Tag: Leeds-Liverpool canal

12 – I can’t f-ing do this – miles

Jess Guth3 Comments

It’s Sunday which means weigh-in day. Kath has done amazingly well and has lost 4 pounds. I’ve lost half a pound if you take pre run reading which I usually do or 2 pounds if you take post run reading. That’s it for good news.

I hated every single step of our run today, each and every single step. We set off on the flat. I had the backpack with water and a porridge bar to have around half way. The backpack was fine. I wasn’t. I felt really sluggish and tired from the start. We were running 90 seconds and walking 30 seconds. I really wanted to be able to do those intervals all the way. I was struggling much more on this route than I did when we ran it one way last weekend.

Nothing worked, counting didn’t work, my mantras didn’t work, my legs barely worked. I’m sure the canal was stunning, in fact Kath told me it was several times. I don’t remember. We got to Saltaire eventually, I hadn’t been able to think of a plausible excuse which is the only reason we made it that far. We kept going a bit to hit the 6 miles. Just over 6 miles we turned round, had some water and a chunk of a blueberry and honey porridge bar. We took one of the 90 second run intervals as a walk while we did that. Then we set off again. I made it back to Saltaire. So far so very slow and horrible, plodding but no real niggles. Not physical ones anyway. I was full of doubt though, full of ‘this is stupid, WTF am I doing?’. I got a tiny little boost as I passed a colleague running the other way and we recognised each other just in time to high 5 as we passed.

I asked Kath to tell me when we hit 8 miles so that I’d know when we had done two thirds. We’d already done 8 miles. That made me marginally hate the run less for about 30 seconds. We crossed over the canal, the little tiny tiny hill up onto the bridge was brutal. I swore under my breath. It’s followed fairly quickly by a slope up the side of one of the locks on the canal. More swearing followed by a shorter run because I ran out of steam as I got to the top and just managed a couple more steps. The longer walk was needed. I kept trying but I’d gone mentally and tiredness in my legs was giving way to niggles. My left knee didn’t hurt as such, it just felt  weak. My right calf felt tight and my lower back was starting to protest. We kept going taking the 90 second intervals one at a time and occassionally just running a minute walking a minute. At some point Kath also took the backpack off me although that made no difference really.

Melt down came at the Five Rise Locks. I just couldn’t do it. I was so disappointed. As we were coming up to the largest slope a women commented saying how we could always start again at the top. I snapped at her. She said something else and Kath did say thank you. I’m sorry if that was you. It’s just that you were tall and athletic and walking far faster than I felt capable of running. Sorry and thank you for taking the time to try and be encouraging. You did help!

At the top of the slope Kath suggested stopping at the cafe and getting a drink and having a rest as well as time to get myself together. That would have been too much like admitting defeat so I kept pushing and managed to get to crossflatts using 1 minute runs and 1 minute walks mostly. With roughly 2 miles to go I think I was in pain. The thing is, I don’t really remember. We walked almost all of the last two miles. Then, just because finishing a run with a walk is so utterly depressing we managed a little jog for the last 200 metres or so to the end.

So are there any positives? Well I guess I’m not still out there! I am not too broken now I’ve been home for a couple of hours, have done some yoga, had a bath and a roast chicken dinner and inspite of the 2 miles walking and the meltdown in Bingley which saw us actually completely stop for a few minutes we came home well within Disney pace requirements. We were at 14 and a half minutes per mile.

At mile 10 I was ready to give up and never run again. I was convinced it was a stupid idea to even attempt the marathon and wondered if I could persuade Kath to just run the half or ideally not run at all or maybe run it on her own – I’d be an awesome supporter. Now I’m disappointed and a bit anxious about distance and how I am going to manage those additional miles but I want to try. I am grateful that nothing is injured. The long runs will inevitably highlight weak spots and I’ll keep doing the yoga and the exercises I’ve been given. I am back to really wanting this. That doesn’t make me hate today’s run any less but it’s 12 miles ticked off the list, it’s 12 miles closer to where I need to be. 15 miles is next for the long runs – well I could have walked another 3 miles today – it may not have been pretty but it would have been possible. So, because today has to be all about me and I am feeling bitchy (mostly at myself), I leave you with this:

#RunningMeme Friday: I Don’t Know Who You Are… Be careful of Liam Neeson, y'all. He has a certain set of skills/ Have a running meme you want to see featured here? Click here to submit it.

