Andrew is getting fit

I ran the Solid Energy Huntly Half Marathon on Sunday.  I’ve also been extremely slack and haven’t gotten around to writing up my race report until today!

My wife’s cousin originally asked me if I was keen to go run the Huntly Half as he’d heard there were good spot prizes there.  I thought about it for about 2 seconds and said “Sure!” as I had been planning on doing it in any case. 

Huntly is about an hour or so away from Auckland and on the drive down on Sunday  morning we hit a bit of fog.  This meant that the start was a bit delayed as traffic had to slow down and people were still flooding in right up until the gun went off at 10:15 rather than the original 10am.

My plan for the race was to run conservatively and set a PR.  This seems like a bit of a contradiction but in reality it was not.  My previous 1/2 marathon PR was 1:59:04 and I set that in my very first half marathon back in 2008.  I haven’t actually run a proper half since then as the 2 half marathons I’ve run since then have been classified as fun runs and the courses have been a bit short so I didn’t count them as PRs.

So I set my virtual partner on the Garmin to do a 1:58 as I wanted to practice my pacing and hopefully negative split.  In previous races I’ve gone out too fast every single time.  This always results in a second half that was much slower than the first half!

The first half of the race was great.  I got stuck behind a lot of walkers in the beginning but I didn’t indulge in lots of weaving as I figured it wouldn’t make much of a difference overall.  It was probably a blessing in disguise as my first KM was the slowest of the race which is very different to my normal race outcomes.

I settled into an easy pace that was just slightly faster than my virtual partner and enjoyed the run.  The scenery was quite pretty.  We ran along some suburban streets then went out onto what looked like a hiking track.  At about the 5km mark I realised that I had been trading places with an older lady from the YMCA Marathon club so I decided I would just fall in behind her and follow her as she was running at my target pace.  This was a good move as I found the running really easy after doing that.

At the 10km mark we headed off the trails and back onto the suburban roads. 

I had to give kudos to the organisers of the event.  The water stops (which only had water) were positioned well and often.  There were very enthusiastic volunteers manning them and it was just great.

My half way split was 57:43 which was a little fast but I felt that I was running well within myself at that point and wasn’t too concerned.

It was just before the halfway point that things started to get hilly.  I must admit that the hills took me by surprise.  I had thought the course was flat but from the 10km mark to (I’m guessing) 14km mark there was a serious of rolling hills which really separated the pack.  I’m pleased to report I passed a lot of people on the hills which was quite satisfying.

The second half of the second half was an out and back section to the Solid Energy Coal Mine.  It was quite cool as we actually ran into the mine area and ran under some mining equipment which was very different to anything I’d ever done.

I dedicated the last 4 km of my half marathon to different folks.

I started off with km 17 and thought about my mum and how proud I am of her and her efforts to get fit.  Km 18 was dedicated to thinking about my dad and how he is a source of inspiration to me for taking up running.  Km 19 was dedicated to my little girl and I was thinking how I’m so glad she’s only going to know a fit dad.  Km 20 was dedicated to my darling wife and her support.

I had a brief problem at the beginning of km 20 when my cap caught on a tree and flew off.  I fleetingly thought of leaving it there but I paid good money for that cap so I ran back and got it.

Km 21 (all .1 of it!) was dedicated to myself as I tried for a sprint finish!  I didn’t quite sprint across the finish line but the last km was my fastest overall:

I managed to finish the second half in 56:39 for my first ever negative split in a race.  I also finished with a fantastic PR of 1:54:22 which is a lot faster than I had aimed for.  That time may be problematic next Sunday when I run the Christchurch marathon.  I don’t feel that I pushed too hard but I guess time will tell.  If I blow up in the marathon you’ll know why!

I really enjoyed this race and I’ll be back again next year if circumstances permit.

Tags: running by Andrew
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Last week I set myself the goal of having an all green week and I’m pleased to report that I did it.

2010 is looking great:

However, I reached a more important milestone this week.  This is the first official weigh-in post where my Physics Diet (official) weight is under goal.  So I’m officially under my goal weight.  Boy that is great!

It’s been just under 8 years since I said enough is enough and started losing weight.  And to be honest it’s been quite the rollercoaster ride.  I’ve lost then regained many a time yet each time the loss was a little bit more and the regain a little bit less.
I only started using PhysicsDiet to track my weight in about 2008 but I’ve filled in a few gaps (with memorable occasions where I knew my weight):

Slow and steady wins the race I guess?

I think I’ll try and dig out some before photos and post them here.

