One day at a time. 2008-11-19T11:12:50Z WordPress http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/feed/atom/ 1739767http://www.feedburner.com AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=740 2008-11-19T11:12:50Z 2008-11-19T11:12:50Z

Well I’m in sunny Taiwan and the weather is fantastic for running.  Overcast and a bit nippy with the odd drop of rain.  I was in Brisbane (Australia) from Friday - Monday and unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a run in - mainly because it was either pouring with rain or stinking hot.  And [...]

<p>Well I&#8217;m in sunny Taiwan and the weather is fantastic for running.  Overcast and a bit nippy with the odd drop of rain.  I was in Brisbane (Australia) from Friday - Monday and unfortunately I didn&#8217;t manage to get a run in - mainly because it was either pouring with rain or stinking hot.  And I mean hot!  Anyway, Taiwan seems much more conducive to running at the moment as the temperature is brilliant.   It&#8217;s winter here so the temperature hovers around the 20 degree C mark although I&#8217;m told it can spike up to 30 degrees C some days.</p> <p>I&#8217;m staying in Nei-hu which translates as the Lake District in Taipei City and there are a bunch of nice lakes qutie close to where I&#8217;m staying so this afternoon I went out for a run around Blue Emerald lake.  There is a great little running/walking track that goes around it and I was far from being the only person out running.  I was the only white guy out running though!  Speaking of which, I&#8217;ve only seen one other European outside the airport so far.  I always find that quite funny.</p> <p>I took my cellphone along so that I could take some photos but it was out of battery for some reason.  I found the picture below via Google Earth:</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1910250" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.panoramio.com');"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/1910250.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: left;">I did 5 loops of the lake which came to just over 6 km.  It was very enjoyable and I&#8217;ll definitely be doing more running now that I&#8217;m here in Taiwan.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3043458666/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/flickr.com');"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3039/3043458666_3646dd4a96.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="469" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: left;">One thing that isn&#8217;t really apparent from the overhead shots is that I&#8217;m really in the city.  It is incredibly built up and I&#8217;ll post a few pictures once I remember to charge my camera!</p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/19/a-run-around-a-lake-in-taipei/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/19/a-run-around-a-lake-in-taipei/#comments">16 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/19/a-run-around-a-lake-in-taipei/&title=A run around a lake in Taipei">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/taipei/" rel="tag">taipei</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/19/a-run-around-a-lake-in-taipei/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=w0hTwu"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=w0hTwu" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/458296921" height="1" width="1"/> 16 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F11%2F19%2Fa-run-around-a-lake-in-taipei%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=738 2008-11-12T07:49:13Z 2008-11-12T22:47:24Z

I&#8217;m off on holiday 4AMish tomorrow morning so expect contributions to slow down somewhat over the next four weeks. Hopefully I&#8217;ll do some run reports from different locales! © AndrewE for Andrew is getting fit, 2008. &#124; Permalink &#124; 17 comments &#124; Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Who is linking? Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

<p>I&#8217;m off on holiday 4AMish tomorrow morning so expect contributions to slow down somewhat over the next four weeks.</p> <p>Hopefully I&#8217;ll do some run reports from different locales!</p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/13/on-holiday/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/13/on-holiday/#comments">17 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/13/on-holiday/&title=On holiday">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/13/on-holiday/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=Ynpu6i"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=Ynpu6i" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/451187613" height="1" width="1"/> 17 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F11%2F13%2Fon-holiday%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=736 2008-11-09T07:39:41Z 2008-11-09T07:39:41Z

My long run today was not particularly long but it was long enough.  I did a 15 km run and it was probably my slowest run since I finished C25K.  I&#8217;d like to blame it on the Low Heart Rate Base Training I&#8217;m doing but I only got my heart rate fast enough to trigger [...]

<p>My long run today was not particularly long but it was long enough.  I did a 15 km run and it was probably my slowest run since I finished C25K.  I&#8217;d like to blame it on the Low Heart Rate Base Training I&#8217;m doing but I only got my heart rate fast enough to trigger the slow down beep from my Garmin about 4 times during the run.  It was just one of those days where my legs felt heavy.  It wasn&#8217;t helped by the fact that I chose the hottest part of the day to run.  And it was a glorious day!  The only problem was that it was extremely windy.</p> <p>I ran past the Rose Gardens in Parnell and decided to stop and snap a picture with my cellphone.  They are looking really nice.  I&#8217;m going to take my wife there for a walk if I can this week.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3014349379/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.flickr.com');"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3010/3014349379_9ea4478cfc.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a></p> <p>Overall I did 15.41 km in 1:42:48.  Even though it was a slow run I enjoyed it.  It was great running along the coast line as the wind was blowing spray over the seawall so it kept me nice and cool for that portion of my run.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3015174316/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.flickr.com');"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3137/3015174316_cd61da671e.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="488" height="500" /></a></p> <p>I also did a 10K low heart rate run on Friday.  I did that in about 58 minutes.</p> <p>That brings my weekly milage up to about 40.5 km.  I&#8217;m going to try and get it up to about at least 50km a week but it will be a little difficult for the next few weeks as I&#8217;m going overseas on holiday with my wife and daughter.</p> <p>I was supposed to be leaving this coming Wednesday (Australia for a week then Taiwan for three weeks) but my darling daughter has managed to catch chickenpox (The poor little monkey is covered with heaps of sores and is not happy) so we&#8217;ve had to delay our flight a few days.  So now we will will be leaving on Friday instead and skipping the Gold Coast leg of our trip.  We&#8217;ll still be visiting some friends in Brisbane for a few days before leaving to see family in Taiwan.</p> <p>Getting all my runs in is going to be a challenge but I figure you can run anywhere really.  The trick will be to eat healthily.  I must admit my eating over the last few weeks has been a bit shocking.  I&#8217;m going to have to regain my healthy eating mojo.</p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/09/a-run-past-the-rose-garden/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/09/a-run-past-the-rose-garden/#comments">18 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/09/a-run-past-the-rose-garden/&title=A run past the Rose Garden">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/long-run/" rel="tag">Long Run</a>, <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/low-heart-rate-training/" rel="tag">Low Heart Rate Training</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/09/a-run-past-the-rose-garden/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=l95nWD"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=l95nWD" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/447201335" height="1" width="1"/> 18 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F11%2F09%2Fa-run-past-the-rose-garden%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=734 2008-11-06T07:23:35Z 2008-11-06T07:23:35Z

I listened to a Phedippidations podcast on base training a while back and made a mental note to relisten to it once I&#8217;d done my half marathon.   So I did. The basic concept of base training strikes many runners like a brain-teaser game: how can running slowly now help us to achieve better performances [...]

