Tag: half marathon

Hmph

Jess GuthLeave a comment

I’ve had several titles for this blog post going through my head for most of today. Amongst them ‘9 Mile Meltdown’, ‘No 9 miles’, ‘Can’t do 9 miles’… As you may guess, today didn’t go well. Of course it didn’t. I have been doing far too well generally, feeling pretty good about running, looking after myself, sleeping better and eating yummy healthy stuff for most of the time. So just to avoid any sort of complacency  and to remind me that I have some way to go to regain my mental health fully, my mind decided it wasn’t going to play nice today.

I woke up fine, Kath even brought me porridge in bed and then I got sorted. I felt more nervous about the distance than I expected and my tummy was a little unsettled but we were going and that was fine. We left the car at my Mum’s because she lives at the bottom of the hill and we thought at the end of 9 miles we might not want to have to drag ourselves up the hill. Then we were going to catch the bus to the station and the train to Skipton and then run back. Well the bus didn’t come when it was due and the live departure board suggested it was still 12 minutes out. We waited a bit longer and there was no sign of the bus which meant that we would now miss the train and would soon be in danger of missing the next one too. So we gave up on the Skipton idea and decided to just run along the canal towards Bingley and then back. I felt relatively settled and ok with that idea.

With that we set the watch to 3 minute running and 1 minute walking and set off. We’d run less than a minute when I burst into tears. Not really sure why but I was just overwhelmed with the feeling of not being able to do it. Not just a few little doubts and tears, you understand, oh no, full blown sobbing, snotty, blotchy face kind of a mess. We gave up, went to the co-op for cheesy rolls and bacon, went home, made sarnies and coffee and sulked. Well I sulked.

Actually the rest of the day hasn’t been too bad. We got our shopping done and have deep cleaned a lot of the house in a, probably futile, attempt to get our cats’ fleas under control. I’ve spent a lot of time dusting, vacuuming, and combing cats with a flea comb and drowning fleas in a glass of water. Doesn’t sound like much – BUT  I have spent maybe 10% of my day on the sofa and when I have been on the sofa, like now, I’ve spent it watching the dressage phase of the Olympic 3 day eventing. This is good. This is progress. So although my mind had a bit of a hissy fit this morning, I don’t feel too bad now. The 9 miles will still be there another day. We may try tomorrow but Kath has a sore knee, so we may not. We’ll see. I’m a little grumpy about the run and I think the title of this post sums it up nicely. Hmph!

 

Reflections and 9 mile musings

Jess Guth5 Comments

Well I have now had a bit of time to reflect on my earlier run and also to think about the next one on the training plan – 9 miles. So, reflections first.

I am still very happy that I managed to do the backwards sheep loop as planned. I think I just needed to get that one out of the way. At just over 5k it really shouldn’t be a big deal but it was. I set off a little slower this time and then got slower but I didn’t walk. The first mile down the hill and along the canal was quite comfortable really. I again started struggling a little just before we crossed the canal bridge and up the hill to the golf course car park. Then I walked up the hill, quietly and determinedly. I hardly felt like I had my breath back when we set of again but then I had to concentrate on where I was putting my feet as I made my way down the path trying to follow Kath who seemed so much more sure footed than me.

The hardest bit was coming up the road after leaving the track past our sheep field and I really wasn’t sure I’d make it to the top and the downhill. Kath was encouraging all the way and I don’t think I would have made it up the slope without her constant talking. I got my breath back a little going downhill and then I took a deep breath and started up Ilkley Road. One foot in front of the other. At just over half way up Kath asked if I wanted to walk and my legs screamed’YES’ but I kept going and I got there and then I sat on the back steps for about 10 minutes before my legs could be trusted to carry my weight again. For my efforts I have awarded myself the Red Shorts medal from the Virtual Shorts series.

IMG_0982

Next is our 9 miler. We are planning on doing it tomorrow. We’re going to get the train out to Skipton and run back along the canal. I am looking forward to it. 9 miles is a bloody long way but it doesn’t seem too scary. I shall just plod my way along using run/walk intervals and see how we go. I’m hoping we might see a heron or two and general canal life. The last time I did a 9 mile run was last August and that seemed a positive run. I wrote about it here and reflected on the run in the posts which followed that one. Well, let’s see how we go. Anything under 2 hours would be fab.