Tags: Milestones, Weigh in by Andrew
33 Comments »

Oh dear!  I’ve had my first gain of the year.   I can live with a .02 kg gain.  Although it is a bit of a wakeup call in many respects.  I’m still not handling weekends well.  I’ve been doing great during the week and then blowing it all over the weekend.  I’m going to set myself the goal of having another all green week.

The year itself is still looking ok:

My physics diet weight was actually under goal for the first time this week but the weekend ruined it.  I’m .01kg over goal weight on physics diet now.  So unless I totally blow it I should be there next week!

I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet but things have been busy and unfortunately I’ve not made enough time for blogging.

Tags: Weigh in by Andrew
20 Comments »

As you can see from the graph it’s a pretty flat trend line this week:

The year itself is starting to flatten out a bit too:

I will be starting to cut down my mileage somewhat over the next few weeks as I enter the taper period of my marathon and half marathon training.  This means I’ll have to really start watching what I eat as at the moment I can get away with a few excess calories due to the amount of running I’m doing.  I really don’t want to gain weight just before the marathon!  I did that last year unfortunately.

Tags: Weigh in by Andrew
19 Comments »

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there!

My wife got up bright and early to do her 16km long run yesterday and this meant that I did my long run slightly later than I have been doing my runs.  I’ve been doing my long runs on Saturdays (and my wife on Sundays so we can take turns watching our daughter) but this week we had a family thing on so we both ran on Sunday.

The plan was to try and emulate my last 20 miler pace (about 6 min/km) but over a different route.  I decided to run along our waterfront.  Conditions were pretty good.  Overcast with a slight wind:

The run did not go as well as planned unfortunately as I had some stomach issues and at about the 12 km mark I had a Code Brown event.  Fortunately I was just outside a public convenience so disaster was averted!

I think I must have picked up a bug from something as my daughter was experiencing the same sort of symptoms.  In a way this is a relief as it means that my hydration and fuelling strategy wasn’t at fault. 

I’d kept the pace under the 6 min/km mark reasonably comfortably up until that point but I have to admit that the second half of the run was a real struggle.  I kept getting stomach twinges and had to walk a hundred metres every so often.

In the end I did 32.2km in 3:26:18 for a 6:22 min/km pace.  A while ago I would have happily taken that pace for a long run so I guess I can’t complain.

I raced the virtual partner again and this time round he had his revenge.  Last time I whipped him by a km and this time he whipped me by about 1.2 km!  I’ll get him on marathon day eh!

Tags: fitness by Andrew
16 Comments »

The seasons are changing here in New Zealand.  May is normally the month where the temperature starts to drop and this May has been no exception.  I’ve had to get out my blankets and yesterday morning I got my long sleeve running top out for the first time.

The other major difference is that it is dark out when I’m running! 

I’ve had a few emails asking why I haven’t been posting as many photos lately and as you can see from the photo to the left it is because it is slightly hard to get good photos on my cell phone camera when it’s dark out!

Running in the dark is quite nice as the temperature is quite cool.  All my normal running routes are quite well lit except for Cornwall Park which is extremely dark as there are no street lamps inside it.  I ran through it on an overcast morning recently and I could literally not see the road. I had to use my cellphone as a flashlight.

Anyway, this week I’ve run 19 km on Monday, 16.2 km on Thursday and 16.1 km yesterday for a total of 51 km (32 miles) so far.  I’m planning on doing a 32km run tomorrow morning (20 miler).  I think that will be my last long long run before the Christchurch Marathon.

Tags: Marathon Training, running by Andrew
23 Comments »

It was a really good week up until about Friday.  Work has been really busy this week and I had to start early and stay late every day from Thursday onwards – including the weekend.  As such, I was out of routine and didn’t get my runs in and, even worse, I subsisted on junk food mainly. But such is life sometimes.  I really needed to enter the latest weekend warrior challenge but it slipped me by I’m afraid.

Anyway, even after all that I’m down .32 kg this week.  My physics diet weight is 86.54kg (goal is 86.4kg) so I’m so close to officially being there.  My actual scale weight was as low as 84.9kg this past week which is the lowest I’ve seen since I passed it (going up!) as a teenager I guess.

The year itself is looking good:

April has been a record breaker for me in terms of my running.  I ran over 300 km (187 miles) in April which is the most I’ve ever run in a single month. I suspect I won’t be running as much in May as I’ll be tapering for the Christchurch Marathon for the latter half of it. 

Tags: Weigh in, fitness, running by Andrew
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