<p>I listened to a Phedippidations podcast on base training a while back and made a mental note to relisten to it once I&#8217;d done my half marathon.   So I did. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <blockquote><p>The basic concept of base training strikes many runners like a brain-teaser game: how can running slowly now help us to achieve better performances later in the year? It is particularly challenging to go from the relative intensity of pre-race workouts to a speed and pace that is much, much slower. However, if you come to the realization that many runners stagnate on a plateau of performances because they run too few miles, and these miles that they do run are are run too fast, then you open yourself up to the possibility of significant running improvement. Proper base training requires patience and discipline, and this week&#8217;s guest host, Steve&#8217;s running advisor John Ellis, explains how the hard part of this period of training comes with the dedication to running &#8220;easy.&#8221;</p></blockquote> <p>You can get the podcast <a href="http://steverunner.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=314556" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/steverunner.libsyn.com');">here</a>.</p> <p>Basically, the whole idea with base training is that you run slower and further in order to build up your aerobic fitness. Your body becomes able to do more work at a lower heart rate.  There is a better explanation <a href="http://www.triendurance.com/Related.asp?PageID=41&amp;NavID=7" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.triendurance.com');">here</a>.</p> <p>There is an interesting <a href="http://formationflier.spaces.live.com/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/formationflier.spaces.live.com');">FAQ</a> on low heart rate training <a href="http://formationflier.spaces.live.com/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/formationflier.spaces.live.com');">here</a> which I found via the <a href="http://www.runningahead.com/groups/LOWHRTR/Forum" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.runningahead.com');">Running Ahead&#8217;s Low Heart Rate Training Forums.</a> There is a lot of great information there.</p> <p>As such, I have decided I&#8217;m going to try and do some base training.  I&#8217;ve completed all the events I&#8217;m going to do for 2008 and my 2009 events don&#8217;t start till late February so that gives me some time to get the physiological benefits.</p> <p>The recommended target HR for low HR workouts is 180 - your age so today I did a 10K run where my pace was determined by my target HR of 146.  It&#8217;s quite interesting as the longer I went the higher my HR went so while I started off running 10.6 kph I had to drop it all the way down to about 9kph for the last kilometer or so.  Overall I did 10K in 61 minutes.</p> <p>This is going to be an interesting experiement.</p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/06/time-for-base-training/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/06/time-for-base-training/#comments">7 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/06/time-for-base-training/&title=Time for base training">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/low-heart-rate-training/" rel="tag">Low Heart Rate Training</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/06/time-for-base-training/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=RpPVJ4"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=RpPVJ4" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/444103378" height="1" width="1"/> 7 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F11%2F06%2Ftime-for-base-training%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=732 2008-11-03T21:08:26Z 2008-11-04T04:00:09Z

I went for a nice gentle 5K run in the gym this morning.  It went great and I had no difficulty with any of it.  I&#8217;ve felt surprisingly good since the HM with only slightly achey quads (from the hills I suspect). The photos from the half marathon have been released.  Click on the photo below [...]

<p>I went for a nice gentle 5K run in the gym this morning.  It went great and I had no difficulty with any of it.  I&#8217;ve felt surprisingly good since the HM with only slightly achey quads (from the hills I suspect).</p> <p>The <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3000706102/sizes/s/in/set-72157608623995606/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/flickr.com');">photos</a> from the half marathon have been released.  Click on the photo below to see more.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/sets/72157608623995606/detail/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/flickr.com');"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3276/3000706102_6fe03860de_m.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="160" /></a></p> <p>Thank you all for your kind words on my race report post. They are all much appreciated.</p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/04/back-on-track-and-some-photos/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/04/back-on-track-and-some-photos/#comments">22 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/04/back-on-track-and-some-photos/&title=Back on track and some photos">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/04/back-on-track-and-some-photos/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=KVY4TA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=KVY4TA" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/441685274" height="1" width="1"/> 22 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F11%2F04%2Fback-on-track-and-some-photos%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=718 2008-11-02T07:21:16Z 2008-11-02T07:21:16Z

My alarm went off at 3:55 AM this morning.  Race day!  At last.  The weather forecast was for heavy rain clearing in the early morning and for once it was accurate.  It bucketed down in the night but stopped at about 4AM. My dad had flown down from Christchurch to do the race as well [...]

