Andrew is getting fit

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I had a very busy day on Thursday and needed to get my run in. I couldn’t run in the evening as I had to nip out to the airport to pick up my parents who are visiting for the weekend. So I decided to run home after work.

It was a good run and I passed through Bastion Point. Bastion Point is at the top of a cliff and I was quite proud that I managed to run all the way up to the top. There were no stairs for once - I had to follow the road.

Bastion Point has special memories for me as that is where I had quite a few of my wedding photos taken. It’s also the place where my beloved wife first realised that I may have had feelings for her.

My wedding day was the happiest day of my life and I spent a minute recovering from the run up the hill reflecting on how great my marriage is and how my life has changed so much for the better since meeting my darling wife.

I did 9.95 km in 1:03:19 so I’m not breaking any land speed records but I’m progressing nicely.

My next race is on Sunday so I’m looking forward to that. My dad is going to run it with me which should be nice. He’s faster and fitter than me so I’ll have to try and take him by surprise and outsprint him at the end!

Tags: running by AndrewE
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I neglected to mention it in the post that I did on Sunday but I did a quick 7Km loop around my neighbourhood. It was a good run and I enjoyed it.

Today I had to work from home as my brand new dishwasher has broken down for the 3rd time in the last three months and the repairman could only come in today. I was surprisingly productive and got everything I wanted to do done relatively early so I went for a nice 10K run after lunch.

It was a pretty uneventful run but I enjoyed it. Uphill in the start, then a nice long downhill and then relatively flat for most of the middle and a short uphill bit at the end that is a bit of a killer.

It’s quite nice that I’ve reached the point where I can be relatively blase about a 10K run.

Overall I did 10.35 km in 1:03:57.

I’ve got two more 5K races (the next one this weekend!) then a 10K race. At this stage I think aiming for a goal of under 1 hour for the 10 K race is not unreasonable.

Tags: OHR, running by AndrewE
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Last night I decided that I would get up at 5AM this morning and go for a run before starting work.

I didn’t bother setting an alarm as my beloved daughter has been waking up at about 4:30ish for a bottle so I figured I’d be up anyway.

She informed me that she was hungry (by letting out a piteous wail - as babies do) so I jumped up to go make the bottle. As I got there I noticed the time 6:15! That scuppered my plans for a morning run (and I was ever so grateful) so instead I went for a late afternoon run.

It was a glorious afternoon. The sun was shining brightly but the air was cold, so it was the best of both worlds.

I started off near my house and did my normal warm up walk for about 500 250 metres. I then started to run.

The plan for today was to do a long run. I had scouted out my route on G-Maps Pedometer and it looked to be approximately 11km. That would make it pretty much the longest run I’ve ever done. The first bit was relatively easy. I took it easy and just plodded along. I hit a short sharp hill but it was no problem. I then arrived at the boat sheds that I’ve mentioned previously.

The elevation profile that I got off my Garmin after the run makes it look like my run was a series of hills. I would’ve said that in reality between 15 minutes and 35 minutes was flat as I was running along the coast and don’t recall any up or down bits. Never mind.

I got to Mission Bay and then hit the bit of the run that I had been dreading. There is a relatively steep hill that is about a kilometre long. I actually think I did quite well as I managed to run about halfway up before I figured that I could probably walk faster than I was running. So what I did then was walk/run the rest of the way up - lamp post to lamp post. Once I got to the top it was all gravy as what goes up must come down. It was a pretty sharp descent along a nice grass track next to the road all the way back to the Orakei Basin.

It was at this point that disaster struck. I felt internal rumblings and thought “uh oh!” Those last few kilometres were not fun. I’d passed about 5 public bathrooms and umpteen restaurants and cafes in the first half of my run but I there wasn’t one anywhere near where I was. Let’s just leave it there and move on.

I ran through the Basin and right at the end of it I hit the dreaded stairs. 113 of the buggers. I was knackered by the time I got to the top so the last 2km took 15 minutes as I had a bit of a rest and a slow walk to recover.

One thing I did regret was that I didn’t bring my camera along this time. This run had beautiful views at every point in it. Seaside vistas, marinas, horses in fields, beautiful people in trendy cafes etc. And it was such a beautiful day too!

Overall I did 12.15 km (which is about 7.5 miles) which is the longest run I’ve done yet. It took me 1:04 to do the first 10 K (including the steep hill!) and 15 minutes to do the last 2k but overall I’m very pleased.

Tags: running by AndrewE
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It’s funny but over the last few weeks I’ve noticed a few annoying things about losing a lot of weight.

