Tag: running

Getting carried away

Jess Guth4 Comments

I am getting over-excited. Perhaps it is that this evening I am finally starting to feel a bit better after after 3 days of feeling pretty crap, tired and miserable; perhaps it is because my visit to the osteopath seems to have sorted my leg and I am going to be able to have a go at the 11 miles tomorrow, perhaps it is because I have finally made some real progress with my teaching materials for the coming semester (I know I know but there is a week yet before induction week starts!). Whatever it is, I am getting carried away. In an attempt to make myself feel better yesterday I spent rather a long time looking at Disney stuff online.

Don’t judge me, I know, corporate America at its worst… I can’t help it. I believe in the magic that is Disney and I get excited about our trip. I spent a while looking at what I’d like to do at the parks. I’m not a big rollercoaster fan, I get motion sick really easily and thrill seeking has never appealed to me. I do like a little rollercoaster type fun though and the Seven Dwarf Mine Train looks fun – it’s new since we last went so I have no idea what it’ll be like but I’m looking forward to trying it. It always takes me a couple of walk-pasts before I decide I do want to go on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. That’s probably my rollercoaster limit (pathetic, I know) and I have to be in the right mood for it. I might not do this until after the marathon! I’m always scared of tweaking my back or something – is that actually likely? And then if I am feeling really brave which in my stupid over excited state this evening I am, I will ‘Blast off on a rip-roaring rocket through the darkest reaches of outer space’  and get myself onto Space Mountain. I have done that before and enjoyed it – I think it’s because I can’t see what’s coming and have no option but to go with it.

I’m also scared of heights so was only persuaded to go onto the Astro Orbiter on our final day of the last trip (which was January 2013 by the way – we don’t do this often!) and I actually really enjoyed it – it was lovely to have the views across the park and back towards our hotel. So I won’t wait until the last day this time! I could go on and on with other rides but I will stick to the Magic Kingdom for now or this will be a very long post. I am excited about walking over from our hotel once we’ve arrived and just wandering through the Magic Kingdom. I am excited about not being cold in January. I am excited about walking up Mainstreet USA and then just seeing where our feet take us. Ok, yes, I am just excited!

But I am not there to have fun, well not only to have fun. I am there to run. I’m there to run the RunDisney Disney World Marathon.so of course I got carried away and excited about that too. I got sidetracked looking at all the info on the RunDisney site and came across this pacing chart

Pace/Mile
Half Marathon
Full Marathon
9:30
2:04:00
4:09:00
10:00
2:11:00
4:22:00
10:30
2:18:00
4:35:00
11:00
2:24:00
4:48:00
11:30
2:31:00
5:01:00
12:00
2:37:00
5:14:00
12:30
2:44:00
5:28:00
13:00
2:50:00
5:41:00
13:30
2:57:00
5:54:00
14:00
3:03:00
6:07:00
14:30
3:10:00
6:20:00
15:00
3:17:00
6:33:00
15:30
3:23:00
6:46:00
16:00
3:30:00
6:59:00

So the  full chart actually starts at 6 minutes per mile but that is just stupid pace so I cut it down a bit. In 2013 we completed the half marathon in just under 3.5 hours – so very very slow but then we hadn’t really trained –  we’d never made it past 10km. I am looking at our pace now – 12.55 minutes per mile for the 9 miles the other week with a bit left in the tank at the end – and wouldn’t it be just amazing to complete our upcoming half marathon in under 3 hours – maybe even closer to 2 hours 45 mins than 3 hours? And then aim for a marathon finish somwherere between 5.5 and 6 hours. I get quite giddy at the thought of that. Too giddy. This was never about a time, this is just meant to be getting round and enjoying it. But, but.. but just look, the time allowed is 16 minutes per mile. Even on our slowest days we are significantly faster than that. I MAY NOT COME LAST! OMG I may actually not come last.

Thursday – crashed with a weak middle

Jess Guth4 Comments

Well I’m doing well aren’t I. After my panic attack yesterday morning I then went to bed early (like 9pm) and read a little bit and fell alseep quickly – for about 90 minutes. Then I woke up. And stayed awake, and stayed awake and stayed awake. I finally dozed off again around 4.30am and when 6am came I was just exhausted and tearful and generally not coping. I hate that feeling, I am a successful, strong and pretty competent woman and should be able to keep my shit together… but no. I can’t, or not all the time anyway. I felt – as you’d say in Yorkshire – proper poorly. So back to sleep I went – until 11.45am. I think that’s what you call crashed.

Then I got up. My leg is still much the same as it was yesterday I think but I had the osteopath appointment this afternoon – possibly the only reason I actually made it out of bed. I wrote about the osteopath a bit back in May. but it is worth repeating: They are amazing. So I toddled off to the Practice, for anyone locally, they are in Keighley at Farfield House Clinic and they are worth bearing in mind for any niggles. I don’t really know how they compare on price but £40 for a session doesn’t strike me as massively expensive.