<p>My alarm went off at 3:55 AM this morning.  Race day!  At last.  <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <p>The weather forecast was for heavy rain clearing in the early morning and for once it was accurate.  It bucketed down in the night but stopped at about 4AM.</p> <p>My dad had flown down from Christchurch to do the race as well so we both got ready and then my darling wife dropped us off at the ferry terminal at 5AM.  The ferry terminal is just outside some of the more popular bars in Auckland and there was some poor drunk bloke staggering home after a hard night out on the town who made me laugh when he blurted out &#8220;You&#8217;re all F***G mental!&#8221; Yes we are mate. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <p>We got the timing just right and managed to get straight onto a ferry.  25 minutes later we were in Devonport eyeing up the portaloos.  I have to give credit where credit is due and say that the race organisers had definitely put in plenty of portaloos!  There looked to be about 500 meters worth of them.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/2994225988/sizes/o/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.flickr.com');"><img class="alignleft" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3204/2994225988_82a2b7a00b.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="500" /></a>My dad has a regular training partner who was supposed to be meeting him but by the time the race started he still hadn&#8217;t shown up so we just ran.  About 100 meters into the race he showed up!  7500 people and he managed to find my dad.  I was impressed!  I left them behind at that point and set off on my personal quest.</p> <p>I had decided to try and maintain a reasonably conservative pace for the first half so that I would still have plenty in the tank in the second half.  In all my races up until now I&#8217;ve always shot off and struggled quite a lot at the end.</p> <p>The course was quite congested for the first two kilometers so it wasn&#8217;t too hard to be restrained.  I must admit that I was extremely happy to be out running this event.  It wasn&#8217;t that long ago that I weighed more than 300 pounds and the thought of exercise filled me with dread.  Fortunately I&#8217;ve kicked the couch habit and am now a runner.</p> <p>I lost quite a bit of time at the drink stations.  I think next time I will do what I do in training and carry my water with me.  It&#8217;s much easier and I know what to expect that way.  It was hard to get at the water and I didn&#8217;t get much in either I think.</p> <p>At the 10K mark my time was 52:36 and I was very pleased.  The race had been very enjoyable up until this point and I was going strong.  I was actually ahead of my projected finish time and I was thinking the hills that someone had warned me about hadn&#8217;t been that bad.  Oh boy, how wrong can you be?</p> <p>Kilometer 11 - 15 was hilly!  It started off with some small hills, then some big ones, and then the bridge!  The bridge wasn&#8217;t nearly as bad as I had feared it would be.  It was long and steep but I had done a lot of hill training in my training and I actually kept a really good pace up all the hills.  Not once did I even consider stopping.  The marathon photo people were on the bridge so I made sure to give them a big smile and a festive fist pump as I went past.  I look forward to seeing those photos in the next few days.</p> <p>Kilometer 15 was where things started to go downhill a bit.  Both figuratively and literally!  Literally in that it headed downhill after the bridge and figuratively in that a few things started to go wrong with my run.  Firstoff,  I started to get some rather serious stomach rumbles and I really didn&#8217;t feel good.  I also made a rather serious mistake with my footwear - I wore shoes I&#8217;d only done about 20 km in, essentially new shoes.  This resulted in some rather nasty blisters and both my big toes are bruised under the nails.  This made running rather interesting.</p> <p>Kilometers 16 - 17 I started getting slower and slower.  I abandoned my 1:53 hopes.  I abandoned my 1:55 hopes.  I abandoned my 2 hour hopes.</p> <p>Kilometers 18 &amp; 19 I started to hate running and worried that I wouldn&#8217;t finish.  I thought about walking but really didn&#8217;t want to.</p> <p>Kilometer 20 I thought HTFU and run!  So I ran.  Could I make two hours?  Hmm.</p> <p>Kilometer 21.  Where&#8217;s my cheer team?  Run!  Where are they?  Run! Where&#8217;s my lovely wife?  Sprint, there&#8217;s the finish!  What&#8217;s my time!  1:59:04!</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/2994207016/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.flickr.com');"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3046/2994207016_c38526d416.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="488" height="500" /></a></p> <p>I didn&#8217;t actually see my wife until about 30 minutes after the race.  She took the photo above and so I must have looked right at her but I didn&#8217;t see her at all.  Apparently my mum was cheering like mad too but I missed them both.  There were so many people lining the finish.  I went through the finish and couldn&#8217;t find them so I went to the Heart Foundation tent and got my free massage.  Then I went back and found them all at the bag pickup area.  It was a bit disappointing that there was no finishers medals for the half marathoners.  The medals looked so nice too.  For a $89 entry fee you think you&#8217;d get something at the end.  Oh well.</p> <p>It was really special having my family there at my first half marathon.  I don&#8217;t know who was happier about me doing it.  Actually I do.  My mum is my number one fan. :)  Hi Mum!</p> <p>Immediately after the event I was a bit despondent about my time as I&#8217;ve run faster in my training runs but that only lasted for about 10 minutes.  I&#8217;ve come such a long way.  A year ago I couldn&#8217;t run 100 meters.  Today I ran that 100 metres and another 21 km.  Wow!  I also set a Half Marathon PR.  I should be able to beat that one too in my next HM in February.  I&#8217;m rather happy that this overweight middle aged fellow has managed to become a runner.</p> <p>I have to run a marathon now.  I just have to. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <p>I&#8217;d like to use this opportunity to say something to my wife Sally.  Darling, getting to the point where I could run this race was a lot of work but I know it was a lot of work for you too.  You&#8217;ve supported me from the beginning and I could not have done it without you.  I know I&#8217;ll never be able to express how grateful I am to you.  Without you I would still be lost.  You are the most amazing person I know and I love you.  I&#8217;m always amazed that you love me too.  Just as well considering we&#8217;re married! :)  Thank you.</p> <p>And thank you to all of you as well.  This blog has really helped me achieve this goal and without all of your cheers and bits of advice and whatnot I don&#8217;t think I would have been nearly as successful.  Thank you all.</p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/02/adidas-auckland-half-marathon-race-report/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/02/adidas-auckland-half-marathon-race-report/#comments">40 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/02/adidas-auckland-half-marathon-race-report/&title=Adidas Auckland Half Marathon Race Report">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/race-report/" rel="tag">Race Report</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/11/02/adidas-auckland-half-marathon-race-report/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=k3FUdq"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=k3FUdq" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/439733634" height="1" width="1"/> 40 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F11%2F02%2Fadidas-auckland-half-marathon-race-report%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=714 2008-10-30T23:57:27Z 2008-10-30T23:57:27Z

I read a great quote on Andrew&#8217;s blog.  It is from a book called &#8220;What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” by Haruki Murakami. “In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be.” I&#8217;m going to crush the old me on Sunday! © AndrewE for Andrew [...]

<p>I read a great quote on <a href="http://ajhblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/what-i-talk-about-when-i-talk-about-running/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/ajhblog.wordpress.com');">Andrew&#8217;s blog</a>.  It is from a book called &#8220;What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” by Haruki Murakami.</p> <p><em>“In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be.”</em></p> <p>I&#8217;m going to crush the old me on Sunday! <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /></p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/31/the-way-you-used-to-be/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/31/the-way-you-used-to-be/#comments">22 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/31/the-way-you-used-to-be/&title=The way you used to be">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/31/the-way-you-used-to-be/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=6zBAtA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=6zBAtA" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/437472614" height="1" width="1"/> 22 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F31%2Fthe-way-you-used-to-be%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=710 2008-10-28T00:38:18Z 2008-10-28T00:38:18Z

It was a public holiday yesterday and for once the Auckland weather cooperated quite nicely. It was a glorious day - perfect for running. I did a nice easy 10K (10.2K in 58:59) down by the waterfront with only 2 short yet steepish hills.  It&#8217;s quite nice that even though I concentrated on taking things [...]

