We have registered. Yep, that’s it. We have actually committed to giving this a real shot now. We booked our holiday to Disney a while ago. We fly out on 5th January 2016 and we will be staying at the Bay Lake Tower which is part of the Contemporary Resort. Now we are also officially registered for the RunDisney event. Gulp.
All the details for the marathon weekend can be found on the RunDisney Disney World Marathon Weekend website and I am now scared and excited in equal measure.
Frustrating. Very frustrating. I am now sitting on our sofa watching the London Marathon coverage and I pretty much feel like I just want to cry. I am of course being over dramatic. We set off for our 3.5 miles run this morning. We walked down to the canal and then set off towards Bingley. We got to just over 1 mile and I tweaked something in my right calf muscle. I kept going through that run and stretched it out in the walk interval and then started running again but it felt really tight and weird. We stopped and walked back. I was really upset about that and Kath was clearly frustrated that we couldn’t complete the run so we walked back in rather grumpy silence.
I have stretched and had some ice on it and it is beginning to ease. Let’s see how it goes. Maybe we can try again tomorrow. If it’s no better I will be making an appointment with our osteopath to take a look. I think though I am struggling more mentally with the setback. Running is such a huge deal for me and I feel so insecure about the whole thing that any setback is really really hard to get my head round. 3.5 miles not done, right calf tight and a bit sore, Jess tearful and grumpy… I guess tomorrow is another day.
When I started this blog I did so partly to share my experience but partly also because I find writing therapeutic, it’s a way for me to vent and to deal with crap and negative stuff. I was sure that I’d be writing post after post about how hard I was finding it and how rubbish I felt about the running journey and that just every now and again I’d have an almost excited positive post… So I am somewhat taken aback by how things are going since I started the blog. It’s going well. It is totally utterly bizarre but the running is going well. We are in week 7 of this programme. We have done our two 30 minute runs this week and they have both been fun. We decided at the weekend sitting in our little summerhouse with a beer that we would up the running time and keep the walking time the same. Seemed like a great idea curled up on a beanbag bottle in hand. When it actually came to doing it I was less sure. However, running for 90 seconds and then walking for 30 secsonds really hasn’t felt any different to just running for 1 minute. Both our runs this week have been evening runs. On Tuesday we ran our 30 mins at a 13.01 minutes per mile pace and had fun doing it. I think we even had a conversation half way round. Setting off today I was keen to try and push the pace a little up the hills as I tend to really slow down and also to run more confidently down hill. It worked and we ran 2.37 miles with a pace of 12.39 minutes per mile. I did huff and puff at the end but I was really pleased with that run. So I’m not really struggling at this point. I don’t need to vent. I just need to share my bemusement!
Next up 3.5 miles at some point over the weekend
A marathon seems about as likely as winning the lottery without buying a ticket today. We went for our 40 minute run first thing this morning. We thought a good positive start to the day would set up our Sunday nicely. Neither of us was very imaginative about the route today so we started off from home and when past our sheep field and joined the route we’d done during the week for our 30 minute runs. My legs felt tired and my right calf muscle and my left shin felt a bit tight. Neither of us felt much like pushing the pace so we agreed that we’d have a slow plod round and try and enjoy it as best we could. That mostly worked and it was lovely to jog along our field with a gang of lambs running with us for a short burst. Then we saw two jays and then our ram relaxing in his field. I didn’t see much for the next two runs then because I was huffing my way up the hill – althiugh actually at that significantly slower pace there was also significantly less huffing. Slowly jogging down the golf course was quite nice, there were one or two playing. The canal was still very quiet with just one or two dog walkers and keen cyclists. Even most of the ducks were still asleep. We saw ducklings. Only two sets but the first set hat 8, the second had 12.
I’m not sure I really enjoyed it but it was an ok run. I am always disappointed when it’s not as fast as the last one but Kath keeps telling me to get out of that mindset and she’s right. We’re doing it and running 3 times a week is beginning to become part of our routine.
So next week brings 3 30 minute runs. We’re aiming for Tuesday and Thursday evening and then either Saturday or Sunday morning. We’ve also planned food for the week as both of us are really getting the munchies for the rest of the day after running and because I could really do with shifiting a few pounds (and then a few more!). Today is our naughty day so we are having sausages and yorkshire pudding with loads of veg. For the rest of week we are planning on a quorn chilli, salmon on a bed of quinoa, jacket spuds, a greek salad and pasta with a simple roast veg and tomato sauce. We’ve also got stuff for a healthy-ish version of pancakes for breakfast, loads of fruit, eggs for scrambled eggs on toast, peanut butter on toast and bagles and humous. I had planned on a banana loaf for a bit of a treat but in a complete baking fail I used self-raising flour instead of plain and it all went horribly wrong so we may have to re-think that. Kath made some lovely courgette and dark chocolate buns last week.
Oh and I have lost 1.5 pounds over this last week so overall we’re going in the rigth direction. Happy Sunday!
… said Jess, never ever ever before about running but it is true. I did enjoy our run this afternoon. We are in week 6 of a Jeff Galloway 10km programme. Week 6 was to start on Tuesday but that didn’t happen. As I woke up this morning after a night interrupted by the kitten and having had a few glasses of wine at an evening out with work I wasn’t entirely convinced that week 6 was going to start today, or that it would start on a positive note. I was no more convinced at 3pm when Kath suggested we might get ourselves organised and go for a run. But I went and got changed (ahem, well, dressed really – the benefits(?) of working at home). We walked to feed our sheep (if you’re interested in them check our riddlesdenjacobs.com) and then set off from there. We ran up the little path into the wood and then down Riddlesden golf course and then along the canal. It was a 30 minute run and we stuck to our interval pattern of 1 minute run, 30 seconds walk.
The first two runs were on the path leading into the wood and it’s uphill. Not steep, just a steady little pull. I was puffing a bit (alright alright – a lot) but as we levelled off I felt fine. The downhill was quite fun and by the time we got onto the canal I realised that I was actually looking around. I saw the 11 ducklings, the shy little moorhen, a little bluetit fluffed up on a branch… I was running and noticing things around me!
I had a vague sense that we were pushing the pace a little more than we had previously but I really wasn’t sure and because we hadn’t started from home I didn’t have my usual markers on that route to tell me if I was slower of faster than I had been before.
We did 2.29 miles – so we had gone faster than previously. But much more importantly, it was a really positive run with a strong finish which we both enjoyed. That is a huge step in the right direction and one to file away safely in the memory bank. I’m almost looking forward to the next run! Almost.
really (not) a runner 