Alternative Fuels

A work colleague, N, brought the latest copy of Runner's World in to the office. A good piece about oatmeal (aka porridge) as a breakfast suitable for runner's (slow release energy etc). The article suggested ditching the sugar and milk and going for almonds, strawberries and yogurt. Interesting eh?

No strawberries and yogurt in the kitchen so in true kiwi fashion I gave it a nudge with alternatives! Went with almonds and banana (and milk). Suprisingly the almonds went quite well with it all nice and crunchy.
My chef chopping skills need work!

ADRA Charity Run Half - Nov 30 2008

In my last post mentioned doing the ADRA charity run half instead of the Auckland Half Marathon. Well as I've found out thats now a no brainer of a decision (Thanks Andrew!) as the Auckland Marathon event is now sold out on the half and full options. That's pretty impressive 2 months before the event.



I want to go under my first half time (1:38:10) and a flat course like this will help. Just quietly my secret goal is 1:35:00. That's going to take some dedicated training over the next 3 months. Nothing like a good goal to keep focused.

Rest day tomorrow.

P.S. I will enter the Auckland Full Marathon in 2009. This is my long term running goal.

Early Bird

Went running round the block this morning. 5:45am nice and cool and as my Grandmother likes to say the dawn chorus was in good form. Very nice and so I ran "unplugged". When its nice and quiet running without music is best at least for me.


Tui photo courtesy of Brenda Anderson. We do have Tui's in my suburb but probably not this particular one :)

Start of spring in New Zealand and the weather is relatively great. At least its not pouring down every second day.

The running is getting better after my "slackness hiatus" in August. Today I did : 7.53km in 34:30 (4:34 min/km). Felt pretty comfortable but towards the end my legs where telling me I haven't been doing too much running.

Getting better on the weight front - 86.6kg before I headed out this morning which is nice and encouraging - next stop 85. I think might start posting weekly progress with a graph from http://www.physicsdiet.com.

Andrew E asked in my last post if I was planning on doing the Waitakere Half. Unfortunately not this year - two fold: my base line fitness isn't where I want to be to do a good run but the main reason is my personal accountant (i.e. wife) gives me a budget of sorts for running. Given that I need to start thinking about another pair of shoes in a couple of months need to factor it in.

My little sister T is wanting to do the ADRA charity run this year with the half option. My current thinking given where I am with fitness is to do this (instead of Auckland) both as support for her but also it is 3.5 weeks later than Auckland. Still thinking it through.

Core Strength Training

About a year ago I bought some adjustable dumbbells from NZ site Trademe (trademe is a bit like ebay). I think they cost me something like $60. Total weight of 32kg (16 x 2).



Since then I've used them only sporadically - so far. However I think by using some structure, and reporting via this blog, will help.

Here is the core strength program I have decided on.

3 times a week (Mon, Wed, Fri). It is important to have a rest day to allow the body to recover.

Two sets of every exercise, 15-20 reps of each with 60 seconds in between each one. The figure in brackets are the weights I'll try to start with.

Back Extension
Crunches
Side Crunches
Hip Flexor
Forward Lunge with Dumbbells (2 x 8)
Pushups*
Dumbell Chest Press (2 x 16)
Calf Raises with Wall
One-Arm Dumbell Rows (1 x 16)
Lying Dumbell Fly (2 x 10)
Seated Dumbell Shoulder Press (2 x 10)
Alternating Dumbbell Bicep Curl (2 x 10)
Seated Dumbell Tricep Extension (1 x 10)
Stretch After Strength Training

Almost as good as going to the gym?

* Want to kick start the 100 pushup thing again. See how I with a week of this first though.

Landscape Road Hill Climb

Absolute cracker of a day today. Did plan to head out this morning but made it mid afternoon instead. A hill climb in my local streets today. Not too long 6.49km in 30:29 (4:41 min/km) legs a bit cooked from yesterdays longish run but did OK.

Nearly all of my runs start from home in Peary Road which is in Mt. Eden, Auckland. Peary Road is a nice street quite close to the city. I even walk to work some days. We moved to Peary Road in March this year.



At the East end of Peary I turned right and head up Mt. Eden Road. This hill isn't too bad. Good bakery near here (Wild Wheat) but I'm being good today.



The route turns left into Landscape Road. This hill is quite steep when you are running up it - reminds me of the steep sections of One Tree Hill and Mt. Roskill in particular. I can tell because my stride gets quite short to handle the incline.



The rest of the run is pretty sedate - http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_route?r=259424291301.

Started raining when I got home - so I was quite please to get back in time.

Rest day from running tomorrow but am going to do some core exercises (i.e. weights) instead.

Two Is Better Than One

Weather in Auckland was supposed to be great this weekend it ended up raining a little in the morning and merely overcast.

So...went running round the block today - then did it again for good measure. Total run today was 7.53km x 2 = 15.06km. Time was 1:14:58 and 4:57min/km. Second lap was old map running (shuffle) stuff. Quite out of shape!!! But felt really good I did the second lap rather than caning out at the half way mark.

This course - http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_route?r=204374141 - rolling terrain.

I have a hill run to try out for tomorrow morning. Even got a couple of photos prepared ahead of time.

Earlier in the week I treated myself to a new pair of headphones to go running with. Pair of Nike Flow from Dick Smith's for $30NZ. Overall they worked pretty well in terms of staying in the ears.

Stop the rot

Got on the scales this morning with a rude shock 88.4kg. Hells bells. Keep this up and previous observations will be coming home to roost.

I'd say it was wet weather, the flu, and real life getting in the way but in all honesty its just being slack.

So today I went out for the first run in about a month. Plodding along (or it felt like it) - but it was better than expected at 7.63km @ 4:52 min/km. (37:20min). Obviously didn't go crazy on the distance or pace. I got rained on but that wasn't bad - just pleased to be out. Tomorrow I'm going to make time to go out running too - might be an early one!

Did a route in Mt Eden - with a couple of gradual hills.

I'm also kick-starting a core training program today - and will post on that shortly.