Tag: marathon

Double figures, doughnuts and a possible curse

Jess Guth2 Comments

We are entering what I call the pixie dust pre- Dopey Challenge phase. I have been scrolling through Dopey running groups and rolling my eyes at the ‘I can’t currently run/walk a mile, I still have time, right?’ or ‘My current pace is 24 minutes per mile over 5km, can anyone help me get faster so I can maintain the 16 minute mile required for the marathon’ type comments. You can’t tackle to Dopey Challenge on pixie dust. As Allie Bailey says on her website ‘Whoever invented “Believe – Achieve” was lying. You need to believe, do a fuck tonne of work on yourself, then achieve‘. So as I was scrolling rolling my eyes I realised that I am also in pixie dust territory. I have neither been consistent nor have I got anywhere near the distances I should be running now to get ready for Dopey. It’s time to recommit to doing the fuck tonne of work.

On Wednesday I had a random day off and it was Kath’s non working day so we set off to Bolton Abbey to run the 7 mile loop from the top car park to Barden Bridge and back. 7 hilly miles was always going to be tough so it was actually really nice to have nothing at all really to report from that run. It was uneventful and I loved it. I completely died on the last hilly bit and walked from there which was most of the last mile. We had some food at the Tea on the Green cafe and a nice afternoon. The next run was then meant to be Friday but after waking up early I then fell asleep again and somehow the day was all out of sync and I never really got going with anything.

Saturday I was at an Open Day at work and when I got back I was dehydrated and tired. But I really wanted to try and get out and try and build some consistency. The only thing I had eaten since breakfast was a doughnut that were available for us at the open day. It was yummy but it isn’t exactly prime running fuel. I had however grabbed some for Kath and her mum so I thought I could drop off a doughnut on a run. But running with a doughnut in hand wasn’t really an option so I thought I would try my running pack for an actual run. I had only ever used it for walking really which is what I bought it for. I packed the doughnut in the bag alongside the rain jacket I knew I didn’t need just to see what it was like with something in it. So I went on my 2 mile doughnut delivery run which was kind of fun and the pack worked well.

Then today was long run day. And I had a wobble about whether Dopey was really doable. So we mapped it out and then I got my sorry arse out for 10 miles. I ran the first 2 and bit miles really happy and positive. Then I watched a stupid little dog bark at ducks and as I approached it ran towards me barking. The owners were what I presume was a couple and the bloke turned to look back but made no attempt at calling the dog. I just raid ‘really? Not really on is it’ and he stepped in my path so I had to stop. He had a really creepy smirk on his face and didn’t say anything. I was seriously ready to push him in the canal. I had my bodyweight all set but there were people within sight and his wife/ girlfriend was there and then he stepped out of my way so I just kept going. The next half mile or so I was a bit freaked out by the whole thing because he was just weird. Then I settled into a happy run again. At 4 miles I could see another bloke walking a dog that was bouncy and running ahead and I just couldn’t face the idea of going past and potentially getting caught up in another bloke with dog incident. So I turned round.

Inevitably I came across the weird couple again and this time there weren’t any people within sight. I felt myself tense as I approached and the bloke said something along the lines of ‘the fat bitch again’. It wasn’t meant for me to hear and when I actually got close enough the couple made the dog sit between them at the edge of the canal. I said a pointed ‘thank you’ as I went past and decided that he’d really called me a fat witch and that I could therefore curse him. I spent another half mile or so wishing him fun things like really itchy flea bites in places he can’t reach. I’m nice like that. Then I settled in again and started to think about making the distance given that I had turned round a mile early. I decided to just keep going along the canal for an additional mile, turn round and then head up the hill as planned. I did briefly consider not doing the full ten but I really wanted the double figures. It felt like getting into double figures today was the test for whether Dopey is on or not. So I got my earphones out of my pocket, plugged them into my phone and hoped that some music would carry me through. It helped.

