Penelope Pittstop versus me.

Mr SG took us out running again! Thankfully he took pity on me and agreed to just do 2 miles, we even headed out to Camster wind farm for the first time for the run - it's so nice to run on a track and not have to worry about traffic.

I managed the first mile without stopping but we hit an incline on the way back and straight away my mind started telling me I couldn't do it and I stopped - just like that!
Mr SG got me going again but then he realised he'd dropped his tshirt way back and he had to go back for it. He left me with instructions to keep going but I couldn't drown out the idiot in my head insisting that I needed to walk and so my GPS shows exactly what happened.

It's interesting to see that Leanne has the same running style as her dad - effortless basically, kind of Penelope Pitstopish is how it looks though not quite so extravagant obviously. Whereas I run more like ..... well...

Leanne & Mr SG running style.

My running style.

I was annoyed with myself for all the stopping because it's all my head, I had no need to stop I wasn't knackered, I wasn't struggling to breathe and I wasn't puking.
I need to work on my mental attitude!

Personal trainer

Remember in my last post when I said that Mr SG was going to go running with us - well last night he followed through with that threat promise.
I was happily ensconced on the sofa in PJ's watching RHOC while Leanne was happy in her PJ's too. Mr SG told us it was time to get changed for running which kind of had me in a panic and reeling off excuse after excuse as to why I couldn't run that night - Leanne was slightly more resigned to the idea of having to do it.
Maybe I should just clarify at this point that Mr SG is 11 years older than me, he is a heavy smoker, has COPD and scarring to the sole of his foot that hurts when he walks. He was athletic as a youngster and is a builder now but running for any length of time is something completely different and it was that knowledge that actually made me agree to his plan - basically I wanted to shut him up.
Leanne and I usually pick our runs with care, it's all hills here so most of the time we avoid the steepest longest ones unless we're wanting the extra work.
Mr SG on the other hand drove us to Loch Shebster at the foot of the steepest longest bloody hill possible and I realised I'd mis judged him when our complaints of the steepness of it were met with "Quit complaining, it'll be all downhill on the way back".
Within 1/2k of this hill I was reaching for the inhaler, I kid you not it was ridiculously hard. I trundled along waiting for Mr SG to give up - nothing! waited for him to struggle to breathe - nothing!
By the time we finally got to the top of the hill I was ready for turning round but nope Mr SG wanted us to go further. He bolstered me along explaining my defeatest attitude, he kept me motivated and he didn't let me give in to the many crappy excuses I was reeling off. I can run while I'm sick, it won't kill me - apparantly!
Finally he let us turn round and the notion of heading back to the car and the downhill run was severely shattered by the knowledge that we'd just run downhill so we had another hill to conquer first.
I hate hills!
By the time we made if back to the car - 7k later - Mr SG had hardly broken a sweat and his breathing was perfectly normal - in fact he happily chattered away while running.
Leanne and I were bloody gobsmacked, seems he really can put his money where his mouth is.
Mr TG is now our trainer and has even agreed to enter the 10k with us - this means that a) he'll keep me going when my head wants me to stop and b) Leanne will be able to run off at her own pace which is much faster than mine.

So I learned that I should never under estimate Mr SG - he's awesome!

Det

You can see the spikes drop where I kept sneaking in a stop, once Mr SG cottoned on to what I was doing though he eventually managed to get me to stop.

56 minutes - not a great time but I know it'll improve.

Exercise Distance 6.99 km 

Uphill Distance 3.42 km

Downhill Distance 3.57 km

Calories 269 Kcal

Weight Loss 10.1 g

Carbohydrate 135 Kcal (50%)
Fat 135 Kcal (50%)

Things are not looking hopeful!

Is a crap run better than no run at all? On the one hand at least we got out there and did some running but on the other hand we walked many times for a minute or so a time.
We started well and cleared the first mile at a decent pace but then Leanne got stitch and I started feeling like I was going to throw up - it was all down hill from there.

We even got my husband to drop us off near the forest at the 3 mile marker and to follow us slowly in the car back to the main road - he thinks our attempt was so poor that he's now insisting that he's coming with us to run tomorrow. Obviously he tried to make it sound like a good thing but it actually sounded very much like a punishment lol.
The thing is my hubby is naturally quite fit as he's a builder BUT he's a heavy smoker, suffers from COPD and has a scar under foot that makes him limp - you could be forgiven for wondering why the heck he feels he'll be of any help at running but the annoying thing is that despite his conditions he'll definitely be able to run the pants off my daughter and I.
You may also wonder why the need to even help us improve and ordinarily I would have told him where to shove his "help" (he helped me when I originally started running, it wasn't a pleasant experience) but Leanne and I have a 10k booked in September and if we carry on in our current manner we'll be walking the whole thing.
Drastic times and all that!

Today was a disappointment for me in other ways too. I was due to start a new round of Insanity, I totally believed that my back was recovered enough to do it and that it would actually benefit from the stretches that Shaun T puts us through, unfortunately my back is actually not recovered enough and so I had to admit that to attempt something as extreme as Insanity would be an insane decision. I have a new start date of 19th August so I have everything crossed for that.