<p><a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/run.png" ><img class="size-large wp-image-711 alignleft" title="run" src="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/run-297x300.png" alt="" width="297" height="300" /></a>It was a public holiday yesterday and for once the Auckland weather cooperated quite nicely. It was a glorious day - perfect for running.</p> <p>I did a nice easy 10K (10.2K in 58:59) down by the waterfront with only 2 short yet steepish hills.  It&#8217;s quite nice that even though I concentrated on taking things easy I still managed to come in in under an hour.  I guess I just had plenty of running in me!</p> <p>I&#8217;m supposed to be in a taper this week as my half marathon is on Sunday.  So I&#8217;ll only be doing 2 easy 5Ks before having 2 days of rest before the half.</p> <p>Onto the weigh-in.  This last week started off reasonably well but went downhill a bit.  We had a work Christmas function and then a private preChristmas gathering at home on Sunday and on both days my thoughts of moderation went out the window for some reason.  Having said that, the overall result was no real gain or loss so I&#8217;ll take that.  I don&#8217;t expect to lose any weight this week and won&#8217;t be trying to.  I&#8217;m going to be concentrating on reasonably high carb meals to ensure that I&#8217;m adequately fuelled for my run.<a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/chartashx.png" ><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-712" title="chartashx" src="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/chartashx.png" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a><br /> <a href="http://www.heartracer.org.nz/Andrewisgettingfit/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.heartracer.org.nz');"><img class="alignleft" src="http://www.heartracer.org.nz/images/charities/nhf.jpg" alt="" width="172" height="71" /></a>I&#8217;m up to $722 for the <a href="http://www.heartracer.org.nz/Andrewisgettingfit/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.heartracer.org.nz');">Heart Foundation of New Zealand</a> now. I&#8217;ve discovered that I qualify for a free massage after the event so I&#8217;m going to take them up on that!</p> <p>I hope things are going well for all of you as well.</p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/28/weigh-in-its-carbo-loading-time/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/28/weigh-in-its-carbo-loading-time/#comments">11 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/28/weigh-in-its-carbo-loading-time/&title=Weigh-in: It&#8217;s carbo loading time!">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/28/weigh-in-its-carbo-loading-time/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=dlIcmS"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=dlIcmS" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/434148653" height="1" width="1"/> 11 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F28%2Fweigh-in-its-carbo-loading-time%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=708 2008-10-25T18:06:19Z 2008-10-25T18:06:19Z

Weather conditions were really nasty for running yesterday so my wife and I decided to go to the gym for a run on the treadmill. When I got home and added the run to my stats I couldn&#8217;t help but notice that I&#8217;ve cracked the 1000 km mark for total distance run so far.  © AndrewE [...]

<p>Weather conditions were really nasty for running yesterday so my wife and I decided to go to the gym for a run on the treadmill.</p> <p>When I got home and added the run to <a href="http://www.runningahead.com/logs/c6cf38a502e34f9eb395adfc653cb2ed" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.runningahead.com');">my stats</a> I couldn&#8217;t help but notice that I&#8217;ve cracked the 1000 km mark for total distance run so far.  <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /></p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/26/1000-kilometers/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/26/1000-kilometers/#comments">15 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/26/1000-kilometers/&title=1000 Kilometers">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/26/1000-kilometers/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=e3tKPi"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=e3tKPi" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/431898992" height="1" width="1"/> 15 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F26%2F1000-kilometers%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=706 2008-10-24T06:51:01Z 2008-10-24T06:51:01Z

I&#8217;ve had a good day today.  Firstly, I did a good 5K run this morning before work.  5K in 24:36.  I was quite pleased with that.  Work finished at lunchtime today as I got invited along to my wife&#8217;s department&#8217;s Christmas Party.  I know it&#8217;s only October!  But key people are not going to be [...]

<p>I&#8217;ve had a good day today.  Firstly, I did a good 5K run this morning before work.  5K in 24:36.  I was quite pleased with that.  Work finished at lunchtime today as I got invited along to my wife&#8217;s department&#8217;s Christmas Party.  I know it&#8217;s only October!  But key people are not going to be around during November and December so they decided to hold it early this year.</p> <p>We went to the <a href="http://www.aucklandluge.co.nz/preview.cfm" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.aucklandluge.co.nz');">Auckland Luge</a> and it was a lot of fun.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/2968979546/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.flickr.com');"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3061/2968979546_53764966d9.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="338" /></a></p> <p>I&#8217;m pleased to announce that I won 7 out of 7 races we had. ;)  One of the nice things about losing a lot of weight is that there wasn&#8217;t any nervous worrying about whether or not I&#8217;d fit in the carts or things like that.  I&#8217;ve spent a lot of time worrying about that kind of thing in my time but never again!</p> <p>In other news, I&#8217;ve been asked what my time goal for the Half Marathon next week is.</p> <p>All the guides say don&#8217;t set a time goal for your first HM.  Just focus on finishing.  Having said that I&#8217;m fairly convinced that I will be finishing (touch wood) seeing that I&#8217;ve comfortably done more than the HM distance in training.  So I&#8217;m going to tempt fate and aim for a time goal.</p> <p>Two hours was my initial goal but I should be able to beat that I think.  I&#8217;ve plugged my recent race pace and some of my faster 5K times into the various running calculators and they give me about 1:55ish.  I&#8217;d love to crack 1:50 but I don&#8217;t think that is on the cards for this time.  My dad is coming to do the race with me and my wife reckons that I&#8217;ll be happy with whatever time I get as long as I beat him. She&#8217;s a cheeky woman that one.</p> <p>I&#8217;ve restarted the <a href="http://hundredpushups.com/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/hundredpushups.com');">100 pushups program</a> (again!) and I thought I&#8217;d just let you know that you can get the whole program on 1 sheet of paper now.  It&#8217;s very handy and can be downloaded <a href="http://hundredpushups.com/hpu_pocket.pdf" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/hundredpushups.com');">here</a>.  I&#8217;m not going to bore you with daily updates on my pushups and will only report back in on it when I can do more than my previous best of 45 in a row.</p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/24/a-fun-day-out/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/24/a-fun-day-out/#comments">16 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/24/a-fun-day-out/&title=A fun day out">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/100-pushups-challenge/" rel="tag">100 pushups challenge</a>, <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/fun/" rel="tag">fun</a>, <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/running/" rel="tag">running</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/24/a-fun-day-out/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=Bv1888"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=Bv1888" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/430438155" height="1" width="1"/> 16 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F24%2Fa-fun-day-out%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=697 2008-10-22T02:32:17Z 2008-10-22T02:32:17Z

I&#8217;ve got my first half marathon next Sunday. Yay!  I&#8217;ll write more about what this means to me probably next week but for today I want to look ahead somewhat. One thing I&#8217;ve found is that I like having an event to train for. It really keeps up my motivation to get out there and [...]

