Tag: parkrun

Australia Running 5 – The Towns and Cities

Jess Guth2 Comments

Brisbane running was fun. The Southbank was fun. The conference was rubbish but it didn’t matter. We just did our thing.

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The first Brisbane run was on a Friday morning and we plodded along the Southbank a little, crossed over a bridge and went back in the opposite directions along a footpath and eventually into the Botanic Gardens. The cyclists were a little annoying but it was nice to be out and about. Cyclists were a theme in Brisbane – fast, rude and not always competent – and I didn’t really get used to them.

Saturday we met our friend Jenny who lives in Brisbane for the Southbank parkrun and Kath set off running and Jenny and I chatted and walked round. We’d never met in real life but we got on well and had breakfast together afterwards. On Monday we ran a loop very similar to parkrun and then on Tuesday we thought we’d go a bit longer and I really wanted to run 10km without walking. Well, not quite. I was defeated by the slope up onto the bridge on the way back. Things had got hard at about 4.5 miles (it was actually quite hot) and the slope at 5.5 miles made my legs go to jelly and refuse to carry on. I walked a bit, grumpy and then ran the rest to take us to 6.21 miles.

All in all Brisbane was good for running.

Alice Springs is a funny place and even after having spent time in Sydney after and now IMG_1724being home for 2 weeks I am still not sure how I feel about it really. It’s the place where ‘the State’ meets aboriginal culture and can’t cope so throws some tourists in for good measures. It feels like a microcosm of something although exactly what I can’t quite put my finger on. After sitting on a minibus for most of the previous afternoon, getting up and heading out the door for a little run felt both alien and exhilarating. We plodded along next to the river bed – the sandy dry river. It hadn’t rained since February and there was no water to be seen. We had a little cheer squad of parrots in a couple of places and as the sun climbed so did the temperature from a pretty cold few degrees when we set off to a pleasant warmth in the sun by the time we got back an 40 minutes or so later. It was good to be moving again.

IMG_1757Sydney was great for running. Our hotel was in a perfect location, close to the opera house and then the botanical gardens. We kicked off our Sydney running with a 4.5 mile plod across the Harbour Bridge and back down to the opera house and into the gardens. A proper tourist IMG_1761run with photo stops and stops to look at things. I struggled to get going a bit but it was fun. Running across the bridge was a very tourist thing to do (and possibly a commuter thing to do, too) and the views were great but in terms of running, it’s not actually that nice – it’s noisy and polluted! The climb we did a few days later was fabulous (and a little terrifying) though.

 

 

The next day we got the ferry to Manly and then set off on a run round Manly North Head. I was struggling a bit, feeling a bit tired and we ended up walking quite a bit and stopping for photos of course. It was a stunning route that started at Manly Beach and went along the coast a little to Shelly Beach before climbing up the edge of the cliffs and then heading inland a little. Going through the North Fort parade ground was a little weird and at some point we got our loop a little wrong but it was all fine and it ended up being a gorgeous run which we finished  with scrambled eggs on toast and coffee from a lovely little cafe back at Manly Beach and a walk in sand thus ensuring my happy feet.

After that my Sydney running dipped. My feet and ankles felt sore, maybe from running on hard surfaces more than I was used to. So on the next day I sent Kath off on her run and I jogged to the opera house, did a loop round it and then went back to the hotel. It was nice to be out but that was enough. On the last day I wanted to have a nice run following the route Kath had told me about along the edge of the gardens. However I hard a cracking bruise on my left knee, not sure where from but I’m blaming the bridge climb and it hurt with every step. My ankles were still tired too. I made it to the opera house again before deciding that being miserable is not part of my running deal – I persuaded Kath to keep going and waited for her on the opera house steps. I did a few stair repeats while I waited but they were a bit half hearted and in the end I just sat and watched the world go by.

Australia wasn’t a high mileage month at all but we did run and we had some really nice runs that made me realise how much I can enjoy it and that is something worth hanging on to – I like tourist runs!

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Snow, Cabin Fever and Planning

Jess GuthLeave a comment

17103419_10155109272833923_4410991487500202616_nI haven’t run since the Harewood House Half Marathon. I was quite sore on Monday. My hip flexor was not happy at all and my calf was painful rather than just tight so pulling out was definitely the right call. Then the snow came. I’m not ready to run in the snow. It’s also been a tricky week with the anniversary of my ex’s death hitting as a slow burn this year rather than a short sharp meltdown. In some ways I find a short sharp meltdown easier – a day or maybe even two curled up in bed a sobbing mess rather than a week or two of not really quite functioning.  All in all I have spent too much time on the sofa and too much time in my head.

The snow has been pretty but the novelty has now worn off. I wasn’t able to get into IMG_8532work for my teaching yesterday and I’ve only left the house once since Tuesday. Silly. I know better. Cabin fever has definitely set in for all of us and I’ve been watching our cats swipe grumpily at each other and demand attention from us. I’ve been a funny sort of restless where I actually never get my act together to really do anything but never settle either. I’ve played candy crush, tried to focus on work stuff and half heartedly watched athletics on telly.

