Tag: run

Reflections on 17 miles

Jess Guth6 Comments

Yesterday’s post was drafted in a hurry while still glowing from the run and feeling pretty good about the running. Let’s have another look at it in the cold light of day. So the simple fact is, yesterday I ran/walked 4 miles further than I ever have before. That in itself was a win, a huge win. I slept well for about 2.5 hours after getting into bed – then I woke up again and the rest of the night was a bit hit and miss. I did spend some time thinking about what went well and what didn’t yesterday though:

The ‘need to do better’:

  1. We didn’t fuel that well before the run – we weren’t sure if we were going for a long run, a short run, a run at all or exactly when. It wasn’t a disaster but we need to pay more attention to what we eat in the days running up to the big one! We should be fine for the meals  as we’ve made Disney Dining reservations already but it’s the inbetween snacky things
  2. I wasn’t hydrated enough. I might have said before but I am really rubbish at drinking enough during the day. I wasn’t dehydrated but I wasn’t really properly hydrated either. This is worrying me. Maybe buying a silly disney water bottle and having it with me constantly will make me drink enough pre race. I need to be really hydrated pre race as I am also not great at drinking during – makes me feel queasy – keep messaging me saying ‘water!’
  3. Warm up – what warm up. We walked down the hill… Need to do more here – might help keep niggles away for longer
  4. The Garmin – hm. I usually love that watch. I like that it beeps and tells me when to run and I like even better when it beeps to tell me to walk. But yesterday it had a wobble, re-set itself at 8 miles and then with about 2 miles to go just started beeping every second and wouldn’t stop. It also stopped telling us when to run/walk with about 3 miles to go… need to look at what went on there.
  5. Yoga afterwards – we did 10 minutes and that is great – but we should probably have done another session after our bath etc and before bed

The ‘oh my goodness, I might be able to do this’ bits:

  1. 17 miles!
  2. 17 miles within RunDisney pacing requirements!
  3. No niggles, mentally or physically until mile 9
  4. No real mental niggles until after half marathon distance and even they were very minor and kicked into touch with a couple of repeats of ‘We are totally awesome’
  5. Half marathon time close to the personal best from the September half marathon race. Don’t know exactly what it was but it was around 3 hours
  6. Fuel during race seemed to work for me – porridge bar and chocolate although the next long one will have to be done without chocolate  – chocolate and Florida is not a good combination and chocolate really didn’t work for Kath, she nearly puked.
  7. I enjoyed being out. I can honestly say that until mile 16 and a bit I was enjoying myself. The walk up the hill was awful but that’s what you get for living up a hill. I’m holding on to the fact that next time I walk up it it will feel so much easier because I haven’t run/walked 16.5 miles to get to it!

So how do I feel today? Well I can feel in my legs that I ran further than I ever have before. My legs feel a little achey but nothing really hurts. Nothing is making me miserable and nothing feels like I should be worrying about it. I’m not running today (and because of my depression/anxiety issues at the moment I am actually a little scared of not running today!) but will keep doing 15 minutes of yoga here and there and stretch everything out properly. I might also finally get that foam roller out…

Goal 4: Put one foot in front of the other – or the one where I show you my short run loop

Jess Guth2 Comments

Earlier today I posted that I was about to go for a run. Well I managed to get out the door but to be honest it was all a bit much. I didn’t feel like I could run really. I just wanted to turn round and come back in. The sheep needed feeding though and I’d already said to Kath that I’d go. So, in an effort to make this less about running and more about being out and having fun I took my phone to take pictures of our short run loop. It’s about 4 miles from front door to front door but we don’t run the last half mile – you’ll see why later and it’s a nice warm down. So, come with me…

We start on our road, run to the end and turn left. It’s a nice gentle downhill to start off with. When we started running at the start of the year I could barely make it to the end of our road without my heart rate going through the roof and my legs feeling like led. It took a little longer for me to be able to run to the end of the next road even though it’s all downhill.

At the end of the road we turn right and hit the first hill. It took me ages to be able to run up it. Not sure the pictures really show it that well but it’s a steady pull  with a brief flat section and a few steeper metres at the end before another left turn

Then a short downhill which flattens out as we run the last residential street for a while. We then join a track which takes us past our sheep, into and through a little wood and down the golf course.

Going this way round I like the little slope that drops us onto the track – it’s short so not scary and that feeling of your legs being faster than the rest of you reminds me of being a kid. It’s always nice to run past the sheep and see if they are ok. We didn’t run past today, we stopped and fed them – there’s 8 in this field.

When we combine feeding sheep with a run we walk the bit inbetween fields. I didn’t take a picture of field 2 today – that’s where we currently have 3 ram lambs. In field 3 we have 6 ewe lambs and one of our bottle fed ewes we are not lambing next year. The views are pretty stunning on this stretch.