Sheep Loop Backwards – Boom!

Jess Guth1 Comment

Got the bugger! I ran the sheep loop backwards (that’s the loop backwards not me running backwards). As you can see  if you’d like to look on strava – not pretty, not fast but DONE

https://www.strava.com/activities/665254135/embed/37956d63661b4819b2c9e81dea567cccda3eda5b

The run has been bothering me – I wanted to run it all apart from the golf course because I still don’t understand why I couldn’t do it on Monday. Well there you are – I can do it. It was really hard and by the end my legs were jelly but I feel much better about it now and I have more energy now than I did before I set off!

Happy Friday.

6 x 800 metres

Jess GuthLeave a comment

I have agreed to a run at lunch time. I don’t really want to run. I am struggling today. I am head-achey and tired and grumpy from sleeping later than I wanted to and from not being able to do all the things I want to do because I can’t get my butt off the sofa. I don’t want to do it. Can’t. Kath wants to do the 800 metre repeats. I don’t. I can’t do them. I can’t think of an excuse though, there isn’t one. So I’ll go. I’ll try.

Right, so, 6 x 800 metres with 3 minute walks in-between. I really didn’t want to go and do them. I barely managed 4 repeats last time and when we tried on Saturday my leg hurt. These are also the sorts of sessions where Kath and I are least on the same wavelength. So I wasn’t looking forward to it at all.

Actually it was fine. The first one felt easy – the stats show a little dip in pace in the middle but otherwise it’s pretty even and a decent pace. The second and third reps are the most even in terms of pace, the 4th is bit more ragged and also a little slower whereas 5 and 6 are even again but a little slower than the early ones. Overall the objective of going a bit faster than normal was achieved and although I found the 3rd and 5th one in particular hard and wasn’t sure I’d be able to do the 6th when we started it,  I did. It felt really good to have done that. Now I just want to conquer the sheep loop backwards run again and see if I can do better on that.

Anyway, as these things sometimes happen, the universe obviously knew I needed a bit of a boost so it sent our postie with our goodies from the runDisney Shorts series we did back in May/June. I blogged about the first of the runs here. Well Disney can do bling and it was lovely to get these medals and the tumbler is fun too.

Because it seems so long since we did the runs and actually, they coincided with me being a bit grumpy about running, I decided I would award myself the Yellow Shoes medal for today’s run and save the others for other runs to come when I feel like I need to celebrate an achievement or milestone. So I think I’m keeping one for when I manage the sheep loop backwards with just walking up the  golf course, one for when I complete 9 miles, which is our next long run, and then maybe the series one for when I next manage to set a Magic Mile personal best.

One stop horrible run

Jess Guth1 Comment

We went for a lunchtime run today. Well that wasn’t nice.

We were supposed to do 45 minutes and I seem to have decided that we do them non-stop. But we thought we might as well feed the sheep while we’re out and then we won’t have to go out again later. So a non stop run turned into a one stop run. It nearly turned into a just stop and don’t run. Running to the first sheep field was really hard. Everything felt sluggish and heavy. I was so ready to give up.

Eventually we got there, stopped the watch, fed the sheep and then set off again – up the stupid slope, through the stupid wood, down the totally stupid golf course and along the stupid stupid stupid canal. Just one stupid foot in front of the other. As we turned onto the canal Kath asked if I wanted to swap to intervals but that seemed like giving up, so no. No stupid intervals.

Eventually the watch beeped for half way and an eternity later for 2 miles and then a stupid while later for 3 miles and eventually it played its stupid little finishing tune to tell us we could stop. Physically this run was fine really. My legs were a bit tired from the 7 miles Monday and lots of walking yesterday (about 14km) but it wasn’t that bad. I just did’t really want to run. It wasn’t even the usual ‘I can’t really do this’ sort of feeling, just a general sort of grumpiness about it all.

I do, as I almost always do, feel better for having gone. And it is another run that can be ticked off the training plan and that always feels good (control freak much?!?) but on this one we’re right back at ‘enjoying having run’ and nowhere near ‘enjoyed running’.