This week’s intervals
They were a little different this week as we ran on the road rather than the grass in the Domain.
Both of us found it easier to go slightly faster. I’m not sure if that was because of running on the road instead of the grass, being slightly fitter, or mis-measuring the distance. It’s probably some weird combination of the above.
Marathon thoughts
Stupid but it made me laugh.
I’m not that fast!
It turn out that Peter and I are not elite sprinters after all! We’ve been doing quarter km not quarter mile repeats in just under 60 seconds. That makes a bit of a difference doesn’t it? 
Anyway we’re still very happy with our progress.
Got a nice long weekend coming up. I’m not back at work till next Wednesday.
Intervals are good for the soul
Well, maybe they are and maybe they aren’t but I had a lot of fun doing them today.
Peter and I did 8 repeats of 400 250 metres. Our aim was to do them all in under 60 seconds and we achieved that reasonably comfortably. We both showed quite a bit of improvement from our last session two weeks ago when we did 6 repeats and 2 of them strayed uncomfortably above 60 seconds.
There is a real joy in doing a targeted exercise workout well.
Man down
My running buddy Peter sent me an email last night pointing out the route he was going to be running this morning. I got the message and planned my route so that mine would overlap with his somewhat.
My planning was spot on and our routes converged at about the 7.5km mark on my map below:
I only had to wait about 30 seconds for him so I’d planned and executed the meet up very well. However, the best laid plans of mice and men were for naught when Peter’s hamstring gave out at about the 13km mark and he had to resort to walking. I walked with him for a bit but then got waved on to finish my run.
Overall a very pleasant run of about 19km in around 1:50ish.
Icebreaker & Authentic Runners…
I saw this note about Icebreaker posted on Cool Running NZ’s facebook feed and it made me give a wry “Heh!”
I am looking for a male running model to participate in Icebreaker’s upcoming photoshoot to model our latest range of running clothing. We are looking for an authentic runner to be a model (instead of a model posing as a runner).
I am looking for a male who has an authentic runner’s body…
I know what they mean and I guess no one will buy their gear if it’s modelled by real people but “Heh!” I have a body that gets used for running lots and lots (see my ultra marathon report!) but I guess it’s not authentic.
In other news Peter (my running buddy) and I went to the Auckland Domain today to try out intervals.
I have to say it was a bit of a blast. We did about 250m at close to full blast and then recovered for a bit then did it all again. It took us about a minute for each sprint and I must admit they were pretty hard work!
Having said that it was really good and I’m looking forward to next week’s interval session. I know it will be good for my running! Maybe it will help me to get that authentic runner’s body eh!
Something completely different
I don’t mention my job very often but it is a pretty cool one I think. I work at the University of Auckland and as such I get to meet some of the best and brightest folks in New Zealand.
The Microsoft Imagine Cup is a global student technology competition that encourages students to tackle the toughest problems facing the world today whilst applying the latest technologies.
Some of my students have entered and are in the New Zealand finals. This is their entry:
I’m very proud of them and their efforts to make the world a better place. If you are on Facebook it would be fantastic if you could go to Team Thought-Wired’s Facebook page and show your support by liking them!
In urgent need of speed fitness
I went with a run with my good friend Peter today and we decided to do something a little faster than I have been running lately. We did just over 12 km in about 1:12:00ish. The first 7km were relatively decent in that the average was about 5:20 min/km pace but I just ran out of gas for the last 5km.
It’s going to be fun transitioning from all the long slow running to more pacey stuff for the Huntley Half in 8 weeks time!
Daily Mile
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RoadID
