Good Morning Run

Bircher Muesli, Fruit Salad and Yoghurt followed an hour later by a more pacy 7.95km / 37:52 / 4:46min/km at around 8:30am. Started off a little stiff and lethargic from yesterday but soon got into a good rhythm. Hot and sweaty at the end.

Great stuff, all you need for a good start to the morning.

My cycle home from work is a different route from the way in, this is largely to avoid main roads during rush hour but also it serves to give me some variety.

Hard Work

Made it hard for myself for the group run today with the Kingsland Martial Arts guys today. I thought it would be "good" idea to cycle to the office, park my bike in the secure lockup, jog over to the start area (in Westhaven), do the group run and cycle home again. Of course I ended up running late...

1. Cycle 8.9km to the office cyclepark.
2. Run at 4:57min/km pace from Carlaw Park to the Curran Street motorway onramp (5.7km - longer than I thought it was). Just got there in time as the other guys were arriving.
3. Group run of 8.54km at 5:25min/km pace. Thankfully one of the guys on the run is on the slower side.
4. Slow jog back to the bike, legs a bit tight so stretching and some walking.
5. Bike home 7.4km.

It was all a bit harder than it should have been. More work required getting my fitness back to where it was during my marathon training last year.

Round the Bays fun run next weekend, I've never done this before so it should be great fun. Corporate tri in just over 5 weeks - really need to get some swimming in before that.

Yesterday at work we all got invited to the Nestle wellness expo (Nestle are in the same building, but a floor above us). This was quite good with blood testing, fitness booths, and a neat goodie bag. Got my blood pressure tested and finding it was 130/80 still a little on the high side but down since the last time it was tested.

I even bumped into an old friend who is now running a personal training business. He made a comment about how I've lost weight since the last time I saw him - must have been the running...

Back

Back after a period of relative inactivity, at least on the excercise front. Work still fairly intense but determined to make time to train.

The incidental excercise recieved from cycle commuting has helped kept me sane and the weight has kept about the same around the 85kg mark. In the past when work has got out of control I've become totally sendentary so this is quite positive.

Currently only running once a week which is not really much at all. Normally a group run on Saturday morning with some of the guys from kingsland martial arts, the pace is set to the slowest runner. Today was fairly relaxed but hot 9km around the domain and parnell and in the words my friend J an "ice cream social" pace. Still it was better than nothing.

On the 14th March will be doing Round the Bays with work and then mid April entering a corporate tri (my first): 500m swim, 20km bike, and 5km run. Need to get my A into G and get back to the pool. Not too worried about the bike and the run. Will be rocking it on the hybrid which is slow but not embarrasingly so.

In other fun news am involved in a 10 minutes martial arts demo tomorrow (7:40pm) at the lantern festival. Should be fun. I'll be thinking of ex work colleague N as she is tackling an 100km ultra tomorrow (which is totally mad by the way).

Another Short Run

Seems like I've been doing shortish runs in my holiday break but that's OK. A 7.95km round trip to get the mail and then back home again. Got a bit hot and sweaty even at 8am in the morning. It is certainly warm outside.

7.95km / 38:56 / 4:52min/km

I didn't get up early enough for the big bike ride (yet again). Running out of time because I'm back to work next week.

Hot

Hot today. Short run in the morning (5.51km / 26:53 / 4:52min/km) followed up by a cycle in the evening (27.8km @ 23km/hr) and a short home workout. A bit tired now but felt like it was a good day at the "office"

I didn't wake up early enough today to go for the "big" ride. Maybe tomorrow?

Found the trailer for "Spirit of the Marathon" movie I mentioned recently on YouTube. A good summary of the film...

Two Day Roundup

Raining this morning so here is an opportunity to catch up on logging some exercise and also some thoughts on how to log said exercise.

January 2nd. Spent the morning doing more furniture staining. Put a second coat on the table top and the first coat on three of the four chairs. The chairs are quite fiddly and in typical fashion underestimated the time it would take. Later in the day we headed to the beach to catch up with family. Did a little swimming in the sea probably about 200m worth, only really getting my feet wet. Pretty hard to measure distance, probably going parallel to the shore and marking out a landmark would be the best bet?

