Rotorua Marathon: The Buildup

As I've posted here previously, I didn't have the perfect buildup to this, my first marathon. As I entered the last week I found myself under considerable pressure and unsure as to how to prepare. I was having real difficulties with my sacroilleac so, after Monday's 15km, ended up not doing any of my other scheduled runs. However my hip seemed to get worse as the week went on and my legs stubbornly refused to feel fresh.

To add to the stress of trying to decide whether to run or not, I seemed to have scheduled a week of errands that saw me dashing all over town like a mad thing. On Monday I felt like I was coming down with a UTI, so booked a doctor's appointment for 5.00 on Wednesday. On Tuesday morning I dashed to Penny's to drop Cleo off so that they could upgrade her derrallieur and swap the SPDs for a new pair of Look Keos. Unfortunately I'd forgotten I'd booked a 5.00 hair appointment, so at 4.00 I found myself dashing back to Penny's to pick her up again and check out my bike fit. I'd also forgotten a bike lock, so had to buy another before dashing across the road to secure her in the gym carpark, which is next to the hairdresser. I made it to my appointment with minutes to spare. Out of the hairdresser and a quick call to Hamish, who happened to be leaving work at that instant, secured our ride home in the Honda.

I had to leave work again early the next day to catch a bus back to Brooklyn to see the doctor, then ended up walking the 20 minutes from Brooklyn to home in my high heeled boots. Not so good for my hip!

I was aiming to leave work early again on Thursday, but a last minute conversation with my manager saw me carting home a heap of documents to read through that night. With little time to spare I dashed across town to Rebel Sports. I think I've already mentioned that my lucky running bandana disappeared a few weeks back, and that I think my cat stole it. Well, in a last minute fit of race-buildup paranoia I'd decided I needed another. Rebel didn't have anything, but I bought an ordinary bandana from a nearby store as a back up, then headed across to the gym. Unfortunately the Les Mills store no longer sells their branded bandanas. Another quick dash saw me in Shoe Clinic, where I finally found something I thought might work. It was getting late and cold by this point and it took forever for a bus to arrive, so by the time I made it home I was exhausted.

I spent the rest of the night reading through a heap of documents and providing feedback via email. I allowed myself to sleep in a bit the next morning and then ran around the house packing. I packed EVERYTHING!

We had a few errands to run before we left town. First we stopped off at the local Mac store to order my a new laptop, and we picked up a new iPod at the same time. After that I ran halfway across town to pick up the prescription I'd forgotten to collect the day before. I also ducked into the local health store. I have a tendency to suffer from insomnia the night before a big event and I'd decided I wanted to buy some herbal sleeping pills. The saleswoman talked me into buying some anti-insomnia/anxiety drops, and then I was off running through town again to meet Hamish back at the car.

Halfway there I found Hamish with his nose pressed up against the wall of a local art gallery. When we were in Queenstown we'd fallen in love with the Lonely Dog paintings by Ivan Clarke. It turned out that a local Wellington gallery was in the final days of a Lonely Dog exhibition. Faced with a large print of our favourite work, Marmelade Mountain, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

So it was an expensive and tiring morning before we even left Wellington, and then it was a long drive to Rotorua, with a stop in Te Horo for lunch. It was already late in the afternoon before we arrived at the hotel. When we checked in we were advised that we'd been upgraded to a premium room. Excellent! The room was on the ground floor and we were able to park right outside, with ranch slider access. We still had to walk through the main entrance to get inside the hotel itself, but if I needed to at a later point, H could let me out the french doors (or back in again), minimising the distance I would need to walk. As it turned out I never needed to ask him to go to the trouble, but it was nice to know I had that option!

Race packet pickup went smoothly and while in the exhibition hall I took the opportunity to trial a roller stick thing and ball on my calves, glutes and IT band. I think even the small time I had available really did help and I repeated the exercise with my own roller and tennis ball when I got back to the room. I still wasn't pain free, but I was walking much more normally.

Dinner ended up being bread, dips and chicken pasta with a side salad at a very good and surprisingly cheap Italian restaurant. We got in early but the restaurant quickly filled up with fit looking runner types. I stuck to lemonade while enviously watching H sip on his beer. I was sooo going to enjoy my celebratory cider the next day!

Back to the hotel room via a supermarket for breakfast supplies and I decided it was time to get organised. Running tights, sports bra, technical T and a polyprop top in one corner of the room. Running shoes tucked under a table with my Drymax socks stuffed inside. All my medication was laid out on the table next to the television. Next to the medication I placed the bowl, spoon and can opener I'd brought from home, with the cereal and tin of fruit salad next to that. In the bathroom I set out my contact lens case and fluids and my hairbrush.

On another table I put everything else I would need for the run. I assembled a small pile of gels and another little plastic bag with extra medication. I put my Garmin next to the gels. I placed the transponder in one of my running shoes and attached my race number to my shirt. That was all the obvious and pedantic stuff out of the way.

In another little pile I also gathered my fuel belt, a merino beanie and the new head band. I wasn't sure about using the fuel belt as I hadn't had a chance to test it on a long run and I was worried about chafing or that it might annoy me. I didn't in any case want to fill up all the bottles, but thought that one or two might be useful, and that the zip pocket would be useful for carrying the extra gels. I also wasn't sure whether I felt comfortable with the new headband, so was going to make a decision in the morning whether to risk it or to go with the beanie, which I had used before but which I was worried might get too hot. You see how much I was dithering that night?

In accordance with the instructions on the bottle I downed fiften drops of the anti-insomnia remedy and hit the shower, then jumped into bed to read for a while. When I was ready to turn the light out I took another fifteen drops and then ....

