Busy not running

September 1, 2016 Jess Guth2 Comments

Ok, ok so you know how this works – no posts, means no running. I have been utterly crap! My fat arse seems to want to stay glued to the sofa. Not in the depression fogged way of late but in a lazy sort of ‘yeah I’ll go later’ sort of a way. I guess that’s sort of a positive – I can get off the sofa, just don’t want to.

Actually that’s not entirely true – I have wanted to get off the sofa and I have done stuff – I’ve walked miles both here and on our trip to the Lakes, I’ve sorted photos, I’ve organised books onto shelves, I’ve sorted work files, I’ve looked after our sheep, looked at new cars, looked at sheep trailers (stories yet to be shared on the sheep blog…). I’ve been busy. At least it feels like I have. All of this is of course just an excuse. I could easily have found time to run – just didn’t want to.

It’s 24 days to the Disneyland Paris Half Marathon. Hm, I think I better start thinking about running again. I think we’re ok. I’m not really panicked yet. I’m not worried about not making the distance – that’s the nice thing about a half marathon. It is doable, not so stupidly impossible like a marathon. I will be slow because I always am and I don’t mind. I am going into this with a slightly different mindset I think. I am not worried or scared. I am looking forward to it. I also have the memory of the Dopey Challenge Half which I loved. Yes it was hard somewhere in the middle where I felt a bit miserable but it didn’t last long and the overall experience was really positive. That’s what I am aiming for again. Just being there, doing it and taking it all in. If I do that the finish line will come to me!

For a few days I’ve felt grumpy about running and fitness and weight and food and ‘being good’. Just the very idea of trying to be good makes me want to eat a bar of chocolate. That thinking doesn’t work for me. I’ll refocus on fuelling and eating good stuff rather than being good! I feel better about it all today, much better and I’ve got my running gear on so when Kath breaks for lunch we can go and have a little trot out and then I’ll decide whether I want to panic about running 13.1 miles in just over three weeks!

Oh, did I just say I was LOOKING FORWARD TO a half marathon? How odd.

6 x 800 metres

August 2, 2016 Jess GuthLeave a comment

I have agreed to a run at lunch time. I don’t really want to run. I am struggling today. I am head-achey and tired and grumpy from sleeping later than I wanted to and from not being able to do all the things I want to do because I can’t get my butt off the sofa. I don’t want to do it. Can’t. Kath wants to do the 800 metre repeats. I don’t. I can’t do them. I can’t think of an excuse though, there isn’t one. So I’ll go. I’ll try.

Right, so, 6 x 800 metres with 3 minute walks in-between. I really didn’t want to go and do them. I barely managed 4 repeats last time and when we tried on Saturday my leg hurt. These are also the sorts of sessions where Kath and I are least on the same wavelength. So I wasn’t looking forward to it at all.

Actually it was fine. The first one felt easy – the stats show a little dip in pace in the middle but otherwise it’s pretty even and a decent pace. The second and third reps are the most even in terms of pace, the 4th is bit more ragged and also a little slower whereas 5 and 6 are even again but a little slower than the early ones. Overall the objective of going a bit faster than normal was achieved and although I found the 3rd and 5th one in particular hard and wasn’t sure I’d be able to do the 6th when we started it, I did. It felt really good to have done that. Now I just want to conquer the sheep loop backwards run again and see if I can do better on that.

Anyway, as these things sometimes happen, the universe obviously knew I needed a bit of a boost so it sent our postie with our goodies from the runDisney Shorts series we did back in May/June. I blogged about the first of the runs here. Well Disney can do bling and it was lovely to get these medals and the tumbler is fun too.

Because it seems so long since we did the runs and actually, they coincided with me being a bit grumpy about running, I decided I would award myself the Yellow Shoes medal for today’s run and save the others for other runs to come when I feel like I need to celebrate an achievement or milestone. So I think I’m keeping one for when I manage the sheep loop backwards with just walking up the golf course, one for when I complete 9 miles, which is our next long run, and then maybe the series one for when I next manage to set a Magic Mile personal best.

….but look at the bling

July 26, 2016July 26, 2016 Jess GuthLeave a comment

I don’t quite now how this happened. I don’t quite know how to explain this. And I am sorry. Really I am but I seem to have been totally and utterly reeled in by this medal business. Running is not about the medals, of course it’s not, it’s about the exercise, the way it chases away my little head gremlins and kicks that silly black puppy into touch, it’s about being outside, moving, learning new ways that my wibbly wobbly body is awesome, learning to push through when it gets tough, breathing… Oh but it so so so so is about the medals.

For a good few weeks I have pretended not to care at all about what the medals for our next races might be like. I have told people in Facebook groups to chill out and just wait. I have suggested that it might actually be quite nice not to see the medal before we actually get it… And then runDisney released pictures of medals for races I am not doing. Oooh look at the shiny pretty things…Have I gone completely totally and utterly insane? I mean really? Since when is shiny pretty things even a thing. I have never done shiny pretty things. And then this happened: runDisney released the Inaugural Disneyland Paris Half Marathon Weekend medals.