In the evening did the first home workout of the year which incorporated Week 1/Day 1 of the two hundred situps and Week 2/Day 3 of the one hundred pushups (I decided to repeat week 2 with better form). I am still tweaking the weight program and will post about that separately.

Just before dinner went out for a short bike ride (12.7km @ 24km/hr avg. pace)

January 3rd. Early morning run (6am) to Cornwall Park and back. Legs were a bit stiff from yesterdays bike which says I should've stretched even after a short ride.

Anyway the run itself was at a pretty easy pace - 13.74km / 1:12:30 / 5:16min/km. Great time to be out and about. One thing I learned from 2009 is not to run too quick during training. Going slower is a good thing.

Later that morning did the second coat on the bottom and legs of the table and the first coat of the fourth chair. Also scrubbed the canvas covers which was an arm workout all on its own. One more session of painting to go when it fines up.

In terms of logging exercise I've been using www.mapmyrun.com and overall it is pretty good if a little unweildy. The big advantage with mapmyrun is you can litterally map out a run (or bike) on a google style map and it will calculate distance. I use the free account you can pay a monthly fee for extra features. At the moment I end up doubling up though by entering activities into a spreadsheet as well. I find this gives more flexibility in terms of tracking weekly goals, best times on a training course, tracking weight etc.

Rain has stopped so about to head out for a run...

These Toes Were Made For Running

Now this article is interesting : http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/runningtoes/

If you’ve ever wondered why humans don’t have long, prehensile toes that would turn our feet into extra hands, here’s an answer: stubby toes may be custom-made for running.

Biomechanical analysis shows that long toes require more energy and generate more shock than short toes, making them one of many adaptations that may have helped our savannah-dwelling ancestors chase their prey.

"Longer toes require muscles to do more work, and exert stronger forces to maintain stability, compared to shorter toes," said University of Calgary anthropologist Campbell Rolian. "So long as we were engaged in substantial amounts of running, natural selection would favor individuals with shorter toes."

With my "flintstone feet" the short stumpy toes are probably the only thing going for them in terms of running.



In terms of post marathon recovery, my legs have been quite stiff and sore. However have been doing quite a bit of walking and that has helped. Thursday morning went for a very gentle untimed 2km jog, and this morning blew the cobwebs out with an 8km run (7.95km / 38:44 / 4:52min/km). It was good too and I wore my Auckland 2009 Marathon shirt (feeling good after "earning it" last Sunday!).

Not Afraid (of hills)

Running distance is tapering off quite pleasantly.

Did my 16.4km distance through Cornwall Park/One Tree Hill on Sunday. The hill climb was not really too much of an issue.

Thanks everyone for your comments about the job change. The new company has offices in the new Carlaw Park office development. The Auckland domain is right next door which is handy - not sure about lunch time runs though.

I'm back

Tapering now for the marathon. Only 2 weeks to go. Getting nervous!

Couple of weeks ago I bought some new shoes - New Balance 1223's. Have essentially broken them in and they are pretty good. Wide fitting which helps with my feet.

Running has been a bit disjointed this week. Did a early morning 7km with hill repeats Wednesday with N and a 7.95km pace run today. (39:59 which is pretty close to idea PMP).

Quite stressful work wise - handed my notice in a couple of days ago and take up a new position in a month. Project Manager role at an engineering consultancy. New challenges and all - bit like the marathon really :)

Here are a few photos from last Tuesday after work in Taupo. This run was on grass with forest scenery a 10km ish run along the thermal explorer highway (a section of SH1 near Wairakei).





It was nice. Wednesday morning was really windy and cold in contrast.

Twice in Taupo

Just got back from Taupo from a work trip. Was down Tuesday/Wednesday and got in two runs.

Thanks to daylight savings Tuesdays run was a nice afterwork run along the lake waterfront. It had been pouring down with rain a few hours before so was good that it largely held off for me. 7.77km / 39:28 / 5:05min/km.

Couple of photos.


Path along Lake Taupo.


Unintended artistic photography due to the light :)

In the morning I went for a 6am run with work colleague N. This involved a 3km out to a small hill, a set of 5 "hill repeats" which involve a reasonable effort (70-80%) for each one and jogging back down. N has done a number of halfs and marathons and reckons this is good for running strength. Was a bit different, variety is good after all.