<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pkeleher/461735406/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.flickr.com');"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/254/461735406_11c1f53ad6.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="529" height="93" /></a></p> <p>I&#8217;ve got <a href="http://www.aucklandmarathon.co.nz" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.aucklandmarathon.co.nz');">my first half marathon</a> next Sunday. Yay!  I&#8217;ll write more about what this means to me probably next week but for today I want to look ahead somewhat.</p> <p>One thing I&#8217;ve found is that I like having an event to train for. It really keeps up my motivation to get out there and run.</p> <p>As such, I&#8217;ve decided to do the <a href="http://www.coolrunning.co.nz/races/cathaypacific/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.coolrunning.co.nz');">Cathay Pacific Auckland Half Marathon</a> in February, 2009. This seems to be a pretty informal marathon - more like a fun run. My wife has just about talked herself into doing the 11K event there as well. I really hope she does as it will be such great fun to do an event together.</p> <p>I&#8217;ll also be doing the <a href="http://www.runauckland.co.nz" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.runauckland.co.nz');">Run Auckland </a>series again next year.  The Run Auckland series is 6 5K or 10K races and a half marathon at the end.  I did 5 of the races as 5Ks this year and a 10K at the end.  Next year I&#8217;ll do a mixture and the half marathon.</p> <p>I&#8217;ve been thinking a bit about my first marathon. My original plan was to do the Auckland Marathon in 2009 as my first one but I&#8217;m starting to think that I might like to do the <a href="http://www.sbsmarathon.co.nz/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.sbsmarathon.co.nz');">Christchurch Marathon</a> at the end of May 2009.  My original plan was to do the half marathon there but I reckon it would be a great first marathon.  The course is flat and the weather should be nice and cool.</p> <p>I&#8217;m busy reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594861994?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=andreisgettif-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1594861994" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.amazon.com');">Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide</a><img style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=andreisgettif-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=1594861994" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /> by Hal Higdon and it&#8217;s inspiring me somewhat.  Can you tell?</p> <p style="text-align: center;">___________________________________________________________</p> <p><a href="http://www.heartracer.org.nz/Andrewisgettingfit/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.heartracer.org.nz');"><img class="alignleft" src="http://www.heartracer.org.nz/images/charities/nhf.jpg" alt="" width="172" height="71" /></a>In other news, I&#8217;ve managed to raise $647 for the <a href="http://www.heartracer.org.nz/Andrewisgettingfit/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.heartracer.org.nz');">Heart Foundation of New Zealand</a> so far.  Thank you very much to those of you who have sponsored me.  I&#8217;ve been blown away by your response. You guys rock. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /></p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/22/thinking-ahead/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/22/thinking-ahead/#comments">15 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/22/thinking-ahead/&title=Thinking ahead">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/plans/" rel="tag">plans</a>, <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/running/" rel="tag">running</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/22/thinking-ahead/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=6NYGvI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=6NYGvI" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/428105600" height="1" width="1"/> 15 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F22%2Fthinking-ahead%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=694 2008-10-21T06:41:14Z 2008-10-21T06:33:35Z

A funny thing happened to me when I went to the gym to get changed for my run today.  I pulled out my running shirt and what do you know?  I&#8217;d grabbed the wife&#8217;s shirt instead of mine.  The dangers of having a his and hers outfit I guess. Anyway, this meant that I couldn&#8217;t do [...]

<p>A funny thing happened to me when I went to the gym to get changed for my run today.  I pulled out my running shirt and what do you know?  I&#8217;d grabbed the wife&#8217;s shirt instead of mine.  The dangers of having a his and hers outfit I guess.</p> <p>Anyway, this meant that I couldn&#8217;t do my run at the gym so I decided to get a run in straight after dinner.  I also decided I needed to do it quite quickly as I wanted to get back to help put my little monkey to bed. Big mistake.</p> <p>I headed out way too fast and blew up after 3km and had to walk for quite a bit.  It was a bit embarrassing when another runner went past me while I was squatting down trying not to chuck up.  Anyway, lesson learnt.  No fast runs straight after dinner.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/2960206711/sizes/o/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.flickr.com');"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3223/2960206711_c660b97932.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="400" /></a></p> <p>Having said that I still did my 5K in 28:53 for an average pace of 5:44/km.  Considering I walked for about 4 minutes I&#8217;ll take it!</p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/21/a-not-so-good-run-2/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/21/a-not-so-good-run-2/#comments">17 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/21/a-not-so-good-run-2/&title=A not so good run">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/running/" rel="tag">running</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/21/a-not-so-good-run-2/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=VCr6MB"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=VCr6MB" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/427181016" height="1" width="1"/> 17 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F21%2Fa-not-so-good-run-2%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=692 2008-10-19T20:06:17Z 2008-10-20T05:00:08Z

This week was not too flash on the eating front. For some reason moderation was not in my vocabulary and I tended to eat a bit too much. Not hugely excessive but more than I am comfortable with. Having said that, I did a lot of running (47 km) and that has [...]

<p><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.physicsdiet.com/Chart.ashx?t=WeightLoss&amp;s=2008-10-13&amp;e=2008-10-20&amp;u=ebsfwan" alt="" width="500" height="375" /><br /> This week was not too flash on the eating front. For some reason moderation was not in my vocabulary and I tended to eat a bit too much. Not hugely excessive but more than I am comfortable with. Having said that, I did a lot of running (47 km) and that has stopped me from gaining too much. 300 grams is nothing in the big picture I just need to make sure it&#8217;s not 300 grams positive every week. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /></p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/20/relatively-red-but-stable/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/20/relatively-red-but-stable/#comments">11 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/20/relatively-red-but-stable/&title=Weigh-in: Relatively red but stable">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/weigh-in/" rel="tag">Weigh in</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/20/relatively-red-but-stable/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=IFhaQg"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=IFhaQg" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/426075344" height="1" width="1"/> 11 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F20%2Frelatively-red-but-stable%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=687 2008-10-18T21:24:03Z 2008-10-18T21:24:03Z

It is a beautiful day here in Auckland and I&#8217;ve just got back from a great run. I headed out just before 7AM and at first it looked like I might get rained on but in reality the clouds were clearing and the sun came out. I headed uphill to Remuera Road and then down [...]

