Jantastic week 10- when the going gets tough

The tough go to sleep?

So it seems that the 20 mile run last weekend totally wiped me out. We had a walk in the afternoon, and I had a sleep, but the next day I was really stiff.

Monday– Rest day. Walk after work, foam rolling and bath with Epsom salts helped.

Tuesday– OH club run- 5 mile route but reversed so included a big hill. Tough. I kept up with the front girls for the first mile but after that my legs were not playing ball. It was frustrating as even going up the hill my breathing was not challenged but I just could not move my legs any faster. Luckily I packed my torch as two of us ended up running down a pitch black alleyway to get back to the car park (turned out we went the wrong way).

Wednesday– After the day before I ducked out of SRC and opted for a run on my own. Went on the fields but by the end it was totally dark so had to come back via the streets. Got jumped at by a dog- possibly a boxer (my google search of “horrible dog breeds” showed me a few pictures of them)- it had about 6 inches of drool hanging out of its’ mouth and kept jumping up at me. I stopped (I normally stop anyway if I come across a dog off a lead as it seems they find the running more exciting)- anyway the person walking it was saying “heel” in the quietest most un-commanding voice ever. I surprised myself by shouting at him to please control his dog and speak to it in a commanding way so that it actually followed his instructions (normally I am too scared of them setting their dogs on me, but this guy was very drippy in his behaviour and I wanted the dog to stop jumping at me). Honestly I really get annoyed by dog owners who are not responsible (eg who do not pick up dog poo etc)- if your dog can’t be safe off the lead then keep it on a lead- it’s not that complicated!!!!! Rant over.

By the time I got home I was properly shattered and my legs were so tired- another 5 miles done anyway.

Thursday– Pump. In the biceps track I decided to tack some extra weight on the end to see how I would go- my friend commented that she was surprised I was trying it, so I was extra pleased when I got to the end of the track without having to knock them off!

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I was sent some high protein pasta from the folks at My Protein this week, so I had that with pesto, veggies and pine nuts before pump. The pasta is made with pea protein, durum wheat and eggs (which must be free range, as it has the vegetarian society symbol on the website) and is 50% protein. We mixed it with some normal wholewheat pasta as we had some in the kitchen already, but I could not tell the difference in texture or taste. I do like pasta but as I don’t have meat it tends to be a lower protein meal, so a little boost can’t hurt.2015-03-12 17.53.31

I also had a mini panic when I realised this marked 1 month to go.

Friday– Rest. We went into London to see Idlewild- it made us feel old as I think the first time we saw them was about half our lives ago! Anyway, it was fab, but my leg was feeling a bit sore, and so standing for all that time wasn’t good, and walking down the steps at the tube station on the way home was a bit painful.

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Saturday– I had arranged to go to parkrun with my dad, but in the morning I could not decide as my leg/ hip was a bit stiff. I did some jogging in the living room, and soem dynamic things (yes that is the proper term) like leg swings and lunges, and I felt OK, so I decided to go, but tell my dad to run ahead as I needed to take it easier. After the first mile I felt pretty good so decided to speed up a bit. I also just totally loved the run- the sun was shining, there were lambs in the field that was run down through, the lakes at the bottom were beautiful blue colours and glinting in the sun. I even surprised myself by overtaking some people on the final uphill stint- I am not celebrating the act of overtaking (one girl told me “great work” as I ran past her- I love parkrun) but the fact that I was feeling strong enough to take it on. I think it was my third fastest time on that course, not bad at all. Later we walked around town, did some jobs at home, and had a walk in the evening, but the late night combined with a busy week (3 before-work meetings and 3 after work meetings) meant I was totally shattered. We spent a lot of time watching The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt which is just so funny- anything Tina Fey is involved in is great by me, and then watching a lot of Songify the news (have a look here as I can’t explain it)- sort of Flight of the Concords meets Day Today crossed with the trapped in the closet song. Anyway he did the theme tune to the TV show.

Sunday– *Only* 12 miles was on my plan this week, and initially I had grand plans of going further, but that soon changed! I was so tired on Saturday, and looking back I don’t think I have not set an alarm for 3 weeks at least. I have had a few busy weeks at work, and I really think the 20 miler took it out of me more than I initially thought. So I set my alarm as a back up, and ended up waking up at 9.15am after probably nearly 11 hours of sleep. I clearly needed it! I had to map out a route as I hadn’t done that yesterday, so it was gone 10 when I finally set out. I didn’t have breakfast, because I wouldn’t normally for a run of that distance, but looking back I should have, because of the time of day. The first part of the run went fine- I had a bear yoyo at mile 8 and another at mile 9, but then my legs got very stiff (I think actually it is my lower back, but that seems to affect my hamstrings) and I was shuffling for a bit. By the time I got home I had managed 11.96 miles and I felt so shattered that I could not even contemplate running up and down the road to get the full 12. I felt so cold when I got inside, and after getting a drink and an apple I had to sit down for about 20 minutes before I could even get the energy for a shower.

