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.

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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.

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My training went reasonably well.  The only thing I think I could have done better was eat better.  Unfortunately I was about 6kg heavier going into the Ultra than I was for the Auckland Marathon last year. 

The weather turned atrocious just as I went to pick up my racepack the day before the event.  We had real monsoonlike torrential rain and it totally washed out the registration.  Having said that, I managed to get my race number and chip and I was good to go.  I couldn’t help but notice how superfit and athletic most of the folks who were there seemed.  GULP!

I was up at 4am the next day to get ready in time for the start.  Fortunately the weather had cleared up and it looked to be a beautiful day. 

The event started in the dark in the middle of a Redwood Forest and I decided to start right at the back.  I was literally 2nd last at the start.  I figured I wouldn’t get in anyone’s way and I never regretted that decision.

The first 4k or so was done in the dark and it was actually very slow as it was on a narrow track, steep uphill and 300 or so people.  My aim the whole day was to be conservative as I knew I’d feel great in the beginning but that by the 50k or so mark I’d probably be feeling rather different!

One of the big differences between a marathon and an ultra marathon is the type of aid station:

There was so much food!  I had a hot cross bun at just about every station and they were great!  The volunteers were awesome and so very helpful.  I had someone grab my hydration pack and fill it, someone else make me a sandwich and someone else ask if there was anything else they could do for me at most points!  Loved the volunteers.

Here I am at about the 30km mark.  I still have my trademark running smile on and that never really left me during the whole event.

I found the whole event quite joyous in a way.  It was really nice to be out in the bush just running and doing something that almost no one else would ever consider doing.  I think that aspect of the ultra marathon really attracts me.

It got really tough from about the 42km mark as the track turned very technical.  I was totally unprepared for how technical the course was in parts. The off road aspect really threw me. Some of the uphills and (even more so) the downhills were quite intense. I had never run on trails beforehand and it is totally different to anything I had imagined. I really loved it but boy it was tough at times.  As you can see the elevation chart shows that there were a lot of up and downs and very little flats.

The shoes I got from Saucony were a life saver.  I’ve got two bruised toes but I haven’t lost any toenails unlike after my first half marathon!  I guess the feet have toughened up after all the running I’ve done since then.

It was fantastic to see my wife, daughter and the rest of the family at the end.  It really was a great way to finish the event.  We went straight from the finish to the Kawerau Hot Pools and had a great soak in the pools.  The pizza afterwards really hit the spot too!

The stats:  I finished in 9:31:11 which was well below my target time of ten hours so that was a big plus for me.  More importantly for me I finished in the top half of the field.  25th out of 51 men in the 60km event.  I was convinced I was going to finish dead last when I started so that was an outstanding result. My splits:

Most importantly of all I had a blast.  I’ve gone over everything I did during the race and I don’t think I could have done anything better to be honest.  It was a great event and something I will probably look at doing again.

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My running is going really well and I’ve been really enjoying it.  I’m at the point where exercise is a must have not a nice to have in my life and I love that feeling!

The eating on the other hand…

Mac had a great post out yesterday where he made this point that I can really identify with:

Many people think that losing the weight is the hard part. And yeah, weight loss IS hard; I’ve done it. But let me tell you, I think maintaining your weight loss is even harder. It takes persistence, diligence, and dedication just to keep your weight the same.

I’ve found my weight creeping up slightly – I’m still in my happyish zone but the danger signs are there so I need to focus on eating clean again.  It’s not that hard – I just have to get out of the mindset that I can eat lots of snacks because I’m running heaps.  Which is actually surprisingly hard! Back to basics, one day at a time.

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As you can see, conditions were cold and wet but we were smiling!  We did a nice 12km around town:

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It’s on the other side of Auckland to where I normally run but it is quite picturesque as well:

The figure you can see on the left is my running buddy who was keen to try the course as well.

The course is flat and I suspect it would be very fast in a race:

We did 21.7 km in 2:01:22 which averaged out to about 5:36/km pace.  I know my running buddy could have gone a lot faster but I had run for 6 days in a row and by the end of the run I’d done 78 km for the week.  Needless to say I was struggling a bit towards the end of the run.  To be honest I no longer really feel like running the official race after doing the course which is a bit of a shame.  Maybe I’ll change my mind before the day.

