’ll be a conference fun run regular – other than maybe to use them as an incentive or excuse to get my butt out of bed and go for a run, my run, with my rules and my paceIMG_6370

First ever parkrun

Jess GuthLeave a comment

We registered for parkrun in October 2015 and we’ve never been. Until today. Finally we got our butts to parkrun. We live pretty much in the middle between Skipton and Bradford so we needed to choose. We chose Bradford on the basis that it is 3 laps rather than 4. Yes I know they are all the same distance but number of laps makes a difference!

We took the car this time, not being sure about timings and where exactly we needed to be or when for the start etc, factoring in the unreliable bus times seemed a step too far. I was unjustifiably nervous as it was! We were early but that gave us time to figure things out, look at the route map, be told how it all worked and then walk to the start. We couldn’t really hear the instructions etc given at the beginning but at pretty much bang on 9am we were off. The course is 3 laps and starts off in a flat straight line, then does a little squiggle round Cartwright Hall and then turns left downhill and left again to go flat/downhill along the length of the park. Then, after another left turn, comes what appears to be affectionately known as the teeny tiny hill. Yeah right. Then you’re back at the start.

I haven’t run with people since the abandoned half marathon in November. Running with people increases anxiety levels. Increased anxiety levels mean I worry about everything. So when I looked at my watch about 100 metres in and saw that we were running at 11 minute mile pace I panicked thinking we were going way to fast for me to be able to sustain it. I felt fine until that point and suspect I would have naturally slowed off a little and found my pace but in my little panic I then couldn’t breathe and threw everything out. I settled a bit on the downhill and flat and on lap one I ran teeny tiny hill – I just then couldn’t keep running so had a walk break at the top.

I’ve really noticed that I have got mentally tougher recently – running rather than run/walking the 3.1 and 4 miles earlier this week are examples of that but I am mentally much weaker when things are ‘different’. I suspect I didn’t really need to walk after the hill. I suspect I could have run the hill on laps 2 and 3 and I suspect I could run a bit faster but I didn’t have it in me mentally to push today. I’m not disappointed and I did enjoy it – I’m just making an observation about me and my running behaviour really. My goal was to finish in under 40 minutes. I had decided that under 40 minutes would be major success. I’d also decided that it might not be a bad idea to have a plan B and C in case plan A was, for whatever reason, not going to work today. So Plan B was to complete in under 45 minutes and Plan C was just to complete. So I am delighted, in fact a sort of happy dance warranting excited, to have come in at 39.44.

After the finish we got a coffee from the coffee van to share (I’m a coffee snob, the coffee wasn’t great but it was coffee I guess) and sat on a bench watching the remaining runners come in and a little wagtail be busy on the lawn in front of us. Then we drove back. I’m glad we went and I felt comfortable and confident enough that I think if we go again soon I’d be happy for Kath to run her own 5k and for me to plod and run mine. It was great to have her there with me today but I think it would still feel like doing parkrun together even if we didn’t actually run together! I’ll just have to try not to let her lap me!

I ran and I loved it!

Jess GuthLeave a comment

IMG_4662All being well today was going to be the day I was going to go for a reboot run. My tummy has settled down and I’ve run out of excuses. The Too Fat to run Clubhouse session this week is to connect with the environment we run in and go for a run and take pictures and share them. That sort of sounded like fun and I thought that would work well for a reboot run because I could stop and take pictures and have a rest along the way.

I got changed and set off. My garmin is still being silly so when I try do an interval workout it resets itself. So I’d have to just not worry about intervals and walk when I want/need to or to take photos. I also put my phone in my running belt rather than pocked so I could get at it easily. By the time the watch had found the satellites I’d nearly caught up with a bloke walking two huge alsatians and I was too scared to run passed them so I turned off and walked down the steep hill instead. Then I started running.

And I kept on running. I felt great. I wouldn’t say it felt easy but it felt ok. I didn’t want to stop. I made my way through the little housing estate and was briefly stopped by a woman asking about venues/halls for hire in the area and then I got onto the canal towpath. My mind starting racing ahead, maybe I could run a full mile, maybe even two, or three, or 4. Yes I could try for 4. I kept having to pull myself back and remind myself to run the mile I was in. I plodded along  and the watch beeped for the first mile. On I went. I kept telling myself to slow down because I wanted to keep running and I was worried about going too fast. I did slow down but I don’t know by how much, haven’t checked the splits yet. But it all felt quite comfortable. I looked around. I noticed not only the ducklings but even counted them (11) and noted that one of them was bright yellow.