<p>It is a beautiful day here in Auckland and I&#8217;ve just got back from a great run.</p> <p>I headed out just before 7AM and at first it looked like I might get rained on but in reality the clouds were clearing and the sun came out. I headed uphill to Remuera Road and then down to Newmarket. I ran up Khyber Pass Road, which is rather aptly named as it&#8217;s a reasonably long uphill. I kept going up through Newton until I get hit Great North Road and headed down towards Western Springs.</p> <p>The highlight of this section was blasting down the hill that caused me a bit of grief during one on my 5K races. In the race I had to go up it in the pouring rain. I then ran past one of our larger shopping malls and headed out towards One Tree Hill. My original plan was to run past it but I was feeling good so I went and ran around it instead. It was quite funny as I ran through Twin Oaks Drive it appeared to be raining but the sun was shining brightly and there were no clouds in the sky. We&#8217;ve had heavy rain during the night and the water on the leaves was dripping off. It was rather nice.</p> <p>After One Tree Hill I had one last steep uphill at Ascot Ave and then a quick downhill home.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">Overall a very pleasant run. 23.46 km in 2:15:50. I went up and down 1500 feet as well.  I made a point of picking out some steep/long hills for this run as the run up the harbour bridge during the half marathon is about a kilometre uphill and steep!  2 more weeks today!</p> <p style="text-align: left;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/2952788682/sizes/o/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.flickr.com');"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3145/2952788682_211a87f54e.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="400" /></a></p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/19/a-long-run-with-hills/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/19/a-long-run-with-hills/#comments">9 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/19/a-long-run-with-hills/&title=A long run (with hills!)">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/running/" rel="tag">running</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/19/a-long-run-with-hills/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=LQI5eR"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=LQI5eR" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/424920900" height="1" width="1"/> 9 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F19%2Fa-long-run-with-hills%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=679 2008-10-17T06:52:09Z 2008-10-17T06:52:09Z

I got tagged by Will over at 4xl, Cyndi over at Tales from the &#8216;Broken Scale&#8217; and SuperDave over at SuperDaves Running Away.  I guess this means I&#8217;d better follow through! I have to provide 6 random/interesting facts about myself.  I&#8217;ll provide 6 facts about myself and you folks can judge if they are interesting or [...]

<p><a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/loveblog.jpg" ><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-681" title="loveblog" src="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/loveblog.jpg" alt="" width="112" height="112" /></a>I got tagged by <a href="http://4xlt.willphillips.org/?p=113" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/4xlt.willphillips.org');">Will</a> over at 4xl, <a href="http://brokenscale.blogspot.com/2008/10/tag-youre-it.html" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/brokenscale.blogspot.com');">Cyndi</a> over at Tales from the &#8216;Broken Scale&#8217; and <a href="http://respdave.blogspot.com/2008/10/ive-been-tagged.html" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/respdave.blogspot.com');">SuperDave</a> over at SuperDaves Running Away.  I guess this means I&#8217;d better follow through!</p> <p>I have to provide 6 random/interesting facts about myself.  I&#8217;ll provide 6 facts about myself and you folks can judge if they are interesting or not.</p> <ol> <li>I&#8217;m a New Zealand citizen who was born in South Africa and travels on a British passport.</li> <li>I have a daughter who is just over 15 months old now.</li> <li>I teach at a university in New Zealand.</li> <li>I love reading - mainly novels.</li> <li>I&#8217;ve lost a little weight.</li> <li>I have a love of musicals - not that there is anything wrong with that! <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </li> </ol> <p>In other news I&#8217;ve done quite a lot of running this week - a 5K on Monday, a 12K on Tuesday, a very fast 6K on Thursday and a very easy 6K today.  It&#8217;s my rest day tomorrow and then I&#8217;m planning on a 20K on Sunday.</p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/17/tagged/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/17/tagged/#comments">11 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/17/tagged/&title=Tagged">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/meme/" rel="tag">Meme</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/17/tagged/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=5Nun7i"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=5Nun7i" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/423447066" height="1" width="1"/> 11 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F17%2Ftagged%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=673 2008-10-16T02:50:08Z 2008-10-16T02:50:08Z

I went to a talk by Dean Karnazes last night.  As you may know, he is a famous ultra marathoner. He talked for about 40 minutes and then had a 20 minute Q&#38;A session.  The event was billed as Dean Karnazes tips on running a marathon but he didn&#8217;t really give out all that many tips [...]

<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0446581836?tag=andreisgettif-20&amp;camp=0&amp;creative=0&amp;linkCode=as1&amp;creativeASIN=0446581836&amp;adid=1K8Z362DJJHB7XN0KNZN&amp;" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.amazon.com');"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-674" title="51qtwzz4el_sl500_aa240_" src="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/51qtwzz4el_sl500_aa240_.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="240" /></a>I went to a talk by<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Karnazes" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/en.wikipedia.org');"> Dean Karnazes</a> last night.  As you may know, he is a famous ultra marathoner.</p> <p>He talked for about 40 minutes and then had a 20 minute Q&amp;A session.  The event was billed as Dean Karnazes tips on running a marathon but he didn&#8217;t really give out all that many tips to tell the truth.</p> <p>He started off talking about his appearance on Letterman and then showed us the clip.  It was quite amusing but I think we all would rather that he spoke more rather than making us watch a video of him for 5 minutes of his 40 minute session.</p> <p>He structured his talk around the questions people normally ask him:</p> <ul> <li>Why do you do it? - &#8220;Dunno.  I just love it.&#8221;</li> </ul> <ul> <li>How do you avoid injuries? - &#8220;Dunno.  I&#8217;m just lucky.&#8221;</li> </ul> <ul> <li>What do you eat? - &#8220;I&#8217;m on a seafood diet.  I see food I eat it.&#8221;</li> </ul> <p>He came across as a little insane but I guess you&#8217;d have to be to do what he does.  But he loves it and that love of life and running comes across loud and clear.</p> <p>Some of his more out there running accomplishments include:</p> <ul> <li>350 miles in 80 hours and 44 minutes without stopping</li> <li>North Face Endurance 50: fifty marathons in fifty U.S. states in fifty consecutive days</li> <li> inaugural South Pole Marathon in running shoes</li> <li> 148 miles in 24 hours on a treadmill</li> <li>single-handedly completed the 199 mile Providian Saturn Relay six times</li> </ul> <p>The thing that struck me the most about him is that he seemed a bit amazed that so many people would turn up to listen to him talk about running.  There were about 800 odd people there.  I&#8217;ve never seen so many fit looking folks in one room before. :)  I felt a bit out of place - oddly enough my mental image of myself still reverts to the couch potato sometimes.</p> <p>Someone asked him how fast he was and he casually quipped &#8220;I&#8217;m slow.  I can <em>only</em> manage a 2:30 marathon.&#8221;  He said that he&#8217;s too muscly to be a top marathoner.  &#8220;I&#8217;m the same height as the world champion&#8221; he said, &#8220;but I&#8217;m 35 pounds heavier.  And I have only 4.5% bodyfat.  Those guys are skinny!&#8221;  Damn straight they are.</p> <p>All in all it was an hour or so well spent.  I didn&#8217;t learn anything new but it only cost $10 and it was relatively entertaining.  His website is <a href="http://www.ultramarathonman.com/flash/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.ultramarathonman.com');">here</a> and he has a <a href="http://dean.runnersworld.com/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/dean.runnersworld.com');">blog</a> at <a href="http://www.runnersworld.com" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.runnersworld.com');">Runners World</a> as well.</p> <p>On the other hand I really enjoyed reading his book.  It&#8217;s not only the story of him completing 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 different states, it&#8217;s also a collection of hints and tips that he&#8217;s picked up along the way.  Most of these tips are not dealt with exhaustively, but rather introduced in the stories about the people who ran the marathons with him.  For example, he gets given a pizza during one marathon so that&#8217;s when the diet tips come out.   I especially liked the stories about the people who ran the marathons with him. I think these were the strongest part of the book.</p> <p>The book is organised by marathon (surprisingly enough) and like the whole 50/50 process is starts off full of enthusiasm and then dies down a bit around the middle and then comes roaring back at the end.  I think he should have finished the book with the last marathon as his insane side came out a bit in the last chapter.  Basically he decided to run home to San Francisco from New York City on a whim.  This is straight after running 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 different states.  He&#8217;s not quite like you and me.</p> <p>Overall it&#8217;s an interesting read.</p> <p>According to this week&#8217;s <a href="http://www.steverunner.com/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.steverunner.com');">Phedippidations podcast</a> you can get a free audio copy of the book from <a href="http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/template/t1/landing.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&amp;fo=goldtrial14" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.audible.com');">Audible.com</a>.  I haven&#8217;t tried this out but if you&#8217;d like to listen to his book it can&#8217;t hurt to give it a go.</p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/16/a-night-with-dean-karnazes-and-a-review-of-his-book/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/16/a-night-with-dean-karnazes-and-a-review-of-his-book/#comments">7 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/16/a-night-with-dean-karnazes-and-a-review-of-his-book/&title=A night with Dean Karnazes and a review of his book">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/book-review/" rel="tag">book review</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/16/a-night-with-dean-karnazes-and-a-review-of-his-book/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=kdbWnq"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=kdbWnq" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/422203818" height="1" width="1"/> 7 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F16%2Fa-night-with-dean-karnazes-and-a-review-of-his-book%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=668 2008-10-14T07:29:54Z 2008-10-14T07:28:23Z

