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Gotta love the race photos! I left that guy behind me in my dust. 
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Nothing too drastic this week. I ate more but exercised plenty so no real change.
I did a great 5K run in the Auckland Domain with my wife this morning. The conditions were perfect for running.
It was her fastest one yet (yay!) and a nice easy one for me. :) 5.09K in 30:32.
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I did the Waitakere 11K race this morning. Official results aren’t out yet but I thought I would get my impressions down while they were really fresh.
I went out to the stadium where is starts and finishes yesterday afternoon to pick up my chip, number and race bag. The race bag itself was rather nice, but the contents were a bit disappointing. There was the ubiquitous water bottle (every event I’ve ever been to has given me a water bottle!), a chocolate bar (which disappeared rather quickly!) and a whole bunch of advertising.
I left home at about 7am to be at the race well in time. I got there about 7:30ish and went to use the facilities. As most runners know, this is a rather important part of any race. Normally there is a huge queue for these but this event was at a stadium and there was no problem getting in.
There were about 1500 contestants entered into either the half marathon or the 11K. There were a large number of walkers - more than I’ve seen at any other event. Fortunately the race director had a separate start area for the walkers which was behind the runners. This didn’t stop a few cheeky buggers starting ahead of me!
The hooter went off at 8am and then it was a huge crush to get to the starting line. It took me a minute or two to get there (walking) and then there was a sort of slow shuffle for the first few hundred metres while we all sorted out where we wanted to be.
The first kilometer went by in a flash. As a matter of fact the first 5 km seemed to go very quickly actually. I think it was because I was continually weaving around in traffic. One of the problems with this event is that the roads are open and we had strict instructions to stay on the footpath. The footpath was only really broad enough for two people to run next to each other so passing was a bit of a problem. I think I used quite a bit of energy nipping around people. I’m pleased to report that I overtook a lot more people than overtook me. I suspect I was a bit too conservative with my start. Next time I’m going to wriggle a bit more towards the front at the startline.
Kilometers 5-8 weren’t too bad. The field had stretched out somewhat by then and I kept my pace up by passing a succession of folks. Everytime I passed someone I’d try and then pass the next person and so on. This was quite motivating.
Kilometer 9 was tough. It was basically a long uphill. It wasn’t particularly steep but it was just long. My mind kept saying slow down and walk but I managed to resist this temptation! A few people passed me but not many. Fortunately what goes up must come down and so I managed to pick the pace up again in kilometer 10.
The finish was on the stadium track and I have to admit it was a good feeling running down the track. Heading into the track I was with a group of about 5 people but I think I left them in my dust as I sprinted to the finish. The guys from marathon photo were there so hopefully they got me at the finish sprinting hard out!
Going in to the race I was hoping to break the 1 hour mark. I thought that under 57 minutes would be absolutely brilliant. My actual time was 56 minutes flat! That’s a new (and inaugral) 11K PR. I also broke my 10K PR by about 3 minutes but I won’t count that as it wasn’t a 10K race. So 11 km at a 5:06 min/km pace.
Looking back I think I made a few mistakes in this race. My first one was positioning at the start. I started too far back. I still have this thing in my mind that I’m quite slow so I think it’s more polite to start from near the back. In reality, while I’m not fast, I’ve been training and am not as slow as I think. I spent way too much time in traffic. It’s fun passing people but it took a lot of energy.
My second mistake was not pushing harder in the second half. I don’t think I pushed myself very hard. In the past when I finished my races I was done. I had to go and lie down on the ground and then stagger back to my car afterwards. Today I felt great at the finish. I even jogged back to my car straight after the race . I think my long runs have given me quite a bit of endurance and I didn’t utilise that fully today.
Some good lessons learnt there. Next time I’ll bear those in mind.
Overall a great race and one I’d like to do again.
***UPDATE***
Provisional results are in and my official time is 55:52.
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I dropped my car off at Toyota in Panmure this morning as it was time for it’s annual service and Warrant of Fitness. Unfortunately the first thing I did when I arrived at the car yard was scrape one of their brand new vans that a customer was supposed to be picking up while parking my car. I hate to admit it but it was totally my fault. I just misjudged the length of the van.
Fortunately I’m fully insured so I rang up my insurance company (AA insurance) and within about 10 minutes they had arranged for my car to be repaired - it’s got a nasty scratch all down the left side - and they even organised me a free hire car to replace my one while it’s being repaired. I just need to drop it off at their collision repair centre tomorrow morning. And they are going to take care of the car yards car too. Full marks to them for their great service.
Anyway, the Toyota folks were obviously not too impressed but this kind of thing happens so what can you do? I left my car and I thought it would be pushing my luck to ask if they could drop me off at one of the satellite campuses my work has that is about 3 km away from the car yard (they normally do) so I decided to walk. It was a great morning for it as it was not too warm (it’s been alternating an hour or two of sun and then an hour or two of rain the last few days) and it didn’t take me long to get to the campus. There is a free shuttle bus that runs from that campus to the main campus in the city where I work so I was quickly back in the office.
I had decided to run back to get my car as the distance was approximately 10 km and I needed a run so once they called me up to say the service was done I headed off to the gym (on campus), got changed in to my running gear and then started running.