I'd like to say I drifted off to sleep, but it didn't happen. The medication didn't help me sleep - it just made me a calm insomniac. I wasn't dreaming - I just wasn't tossing and turning and getting frustrated like I usually do. I was however comforted by the sound of the guest in the next room regularly getting up to use the bathroom, figuring I wasn't alone in my night watch.

Some time around 4am I started to dispair ever so slightly, and it was around that point that I finally dropped off. I was awake again at 6 however, and lay there trying not to think too hard for another hour. I felt more awake than I would have expected. I have heard that insomniacs often only think they've spent the night awake, when actually they've been sleeping, so perhaps that was the case with me. However I saw the clock by the bed often enough during the night to know that I was awake for an unfortunate part of it!

Sleep or no sleep I was up and into my regular routine. Quickly dressed I downed triple my normal 5mg dose of Hydrocortisone and the rest of my other usual meds. I grabbed the newspaper from outside the door and tried to eat a bowl of Special K with the tinned fruit. I managed to get it all down, but I'd bought the wrong (overly sugary) brand of Special K, so it wasn't overly enjoyable. Breakfast would come back to haunt me.

Outside it was cold and overcast. I tried out the headband, then decided it wasn't going to work for me so swapped it for the beanie. I looked at the fuel belt dubiously and in the end decided to try stuffing four gels and meds into the little pocket in my running tights. To my surprise everything fitted. Right then - no fuel belt. I tossed my polyprop on over the top of my t shirt then put my merino jacket on over the top of that. The Garmin went round my wrist, the transponder was threated through my running shoes, and I was as ready as I was going to be.

Hamish dropped me off near the start line at around 8.15, taking a photo of me at the entrance to the park, looking nervous but excited. I left the merino in the car for him to bring to the finishline later. I forgot to ask him to do so, but hoped he would work it out for himself!

I found the bathrooms and wandered around inside the expo centre to stay warm. Too late I realised I'd forgotten to bring a banana for last-minute fuel. I couldn't find anyone I knew, so just found a quiet corner and collected my thoughts. I was feeling remarkably calm and focussed. All the years of running events had prepared me more than I'd realised. Even if I hadn't run a marathon before, I knew what I was there for and what I was supposed to do. I felt just a little lonely, but otherwise I was ok.

Before too long we were being told to gather at the startline. I placed myself halfway between the four and a half and five hour flags. Just in front of me were the two four and a half hour pacers with their pink balloons. To one side of me was a bunch of guys in their late twenties or early thirties who looked more like rugby players than runners and who were also doing their first marathon. On the other side of me were some experienced women who looked to be in their fifties and were making jokes about drinking beer. So far so good.

The start was totally without drama. I could hear but not see the haka at the start. I got a little teary. The starting gun fired loudly enough that I thought it might have deafened the guys at the front. It took two minutes to cross the startline. We walked and then a few metres before the start line we started to shuffle into a jog. I ran over the startline to the chorus of dozens of transponders engaging.

I was off. I was running the Rotorua marathon.

Finished!

I did it! I finished the Rotorua marathon in 4.37. I put down 4.35 as my finishing time, so I wasn't far off. I followed a 4.30 pacer pretty much the whole way, but unfortunately she was running slow herself (something about not having run much since her last Ironman), and would have come in a couple of minutes ahead of me.

I can't say I made my way around the course with a big grin on my face, but I certainly didn't suffer unduly. I realise now that I zoned out just a touch and went into a little Pip world all of my own! Unfortunately my stomach decided it wasn't going to play nice. I walked the water stations and sipped on Leppin until I felt confident enough to try a gel, but that wasn't until around 18km in. That was about the only bad part of the race though. The hills weren't scary at all for a Wellingtonian whose home turf is Mt Vic and the Tinakori Hills. The worst bits for me were the long flat stretches.

The weather wasn't perfect but ok. It was overcast and cool without being too cold. The Southerly dropped the temperature a bit over the last ten kilometres, but the headwind was pretty unthreatening.

I'm really proud of myself for going out there today and getting it done, even though I knew I was undertrained. There was never a question of not finishing, and I could tell from the halfway mark that I was going to come in near enough to four and a a half hours to be satisfied with my performance. 32km to 36km were a bit difficult, but then I got the bit between my teeth and kicked it a bit over the last distance. I had the biggest grin on my face at the finishline and when Hamish jumped over the barrier to hug me I had just the tiniest little cry.

I'm pretty sore now, naturally. My glutes were BURNING as I was sitting down recovering afterwards and my lower back is a bit sore to touch. One of my right toes has blistered up quite nicely and there was blood on my sock where the ball of my right foot tends to rub. My bra chafed a little as well underneath my cleavage, but not enough to break skin thankfully. However given how bad my sacroilleac has been this week I'm in excellent shape.

As I was getting my transponder taken off the guy next to me was congratulating me on my first marathon. He asked whether it would be my last and my instant response was "NO!" I've got too much room to improve and too much more to find out about myself. The only question now is which? Hmmm, Auckland?

I'm here ...

We made it to Rotorua without incident and we've been upgraded to a premium room (though premium in a 3 star hotel is still fairly standard). I've picked up my race pack (very ordinary), got foam rollered (ouch), and have carbo loaded at a good, cheap Italian restaurant with dozens of other hungry marathoners.

Now I'm back at the hotel room with gear scattered from one end of the room to the other watching bad television. I guess I'm ready to go!

The next time you hear from me I will have finished my first marathon. Woohoot!

OMG - I'm Running a Marathon!

So here it is. On Saturday I’m running the Rotorua Marathon.

I haven’t posted anything here since returning from my holiday (sorry Kate), simply because I’ve been all over the place both physically and mentally. I got through my peak week of training on sheer willpower, with my body fraying at the edges. I took a few days off, conquered the Grape Ride, and then the theory was that I would fit my training runs in around road tripping down to the South Island to my father-in-law’s vineyard in Bannockburn to help with harvest.

