The graph is a bit red this week!
It’s been a bit of an odd week. I’ve struggled to get my eating under control after the carbo loading for my race last Sunday. I’ve also picked up a bug somewhere. I’m reasonably ok during the day but at night I’ve been getting fever and liquidy lungs. Rather annoying to say the least! I also think I did too much running too soon after my half marathon as my body hurts! I’m getting old and soft.
I’ve gotten a few more race photos today:
I always seem to be enjoying myself in the race photos! 
I did an easy 5K in 30 minutes yesterday and a nice 10K in 60 minutes today.
I’ve been having a bit of trouble getting my eating back under control as I’m still in the mood to carboload! But it’s getting a bit better every day. I’ll be back to normal soon. 
Well, I ran the Cathay Pacific Auckland Half Marathon this morning.
I’ve been looking forward to this event as it is my first race of 2009 and also my second half marathon. I’ve also been really worried about my pace lately. As you may know I’ve been doing low heart rate training and my training pace has gotten really slow. I’ve tried to run a bit faster of the last few weeks but it just hasn’t really happened. This event was the test of if it works or not. I figured if I’m slower than the previous half marathon then it doesn’t work or at least it doesn’t work the way I’ve been doing it. Although if I managed to PR…well then it would depend on by how much. For the record my first HM time was 1:59:04. How did I do this time? Well read on.
This event is a bit odd in that you have to guess your finishing time when you enter. They then give you a custom start time and the idea is that everyone finishes at about the same time. I must admit I was a bit dubious about this as I pictured horrific congestion at the end but that never really eventuated.
I left home with my Dad at about 7:45 and he set off with the 8AM starters. Yes, I do live close to the start! I hung around for a while and then set off with the 8:30 starters. I was supposed to start with the 8:35 starters as I’d been optimistic and put down 1:55:00 as my predicted finish time but while I was waiting I started to think that that might be a bit unrealistic and I’d try and do the same time as last time.
The 8AM start wave was reasonably small – maybe about 50 odd people. I made sure I was up front as there were a lot of 11K walkers starting with us (there was an 11K event on as well) and I didn’t want to get held up.
I made a point of taking it easy for the first two kilometers as I’ve always gone out too fast in past events but it turned out that they were my second and third fastest kilometers of the race so I guess I still went out too fast.
The first 5K was very comfortable. One of my goals was to chase down my dad who had started off 30 minutes before me but I saw him coming back (there was an out and back section to start) as I was heading out and I knew it would take a miracle for me to catch him.
The next 5K wasn’t too bad. The sun had come out by this time and the temperatures were rising. I think the humidity level was 89% as well so conditions were good but by no means ideal. At about the 9K mark we hit the first of the two hills and I didn’t find it too bad. I think the fact that I’ve been training on that hill meant that I was not afraid of it so that was good.
I struggled after the hill however. KMs 10 – 15 were hard mentally. I hit that patch where you start to question why you run races for time and whatnot. Having said that my times weren’t suffering too badly so we’ll just leave that there.
I’d arranged to meet my wife at a certain point (about 17.5 km in) for photos and all of a sudden I realised I was almost there and there was no way she’d be there! So I called and changed our rendezvous point. My mum, wife and daughter cheered me on:
And I must admit it was a real boost having them there. About 2 km later at the 19.5 km mark I had another great surprise when I spotted my cousin’s family. They’d come to cheer my dad and I on and it was very special to see them. My cousin’s husband told me that my dad had just gone through so I felt a burst of energy shoot through me and I sprinted off to chase him down.
I never caught him but I did manage to smash my old PR. My time was 1:52:25. An improvement of 6:39! My aim had been to hit 1:55:00 so beating that was an incredible feeling. I guess the low heart rate stuff works!
Interestingly I figure I could go a lot harder if I look at my heart rate stats. I averaged 159 bpm but my max was 166 bpm. That is nowhere near my max heart rate so I probably could have pushed it a bit more. I think I pretty much maintained the same effort throughout the race. I even even-splitted which is a first for me.
Here’s my route map:
I’ll have some more photos later in the week as the Marathon Photos folks were out in force today.
For those of you interested in the low HR stuff, Chris, sent me a great link that has some very useful information in it.
Well, it’s been a truly atrocious week of eating. Although actually it hasn’t been too bad. I’ve overindulged somewhat but I think overindulgence for me now is a far cry from overindulgence in the past.