Didn't time this run but it was probably 7km all up including the 3km back to the start.

Meditation is a 16km Pace Run in the Rain

Great training run this morning - had been a little niggly earlier in the week but this was good. Some light rain but a good chance to think through some work related stuff that have been a challenge recently. The sound of your own foot strikes on the ground is a bit self hypnotic but in a good way.

16.43km / 1:18:24 / 4:46min/km. Running it faster than planned or should have. I'm sure I'll pay for it as tomorrow morning I'm backing up with the second longest (~32km) run of three planned. Should be interesting.

This week in Auckland has been pretty grey and dismal. Although saying that it is a fine now so go figure.

Here are a few photos from my midweek runs in Week 13.

Auckland Harbour Bridge. Looking forward to this part of the marathon course. Only time you get to run over the thing.

Western Park, Ponsonby. Nice inner city park.

Discovering a boardwalk along Westhaven, just east of the bridge. A little statue of a bear and a sailing boat looks out to the harbour.


Recapping the midweek runs:
7.81km / 38:25 / 4:55min/km
12.00km / 1:00:02 / 5:00min/km (plan said 16km but I ran out of time in the morning and cut it short)
7.97km / 42:22 / 5:19min/km

Week 12 Photos

Some photos from my running this weekend. Spring in New Zealand with nice weather.


Centennial Park running home from work Tuesday.


Westhaven Marina running to work Wednesday.


Twin Oak Drive, Sunday long run.

Week 12 was a step-back week in terms of kms. Made the mistake of running too fast with the reduced distance - Tuesday was OK though.

Tuesday: 7.39km / 39:07 / 5:16min/km
Wednesday: 12km / 59:56 / 4:58min/km
Thursday: 7.81km / 38:34 / 4:55min/km
Saturday: 9.99km / 46:28 / 4:39min/km (too quick!)
Sunday: 18.8km / 1:36:31 / 5:07min/km

Week 13 is a larger block of distance with the 2nd go at 32k. The mere thought of that distance is going to make me slow down on the midweek stuff.

Better

Taking some lessons from last week's long run failure did the same course again but this time with a small bottle of orange soft drink. The sugar made all the difference and managed to feel OK through the entire thing. Felt pretty slow but running this sort of distance is all about discipline and control. Well thats what I'm telling myself.

Also started at 6am this time which is more realistic in terms of what will happen on race day.

31.74km / 2:53:06 / 5:27min/km. Second half slightly faster than the first.

Great for a much needed confidence boost. Two more runs to go at the 32km type distance. I'll probably repeat the same course again as it has a decent section of the marathon course in it.

I missed Saturdays run due to hosting a five year old's party at home (a good reason to have orange soft drink!). While I'm a little dissappointed in myself for missing this run family does come first. It was a neat little party too and much fun had by all.

The other midweek runs were all slightly over 5min/km - a good thing when you are supposed to train mostly slower than PMP.

7.97km / 40:42 / 5:05min/km
18.01km / 1:33:56 / 5:13min/km
7.19km / 36:49 / 5:06min/km

Half Way Point - On Location in Matarangi

Week 9/18 of marathon training is done. This week was a bit disrupted because the family and I had been invited to the Whitiangi Scallop festival over the weekend. As part of this we were staying with friends at their bach in Matarangi. Of course I brought my running shoes for the off chance of getting my long run in. I did get to go running but was a little constrained by time pressures.

The scallop festival was quite good - typical food and wine thing with a scallopy theme.
My 5 year old son was getting bored by around 1pm so we headed to Matarangi early. In the afternoon I had convinced my wife I was only going to go running for "about an hour" and went for the following run. Put together the route by looking at one of the local tourist brochures.



A couple of moderate climbs in the middle to keep it interesting.

15.37km / 1:20:05 / 5:13min/km

Should have taken my camera the scenery was absolute magic. Pretty rural along the gravel/dirt Bluff road. Not exactly the planned 19k slow run but I didn't get in too much trouble by taking longer a little bit more than an hour. All about compromises ;)

Probably just as well I was a bit short on the distance - a few days running in a row is pushing things quite a bit so had Sunday and Monday as rest days.