Over the last 30 days I’ve averaged more than 10km a day so I think I’m doing alright with my running mileage!

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Today’s run:

It doesn’t really matter what the weather is doing in Auckland I find.  It’s still a beautiful place to run.

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And I’ve also been loving the panorama mode on my camera:

I actually ran through that old shed in the middle of the photo above but forgot to take a photo from inside it. 

I also ran past the marina.  As you can see it’s very pretty out Auckland way:

Overall a very comfortable 12 or so km at an average pace of 5:31/km.

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It has been gorgeous running weather the last few days.  No wind and either clear skies or just a light overcast.  Very,  very nice.

Last week I did a total of 69.4 km at an average page of 5:48 / km.  I think that was my fastest week of running ever.  I think my recent focus on incorporating a bit of speedwork has started to pay off as I’m finding that I can maintain a faster pace for the same effort.

As a matter of fact, my long run yesterday ended up being run at sub 4 hour marathon pace and it felt relatively easy.  My HR was in my low heart rate training zone the whole time which I think is brilliant.  If I can keep that up that Taipei is going to be a blast!

I suspect that my months of doing low heart rate training has enabled me to build a very solid fitness base and now the speedwork is adding that bit extra.

In other news, my eating has not been particularly brilliant.  My core meals are healthy and nutritious but I’m still allowing one too many snacks to pass my lips.  My weight is still under control but I really don’t want it to start creeping up.  I want it to continue creeping down!

One of my former students brought me a cake as a thank you for the help I gave in the previous semester which really didn’t help the cause (even though it was very much appreciated):

It was delicious!  And I didn’t eat the whole thing – I shared it with everyone at home.

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This morning (Thursday here in NZ) I had to drop my father in law off at the airport.  I was up at 4am and then straight out to drop him off and then I headed out for my run.  It was pouring down with rain and there was quite a strong wind so it was a tough workout but I came in under my target goal off 55 minutes (5:30 pace) by doing the run in 54:34 (5:24 pace).  I’m quite chuffed that I did so well in such atrocious conditions.

I hit a milestone for the year when I clicked by 1000 miles for the year so far this morning. I’m quite happy with that just quietly.  I’m ahead of my goal of 2010 km in 2010 by quite a long way.  I might switch my goal to 1500 miles.  We’ll see.

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It’s definitely getting warmer here in NZ.  I think winter is just about done.  The days are getting noticeably longer now and it is not painful to get out of the door predawn.

I did a total of 58 km last week.

I’m about 21 weeks away from the Taipei Marathon now so it’s time to start thinking about marathon training programs.  Earlier in the year I mentioned I was thinking about the Brooks Hanson Marathon Training plan and I’ve decided to go with it.  There’s a good write up about it here.

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As such, I decided that my Tuesday and Thursday runs are going to be faster runs.  On Tuesdays I’m going to run a 5K as fast as I comfortably can (i.e. no puking!) and on Thursdays I’ll do a 10K as fast as I comfortably can. 

My aim with the 5Ks is to try and break my 5K PR and probably the same with the 10Ks I guess!

This morning’s run was great.  It was quite nippy (probably about 6 degrees C) which is pretty much perfect for running.

I did just over 3 laps of the Auckland Domain mile loop:

I managed to set a new 5K PR of 24:19 which is 4:52 min/km pace.  I could have gone slightly faster but I’m happy with that.  There was no danger of puking!

I’m really enjoying my running again and I guess I’m getting my mojo back!

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On Monday I went to get a xray of my foot as my little toe is still swollen and hurting. You may recall that I knocked it a few weeks back. It originally went purple but cleared up quickly so I thought it was just bruised but it never really got better so I went and had it checked out. It turns out it is fractured and it will take a while to heal. Fortunately it doesn’t interfere with my running as my running shoes are a size larger than my normal shoes so there is no impact on it.

On Tuesday I did a nice 11km run home after work.

On Wednesday I thought about running but didn’t.

On Thursday I ran with a colleague and we did a 10km run in a blistering (by my standards) 52:40. That’s the fastest 10K I have run in over a year. I’ve been running with Peter for a few weeks now and it’s been most enjoyable. I find running with someone else forces you to push yourself a little harder than you normally would.