13701187_1501346403224650_1210956798876717662_o — Photo from RunDisney

But just look, just look at this. I mean just look. It’s all pretty and shiny. And and and , well, just look. Now I’ll run 13.1 miles for that. No, I really will because something in my brain has broken and I see the bling and think it’s pretty and shiny and I want it.

And it doesn’t stop there. Look at this

13754223_1501346443224646_4040941081380203700_n — Photo by RunDisney

Want want want want want. Yes, I have gone mad. It’s also making me want to watch the film again. Just look at the medal. Yep, I’ll run 5km for that. Who wouldn’t?! Oh wait, hang on, this isn’t normal is it. What is wrong with me.

As for this:

13872850_1501346326557991_1684471858733897002_n — Photo by RunDisney

I may have run round in circles making funny squeaky noises when I first saw this. Before telling myself to get a grip of course. I do not understand why I am even in the slightest excited about the medals. I mean, really?!? This is the sort of thing I roll my eyes at. But just look…

And I realise I’m about to hugely overdo it but just look at these:

13690744_1497242523635038_5021837586660634138_n — Photo by RunDisney

These are shiny and pretty too! And I am going for them in November. Until then I think I better go lock myself in a room and hope this obsession with pretty and shiny passes.

5km Puddle Plod

June 27, 2016 Jess GuthLeave a comment

Yesterday evening we were in need of something positive. I’d struggled through the day battling the urge to go and hide under the duvet. By 7pm I hadn’t really done anything at all. So we went for a run. We decided to do our last RunDisney 5km to complete the RunDisney Running Shorts Series. The Garmin died about 3/4 of the way along but as we were running out and back and had turned at exactly half way it didn’t matter. It was raining but it was quite nice running in the rain and sometimes dodging puddles and sometimes just running straight through them or even jumping in them.

We did the 5km in roughly 36 minutes – a little bit under possibly and I had 2 short little walk breaks of less than a minute each. It was a good run and I enjoyed bits of it even. I felt a bit dizzy again on the way home but it passed quickly and after some stretches, a bath and then some more yoga I actually felt pretty good and once we went to bed I fell asleep quickly and slept well for a few hours.

Today has been a struggle. I have tried to get work done and concentrate as I am keenly aware that there is so much that needs doing. I have managed to get some stuff done but it has been punctuated by frequent retreats to the sofa and one brief running away to hide under the duvet. My brain’s not working right, it’s sluggish and chaotic and that’s quite scary. My hips have also been really tight today but have eased a bit after some yoga.

I’m in that funny catch 22 thing where I know I need to go run and push quite hard to get the benefits and clarity that the exercise brings but my black puppy has got hold of the back of my pants and is pulling me back to the sofa telling my that I am rubbish at everything – until it loosens its grip a little getting out is such a big effort that I am exhausted before I get out the door.

I guess all I can do is keep on plodding!

Yellow Shoes Run and a redstart

May 22, 2016 Jess Guth4 Comments

I have just got back from a brilliant little run at Bolton Abbey. We wanted to do our RunDisney Shorts virtual run somewhere nice and fun and not take it seriously at all! so after a lovely little yoga session (Morning Stretches for Back Pain from Yoga Studio) we set off and drove to Bolton Abbey. It was a little overcast but dry and actually looked like it would turn into a gorgeous morning.

So we set off from the Cavendish Pavilion and walked to the top of the first slope – we were meant to be having fun after all, not killing ourselves on the first hill!. We had changed the intervals to try running a bit longer – so running for 2.5 mins and walking for a minute. I thought I might not notice as much if we sneaked in an increase on our fun run and I was planning on stopping for pictures anyway.

The colours were fantastic and the smell of the wild garlic really strong in some places.

The trees and ferns seemed to offer every imaginable shade of green and brown and we couldn’t help but stop and stare every now and again.

We pootled on alongside the Wharfe and up to the Strid where this little hill thankfully coincided with a walk break and I just about had time to stop at the top, turn around and take the picture.

Onwards and downhill a bit – I have to admit, I was scared going downhill – probably even more than usual after my fall last week but it was all fine and soon we came out of the wood and into the open with the aqueduct just ahead of us. This must be roughly half way – obligatory selfie as we crossed the river.

Just past the aqueduct on the other side of the Wharfe a group of people were standing with binoculars pointed into the trees. We asked if they could see anything good and they said they could see a male redstart and were even kind enough to let us have a look through their binoculars. I’ve never seen a redstart before so that was really exciting and we continued on our way with a spring in our step.

This stretch of the route is what you might politely call ‘undulating’. I call it fucking hilly. I managed to stick to all the intervals and just kept going lost in my own little world just letting my mind wander. And then we came to my nemesis.

Annoyingly it does not look like all that much on the photos but trust me, it’s a bastard. It has literally brought me to my knees and to tears in the past. Today we were having fun so we walked it, took a picture at the top and then headed off again. Downhill and flat from there!

We completed our 3.1miles, or 5km with lots of photo stops and stops to look at birds and the scenery in exactly 45.5 minutes. It was a slow but really lovely run and we have earned our Yellow Shoes Medal (although Valley of Desolation doesn’t sound very Disney, does it?!?)