Tag: training

Tapering….

Jess Guth3 Comments

13 days to go to the big Walt Dinsey World Marathon Weekend kicks off with the expo, 17 to go to the marathon. I sort of feel ready and sort of totally not.

In case you haven’t sponsored us yet – you can do so here and help us support the brilliant conservation work Panthera do.

For the first 3 days of tapering we might have taken the ‘take it easy and rest’ theme a bit too seriously on the running front. We did bugger all. Having said that though the weather was nasty and we were pre-occupied with a dog attack on one of our sheep and nursing the poor little thing back to health (more on that over on the sheep blog).

Yesterday we finally got out for a 45 minute run and it felt great to be out. It was a sunny day  – far too warm for December – about 12 degrees C. We set off down our road to the canal and turned left towards Bingley. We turned round after roughly 25 minutes and headed back. We ran all the way, no walk breaks. Didn’t feel like I needed any. When we finished I was surpirsed to see we’d run exactly  4 miles. I think we’ve only ever managed that pace on a 45 minute run once before. Now I did feel like I was pushing a little bit but I honestly thought it was just one too many mince pies and not nearly enough water that were making it all feel like hard work. It didn’t feel that fast.

I had a good dy yesterday. I felt almost well. My brain felt like it might just work normally. I felt good after the run. It felt like a normal day. I struggled later in the day when I got really tired after we’d walked round the neighbourhood dropping off mince pies at our mothers’ and the last of the Christmas presents but yesterday was a good day!

Taper here we come

Jess Guth3 Comments

So today marks the last day of the hardcore marathon training. Three weeks today we will line up at the marathon startline, well actually way back and eventually we will get there… And then roughly 6-6.5 hours later we will, with a bit of luck and lots of pixie dust, cross the finish line. We started the marathon training plan 25 weeks ago, so before I hit the last gentle weeks of tapering and getting rested for the big event, what have I learned?

  1. It is possible to see anything below half marathon distance as a short run.
  2. short runs don’t get easier just because you are physically capable of going much much further.
  3. 3 miles is just as yucky as 5 miles or 8 or whatever if your heart’s not in it
  4. half marathon distance is no harder than 2 miles if your heart is in it.
  5. once you get above 15 miles it really doesn’t matter anymore, it is all a f-ing long way.
  6. I can run for as long as I have decided to run – so if I decide my run interval is 2 minutes there is absolutely no way I can run for longer. If I decide that I will run 6 miles slowly without walking, I can.
  7. chafing is a thing, a painful one.
  8. underwear matters – see above
  9. witout running I would have gone properly loony tunes loopy over the last few months
  10. foam rollers hurt like hell
  11. I have a weak core, particularly arse but squats and yoga are changing that.
  12. hills are the hardest bloody workout you will find anywhere, ever.
  13. I still don’t see myself as a runner.
  14. other runners see me as a runner – the running community is so much more welcoming than expected
  15. Broccoli is amazing
  16.  I cannot be trusted to be left alone with a jar of peanut butter
  17. the best running fuel to date is lasagna made by my friend Bex but spaghetti bolognese or butternut squash and spinach lasagna work too
  18. I absolutely cannot run on a full tummy. I need 90 mins between bagel/porridge and run
  19. I sometimes enjoy running
  20. Mmm peanut butter

Inadvertent speed session

Jess GuthLeave a comment

I haven’t felt like blogging about running because, well just because. I’ve been plodding along doing my 45 minute maintenance runs and just getting on with it but it feels like a huge effort. I just want to go and do the bloody marathon now. Someone put me at the start line and I promise I won’t stop moving forward until someone hands me a medal, a beer and food – not necessarily in that order. Cheer me up by sponsoring me?

JustGiving Page – click here

This morning was a bit of a fail. I got up and fell into my running gear. I read a silly mantra somewhere about running first thing before your body knows what’s happening – well that was me this morning. The plan was to run to the sheep, feed them etc and then continue and do 45 minutes. We got to the sheep and then I had a little panic attack over nothing at all. We walked home and I sulked, had pan au chocolat for breakfast and sulked some more. Then I thought about the run. We had got to the sheep in under 10 minutes per mile pace. That is insanely fast for us. It didn’t feel that fast though. So I decided to be positive and put this morning’s run down to an inadvertent speed session.