The day after the Grape Ride I was supposed to run 23km. I think I managed around 7. In Lake Tekapo I lurched panting and red faced around the side of the lake in a freezing gale, wondering why it all felt so hard. 15km was all I was good for. The next morning there was five inches of snow on the ground, so running was again out of the question. When we made it to Methven that afternoon there was a horrendous northwest gale blowing down long straight, soul destroying roads, so again I didn’t run.

After that things got worse. There were times when I didn’t run at all for a couple of days in a row. The runs that I did fit in were pretty horrendous. They weren’t long enough and I battled nausea, cramp and shortness of breath. I was so annoyed with myself for missing out on the opportunity to explore the beautiful back roads and trails of Central Otago. What a waste …

Instead I got into holiday mode. I ate too much, drank too much, put on weight I could ill afford. I also spent three wonderful days walking up and down long rows picking grapes. I enjoyed myself immensely, when I wasn’t beating myself up about not sticking to the programme.

Back home and I threw myself into a panicked attempt at regaining lost ground. In theory I was supposed to be tapering, but how could I taper from a holiday of minimal distance? So yes, I gave in to paranoia and my runs ended up being slightly longer, slightly hillier, slightly faster. The good news was that they all felt great. Finally, on the last possible day, I made the call and signed up for the marathon. I knew that I’d feel worse if I pulled out than if I’d entered and struggled to finish.

I’ve spent this week trying to battle the nerves, and trying to get into a constructive mindset. On the one hand I’m really, really happy and excited to be doing this. On the other I feel terribly undercooked. There’s a reason why most training programmes are 16 weeks long! I would like to have done a few more 28km+ runs. I’m also wishing the long runs I did do were hillier. I wish that my hip weren’t still bugging me.

When it comes down to it I’m just going to have to go out tough it out. Unlike Frayed Laces before Boston I can at least walk without excruciating pain! I want to go out there and have fun. I don’t want to spend the whole 42.2km cursing myself for not training enough, or for deciding to enter in the first place. All I have to do is keep placing one foot in front of the other. If that means walking bits then so be it.

People around me have been very interested in my time goals. The correct response is of course that time doesn’t matter. However there are times floating around in my head. There’s the time I might eventually be capable of, the time I would like to do the marathon in and an outer-limit time. At the moment I think I’m likely to finish somewhere between the second and third figures.

Right now I just have to focus on not losing it before I even get to the finish. In the past I’ve really good at being my own worst enemy on race day. I haven’t made things easy on myself either as I’ve been running around madly trying to organise too many things this week. My green headband went missing (I suspect the cat stole it), I still haven’t worked out how I’m going to carry all my gels and extra medication, and yesterday I suddenly realised there isn’t a microwave in the hotel room, leaving my usual breakfast option out of the question.

Really, I just need to chill out, accept that I can’t control everything, and go out there and have fun. I’m running a marathon! OMG!

Back in Wellington

We arrived back in Wellington just after 10 last night and I was up early for a quick ride around the Bays before a day dancing in the sun at Summerset at the Basin.

I'll post more about my adventures (and my abject failure to maintain my marathon training programme) soon, but in the meantime go check out Hamish's album of holiday shots.

South Island Holiday

These photos are all out of order, but anyway! This is part of the view from my father-in-law's vineyard in Bannockburn, Central Otago. The grapes are going to be ready for harvesting in a few days. Richard lives in a big huge red barn with living accomodation upstairs, and this is a section of the view from the veranda. In this photo the Crown Range is barely visible in the distance. Out of picture to the right is the Pisa Range, which is topped with snow.

Mt Cook, or Aoraki. We had great luck with the weather on the day we visited. We were in the sun but only a few short kilometres away there was cloud cover and rain.

Lake Tekapo the morning after the big snowfall. Cold! The melt was already well underway by this point.


Poor Cleo has about four inches of snow on her saddle ...

Hamish calls this my "Pip freaking out" photo, as in "OMG - we're going to be stuck here by the snow!"
Lake Tekapo the day before. Still lovely at this stage. The weather closed in a few hours later. note though that it was extremely windy and that the wind was cold, a warning sign.

Me about four kilometres into my 15km run and really feeling it. Altitude training, apparently!

The Northwesterly blowing up a big cloud bank in Canterbury. Very stunning skies.

Marble Mountain near Springs Junction. There is an earthquake fault about 100 metres away, easily identifiable on walking through the field as a large rise and then fall in the topography. This is where I ran my 7kms the day after the Grape Ride.


Marble Mountain again!

I ran 12 kilometres today on a beautiful sunny, calm Bannockburn morning. Plenty of short sharp hills and a long flattish section on gravel alongside the lake. Beautiful! It still felt hard though, but I suspect that was the result of all the wine I've been drinking. 28km tomorrow, which means I should probably stop drinking Rose and start drinking water ....

More photos to follow!

A valid excuse this time ...

We stayed at Lake Tekapo last night and thankfully we rented a cabin and didn't break out the tent. We spent the night at the hot pools with the temperature steadily dropping. When we went to bed at around 10.30 it was raining pretty hard. At 2.30a.m. I woke up and, realising that the rain had stopped, decided it would be a good time to make a dash for the bathroom. I opened up the cabin door and .....

There were big fat flakes of snow pouring down from the sky. In early April.

When I woke again at 7 there was a good four or so inches of snow on the ground. Poor Cleo, on the bike rack on the back of the car, was coated. Pretty much every person on the campsite was walking around with a bewildered grin on their faces. It was incredibly, stupendously beautiful.

