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.
In my grumpiness yesterday I forgot to tell you about how the losing a few pounds thing is going. We weigh on on a Sunday morning. The idea of the weekly weigh in is taken from Slimming World which I have joined twice and left twice. I know it works but it isn’t for me long term because I can only take being patronised for so long and I find the meetings etc patronising on one level (the so, Jess, you’ve put on a pound this week, are you ok? What went wrong?) and incredibly frustrating on another because the meetings I have been to seem to be full of people who just don’t have a clue about healthy eating and exercise (‘Oh well I only had two cream cakes yesterday, a bottle of wine on Wednesday and a take away curry – I have no idea why I’ve put on). I’m not knocking slimming world or weight watchers or whatever – it obviously really works for lots of people and it worked for me for a while, then it didn’t. Anyway, what does work is having a set day/time to get on the scales – that does two things. It means I don’t get obessive. I easily could. I am a control freak and I could easily check my weight daily or more and then worry about it – not healthy. Having a set weekly weigh in stops that and it makes me do it even when I don’t really want to. Writing it down shows me I am going in the right direction overall even when there is an odd week where I don’t lose any weight or put some back on. My little notebook in which I record the numbers every week has been titled ‘Operation Eliminate Moomin Butt’ – it keeps me on track.
So the weigh in yesterday – I lost just under 2 pounds and that’s in spite of cake at work, a few drinks during the week and a meal out. What that means is that planning our meals and trying to be really conscious about every decision we make about food is working. Yes I had cake, but I didn’t have cake and a packet of crisps with my lunch. Yes I had a rum and coke on Saturday night, but I had one not several. Yes we had popcorn with our film on Saturday but we made it with as little oil as possible and put very little sugar on – much less than you’d get with ready bought popcorn. Our eating could be healthier, of course it could but I’m not made for diets and banning things etc – I just want them more. So for me it’s about making better choices and accepting that every now and again that choice is to not give a toss about how unhealthy what I choose to have is.
Plan for the week. We had pork chops with new spuds, purple sprouting broccoli from the garden and sweetcorn today. We have a quorn chilli, tuna steaks with veg, stir fry and wraps and a spag bolognese on the list for this week I think. Kath is away Tuesday night and back late on Wednesday so I’ll be fending for myself which is always problematic. I may see what there is on offer at work and just have a salad and few crackers in the evening.
For our naughty nibbles and treats, Kath made some cereal bars yesterday – they are definitly healthier than bought ones although they do contain a bit of honey and sugar. I love them because they’re a real energy boost and really help get me through my afternoon lull.
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!
really (not) a runner 