I managed to get out and do my 45 minute run. I did it step by step, getting dressed in running gear, telling myself I could just go as far as the sheep and that I could walk lots if I wanted to… I set off. I said in the blog post early today that my body felt rested and ready to run – hm. I think someone came along and stole my legs and replaced them with lead. I felt so heavy and sluggish but I just kept plodding. I ran the loop I showed you the other day. I had turn round a bit before the usual point at the bridge because there was a sheepdog without a human and I’m scared of dogs. Other than that it was non-eventful. I took a walk break about half way to take my jacket off and then took the next one as well because I just couldn’t get going again. Other than that I ran the entire 45 minutes and ended up doing 3.85 miles with a pace of 11.42 minutes per mile. Then I crawled up the hill. Did I enjoy it? Nope, but I am glad I got it done.
Not long after I got back we had back to back deliveries. The first was for Kath and she disappeared upstairs with it. While she was doing whatever she was doing another parcel came. A lovely hamper (from Keelham Farm) sent to me by my work colleagues with a note telling me to ‘sit down, have a brew and relax’. They sent flowers yesterday, too – feeling completely overwhelmed. It’s just as well I got the run in before the parcels arrived because Kath appeared with a gift wrapped book – the Illustrated Herdwick Shepherd – so that’s me – I will be on the sofa stuffing my face and reading for the foreseeable future!
Yesterday was a rest day on the training plan. No running, no clarity, no headspace… Yesterday was a funny day and in many ways a day of two halves. I felt ok-ish in the morning. Worrying a lot about not being at work and all the stuff that therefore will never get done but I felt relatively calm. Then I went out for lunch with a friend I hadn’t seen for ages and it was good to have a catch up even though neither of us was firing on all cylinders. It was lovely to be out and lovely to see my friend. Then I got home and was exhausted, totally exhausted and drained and tearful and crappy. I retreated to the sofa for the rest of the day – literally.
Today my body feels rested and ready to run – no effects from the long walk left at all. My calf muscle is normal and any little aches I had Sunday are now definitly gone. Kath’s knee is still creaky so if I am going to do the 45 minute run today it will have to be by myself. Hm. I’ve only just had breakfast so I will have to wait a while before going anyway. Here’s what’s going on in my brain:
I need to do a 45 minute run today – the plan says
I want to run today – it will be good for my head
I am already panicked about the marathon, missing a run will make that worse
I should be panicked about the marathon, I can’t do a marathon
I don’t think I can even run 45 minutes
So I best not go because then I’d find out that I can’t run 45 minutes and then the marathon really is out of the question
So if I just stay on the sofa we can all pretend that I might be able to do the marathon
But then I definitly won’t make it round the course in January and then everyone will think ‘I knew she couldn’t do it’
I’ll say ‘I knew I couldn’t do it’
But I want to say ‘I didn’t think I could do it BUT I DID’
So run your 45 minute run then you stupid woman
Yes
BUT
No but – the plan says 45 minutes
It’ll be good for my head
Missing a run will make me worry more about the marathon
I should be worrying about the marathon
..
This may take a while to resolve. I’ll let you know if I make it out the door.
Right now I am supposed to be roughly 4 miles into a 20 mile run (from Leeds to home along the Leeds-Liverpool canal) but that’s not happening. Apart from it being a change of plan I am ok about that. We were trying to catch up with the training plan but that turns out not to be very sensible. It would see us do 3 really long walks on Saturdays and long runs on Sundays for 3 consecutive weekends (the training plan actually has 2 ‘easy’ weeks inbetween). It’s too much and today our bodies let us know. Kath has a twinge in her left knee which feels a bit like her right knee did just before it gave up the ghost for a while and if I am totally honest about it, my right calf muscle is screaming for a rest. So we did the sensible thing and turned this weekend into an ‘easy’ weekend and called the 10.68 miles walk yesterday it.
The walk was nice though. We walked from home along the Leeds-Liverpool canal to Skipton. We weren’t striding out – just walking along nicely and the pace ended up being about 19 minutes per mile. We stopped at the post office on the way and had a couple of stops early on to watch the kingfisher whizz up and down the canal alongside us and then to watch a second kingfisher further along. It was cold, there was a dusting of snow on the hills and in places the wind was biting. It was nice to be out though. I wouldn’t say it cleared my mind but it stopped me thinking about anything at all. Once in Skipton we went into a pub for food and enjoyed a lovely beef stew before having a little look round the shops and getting the train home. So not much running news!
View on way to Skipton with flooded washland and snow capped hills
Last week I went through all my running gear and also bought the last bits and pieces I might need. So I now have a choice of kit to take. I tried the Salomon trainers I hadn’t worn yet on a short run and they were great. I will try them for one long run and providing they’re ok I will take them and my New Balance ones and see how I feel on the day. I have 4 pairs of 3/4 length running pants (including a new pair and a pair I have had years which I can now fit into – for the first time since 2013 and fit in easily for the first time ever!) and I also have a selection of t-shirts and vests to choose from. I will have one last trying on session before I pack but it is looking pretty good. I also have a new Shock Absorber Ultimate Run Sports Bra (catchy name!) which I am not 100% sure on yet. It is comfy and it eliminates bounce completely but there is something comforting about wearing an old worn in (out?) sports bra – like taking an old loyal supportive friend with you… We’ll see. Maybe the new one and I will bond over a long run next weekend. So the kit is sorted bar the final decisions about what travels with me.
It’s weigh in day. I have lost 2.4 pounds. I am really chuffed with that (it puts me on a round number) and it means I have now lost exactly 2.5 stone this year – that’s 35 pounds – that’s 15.8 kg. With every pound that comes off the running gets a little bit easier – there’s less of me to drag round and that in turn makes it easier to keep the weight off and keep losing a bit more. I’d love to shift another half stone before the marathon to make it a round 3 stone loss on 2015. That would be great but I am just going to keep going as I have been – running, eating relatively healthily and doing yoga most days.
I don’t quite know what to do with myself today – the plan was run 20 miles which was going to take most of the day… I’m not good with changes of plan at the moment so I am on my safe sofa for now. I’ll do more yoga later, more blogging, more Disney planning, more writing… more anything as long as it means I don’t have to leave the sofa or engage with people
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’:
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
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!’
Warm up – what warm up. We walked down the hill… Need to do more here – might help keep niggles away for longer
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.
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:
17 miles!
17 miles within RunDisney pacing requirements!
No niggles, mentally or physically until mile 9
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’
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
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.
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…
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.
Our road
onto the downhill
gentle slope
getting to end of slope
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.
top of the hill – now left
nice views across valley
dip toward the track
Our first sheep field
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.
Track past the fields
Track further on
Sheep field 3
Track just before slope
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.
My nemesis
Track through wood
Down the golf course
Down to the canal
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.
Right turn to canal
Lovely towpath views
Turn-round point
Views by the bridge
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.
Canal Views
Canal boats and funny light
One of my faves
More towpath
The Kingfisher tree
More towpath
More towpath
End point – Leach bridge
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:
Little hill
steep-ish hill
steep-ish hill cont.
Never ending hill
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!
Nearly home
Pub
Home
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…