As I headed along and hit 8 miles and the turnaround point, I was in quite a busy stretch with lots of people walking. I decided to keep going on and do a loop instead of staying on the flat of the canal for an out and back because I didn’t want to get tangled in all of the people I had just passed going one way. I continued my run/walk until about 8.5 miles and then walked up the hill into Morton and then picked up the run/walk again for the last mile, although I had to add some walks on the uphill bits. Nothing hurt majorly but my right hip flexor is the weak point. All in all it was a good run and I am really happy to have got into double figures and for the Dopey dream to be alive. I did my stretches outside while Storm Cat watched and everything seems fine. In fact I feel pretty good about things. I have a plan and I feel like I have re-committed. Hopefully some pixie dust will help me get out and keep doing the work and if I do that, Dopey is on.

Post Covid Running

Jess GuthLeave a comment

Well I had Covid again and it wasn’t nice. It sparked the 100 Days of Wonder blog series on my other blog so that’s something fun and light to come out of it but running wise – meh.

Honestly I am quite scared to run. What if my lungs just really don’t work? What if getting ready for Dopey is now completely impossible? Well being too scared to run isn’t going to help with that is it! We went for a walk at Bolton Abbey once we’d both tested negative and that was ok but we were soo tired afterwards and maybe we went too soon because we both felt crap again for a few days after.

Then I put off trying to go out for a few days. Then I went to a work thing in Worcester and somehow the idea of a little tourist run was easier to wrap my head around than just a run. I woke up early anyway so it’s not like I had to drag myself out of bed. I stood outside the hotel for ages waiting for my watch to pick up the GPS signal but it didn’t so in the end I just set Strava to track. I ran down the road towards the Cathedral. It was still dark so it wasn’t your usual tourist sightseeing run. I ran in intervals but skipped the odd one here and there but also stopped to take pictures.

After the cathedral I went a bit random but was vaguely thinking to head to the river and see just how dark the path would be and make an assessment as to safety at that point. Once I got there, the path was light enough but it seemed deserted. I hesitated for a second but then thought that I was on my own anyway and whether I went down a well lit path along the river or a not well lit narrow street probably made little difference. I saw another runner going the opposite way but that was it. I stopped to say hello to the Kleve Swan (donated by the town Kleve in Germany which is twinned with Worcester) and then made my way back through town and to the hotel. It was only a short 2 miles loop but that was definitely enough for my lungs. It felt positive to be out though.

Today we went to Bolton Abbey again to try a run. My lungs still feel heavy (don’t know how else to describe it really) and I was a bit worried about the slopes. Running on the flat is one thing… We set off, each doing our own thing and Kath soon disappeared out of view. I was struggling mentally. On reflection I was actually physically fine but as I was running my mind raced about worrying about how my lungs felt, how high my heart rate was and was that a niggle in my knee? I struggled to settle down and then I saw a couple walking ahead and for whatever reason I absolutely did not want to have to run past them. Anxiety levels were suddenly sky high. I did another walk and run interval and then I turned round. As soon as I did I settled down a bit. I told myself I could just run/walk back to the car and then stop.

After a little while I started laughing at myself. I turned round because I didn’t want to run past people on a wide footpath. What an idiot. I settled into the running more and forgot to worry about how I felt physically. I then decided that I would do at least 2 miles. That took me just a bit further than the car so I thought I might as well keep going a bit and go to the end of the car park. I ran on the grass and despite the damp creeping into my shoes it felt nice to be on the softer ground. I looped round watching a heron fly off into the distance. when I got close to the car I was still a bit off 3 miles so I kept going a bit, headed over the bridge over the Wharfe and turned back. 3 miles was fine. The lungs are still a bit heavy, it was slow and ploddy and clearly I am having a slightly mad phase but I got out and that’s progress. I waited for Kath to complete her equally positive loop and had a chat with a curious jackdaw.

Ready for GNR?

Jess GuthLeave a comment

Right, well that’s it. Last run done before the Great North run a week tomorrow. That’s not the big miles done though. The reason there won’t be any running during next week is because there will be lots of walking. Tomorrow we set off to Bowness-on-Solway to start our Hadrian’s Wall adventure. So we will be walking somewhere between 15 and 21 miles a day from Monday to Friday. I’m excited.