Going further than I ever have – apart from once

Jess Guth7 Comments

Training re-cap for week ending 22nd August: Monday – stopped half way through, Tuesday – did it! 45 minutes at Bolton Abbey, Wednesday –  rest, Thursday – got less than 50 metres before calf muscle twinge, icepack, Friday – more icepack, Saturday 9 MILES.

Yes that’s right. 9 whole miles, 14.48 km. That is the longest distance I have ever run. Oh actually no it’s not, there was the half marathon 3 years ago but when we trained for that we never got past 10km. So it’s the longest training run I’ve ever done and I almost certainly ran far more of the 9 miles today than I did of the half marathon. Apart from 2 little glitches we managed to stick to running intervals of two and a half minutes with a 30 second walk rest. The glitches involved starting the walk break a little early. The 9 miles took us 1hr 56 mins and 10 secs with an average pace of 12minutes 55 seconds per mile. I am really happy with that for such a long distance. I also think that if we stick to the Jeff Galloway training plan we’ve been following, I will be able to keep going at that pace for much longer which means I can probably stop panicking about the minimum pace required at the Disney World Marathon which is 16 minutes per mile.

Anyway, the run. We got the train out to Skipton and ran back home. The entire route is along the canal and you can get onto the canal just opposite the station car park. No navigation required – just keep running next to the canal. There is quite a lot of info on the Leeds Liverpool Canal online and the section we covered today is detailed on the Skipton to Stockbridge section of a website all about it. There area lot of pictures so you can see where I was running. I do have to keep reminding myself that we are pretty lucky to be able to run in this part of the world!

I was a little concerned about this run, not just because of the distance but also because of my calf muscle twinges and slightly creaky knees over the last week. The first three miles were ok actually. I settled into running quite quickly and I enjoyed being out and being by the canal with its colourful canal boats (some with brilliant names like Soggy Bottom), its dog walkers, its ducks, swans and moorhens. My legs felt ok. I started to struggle at roughly half way, I was feeling tired and struggling to focus on enjoying it and it all just felt a bit like plodding. I do wonder if I need to think about eating something at roughly 5 miles, I may try that on the next long run. Anyway I desperately tried to hang on to why we are doing this and tried to focus on how much progress I had already made. I took a slightly longer walk break somewhere just before 6 miles (not that I knew that) and then Kath told me we had gone past 6 miles. We’d done two thirds! Then I really just kept plodding, my thighs and hips were tight (but not my calf!) and it seemed a huge effort but I never felt like I wanted or needed to stop the run. I needed another longer walk break because I just couldn’t get my legs to move but shortly after that we were in familiar running territory and running along a section of the canal we have done before. I couldn’t take the walk breaks out but I did keep going to the end. It was so good to have done it. I was surprised to have done it at what is for me a very decent pace over the distance. It didn’t feel at all comfortable but I’ve sort of forgotten that now. I remember a field full of calves lounging about in the sun. I remember the heron (not one of our ‘usual’ herons, it was smaller and lighter in colour, maybe a young one), the miserable looking cyclists and the happy ones, the rabbits in fields and the just being outside.

We finished the run and then had to walk home from the canal. It took a very long time and as we got to the top of the golf course I actually felt quite poorly. Kath had taken her backpack with hydration system. I had ignored it for most of the run but I did then take time to drink some water. The walk route took us past Kath’s mum’s house and Kath stopped off and grabbed me a banana. A bite of that and I felt much better.

Once home I did some stretches (actually I spent a long time in Child’s pose and lying on my back with my knees to my chest but I did stretch too) and had some icelandic yoghurt with fruit and then a cool bath. My legs are tired, my knees are a bit grumpy but not much actually hurts. The exception to not hurting is both middle toes which seem to have taken a battering and which are bruising under the nail. I’ll do some yoga and stretching later and we’ll see how bad it all is tomorrow

A good run with lots to learn – I need to drink more during the longer distances, I should probably eat something for enegery too and, perhaps most importantly, however hard and horrible it gets, a few hours later I really just remember having done it and a few of the nice things seen along the way

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.