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I made some chocolate pancakes this week- one egg, 5g cocoa powder, 35g buckwheat flour, almond extract and almond milk to make the batter thin enough. Alongside some cooked blueberries, Alpro coconut yoghurt, vegan butterscotch sauce (that little jar is lasting an impressive amount of time) and chocolate pb on the pancakes. I had coconut water while I was cooking them, and a teapigs chocolate flake tea with the pancakes, and still after that had a lie down on the sofa as I felt so awful. I think the last time I felt this way after a run was at the Bath half just over a year ago.

So, 4/4 runs done. 24.9 miles. Long run of 12 miles missed by .04. Next week will be better. And I have learned a lesson- just because I can run 12 miles before breakfast, does not mean that I always should.

Also Garmin keeps failing to upload my run grrr, so I can’t look at that, or on Strava, or log my final Jantastic run of the week. Sigh. I am too tired for all this nonsense!

How do you pick yourself up after a hard run?

Do you like going to see bands?

Do you get scared of dogs on your runs? (Or geese- I don’t like the big white geese either). It’s the one thing that puts me off running around the fields as I see loads more there off leads (even where the cows are, where it says clearly to keep dogs on leads, but no, of course that does not apply to your dog, only all the other dogs…)

Have you watched anything good on TV recently? 

*I was sent the pasta in exchange for a review- all opinions are my own.

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18 thoughts on “Jantastic week 10- when the going gets tough”

  1. Garmin Connect was playing up for me today too…maybe something was going on with the servers? Garmins do love to play up at the most inopportune moments though.

    That dog you described sounds a bit like a Bull Mastiff? They’re pretty intimidating for sure, and I cannot overemphasize how irritated I get with owners not controlling their dogs. There are no bad dogs…only negligent owners, and I’m glad you had a good yell at them because I’m always too tongue-tied and scared to in similar situations.

    I hope you feel better soon! It sounds as though it’s a blood sugar issue for sure, but at least you know how to prevent the problems on that basis.

    1. Normally I get too scared too- I really surprised myself- I was listening to a podcast so I think I just said it before thinking!
      Yes, Garmin was playing up all day, but it did the run now so that’s OK- and it ended up being fairly fast even though it felt very slow.
      Yep, breakfast next time!

  2. Also had problems uploading my run this afternoon. In the end I uploaded it manually and that worked fine.
    I hate dogs chasing/jumping up at me when I’m out running. Especially when the owner seems to have no intentions of getting their dog out of my way! Often I’ve had a dog jump up at me when the owner has been on their phone and they have carried on talking on the phone, avoiding the issue of their misbehaving dog!
    I used to go to lots of gigs when I was at Uni. I never got to see Idlewild, but saw several bands like Stereophonics and Bloc Party and went to Leeds Festival several years in a row. When I left Uni and started at school full time I guess I just didn’t listen to as much music anymore.
    Well done on a tough week. Sometimes those long runs really do take it out of you. I have often fallen asleep on the bed after a post-long run shower. Sometimes body knows best!

    1. I tried manual too, but no joy, but then this morning it worked fine, and somehow it was already on strava?? At least I can log my Jantastic run! 🙂
      I tried to sleep yesterday afternoon, and had about an hour where I dozed with the TV on quietly- I shall be taking things easy this evening!

  3. It makes me so mad that other dog owners are out there given us ‘good’ dog owners a bad name. I always pick up Alfie’s poo (even when he decides to go into the depths of a bush or decides to kick back a load of dirt and leaves at my face afterwards!) and I keep him on his short lead whenever I see any runners (I’m so careful about this as I know how much it annoys me). I feel like I need to justify my dog ownership lol but I do always feel terrible when I hear other dog owners being so careless. It makes me really sad when people’s opinion change of dogs because of the poor discipline and training an owner has done.
    Anyway! clearly your plan is a good one if it realises you needed a shorter long run after your long long run. I’ve heard it can take two to three weeks for your body to recover from a 20+ miler so I guess this makes sense as to why it’s just before tapering. Hopefully your legs will start to feel fresher soon.
    Your parkrun sound identical to my one. I had a slight tightness in my hip that made me worry (I wouldn’t even call it a niggle, but it was slightly uncomfortable in comparison to the other one) and this made me doubt running parkrun. But I did it and though I didn’t manage it in any fast time (I was dubious not to push the hip too much just in case – though I didn’t feel it at all during) but I did manage to overtake a lady who said something very similar to me that that lady said to you – how funny:-)
    Sorry lonnnnng comment!

    1. I know it’s only a few dog owners- plenty of good ones out there too.
      Runners are always so friendly at parkrun- I have often had lovely comments like that and I love how many people thank the volunteers as they go around.
      Yes, this bit is the hard bit- once the next 20 miler is done I can taper- phew 🙂

  4. My garmin was doing the same – is it your browser? I tried it on both my laptop and my desktop and it kept saying plugin wasn’t installed. I use chrome. Then I opened it in safari and it synced up fine using that so I think it’s a dodgy chrome update!

    Corinne x

  5. Oh god I’ve had more than a few arguments with dog owners in the past! I used to love Idlewild when I was younger, haven’t listened to any of their stuff in ages. My Garmin was doing the same, I think it might be my laptop being too old.

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