Andrew is getting fit

I had a good run today.  It was one of those days where it’s been raining but the sun has just come out and it’s just beautiful.  I felt really blessed to be able to be out running and just felt great for some reason.

As part of my run I actually did the course from my first 5K race.  I thought it would be fun and it was.  Funnily enough I couldn’t find those really steep hills that caused me to swear last time I ran that course.  Somebody must have flattened them out over the last few months.

I did 13.31km in 1:24:26 which means my pace was 6:21 per km.  I know my first 10 km were run at about a 6:00 pace so those last 3 km or so were really slow but I did them!  That also makes it my longest run yet.

It was also a rather hilly run as you can see from the elevation chart below:

This is my last run in May and I’ve done 109.6km this month.  That’s the most I’ve run in a month before so I’m quite pleased by that.   You can see my running log here if you are interested.  It’s been a good month.  Hopefully June is even better.

Joe from Learning to Run has hit day 365 of his running journey.  Head on over and see his great progress report.

Tags: fitness, running by Andrew
13 Comments »

I had a lot on yesterday so I decided to go to the gym and run for 45 minutes on the treadmill after class instead of running outside. Unfortunately I had a lot of students asking questions and I didn’t manage to leave class quickly. (This is actually a good thing as students should be asking questions and often they don’t.)

Anyways, to get back on topic, I arrived at the gym a bit late and realised I wouldn’t have time for 45 minutes but I should be able to squeeze in 30 minutes.

So, in a fit of whimsy, I thought I would set the treadmill to do 5Ks in 30 minutes. When I finished C25K this was my combo of time and distance and oh boy was it tough at the time.

Today, my biggest struggle was with boredom. I was trying to watch something on my ipod but it’s a bit hard when you are running. After I had to catch my ipod for the third time I gave up and switched it to music. I’d forgotten that I’d downloaded some running podcasts to listen to but that’s ok as they will be there for tomorrow’s run.

I did the 5K very easily and my heart rate averaged in the 130s which is quite low when you consider it averaged in the 160s about two or so months ago. It’s amazing when you think that 5 months ago I could not and did not run.  For anyone out there who thinks they can’t do it, I’m living proof that you can!

I really enjoy this whole getting fit business!

Tags: C25K, running by Andrew
17 Comments »

I took the plunge and entered my first half marathon. When I first started running in mid January this was unthinkable. Then in late January I started to have a crazy idea that maybe I could do a quarter marathon. Running 10K seemed like a dream at that point. Then in April I did that and started to think, maybe a half?

Well, I’m committed now. And who knows? Maybe next year I’ll do a full? More crazy talk eh…

Tags: running by Andrew
39 Comments »

A slow week this week. Just down .41 kgs (about 1 pound) to my new offical weight of 95.75 kgs. As you can see from the red bit on the graph below I overindulged somewhat this weekend. Never mind, life still needs to be lived.

I went shopping for new pants on the weekend and I’m now a 36 inch waist. Not bad if you consider I was a 50 incher before.

I also nipped in to see the doctor as I still haven’t managed to shake this cold after about 4 weeks now. She reckons it’s not a cold but an allergic reaction to something so it’s just as well I went in.

Tags: Weigh in by Andrew
18 Comments »

I had my fourth 5K race today.  The venue was at Milford on Auckland’s north shore and it was an extremely hilly circuit.

I had a cheer section today as my wife, baby and parents came along.   This meant that I had people who could take photos!

Here we all are at the start:

The start finish corridor is too narrow so they started us on the road. The following photo cracked me up when I saw it.  Everyone setting their time as we set off!

It was a really tough course in terms of elevation.  There were some long steepish hills but having said that it was a lot of fun.

I started off really quickly (as usual) and quickly left my dad and other friends who were doing it behind.  I was feeling quite strong and managed to power up the first two hills.  At the turn around point I was about 100 metres ahead of my dad and made the fatal mistake of “encouraging” him to run faster.  He took it personally and sped up!

Here I am about 600 m from the end.  You’ll notice that I lead my dad!

Here I am about 10 seconds later. You’ll note that I no longer lead!

My dad’s superior fitness kicked in! (note he did admit to cutting some corners! He’s calling it race craft!) He’s doing a half marathon next week so he’s way fitter and faster than me.

The last hundred metres I could hear the pitter patter of little feet behind me and I thought I was going to be “chicked”! Fortunately I wasn’t!

Funnily enough I got a new Personal Best today:  24:38!  Even with all the hills.  Unfortunately it turns out the course was only 4.5K so I wasn’t really that fast. Having said that, I’m going to take it!  A new PR!  My mate Rick set a new PR as well.  He finished in 32 minutes something which is great.  About ten minutes off his last time.

Something else I was pleased about is that I finished 3rd in my age group which is better than I did last time when I finished 5th.