Overall I’ve remained relatively static. I’ve got my parents coming over for the weekend so I suspect it will be a weekend of eating out and whatnot so I’m not too optimistic about next week’s weigh-in either. I do tend to struggle when I’m out of routine. Anyway, onwards and upwards!
I ran home after work yesterday. I decided to see if I could pick up the pace a bit and run part of my run at my target pace for my half marathon this Sunday. I’m pleased to report a modicum of success. I did about 7 of the 10K at my target pace and while it was reasonably uncomfortable I did not feel overextended. I’m hoping the adrenalin kicks in on Sunday otherwise it’s going to be a tough ask to maintain that pace for 21.1 km!
And for the record, I did not slow down deliberately when running past all the pretty girls sunbathing on the beach. I was feeling fatigued in that section. Honestly. And I forgot my camera. Sorry!
When I got home I had a phonecall from my wife…no car keys…so I had to head back to work with the spare key. Fortunately a family member loaned me their car otherwise it would have meant a run back to work!
Jason from Run4Change is running a small competition called “Why I felt amazing here“. This is my entry.
This photo is from my wedding day. I married an amazing woman. Her name is Sally and she has had an amazingly positive influence on my life. What amazed me at the time (and still does today) was how such a wonderful woman could fall in love with a lump like me. She has, in her own quiet way, helped me transform myself into a better, happier and (slightly) wiser man than I used to be. I’ve often remarked on this blog that I feel that my life is blessed. Everything in my life changed for the better when I met my Sally.
And the thing I remember the most about my wedding day? We never stopped smiling.
You can see more contest details here.
I did a shortish long run this morning. Only 15.78 km. I’ve got my next half marathon coming up next week so I had a nice slow run this morning as part of my taper.
I haven’t really got much to add to that!
Well, it has been a reasonably good week on the Physics Diet front. I’m down half a kg this week to a new record low. I had a scale weight record low yesterday as well but not today. I could have done even better for my weigh-in today but unfortunately I cracked and had some ice cream late last night. In my defence we had the hottest day in 121 years here in Auckland yesterday. Combine that with the close to 100% humidity and it’s been rather nasty.
I’m finding it really hard to run in this humidity. I wanted to do a 10K yesterday afternoon but after 5K just could not breathe properly anymore. It’s really annoying. I much prefer winter to summer. You can always dress warmly but society frowns on excessive nakedness. At least it does in the case of overweight men!
If you look at my chart for the last 30 days then you can see an interesting pattern emerge.
Guess where the weekends are? Still the overall trend is distinctly downwards so I’m not complaining.
I dropped my wife off at work this morning and then headed out for my run.
I went out towards the city and decided I would run around the harbour area. The Luis Vuitton Pacific series is on and I was hoping to see some superyachts.
I took the photo on the left near the Hilton Hotel and there were quite a few pretty boats about. The rich and famous are in town!
I did 12.5 k and boy was it humid! 100% again apparently. I normally hang my running stuff up in a cupboard that I have in my office so that the aircon can dry it out and normally that works like a charm. Today I headed out for a meeting and when I came back there was a huge puddle under my clothes! It just goes to show that it is so humid that my sweat doesn’t evaporate even with my fancy technical gear.
Well, I’ve got a half marathon to do next week so I thought I’d better do some speedwork. I’m hoping to complete the half in about 1:55:00. That’s about an 8:46 mile or a 5:27 km according to my pace calculator. That equates to a pace of 11 kph for the whole half marathon which I figure is doable. I’m not particularly fast but I get by.
So, with all my sums done I headed off to the gym. Which in hindsight was a mistake. In my defence it was raining and I was in a bit of a rush as I wanted to get to work and my gym is at work.
One of the functions I like on the treadmills in my gym is that you can do an interval run. So you set a jogging/easy speed (which for me is about 10 kph) and then a running speed. I decided that I would do my intervals at a slightly higher speed than my projected pace so I chose 12 kph for my running speed. I then did 500 meters at 10 kph and then another 500 at 12 kph. Rinse and repeat 5 times and I very quickly had 5K done. I was originally planning on doing 10K but the humidity (100%!) combined with paint fumes (they are redecorating my gym) beat me and I stopped to get a drink. Once I stopped I felt like throwing up (supposedly the sign of a good speed session) and thought bugger this for a lark and went off to shower before work.
I think from now on I will be doing my intervals outside away from paint fumes and no air.