I saw more ducklings further along the canal, lambs in the fields on one side, people in their gardens on the other, people walking their dogs, chatting or checking phones, cyclists and one other runner and I wondered what their days had been like, what they were talking about or what the guy on his phone was watching as he walked along staring at the screen chuckling. Then the 2 mile beep brought me back from wherever my mind had wondered off to and decided to just keep running until the next bridge and turn round. I was beginning to think I might make it to 4 miles because I still felt amazing. I turned and kept going.

At about 2.6 miles there were some ominous and rather sudden rumbles in my tummy. I kept going. By 2.8 miles I knew there was going to be a toilet issues. 4 miles was out of the question but I was damn well going to try and get to 5k. I was seriously concerned as the IMG_46603 mile beep came but just gritted my teeth and kept running until I hit the 5k. Then I stopped dead and took a few deep breaths to assess any potential ‘damage’. It didn’t seem too bad and I figured I could walk home with dignity intact once everything had settled down.

So not the 4 miles I at some point decided I was going to try for but so much more than I planned when I set out and I loved it. I genuinely loved it. Pictures of my route will have to wait until another day!

Disneyland Paris races

Jess Guth2 Comments

c971001771Ok, so maybe it is time. Maybe there is enough distance between me and the Disneyland Paris half marathon. Maybe I have regained my sense of humour about the trip. The travel to Paris was pretty miserable. The flight was delayed because a passenger had to be taken off the plane because she was too drunk. As a result we missed the train and then because of the amazingly rude and unhelpful staff at the train station we missed the next one, too. Then we had to rush getting to the expo and that was just not as slick as we were used to from Florida – we had to queue at 6 different places and then a 7th to get th8419e742-9fca-4ba0-8c12-490574265153e photo pass.

The party on the Friday evening was also a bit rubbish but we had a little wander round the
theme park and Kath went on a roller coaster but basically I think we were grumpy. When the alarm went off on Saturday morning we were both tempted to just not run the 5k and stay in bed instead. We hadn’t slept. But we pulled on our gear, headed downstairs in the hotel for the breakfast they put on and then walked to the start area. We waited a little while but they seemed to send us off in waves in pretty quick succession. I am so glad we got out of bed because I had a great time on the 5k. We ran it all slowly and I spent the entire time looking around in wonder. It was just fun and the magic and sparkle was most definitely back. Towards the end we dived in for a picture with spiderman. There wasn’t a queue so we thought, why the hell not. Up until then we’d just 2ce2f72a-6aad-4915-8420-19914ef7ecb4been taking it all in, didn’t feel like we wanted to stop for pictures really. Loved that race! And loved the selfie with Paula Radcliffe after, too. Not sharing that as I didn’t ask her if I could.

After the 5k we went for breakfast, the proper version, and then spent a bit of time in the parks. We were tired though so had a little nap in the afternoon before heading for the Wild West show. I quite enjoyed that actually – I loved watching the horsemanship. The food was pretty average though. We had the runners’ menu which was basically a stuffed chicken breast and lots of sloppy rice.

When I got up on Sunday morning I felt nervous as hell. I knew I wasn’t ready. We went for breakfast again  – with our porridge pots this time – I barely got half of mine down. We went back to 3b16696e-7cbb-4867-a606-7bbc4eac40b8the room to use the loo before heading over to the start area. My tummy felt a bit dodgy – nerves, I figured. As I pulled my pants up againI noticed that I had a hole in them along the seam of the inner thigh. I quickly changed them and put the ones I’d worn for te 5k on again. Then we headed off. We seemed to stand around for a very long time. Once we did set off it became very clear that I was going to need to use the loo as soon as we got to one.

That theme basically continued and every time we stopped for the loo I felt a little better for a little bit and it was ok and then pressure built up again and I felt very uncomfortable for most of the 13.1 miles. I barely did any running at all really. Actually the route was quite nice although it was a good job it was dry – there were areas that would have been very slippery and/or muddy if it had rained. Some bits were also quite narrow which might have caused some of the faster runners problems. By the time we got there, there weren’t that many people around any more! As we turned the corner into the finishing area Chariots of Fire music started playing so I got my act together and ran the last bit. It was miserable. I do not need to have that many toilet stops during a half marathon ever again. My tummy finally started feeling normal again when we got home on Monday.

So there you have it- I finished it because I wanted the bling and because there was no way I had paid the stupid amount of money we paid for the trip and not come home with the medals. The next one will be better!

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We spent time in the parks after, getting a little competitive blasting evil aliens and showing off our medals – and stopping at every bloody toilet in the parks.

In other news – 3 miles in the bag today. It was ok, surprisingly warm for October.