7 mile (ish) point on my 10 miler

Am I ready for the GNR? No, of course not. But whatever I do I never feel ready. I have done a few little ploddy runs of 45 minutes ish and then I forced myself out on the Bank Holiday Monday earlier this week to get into double figures. I did it. It wasn’t pretty but there were no tummy issues and I actually went pretty well until 7 miles with just a little hip flexor niggle which got worse as I went on making the last mile pretty painful. There were some mental battles along the way. The first 2 miles felt a bit sluggish and hard going so I got in my head a bit and nearly convinced myself I couldn’t do it. Mile 3 was ok and I settled down. Mile 4 was fabulous and fun. I saw a heron, I noticed things and I felt good. Mile 5 got a little hard and I had to give myself a good talking to in order to make sure I didn’t just turn round early. But having a landmark rather than a distance in my head for turning round helped a lot here. I had decided that I was going to the bridge in Silsden so that’s where I was going and the mile marker that came at was irrelevant (It was 6.06 miles if anyone cares).

After the turnaround point on an out and back I tend to get a lift. I am headed towards home. That’s good. That lift didn’t really happen on the 10 miler. It was a very short lived sort of ‘yay’. At just over 7 miles I stopped for a few minutes to try and stretch out hip flexors – they are hard to get at when you are out and about! Mile 8 was fine, I don’t remember it. I think I was just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. Mile 9 was painful and slow and I slipped in a few additional walk intervals. It was so tempting to stop and walk home at the 9 mile point. There is an obvious get off the canal and route home at that point. That would have made it almost 10 overall… close enough… maybe. From somewhere I found some willpower and kept run/walking to 10 miles. That last mile was just not nice though. Hip flexors continued to be bitchy and my calves decided they might just throw in a bit of campiness to join the party. I slowed a lot. But done.

View from the Aqueduct at Bolton Abbey Estate

Then I had to walk home. Home is uphill. And because I am an idiot I decided to walk the most direct but steepest route home. Well about 3/4 of the way up I felt very dizzy and pukey so I sat down for a minute or two before hauling my backside up the rest of the hill. A recovery drink, a bath and some food later and I felt pretty good. I was tired but not so tired that it took out the rest of the day. I pottered about in the kitchen and made an apple cake with our apples and sorted some apple jelly. I was achey for a couple of days afterwards but not so much that it stopped me going for a nice walk at Bolton Abbey on Tuesday and for a couple of runs finishing with today’s run. I am in sorting out and getting ready for adventures mode so I didn’t want to be out for long. I set off and felt good and ended up doing a really positive 2.5 miles at 13 minute mile pace. Now I realise that is slow in most people’s book. It used to be my forever pace but that was pre Covid and pre getting old. Now 13 minute miles is actually pretty speedy for me and about 2 minutes faster than I have been averaging over 3-4 miles recently. So I am very happy with that final run and ready to settle into a slightly slower walking pace for next week.

Why not me?

Jess GuthLeave a comment
Me at the end of 9 miles

I watched a bit of the Olympics and it is easy to just dismiss these super humans as irrelevant to our lives. I have watched runners like Noah Lyles and Josh Kerr declare to the world that they will win and one doing just that on one race and not the other and one not. I have watched amazing performances across a whole variety of sports and I have seen some of the interviews and pieces to camera that hint at the hard work done behind the scenes. I watched incredible marathon running and awful social media posts about athletes who ‘lost’. I flicked between being bemused by what an elite set of human bodies can achieve and noting that my body never has and never will be capable of anything spectacular in the sporting arena. I flicked between dismissing it all as irrelevant to me and being inspired. But a theme, as well as actually a quote (Noah Lyles I think, possibly Josh Kerr), that runs through so much of what I have seen is that idea that someone has to win, someone has to get the medals so why not you? It’s that notion that there are things out there to be done, to be accomplished so why shouldn’t it be you doing it. It somehow chimed with me the first time it was said at these Games and I have been thinking about why.

