Tag: run

I ran again

Jess GuthLeave a comment

It wasn’t awful.

I had in my head that I wanted to run again today. Back to back might seem ambitious given pre-virus running form, never mind post virus getting back into running but somehow it seemed to make sense. Except that I didn’t seem to want it enough to get off the sofa.

Our first ewe might be due today so we’ve had a few trips on to the field to check for lambs (or problems, but mainly lambs) – nothing yet. I’ve also been grumpy today. No particular reason, I think I woke up slightly grumpy and never really snapped out of it. Coming up to 5pm I was stuck on the sofa vaguely wondering whether I might have a late afternoon nap when Kath asked me if I wanted to go for a run or do some yoga. It didn’t seem like a ‘we could go for a run or we could do some yoga’ sort of a question, more a ‘we are doing one or the other, choose’ sort of a thing. So I got changed.

We decided to run our sheep loop backwards so we could check the ewes on our way. We also agreed to use run/walk intervals – in other words be realistic. Obviously that suggestion didn’t come from me. We set off and ran down Ilkley Road (down is good, going this way is just fine!), turned right and went up a little and then turned off to head down the hill towards the canal. I hate running down hill so we walked the worst bit. Once at the bottom we dropped into the intervals. I was just about to complain about how hard it was even running 2 minutes when I saw a fish of blue and orange cut across our path, cross the canal and disappear into a tree on the other side. A kingfisher. I only caught a glimpse but the flash of colour was unmistakable. I decided not to whinge.

We plodded along the canal in 2minute/1minute intervals and then slowly walked up the hill. My lungs were burning but not as bad as yesterday and my calf muscles were really tight walking up hill. Once at the top we dropped back into the intervals, ignoring one walk break until we stopped at the ewes and briefly stopped the watch. All was calm and they were all together and showing no signs of anything happening so we plodded on. We managed the intervals until about half way up Ilkley Road and then we walked home from there. 3.1 miles. Slow, hard but so worth it. I didn’t enjoy it as such but I am enjoying having done it and I feel loads better for it. Thanks for dragging my butt out Kath!

I ran…

Jess GuthLeave a comment

…it was awful and wonderful all at the same time.My plan was to get up this morning and go for a run. I woke up, dozed off again, felt tired and sluggish and decided there was no way on this earth that I was well enough to run. I had a fairly productive work morning instead. Then, about 11.30ish I started running out of steam. Marking formative student work took longer than it should, I was unfocused… I decided I’d go for a run. Then I procrastinated a bit and mulled that thought over. Then I got changed. In my head I had this notion of an amazing, easy, evenly and fast paced 5k that would see me coming home in glorious sunshine barely having broken a sweat and certainly not huffing and puffing. Well I knew that was fantasy – the sun’s not shining for a start. So for once in my life I thought I’d be realistic. My aim was run to see the sheep and back. Not even the furthest field, just the first field. A round trip of 1.6 miles.

After a few minutes doing battle with the Garmin (I seem to have forgotten how to set it up) I set off at a gentle jog down the hill. Hm, not too bad really. Then I turned right and started up the hill. Oh bother. There was a bloke walking quite fast just ahead of me so I focused on catching him and as I nearly had him it occurred to me that I couldn’t possibly stop now. I mean how silly would that look. So I just tried to keep running a little faster than he was walking. Shit, are your lungs supposed to burn like that?

I turned left and gratefully waddled down hill. I was struggling to get my breath back and recover. I saw a friend of ours who was just loading his van for a trip to his caravan and was more than happy to stop for a quick chat. I stopped the watch, had a brief natter and then carried on. Bugger, forgot to start the watch again. I arrived at the sheep. 8 very pregnant ewes lying in the field looking thoroughly fed up. One ewe is possibly due tomorrow and she was separated. I watched her for a bit but no sign of anything imminent so I plodded on a little bit, said a quick hello to the tups in field 2 and turned round. I stopped for another breather at the ewes again and then set off for the long slog home. I made the first slope. Walked a few steps and then kept running.