I saw the same guy as last time (seemed to make sense to me and he had apointments available when I phoned). I was, as I always am for any medical appointment, apprehensive. I tried my best to explain what had happened and he seemed to get it. I can’t quite explain how grateful I am not to be told to stop running or to lose more weight before I even think about running. So after a few tests which had me standing up and touching my toes, standing on one leg, leaning back, twisting my torso etc he examined the muscles in my leg. The good news – I am flexible (for my age – the ‘for my age’ bit being added is a new development!) and the yoga we’ve been doing is clearly working. There is now hardly a difference between left and right in terms of flexibility which is good. The bad news – I’m a bit weak round the middle. Basically the niggle I have comes from the top of my legs and hips not being strong enough. It’s a common issue and thankfully it has an easy solution – strengthen the weak bits. After a little bit of work on the back of my right hip which I can now feel but which I’m sure will be tons better tomorrow, I was shown to simple exercises to do.

The first one is the Monkey Squat. There are loads of videos and descriptions out there but I quite like this one because it is simple. Basically you stand with your feet hipwith apart and then go to sit down on a chair but don’t, stand back up. The second exercise is even simpler – all you need is some stairs. you put your foot on the second step up (facing up) and then step up (hold onto something for balance if you need to) and then lower back down. If you don’t cheat and use momentum or pull yourself up this does work – I did a few on my left side to practise earlier.

As well as these exercises I think I will have to get over myself and start doing the strength session from the yoga app rather than sticking to the flexibility and relaxation ones. Anyway, all in all good news. I haven’t been told to stop running, not even for a short time and it looks like the 11 miler may be on for Saturday – as long as I can stop feeling poorly and sleeping all the bloody time.

Wednesday – still grumpy

Jess Guth4 Comments

Today has not been a good day. We went for a run on Monday. My right leg was a bit tight and almost sore as we set off but it loosened up and was then fine. It was a hard but ok run and I took two walk breaks out. I think the pace was just under 11 and a half minutes per mile. I was quite excited because it meant we didn’t have any gaps on our training plan and we were ready to start week 10. On Tuesday we spent the morning at Kilnsey Show and then came back home and got ready to run in the afternoon. We set off, my leg was stiff and sore – same as Monday really but this time it didn’t ease. By the time we got down to the canal it was painful. I thought it might ease once on the flat rather than going downhill. It didn’t. We stopped. It was so utterly frustrating and of course there were tears. I am trying really hard to be patient. No running today. My calf is tight and there is a niggle further up my leg into my hip and I think the problem may be that my hamstring is really tight. I have an appointment with the osteopath tomorrow so we’ll see what he says. No more running this week anyway.

So instead I have been looking at running routes and we have figured our an 11 mile route for Saturday (fingers crossed I’ll be ok) and also looked at what we can do along the cannal without having to run the same route again and again. So the 11 mile route for Saturday is Bolton Abbey to Burnsall and back – along the river Wharfe. I won’t spoil it, I’ll share details of the route when we actually run it. There are options along the canal with starting points in Shipley, Saltaire or Crossflatts so I think we’ll be ok – conveniently marathon distance is Leeds to home-ish along the canal so we know where we’ll be running for the really really long practice run!

I also had a little panic attack this morning and that slight sense of panic hasn’t really left me today. It probably hasn’t got anything to do with running or rather not running but I don’t think that’s helped. Anyway I am reasured that you don’t lose fitness by not running for a few days so I am hoping we’ll be ok for the long run and then can build from there.

So as not to lose focus but also to remind myself that I really do need to do this right and if my leg isn’t right I’ll just have to wait until it is, I have spent some more time looking at all the work Panthera do. For example, have a look at the Cougar Channel for loads of little video clips  (I quite like the greet and play) or if you feel like you need a brain workout have a look at the publications – I loved reading some of them but I really wish I was more of a scientist to help me make sense of it all.

If you value the work Panthera do or you’re just feeling generous or just want to support us please consider sponsoring us or donate to Panthera directly. Thank you.

Grumpy Sunday

Jess Guth8 Comments

I’ve put on a pound and a half. I’m not too grumpy about that. I had a couple of pints, cake, two meals out and pizza. I am pleased it’s only a pound and a half really. I’m grumpy because I’m impatient and I want to be making progress and this is supposed to get easier. Instead I seem to be struggling more than ever with 45 minute runs and 3 milers on our ‘easy’ week and just the idea of running generally.

