Andrew is getting fit

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We’ve had some great weather (if you ignore the odd rain shower) in Auckland the last few weeks.  This means I’ve had some great runs outside.

On Sunday I went out to the Domain with my family and as they went looking at real ducks in the duckpond I did some more laps of the mile track there and happened to see another duck (picture on the left) of my own!

Today the sun was out but there was an icey wind blowing so I wimped out and went and ran in the gym.  I wanted to just have an easy run for an hour so that’s what I did!  I did 10.6km in the 60 minutes.

I’m just about over my lurgy but not quite yet.  I still have a runny nose but I reckon another day or two and I’ll be back to normal.

I was hoping to go for a run with the Adirun Nightrunners (the duck people) tonight as they have a 10K run at 6pm on Tuesdays.  Unfortunately my wife has now come down with the dreaded lurgy so I had to be home to do toddler duty. Maybe next week.

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Tags: running by AndrewE
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This week I gained .32 kilograms which is not too bad.

However, over the last 30 days my weight has remained static and as you can see from the chart below I’ve only had 1 week in the last month where my eating has been reasonably good.

If you look back to when I started using PhysicsDiet to track my weightloss in March you can see an interesting pattern in that I haven’t really lost any weight since the end of June.

Don’t get me wrong - this post is not about doom and gloom:

• I’m fitter than I’ve ever been.  I can run well over 20K at will now. Exercise has become something that I have to have in my life.  No more sitting on the couch of doom for me.
• My clothing sizes have shrunk down from 4XLs to Ls - which I personally think is brilliant!
• My friends and family have also been embracing a healthy lifestyle - which is amazing.  It’s great to see my determination rubbing off on people.

I know why I haven’t lost weight.  I’ve been eating too much.  Eat less - move more should be my mantra.  Well I’ve been moving more but eating more as well.  Hence the increased fitness but static weight.

I would like to get my BMI down into the normal range.  To do that I need to lose another 15 pounds.  I’m going to commit to doing that which means I need to cut out the excessive snacks. I also need to remain properly fueled for my runs so it’s going to be a slow process but having said that I’m not in this for a quick fix.  My healthy lifestyle should be just that- a lifestyle.    My core diet is healthy.  Extremely so as a matter of fact.  I’ve just allowed the cookies and cake to creep in a bit too much.  It’s amazing how quickly moderation can turn into just one more!

Anyways, no more.  I’m back on the straight and narrow and I’m hoping to report in with nothing but green for my next few weigh-ins.

Hopefully you’ll all continue to cheer me on!

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Tags: Weigh in by AndrewE
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I went for a run in the Auckland Domain this morning. This may seem a bit odd given my post yesterday but the sun was shining and I felt a bit of exercise would do me some good so I thought why not?

You can really tell that spring has arrived here in Auckland.  I passed these Cherry trees in full blossom on my way up to the Domain.

I did 4 laps of the Sri Chinmoy peace mile. This is a measured mile running loop in the Domain itself.  This worked out to be about 6.2 km.  Technically it should have been 6.4 so I suspect the mile is slightly shorter than it should be.

I took it nice and easy as I just wanted to get out in the sun more than anything.  I was very aware that if I pushed it and made myself more ill then my darling wife would kill me.   Having said that it was a great run.  The birds were singing, the sun was shining, there were a lot of folks out running and it felt good to be part of the running community as it were.  It’s amazing how you always feel better after a run no matter how bad you feel beforehand.

I’m looking forward to getting out again on Sunday.

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Tags: running by AndrewE
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I’ve been rather sick.  On Monday it was still just a headcold so I was ok to go for my run.  However, Tuesday it progressed down to my chest and I’ve been coughing up green stuff ever since.  I took the day off work yesterday and tried to stay in bed most of the day hoping to recover.

I’m still coughing up green stuff today but am going in to work and will just take it easy.  Needless to say I haven’t been running since Monday and I’m itching to get out there.  But I think it’s better for the green stuff to dissipate first.

If I’m not careful I could be out of action for a few weeks rather than a few days.  It’s happened to me before with chest infections.  I start off with a cold and then it turns into bronchitis very quickly.

Patience is a virtue but I long to run.

*Thanks to Andrew for the post title.

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Tags: fitness by AndrewE
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I mentioned in my previous post that I’m a bit sick. It’s not too bad, just a sore throat, headache and a bit of congestion in the nasal passages. I decided that I wasn’t going to let that stop me from getting out for a run so I headed out after work today.

