Tag: marathon

So do I or don’t I like 2 minutes?

Jess Guth4 Comments

I don’t know the answer to that. On Tuesday I was tired, really tired so we gave running a miss and on Wednesday Kath was away for work and I don’t do running on my own. So I had a two day rest before heading out for 30 minutes after work yesterday. The first two running sections were awful. Legs felt heavy and I couldn’t breathe. Then it got easier. I found it really hard but I didn’t hate it. I had a little look around as I was running and I never felt like I couldn’t do it. I just felt like I was working bloody hard. I ran out of steam a little bit on the last run and couldn’t push for a little sprint at the end but we did do our fastest 30 minutes so far with 2.43 miles. I should have been quite happy with that but I was a little bit grumpy that it wasn’t faster still. We are running for 2 minutes afterall now so we should be going faster overall… So the 2 minute running thing is a bit of a mixed bag. It doesn’t feel like it is much harder than the 90 seconds running when we’re actually doing it but it obviously is and I am being impatient because I want us to be faster and the running to be easier and because I want to be able to do the runDisney marathon now.

Today my right calf muscle was been sort of niggly. Not painful but not just tight either. So no running today. I think my leg will be fine with another day rest but tomorrow we are supposed to do 5 miles. 5 miles! I’m not really sure I can do that. 5 miles running for 2 minutes, walking for 30 seconds -repeat a stupid amount of times… 5 miles. Yeah right.

The thing about pace and the thing about fitness

Jess Guth4 Comments

As I am continuing to find the running quite tough mentally and I really can’t shake off that nagging doubt about being able to do it or the feeling that people are probably just laughing at me I was looking for a little confidence boost, a sign, something that would encourage me to keep going. I found a couple

1. Pace. No, I haven’t suddenly found pace but I finally looked at our runs on the computer after Kath had downloaded them all from her watch. In some of the posts I’ve told you the average pace and the fastest has been 12.something mintues per mile. So, slow. In my mind I had associated that with me obviously running really really slowly, as I would, because I’m really not a runner. However what I hadn’t thought about is that of course we are walking quite a lot. In fact that pace relates to the intervals where we are walking 30 seconds in every 2 mintues. Looking at the fastest pace and tracking the pace throughout the runs tells a slightly different story. I am not actually running at snails’ pace. Our running pace is often around 8.5 minutes per mile. That’s not fast but that is respectable at least! What that means is that as we increase the time we run (and keep the running pace as it is now) as part of these intervals, our minutes per mile time is actually likely to come down to really quite respectable times – well, respectable for someone who couldn’t run the 50metres or so to the post box at the end of the road at the beginning of the year.

2. Fitness is a funny thing. If you don’t constantly attend to it somehow it just disappears. I know this because I have got myself reasonably fit about twice in my life and then lost it pretty much overnight. The other way around is totally different. Improvements in fitness levels seem to just creep up on you. I’ve noticed little things. Our usual 30 minute route finishes along the canal and we then have to walk back up the hill to get home – I’m no longer stopping to ‘admire the view’ half way up; I am happier about walking up the hill on may home from work; I am recovering from our runs much more quickly… It’s the little things that I probably wouldn’t even notice if I wasn’t blogging about our running efforts and everything associated with that.

So, in the middle of all the struggling to get my head around the running stuff there are some positives to hang on to.

Bank Holiday Weekend Running

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We’ve done a fair bit of running over the bank holiday weekend. We did 4.25 miles on Saturday and 30 minutes on Sunday and for good measure another 30 minutes this morning. As I mentioned a few days ago I struggled on the last 30 minute run before the weekend.I was therefore absolutely dreading the 4.25 miles. I had lined up every excuse I could think of but then decided that it was just as well to get it over with. It won’t do to be scared of 4.25 miles when I’ll have to do a marathon in 7 month’s time.

We are still running on the flat along the canal rather than risking setting my calf off with hills. So, with the watch set for 30 repetitions of intervals of our 90 second running/30 seconds walking we set off. I hated it. Kath tells me there was lots to see. Lots of ducklings, a few goslings and a heron. I didn’t really take any of them in. I just wheezed my way along. We turned round at 2.12 miles and turning round and heading back gave me a bit of a boost. I think my posture improved and I felt like I just might be able to make it. More wheezing along. With a mile to go my lower legs felt really tight, tight but not painful or twingy – so onwards. We started a running interval again just as we hit the 4 mile mark and I felt ok, in fact I felt pretty strong so I decided that we should try and run to the end – the end I knew would be pretty much bang on at the next bridge. Complete focus on the bridge pulled me towards the end and then suddenly we were there, done. 4.25 miles. Just over 56 minutes with an average pace of 13.13minute per mile.

We had decided to see how our legs felt before making a decision on a Sunday run. When I first got up my legs felt a little weary and we wanted to go out anyway so we thought we’d see how we felt later. We went late afternoon, 30 minutes along the canal in the opposite direction to Saturday. It felt awful. It felt worse than the run I complained about last week. It wasn’t so much my legs, I was struggling for air and it just felt like such as huge huge effort. After turning round at 15.5 minutes I was hoping for that boost. It didn’t come. I was just about  to give up when I heard a lamb at the farm to our right bleat really loudly. It made me jump and laugh and suddenly stopping wasn’t an option anymore. In fact, we missed the last walk and just ran the last 4 minutes straight off. Our pace was close to pre-injury best. 2.35 miles, pace of 12.47. I should have been thrilled, I was just shattered.