Obviously it is nonsense for me to think there are podium finishes in my future that someone has to win and it might as well be me. That’s not why this chimed. I think it is about something broader for me. It’s about deciding you want to do something, doing the work to get yourself there and then owning it. So, there is a Dopey Challenge open to what you might call recreational runners, I quite like the idea of running it again, people will run it, I might as well be part of it. But that very simple theme also incorporates a perhaps obvious point – if it might as well be you, you have to be in a position to get it done. I have to be fit enough to get round Dopey. Not to win obviously, but I have to do the work now, I have to prepare so come January I can say, with the same confidence I have seen repeatedly over the last week and a bit: ‘People will run and complete the Dopey, why wouldn’t I be one of them’. The ‘why not you’ has popped up before. I have often thought about the fact that someone has to comes last, why not me? Things happen – good and bad – why shouldn’t they happen to you? Isn’t that just the serendipity of life? Of course you can do things that might reduce the chances of bad stuff happening to you. And for some things the ‘might as well be me’ is hugely dependent on you doing stuff.

So it chimed because it is such a simple phrase and idea: Why not you? But it is also so complex, part serendipity and luck, part hard work, part within your control and partly not at all. I then listened to the High Performance Podcast episode with Michael Johnson where the theme popped up again. Both in the sense of someone has to win so why not you but then also in another sense – Michael Johnson talking about the stroke he suffered not in terms of how unfair it was or feeling sorry for himself but acknowledging the ‘well why not me’ question. Noting that if someone has to have a stroke then it might as well be him as much as the next guy and acknowledging that he was fortunate because he was in great shape and able to get back to full health. The why not me theme is so simple and so complex at the same time.

When I started this blog post the Olympics weren’t over yet. I had had a pretty good week of training. I felt good and I was going to write all about what I was doing to put myself into a position where ‘why not me’ is a reasonable thing to ask about finishing Dopey. The last week though hasn’t gone to plan and I have done absolutely nothing to get myself into that position.

But let’s re-wind. My good week. I cycled, I stretched every day, I did my runs and I was proud of finishing what was essentially a 10 miler even though that didn’t go as planned. We’d gone out for a curry on the Thursday and while the food was great as always, I felt sluggish for days after. I knew I wasn’t really ready for my long run, my tummy wasn’t settled but I also knew I just needed to get it done. I was ok-ish to 5 miles. At 5 miles I was beginning to be quite uncomfortable, by 6 miles I was in bother and by 6.5 miles running was basically impossible. I stopped and had a brief little tantrum and switched my watch to walk. I decided that I would try and walk the remainder of my 9 mile run/walk. As walking was sort of ok and dramatically reduced the danger of puking or worse, I decided I would see if I could walk the 2.5 miles remaining within the allowed Disney Pace of 16 minute miles. Unfortunately though the data on the screen of my watch is so small when using the walk setting that I couldn’t actually see the pace so I just had to march as fast as I could given the circumstances. I wanted to stop more than once but didn’t. I made it, and then very slowly walked the rest of the loop home – clocking in at something like 9.98 miles total for the day. And the 9 miles were at an average of 15 minute miles so all Disney Legal.

This week though I have done very little. I have done some random stretches most days but nothing more than a few minutes at a time and nothing from any of the apps. I haven’t run and I haven’t been on the bike. I have lots of excuses but they are just that. I easily could have got out there. I just didn’t make myself make the time.

Today was supposed to be long run day. I wanted to have another go at the route I did last weekend to see if I could make it without tummy issues. But my period started this morning and it’s a bad one. Tummy cramps, back pain, nausea and everything makes me cry. So mostly I have just been feeling sorry for myself. The usual painkillers had little effect and mostly I just didn’t know what to do with myself. I know it will be a bit easier tomorrow and then fine the day after but I have not been a happy Jess today. This afternoon I got so fed up with myself that I tried a Joe Wicks strength in menopause workout. I should have done one I already knew but I tried a new full body 30 minute one and I didn’t much like it and sort of just grumped my way through it a bit half heartedly. But I supposed it is still better than nothing. I’ll try that one again when I am not feeling as crappy.