On Friday I went and bought some new running shoes.  I went to buy some more Brooks Defyance’s but they didn’t have my size in the new model so I decided to try some Adidas Adistar Ride 2′s.  To test them out I did my local 4.5km loop in 24:58 which is the fastest time I’ve ever done it in.  I’m sure it’s just coincidence.

On Saturday I got up at 1:30am to watch Netherlands eliminate Brazil in the football world cup.   I was supposed to go running on Saturday morning but let’s just say that while the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak.  Instead my wife, daughter and I went to a few of our favourite farmer’s markets and free sampled our way through the morning.

This morning, it is 8:30 and I’m already back from a 21.6km run (in 2:13:50) which was most enjoyable.  My little girl is 3 years old today so we are having a family gathering this afternoon.  Good times.

So my running this week has been pretty good. I’ve done 47.1 km in 4:37:08 for an average pace of 5:53/km. I’ll take that. I’m slowly building my mileage up again as it is almost time for me to start marathon training again.

I’ve also restarted the 100 pushups, 200 squats and 200 situps trifecta. I thought I’d give them all a go at the same time to get a bit of conditioning. It’s pretty much the first time I’ve done any pushups since doing the 100 a few months ago!

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First off I had an audience:

It was a beautiful winters day here in Auckland:

I even discovered a new walkway which had a great view of the mangrove swamps:

I’m still running and my weight is still stable but I just don’t feel like I have a lot to say at the moment so blogging will be light until I recover my mojo. I’m probably still in my post marathon funk.

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The day started off under a bit of a cloud in that the weather had closed in and it was raining heavily when I got up.

However, by the time the race started the rain had stopped and it never really returned during the race. The temperature maxed out at about 7 degrees C (44 F). I have to admit that conditions were absolutely perfect for running.  We really could not have asked for better. 

The course is two laps of a very flat course that follows the Avon River:

I set my virtual partner on my Garmin to run at just sub 4 hour pace.  My plan was to attempt to run both halves of the course at 1:59:00ish.

I felt very good in the first half.  I came in exactly on target and I was feeling strong.  I must admit that I started to think I had it in the bag at that point. 

The transition between the first lap and the second is quite startling.  In the first lap you are surrounded by hundreds of runners at all times and then all of a sudden you are running by yourself.  The whole event had only 5300 people and the great majority of them were doing either the 10K or the half option. 

At the 24K mark I started to feel a little queasy and got rather worried.  My downfall in the Auckland Marathon in November last year was my stomach and I really didn’t want to go through that again.  However, I still was running at target pace.

Things went well until about the 28K mark and that’s when my pace started to slow.  I don’t know if I hit the wall, or if I went out to fast or if my legs hadn’t recovered from the half marathon 2 weeks previously or if it was the churning stomach but I found I just couldn’t keep my pace up.  Km 29 was ten seconds off the pace.  Km 30 was 20 seconds off the pace and it just slowly got worse.  I managed to claw it back a bit between km 36 and 38 but by km 40 I was feeling rather bad.

My aim at that point had changed to not walking and I did well up until km 41 when I thought I was going to throw up and I walked for about 50 meters till the feeling passed.

The camaraderie in the last km was great.  I passed quite a few folks who were walking and encouraged them to get running (and two of the buggers did and passed me!)   Everyone was really glad to get to the end of the race.

I got that burst of energy that you do in the last few hundred meters and managed to run it home.  My wife, mother and daughter were at the finishing line cheering me on.  I thought that was the highlight of the event!

I finished in 4:20:26.  While not sub 4 hours it is still a 34 minute personal best in the marathon so I’m pretty happy.  I always knew that sub 4 hours was a bit of a stretch for this marathon as I hadn’t trained for that but I have no regrets in going for it.  I may have blown up somewhat but I still did better than I ever have before. 

Photos will be coming!

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I’d like to think I could break 4 hours at the Christchurch Marathon but the odds are really against it.  My training hasn’t been about improving speed but rather about improving base fitness.

Having said that here are my goals:

• Dream goal:  Break 4 hours!
• Optimistic goal:  4:07ish
• Realistic goal:  4:15

I’m pretty confident I can hit my realistic goal and even the optimistic goal should be quite doable IF I pace for that.  However, I reckon I’m going to go out and try and hit my dream goal.  As you do!  This might mean I blow up in the second half and do another 4:50ish or worse!  If that is the case well at least I’ll go out knowing I gave it a go.

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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.

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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.

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