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I read a great quote on Andrew’s blog. It is from a book called “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” by Haruki Murakami.
“In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be.”
I’m going to crush the old me on Sunday! 
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It was a public holiday yesterday and for once the Auckland weather cooperated quite nicely. It was a glorious day - perfect for running.
I did a nice easy 10K (10.2K in 58:59) down by the waterfront with only 2 short yet steepish hills. It’s quite nice that even though I concentrated on taking things easy I still managed to come in in under an hour. I guess I just had plenty of running in me!
I’m supposed to be in a taper this week as my half marathon is on Sunday. So I’ll only be doing 2 easy 5Ks before having 2 days of rest before the half.
Onto the weigh-in. This last week started off reasonably well but went downhill a bit. We had a work Christmas function and then a private preChristmas gathering at home on Sunday and on both days my thoughts of moderation went out the window for some reason. Having said that, the overall result was no real gain or loss so I’ll take that. I don’t expect to lose any weight this week and won’t be trying to. I’m going to be concentrating on reasonably high carb meals to ensure that I’m adequately fuelled for my run.
I’m up to $722 for the Heart Foundation of New Zealand now. I’ve discovered that I qualify for a free massage after the event so I’m going to take them up on that!
I hope things are going well for all of you as well.
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Weather conditions were really nasty for running yesterday so my wife and I decided to go to the gym for a run on the treadmill.
When I got home and added the run to my stats I couldn’t help but notice that I’ve cracked the 1000 km mark for total distance run so far.
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I’ve had a good day today. Firstly, I did a good 5K run this morning before work. 5K in 24:36. I was quite pleased with that. Work finished at lunchtime today as I got invited along to my wife’s department’s Christmas Party. I know it’s only October! But key people are not going to be around during November and December so they decided to hold it early this year.
We went to the Auckland Luge and it was a lot of fun.
I’m pleased to announce that I won 7 out of 7 races we had. ;) One of the nice things about losing a lot of weight is that there wasn’t any nervous worrying about whether or not I’d fit in the carts or things like that. I’ve spent a lot of time worrying about that kind of thing in my time but never again!
In other news, I’ve been asked what my time goal for the Half Marathon next week is.
All the guides say don’t set a time goal for your first HM. Just focus on finishing. Having said that I’m fairly convinced that I will be finishing (touch wood) seeing that I’ve comfortably done more than the HM distance in training. So I’m going to tempt fate and aim for a time goal.
Two hours was my initial goal but I should be able to beat that I think. I’ve plugged my recent race pace and some of my faster 5K times into the various running calculators and they give me about 1:55ish. I’d love to crack 1:50 but I don’t think that is on the cards for this time. My dad is coming to do the race with me and my wife reckons that I’ll be happy with whatever time I get as long as I beat him. She’s a cheeky woman that one.
I’ve restarted the 100 pushups program (again!) and I thought I’d just let you know that you can get the whole program on 1 sheet of paper now. It’s very handy and can be downloaded here. I’m not going to bore you with daily updates on my pushups and will only report back in on it when I can do more than my previous best of 45 in a row.
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I’ve got my first half marathon next Sunday. Yay! I’ll write more about what this means to me probably next week but for today I want to look ahead somewhat.
One thing I’ve found is that I like having an event to train for. It really keeps up my motivation to get out there and run.
As such, I’ve decided to do the Cathay Pacific Auckland Half Marathon in February, 2009. This seems to be a pretty informal marathon - more like a fun run. My wife has just about talked herself into doing the 11K event there as well. I really hope she does as it will be such great fun to do an event together.
I’ll also be doing the Run Auckland series again next year. The Run Auckland series is 6 5K or 10K races and a half marathon at the end. I did 5 of the races as 5Ks this year and a 10K at the end. Next year I’ll do a mixture and the half marathon.
I’ve been thinking a bit about my first marathon. My original plan was to do the Auckland Marathon in 2009 as my first one but I’m starting to think that I might like to do the Christchurch Marathon at the end of May 2009. My original plan was to do the half marathon there but I reckon it would be a great first marathon. The course is flat and the weather should be nice and cool.
I’m busy reading Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide
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In other news, I’ve managed to raise $647 for the Heart Foundation of New Zealand so far. Thank you very much to those of you who have sponsored me. I’ve been blown away by your response. You guys rock.
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A funny thing happened to me when I went to the gym to get changed for my run today. I pulled out my running shirt and what do you know? I’d grabbed the wife’s shirt instead of mine. The dangers of having a his and hers outfit I guess.
Anyway, this meant that I couldn’t do my run at the gym so I decided to get a run in straight after dinner. I also decided I needed to do it quite quickly as I wanted to get back to help put my little monkey to bed. Big mistake.