• The first and foremost of these is that I’m so cold! I used to sleep with a window open in the middle of winter as I was always feeling hot. Now, I’m wearing vests under my shirts during the day because I’m cooooold.  And it’s not even winter yet.
• My wedding ring is loose and falling off my finger. It is in desperate need of a resize.
• My clothes don’t fit! This is a real problem for me. Pretty much 95% of my clothes are too big now. I don’t really want to spend more money on clothing as I’m still losing so I’m a bit of a baggy mess. Thankfully I have some jeans that fit (bought the wrong size by mistake years ago and much to my joy I’m finally wearing them!) and of course my running gear fits.
• People telling me I’ve lost enough weight. This is very annoying as well. Fair enough I’ve lost a lot but I’m still quite overweight by any objective measure.  I’m on a roll folks, stop telling me to stop!
• Let’s not talk about the floppy belly skin.
• People not recognising me.  I was at an alumni reunion on Tuesday and it was a really good night.  The only problem was so many of my former students didn’t recognise me.  Come on folks I’ve only lost 90 odd pounds and grown a beard since you last saw me!

Then again, why am I whinging complaining? All these things are aboslutely brilliant! Visible signs of success. They’re still annoying thought. How about you guys? Anything that particularly bugs you?

In other news, I’ve got a busy day ahead of me so I thought I would get a morning run in.  I got up at 5:00 AM got dressed and had a smoothie then headed out the door.  I did the same loop that I did in my night run the other day and I’ve reached the conclusion that I need to find another loop, especially while I’ve still got this annoying cold.  The first mile of the loop is uphill and it gets me really tired before I’ve even started to really run.  I think it was exacerbated today by my cold and lack of fuel.  I don’t think the smoothie was enough.

And did I mention that it was pouring down with rain?  One of my worries has been running in the rain but it’s no problem at all.  With my cap on I can run just fine.  The glasses haven’t been fogging up yet so it’s all good.

Two more days till my next 5K race!

Tags: Life, running by AndrewE
54 Comments »

The plan today was to do a nice big loop around the waterfront then back through the city. I was hoping to do about 8 km. The run down to the waterfront was great. I don’t know why but I was running quite fast (by my standards) and had to make a concious effort to slow down. I think I was just really in the mood for a run and was glad to be out and about! Once I got to the waterfront I ran around the Hilton again and then headed off into the Viaduct area. The plan was then to head around the waterfront to the Harbour bridge and then cut through the city to the finish.

However, I took a wrong turn somewhere and while I was going in the right general direction I wasn’t 100% sure where I was. I saw a promising looking track and headed off down it. It progressed for about 50 metres and then there was a sharp turn and what did I see. A staircase! I don’t know why but I seem to have a talent for finding staircases. This was no ordinary staircase. There was a big sign at the bottom saying Jacob’s Ladder. Boy it was steep. It went up about 90 steps and I did not enjoy it! The only picture of it that I could find was here.

I then ran through suburbia looking for a street that would take me back to the shoreline. I finally found one (after running through many hilly little side streets) and it took me into Westhaven Reserve. There is a great track that runs along the shoreline and under the Auckland Harbour Bridge. The track then runs into Westhaven Marina and the thousands of boats moored there. I could definitely tell why they call Auckland the City of Sails as I ran past all the boats. I then ended up at the point where I had made the wrong turn earlier so I decided to just go back the way I had originally come.

At this point I had already done about 7 km and I was still 4 km from where I wanted to be. I decided I would change my run to a 10K run and use the last km to cool down.

Those last three kilometres were rather tough but it was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and I just kept going. I’ll freely admit that I was sorely tempted to pull into one of the many cafes in downtown Auckland and get a Mocha but I didn’t.

I did 10.29 km in 1:01:29 which means my average pace was 5:59 per km which is my fastest yet on a 10 km run. I actually hit 10K at 59:45 which is my first sub 1 hour 10K run. Funnily enough I thought I was going a lot slower than the other day when I thought I was going fast. Maybe my Garmin was is playing tricks on me.

Not long to go till my next 5K on Sunday. I’m really looking forward to that.

Tags: running by AndrewE
17 Comments »

I have my next 5K race on Sunday so in order to get all my runs in this week I need to run Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  I like to have at least one day off between each run.

As such, seeing as today is Monday, I needed to get a run in.  Unfortunately my schedule was pretty full today so I had to run after dinner.  This was the first time I ran in the dark and in the rain. Truth be told it was rather nice.

There is a 5K loop very close to my house that my wife and I often walk and I thought it would be great to run it.

The first half of the run was uphill and the rain started just when I really needed it. I was all hot and already tired from running uphill and a gentle drizzle started to come down and it was great as it cooled me down very nicely. A few minutes in and it got quite a bit heavier but it never bothered me at all. I didn’t even have my running cap on as I’d left it next to the front door (so that I wouldn’t forget it on my way out…).  Turns out the fogging up of the glasses only happens when you stop running.

I don’t know why but I felt really fast today. The run went really well and I was really enjoying it. However, when I got back home and checked the Garmin it turns out that I was going a lot slower than I thought I was. I guess the uphill in the first half took most of my energy. I did 4.7 km in 27:53 so it wasn’t too bad. Why only 4.7 km instead of 5 km? Well I was going to do a loop of the cricket grounds at the end of my run but it had turned into a mudpit so I thought bugger that for a lark and just ran home instead.