Reasons to run

Running with dogs has its downsides as well as its upsides. There's the obvious upsides such as company and safety when running lonely lanes or forest tracks but there's also the added bonus of effectively having a large dog pull you at times when you would otherwise have given in and walked - this also has the added bonus of improving running speed when not running with the dogs.
However the real downside as we've found out the last few times running is that we have to pull over for every single car on the lanes, all the stopping makes it harder and harder to get going again. If we run without the dogs then we don't need to stop as we can run far to the side but it's impossible when with the dogs, I think I'm going to have come up with some different running areas but it's going to mean driving to them first.
Todays GPS results show just how erratic our runs are

I can't believe how unfit I felt during this run, 5 weeks off has left me right back at square one which is a bit of a worry as we only have a few weeks left before our next 10k run.
At times when I'm worrying about being fit enough or am feeling despondent about not being able to run as well as I want to I try to remind myself of all the other awesome reasons for running.

Running with a GPS

Today was my first attempt at running since I slipped a disc in my back 4 weeks ago, when I say 'running' I use the term loosely because it was more of a dog walk spattered with bouts of jogging / running but at least I was back out there.
I don't really know why I bothered taking my GPS watch with me because it wasn't really needed but I'm finally trying to get used to how to use the thing to help me train efficiently and that means understanding the info it records.
Seriously though, even though I'm a visual person and prefer graphs and charts to text this information is all double dutch to me

I didn't realise while I was out that the GPS had either stopped receiving a signal or I accidentally turned it off (don't think I did though) so it only recorded 2/3rds of the run.
Guess it's going to take a while to understand what it all means.

'Dietbet' is up and running and is still open for newbies if you fancy joining in. There's a $25 (£16) stake but if you manage to lose 4% of your total weight in the 28days the challenge runs for then you'll make that back and more as you'll share a stake in the total pot - which currently stands at $8425.00.

Last night I needed to use up a cabbage that I'd cut from the veggie plot and my initial thought was Cabbage and Leek as I love it but I realised I didn't have Leeks so I had to improvise (which means make it up as I went along). I diced a whole Onion (also grown on the plot) and cooked that along with diced red pepper, garlic and Black peppercorns, then added the parboiled shredded cabbage, covered it and left it to cook away. I should have taken a photo but forget but let me tell you it was bloomin gorgeous!

Recovery

So I'm recovering from this slipped disc slowly, I've started walking with the dogs to get some exercise but I'm still cautious as I don't want to set myself back again.
I missed the last two 10k runs so that's 3 I've missed this year and as there's only 5 in total each year within a 2 hour driving distance I only have 2 left.
The next one is a new one to the area and is 10k around a new windfarm in September so that's the one I'm now aiming for, if I continue to recover this way I think I can start running again in a week or so and hopefully start Insanity in a few more weeks - I'll also be starting the next dietbet challenge at the beginning of August as I'm afraid I didn't make the healthiest food choices over the last couple of weeks.

Oh poops!

"Illness is the most heeded of doctors: to goodness and wisdom we only make promises; pain we obey". ~Marcel Proust


The first time I slipped a disc in my back I was about 18 years old. To cut a long story short I worked with horses and loved my job, on this particular day it was my job to fill a stable with bales of hay and straw and seeing as my boss was out and I couldn't drive I would have to barrow the bales from one end of the farm to the other - anything less than 4 bales on a barrow was deemed a waste of effort. I'd spent a good twenty minutes throwing the bales off the stack and into the yard ready for barrowing when the heavens opened, and I mean the rain was torrential. It only lasted about 20 mins but some of the bales had gotten so wet they'd doubled in weight and I still had to barrow 4 - 6 at a time.
I felt my back 'go' pretty early on but with no one else around to sort out some 20 odd horses I knew I'd have to keep going, even now I can remember the agony of every step and if I remember right I didn't actually manage to get all the bales loaded. By the end of the night with all horses fed, watered, groomed and the yard brushed I then admitted the agony I was in but I guess that because I'd shuffled about all afternoon nobody really believed how serious the pain was - then again I'm the girl who went to school and did PE for 3 days with a broken arm because I didn't dare tell my mum I'd broken it falling off a horse I shouldn't have been on.
My mum insisted I went to the docs immediately with my back though and I remember him telling me that I'd also managed to tear muscles on top of slipping the disc and that I needed at least 6 weeks off work.
"I can't" I insisted "I work with horses, I have to go in"
"Your choice" stated the doc "You want to be in a wheelchair by the time your 30, it's your choice".
Needless to say that got my attention and in fact I quit the horse job that day.
After several weeks rest I went back to work as a groom/jockey at a racing stables but within a week I knew my back was never going to be strong enough to support me while galloping in a jockey position - the pain would literally stop me breathing.
That was 25 years ago and now I'm right back in that pain.
My lower back has always been weak since that first slipped disc and I've grown used to the daily pain but there's 1 rule I always follow :- always bend from the knees and NOT from the back.
Last week I picked up a heavy planter and forgot the rule for some stupid reason. I felt the pain immediately and yet STILL continued to shift the planter.
Now I'm paying the price laid up with a slipped disc and unlikely to be able to do either run next week that my daughter and I have trained for.

Painkillers are working to an extent and 1 week later I have some improvement but as much as I want to do the run on Sunday (docs already said no) I don't want to make my back worse and increase recovery time.
So until I can run again I'll try to stay focused and not over indulge my sweet tooth while I feel sorry for myself.