I took along my cellphone along today so that you could see a bit of Auckland:

1. Run 034, 2. Run 035, 3. Run 037, 4. Run 038, 5. Run 039, 6. Run 041, 7. Run 043, 8. Run 044, 9. Run 045, 10. Run 046, 11. Run 047, 12. Run 048, 13. Run 050, 14. Run 052, 15. Run 053, 16. Run 054, 17. Run 055, 18. Run 056, 19. Run 058, 20. Run 059, 21. Run 060, 22. Run 061, 23. Run 062, 24. Run 063, 25. Run 064, 26. Run 065, 27. Run 066, 28. Run 067, 29. Run 068, 30. Run 071, 31. Run 072, 32. Run 074, 33. Run 077, 34. Run 078, 35. Run 079, 36. Run 080

There were plenty of little yellow ducks out there today!

The Adirun folks have been sticking these on the pavement on some of the more popular running routes in the city.  Rather cool to see them in my opinion.

Anyway, back to my run.  For some reason I had a cracker of a run.  The sun was shining, the scenery stunning and as soon as I started running I just forgot about my cold.  I left the ipod at home today and I think I ran faster as a result.  I don’t have enough angry music on my ipod.  I’m more of an easy listening kind of guy.

Anyways, I did 9.16 km in 47:42.  Which turned out to be a 5:13 k/min pace.  There were some rather steep hills on my route (both up and down) so I’m quite pleased with that.

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Tags: running by AndrewE
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Weight was slightly up this week which is not surprising considering all the cookies.

I went for a good run on Saturday as the sun was out and it was glorious.  Only 11.3 km as it was a recovery week.
Unfortunately a bug has hit our household and we’re all sick. So that’s all for today.

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Tags: Weigh in by AndrewE
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Adirun (a running group run out of a local Adidas store) have come up with a great little expression:

Runner, you are a little yellow rubber duck.  Click through to see what they mean.

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Tags: fitness by AndrewE
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I’ve been on a course for the last three days and it’s been hard to get any time to blog as I’ve had to catch up with work related stuff in the evenings.

The course was quite interesting but the food was an issue.  I had way too many cookies but such is life I guess.

One of the attendees at the course told me that Dean Karnazes will be in Auckland soon to give a talk so I’m going to try and go along to that.  I’ve been reading his book before bed and am up to marathon 27 now.  It’s an inspiring tale and I’ll do a proper review once I’m done with it.

I did a 5K run this morning before work.  I’m on a recovery week this week so I’ve been taking it easy.  I think my body has thanked me for it especially after the longish long runs I’ve been doing on the weekends.  I know that on Monday and Tuesday I had some rather sore joints - especially my left ankle.  It’s fine now so the rest has done it some good.

6 weeks to go to the Auckland marathon so I think it’s time to start doing a bit more speed training! :)

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Tags: running by AndrewE
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Not bad this week! It’s much better when I have a normal week and things are back on track.

Unfortunately I’m on a training course this week and the food choices are not too good. I’m going to take along some fruit but it looks to be a struggle with temptation. The course is reasonably boring so I must try not to snack my way through it!

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Tags: Weigh in by AndrewE
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It was a great day for a run today.  Conditions were almost perfect. I did a long run through suburbia to my old house and back.  My wife and I moved in with our inlaws after our daughter was born last year so it was good to see the old place.  I realised afterwards that I managed to run past every house I’ve lived in while I’ve been in NZ today.  It wasn’t on purpose but it was interesting.  It was only after I got home that I remembered that I’d been carrying my camera in my waist pack the whole time and hadn’t taken any photos!

It was a really good run in the sense that I enjoyed it tremendously.  However, it was quite a slow run too.  For some reason I just had no pace today but I decided fairly early on that that didn’t matter.  I was out for a long run not a fast run so I just put it out of my mind and kept going.  I did 23.46 km in 2:23:44 for an overall pace of 6:08/km.  I’m afraid the map is a bit boring this week as my link to Google Earth wasn’t working.

I had Pheddipations by Steve Runner on my ipod and during the podcast I heard something that really surprised me.  Guess who was the Featured blog of the week - Andrew is getting fit.com!  I feel quite honoured that a runner like Steve would find my journey worthy of a mention.

I hit some major milestones in my run today.  Firstly, it was my longest run yet (by a whopping .4 km) and secondly, it takes me to over 500 miles (800ish km) for the year.  I reckon that is quite an achievement even if I say so myself. ;)

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Tags: running by AndrewE
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