So yeah, I didn't run today, but I think I had a reasonably good excuse. I know some of you American types run right through the snow, but I'm a thin blooded North Island Kiwi, and I don't have appropriate snow-running gear.

Today, I was a bit of a wimp.

(Photos of the unseasonable snow dump to follow)

On Holiday ...

So it seems that it's not a good idea to go on holiday at the business end of a marathon training programme. Who would have thought?

As I commented in my last post, after Tuesday's run when everything started to hurt I decided not to run again until after the Grape Ride. Well, that strategy appeared to work well for the race. We caught the ferry down on Friday afternoon, spent a quiet night in our cottage in Renwick, and then the next morning Hamish dropped me off at the start line.

The morning dawned clear but cold and I amused everyone around me by shaking uncontrollably while waiting to start. It was a relief to get moving, but we turned straight into a frigid wind and it took forever to start to warm up. However almost straight away I latched onto a team of women who were heading northwards at around 35kmph. I greedily sat on their wheel most of the way to Picton, though around halfway we hit a monster headwind and I started to take my fair turn at pulling.

Somewhere on the hill up to Picton I lost them all, but I wasn't too worried because I knew that Queen Charlotte Drive would be a bit of a solo effort anyway. The headwind was a real feature of the last 10km or so up to Picton and really did slow everyone down. Queen Charlotte was thankfully more sheltered. Mahikipawa Hill felt much easier than last year and I spun up at a satisfyingly high cadence.

Once on the flat again we hit the headwind at its strongest and it became clear that a bunch needed to be formed. I jumped on the wheel of a woman around my age, another woman jumped in behind me, and soon we had a collection of riders all sharing the lead. It took a bit to get the bunch dynamics sorted, but we were soon working together quite well. We were all used to using different hand signals, so there was a bit of discussion back and forth to get everything organised.

Once we got to Havelock we turned in towards Renwick and the fun began. Finally we had a bit of a tail wind. For the last 15km or so I was sitting on between 38 to 42kmph. Once I knew I was close to the finish line I got the bit between my teeth and just went for it. I was seeing speeds on my cycle computer I would never have thought possible.

It seemed like no time at all before I was at the finish line. In the end I cut half an hour off last year's time. On one ride a week of training and a dodgy hip I would call that a success! A lot went well with this ride. I found good people to ride with, I ate constantly (I got through three Power Bars over the 101km ride), and I hydrated well. I had a huge amount of fun as well, and I felt great afterwards. It was wonderful to arrive at the end and have Hamish hand me a chilli bin with a bottle of cider inside it. There are times when I really love that man!

I felt pretty lethargic the next day, but that was partly a lack of sleep catching up with me. I was supposed to run 23km and I should have woken up early and fitted it in before we left Renwick. Instead it was already quite late by the time we set up camp at a DOC campsite near Springs Junction. As a compromise, because it was a beautiful evening and the surroundings were stunning, I ran 7km along the side of the main road. When I got back we headed off to Maruia Springs, which I can highly recommend. We spent some time in the attractive main pools outside by the river, and some time in a private bath house. Afterwards we sat in the bar drinking beer and cider and eating hot chocolate cake with ice cream.

Up again today, and another day of driving. We made it as far as Methven today. We were going to go down the West Coast but the forecast was for heavy rain and thunderstorms, so we chose East. Today I haven't run at all. I just felt it would have been selfish to have headed out on my own and left Hamish at the campsite again and, besides, there's the worst Northwester blowing. I intend to get up and run long tomorrow morning, after which we're off to Lake Tekapo. We're going to go kayaking on the lake, right up to a glacier.

It will be easier to fit in the running once I'm in Central Otago. Right now I have to accept that there are times when I have to have a life outside of running. I'm still going to get round this marathon ... I hope. In the meantime I'm having the best holiday ever.

Help Me People!

Last week was my peak week of marathon training. I did my 32km run on Sunday after a fairly grumpy 55km bike ride the day before where I was goaded into sprinting into the wind and aggravated my hip. Being both grumpy and extremely busy I skipped the run off the bike. So I didn't quite make all my scheduled runs, but five out of six wasn't bad.

This week is an 'easy' week. I ran 8km on Monday and did 35 minutes of intervals last night. Tonight I'm supposed to be running 60 minutes of hills and tomorrow I'm down for 12km. The Grape Ride is on Saturday - a 101km bike ride, and then on Sunday I'm supposed to run 23km.

Here's the thing though. I'm thinking about skipping tonight's run. My hip still hasn't settled from Saturday and the intervals didn't help it. There's a pain down the top of my right quad that I know is hip-related, and I'm conscious I'm starting to avoid putting too much weight on that leg when I'm standing, which is something I do when my hip starts to go.

The arch of my right foot is still achy and I don't want it to deteriorate. Plus now there's a bit of a pain developing down the inside of my left ankle. Quite frankly, I feel a little like I'm falling apart.

I HATE missing scheduled workouts, particularly my loved Wednesday hill runs. However a programme is an 'ideal scenario', right? It's something written at a certain point in time which assumes nothing will go wrong enroute. A programme isn't flexible. A programme is a list of things to do. You can't tell a programme that you're having a bad day, or that your knee hurts, or that you're just too busy. You can't tell a programme that you're tired.

So I figure, as much as I hate skipping runs, this one missed run isn't going to kill my marathon. On the other hand, not listening to my body and going out there and running anyway might. Imagine if I ran tonight and was in agony tomorrow? How stupid would I feel?

Ironically I'm feeling sore but not tired. Even so, there's a part of me that would like to just go home and rest and have a shot at feeling good when I run tomorrow. Plus, I want to have a good ride on Saturday.