So today I thought I’d better just get a grip. There have been too many tears, too many “I can’ts”, too many “there’s no points”.  I started tidying and sorting stuff. Everything feels chaotic (it is but not really anymore than it always is) and I thought sorting, filing, working on clearing the box room and sorting the study might actually help me get a grip. So this morning we sorted travel stuff, applying for travel authorisations, printing confirmations, checking what still needs booking, adding frequent flyer numbers to bookings and that sort of stuff. As part of that I also made a

During Half Marathon
Dopey Half Marathon 2016

note of the races coming up. As the day went on doing stuff got harder and the sofa kept calling. I started working through some old paperwork and some photos – I’m years behind in terms of sorting out photo albums/books but I did finally finish the Dopey 2016 one! Looking at the Dopey photos was nice though – motivation to get out there and start working now to hit the training plan much more prepared than I was last time. Anyway, here’s what’s coming

Keighley 10km: – maybe. We haven’t booked this one yet and might just decide on the day and enter then if we can. I’d quite like to do this if the weather improves and I can get out for a little stretch of the legs this week. It’s next Sunday.

Lakeland Trails Hawkshead 10km: I’m looking forward to this one. The course should be stunning and the Lakeland  Trails races have a lovely atmosphere and maybe 10k is really more my level than anything longer. With hindsight I don’t think Helvellyn was a sensible idea as the first one! I’m also looking forward to meeting up with some of the #Run1000Milers

Toronto Half Marathon: I’m really excited about this – what a fabulous way to see a city. And it’s flat.

Endure24 Leeds – Team Dopey in action. This will officially kick off our Dopey training I suppose and if the weather is as good as it was last year this will be so much fun – not sure I’m looking forward to that hill leading up to the finish though.

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Brisbane Southbank Parkrun – Yes, we’re planning on a bit of parkrun tourism and this one should work out really nicely

Great North Run – Another tick on my bucket list and probably the last chance for a Dopey proof of time

Maybe a Lakeland Trails autumn series run

Dopey 2019 – it’s crazy, it really is and I don’t know whether knowing what I’m getting myself into makes it better or worse. I want to do it because it is so utterly impossible.

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I’m pretty happy with that list – not too many races there but enough to keep me honest. I need to get back out there! I did 42.60 miles in February and haven’t yet done any in March. I’m still way ahead of last year but I can feel the lack of running mentally. I need to get back up to routinely running 8 miles plus to really get the benefit and keep the puppy at bay. Looks like I’ll have to get myself to the gym at work on Monday as the snow doesn’t seem to want to melt.

 

 

First ever parkrun

Jess GuthLeave a comment

We registered for parkrun in October 2015 and we’ve never been. Until today. Finally we got our butts to parkrun. We live pretty much in the middle between Skipton and Bradford so we needed to choose. We chose Bradford on the basis that it is 3 laps rather than 4. Yes I know they are all the same distance but number of laps makes a difference!

We took the car this time, not being sure about timings and where exactly we needed to be or when for the start etc, factoring in the unreliable bus times seemed a step too far. I was unjustifiably nervous as it was! We were early but that gave us time to figure things out, look at the route map, be told how it all worked and then walk to the start. We couldn’t really hear the instructions etc given at the beginning but at pretty much bang on 9am we were off. The course is 3 laps and starts off in a flat straight line, then does a little squiggle round Cartwright Hall and then turns left downhill and left again to go flat/downhill along the length of the park. Then, after another left turn, comes what appears to be affectionately known as the teeny tiny hill. Yeah right. Then you’re back at the start.

I haven’t run with people since the abandoned half marathon in November. Running with people increases anxiety levels. Increased anxiety levels mean I worry about everything. So when I looked at my watch about 100 metres in and saw that we were running at 11 minute mile pace I panicked thinking we were going way to fast for me to be able to sustain it. I felt fine until that point and suspect I would have naturally slowed off a little and found my pace but in my little panic I then couldn’t breathe and threw everything out. I settled a bit on the downhill and flat and on lap one I ran teeny tiny hill – I just then couldn’t keep running so had a walk break at the top.

I’ve really noticed that I have got mentally tougher recently – running rather than run/walking the 3.1 and 4 miles earlier this week are examples of that but I am mentally much weaker when things are ‘different’. I suspect I didn’t really need to walk after the hill. I suspect I could have run the hill on laps 2 and 3 and I suspect I could run a bit faster but I didn’t have it in me mentally to push today. I’m not disappointed and I did enjoy it – I’m just making an observation about me and my running behaviour really. My goal was to finish in under 40 minutes. I had decided that under 40 minutes would be major success. I’d also decided that it might not be a bad idea to have a plan B and C in case plan A was, for whatever reason, not going to work today. So Plan B was to complete in under 45 minutes and Plan C was just to complete. So I am delighted, in fact a sort of happy dance warranting excited, to have come in at 39.44.

