Tag: running

Getting back in the zone

Jess Guth1 Comment

As I write this there are gorgeous smells coming from the kitchen where Kath is making healthy blueberry bran muffins as well as our late lunch/early tea of quorn chilli; we’ve had a lovely morning (after a very long sleep for me) at Bolton Abbey where we went for a roughly 3 mile walk and we have spent most of the time talking about training, the runs we’d like to do from home as well as from starting locations locally. I am in a much better place mentally today. A number of things have contributed to that.

1. The little messages of support and tips on here, Facebook and Twitter and the very generous sponsorship/ donations made to Panthera. Thank you

2. It is Sunday which means weigh-in day and I have lost another pound. If I can shift another 2.2 pound I will drop into the next stone and it is exciting to see that first number go down rather than be an irritating and slightly depressing constant. I will be close to being the lightest I have been in over 3 years and not far off being the lightest I have been in over 18 years.

3. Our next run will be the first run of our marathon training programme. Now yesterday this freaked me out. Today I am excited about this. I am even more excited because Kath has bought me some smileimagey star stickers so I can mark of each run (yes, I know I probably need to get out more – but smiley star shaped stickers!). Here is the first page, blank. I’ll post again when it is full of happy little stars

4. Our first ‘race’ is two weeks today. That was just stupid yesterday but today I see it differently. Today I see it as part of my learning curve. It won’t be fast, in fact it will be very slow but it has been a very long time since I’ve run in a crowd, the timings for when to eat, when to pee, when to warm up…. are all different so it will be a great, if difficult experience. I know I can do the distance. I’ve done it twice now in the last 4 weeks and once I did it when I really really wasn’t in a happy running place.

So, yesterday running  made me miserable, and it really did. Today I feel better. Today I am pleased that the 6.5 miles yesterday haven’t resulted in any niggles or even stiffness. My legs were a little tight but the walk sorted that. Today I am proud of how far I’ve come and (while still totally unfit) how much fitter I am than I was. I am back in that tiny little zone in my head that knows that I can do most things I really put my mind to. It’s a little zone, a tiny one, one that I don’t manage to get myself into very often, one that shuts the door on my depressive black Labrador and on all the doubts, questions and negativity. It’s the zone that knows that this girl can and it is the zone that is learning to shout and be heard over all that other crap. So, Leeds: here’s my number. Look out for me. I won’t be running fast but I will be running because I have decided I am doing this so whether I can or not is actually irrelevant, I am doing it.

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Being honest

Jess Guth1 Comment

At the start of this whole blogging thing I said I’d be honest. So here is honest: today I really hated running. Really hated it. All 6.5 miles of it. I got up early, stupidly early to start the day with a positive, with an achievement. The running experience today is right up there with having one of those internal camera things put down my throat, having stitches removed or the dentist prodding your gums. Not painful exactly, just unpleasant. Something you really wish wasn’t happening to you.

Kath and I were out of sync. It felt like she was disappointed at the pace, critical of my running style, not helpful and not supportive. She of course felt that there wasn’t anything she could say that would help and she was probably right. It was all just awful. Today running did not make feel better. There wasn’t and still isn’t a sense of achievement for having run another 6.5miles. There is just disappointment that I just can’t shake off, there’s a sense of just not being able to do it, a sense that the goals we’ve set are so far out of reach that trying is a bit pointless. Today running just made me miserable.

When you feel like giving up, remember why you started in the first place

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I saw that somewhere – maybe on the running bug website or facebook or something. So while I don’t actually feel like giving up at the moment, it is always worth reminding myself and others why I am doing this and there could be no better reminder than watching the BBC Natural World programme about Panthera’s work the other day. The programme Mountain Lions: Big Cats in High Places was shown on BBC 2 last Tuesday and it is still available on the iPlayer until mid July (for anyone not in the UK, not sure if or where you can catch it). Watch it if you get a chance. It is amazing footage and shares some of the latest insights and information about Mountain Lion behaviour. It is also a really good example of why I want to support Panthera’s work. The Mountain Lion project which is the focus of the programme shows how Panthera enables scientists to do their thing and to fully understand the big cats and their lives. The programme shows how detailed and rigorous scientific work can challenge our preceptions of how  big cats live their lives. The better we understand them, the better we can protect them.

So, this is just a quick opportunity for me to say thank you to Panthera. Thank you for doing the work that you do. Thank you for protecting the big cats of this world and for trying to make sure that we do not have to experience a world without them. Thank you for bringing us amazing pictures and amazing stories of amazing creatures. This is also an opportunity for me to reiterate our support for Panthera. Our running efforts are about that support. It may have all sorts of benefits for us personally but ultimately this is all about raising money so Panthera can continue the brilliant work they do. Our first ‘race’ is in 2 weeks’ time. If you can support us and therefore Panthera then please do. Thank you to those of you who have already sponsored us. If you haven’t already then you can do so on our Justgiving Page. Seeing donations come in or hearing about direct donations to Panthera really does help! It reminds me why I started in the first place and it reminds me that giving up just isn’t an option!