Gotta love the race photos! I left that guy behind me in my dust. © AndrewE for Andrew is getting fit, 2008. &#124; Permalink &#124; 25 comments &#124; Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Race Photo Who is linking? Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/2940318595/sizes/o/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.flickr.com');"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3207/2940318595_c38a5ebd53_o.jpg" alt="" width="179" height="269" /></a></p> <p>Gotta love the race photos! I left that guy behind me in my dust. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /></p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/14/race-picture/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/14/race-picture/#comments">25 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/14/race-picture/&title=Race Picture!">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/race-photo/" rel="tag">Race Photo</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/14/race-picture/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=09foS2"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=09foS2" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/420293281" height="1" width="1"/> 25 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F14%2Frace-picture%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=663 2008-10-13T20:48:51Z 2008-10-12T20:00:06Z

Nothing too drastic this week. I ate more but exercised plenty so no real change. I did a great 5K run in the Auckland Domain with my wife this morning. The conditions were perfect for running. It was her fastest one yet (yay!) and a nice easy one for me. :)  5.09K in 30:32. © AndrewE for [...]

<p>Nothing too drastic this week. I ate more but exercised plenty so no real change.<img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.physicsdiet.com/Chart.ashx?t=WeightLoss&amp;s=2008-10-06&amp;e=2008-10-12&amp;u=ebsfwan" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></p> <p>I did a great 5K run in the Auckland Domain with my wife this morning. The conditions were perfect for running.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/2936803157/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.flickr.com');"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3271/2936803157_b0592307ae.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="400" /></a></p> <p>It was her fastest one yet (yay!) and a nice easy one for me. :)  5.09K in 30:32.</p> <p></p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/13/weigh-in-under-control/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/13/weigh-in-under-control/#comments">6 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/13/weigh-in-under-control/&title=Weigh-in: Under control">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/weigh-in/" rel="tag">Weigh in</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/13/weigh-in-under-control/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=eb6Nu2"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=eb6Nu2" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/419862978" height="1" width="1"/> 6 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F13%2Fweigh-in-under-control%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=657 2008-10-12T05:03:18Z 2008-10-12T04:27:31Z

I did the Waitakere 11K race this morning. Official results aren&#8217;t out yet but I thought I would get my impressions down while they were really fresh. I went out to the stadium where is starts and finishes yesterday afternoon to pick up my chip, number and race bag. The race bag itself was [...]

