Tag: training

The Dopey Training Plan

Jess Guth2 Comments

Dopey gI mentioned in the last post that the runDisney races have their own magic and pixie dust, and they do. BUT and it’s a big but, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to train for them. You absolutely do. The Dopey Challenge is a serious challenge and the marathon is no joke. runDisney races are there to be enjoyed and if you are not properly trained then they are just not fun so why bother. So the runDinsey pixie dust isn’t that kind that somehow magics away the lack of training and gets you round happy and smiling. It’s the sort of pixie dust that makes the training worthwhile! We are broadly sticking to what worked last time and are using the Jeff Galloway programme on the runDisney website. There are a few modifications though – we are adding some hill and some speed work to the plan – doing that where the 2 weekly 45 minute runs are scheduled – probably roughly in alternate weeks. We also don’t really bother with the magic mile in any systematic way. As his entire plan is based on run/walk it it was a lovely confidence builder last time. This time I feel far fitter than I was when we started last time so I am continuing to run rather than run/walk the shorter runs and will also run/walk some of the walks listed

So here’s how it shapes up:

We are just at the end of week 7 now and today is actually meant to be a 3 mile run. We have changed that to 9 miles and it fits in better tomorrow – the 9 miles is part of the Great North Run prep. The rest of the training plan then looks like this

So far I feel quite positive about this. I like the 2 weekly 45 minute runs and the numbers on the long runs are not yet scaring me. I still have fond memories of the Toronto Half Marathon in the memory bank so hope that they can carry me through the next few training runs and the Great North Run after which we will have to submit our proof of time for Dopey corral placement. All the strength work we’ve been doing should help too!

Happy Training!

Nothing quite like home

Jess Guth1 Comment

Well after a month of adventures in Australia with a little bit of running thrown in, it was nice to be home. The jet lag  wasn’t too bad in terms of sleeping patterns but a bit of a pain in terms of being generally tired and really hungry at random times. We arrived back on Saturday 4th August and on Sunday morning woke up early. We decided to run. My ankles still felt a bit tired but any real soreness had gone. Generally I just felt tight from having been curled up on planes for too much of the previous 48 hours or so.

This is nearly two weeks ago now so my memory is a bit fuzzy – I think we set off separately. We were aiming for the 6 miles listed on the Dopey Plan and wanted to have a nosey at the new canal towpath between Riddlesden and Silsden too. It was quite hard going and my feet kept going numb like they do when my calves are too tight so I walked rather more than I really wanted to but it was good to get out and the familiarity of the landscape made me smile. It was lovely to see and hear birds that I recognised and to see how things had changed over the month we’d been gone. 6.2 miles in the bank.

The second run at home was my attempt to get into good habits and not keep putting off speed sessions. We did the runners world fartlek we’ve done before and I didn’t do too badly except that I obviously pushed too hard on the 1 minute run and was a little bit sick, recovered and then did the two 30 second intervals at a steady pace. Speed work not avoided! Well done me. Next I wanted to do a 45 minute continuous run because while I haven’t been doing run/walk, I have been running with photo stops. I haven’t run continuously for ages. So I set off and felt pretty good for the first two miles or so. The canal towpath was busy though with lots of people coming towards me and I didn’t fancy turning round and having to go past all these people again so I changed my mind last minute and crossed the canal – I wasn’t mentally ready for the hill which threw me and I had to stop and walk. At the top I set off again and past a dog walker whose dog decided it would come with me instead. I had to stop and wait for him to retrieve it. Unfortunately this happened at the bottom of the next slope and I didn’t get going again until I’d walked to the top. Still it ended up being a pretty solid 45 minutes.

Then came the weekend long run last weekend – 7 miles was the plan. We went up towards Ilkley Moor and I was pretty pleased with how I managed to keep pushing from landmark to landmark. One day I might be able to run it all but for now that’ll do nicely. At the top we decided to turn left rather than right towards the trig point and stanza stones. It’s often really wet and boggy left so we’d never run it before. At the end of that track we went left again and explored a new (well no, new to us) path/track/trail to take us back down towards home. At some point we must have got it just slightly wrong because we ended up on the other side of the wall to where the clear footpath was but it was all fine. Given the terrain and that we weren’t quite sure where we were going we ended up walking a fair bit and the loop was 6 mile rather than the 7 but it was a fun little adventure.