Monday – as we continue the madness, we have stepped up the running time.  We’re still following the principles set out by Jeff Galloway  as part of the RunDisney training but we are adjusting the intervals/run/walk ratios as we feel comfortable. We will now do 12 repetitions of 2 minutes running and 30 seconds walking for our 30 minute runs and however many repetition it takes for us to cover the required distance on the distance runs. This morning’s run was a funny one. We went out slowly and really, running for 2 minutes didn’t feel much worse or longer than running for 90 seconds and 30 seconds walking is fine. I didn’t hate the running, I remember ducklings, but it felt like really really hard work. We plodded our way to 2.27 miles with a slow pace of 13.13 minutes per mile but I now know what that run/walk ratio feels like and I’m ok with that.

As a little reminder why I am putting my self through this – we’ll be starting our fundraising in earnest soon – we’re raising money for a charity called Panthera. They do amazing conservation work. Have a look at their website and if you can support us it will help us keep going and it will ensure Panthera can keep doing the brilliant work they do. You can donate via our Justgiving site.

2 pints and a packet of crisps…

Jess Guth2 Comments

…does not make for happy running. We got back on track and finished the week 7 runs on Thursday of week 8. On Friday we went to the pub and had a couple of pints and a packet of crisps and I’d also had a pretty crappy food day. I’d been at a meeting in London were there were sandwiches for lunch and then on the train journey home there were more sarnies… Bread overload basically and I have no willpower and I like sarnies. Anyway, crap food day.

On Saturday morning we started week 8 with a 30 minute run. Bloody hell. I felt so sluggish and heavy and generally rubbish. We set off from our house towards our sheep field and were going to do our usual 30 minute route that starts at home but then decided to turn back after 15 minutes to save time as we had lots to do. But turning back meant having to drag my butt up the hills that we’d come down on the way there and they are evil. Not particularly steep but just slow steady climbs. Urgh. From about 10 minutes in the whole thing just became a mind over matter thing to finish. Sometimes it felt like I was going backwards. So 30 minutes and 2.11 miserable miles later with an average pace of something over 14 minutes per mile we arrived back home. Lesson learned. Eating right doesn’t just make a difference, it makes a huge difference. It’s the difference between actually feeling like I am running and just desperately trying to drag my butt to the end.

Thinking back over the week, I can’t really remember how bad or otherwise I’ve been with the healthy eating thing. I wasn’t very good at taking my lunch so ended up buying wraps at work and I had a chocolate bar with that. Oh and when Kath was away overnight I couldn’t be bothered to cook just for me so lived on cereal. Unsurprisingly then I didn’t lose any weight this week. I haven’t gained any either though and today has been a much better day. We got up at 6ish this morming because we had to move our sheep at 7am (More on them here if you’re interested). We had breakfast afterwards – a south american brunch recipe that I think might have come from the Jamie Oliver via the Running Bug. It’s quinoa and blacked eyed beans with avocado and a dressing of tomato, spring onion in a vinegarette. We had lunch at a Garden Centre – we both had a road beef dinner and this evening we had a big salad. So while not perfect, much better than most of last week.

We also went for the second of the week 8 runs – 30 minutes. This one was much more like it. I was in danger of falling asleep on the sofa this afternoon but instead we set off from home, went past the sheep and down onto the canal. It looks like we are back on track with an average pace of 12.36 minutes per mile.

Panthera – please support us and therefore them if you can

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If you have read the previous posts on this blog you will realise that this running thing is a massive massive challenge for us and for me in particular. Part of what helps me get my backside out there plodding round is that it is a way I can help change the world. Yep here’s the slightly cliched vomit inducing bit about changing the world… Those of you who know me already know that changing the world and helping others (mostly my students) change the world is kind of my thing. Making a small difference is really important to me. I’m not naive I know I make a tiny tiny difference if I make one at all but that’s enough. If we all try and do that every day the world will be a much better place. So if I am going to run, drag my moomin butt round a stupidly high number of miles and go through that physical pain and mental struggle then there has to be some changing the world happening as a result of that. Otherwise I am not playing.

Any money we raise in this slightly insane endeavour is going to an organisation called Panthera. Their mission is this:

Panthera’s mission is to ensure the future of wild cats through scientific leadership and global conservation action.

Panthera and their ethos speak to us on a number of levels: Panthera’s work is science based and at the cutting edge of conservation. It understands that there are a number of factors that have to come together to make conservation possible and that dealing with any one of them in isloation will not work. Education and training are fundamental to what Panthera do. Have a look at the letter from the Chair on their website to get more of a sense of what they do. So, education and training, programmes/projects which target the specific needs of the big cats they are focused on as well as the communities sharing the geographic area with the cats and work underpinned by the latest science are all things that earn my respect. The other reason to support Panthera over any other conservation charity is that 100% of the money raised will benefit the coservation programme/projects as the running costs and non-programme costs are covered by the Panthera board of directors. It seems that these people believe in what they are doing and are prepared to put their money where their mouth is and that passion and commitment is something I am delighted to be able to support. They really do change the world and they change it big time. With your support for our running challenge, we can help them do that! If you can sponsor us, however small the amount, please do. It really does mean a lot to us and seeing the amounts of money raised go up over the next few months is really going to help keep us going!

Sponsorship page is here: https://www.justgiving.com/Jessandkath/