I’ve got an alumni event at work tomorrow and it should be really interesting. I’ll be meeting a lot of people who haven’t seen me since I was 42 kgs (90 odd pounds) heavier than I am now. Should be fun.

Tags: running by AndrewE
28 Comments »

I’m participating in the Runner’s Lounge Take It and Run Thursday session. This week we have to post questions on our blogs. So here are mine:

Winter is looming for us Southern Hemisphere types and if I want to continue running outside I’ll have to run in the rain.

What wet weather gear do you recommend?

And for those runners who are optically challenged: How do you stop your glasses from steaming up?

Tags: running by AndrewE
27 Comments »

Remember how I posted I had a cold on Monday? Well today is Friday here in sunny rainy New Zealand and I’ve still got it and it’s damn annoying. Work has been incredibly busy this week and I haven’t gotten home before 9pm the last 3 days.

I managed to get a run in yesterday as I was feeling real antsy as I hadn’t done any exercise this week. I managed to squeeze in about 3.8 km in 21 minutes on the treadmill so it was just a quick little blast. The treadmill is a little boring but good for maintaing a steady pace.  Oh well, the weekend looms and I’ll have time to do a nice long run outside.

Tags: running by AndrewE
9 Comments »

When I got up today it was raining so I didn’t think I’d be running outside. However, about a half hour later it wasn’t looking too bad so I thought I might as well give it a go. I was supposed to meet up with my colleague who I ran with before but he was a no show today so I went by myself.

I didn’t really have a fixed route in mind today but then as I got going I decided I would head off into an area I had never been before even though it is very close.

I started off in the Domain which is where most of my weekday runs start as it is very close to where I work (red dot on the map). I headed into Parnell and then ran down St Stephens road (past many million dollar homes) until I arrived at Pt Resolution.

Pt Resolution is a tiny park on top of a cliff looking down over the harbour. The views are absolutely stunning from up there and I was just sorry I didn’t have my camera with me. Next time I’ll bring along a small camera as the views are tremendous.

There were quite a few stairs going down the cliff which I negotiated rather gingerly as they were very wet. I’ve marked that point with a yellow dot on the map.

I then ran around the waterfront (into a very strong headwind!) and headed back up to work as the rain started to fall again.

I did 6.13 km in 37:24 so it was a nice gentle run.

Work is offering free flu jabs today so I’m off to get one. I did a cholesterol test last week and I’m hoping my results arrive today. I’ll let you know how I did once I know.

Tags: OHR, running by AndrewE
14 Comments »

I had my second 5K race today. It has been raining all week in Auckland so I was a little concerned that it would be a wet race but the day dawned crisp and clear and frigging freezing! 8 degrees this morning apparently.

The race was Race 2 of the Run Auckland series as was held at Harbourview Peoples Park (there’s a communist sounding name if ever I’ve heard one) in Te Atatu. There was a great view of the Auckland skyline from the course.

There were over a thousand entrants but, like last time, most of the entrants were in the 10K race. We had about 300 or so in the 5K event. I got a good spot near the front this time as I was held up a lot by walkers last time as I had started near the back thinking that I didn’t want to get in the way of the faster people. This time I was determined to set a personal record. I was aiming for about the 30 minute mark but was hoping to go slightly faster. My official time from the first race was 31:01 and I’m definitely fitter than I was then.

The gun went and we were off. I started off way too fast (again!) as I did the first kilometre in 5:18 which is faster than I have ever gone before. The ironic thing about this is that I spent a good deal of the drive to the event telling my mate that I planned to do the first kilometre slowly as last time I had gone out too fast. Damn the adrenalin!

The second kilometre is where everything went horribly wrong. We arrived at a fork in the road and the marshall was missing. So the leaders took the wrong fork as they could see the 10K folk in the distance up that fork. About 500 metres in I decided that we had gone the wrong way and turned back. I kept telling everyone around me and most of us turned around. I never did find out what happened to the leaders of the pack. I guess they eventually realised and turned around. The official results will make some interesting reading as I’m fairly sure all the faster folks went the wrong way.

The rest of the race was good. I did great times at every split and hit the 5K mark at 27:45 on my Garmin which is a new personal best.   Every single kilometre split was under 6:00 min/km which means I would have made my goal of beating 30 minutes quite handily.

Unfortunately I still had about a kilometre to go and as I knew my chance of a official PR was gone I just took the last bit real easy and jogged back slowly. My overall time was 33:48 for 5.95 km which I feel is still a great time overall.

Once I was done I went back looking for my mate and found him about 12 mins behind me. I jogged the last 500 metres of the course with him to cheer him on and then we celebrated a great event. We’d both finished and we’d both had a great time.

Here’s a photo of me afterwards looking mightily pleased with myself:

I figured there was no point getting annoyed by the poor marshalling of the event as I still had a great time and still felt that I had run better than ever before. My next race is in 3 weeks and is supposedly a flat and straight track that is designed for setting personal records! I’m looking forward to that one!

As an aside, it is my blogging buddy Marshmallow’s birthday today. Happy birthday Marshie!

Tags: running by AndrewE
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