I headed out way too fast and blew up after 3km and had to walk for quite a bit. It was a bit embarrassing when another runner went past me while I was squatting down trying not to chuck up. Anyway, lesson learnt. No fast runs straight after dinner.
Having said that I still did my 5K in 28:53 for an average pace of 5:44/km. Considering I walked for about 4 minutes I’ll take it!
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This week was not too flash on the eating front. For some reason moderation was not in my vocabulary and I tended to eat a bit too much. Not hugely excessive but more than I am comfortable with. Having said that, I did a lot of running (47 km) and that has stopped me from gaining too much. 300 grams is nothing in the big picture I just need to make sure it’s not 300 grams positive every week. 
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It is a beautiful day here in Auckland and I’ve just got back from a great run.
I headed out just before 7AM and at first it looked like I might get rained on but in reality the clouds were clearing and the sun came out. I headed uphill to Remuera Road and then down to Newmarket. I ran up Khyber Pass Road, which is rather aptly named as it’s a reasonably long uphill. I kept going up through Newton until I get hit Great North Road and headed down towards Western Springs.
The highlight of this section was blasting down the hill that caused me a bit of grief during one on my 5K races. In the race I had to go up it in the pouring rain. I then ran past one of our larger shopping malls and headed out towards One Tree Hill. My original plan was to run past it but I was feeling good so I went and ran around it instead. It was quite funny as I ran through Twin Oaks Drive it appeared to be raining but the sun was shining brightly and there were no clouds in the sky. We’ve had heavy rain during the night and the water on the leaves was dripping off. It was rather nice.
After One Tree Hill I had one last steep uphill at Ascot Ave and then a quick downhill home.
Overall a very pleasant run. 23.46 km in 2:15:50. I went up and down 1500 feet as well. I made a point of picking out some steep/long hills for this run as the run up the harbour bridge during the half marathon is about a kilometre uphill and steep! 2 more weeks today!
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I got tagged by Will over at 4xl, Cyndi over at Tales from the ‘Broken Scale’ and SuperDave over at SuperDaves Running Away. I guess this means I’d better follow through!
I have to provide 6 random/interesting facts about myself. I’ll provide 6 facts about myself and you folks can judge if they are interesting or not.
In other news I’ve done quite a lot of running this week - a 5K on Monday, a 12K on Tuesday, a very fast 6K on Thursday and a very easy 6K today. It’s my rest day tomorrow and then I’m planning on a 20K on Sunday.
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I went to a talk by Dean Karnazes last night. As you may know, he is a famous ultra marathoner.
He talked for about 40 minutes and then had a 20 minute Q&A session. The event was billed as Dean Karnazes tips on running a marathon but he didn’t really give out all that many tips to tell the truth.
He started off talking about his appearance on Letterman and then showed us the clip. It was quite amusing but I think we all would rather that he spoke more rather than making us watch a video of him for 5 minutes of his 40 minute session.
He structured his talk around the questions people normally ask him:
He came across as a little insane but I guess you’d have to be to do what he does. But he loves it and that love of life and running comes across loud and clear.
Some of his more out there running accomplishments include:
The thing that struck me the most about him is that he seemed a bit amazed that so many people would turn up to listen to him talk about running. There were about 800 odd people there. I’ve never seen so many fit looking folks in one room before. :) I felt a bit out of place - oddly enough my mental image of myself still reverts to the couch potato sometimes.
Someone asked him how fast he was and he casually quipped “I’m slow. I can only manage a 2:30 marathon.” He said that he’s too muscly to be a top marathoner. “I’m the same height as the world champion” he said, “but I’m 35 pounds heavier. And I have only 4.5% bodyfat. Those guys are skinny!” Damn straight they are.
All in all it was an hour or so well spent. I didn’t learn anything new but it only cost $10 and it was relatively entertaining. His website is here and he has a blog at Runners World as well.
On the other hand I really enjoyed reading his book. It’s not only the story of him completing 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 different states, it’s also a collection of hints and tips that he’s picked up along the way. Most of these tips are not dealt with exhaustively, but rather introduced in the stories about the people who ran the marathons with him. For example, he gets given a pizza during one marathon so that’s when the diet tips come out. I especially liked the stories about the people who ran the marathons with him. I think these were the strongest part of the book.
The book is organised by marathon (surprisingly enough) and like the whole 50/50 process is starts off full of enthusiasm and then dies down a bit around the middle and then comes roaring back at the end. I think he should have finished the book with the last marathon as his insane side came out a bit in the last chapter. Basically he decided to run home to San Francisco from New York City on a whim. This is straight after running 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 different states. He’s not quite like you and me.
Overall it’s an interesting read.
According to this week’s Phedippidations podcast you can get a free audio copy of the book from Audible.com. I haven’t tried this out but if you’d like to listen to his book it can’t hurt to give it a go.
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Use the referral code ANDREW50 and get a $50 discount.