Oh, and buying new shoes this close to the marathon? Bad idea. They're just another pair of the Adidas shoes I always buy, but getting them was just another stressor to add to the mix. They're the same size as usual but they feel tighter. At least I know I can take them back, and they looked great on video - no heel rollover whatsoever.

So I will go home, drink a glass of wine, enjoy time with Hamish and the cats and try not to spend the evening second-guessing myself. I might even start packing for our South Island holiday so that I'm not running round like crazy on Friday morning.

I need to remember that I know myself well enough by now to know that I'm doing the right thing not running tonight. I just haven't quite worked out how to stop beating myself up about it yet!

I'm still here ...

Hi there all. Sorry for disappearing! I'm mid-way through my peak week of marathon training and it's fair to say it's been consuming a fair amount of my mental energy as well as physical. It's all going well though, I just wish I'd realised when I started this just how intense Dave's programme was going to be. There aren't any nice, easy recovery runs and I only get one day a week off. Saturday is a two to three hour ride with a run off the bike, Sunday is a long run, Monday is a fast run (after the long run - yeah right), Tuesday is intervals, Wednesday is a hill run and Thursday is a longish tempo run. Add in some swimming, weights and Balance and my schedule starts looking rather full. It's fair to say that stuff has dropped off the schedule. There hasn't been a lot of Balance, I've had to ration the upper body work because of my dodgy neck, and my legs have had enough to cope with without adding leg press, squats and lunges to the mix. However fear of not being able to swim 2km has at least kept me in the pool twice a week.

After riding 76km on Saturday (with, for once, no run off the bike) I ran 30km on Sunday. My long runs have strangely enough been getting faster, which I'm sure is not supposed to be happening! It was a challenging run though, on my own, in a cold gale Southerly with threatening rain. Thankfully I discovered gels with caffeine added. Sometimes being sensitive to caffeine is a good thing, because they were pure rocket fuel.

I was then supposed to run 12km on the Monday - fast. Unfortunately there was that awful wind again. I almost made my target pace at times during the first six kilometres, managed to climb up the only hill fairly easily, and was able to pick it up a little bit after that. However the wheels fell off on the last few kilometers and I staggered back to the gym with a very disappointing average pace. My legs just can't cope with fast the day after a long run, not when that long run is still building up in distance anyway. I don't think that's too unreasonable of them.

How was it then that I managed to put in a rather convincing intervals session last night? A ten minute warm up, followed by 5 x 4 minute intervals with three minutes of easy recovery jog inbetween and a ten minute cool down. I wasn't completely fresh by any means, but I was able to put in the effort.

I'm going to be chasing a workmate around the Tinakori Hills again tonight. Last week we managed 70 minutes, of which more than half was almost continual climbing. We had so much fun and I managed not to fall over or do anything stupid along the way. Tonight we're aiming for 80 minutes, including the Ridgeline track, so there will be lots more uphill!

So here I am in my peak week, a slightly niggly hip but otherwise fairly intact. It would be nice if I could have had an 'easy' day every now and then, but on the other hand it's also been very rewarding to see myself continually improving and coping with more than I'd ever thought I could. Next week at least sees me drop back the mileage for a few 'easy' days. Who ever thought a 23km long run would seem short?

I think if I ever do another marathon I'll look at FIRST training because I still think my body prefers the crosstraining and I miss RPM and more time on my bike. However I'm not going to complain too much. I chose this and I have kept choosing this. I've missed a grand total of two runs - one tempo run when I wrenched my neck, and last week's interval session when my body just said an emphatic 'no'!

I don't know how I'll feel when this is all over, but at least I'll have yet another salient reminder of how I'm always capable of much more than I think I am.

So ...

So I rode Blue Mountains with the Gearshifters today. We were averaging around 35kmph most of the way. From Whitemans Valley we went via Mangaroa rather than riding out to Te Marua.

Coming back down SH2 into the Southerly headwind we were again sitting on around 35kmph. I had to put in a couple of spurts to catch up after being left at lights, twice ending up doing 39kmph on my own into that wind to get back onto the guy at the back of the pack's wheel. I was having a blast, feeling great, and then ...

A few kilometres before the turnoff towards Pharazyn Street on the way back into Lower Hutt I bonked. big time. It was instantaneous. One minute I was sitting on 35kmph quite happily, the next I was being passed and dropped. When we regrouped at Pharazyn I swallowed 5mg of Hydrocortisone, just in case that was the reason for the crash, and skulled a Leppin. No dice.

I staggered my way back to town at around 25kmph. Yes, we had a headwind, but not THAT much of a headwind. There was just nothing left in the tank.

Sitting in Bordeaux afterwards (the national triathlon champs were on in Oriental Bay so we met on Thorndon Quay) I had a bit of a think. We rode 86km in total. Before I crashed I'd eaten a sum total of one muesli bar and had drunk one and a bit bottles of Peak Fuel. By the time I crashed we'd been riding for around three hours.

Gee, do you think I might perhaps have not eaten enough? My cycle computer estimates I burned around 1,660 calories and I replaced them with a few hundred at most.

After sitting in Bordeaux for a while managed to convince myself to head back to the car and put my running shoes on. I ate a little more muesli bar before I set out. Dave's plan had me running thirty minutes, but then Dave's plan had me riding two to three hours, not 3.25. I compromised by running for 20 minutes and to my surprise was still managing sub-6 minute kilometres. To add to the puzzle, I wasn't feeling that bad. I could have run the whole thirty. Did the Hydrocortisone kick in?

To confuse matters even more, I really wasn't feeling that hungry. I went grocery shopping, came home, ate a pie and drank a cider (yes, I know), but at no stage did I have that "feed me now" feeling.

Experiences like today are, although frustrating, probably valuable in the end. I'm still working out the whole Hydrocortisone dosing issue, obviously, and today was also a salutory lesson in fueling on the bike. It's not like I haven't had that lesson before!

