Andrew is getting fit

One of the highlights of the week is my Friday morning run with my beloved wife.  This morning we ran around the Orakei Basin which is the submerged crater of a long extinct volcano.  As you can see it was a beautiful, crisp, still winter’s morning:

I’ve got a very nasty cold so it was rather tough going but definitely the highlight of my day.  I never thought I’d be blessed with the ability to run, nevermind run with my wife in one of the most beautiful areas in the world.

Tags: Life, running by Andrew
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I went shoe shopping last Saturday with my wife. We went to Shoe Science in Newmarket. I normally buy my shoes from Runningwarehouse.com as they are a lot cheaper than buying locally in New Zealand. However, it is hard to get properly fitted etc. via an online store so I decided to go to a speciality running store that does all the testing etc.

The testing process was quite cool. The store has a short running track which they get you to run up and down on while they film your gait.  They then replay it and determine what kind of shoe you need.  My wife is an overpronator and I’m more of a neutral runner.  My last pair of shoes were designed for overpronators so they were definitely wrong for me.

The salesperson pulled out a few different brands of shoes and insisted we try running around with them all to find out which felt best.  He also filmed us in each pair to check if they were suitable.  It was quite cool as you could immediately see which shoes helped your gait and which didn’t.

I ended up with a pair of Brookes Defyance 2 shoes which I really like:

One tip the guy gave us was to always get your running shoes 1 size bigger than your normal shoes as your feet swell when running.

I’ve done just over 40 km in these shoes since Saturday and I must admit I really like them.  They definitely suit me better than my previous pair of Adidas shoes.  My wife got some nice Mizuno’s – I forget which exactly.

It is funny that the most expensive items of clothing that I have are my shoes.  Well, except for my suit.

Tags: Tools, Toys by Andrew
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My wife and I did our long runs together again today. She did 16km and I carried on to do 25km. The first loop was great as conditions were perfect and everything was great.

I took this panoramic shot with my camera while my wife stopped for a pitstop.

As you can see we were running in a rather scenic area.

I dropped my wife off at the 15km mark and carried on to do another loop around the local area. For some reason I found the last 5km or so rather tough and had to walk quite a bit. My legs just felt dead and afterwards my joints were rather sore. I suspect it had to do with my new shoes (separate post to follow) and I also stuck quite a few more hills in my route.

That’s week 08 of my marathon training complete. 10 more weeks to the marathon itself! Next week is a step back week so my long run will only be 18 km.

60.2 km for the week. Which is not too bad.

Tags: Marathon Training, running by Andrew
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I went for a run earlier today and during said run I was listening to Phedippidations #200. Steve Runner said something that really resonated. He said that to many people, people who can run even a mile are like superheroes. I remember when I was about 100 pounds heavier (not so long ago) and being unable to even dream of running a mile. I’d see folks running and think wow. And so whenever you have a run where things don’t go so well remember that you are a superhero to some folks. And yes, I do sometimes wear running tights.

Today’s run was a relatively slow 12 kms. Having said that I was quite proud of it as I ran to the top of One Tree Hill which is a short but relatively steep climb. I definitely felt like a superhero when I got to the top!

I got some funny looks on my way up:

Cornwall Park (where I was running) is a working farm and there were hundreds of sheep with lambs dotted around the place. The view from the top was pretty good but I didn’t hang around for very long. The photos I took weren’t very special so I’m not going to bother putting any up.

I did 7 km yesterday and 12 km today so this week has started off quite well in terms of running. I hope the rest of the week goes as well!

Tags: fitness by Andrew
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I saw this on Aaron’s blog and it got me pumping! I can’t wait for work to end so I can go for my run!

Tags: Inspirational Bloggers by Andrew
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Week 07 of my marathon training program was a bit up and down.  I skipped two of the runs as I was a bit man fluey and also incredibly busy with work.  Having said that the runs that I did were all pretty good.

I did a great long run (23.5km) yesterday:

Conditions were great for running.  Overcast, slightly chilly with a hint of rain but no wind.

I ran the first 13 km of that run with my wife and then did the next 10.5 by myself.  I had a bit of a sprint from here to the Hilton just to wake up the legs which was great but I felt it on the hills back to home.

Only 45 km for the week when I was supposed to do about 57 but such is life.  I’m supposed to do 60 this week and I’m looking forward to it.

It is time to invest in some more shoes I think.  Both my current pairs are at about the 500km mark.  I’ve already hit over 1000km for the year and think I’ll get to my goal of 2000 although it will be close!

Tags: fitness by Andrew
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It’s been a great week of running for one reason or another.