<p>I did the <a href="http://www.waitakerehalf.co.nz" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.waitakerehalf.co.nz');">Waitakere 11K</a> race this morning. Official results aren&#8217;t out yet but I thought I would get my impressions down while they were really fresh.</p> <p>I went out to the stadium where is starts and finishes yesterday afternoon to pick up my chip, number and race bag. The race bag itself was rather nice, but the contents were a bit disappointing. There was the ubiquitous water bottle (every event I&#8217;ve ever been to has given me a water bottle!), a chocolate bar (which disappeared rather quickly!) and a whole bunch of advertising.</p> <p>I left home at about 7am to be at the race well in time. I got there about 7:30ish and went to use the facilities. As most runners know, this is a rather important part of any race. Normally there is a huge queue for these but this event was at a stadium and there was no problem getting in.</p> <p>There were about 1500 contestants entered into either the half marathon or the 11K. There were a large number of walkers - more than I&#8217;ve seen at any other event. Fortunately the race director had a separate start area for the walkers which was behind the runners. This didn&#8217;t stop a few cheeky buggers starting ahead of me!</p> <p>The hooter went off at 8am and then it was a huge crush to get to the starting line. It took me a minute or two to get there (walking) and then there was a sort of slow shuffle for the first few hundred metres while we all sorted out where we wanted to be.</p> <p>The first kilometer went by in a flash. As a matter of fact the first 5 km seemed to go very quickly actually. I think it was because I was continually weaving around in traffic. One of the problems with this event is that the roads are open and we had strict instructions to stay on the footpath. The footpath was only really broad enough for two people to run next to each other so passing was a bit of a problem. I think I used quite a bit of energy nipping around people. I&#8217;m pleased to report that I overtook a lot more people than overtook me. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> I suspect I was a bit too conservative with my start. Next time I&#8217;m going to wriggle a bit more towards the front at the startline.</p> <p>Kilometers 5-8 weren&#8217;t too bad. The field had stretched out somewhat by then and I kept my pace up by passing a succession of folks. Everytime I passed someone I&#8217;d try and then pass the next person and so on. This was quite motivating.</p> <p>Kilometer 9 was tough. It was basically a long uphill. It wasn&#8217;t particularly steep but it was just long. My mind kept saying slow down and walk but I managed to resist this temptation! A few people passed me but not many. Fortunately what goes up must come down and so I managed to pick the pace up again in kilometer 10.</p> <p>The finish was on the stadium track and I have to admit it was a good feeling running down the track. Heading into the track I was with a group of about 5 people but I think I left them in my dust as I sprinted to the finish. The guys from marathon photo were there so hopefully they got me at the finish sprinting hard out!</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/2932441991/sizes/o/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.flickr.com');"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3180/2932441991_2d2a21525c.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="400" /></a></p> <p>Going in to the race I was hoping to break the 1 hour mark. I thought that under 57 minutes would be absolutely brilliant. My actual time was 56 minutes flat! That&#8217;s a new (and inaugral) 11K PR. I also broke my 10K PR by about 3 minutes but I won&#8217;t count that as it wasn&#8217;t a 10K race. So 11 km at a 5:06 min/km pace.</p> <p>Looking back I think I made a few mistakes in this race. My first one was positioning at the start. I started too far back. I still have this thing in my mind that I&#8217;m quite slow so I think it&#8217;s more polite to start from near the back. In reality, while I&#8217;m not fast, I&#8217;ve been training and am not as slow as I think. I spent way too much time in traffic. It&#8217;s fun passing people but it took a lot of energy.</p> <p>My second mistake was not pushing harder in the second half. I don&#8217;t think I pushed myself very hard. In the past when I finished my races I was done. I had to go and lie down on the ground and then stagger back to my car afterwards. Today I felt great at the finish. I even jogged back to my car straight after the race . I think my long runs have given me quite a bit of endurance and I didn&#8217;t utilise that fully today.</p> <p>Some good lessons learnt there. Next time I&#8217;ll bear those in mind.</p> <p>Overall a great race and one I&#8217;d like to do again.</p> <p><strong>***UPDATE***</strong></p> <p>Provisional results are in and my official time is 55:52.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/results.jpg" ><img class="size-medium wp-image-661 aligncenter" title="results" src="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/results-215x300.jpg" alt="" width="215" height="300" /></a></p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/12/waitakere-11k-race-report/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/12/waitakere-11k-race-report/#comments">23 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/12/waitakere-11k-race-report/&title=Waitakere 11K race report">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/race-report/" rel="tag">Race Report</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/12/waitakere-11k-race-report/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=MFTZXM"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=MFTZXM" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/418298804" height="1" width="1"/> 23 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F12%2Fwaitakere-11k-race-report%2F AndrewE http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=655 2008-10-09T06:49:45Z 2008-10-09T06:49:45Z

I dropped my car off at Toyota in Panmure this morning as it was time for it&#8217;s annual service and Warrant of Fitness. Unfortunately the first thing I did when I arrived at the car yard was scrape one of their brand new vans that a customer was supposed to be picking up while [...]

<p>I dropped my car off at Toyota in Panmure this morning as it was time for it&#8217;s annual service and Warrant of Fitness. Unfortunately the first thing I did when I arrived at the car yard was scrape one of their brand new vans that a customer was supposed to be picking up while parking my car. I hate to admit it but it was totally my fault. I just misjudged the length of the van.</p> <p>Fortunately I&#8217;m fully insured so I rang up my insurance company (<a href="http://www.aainsurance.co.nz/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.aainsurance.co.nz');">AA insurance</a>) and within about 10 minutes they had arranged for my car to be repaired - it&#8217;s got a nasty scratch all down the left side - and they even organised me a free hire car to replace my one while it&#8217;s being repaired. I just need to drop it off at their collision repair centre tomorrow morning. And they are going to take care of the car yards car too. Full marks to them for their great service.</p> <p>Anyway, the Toyota folks were obviously not too impressed but this kind of thing happens so what can you do? I left my car and I thought it would be pushing my luck to ask if they could drop me off at one of the satellite campuses my work has that is about 3 km away from the car yard (they normally do) so I decided to walk. It was a great morning for it as it was not too warm (it&#8217;s been alternating an hour or two of sun and then an hour or two of rain the last few days) and it didn&#8217;t take me long to get to the campus. There is a free shuttle bus that runs from that campus to the main campus in the city where I work so I was quickly back in the office.</p> <p>I had decided to run back to get my car as the distance was approximately 10 km and I needed a run so once they called me up to say the service was done I headed off to the gym (on campus), got changed in to my running gear and then started running.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/2925603975/sizes/o/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.flickr.com');"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3004/2925603975_b1c8082764.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="400" /></a></p> <p>Conditions were close to ideal for running - the only niggle is that at times the wind would gust a bit. I felt great the whole time and really enjoyed my run. I haven&#8217;t actually enjoyed a run as much as this one for a while. Funny how sometimes the run is just right. I did 10.72 km in 58:54 at a 5:30 min/km pace. This bodes well for me breaking 1 hour in my 11K race on Sunday as I was not really straining at all.</p> <p>I ate quite a bit more than I normally do last night as I got the munchies and I wonder if that is why my run felt so good.  I suspect that I should fuel myself a bit better for my longer runs especially as the half marathon is only 3 and a bit weeks away.  Or maybe I just want to justify eating more food. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> Who knows?</p> <p>Speaking of food, my wife and I try to make a point of having lunch together at least one day during the work week (we do work at the same place after all!) and yesterday we tried a new place called <a href="http://www.revive.co.nz" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('a/www.revive.co.nz');">Revive</a>.  It&#8217;s a vegetarian restaurant and I can highly recommend it.  The food is great and while not cheap for lunch it&#8217;s not expensive either.</p> <p>You&#8217;ll also be pleased to know that her neck is better now and she managed to get out for her first run since being injured today.  5.35km in 35 mins I&#8217;m told. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /></p> <hr /> <p><small>© AndrewE for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2008. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/09/a-run-to-my-car/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/09/a-run-to-my-car/#comments">17 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/09/a-run-to-my-car/&title=A run to my car">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/life/" rel="tag">Life</a>, <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/tag/running/" rel="tag">running</a><br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/10/09/a-run-to-my-car/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?a=PMStAi"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/AndrewIsGettingFit?i=PMStAi" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/415515457" height="1" width="1"/> 17 http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetItemData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit&itemurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewisgettingfit.com%2F2008%2F10%2F09%2Fa-run-to-my-car%2F http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetFeedData?uri=AndrewIsGettingFit