Lenten Running

I have a tradition of giving up meat for lent: it used to be on the basis that alcohol/chocolate would be too easy, and coffee would be too hard (at least on everyone around me). I think these days not all the above statements would be true ... but we'll skite over that remark I think! Last year I didn't give anything up for lent at all because of the marathon training, so this year I decided I will go veggie again for the 40 days (with the dispensation of Laetare Sunday in the middle - which handily falls on the day after the Coniston 14! 

Having struggled a bit in the past with fuelling for running, especially as I've been on a diet for pretty much the last 18 months, I think I'm going to have to plan ahead much better - rather than just stuff my face full of cheese as I might have done in the past! It will help that I'm only giving up meat rather than being a true veggie - so I will still have fish as a good source of protein.  It WON'T help in the slightest that one of my jobs at the moment is in a bacon roll shop! Temptation everywhere.  

In the true manner of an ex-scout, I spent some of yesterday evening going through some recipe books, partly looking for inspiration, but mostly confirming that I can manage the whole running/no meat balance without the cheese binge.  I can't say my favourite Go Faster Food was a huge amount of help - although I guess I can make some of the recipes without the meat, or substituting soya/tofu/quorn.  

Delia Smith of course came to my rescue: her Vegetarian Collection was somewhat my bible in my youthful veggie days (when my mother told me I had to cook for myself because she wasn't going to do veggie food!) My copy still has the handwritten list from about 1999/2000 when it was bought for me, with all the recipes I wanted to try at the time. The only problem is that a lot of them are high fat, but with some tweaks, substitutions, and portion control I think I should get to explore some more gems.

Finally I remembered that I had on a whim purchased Sophie Dahl's Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights which is part food-journal and part recipe book. I'd browsed it some time in a book shop, and enjoyed her diary-style writing so much that I bought the book for that rather than to cook from.  Although SD isn't in fact a veggie, she eats very little meat, and most of the recipes are suitable for pescatarians/vegetarians (and in fact many of the meat recipes have veggie alternatives already suggested).  The recipes are also a little lighter than Deliah in most cases, and mainly written with 2 portions in mind rather than to feed a family - so particularly good for cooking for the fridge!

I will also have to go through some of my (many!) back copies of Runner's World and Women's Running to investigate what they have recipe-wise - although I tend to find lots of cake recipes and skip over some of the more practical ones ... oops!

I will definitely have to plan a bit better with lunches and breakfasts, especially when I am surrounded by the glorious smell of meat (and the fabby home-made sausages) in the shop - although we do also of course have veggie options! Slightly naughtily, I'm quite looking forward to exploring the various cookbooks (I'm not sure you are supposed to be excited about  your lenten fast!), but as I'm about to enter another couple of races to keep my running going, it will be an interesting challenge.

Apologies in advance, that there may well be some food pics appearing on this running blog in the future - but you have been warned!

More long run lessons ...

... I think the first of which, is Grandad is too fast to do long runs with!

70.38/?

Febulous W2R3 *Joker Played*

This week has been a hell of a week, what with work and a concert last night.  I woke up this morning feeling like I'd done 10 rounds with Mike Tyson - and I would usually go back to bed and crash/read until after lunch, and then do my long run late afternoon.  However, as Grandad was driving back down south today, he wanted to go out early - we compromised on 10am.  Set out too hard, although it felt ok at the time, partly because it was difficult to pace against Grandad who is a much better/faster/seasoned runner than me.  Had to keep telling him to slow down because I couldn't keep up!

Was still feeling strong about 6 miles in, despite the detour we'd made because Grandad had mixed up a cycle path and a railway line on his OS Maps app (never mind that it was a route I do bits of reasonably often so didn't need his mapping).  The wind was building up and the rain was getting slightly worse, but really I was just getting a tad annoyed and feeling the effects both of the concert the night before, and the fast start. 

Changed plan in Leith, to take in a different path (and cut the run a bit short) but by that point I was really fed up and starting to feel a bit sick.  Ended up run-walking the last mile or so until we found the tesco that was my new finish point (1.6 miles short of the planned distance).  Stopped in for a coffee in costa, but (unusually) that just made me feel really sick.  It might have been the fast pace at the beginning, it might have been the after effects of overdoing it the rest of the week, but I was feeling a bit cross with myself.

HOWEVER, I then sat down and thought about it. I've had a cold all this week, and managed not to miss any work, or choir, and therefore have been on the brink of exhaustion.  I sacrificed my long lie so Grandad wouldn't be too late driving home. And, I only started running again just over a month ago.  I don't think I need to beat myself up about not quite managing to run 11 miles on a week when I've nearly dropped my other runs twice and have been feeling pretty under the weather. 

I do need to remember to go slower on the long training runs (I've deffo said that before), and to recognise that I really do not like running in the morning if I can help it.  I played my Jantastic joker on the excuse of the cold/flueyness and sheer exhaustion so I'm still on 100% (I would have got 83% anyway for this week without it which is better than nothing by a long shot).  Next week is hopefully going to be a bit less manic, and my long run drops back a bit, to acknowledge that I am upping my midweek run a bit.  

Onwards and upwards!