Immediately after the sheep field comes my nemesis – a slope that doesn’t look like much and yet it gets me every time. It is narrow, muddy and feels so so much steeper than it looks. At the top it opens out in the wood and that is one of the most welcome sights ever on this loop. It’s a few steps on the flat and then down the golf course with stunning views (which I haven’t really captured – instead focusing on the path!). Once down the golf course we cross the car park and head down the last little bit of track to the Leeds Liverpool canal.

The rest of the run is flat now  – all along the canal. We turn round at the bridge above (apologies about the silly baseball cap back to front pic – it kept blowing off when on properly) and head back in the direction we came from.

I love the canal views – they change with the seaons and are always interesting. Today, Kath spotted a kingfisher in a tree on the otherside of the canal. I coudln’t spot it but then it flew off – streak of colour flying low above the water. We walked a bit to see if we could sport it again but it was gone. We saw it again further along and again stopped to see if we could see where it had gone but gone it had.

The run finishes at the next canal bridge or sometimes further along the canal depending on our pace. From that canal bridge we walk home – one of the reasons we don’t run home are the hills:

Once up this hill we are back on the route where we started – just a few more steps and then a left turn back into the road that was the first downhill on the way out – now it’s uphill and that gentle slope feels rather less gentle. The pub on the left is always tempting and when we’re not in serious training anymore I reckon we might make that the end point and have a pint and packet of crisps as a treat after a long run!

And then we are home.

It was again nice to be out and my brain functioned a bit better during and immediately after the run. I feel like I achieved something at least today. It was also nice to see that even with our stops to find the kingfisher we were still at 13.5 minute per mile pace so when we’re out there we are within pace – all we need to do is get out there! One foot in front of the other…

Running on empty, or on too full or just running out of steam

Jess GuthLeave a comment

We were going to run 15 miles today. We didn’t. We did run though. Let me start at the beginning. It has been another stupid and stupidly busy week. Work has been relentless for both of us. We didn’t manage another run after Tuesday’s 45 minutes. Yesterday we flew out to Hamburg for my Dad’s birthday which is tomorrow. Our flight wasn’t until the afternoon so we decided to do the 5.5 mile walk as per our plan  before we set off. It was a nice walk and we stopped to feed out sheep on the way round and chatted about Disney plans and emptied our brains of work stuff. We were exhausted when we got home though. We were beginning to be a little pushed for time so we actually only walked 4.5 miles. We made up for the missing mile with a mad dash across Amterdam Schipol airport to make our connecting flight, just.

As I said I had planned a route that was 15 miles but it did involved 3 loops of the Alster. We got up at 6am, forced down about half of a porridge pot each, forced ourselves out the door and took some deep breaths. We hadn’t slept well, even a relatively quiet area in the city is noisy when you’re used to the complete silence we have at home and unfamiliar beds never make for a good night. Neither of us really wanted to go. Neither of us felt particularly bright. We walked, for about 5 minutes and then started the run. 2 minute runs, 30 second walks. The first mile and a bit was just along a residential street, then we hit the Alster an decided to go clockwise. It is quite a nice route and there were a fair few runners about.

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There were also ducks and geese and swans, a few dogs and walkers, some people just going about their business and some very serious, and not entirely happy looking, people with two walking poles engaging in what can only be described as skiing without skis.

It was hard going. We walked a lot and plodded along at a slow trot in between. It was unusual because we were both struggling so we made the decision to turn the run into a positive and just do one loop of the Alster. By the time we had done that and got ourselves back to a cafe that looked like a good option for breakfast we’d completed 7 miles.

I don’t know why we found it so hard, maybe because we hadn’t eaten the right sort of stuff at the right times yesterday, or maybe we hadn’t drunk enough water, maybe there wasn’t a long enough gap between porridge and running or maybe we are just tired, properly tired. We have decided to rest tomorrow and then possibly do another loop on Monday and see how we feel.

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Regaining perspective

Jess Guth1 Comment

I feel ok today. I completed a 12 mile walk/run yesterday and I feel ok today. That, I have decided, is a huge success. I slept pretty well although I started getting restless about 4.30am I think, probably not helped by the cats. I don’t really have any pain anywhere. My legs feel fine – just a little tired maybe. It’s all good.

We fly out to Florida 9 weeks tomorrow. We arrive Tuesday evening and the marathon is on Sunday. We’ll head for the expo and pick up our packs on Wednesday and we have a few days to adjust sleep patterns and food etc before the marathon day. It also means that there are only 7 more weeks of long runs before we taper off to rest before the big event. However much I might hate every long run – and I am not entirely convinced that I will hate them all, I can do another 7 weeks of this.

So I learned some things yesterday.