I had to walk again a couple of times coming up the next slope and when I finally got to the top and turned right to go downhill my head was pounding with every step. I decided I wouldn’t try to run Ilkley Road, I barely manage that on a good day, but would instead power walk that. Just as I got to the last corner with the last nasty little slope our friends, the ones I’d seen earlier,  came up the road in their van – I set off running and the beep of encouragement and their wave gave me the last bit of energy to power up the slope and round the corner into our road. It was hard, horrible and slow but it was so good to be out. I feel better than I did before I went and am having a pretty productive afternoon. All assessments marked and teaching for next week prepped so I have the weekend free to do nice things – like maybe that 5k in glorious sunshine that leaves me glowing rather than a sweaty whimpering mess? Yeah that.

 

Race Planning

Jess GuthLeave a comment

What better way to spend your ‘I can’t run’ days than by planning all the amazing runs and races you are going to complete in record times just as soon as you are able to get out there again! You won’t believe the challenging courses, fast flat courses, hilly routes and muddy sections I have run in my head over the last few days and you certainly won’t believe the pace at which I did them! More realistically though, we have been talking about what races to schedule in, how many, when and what distances. I think we learned from Dopey and London that having too many, too far an too close together is counter productive. We quite like running once we get going and we both quite like the odd race but we don’t like the pressure of running lots of races. Having some booked in keeps us honest and focused but it’s a fine balance between that and feeling stressed out.

So we have pretty much made the decision that we will have another go at the Dopey Challenge in January 2019. The races we might  try and do between now and then look something like this:

  1. Keighley 10k – March 2017
  2. Endure 24 – July 2017
  3. Yorkshire Coast 10k Scarborough– October 2017
  4. Harewood House Half Marathon – February 2018
  5. Keighley 10K – March 2018
  6. Hamburg Half Marathon  – June 2018
  7. Endure 24 (if we enjoy it in 2017) – July 2018
  8. Great North Run – September 2018
  9. Robin Hood Half Marathon – September 2018
  10. Scarborough 10k – October 2018
  11. DOPEY – January 2019

That looks like a pretty good list to me really and there are some opportunities there for a decent proof of time run for Dopey. In addition we may actually get out butts to parkrun, too.

Anyway, I think my throat is getting a little better. I don’t think I have a temperature any more so I hope that in a day or two I can try some baby steps towards running again.

Road Running

Jess GuthLeave a comment

Quick update

Didn’t run Sunday because K had a niggly knee and I am not known for my willpower or desire to go running on my own. So it’s just as well we went on Saturday. For today the plan said 50 minutes slow. I do like a plan that says slow. I can do slow.

We had toyed with the idea of going this morning but I wanted Kath to have her knee checked out first which she did this morning and she is cleared to run. Our track record of going for a run after work is poor. Once I get in from work I really don’t like to be parted from the sofa! However, this moomin butt needs to keep moving! We arranged for Kath to pick me up from the station and then to park at Mum’s and run from there. I got changed there and then we set off. We ran along the road which had the advantage of street lighting and of being relatively flat. It has the disadvantage of being a relatively busy road and a boring out and back route.

We set the watch to 17 2 minute run/1 minute walk intervals (51 minutes) and then the Garmin wouldn’t lock onto the satellite. Rather than messing with it we just set off. It felt fast but it also felt quite flowing. Well when I say fast, I mean fast for me – for the rest of the world I am really talking about marginally faster than a brisk dog walking pace. Running along the road is odd. We’ve never really done it before. There wasn’t much to look at and there was the traffic noise so my focus was different and I realised I was focusing on breathing – not in a ‘I can’t breathe’ sort of way but in a ‘oh I prefer to sound of breathing to the sound of traffic’ kind of a way. I was focused on me and that’s not something I am all that comfortable with but it did mean being more aware of form, breathing and when things tightened up and when things felt good.