I've also had a full week of running, but that will have to wait for another post. It's after 3.00pm and I still haven't made it into the shower. Time to go get clean ...

How to do everything wrong and still PB your half marathon

The last few days have been a lesson in what NOT to do when training for a marathon, particularly when the weekend's training includes a half marathon time trial.

So, on Friday (my day of rest) I may have spent the evening celebrating a workmate's engagement, getting to bed a little too late after consuming copious amounts of party food, bubbly, a glass of wine, a couple of ciders and a pie. I feel I have to admit that, because the reality of it disgusts me so much that I feel I have to write it down to prevent myself from ever doing it again!

On Saturday, very tired and a little hung over, I proved myself soft by swapping a Gearshifters ride (Makara from the Johnsonville side) for two RPM classes. My excuse? The weather was looking a little questionable and I couldn't face that time on the bike or the monster climbs up Old Porirua Rd and Makara hill.

I should have napped on Saturday afternoon but I didn't. We spent Saturday night in Waikanae at an opera night put on by one of Hamish's clients. This year the opera was Don Giovanni, and we sat around in costume in the garden while a DVD played on a huge outdoor screen imported from overseas for the purpose. I spent the last half hour trying not to fall asleep in my chair. We were staying in the host's spare bedroom but even so I didn't get to bed until around 2a.m.

I'd tried hunting for half marathon routes in Waikanae on MapMyRun, to no avail. The idea of running 21km along the beach didn't appeal and, besides, when I woke up I was feeling so exhausted that it wasn't even a possibility. By the time we got back to Wellington it was all I could do to pass out on our bed for half an hour then crawl to the sofa. It took till about 5.00 for me to convince myself to swap my half marathon run for Monday's 8km fast run. I drove down to Oriental Bay, switched on the Garmin, and went for it.

In the end Sunday's run wasn't too painful. It seemed to take no time at all to get to 4km and then I pushed it up a notch to negative split on the way back. I started to think I should have just run the whole 21km after all, but I had no fluids on me and no gels, so I decided to stick to my plan.

Which left today. I woke feeling extremely tired again and stuttered my way through a work day that ended up with my manager offering me a very exciting piece of work while I sat there feeling bemused. With that good news in the back of my mind I dragged that tired butt of mine off to the gym to get changed for the 21.1km run.

My half marathon PB, set in June last year, was 2.03. I wanted to see if I could beat it. I knew I had to stick to a sub-5.40 pace to go sub-2. I had no idea how I would handle that in my slightly-less-than-tapered condition. However the conditions seemed good. There was a bit of a Southerly, which would favour me on the return. I stuck a Leppin in my pocket, warmed up by running to the Meridian building, hit start on the Garmin, and ran.

In the end it came down to being a very mental game. Yes, my ankle was a bit niggly, yes my hip and IT band weren't terribly happy. Could I continue to push myself to keep going and not slow? How long could I hold the pace? For some reason I decided to target 5.30km's. If I crashed halfway then I crashed. Worst case scenario I'd have a terrible split but I'd still have a little change in my pocket to make it sub-2. Super-worst scenario I'd crash so badly that I'd limp back to the gym. It was going to be fun finding out.

I reached the 10km mark in almost exactly 55 minutes. At the halfway mark I was on just slightly over 5.30 pace. I downed a Leppin and waited to see if my stomach would explode. I got a little burpy, but the nausea stayed away. I wouldn't want to be scoffing those things down every half an hour, but it seems I can tolerate the Leppin in moderate doses. I'm fairly certain it gave me a boost of energy, though that may have been psychological.

The turnaround ended up being almost exactly at the old naval base. Cruelly, the Southerly had gotten up a bit and there was a headwind for the next couple of kilometres. I got a little Mad Dog on myself and decided I was just going to go for it. I wanted that sub-2. I wanted to be able to write this blog post.

After that I never really caved. Despite the headwind (even more cruelly, it hit again with only three kilometres to go), I just kept kicking it. I dug in with 100 metres to go.

1.57 and a little change. I PB'd by over six minutes after work and fatigued. Given race conditions and a bit of a taper I'm good for closer to the 1.52 the Macmillan calculator thinks I should be running.

Happy? Maybe just a bit!

And now I want to do this ....

Thanks Kate ...

New Years at Canaan Downs, then a little drive down to Bannockburn for some time on the vineyard, then a scenic triathlon.

Ten Years

Taken by the talented Leonie, the day before our 10th anniversary. I love this photo because there is a similar photo of us taken on the day of our wedding.

Proof

So, about that sub-25 minute 5km

When the Garmin clocked over 5km, the time on the display screen read ....

24:24:28

And the grin on my face was truly something to see ....

Of course I am totally clueless about 5km strategy. Of course I went out too fast. Every time I looked at my wrist and saw a sub-5 minute pace the same words kept repeating in my mind: "money in the bank, money in the bank". I hit a nasty headwind on the stretch from Oriental Bay to the other side of Pt Jerningham which slowed me right down. I couldn't face turning around so I ran 5km straight out all the way to Greta Point. When I realised I wasn't going to pass out I just concentrated on staying sub-5. When I hit 4.8km I kicked the last 200 metres.

Earlier this year I said I wanted to shave my 5k and now I have a 5k pace to shave. With fresh legs and a little more speed work my new goal is sub-24.

It's always nice to have a goal.

Running is Hard

No, seriously. This isn't supposed to be easy, right? That's not why we do it. I had a flashback halfway through today's two hour run. I remembered all those Saturday mornings with the Jog Squad - all those long runs preparing for our first half marathon (and then our second). Back then I used to take Friday as a rest day, so would be running on fresh legs. It still felt hard. So many hours, so many kilometres later - it still feels hard.