So the week ahead. Somehow it feels busy. It’s not really in the grand scheme of things. Tomorrow the car is going in for its service and Storm cat is having her vaccination in the evening. Tuesday Kilian goes to the vet for his teeth extractions (the poor little bugger has a nasty infection and the icky gums and teeth the vet warned us about when he was a kitten have finally got the better of him), Wednesday I am going into the office on the train… it might be a week of excuses or it might be a week of managing to juggle successfully all the life stuff we all juggle. We’ll see.

I guess some people just have bad periods – why wouldn’t that be me? Some people are really good at excuses – that’s definitely me and some people can also laugh at their excuses and then get on with it – why not me?

Building Consistency

Jess GuthLeave a comment

I did not want to run today. I turned the alarm off at 6am, turned over and dozed for a bit. I felt creaky and didn’t really want to get up. I did still get up before 7am but it was a ‘sip coffee on the patio’ sort of morning. I had vague ideas about running at lunch time after some work calls in the morning but then I got busy and hungry. No excuses this evening. I just didn’t want to. I got as far as wandering into the bathroom to put a bath on before pausing. I want to get round the Great North Run and I want to do Dopey without being completely miserable. The time to put in the work for that is now. Not tomorrow, not next week or month, now. So I got changed. Still didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to go any of the routes from home, I definitely didn’t want to drive anywhere to run. I didn’t want to leave the house and be out for 45 minutes, I didn’t want to get sweaty. I just didn’t want to.

Kath was on the bike so I couldn’t make an excuse and cycle instead. Although the Dopey plan has two 45 minute runs during the week, I decided to sod it and just go a short loop and at least just get out (still didn’t want to). I pulled my shoes on and went outside. At least it wasn’t as hot as it has been. As I set off I suddenly wondered if I could run a mile without walking. I almost never run continuously and have mostly been running 30 seconds run and 30 second walk intervals. I upped the running interval on my 45 minute run on Wednesday but I can’t remember when I last ran continuously for several minutes, never mind a mile. Well, I thought, I could just try and run a mile and then come home. That seemed like a good thing to do. Given my mind was playing tricks and being annoying, giving it something to actually battle would be good training for one things actually get physically hard. So off I went. I ran a mile. There wasn’t really a mental battle. I just ran. A lot of it is downhill. It was all fine. Then there is a slight slope. It’s not much but really but it’s noticeable when you are running and I have struggled with it. It was hard and I was huffing and puffing and briefly thought about sneaking in a walk break but then it was over and I was back on the flat and then downhill. So now we know I can run a mile.

I walked back trying to keep a reasonable pace walking but not marching flat out. I was out a total of 30 minutes – just over 12 of them running. I am happy with that. In fact, I am happy with the week. I did nothing much on Monday. It was mum’s birthday and we went out for food in the evening. Tuesday I re-did my FTP test on the bike. Now that I found ridiculously hard. I am not a cyclist. I can’t get myself into the same mental place on a bike as I can running – I can’t do hard on the bike. I give up much more quickly mentally. Maybe it’s just what I am used to and it will come. I do think the new FTP is a better reflection of reality and the workout I did yesterday suggests the level is now more accurate. So I have done 2 runs and 2 rides this week so far. I have also now done 11 consecutive days of daily stretches with today’s still to come. I am not overly tired and nothing hurts. In fact I probably have slightly more energy and am sleeping better. Exercise, whether run or bike, is also becoming more just what I do rather than something that I have to force myself to do every single time. I know I didn’t want to go today – but I did. Just a couple of weeks ago I would have run that bath and then watched Olympics in bed.

Consistency is everything in running (and it seems in cycling too) so I am very happy with this week. I am having another go at a long run tomorrow and will see how I got with the 45 second running intervals over the longer distance (they were fine on the shorter run on Wednesday).

Happy running!