I did 6K on Tuesday evening, 8K on Wednesday, 5K with my wife on Friday morning, 5K Saturday morning and a nice 15K run with my wife this morning (Sunday).

It’s been a step back week for me.  The idea with the step back weeks is that you decrease your running mileage a bit so that your body can recover from the marathon training.  So far I’m enjoying this marathon training program.  I’ve just completed week 06 and from week 07 onwards the mileage starts to step up a bit.  The 3 miles runs on Tuesday and Friday become 4 mile runs and the midweek run extends to 7 miles.  The long run just keeps getting longer by about a mile or two every week.

The weather here in Auckland has been fantastic for running this week.  This is the view from my run on Friday morning:

Not bad eh!

The weather this morning was a bit worse but still pretty good.  The only problem was that there was a reasonably strong breeze blowing so it made running one way a bit unpleasant but it was great when we hit the turnaround spot as the wind pushed us along.  I’m saying us because my wife ran with me again this morning.  It was a step back week for me but it was a step up week for her as she ran her longest run ever at 15K!  I’m extremely proud of her.  Her half marathon training is going well.

It was a nice out and back run today.  15K in 1:34:32.  Pretty effortless really.  I felt good the whole time.

One funny thing we saw on the run today was this:

I suspect someone had a bit too much to drink and stole a car for a bit of a hoon on the beach.  There are plonkers everywhere I guess!

Tags: Marathon Training, running by Andrew
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You may or may not have noticed (and if you did you’ve been very kind and not mentioned it) that I’ve stopped blogging about my weight.

When a blogger who normally reports on his/her weight goes quiet about it that’s normally a sign that the scale has been going up.  I’m no exception unfortunately.  Since mid March this year I’ve been quietly gaining weight.  I started off by justifying it through my running – I was training for a marathon and pretty hungry.  Soon I was eating more that I could really justify even though I was running a lot.  The funny thing about eating wrong is that it is really easy to do, especially when you are training quite hard too.

I saw a great post on Get Fit Slowly by Mac which had the line

Focus on the good and don’t get hung up on the bad.

If I look at the good I’ve got my exercise mojo going strong.  I lost it for a while just before my marathon (of all places and times!) and it took me a while to get back in the groove.  I’ve been really loving my running again and I think I tried to do too much too fast with my first marathon.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing.  I’m really glad I did it but if I had to do it again I’d train quite differently.  And I am now that I think about it!

The bad has been that my eating has been a bit off.  It’s not a big fix really.  90% of my eating is very healthy – I’m just eating way too much of my healthy food and I need to control my portions a bit more.

I’m also going to start weighing in everyday again.  I think this is crucial and I know that when I don’t do it I gain weight.

That first large red spike was my half marathon in late Feb and it seems to have been pretty much all uphill from there on.  Oh well, I know what I need to do and I’m going to do it.  Thanks for bearing with me!

Tags: Weigh in by Andrew
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Today’s long run was a little different to my normal Sunday morning long run in that my wife and I did the first 10 km of our runs together. Her program called for about 13 km and mine for just over 19.

We left the house at about 6:40ish and headed off along Tamaki Drive. The temperature was pretty much perfect for running and the sun was just coming up.  The view towards the city was rather nice:

There was a cycle race on along our route so we were being passed by lots of cyclists as we went along.  It also meant that it was quite hard to run at times as the pavement was pretty full of spectators and people getting ready to race etc.

We headed in towards the city and after a quick pitstop at the McDonalds (the hashbrowns were tempting but we resisted) we turned around.  She took the turnoff towards home and I continued my run.

I saw a family of ducks swimming along in the sea and had to stop to take a quick photo:

It’s amazing what you can see while out on a run!  That’s why I’m so glad I got a cellphone with a great camera.  I think it’s great to be able to share the sights with you folks.

The run was a bit slower than usual but not massively so.  I blame the cyclist and spectators myself.  Having said that my long runs are always quite slow for one reason or another. 19K in just over 2 hours.

My marathon training is going reasonably well.  I did just over 46km for the week.  I should have done 48 but my route mapping was a little off on Wednesday when I did just over 8K rather than 10K.  I’ve completed week 05 of the program now.  Looking ahead to week 06 it’s a stepback week so the long run drops down to 14.5 km (9 miles).

I’ve been making an effort to try and coincide my runs with my wife’s as I find it very pleasant to run together. This is the view from the run we did together on Friday morning:

It is nice to have some time where it is just us as we can chat (she does most of the talking!) and just do something together.   The scenery is pretty good but the company is better.

Tags: fitness by Andrew
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