Surprisingly, mostly it felt pretty good even if hard and on almost all runs I managed to keep the pace until the end of the 2 minutes, I just had one wobble as we were heading up a slope and I lost my stride pattern and everything felt out of sync. I kept thinking I was surprised at how ok it all felt. Ok is not something I usually feel when running.

As we don’t have the data from the Garmin we had to rely on Google Maps which reliably informs me that we ran 4 miles exactly. So that means that finally -for the first time in ages – we managed a decent length run at under 13 minute mile pace.

In other news – Sunday weigh in yesterday showed a 2 pound gain. Hmph but ok – readjusting after the few days of no food and I suppose I’ll have to admit to the chocolate biscuits and the 2 days of university sand which lunches…

In more other news – the Wanderlust TV yoga – we’ve done days 1-4 and it is helping although I was struggling to keep up a little on Day 4. It’s useful to get more guidance on technique and this morning we did the yoga Studio 20 minute beginner am sequence and goodness it is harder when you do it properly! Right I am off to have a bath and then try Day 5.

 

Sulky Running

Jess GuthLeave a comment

Apparently my last post was my 200th post on this blog. Well if I’d known… actually who am I kidding, I wouldn’t have done anything different at all.

Our 10k plan quite clearly states that today is a core strength or rest day so I think my fire breathing, looks could kill sort of response when Kath suggested we should run today and tomorrow was perfectly justified. She wouldn’t let up though, pointing out how gorgeous it was outside (yeah, the sun just blinds you so you don’t see the ice patches…) and how much better we’d feel (hmph, I don’t want to feel better). When she said ‘Come on, try and be positive’ my amazingly positive response of ‘If I run, slip, break my neck, I don’t ever have to run again?’ just got an eye roll and a’ oh for fuck’s sake’.

I got changed – is it possible to get changed in a stroppy sort of way? If it is then that’s what I did. I can sulk. No, I mean really sulk and today I put every little ounce of sulkiness I had into this and drew on years and years of practice. I did not want to go out there and run. But I also knew that Kath was right. I would feel better, it is gorgeous out there… so just saying no wasn’t an option. But going and embracing it wasn’t either. Sulking was the way to go. Sulking would work.

We had decided (well Kath had and I refused to agree or disagree because I was sulking) that we would repeat the 6 minute run, 3 minute walk session from the other day. So off we trotted and very quickly something happened – I forgot I was supposed to be sulking. We weren’t even 2 minutes in and I allowed myself to notice how lovely the sun felt on my back, I started looking around a bit and noting the snow on the hills on the other side of the valley. We had turned and were going uphill so running took a bit more concentration and I remembered I was grumpy about this. Then came the walk break. After the walk break we were heading downhill – I’d never run down this particular hill before. We don’t usually turn down the road here because we don’t often run on the road but the paths and tracks we do use were likely to be icy or at least muddy and slippery. Ah yes, I’m sulking aren’t I, I remember, I don’t like downhill. Running is stupid, I remember now.

We turned the corner and started up the road that looks almost flat but it’s not. I think you only really know this when you run it – it’s a slope. It’s a pull. I should be grumpy but I was actually feeling that little twinge of satisfaction and pride you get when you know you’re running uphill but your pace isn’t slowing, your lungs are burning that little bit more and you can feel your legs pushing. I was working bloody hard but enjoying it, really enjoying it. FFS I am supposed to be sulking, remember.

Walk break

Last 6 minutes, there it is, stride pattern, breathing, movement – everything fits. Just like that I have time and energy to look around, to see the dogs playing, the old ladies standing in a driveway nattering away, a woman running in the opposite directions really pushing the pace and the drivers getting irritated and impatient with each other as they navigate their way around parked cars. I notice the blue sky and the birds in it. I notice how the sun feels on my face. Then it’s over. The run is done. We walk a little and then decide to run the rest of the final walk break. That takes us to the co-op to pick up some milk. Then we walk home. I’ve forgotten I’m supposed to be sulking.