After the finish we got a coffee from the coffee van to share (I’m a coffee snob, the coffee wasn’t great but it was coffee I guess) and sat on a bench watching the remaining runners come in and a little wagtail be busy on the lawn in front of us. Then we drove back. I’m glad we went and I felt comfortable and confident enough that I think if we go again soon I’d be happy for Kath to run her own 5k and for me to plod and run mine. It was great to have her there with me today but I think it would still feel like doing parkrun together even if we didn’t actually run together! I’ll just have to try not to let her lap me!

Planning different running

Jess Guth1 Comment

I walked the 2 mile roundtrip to the sheep this evening without a toilet incident so we’re getting closer to being able to run again. Kath went out on a 5.5 mile reconnaissance run to try out a new route. It is lovely apparently but has a steep and uneven downhill which I won’t like. Well, if current form is anything to go by I can always stand at the top and cry until she comes and gets me! We’ve been catching up on various running magazines today and thinking about what sort of runs we’d both like to do. I think we’re getting to the point where we do want to and need to do our own thing a bit more. That’s no bad thing and we both still like running with each other but we also want to do our own thing.

Anyway, here’s a list of some of the things we like the look of as well as some ideas for joint but separate runs that we’ve talked about. I’ll report back as we try them.

  1. 20 Minute refresher by Jeff Galloway (from Runner’s World)

Walk for 1 minute, then run walk 30secs/30secs for 3 minutes, then 6 minutes at any ratio you like. At 10 minutes turn round and run/walk 9 minutes back but pick up the pace during the runs. Cool down for a minute.

2. 100 strides Fartlek (Runners World)

10 min warm up, 10 strides fast, then 10 strides slow, then 20 strides fast and 20 strides slow, keep increasing strides until you reach 100. Cool down for 5 minutes (or go back down in 10 stride increments and then cool down)

3. Surges

On longer runs build in a 1 minute surge every 10 minutes or so (careful with this – increase the speed a bit but don’t, as I once did, just try and go faster and faster and faster for a minute – I didn’t mean to, it just sort of happened)

4. One on/One off (Runner’s World)

After a warm up, run 1 minute on (fast) and 1 minute off (slow) for 20 minutes. Try and increase the pace of each ‘on’ section. Increase the duration of the on/off intervals to increase the challenge

5. 30-20-10 (Runner’s World)

This made my head go weird when I read it the first time but I think I’ve got it now: 10 minute warm up; 30 second slow jog, 20 seconds steady, 10 seconds fast, repeat that 60 second sequence 5 times and then jog slowly for 2 minutes – then have another go – 3-4 times

6. Half mile repeats

Ok so I hate half mile repeats but the thing is they work, they really work. After a couple of sessions doing them I ran my fastest ever mile, so they are back on the list. Run half a mile, walk 3 minutes, repeat – start with 2 and celebrate, do 3, do 4, maybe one day not cry when I get to 5, some day I’ll do 6. Yes let’s aim for 6.

7. Hills

Not just any hills but bastarding West Yorkshire hills. There are several options here

a) Ilkley Road repeat – this sounds crazy even as I type it and it’s not your usual short sharp hill repeat but I think this might work – bottom of Ilkley Road, to our road and back down and then back up…

b) Up to Keighley Gate – One day I will run from our house to the top but let’s not get carried away. So for now let’s go with walking up to the ‘top road’ and then running from there. If feeling ambitious, we can walk to where the road levels out before that and start from there, if I ever get really fit, we can start from home and if I ever lo
se my mind completely we can start right at the bottom

Unity street
Unity Street

c) Proper hill repeats – it’s not like we don’t have options round here! Unity Street looks
like it might work for hill repeats for insane people! You can nicely mark out segments by gates or use the lamppost. I’ve actually never done hill repeats because whenever they appeared on my training plan I always pretended they weren’t really there and did something else instead.

Running together doing our own thing: Kath has got fitter and speedier and I have lost fitness and got slower so the difference in fitness levels and speed is now really quite marked. We’re also both really valuing the headspace time we get from running so we’re going to try doing our own thing a little more but without forgetting that we’re in this together. So options for joint but separate running:

a) Parkrun – yep. We’ve never yet been even though we signed up ages and ages ago. We’re going. This coming Saturday. Skipton or Bradford, not yet sure which but we’re going. We’ll stick together on the first one but after that we don’t need to. We can each go at our own pace and Kath can get me coffee while she waits for me (See being slow has perks!)

b) Bolton Abbey loop – I take the aqueduct to cross the river whereas Kath goes on to Barden Bridge, so she extends her loop . We’d run the first mile and a bit together and then part ways – she can then pick up the pace and try and catch me and I can try and pick up the pace and try not to get caught!

c) We set off together on a loop/route involving canal and I drop off and stop for coffee at Mum’s while Kath goes on (more perks).

d) We set off from home or anywhere and run the same loop but in opposite directions so we can say hi to each other on the route

e) Training for the Endure24 we might also go somewhere to run 5 mile loops while the other one waits – that should help us work out fuelling etc for the event.

I’m sure there are lots more options but that’s all I have for now. Do share your suggestions and I’ll try and try them and report back!