Another week down

Just under 9km this week, that is about normal.  Just over 3km on Tuesday and then I ran a 5k on Thursday - new PB, finally cracked the 35 minute mark.   Average pace 6'53"/km.

Not sure what the weekend has in store for me yet.  Possibly have to work for a few minutes early tomorrow, checking servers, but it's one of those pain in the behind tasks that I'm not sure when it will be and how long it will take.  Argh.  At least I shouldn't have to go in to the office anyway.

The weather looks like it will be pretty rubbish - and I doubt I'll be braving squally thundery showers.

The first Manawatu Striders winter series run is on Sunday morning.  I was thinking of running it, but now some friends are keen on walking it the 5k so I'll probably go along with them and walk it instead.  Still not sold on the 'race' thing.  But we're not keen on walking in the rain, so I doubt any of us will get out of bed early Sunday morning if it is raining.

The first couple of weeks of winter have been a rude awakening - we'd had such a mild autumn that the cold wind, rain and low temperatures are making us all head inside and eat high calorie food.

The nike sportband has been working pretty well - it's not as good at tracking as a garmin with GPS would be, but I use my phone GPS at the same time and it is accurate enough.  I like the website, the goals and challenges.  The c25k June challenge is going pretty well for my team...team Ninja in front at the moment :)    And my run graph is looking pretty good - it's nice to see the slow upping of the mileage as time goes along.  You can see the 10km run last Saturday standing out from the rest...

Queens Birthday Weekend

The 10k took a little more out of my legs than I thought - I hadn't felt any ill effects through the day on Saturday.  Yesterday was a different story - I spent about 4 hours in the car and by the time I got home I was certainly feeling every km I'd run. 
I didn't get out for the recovery run I'd hoped for, as the weather was pretty awful when I woke up.  Heavy rain and wind, so I wasn't going to brave that.  Then I woke up a bit sore again today, just went out for a short 2km walk to stretch the legs and get some fresh air, but it wasn't very nice out - not cold, but really windy.
I'm really off the wagon with the healthy eating - stopped at the dairy for a bar of chocolate on the walk...eek, I really need to stop giving Whittakers all my money.  It's just harder when it's so cold and miserable outside.

Tomorrow is another day, it's my usual scheduled running day.  I think I'll just take it slow and run/walk 3km or so.  Hope the rain doesn't ruin my plans.  As long as it's not heavy rain I'll get out there I think.

10km conquered

It's Queens Birthday weekend which means winter is here and it's the last public holiday/long weekend until October. I'm off to visit my mum tomorrow, so that means the usual long Sunday run was out - I'm probably just going to accompany my friend on a short walk before I head off early. She's actually just starting the c25k, so I might get a little recovery run in as well.

I'll call it a recovery run as I woke up really early this morning and decided to just get up and go for a jog. I'd notice I was getting a bit antsy, as I'd been unwell again and missed my Thursday run. I took it slow and jogged along in the dark, enjoying the quiet Saturday morning streets. I was out long enough to see the dawn break and it turn in to a lovely sunny day. It was frosty cold though - coldest morning this winter I think and I was a little underdressed - I only had a tshirt on, with my long leggings. The metservice website was saying -1C (feels like -3C) so it wasn't my imagination. I think I needed another layer on this morning - but I thought I might be out for a while and didn't want to be carrying an extra jacket if I got too warm. Next time I'll check the temperature before heading out to make sure I layer up properly - I've got all the right gear now :)

But I seem run best in cooler conditions, and I conquered 10km without too much of a problem. I've found that the struggle to keep running ends after about 40 minutes, and once I hit that, my body gives up fighting and just settles in to the run - I stop thinking about stopping and walking and just jog.

I was suprised to hit the 10km mark - and go a little over. My pace wasn't bad, I covered 10.24km in 1hr 19minutes - an average pace of 7'45"/km. I was glad to get home to a warm shower and it was a perfect morning for hot porridge and a cuppa.

Still running

I may not be blogging very often, but I'm still running.  Not very much over the past week, as I've been a bit under the weather.  And it's been cold and wet here too.  I had kinda been looking forward to some cold weather to break out the gear I bought in Melbourne - a pair of Asics full length running tights and a long sleeve Helly Hansen 'dry' top (got that one in a clearance sale, yay!).  But the cold dark weather does make it hard to get out of bed in the morning.

I have managed one run this week before my headcold decided to make a reappearance.  I was suprised at how well I ran.  New PB for 5km - 35min 48s.

I've fallen off with the 100 pushups etc  - stopped when I went away and haven't got started again.  Hoping to next week, but this time I'm just going to pick either the pushups or situps and complete one before I start the next.  Simply because it was starting to take an hour or so to do all three, and the time commitment kept putting me off.