Normal programming resumes this week.

We went for a walk on the beach later that afternoon. As you can see it was absolutely deserted. Bluff road follows the coast at the end of the beach.



Great to get out of Auckland for a weekend. Matarangi is a nice place too and a little off the beaten track compared to some of the more popular places in the Coromandel.

Week 7/18 Done

Rained most of today. Battled with the idea of going running or staying warm and dry inside. In the end I did the right thing and got out there.

13.19km / 1:04:37 / 4:54min/km

Pretty close to PMP (5min/km) and managed on legs that were a bit cooked from yesterday's long run. All good but feel a bit stuffed now though. Thankfully tomorrow is an easy cross training day.

Summary of the week's running (it's been a pretty big one, well for me anyway)

Tuesday - 6.98km / 35:00 / 5:00min/km
Wednesday - 13.32km / 1:02:27 / 4:41min/km
Thursday - 7.30km / 37:12 / 5:04min/km
Saturday - 26.18km / 2:29:37 / 5:43min/km
Sunday - 13.19km / 1:04:37 / 4:54min/km

Week 8 of the plan is pretty similar really - just a very slight build on mileage for the long run.

This week I think I got the slow pace about right on the long run.

Did quite well on the food front too - made a nice vegetable soup for lunch today. Not to the liking of my (almost) 5 year old though, he opted for peanut butter on toast instead.

What is starting to scare me a little is the marathon is only 2 and a bit months away! Still I'd be even more worried if I hadn't been following a plan.

Here is a promo video from the 2008 event which I thought was pretty cool. It gives some insights into the course and the highlight run over the bridge which I'm looking forward to.

Better Portions

I weighed in this morning at 84.2kg which I'm pretty pleased about. For some context my BM weight (that's before marriage almost 11 years ago) was about 79kg. Don't let the hair fool you - I'm not all that old ;)

Between then and now I had got to 100kg due to a desk job and largely sendentary lifestyle. Part of the cue to take up running in the first place about 3 years ago.

I'm finding running on its own isn't shifting the last 6 or so kg. Sure I'm ramping up the km's in marathon training which is burning more calories. Countering that though is a higher fuel requirements and it is pretty easy to overeat after a long, or for that matter any, run. I guess there is a pretty fine balance to be had.

What I've been trying recently is to slightly cut down on portion sizes. For instance for lunch today have one sandwich where in the past would have had two. We are pretty good at home with healthy food choices. Not entirely a Spartan diet still allowing room for a glass of red every so often. Also treating sometimes foods literally and not as in 'sometime in the evening'.

Getting some progress happening as per the graph. I think come marathon time carrying around a little less weight is going to help.



Let's see how it goes.

On that happy note off for a lunchtime 7km run in an hour. The weather looks OK if a little overcast. I had a great 13k yesterday and I reckon this run should be just as good. The plan is to do this one at a comfortable pace so I plan to just run and chill out.

Week 6/18 - Done

Step-back this week on the plan. This is apparently a mini recovery week in the middle of a training program. Slight difference this week - suggested a test 10k race on Sunday but I didn't manage that. Ended up doing Saturday and Sunday runs slightly quicker than desirable though.

Back in Auckland from Thursday so my runs were in slighty warmer conditions compared to Taupo.

Thursday - 5.55km (plan said 3 miles or 4.8km) / 24:40 / 4:28 min/km
Friday - rest
Saturday - 10.81km (plan said 7 miles at PMP) / 51:03 / 4:43 min/km
Sunday - 16.43km (plan said 10 miles or race a 10k) / 1:26:23 / 5:15 min/km

Too quick on the long run this week. Incidentally I did the One Tree Hill route again and there were quite a lot of runners around at 8am in the morning. Not suprising this area is very popular its like running through a postcard :)

Week 7 beckons and this is where things start getting serious and the km's start ramping up. Thankfully the mornings are starting to lighten up can see a few 5am starts to fit it all in.

I find the pace will slow up a bit when the weekly distance goes up. Is that normal?

It's Cold Outside

Fitted in a couple of runs in my work trip down to Taupo. Running to a training plan is keeping me honest, in the "old days" I probably would have just bothered to fit in one.