But it played on my mind. I can’t mentally cope with any run fails this close to the marathon. I need to keep positive and I need to keep convincing myself that I can do it. I knew I needed to go out again to take some stuff to mum’s…an idea formed and after a bit more sulking and reading loads of posts in a Facebook Group I joined I snapped out of it. I hadn’t got changed from the morning so I grabbed the backpack, filled it with empty tupperware boxes, a christmas card, some cash, my bus pass and some stuff I’d printed for mum and set off. It was hard. Really hard. I felt puffed from the start. I looked at the Garmin and saw that I was running at a silly pace ‘Slow down you maniac!’. The conversation in my head went something like this over the next 16 minutes:

‘You need to slow down, you can’t run 5 miles at this pace’

‘Haha -you can’t run 5 miles’

‘Yes I can’

‘But NOT AT THIS PACE’

‘Slow down you idiot’

‘What bit of slow down is too complicated for you, just go slower’

‘SLOW DOWN’

‘Oh shit I’m dying here’

‘I told you to slow down’

I hit 18 minutes and walked for a minute, then ran the next 2, then walked 1, then ran 3, then walked 1 and was then going to run 4 but a minute into that run just decided to keep going until the 3 miles beep came. Every time I set off running again I told myself to go slow. I walked for a minute when I hit three miles and then set off again ‘Go SLOW you stupid cow’. I walked for 90 seconds when I hit 4miles and set off again ‘Go Slow, just go… oh F-it just go at whatever idiotic pace you want’. I got to 5 miles. I had done it in just over 58 minutes – a faster pace than the pace I did all running the other day.

I was absolutely shattered, even more of a sweaty mess than usual and it took much longer for my heartrate to come down again. The walks had been slower than normal and the runs faster. But I just couldn’t make myself run slower. I walked the half mile to mum’s and had just about recovered enough to speak when I got there.

Now if only I was preparing for a 10km run – I reckon I could have done another 1.2 miles at the pace I was at and that would mean a new personal best by more than a minute. As for a marathon, having speedy legs really isn’t going to help.

Look, no walking

Jess Guth2 Comments

Ok, I don’t know how to ask you all to sponsor us for this run without hassling, without it sounding really naff or annoying or whatever. Please please please just do it if you are able to. We are over half way if we count money pledged off line. No amount is too small and you wouldn’t believe the boost it gives my runs to see the total creep up. So click the link if you can, do it now. Thanks you

Our Just Giving Page

So today has been a good running day. I ran 6 miles without stopping to walk. Yep. I sort of wondered if I could. I headed out on my own, downhill for the first stretch. I did have to stop abruptly because I was suddenly faced with an alsatian not attached to a human and it came bounding up to me, circled me and then jumped up – paws on shoulders. I don’t know how I didn’t curl up in a ball and scream. Turns out its human was trying to catch it – wasn’t going well then… I also had to stop briefly twice to let cars go before I could cross the road (rude, don’t they know how hard it is to get going again). I was pretty happy until 3.5 miles and then I suddenly thought I may have been a bit ambitious. I thought I might as well keep going to 4 miles though. 4 miles seemed a bit of a silly distance to stop at though and I wasn’t anywhere sensible to come off the canal to head home so I kept going. I had to keep telling myself that one I got to 5 miles I could stop. 5 miles is respectable. I got to 5 miles and decided that I could probably run for another 12 minutes and therefore get to 6 miles – so I did.

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My ‘I just ran 6 mile and there’s something distracting to my left’ face

Then I walked the 2.5 mile loop from where I was to feed sheep and get home.

In other news – the official race guide for the marathon has been released, I have printed it and the waiver forms. I got stupidly excited about being in corrall J and I have done 2 lots of yoga and 80 squats today. More on the race guide etc next time. It’s well passed my bedtime!

Numbers

Jess GuthLeave a comment

24471. Yep, 24471, that’s me. That’s my bib number for this crazy adventure. 2-4-4-7-1. It’s a number I think I can make friends with, I already have. It’s a number that doesn’t put me right at the back. It’s a good number. Here are some others:

30 – days until the marathon weekend madness begins

34  – days until marathon day

29  – days until we fly out

38 – weeks of training  – which means about 45 ish weeks since I started running again

450 – approximate miles run in training

93 – approximate miles left on the training plan

1 – number of really long runs left on training plan

15 – number of runs left on training plan

492.90 – amount of money raised online so far. (This is a number I’m happy to see increase – you can donate here )