So Tuesday we had a good postive run which I blogged about in the last post. The next run was supposed to be Thursday but I was curl-up-in-a-ball-and-cry tired so we postponed the run until Friday. Kath had suggested upping the running to 3 minutes (with a 30 second rest still) and that seemed sensible. the 2.5 minutes running had been going really well. So Friday was a decent run. We went at a slow pace just to see what the 3 minutes would be like and actually I didn’t find that harder than 2.5 minutes. I did wonder though whether it would start to tell if we picked up the pace.

Saturday was our planned 3 miles and we also still had a 45 minute from the other week to catch up on. We had planned to go to Bolton Abbey and run the 45 mins on Saturday and then do the 3 miles Sunday (today) but the Kath had a disturbed night and the kitten woke her up at 4.30am ish so by the time I got up she was tired and hungry.

Don't be fooled - he may look cute but he is a complete lunatic
Don’t be fooled – he may look cute but he is a complete lunatic

We went out for breakfast instead and postponed the run until the afternoon. We decided to try the 3 miles. We nearly didn’t go. We’d watched the Challenge Cup Final and has pizza, we were both tired and it would have been easy to put it off. We did get our backsides out of the house though and went to run along the canal – a simply 1.5 miles one way and then back. It was horrible. I felt sluggish, then I felt sick, my left knee felt uncomfortable and my right leg felt a bit weird. 11 and a half minutes per mile pace and to be fair I did feel more awake and positive after having done it. It also highlighted that pizza and salad are not at all good for pre-run food. It was just over two hours between eating and running but I won’t be having pizza and salad before running again!

So this morning. The cats were being rowdy again so we were both awake early. We did 15 minutes of flexibility yoga (I didn’t bend at all this morning) and then went to set off from home for our ‘past the sheep’ loop. My right leg felt weird. I can’t really explain it. It feels sort of tight and weak at the same time. Like it needs stretching out but also like it might give way. It’s not pain as such, it’s just unpleasant and unnerving. We set off for the seocnd run interval and I nearly fell over. I have a sort of slightly odd tension in the right side of my butt and it sort of carries down my right leg.

It is hard to explain how I felt walking back home. It’s always me that pulls out of a run, it’s always me that lets us down. I am so worried that I have basically reached my limit, that plodding round for 45 minutes 3 times a week is my level and that if I push beyond that with a longer run I basically just break. For a minute there I just wanted to give it all up. Why bother with something that I am never going to be good at?  I’m going to try more yoga and stretching throughout the day and see where I am this afternoon. I’d really like to do the run and get rid of the gap on the training plan. It’s only 29 days to go to the Nottingham Half Marathon. I need to get my act together and keep it together – and ideally not break.

Eek -race numbers and shirts - nice to get long sleeved Ts
Eek -race numbers and shirts – nice to get long sleeved Ts

Recovered from 9 miles

Jess Guth2 Comments

I was tempted by a pre-run post today. Probably because I have got a big pile of proof reading and editing on my desk. Anything but that! So here are my pre-run thoughts:

Today is the first maintenance run following the 9 miles at the weekend. My knees are still a bit creaky but I feel ok. As we are both working at home Kath suggested a lunchtime run. We haven’t done that before so now I’m worrying about it being different but actually I quite like the idea (that might also have something to do with the pile of proofing and editing!). I keep telling myself it is only 45 minutes. Far less than half of what I did at the weekend! It’s a nice day out and I don’t think it is too warm so it should be a lovely run. I want it to be. You see, there I go putting pressure on myself again. It’s obvious I don’t want it to be a horrible run but I need to stop insisting on every run being brilliant. I build it up in my head and it becomes this big thing and then I’m disappointed at the end because it wasn’t a PB or it wasn’t a strong positive run or whatever. I also get nervous and scared about running then (I’m starting to get a bit panicky about today now) and that can’t be good. I wrote the other day that there is no pressure on me and that I decide and that’s absolutely true – I just need to remember it!

Then I got side-tracked and actually did some proof reading as well as a bit of paper and book moving about (my usual pre-writing ritual, also known as procrastination) and now I am just back from that run. It was fantastic. No, for once I am not being sarcastic. I really enjoyed it. We went along the canal towards Bingley. There wasn’t much of note to see  -well actually there was, there were ducks and dog walkers (and dogs) and walkers and cyclists, a couple of other runners, some geese.. the usual canal-y sort of stuff. But the run wasn’t fantastic because of scenery or being out or any of that. It was fantastic because I felt good doing it. It was physically hard but not an effort if that makes sense. For the first time we hit 4 miles in the 45 minutes and even though I didn’t know that until we’d finished I really enjoyed just pushing that little bit harder physically to maintain what I thought might be a pretty even and acceptable pace. Well it turned out to be a very even pace and our fastest over the distance but that hardly matters (except somewhere in my head it does), what matters is that I enjoyed just running, not the things I saw while out or anything like that , just running. Happy.