Tag: Kielder Water

Couch to 5km-ing

Jess GuthLeave a comment

Week One of a Couch to 5Km programme done. A day late but done and done in a way that felt like happy running. I posted about the first 2 runs last time. It took a while longer to get out for run 3. Yes I probably could have made the time during the week but it was a busy one and I am very very tired at the moment and I felt pretty on the edge in terms of keeping it all together, so this feels right.

Run 3 was uneventful. There was no attempt at excuses or elaborate planning on when to go just to change my mind and do something else; no indecision about where to go… All of this was probably helped by the fact that we are at Kielder Water for a long weekend and for Kath to run the Dark Skies 11 miler this evening. We had breakfast with the chaffinches (and a few sparrows), sat for a bit chatting and just being, watching the cloud and fog roll out and back in and then we headed out. Kath came with me for a little shake out run and to have a look at the start area and the route arrows to be prepared for this evening. So that added purposes took care of whether to go clockwise or anti-clockwise round Kielder Water (we went clockwise).

It was a stunning morning, the reservoir was like a millpond and the light was doing interesting things with reflections and seemed to make everything look sort of silver. I quickly noticed that runs 1 and 2 had been basically completely on the flat. The path here is not flat. It’s undulating and my lungs quickly told me what they thought of that. Still, the 8 runs of 1 minute each with 90 seconds walking in-between were fine really. We did 7 in one directions and then turned round and came back.

I was pleased with how quickly I recovered to normal heart rate and breathing – even if not entirely happy with how quickly both had shot up during the run. But baby steps, patience and trusting the plan will get me to where I want to be so I am doing just that. I wasn’t really sure about Couch to 5km. I have tried it before and I didn’t get on with it. I have always preferred the more permanent run/walk/run of the Jeff Galloway method. But over the last year I have also sort of feel that it is no longer doing it for me. Or at least it isn’t helping me get back into running properly. So let’s see how this goes. I am not saying I want to go and run a marathon or even a half without walk breaks. I think I am likely to always use run/walk/run for longer distances. However, I also think I need to build some baseline running fitness and a Couch to 5km which builds to running 30 minutes without walking seems like a good place to start.

Week 1 has been good. Roll on week 2 which consists of 3 runs that are all the same – Five 90 second runs with 2 minute walks breaks in-between. It has probably been quite a long time since I did 90 second running intervals but I am actually looking forward to it and 2 minutes feels like a very generous recovery period. So, now for hot tub, afternoon nap, stretches and then being Kath’s support crew for this evening.

Happy Weekend all.

Stunning Running

Jess Guth3 Comments

Last weekend we went to a lodge on the edge if Kielder Water. It was our little anniversary get away. It was lush. We planned on a walk somewhere on the way on Friday, and runs on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

We set off Friday morning and drove north to the National Trust property Wallington. We had some lunch and then walked a little loop through the estate and woodland along the river. Then we had cake. This was a good start to the weekend! We visited the Kielder observatory in the evening but it was ridiculously windy and cloudy so we didn’t see anything much. The talks were interesting though

On Saturday morning we set off on a 7 mile loop around the Bull Crag Peninsula. The running was both harder and better than I imagined it would be. It was surprisingly hilly and it didn’t occur to me until about 4 miles in that one of the reasons the running was tough was because I wasn’t walking the hills. I was just running, looking at the amazing landscape and every now and again stopping for a photo. At the end my legs were tired and I was grateful to walk the last bit and look for red squirrels and very excited when we saw one!

The rest of Saturday was lazy and taken up with reading a whole stack of magazines which I’d left to pile up for ages and ages.

Sunday was long run day and I was anxious about this for some reason. We had decided to run out to Kielder dam and back – a total of about 13 miles. I prepped our tailwind for fuel, made sure watch and phone were charged and off we went. The first part of the route was the same as the day before but soon we were in new territory with Kielder Water on our left coming in and out of view as we zig zagged our way through the woods on the ‘waterside’ path.

I walked a few more of the hills on Sunday. I nearly had a meltdown in mile 2 because I seemed to be really feeling the uphill pull on that section. I got over myself and actually ran almost all of the first 5 miles which took us to the Tower Knowe visitor centre which was closed but did have some toilets that were open. From there it was another mile and a half to the other side of the dam so we jogged across, had a little break as we marvelled at the views and then set off back.

We took more pictures and walk breaks on the way back. By mile 8 though I was wondering if maybe I had bitten off more than I could chew with this pretty undulating 13 miler. For the next 3 miles or so I had a battle in my head to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Then we were nearly there anyway and we walked a bit through a section of wood just before the Waterside Park our lodge was part of, the bit where we’d seen the squirrel.

The rest of Sunday involved more reading, the hot tub and a bottle of prosecco. I felt properly happily tired. We did go for a little walk once it got dark to look at stars. Wow, even with the lights of the cabins, reception and pub/restaurant, we could see so much more than we can ever see at home. I couldn’t work out the camera settings though to get enough exposure to take pictures so gave up and just looked at the night sky for a while.

Monday we were going to have a little sunrise run. I was tired and my legs were heavy. It was also very slippery with frost on the tarmac bits and I was not at all impressed with that. We went the other way along the water this time and after not quite a mile and a half came to a road/tarmac bit which was frosty and we couldn’t really see how long the tarmac stretch was so we called that it, turned round and then stopped about half way back to watch the sunrise.

We had breakfast, got packed and headed towards home. It was a 23 mile weekend and while I was definitely tired I was not broken. I am getting fitter but actually the most important thing about the running over that weekend is that we were just running for fun, doing our thing and that on all of the outings bits of it were effortless, bits of it were really challenging and I loved every minute, even the hard and bloody awful ones.