Andrew is getting fit

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The bad weather has continued here in sunny Auckland so I did my 10K run in the gym today.

Instead of listening to music I listened to a Phedippidations podcast.  You can find them here. It was about how we are designed to run without shoes and that wearing shoes actually damages our feet.  That may be so but I think I’ll stick to my shoes for now.  I think the podcast is actually better than music as you have to focus more so the tedium of the treadmill is not quite as oppressive.

I did a few fartlek sessions where I sped up quite considerably for 200m then slowed back down for 200m and so forth.  Hopefully that helps to build a bit of speed stamina.

My wife has become addicted to running as well. It’s been really nice running with her while she does her C25K sessions.  She did her run in the gym this morning after her exercise circuit which was rather amazing to me as she is normally absolutely buggered after that.  She must have been really keen to run today.  Visit her site and cheer her on!  And yes, she is working on a guest post to give her perspective on my fitness quest.

Sheamus has a competition going on at the moment at his site.  He has an aim of running for 365 days straight and he’s doing pretty well so far! He’s just set a new personal best for the 5K so go along and cheer him on!

UPDATE: The lovely Marshmallow has helped me solve the disappearing comments situation.  I think it’s fixed now.  My openid plugin was sending comments into the ether so it’s been deleted.

Tags: C25K, running by AndrewE
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We’ve had really bad weather over the last few days so I haven’t been able to run outside for a while.  So this morning when I got up and couldn’t hear the sound of rain I decided to be optimistic and pack my garmin with my gym gear.

I had  a 8 am class to teach so I couldn’t go to the gym bright but I was optimistic of getting a run in outside after class as the weather looked promising.  And what do you know - I got out of class at 9 and it was raining again!  Not to be deterred I headed off to the gym and by the time I got there the rain had stopped so I thought why not? and headed outside.

It was a glorious run.  There were very black rain clouds looming the whole time but they never managed to make it to where I was running so I had a nice sunny run.  The first in a while!

I bumped into one of my students who was taking photos (for a digital media assignment) and he snapped one of me. I’m hoping to get a copy so that I can put it up here to share.

I did a nice 12km loop of the city and harbourside in 1:10:09 for an average pace of 5:47 per km.  I felt great afterwards.  The satellite link doesn’t want to work so no pretty map today.  Only a streetmap.

Then this evening I went for a run with my wife who is doing C25K week 06 day 01. We went down to Mission Bay and had a great run walk. We ran another 3.5 km in that so I’ve done about 15.5 km today which is quite nice.

I actually broke the 500 km mark today as well. Not bad for someone who only took up running in late January.

As for my weigh-in this week:
I had a slight gain in weight this week. I can blame this on just eating too much. My exercise has been good but I tend to get the munchies when I’m a bit sick and I definitely got the munchies. Having said that, I’m back on the straight and narrow now.

Tags: fitness by AndrewE
7 Comments »

I had a great little run yesterday evening.  My wife has been doing C25K in the gym but has started doing her runs in the evening outside instead.  This is because she has signed up to a fitness class through work and it’s on first thing in the morning (in her previous running time).  This has been brilliant as I’ve been getting to run with my beloved wife and it has been really nice so far.  Conditions were cold but perfect last night and we did a nice gentle 4 km walkrunwalkrunwalkrunwalk.

One of the very rewarding side effects of my decision to get fit and active has been seeing the effect I’ve had on people around me.  Quite a few of my friends and family are now pursuing healthy activites and eating better and it’s really nice when they tell me that my progress has inspired them to take action.

So that was the good run.

I did another run today.  I was aiming for about 10km but I ended up doing just over 11.  Having said that there was a fair patch of walking in there as my daughter’s stomach bug (oh, did I fail to mention that my poor little monkey has been chucking like a banshee) hit me during my run.  Let’s just say it was not my finest run and leave it there.

11 km in 1:14:37.

I also managed to do day 02 of week 03 of the 100 pushups program.  I did 27,19,19,15 and 30 (25 required).    That’s definitely the most pushups I’ve ever done in my life.

Tags: C25K, running by AndrewE
17 Comments »

I’ve noticed that my blog seems to have become a running and push-ups blog. That’s fine by me as it reflects my next lesson learned.

I’ve found that I HAVE to exercise to lose weight and get healthy. Some people may find that for them they can control what they eat and be in tip top shape but that just doesn’t work for me. I need to run and do my pushups. I need to go to the gym and try and lift weights every so often. I need to get on the crosstrainer, the rowing machine, my bike etc. I need to be active!

• Exercise has many beneficial effects for me. It makes me feel good about myself. There is a certain sense of smugness that sets in as I pass people sitting in their cars or cafes as I’m out running.
• It helps to keep me healthy. My cholesterol has dropped dramatically since I started exercising and eating right.  My weight has dropped dramatically.  103 pounds down so far!
• It means I can eat more of finer things in life (hmm…curly fries) as I’m burning more calories.  By exercising I’ve built more muscles so I’m burning more calories while I’m just doing my everyday activities!
• Exercise has transformed me from a couch potato into a runner.