Tuesday the plan (Week 6) called for a 3Mile run at "normal pace". I'm not sure what normal means anymore but I figured 5min/km was a good round number. The place I was staying at (Wairakei Resort) has quite a nice gym so the treadmill was an easy albeit it boring option.

Tuesday:
5km / 25:03 / 5:01min/km

Actually the back end of the run was at a quicker clip to counter for the fact that the treadmill starts up slowly. I don't belong to a gym so took the opportunity to do a light workout afterwards. Was pretty good - note to myself to start using the dumbbells at home again.

Wednesday:
13.03km /1:15:00 (estimated included a couple of stretching breaks) / 5:45min/km

The plan said 7miles for your midweek sorta long run. I ran this with work colleague N at 5:30am, easy and slower than my normal long run pace, and probably a tad quicker for her. Interesting running with someone else something I haven't done before on a training run. We could hold a conversation for the distance so definitely in the aerobic zone.

Colder than in Auckland I'd estimate it was about 3 degrees. For this I had two running shirts on and a sweater.

The run itself was quite nice along the lake front and back again. Always good to run in different places for a change in scenery. I found out later that this forms part of the Taupo HM course - at least the bit from the domain out along SH1.



Today I'm back in Auckland and will be doing a shorter run similar to Tuesday.

Week 5/18 - Getting Used to the Long Run

Still sticking to rules, just completed everything the plan threw at me for week 5.

Saturday : The plan said 7 miles - no pace rules.
Did: 11.57km / 54:40 / 4:43min/km.

Nice winter's morning to go running. Only a very brief smattering of rain. For some reason felt really positive on this run. Maybe it was being out in the sun for a change.

Sunday: The plan said: "14 miles at a slow pace. Does this workout seem too easy for you in your advanced state of condition? I'll give you permission to convert this into a 3/1 workout. That is: run the first 3/4 of the workout at your normal, hopefully comfortable, long-run pace. Then over the final 1/4 of the distance, pick up the pace by about 15-30 seconds--not all the way to marathon pace, but somewhat close"

Did (at 7:30am this morning)
24:18km / 2:13:34 / 5:31min/km.
This run was great. I really concentrated on keeping it slow but with better running form. In a comment Phillip offered some good advice which was "The key is a slightly faster turnover and shorter strides with less power, rather than tensing up to keep the pace down.". So concentrated on shorter strides, keeping the cadence up and dropping the power. Works quite well.
Added a little pepper on the last quarter and finished the run strong.
As the plan says: "If you can finish these long runs feeling and looking good, it will be a big boost to your confidence".

The run itself is as below:



After a few streets through leafy Epsom, into Cornwall Park, up the hill, round the park again, through Broadway, round the Domain, down Lover's Lane, up Grafton Road, up Mt Eden Road, and then along Balmoral to home.

I even got cheered, or rather crowed at, by roosters at about the 6km mark. Roosters have nasty spurs but these guys are tame. Which is lucky because on a slow run I could have been in trouble...

Conditions were great.

Andrew in answer to your question on my last post. Angelsea road isn't the same climb as the one in Run Auckland. Ponsonby being on a ridge there are plenty of 'fun' hills from the city. Angelsea, Franklin, or even College Hill. I reckon Franklin road just before Christmas would be quite cool. That street is well renowned for christmas lights.

Leave enough time

So I had planned a 12km run in this morning along this route:



except I miscalculated the amount of time it would take at what the plan said -"Seven miles. Don't worry about the pace. Just cover the distance"

Leaving home at just before 7:20 for an 8:30 start was quite dumb. Lesson to be had is to leave enough time to commute by running! So was a bit concerned about pace.

12.00km / 1:00:39 / 5:03 min/km.

I didn't thrash it though although just before the 6km mark there is an evil little climb up Angelsea Road (from Western Park) up to Ponsonbly Road which was tough. Plain sailing after that. Conditions were a little misty/drizzly so care needed on the red footpath down there (bricks/cobblestone).

On the positive side, this route is quite good it provides quite a lot of variety both in terms of scenery and terrain. Also made it to work in time (just!). Alls well that ends well.