Of course, I haven't been running much over the last year. It has been primarily about the cycling. I know I'm fitter than I was when I was training for the half marathons, but I still have to earn the wear and tear on my running shoes. I've been building up my distances fairly quickly and I've been feeling a bit slow as a result. I better make the most of the upcoming 'easy' week, because it's only going to get harder from here!

I don't do my long runs on fresh legs. In fact I don't do ANY of my runs on fresh legs. After taking Friday off as scheduled I still wasn't feeling completely rested on Saturday. For the last couple of days the weather forecasters had been predicting that a big storm would blow in over the weekend. I'd booked a couple of RPM classes as a precautionary measure in case it was too nasty to ride with the Gearshifters. I figured 90 minutes of spin was roughly equivalent to a two to three hour ride.

I was feeling a bit conflicted when i got up at 7am. It was very calm outside and only slightly overcast. I didn't want to wimp out of a ride if the weather was going to be rideable. I considered cancelling the classes and hauling Cleo out to Freyberg. However as the clouds gathered I made my mind up. Julia sent a txt from Tawa to say it was already raining there and, as I drove down Farnham Street towards the gym it started raining in Wellington as well - big fat heavy drops. It continued to pour down solidly all day.

Julia and I proceeded to grind our way through two sweaty RPM classes. It's new release week so we got to hear the same tracks twice in a row. I wasn't that impressed the first time around but by the second outing they were growing on me. I don't think any of them would make it into my requests list, but I can live with them.

At the end of the first class we were joined by another Gearshifter. She'd met the others at Freyberg but been put off by the rain and backtracked to the gym instead. Those who did ride canned the planned Makara excursion and did a simple around the bays with Mt Crawford thrown in. I felt happy with my decision and that I hadn't missed anything by deciding not to put myself through a cold, wet ride.

Straight out of RPM and straight onto a treadmill in the Cardio Theatre. I can't remember the last time I ran in there but I was going to need music to get me through 25 minutes. I wasn't really tired, but I was just over it and kind of ready to be getting on with the rest of my day. Nevertheless I had a good run. My legs didn't feel at all heavy coming off the spin bike and my heartrate sat comfortably in a good range.

Although I felt fine after my indoor brick I crashed mid-afternoon. I drank a bottle of cider while sitting at my computer and then it was just all over Rover. I somehow found my way to our lovely new bed and had a total nana nap for about an hour. I still felt groggy when I woke but slowly started to feel human again. It's been a while since I've done that! And Dusty, you're probably wondering about Hydrocortisone. I honestly can't remember whether I took any extra that morning but I doubt that I did. I wouldn't normally for a morning of spinning with a bit of running thrown in, and I would normally feel fine afterwards!

The rain continued to come down steadily all evening, lulling me into a calm stupor. I indulged in a quiet night on the sofa under a blanket before crawling back into that wonderful new bed.

This morning Hamish and I went linen shopping (two new pillows, a sheet set, two duvet covers and a new duvet later) and then it was long run time. The rain had disappeared but the Northerly had risen to typically interesting levels. With all the moisture around it was rapidly getting to be very humid. Time to fill the hydration pack.

I left at around 2.30, running up Farnham Street from home and then down Mornington Rd towards Brooklyn. It seemed unfair that, even running downhill, the Northerly was threatening to stop me in my tracks. What was the fun of running downhill into a wind so strong you had to fight with it?

Down Ohiro Rd to Aro Street and then up Aro Valley towards Karori. A quick stop halfway up as the pancakes Hamish had made earlier in the day threatened to make their presence felt, and then over the hill and left through the Karori tunnel. There were walkers ahead of me going through and I had to drop to a walk, thinking it too rude to push past them. Out the other side though I picked up the pace again down Glenmore and then down Bowen (more downhill into the headwind) and onto the waterfront.

Past Shed 5, Fergs and Te Papa and around the Bays. I alternated between feeling really slow and then looking at my Garmin to realise that actually my pace was ok. At Oriental Bay the chop was the largest I've ever seen - reasonable-sized rollers swarming the beach. Out in the harbour jet skis were racing through the white caps. Spray was crashing over the sea wall and I was doing everything I could to run through it. Anything cool and wet was all good at that point in time.

Towards the end of Oriental Bay the Northerly slowed me again and then it was round Pt Jerningham and the wind was at my back and pushing me scarily fast down the straight. There's nothing like being picked up and thrown a few metres by a force of nature to make a girl feel insignificant.

By Balaena Bay the Garmin was telling me that my pace was right on target and that I was well situated to finish in Berhampore right on the two hour mark. At about the 80 minute mark I suddenly realised that I had left behind the gel I'd been meaning to try. This wouldn't normally be a problem because I don't normally use them anyway, but today it would have really helped. I would have loved to have had that extra little bit of kick to get me around.

Even so my pace remained on target all the way to the climb up over the saddle to Newtown. I didn't care how slowly I took it - I just wanted to get over without walking and I accomplished that ok. After that it was downhill and right at the traffic lights then up and over the last hill with the scent of victory in the air.

I made it to the dairy two minutes shy of two hours and decided that was enough. Into the dairy for the customary cold drink and Fruju and the dairy owner even remembered to ask me how far I'd run. Not quite a half marathon, but on post-RPM/treadmill legs and with all the hillage I was happy. I even managed to knock 15 seconds off last week's pace. The big thing I noticed today was that, despite using the hydration pack, I was very dehydrated afterwards. I've been knocking back the water all evening. I only had water in the pack so will use Peak Fuel next week and see if that makes a difference.

I'm running a fast 5km after work tomorrow and I swear that this week I'm going to hit my target 5km pace. I want that sub-25 to show on the Garmin. I need the proof!