  1. I am not mentally anywhere near as strong as I need to be. The minute it gets really tough I forget to count, I forget my mantras, I get negative. I am going to practice  on the short runs during the week. Maybe by extending the time I run before taking a walk break or maybe by pushing the pace a little and seeing if I can maintain it… Yes I know I need to be careful not to push too much and risk injury. I know.
  2. I am extremely lucky that I don’t get blisters easily. My feet are in pretty good shape and any blisters I have had have been minor. The more I talk to runners the more I realise that I am increadibly lucky. Poor Kath’s feet are in bits.
  3. Chafing is a thing, and a painful one at that. I have to be honest here. I hadn’t, naively perhaps, given chafing much thought. Well I am giving it plenty of thought today. I will spare you details but let’s just say it took me a while to find underwear that didn’t cause intense pain this morning. I think this means I need to be even more careful about what underwear to run in and vaseline may be my new best friend. My bra was ok yesterday but I am beginning to see how this is an issue I am going to have to think about. Oh joy.
  4. Roast chicken with mashed potato and celeriac, turnip, cauliflower, broccoli and carrot is an excelleRunning T-shirtnt post run meal.

To help get back to a happy place yesterday I put my favourite running T-shirt on (here it is). Then I started looking at running routes for our next long run which will be in Hamburg next weekend. We are going over for my Dad’s birthday. We go on Friday evening and come back Monday morning. The plan is to do a gentle 6 mile run/walk on Friday and then a 15 mile run on Saturday. I think I’ve found a route that means we don’t need public transport and can walk 5 minutes or so as a warm up and cool down at either end. I’ll share the route once we’ve run it (I’ll stop for a photo or two!)

Yesterday was also incredibly good for my fitbit stats. I’ve had one for a couple of weeks. I won’t bore you with details but I don’t move much unless I run it seems. On days where I don’t run I often struggle to hit the recommended 10000 steps – I tend to get around 8000 ish. When we run our short loop I get the 10000 but yesterday, with a bit of pacing round the house just before bed I got over 30000 steps. I got quite excited about that. I’ll write about the fitbit some other time but it does work to make me move a bit more. I find myself wanting to hit the 10000 target and I am also more conscious of spending long spells sitting at my desk or on the sofa so at work in particular it makes me get up and walk about and stretch more.

Anyway, 45 minute run scheduled for the morning before work. I hope it’s not quite as foggy as it has been today.

Bolton Abbey and Halloween running

Jess Guth3 Comments

We didn’t run Wednesday or Thursday. I can’t really remember why. Oh yes I do – Wednesday I went out for food and drinks with a friends from work. Thursday we were shattered and ran out of daylight. Friday I was working at home so took the opportunity to go to Bolton Abbey in the afternoon. It’s been a while since we did any sort of hills really (I’m beginning to not think of the little hills on our route from home as hills any more – that’s got to be good, right?).

Friday we ran our Bolton Abbey 45 minute loop. I’ve outlined it previosuly. Same route. I was a little apprehensive. The last time we ran at Bolton Abbey was the 11 miler and by the time we’d get to where our loop ends we’d be at the point where I was in pain and mentally shattered last time. I wasn’t looking forward to it but I was also determined to have a real positive go at the hills. So we set off.

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It was busy – really busy with kids mostly. We’d forgotten it was half term and that there would be the pumpkin trail. I thought I might feel self-conscious and I did a little bit but actually I just found people infuriating. People seemed to take up the entire path, they’d stop randomly in front of me or step out and block my path. It was a pretty horrendous obstacle course of push chairs, toddlers and dogs until we got the the Strid. I was mentally exhausted. After that it quietened down and we settled into the running more. We briefly stopped half way as we crossed the aqueduct and took a couple of pictures. The colours were stunning.

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We were slow – just under 14 minutes per mile but it was an enjoyable run once we’d left people behind and it was a first attempt at hills in a very long time. The colours were fantastic – the pictures don’t really do them justice and the wharfe was higher and faster than I have seen it in a very long time – possibly ever.

20151030_161728[1]20151030_162437Today we dressed up as runners (not really but I’m going with the Halloween theme!) and headed out for a 3 miler. We were running out of daylight which meant that I struggled. I was fine until we got onto the path past our furthest sheep field. I suddenly lost confidence in my footing and within seconds everything that has ever niggled while running niggled – my right calf, my left knee, my right ankle, my lower back… I kept plodding but freaked out on the downhill and walked most of it. Once on the canal we settled into a really nice jog and I started to relax, the niggles disappeared and I started enjoying seeing the canal in a different light. With the mist coming off it it looked a bit spooky – probably only because it is Halloween though. We passed a white duck which stands out – the others were nearly invisible. There were owls screetching their encouragement and midges just making us want to run a bit faster. The usual canal sounds were still there too but more muted in the mist and a little unfamiliar in the dark. Again we weren’t fast but it was positive in the end.

Tomorrow we are getting back to trying some distance. We’re going for flat and we’re playing mind games – we’re going to run the route to Saltaire and then turn and run home. We both felt good after our run to Saltaire last weekend and both said we could easily have kept going at the end of that. Well, we’ll find out tomorrow if that’s true! We’re aiming for 12 miles. I’m scared!