Honestly folks, if I can do it then anyone can.  I think the mistake some folks make is that they try to do too much at once.  If you are just starting out you need to ease into it.  Take it one day at a time.  Before too long you’ll be one of us happy nutters who are out running in the rain!

And so, back to pushups and running:
I did day 02 of week 02 the 100 pushup challenge this morning in the gym.  The schedule called for 16, 13, 11, 11 and max (min 15).  I did the first 16 surprisingly easy although I could feel my abs (or lack thereof) quite strongly.  The next 13, 11 and 11 went well as well.  In my previous pushup post I said that I would definitely do more than the minimum and so I told myself I had to do at least 20 and I did 20.  I’m pretty sure that at least 50% of the pushup challenge is mental so from now on I’ll try and set more ambitious goals!

I also had a good run this morning.  I ran for an hour and did 10.3 km at a 5:50 pace.

Tags: Lessons, fitness, running by AndrewE
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The weigh in gods have been kind to me this week and I’ve knocked another half kg off my total.

I’m down to 92.87 kgs (204.7 pounds) now which is unbelievably low for me.  If I didn’t lose another gram I’d be happy to tell the truth but I’ll keep pushing on.   In many respects I think I’m no longer really trying for weightloss - I’m much more interested in my fitness.  Which is a great place to be.

I did day 01 of week 02 of the 100 pushup challenge in the gym today.  Today I was required to do 12, 12, 9 , 7 and max (min 10). I did 12, 12, 9, 7 and 12. I had no trouble at all today.  I guess it’s a bit of an easier session after the tough one at the end of week 01.

I’m getting a bit lazy with the max set of pushups so I’m going to make a real effort on Wednesday to do quite a few more than the minimum.  I know I could have done more today but the spirit was weak even though the flesh was willing.

I also participated in a virtual 5K today.  Technically I was supposed to do it yesterday but I figured it’s still the 29th in America so I’m fine.

I did it on the treadmill as I wanted to go to the gym as well.  Ironically the weather is glorious today and it would have been a perfect day for a run outside.

I think I did my fastest 5k ever on the treadmill with a time of 26:41.  I felt really good so I carried on and did another 5K which came in at 29:30 which, when you add them up (56:11), means I got a treadmill PR in both the 5K and the 10K!

Tags: PR, Weigh in, fitness, running by AndrewE
27 Comments »

I redid day 03 of week 01 of the 100 pushup challenge yesterday evening.  I couldn’t complete day 3 of week 01 last week.

However, this week I’m happy to report that I managed to do 15, 13, 10, 10 and then 16 pushups which means I qualify to move on to week 02 as I only had to do 15 for the last set.  To be honest I probably could have gutted out a few more but I wussed out and stopped after doing 1 more than the minimum.

The weather has been rather wintry (funny that) here in Auckland this week and today was no exception.  There’s been thunder, lightning and lots of cold rain.  Having said that, I needed to get my run in so I decided I would just wear my jacket and head out anyway.  While I was getting changed the rain started really crashing down and I started making excuses in my head but fortunately it stopped by the time I got to the front door.

I normally like to run by the coastline but after my experience with the high winds the other day I decided that I would be better off sticking inland today so I headed out towards One Tree Hill.

It was really nice out once I warmed up and the rain wasn’t really a problem.  I think the fear of rain is more of a problem than the rain itself which is probably true of most of our fears in life.  I was strangely happy to be out in the rain actually.  I think I get quite a kick out of doing things that I would have thought were the height of lunacy not too long ago.

Most of the run was along suburban streets except for the bit where I ran around One Tree Hill in Cornwall Park.  The park was rather deserted today.  Normally it is teeming with people out exercising but I guess the conditions weren’t really conducive to a nice day out.  I saw three other runners and one guy going flat out who zoomed past me.  I had a look behind me to see if he was being chased by the police but I guess he was just fast.

I passed quite a few bakeries and coffee shops on my route and I have to say it was a real struggle of the will to run past them but I managed.

Overall I did 13.9km in 1:25:33 for an overall pace of 6:09 minutes per km.

I’ve been having issues with snacking the last few days which is really annoying.  I’m a bit of a stress eater and I’m booked in for surgery next Friday and I guess it’s leading me to cookies and chocolate.

There has been a positive that has come out of finding out I need surgery next week.  It’s confirmed my status as a runner.  You see,  the first question I asked the doctor after he finished explaining the procedure was “How long until I can start running again?” He said about a week so I should be ok for my 10K race on Sunday.  I’ll just treat it as a nice slow long run.  Any time I set will be a PR so might as well make it one that is easy to beat!

Tags: fitness, running by AndrewE
18 Comments »

I was woken up a few times by the sound of heavy, heavy rain in the night and I remember thinking Damn, I’m going to have to use the treadmill! It was really thundering down.

However, I was heading towards the gym this morning when I thought This weather isn’t really that bad is it? So, instead of doing a nice indoor run I headed off down the street.

Things really didn’t seem to be too bad during the early part of my run and I was very pleased with my decision.  However, I started to get a bit apprehensive as I approached the coastline and the electronic signs on the approach to our harbour bridge said “Warning, strong wind on bridge.” It can’t be that bad I said to myself as I blithely trotted on.