This week I have done 2 45 minute Dopey Training runs  – one nice little plod along the canal with Kath which was uneventful and then the re-run of the route I did last week where I had to walk the slopes. This time I wanted to run it all and had asked Kath to help me. I really need to stop avoiding hills or deciding to walk the ones that are perfectly runnable! So we set off and I felt pretty good. The first mile was just under 12 minutes and I wondered whether I should slow down a bit to make sure I had enough in the tank but I felt good so just kept moving by feel rather than worrying about pace. Coming up the the bridge we were crossing and the hill that had thrown me last time I started repeating in my head: I feel good, I feel strong…. over and over. The hill came and went and I realised that my breathing and heart rate were recovering. I did actually feel good and strong. I kept the mantra going and the slope where I had to wait last week for the dog to be retrieved didn’t seem bad at all. Then there was the final little hill. I had a moment of doubt but then I thought I had less than 5 minutes to go so just needed to hang on. The hill somehow came and went and I kept running at the top. My legs didn’t give up and then my breathing recovered and I felt my heart rate settle again. I pushed the pace to the end of the road and stopped having run just over 45 minutes at 12.02 minutes per mile pace. Thrilled with that.

Next is the weekend 9 miler. I’ll be doing this run/walk with the aim of keeping the runs relatively fast, the walks positive and my mind off negative notions of things it might suddenly decide are impossible. Nothing is impossible. Which is a good thing because the Great North Run is looming.

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Australia Running 3 – Kewarra Beach

Jess Guth1 Comment

Our adventure continued on Cairns’ northern beaches. After arriving at the Kewarra Beach Resort and Spa we had some lunch and then turned our attention to running. We realised that in order to be safe we really needed to go quite soon so as to avoid croc time. So we let lunch settle as long as we could and then set off for a beach run. The first bit was still on wet sand close to the water which was sort of hard and bouncy.

The tide was coming in so we soon had to move higher up the beach and running got tougher. I couldn’t really run on the proper sand – walking was hard enough but I did manage on the in between stuff.

I turned at about 1.5 miles and completed a very satisfying 3 mile plod. It wasn’t half a workout for my ankles and feet though.

The next morning we had a little plod out the other way. We didn’t have that much time because we were heading on a day trip to Kuranda but we got out for a little sunrise mile. I wasn’t going to run. I was going to go and sit while Kath did her thing but it was just too inviting.

Happy running!

Australia Running 1 – Cairns

Jess Guth2 Comments

I have some catching up to do. I am now actually in Brisbane and tomorrow I have to switch into work mode so before we go and enjoy a NRL game this evening I thought I’d spend a bit of time catching up on the running we’ve done while on our adventures. Not that there is all that much running to talk about.

After Endure24 we next had a little jog out on the Tuesday after before we set off for the airport, then a whole week went by without running – some of it spent on a plane of course and much of it spent having an amazing time in a barrier reef cruise where instead we snorkelled and even tried a SCUBA dive, walked in the rainforest, found Nemo and hung out with sea turtles.

Once back in Cairns we did want to stretch our legs though and I was pleased to have dry non moving land under my feet again. I hadn’t really anticipated just how seasick I’d get – should have known really, I. And get motion sick standing still… Anyway, on Kath’s birthday morning we had a cup of tea and then headed out for a plod out along the water. It was a lovely morning and it felt good to be moving. We had a pelican cheer squad and could watch the sun come up and Cairns slowly waking up.

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Frustrating Running Day

Jess Guth2 Comments

I think most of my running posts have been relatively positive recently and it’s tempting IMG_9850to just write about the successes and good runs or the ones where it went wrong and then we fixed it and it was ok. But when I started I said I’d share my running journey – all of it. The good and the bad so it’s time for a not so upbeat post. Today has so far just been frustrating.

It was a gorgeous morning but it took me forever to wake up fully and drag my butt out of bed. We wanted to do a 10 mile-ish loop on Ilkley Moor, got organised and set off. I didn’t even make half a mile. Stunning as it was, I couldn’t breathe. I was trying to work out if I was panicking about something, just finding it really really hard or something else. I settled on something else. I actually felt quite strong and I was looking forward to the views from the moor. I wasn’t aware of panicking or even worrying about anything really. It got worse as we came past freshly IMG_9849cut grass and I think the pollen count must be high and then grass cutting will have disturbed lots of grass pollen in particular. It felt like I couldn’t get air into my lungs at all. I turned back. As I walked back the views were glorious and it made me smile and a little bit grumpy at the same time.

I tried again this afternoon. I set off thinking I would do a 4.5 mile ish loop taking it slowly. It felt impossibly hard from the start and I kept thinking I would settle in. I wanted to drop down to the canal thinking that the ducklings might cheer me on and I waned to see if there were cygnets but at the first bridge there was traffic chaos so I kept going along the road, at the next bridge there was a boat coming trough so I huffed and puffed my way up the gently sloping road. I thought about walking, I thought about turning round but kept going and finally dropped down to the canal bank. I thought I’d settle and get my breath back but it didn’t happen. It looked busy ahead. I gave up. My legs felt dead and I still couldn’t get enough air. I walked home – very slowly. I was proper grumpy until I saw this little fella – he made me laugh.

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2.5 miles is better than nothing. I may try again this evening – I haven’t had a late evening run for ages – or I may just be grumpy about running for a bit.