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. 

Me? I'm a One Hour Runner

It's been a shortened programme - where the 9 week c25k took me 10 weeks, the 10 week OHR has taken me about 8.

I wasn't sure how far I'd be going this morning, I'd planned at least 54 minutes.  It was hard going for the first 30, I'm over my sore throat, but have been left with a cough.  I was prepared to give up, but somehow never quite got to that point.
At the 40 minute mark I left the streets and ran along the stopbanks toward the main road.  I seemed to get my second wind, and the last stretch home wasn't too bad.  Except where I had to go up and over the railway tracks, I had been feeling good, and powered up the slope a little too fast.  Not the thing to do when you've got a mild cold...I could hear my breathing getting worse and on the way down I was sucking in air like an asthmatic.  Took it easy for the last few minutes and by the time i reached the 60 minute end point, I wasn't feeling too bad.  But I was pretty glad I stopped only about 200-300m from home.  Warmed down with 20 minutes of yoga - I've found a short program that is rather good for stretching and relaxing after a run.

I managed an average pace of 7.44min / km - which isn't too bad, considering I picked a route that included a bit of hill work.

Not sure where too now, I'll keep up with the 30 minute week day runs, and a 60 minute Sunday run, but need to figure out how to push myself out of the comfort zone.

I'm tentatively planning my first 5km run with a friend next month, so that is a short term goal anyway.  I'd like to crack the 35 minute mark by then...

unfortunately I had to come back from holiday

I had a great time in Melbourne, great flights on Air NZ.  They really are a great airline to travel on.  And I'm a real fan of the inflight entertainment systems these days.  I watched "Boy" on the way over, and "Precious" on the way back. 
I really love Melbourne, the city centre is reasonably compact to walk around and the trams mean that you can get almost anywhere with no hassles.  It was nice to arrive before lunch on a Sunday (and lovely hotel meant we could check in immediately) and the town was packed with runners and walkers who'd just finished the Mothers Day Classic run.  Pity I hadn't arrived in time to run with them!

Didn't pack my running shoes, but we walked for miles over the 3.5 days we were there.  Walked, shopped and ate.  There are so many nice places to eat, we spent a lot of time walking around trying to decide where to go.  And we attended two Tegan and Sara concerts - they were great live.  Really enjoyed it - worth the trip over the ditch.  The local support act was ok, a band called The Jezebels - I just found them a bit boring, and all their songs a bit samey.  The other support act from the States was Astronautalis.  And he was awesome - bought a couple of his albums from iTunes once I got home.

I've been back running - with a short 2k the first morning home on Saturday, then I skipped the usual long Sunday run as I was dead tired and couldn't drag myself out of bed!  But I've run twice this week - 3.5k and 5.3k.  Not too bad, considering I haven't been eating very well and I've been fighting a cold and sore throat all week.  My sinuses have stayed clear so it hasn't stopped the running yet, but I had such a sore throat and strained voice today I took a sick day off work.

At the Melbourne Aquarium, I decided that feeding Stingrays for a living wouldn't be THAT great.  Unless you like being squished whilst underwater.

We ate lots of baby cupcakes

Took photos of random towers lit up all pretty

and attended two concerts at the Forum Theatre

16 weeks of running

16 weeks and running seems to have become an integral part of my week.  I don't think I'll ever be fast, I don't think I'll ever run really long distances, but I just like to run.  I hope that continues, with the winter coming quickly and a few more months of dark, cold morning runs...

I'm in to week 8 of my shortened OHR programme.  I'm not struggling with the longer runs, but I do find I have to push myself a little harder to keep going past the 30 minute mark.   36min run yesterday, and I managed to hit the 5km mark and felt good the whole run - so I was pretty proud of myself and on a high most of the day. So much so, I'm considering going for a short jog around the block if I wake up early enough tomorrow....and I NEVER run on a Saturday.

I am getting to the point where I don't need so much structure in my running to keep going, but I think I need some kind of programme to keep pushing me to be better, fitter, faster, stronger!  Not sure where I'll go to after the OHR, I'll have 2 weeks left after my week off....I'll have to start looking around.  Maybe I'll check out the coach section on the nike plus website.

Which reminds me, I'm loving the nike+.  A garmin would be great to track my fitness and running, but the social aspect of the nikeplus site is pretty neat.

In other news, I have a 6 or 7 hour drive ahead of me tomorrow - Palmy to Auckland.  We've got the whole day, we're not in a hurry, so we might not go direct - maybe we'll go via Taupo and stop at the lake, or take the National Park route through Taumaranui - I've never been there, so it would be something new.

Then it's up really early Sunday morning to the airport to fly out on Air NZ to Melbourne for a week of shopping, walking, great food and two Tegan & Sara concerts.    I've got my earbuddy concert earplugs all packed and ready to go.