Oh boy, how wrong can one be?  As soon as I got into an exposed area my forward momentum slowed right down and I was having trouble staying on the pavement the wind was so strong.  To add insult to injury my city loop went very steeply uphill at that point.  My garmin reckons I climbed 900 ft but that seems excessive to me.

I managed to survive but had to resort to walking a few times.  It didn’t help that I felt certain internal rumblings and couldn’t find a bathroom for quite a while.

Overall I did 11.69 km in 1:15:46 at a quite leisurely pace of 6:29/km.  I walked at least a km of the loop so my overall running pace wasn’t too bad I guess.  This was definitely one of those runs that I did not enjoy.  I’m sure the next one will be better.  Two more months to Spring!

Tags: running by AndrewE
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My alarm went off at 5am this morning by letting me know she needed a top-up and a service. I got the bottle while my wife changed her. I decided to get up and not go back to bed as I had my alarm set for 5:45 so that I could be out the door by 6AM for my morning run.

I was really not too keen on my run this morning. My bed was calling me and it was raining and dark out. But I thought bugger this to that little voice inside my head that was telling me to put it off till later and put my shoes on and I was off.

There is something about running somedays that just makes every footfall a joy. I hadn’t been running more than 5 minutes before I was at peace with the world and filled with a sense of bliss. It was really nice. There was a gentle drizzle falling at times during the run and it kept me nice and cool.

I saw about 40 people doing a karate class out on the beach as I ran by Mission Bay which I thought was really cool.  The sun was just starting to come up and that point and I really wished that I had remembered to bring my camera along as it was rather picturesque.

I had a lot to reflect on during my run. I achieved a rather momentous (to me) milestone this week when I finally reached the point where I’ve lost 100 pounds. This didn’t come easy and I was reflecting upon how my life had changed over the last few years and generally speaking I think I have reached a point where I am content with my lot.  That doesn’t mean that I will stop trying to improve myself and my life however.  At one point during my run the song Was it worth it? by the Pet Shop Boys came on and I was thinking YES IT IS!

Anyways, back to my run. I did a long loop as you can see from the picture below:

I did 16.28 kilometers in 1:44:45.  I didn’t break any speed records but I did break my distance record. Parts of the run were very hilly but I just plodded along and didn’t walk at all which I was pleased with.

Tags: running by AndrewE
25 Comments »

I had a funny run yesterday. I went to One Tree Hill as I wanted to do 3 circuits of the volcano as that would be about 10K. However, after one circuit my legs just didn’t want to go no more! It was really weird. I figured maybe I’ve done too much running as I’ve run every day this week so far so I decided to call it quits and stop.

To make up for the abrupt end to my run I did 40 minutes on the exercise bike instead. I probably should have gone and got the real bike out instead but… I didn’t. I’m good that way.

I went for a run in the Domain this morning and everything was back to normal. I was doing loops of the mile track that is there. I bumped into a former colleague who was walking to work but gave a wave and carried on running.  I almost got my car towed away as I parked in one of the few towaway parks that were there by mistake.  Luckily I finished my run before any overzealous parking wardens or towies arrived.

From next week I should be able to go to the gym earlier in the morning before work as my in laws are returning to the country today (they’ve been gone since January) and they will look after my baby 3 days a week. Grandparents start earlier than daycare does so that is great.  Hmm…I wonder if they’ll notice I’ve lost about 50 pounds since they left? We’ll have to wait and see. :)

Tags: Life, running by AndrewE
21 Comments »

I was supposed to get up at about 5:30AM today to go for my run but I slept right through as my wife got up to feed the baby instead of me.  For some reason I was dead to the world and didn’t hear a thing!  I suspect it was the large combination of cake, ice cream and Baileys that I had imbibed to celebrate my birthday on Saturday!

Anyways, all was not lost as I went for my run at about midday instead.

I wanted to do a longish run to burn off the aforementioned cake etc. so I planned on doing about 14 kilometers as this would be my longest run yet.  I used GMaps Pedometer to scout out a route and then I got my gear together (Garmin, Ipod etc.) and went off.

The first kilometer of the run was relatively easy but the second kilometer was a long uphill climb.  I then had a rather gentle climb for the next 3 kilometers or so.  I then hit Long Drive which was a nice long descent back down to the coastline.  I have to admit that I much prefer going downhill!  It started to drizzle a bit as I ran along the coast and it got rather windy at times but overall it was rather pleasant.  I then headed back inland for the final run back to home base.  The second to last kilometer is uphill and two rather fit looking runners zoomed past me at this point and I silently mouthed off a bit.  As you do.

I made a bit of an error with my GMapping and I actually did 15.35 km according to Garmin.  And at a not too shabby time of 1:31:37.  That means my pace was 5.59 minutes per kilometer.  Considering all the hills I reckon that was not bad at all!

In other news, I had some friends drop by who haven’t seen me for quite a while.  They were rather shocked when I opened the door and revealed the fitter me.  It was a rather good feeling.

Tags: running by AndrewE
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