Thank you

The Good, The Bad and the Very Sweaty

Jess Guth4 Comments

I’ve just got back from a run and I don’t really want to talk about it. We did 35 minustes yesterday and got to 2.83 miles but it was awful and I got shit on by a bird. Today we set off from home for the first time in ages to see if my calf muscle would hold up on the hills. It did but I got a horrible pain at the top of my left side – not sure why but I’m blaming the fish and chips I had for lunch for causing indigestions which caused trapped air.  It happened at about half way and meant I nearly didn’t make it to the end  – a slow plod got me there but it was most unpleasant.

So the good: erm, well, come on there’s got to be something? Oh yes – I went for a run

The bad: hate it hate it hate it

We do need to talk about underwear. Underwear when running is a serious issue. I vaguely remembered that much from my running attempts in 2012. What I couldn’t remember is why or what to look out for. Sports bra is obvious (well obvious for anyone with boobs who has ever had to run for a bus) so let’s leave that aside for now. Knickers  – that’s what is concerning me at the moment. There are some knickers that are ok for running and there are some that are not but there doesn’t seem to be a way of knowing before you actually try running in them. I have knickers that are the same cut and size – even from the same pack – and one pair is fine an the other is quite likely to cause serious injury. Chafing is never a good thing but its worse in some places than others. I don’t understand why I can’t just find a type which works, I don’t understand why it comes down to individual pairs! Am I the only one with this issue? I can’t be, surely.

The other thing about underwear is that it has to be able to deal with sweat. Nobody told me quite how horrible this was going to be. Someone should have taken me to one side and said ‘You won’t really notice it while you’re running but the minute you stop you’ll feel like you’ve peed yourself’. Even after our short runs my pants are always soaked in sweat. I have to literally peel them off me when I get home. After the long runs I doubt they could be wetter if I fell in the canal. The same is pretty much true for my bra but it gets worse: Because of the cut and relatively tight fit as well as the type of material, the bra doesn’t absorb sweat all that well, instead the sweat pools. Only slightly but it pools and, as I discovered today, small flies can drown in that pool. It’s not funny.

So, see this as me taking you to one side and having a quiet word: ‘People will tell you how amazing running is, how it transformed their lives, how it keeps them sane… all of that might be true but there is absolutely no getting away from very very sweaty knickers!’

Excuses excuses and more excuses!

Jess Guth1 Comment

Well it has been a while. Well a week and a bit. So after the 6.5 miles we did on the Sunday (see last post) we felt pretty good and were up for our shorter runs during the week. Then Monday came and we had our planned rest day. Then Tuesday came and we didn’t go for a run, then Wednesday, Thursday, then Friday and we hadn’t been. We went away for the weekend so knew we wouldn’t be going then either. We had all the usual excuses, too tired, too close to having eaten, feeling a bit low, can’t be bothered, we’ll go in the morning instead, didn’t get up in time, would be too much of a rush… Yep, if you can think of an excuse, we probably used it last week. And the thing is, as the week went on we felt worse and worse both physically  but also mentally because I certainly kept feeling like I was letting us down. We should have just gone for a run! So enough of that.

We had a lovely weekend away with friends who were amazing hosts and who helped us just relax and chill out completely. We had a longish walk with them on Saturday and it was good to be out. Our drive home Sunday was about five hours including a stop for lunch on the way so by the time we got home we actually both felt like going for a little run. I found it physically hard but I enjoyed stretching my legs a bit. We did 2.78 miles in 35 mins.

We couldn’t ignore the Sunday weigh-in either so when we got back from the run I hopped on the scales fully expecting a few pounds to have gone back on. I hadn’t tried to eat well and I hadn’t been running all week and then we had a lovely weekend with lots of yummy food and a couple of drinks. However the scales stubbornly stayed on the same number they were at last week. I think that’s what you call getting away with it!

Yesterday Kath persuaded me to get my butt on the road (well canal path) again. I didn’t really want to go, I had work stuff going round in my head and felt like I just wanted to hide under the duvet. But she was right, another 35 minute run did make me feel loads better. We went slightly further on this one 2.89 miles I think.

I am writing this on the train back from  Liverpool where I have been visiting a school for their UCAS week. I think I might actually quite like to go for s short run this evening. I’ve spent most of the day on the train. I feel like I want to move and be outside. I am also very very conscious that our first 10km run is in 19 days. More on that soon!

So, a crap week last week but this week has started pretty well. Let’s see if I can keep it going.