Mansuit EARNED

I've been a bit wiped out this week - what with getting up on Sunday (which was crazy as usual) to get my final run in, being out the previous Friday night, and a (wonderful) day trip to York and the National Railway Museum on Saturday.  Managed to dislocate my jaw (and relocate it) in my sleep on Tuesday night which made for a very uncomfortable couple of days. Been napping a lot the last couple of days which is very unlike me - and spent most of this morning catching up on some Zs in between breakfast and lunch.

I have also been trying, with reasonable success, to deal a bit better with the running hunger.  I've been using Go Faster Food (GFF) which has been featured in Runner's World at least once, and trying a few of the recipes. Combining this with proper carb loading the day before my long run, and some sensible snacking seems to be helping.  This morning's breakfast was some lovely American style pancakes with blueberries, made up with half buckwheat flour - this was a slight confusion when doing my shopping list between two recipes, but was a fantastic addition.  Lunch was a lemon and basil pasta, followed by soreen banana loaf - my new most favourite discovery! I then settled down to watch a few programmes on the interweb to let my lunch go down before my planned 7 miler in the afternoon.

Got my togs on ready to go out at 3 ish, and decided that it might be an idea to grab some sugar for refuelling - as this is the first time I'd planned close to a 2 hour run in a while.  Popped into the local tesco to grab a snickers bar, and then set off.  I'd yet again not had a huge amount of luck planning a run, and decided to add a wee bit of a loop to the one I'd kinda thought out on GRG - taking in more of a local cycle/walk route along the Water of Leith.  After just over a mile I realised I hadn't set my Garmin off properly (argh) but at least had a reasonable idea of how far I'd been already (I could guestimate my time from the till receipt from my chocolate bar!).  

Got a wee bit lost trying to find the footpath in the right direction, but eventually found my way thanks to some instructions from a kindly fellow runner - finally a city runner who said hi in passing and even paused to give me tips! The route along the Water of Leith is spectacular - taking in some weirs and some glorious scenery you really don't expect in a city.  There were some muddy sections, but puddle dodging was doable, and it was a bit of a relief from solid tarmac the whole way. However, after about 3 or 4 miles the signage totally ran out, and I headed off in what I hoped was the right general direction to find the canal footpath which was intended to be my route home. Got honked at by a carload of people, who waved frantically, so I'm sorry if it was you and I didn't recognise you - but I couldn't see well enough with glasses bouncing!!

One of the weirs on the Water of Leith taken from Walk Highlands

Was still feeling pretty strong at this point, even if I was a tad lost, but I thought if I followed the bus routes/water/railway I could work out how  to find my way back (and if nothing else I had a bus fare home on me).  It was then that it started to rain ... it had been drizzling a tiny bit, but nothing my hat couldn't handle (to keep my glasses clear) ... but without much warning it got a lot harder.  And then harder still.  And then turned into a monsoon.  It was at this point that I decided I really was properly lost, it was starting to get dark because of the clouds and my feet were pretty sodden.  I spied one of the buses that passes near my flat and was rather tempted to hop on even though by this point I had only just made the 4 mile mark (out of a planned 7-8).  

Instead I jumped in a phone box, got out my phone, and after a disastrous first attempt with Apple maps (usually reasonable in the city - but missing the canal footpath/canal entirely) I manage to work out that I wasn't that far off course, and I could find a way to the path reasonably easily.  I girded the loins, zipped up the mansuit, and headed off into the monsoon! Oddly enough, once I found the canal, and realised I was starting to get into familiar territory, everything felt a little easier. I wasn't particularly cold despite the drenching, and in fact the rain and wind both started to calm down a bit. Had to have a few words with myself to keep walk breaks to a minimum (mostly when walking under canal bridges) but I kept going until the end of the canal before cracking open the snickers for a few nibbles.  

This had been the point where I had nearly made 8 miles (by my estimation including the bit I'd missed off my Garmin at the beginning) and was prepared to allow myself a bus home if I needed.  However, the snickers perked my legs up no end, and I did manage to run/walk the rest of the way back to my Tesco start point - including a wee bit to get my watch reading nearly 8 miles as well.  Popped into Tesco for a hot chocolate to warm me from the inside, and grabbed a nice yoghurt/granola pot for dessert for tea, and toddled the last bit back to the flat in very soggy trainer - even my heel pads had slipped - and that's only happened once before (at the New Year parkrun last year when the puddles were nearly calf deep for a midget like me!).

Got home, put my tea in the oven (roast peppers/tomatoes/anchovies - to go with cous cous and some feta - another GFF special) and hopped straight into the bath.  Now relaxing with a silly film and stretching my leg muscles out under the duvet.  Also used some of my foot cream to help stop blisters forming - think I'm reaching the threshold of long run/blister forming, and not helped by the sodden feet! Although to be honest it could have been a lot worse considering how wet my feet got - must be my awesome running bear socks.

Having loaded my run into GRG (which included a wee bit post-phonebox where I forgot to set my watch off again), and added in the bit that was missed at the beginning, I realise that I've managed just over 9 miles today! Well on track with the training plan (although next weekend is another busy one that will require some thought to get my long run in). Grandad is coming up the following week too - so maybe I can have a bit of company on one of my midweek runs for a change!