It’s about 4 weeks to the next race and that should be quite flat so I’ll try and aim for a new PR there as well.  I love these races!

It was really great having my family there today and I’m hoping my wife will come along to the next few. It was really awesome being able to share my running with my family. 

Tags: running by Andrew
22 Comments »

I had a very busy day on Thursday and needed to get my run in. I couldn’t run in the evening as I had to nip out to the airport to pick up my parents who are visiting for the weekend. So I decided to run home after work.

It was a good run and I passed through Bastion Point. Bastion Point is at the top of a cliff and I was quite proud that I managed to run all the way up to the top. There were no stairs for once – I had to follow the road.

Bastion Point has special memories for me as that is where I had quite a few of my wedding photos taken. It’s also the place where my beloved wife first realised that I may have had feelings for her.

My wedding day was the happiest day of my life and I spent a minute recovering from the run up the hill reflecting on how great my marriage is and how my life has changed so much for the better since meeting my darling wife.

I did 9.95 km in 1:03:19 so I’m not breaking any land speed records but I’m progressing nicely.

My next race is on Sunday so I’m looking forward to that. My dad is going to run it with me which should be nice. He’s faster and fitter than me so I’ll have to try and take him by surprise and outsprint him at the end!

Tags: running by Andrew
15 Comments »

Nico over at proHealth Blog has tagged me to do a 6 word memoir.

My memoir is “Find what works and do it!” This reflects my own personal journey. I’ve had to tinker with things until I found what worked for me. In my case it has been a focus on getting fit and healthy.

I’m going to tag some bloggers I’ve only discovered recently:

Beth at 6AM running.

Lora at Less of me.

Bill at Bill’s Training Blog.

Blubba at Fat Man Skinny Wallet.

Sally at Aprovchar.

These are the rules:

• Write your own six word (max) memoir.
• Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want.
• Link to the person who tagged you in your post.
• Tag at least five more blogs.
• Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

Tags: Interesting by Andrew
7 Comments »

I neglected to mention it in the post that I did on Sunday but I did a quick 7Km loop around my neighbourhood. It was a good run and I enjoyed it.

Today I had to work from home as my brand new dishwasher has broken down for the 3rd time in the last three months and the repairman could only come in today. I was surprisingly productive and got everything I wanted to do done relatively early so I went for a nice 10K run after lunch.

It was a pretty uneventful run but I enjoyed it. Uphill in the start, then a nice long downhill and then relatively flat for most of the middle and a short uphill bit at the end that is a bit of a killer.

It’s quite nice that I’ve reached the point where I can be relatively blase about a 10K run.

Overall I did 10.35 km in 1:03:57.

I’ve got two more 5K races (the next one this weekend!) then a 10K race. At this stage I think aiming for a goal of under 1 hour for the 10 K race is not unreasonable.

Tags: OHR, running by Andrew
13 Comments »

When I first started my weight loss and fitness journey I had this impossible dream of weighing 95 kilograms (210 pounds).

I set that goal as, in 2004, I used Atkins to get down to 100 kgs (220 pounds) for my wedding. I couldn’t get any lower than that so my goal of 95 kgs seemed like a dream. As you may have guessed I couldn’t sustain the Atkins way of eating and I gained most of the weight I lost back within 2 years of my wedding. Luckily I’ve since wised up and found a healthy lifestyle that I can live with.

Well, I’ve seen results under 95 kgs on the scale this week, which is simply incredible. It’s quite funny – since I’ve stopped focusing on the weight loss and more on the getting fit side of things I’ve lost more weight than ever before. If only I had woken up earlier!

Anyways, that is not my official weigh-in result for today.

The official result is: 96.16 kgs (according to physics diet) which means I’ve lost 1.16 kilograms since last week. I think the extra long runs must be responsible for it as that’s a rather large loss – but I’ll take it!

Tags: Milestones, Weigh in by Andrew
28 Comments »

Today I spent a few hours going through all my clothes and discarding those that would no longer fit. It was quite a fun experience truth be told.

I have a box that I have called my skinny clothes box in which I’ve put all the clothes that I outgrew as I gained weight. Over the last year or so I’ve been dipping into that box and reclaiming clothes that haven’t seen the light of day in many a year. Today I renamed that box my fat clothes box as there is nothing in there that I cannot fit into. Well, let me clarify, I can put them on but they are mostly way too big for me to wear.

The local city mission is having a collection of clothes for the needy so I have filled two big bags with stuff for them but I have saved some of my bigger clothes so that I can always remember how far I’ve come and how I’m not going back there! The picture on the left was a lot of fun to take truth be told. I actually always enjoy taking photos that demonstrate progress. I’m going to do another butter shot soon.

I’ve definitely made some signicant progress!

Tags: Interesting by Andrew
45 Comments »