Conditions were close to ideal for running - the only niggle is that at times the wind would gust a bit. I felt great the whole time and really enjoyed my run. I haven’t actually enjoyed a run as much as this one for a while. Funny how sometimes the run is just right. I did 10.72 km in 58:54 at a 5:30 min/km pace. This bodes well for me breaking 1 hour in my 11K race on Sunday as I was not really straining at all.
I ate quite a bit more than I normally do last night as I got the munchies and I wonder if that is why my run felt so good. I suspect that I should fuel myself a bit better for my longer runs especially as the half marathon is only 3 and a bit weeks away. Or maybe I just want to justify eating more food. Who knows?
Speaking of food, my wife and I try to make a point of having lunch together at least one day during the work week (we do work at the same place after all!) and yesterday we tried a new place called Revive. It’s a vegetarian restaurant and I can highly recommend it. The food is great and while not cheap for lunch it’s not expensive either.
You’ll also be pleased to know that her neck is better now and she managed to get out for her first run since being injured today. 5.35km in 35 mins I’m told.
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I’ve got a nasty case of sweat rash at the moment (miliaria). I’m not sure how or why I have it but I know that I do and it’s been driving me nuts as it itches like mad. My doctor said it’s one of the hazards of sweating a lot while exercising in humid conditions. The only problem is that I don’t recall it being humid yet! Oh well, there’s not much I can do except suffer through it. Recommended treatment is apparently to not sweat and I’m afraid that’s not really an option as I need my exercise!
Anyway I went for an itchy 5K run today on the treadmill as it’s rather windy and rainy out at the moment.
I’ve got an 11K race coming up on Sunday. It’s been a while since my last race which was a 10K which I did in 53:14. However the course was only about 9.2K in reality if I remember correctly. I think I should be able to comfortably beat an hour but I have no real idea about what time I should aim for. I think I’m just going to run and see what happens. One thing I always find enjoyable about a real race is that I’ve always found I can run faster and further in a race. It’s also nice to run with other people.
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After reflecting on my last weigh in I decided to go back to what has worked for me in the past. Simple meals and easy on the snacks. As you can see from the graph below the tried and true still works. I don’t really believe the daily calorie deficit as I haven’t been hungry. Hopefully I can get another week in like this!
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I woke up to a howling gale this morning. Fortunately it died down to merely being a strong wind while I was having breakfast. I’m not particularly keen on running in the wind but I today was long run day so out the door I went.
The plan for today was to do a slow and gentle half marathon distance. I’d mapped out a run that should get me to just over that distance on mapmyrun.co.nz. I wanted to go for distance today and not pace as I haven’t had a long long run for just over two weeks as I only did 9K last week due to my chest infection and the week before I’d done 16K as part of a recovery week.
For the first two kilometers of my run I was pretty sheltered from the wind so it was a good opportunity to get warmed up. The next 12K were all into quite a strong headwind so it was head down and plod along. I ran the last leg of the half marathon course in reverse today as I’ve never actually run along that route. I took a photo of the Auckland Harbour Bridge from the Tank Farm.
I’ll have to run across that as part of the half marathon. I’m really looking forward to the experience but I’m not looking to the 1km uphill run. Its actually rather steep.
I started to struggle a bit from the 14K mark. I suspect the miles with the headwind were catching up to me at that point. I ate a milky way bar and had a drink and continued onward. At this point I was running through Ponsonby which seems to have nothing but cafes and bakeries on it’s main road! The smells were making me very hungry.
On my way through the Auckland Domain I ran past one of our Olympic marathoners. She was going in the other direction at a reasonable clip and that inspired me a bit. I managed to pick up my pace a little and by that time I was only 3km from home so it didn’t take me too long to get home to a celebratory egg on toast.
All in all I did 21.36km in 2:09:12 for a 6:03 min/km pace. That’s 47.1km for the week.
Next week I have an 11K race on Sunday so I’m looking forward to that.
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My wife managed to twist her neck and hurt it rather badly while looking after our little girl in the middle of the night so I spent a good part of the day taking her to doctors, massage and acupuncture.
When we got home I decided that I had better get my run in before it got dark so I headed out in the late afternoon. I wanted to do a nice and easy 10K run so I headed out towards Tamaki Drive. I did a 10K run but it wasn’t particularly easy. I think I was a bit dehydrated as I hadn’t drunk anything since about 10am and there was quite a strong wind blowing so the running was rather hard. Having said that I still managed to run the whole way and didn’t stop at the ice cream shop that I passed twice!
One of my friends, Stephen, had his birthday yesterday and held a party in the evening. My wife and I went along and had a great time. I can’t remember any other evening events that we have actually gone to during the week since our daughter was born. Considering she is 15 months old tomorrow - it’s been a while!
I had a single slice of pizza, some fries with aoli and an espressotini and a small piece of birthday cake. They were all good and, to top it off, I had a record low (scale weight) on my weigh in this morning so it looks like you can have your cake (in moderation) and eat it!
Here’s a photo that he took of me last night:
A bit different from this one:
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I had lunch with a friend yesterday and he said something I found quite funny:
“When I look for you in a crowd my mental image is still the big fat white guy. You’re harder to find now.”
Apparently I don’t stand out in a crowd any more. What a shame.
I only had time for a 5K run today. I’m going to get in a 10K session tomorrow. 1 month to go until my half marathon!
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