Grrr

I like my gym, I really do, but sometimes it can still annoy me. See if you can spot what might annoy me about this video.

Now, I've read about Spartan training before. It's not a new concept and it's taken a while to get here. I thought it sounded quite interesting. Apparently though, Spartan training isn't for women. 'Cause, you know, if we swung too many of those kettle bells we might get, you know, muscles or something. And that would be unfeminine. Because, you know, we're not supposed to lift more than 3kg at a time.

Sigh.

Tinakori Hill

Some blatantly stolen photos of the views from Tinakori Hill and the Northern Walkway. Above is Wellington harbour at dawn (on a very still morning).

Wellington City from the walkway

Looking out to the harbour across the city. the large round construction is Westpac Stadium, also known as the "Cake Tin".

The trail itself, near where I entered it. Very wide, open and level at this point! It moves into pine trees as it climbs.


Looking up at the hill from the city.

Week Four, Month One of Marathon Training in the Bag

Another week and the first month of marathon training down. Today is my day of rest but, truthfully, I’m feeling pretty good. I’m going to have to continue to monitor my ankle but it seems to be holding up ok and getting stronger. This week I started to experience a little tightness in my IT bands, particularly on my right side. My sacroiliac and glute on that side were muttering a little as well but I spent some time on the roller on Wednesday and Thursday and they’re settling back down again. I need to make sure that I continue to stretch, and I think I’ll make a precautionary appointment with my physio for next week so that she can make sure my hip isn’t freezing up and so that she can stick her elbow into the knot in my butt. Hopefully if I continue to be proactive I’ll continue to be ok.

After Monday morning’s slow-but-supposed-to-be-fast 8km, when I was just too tired, I reluctantly skipped my upper body weights workout. My neck and shoulder are still in spasm from last week’s incident and doing anything to tighten them even further didn’t seem like a particularly clever idea.

All the same, I was still feeling a little fatigued on Tuesday morning during Dee’s RPM class - low heart rate, nothing in the legs. I missed Balance thanks to a meeting (stupid work getting in the way of working out) and after work my neck and shoulder were too sore to even contemplate swimming. I wouldn’t have been able to roll to breathe and every stroke of my right arm would have been agonising. I went home and collapsed instead.

It seems though that the rest did me some good. Greg, one of the personal trainers, was holding another training session with the Gearshifters on Wednesday after work and I wanted to be there. That meant getting up to run before work. Now, I am not a morning runner. I can get up at 5.30am to go to a spin class. I can put in a hearty weights session. For some reason however I’ve always felt fatigued and prone to queasiness if I try to run too early in the a.m. Well, today I had no choice! I had sixty minutes of hills to get through.

Given my general lethargy of the last couple of days I really wasn’t sure what I could expect. I was running from the Terrace gym so decided to head up to Wadestown to test my legs then decide where to go from there. I took Grant Rd and by the time I got to the top I was feeling fresh and steady and was making good time. I’d left at 7am so it was well before 7.30 as I headed up the incredibly, stupidly steep Weld Street at a slow walk. Honestly, Sarah claims to have run up there but it kills my heart rate and my calf muscles just to stagger. One day, perhaps, I will skip up there like a spring lamb, but Wednesday was not that day.

Given the early hour I did wonder whether I was being a little cavalier with my personal safety as I headed into the town belt. I was running along the Northern walkway, a trail high on the hills overlooking Wellington harbour winding through a mix of bush and old pine trees. I ran the trail completely on my own, with not one other person crossing my path. This could have been a good thing (no one around equals no one to mug me) or a bad thing (no one around means that the bad person lurking in the bushes could mug me and no one else would be there to save me). It did occur to me that I was running without any ID other than my Medic Alert bracelet, and with no phone.

In the end I had only cicadas and birds for company and the pine trees that creaked eerily in an imperceptible breeze as I passed. The temperature was perfect - just ever so slightly cool, and there was the lightest misty rain falling. The trail was just damp enough to not be dusty but not wet enough that I risked slipping and falling unceremoniously on my behind. On the open sections of the track the harbour was visible far below me, silent and atmospheric on this grey, cloudy morning.

The first part of the trail climbs steadily uphill. When I last ran this way with Sarah a couple of months ago, I found myself walking several sections of the ascent. Today I didn’t really care how slow my pace was, I just wanted to keep moving. I had a ‘no walk’ motto engraved on my forehead. However I needn’t have worried as I powered up every little rise, my heart rate barely spiking.

I was enjoying myself so much that it seemed a shame to stop but I ran all the way along the trail to the Botanic Gardens then down through the cemetery and back to the gym. The whole run took just under an hour, and I had a blast. I was on a high for the rest of the day and was an immediate convert to morning runs.

I was still feeling fresh when Greg put us through our paces on Wednesday night. We mixed it up with some box steps, jumping squats, clapping press ups (on our knees), bent-over row, butt kicks and some core work. The bent over row and press ups perhaps weren’t such a great idea as they spasmed my neck and shoulder up again, and then I slept on my stomach with my head turned to the right and tightened them up even more. No swimming again then, and one taped shoulder.

With no swim workout on Thursday morning that just left a 70 minute run to do that evening. I figured I should probably try a flattish route given that most of my runs lately have involved a heap of hills. I set out again from the Terrace gym at around 5.30, determined to run at a medium pace.

The run didn’t start terribly auspiciously, when my Garmin refused to latch onto any satellites. I resolved myself to just having a time and heart rate record of my run when it also decided it was running low on battery power. Not wanting to lose any of the data from my last few runs I decided to switch it off. I was running around the Bays so knew roughly how far I could run in 70 minutes.

I concentrated on running powerfully and on keeping my legs turning over. Every time my left foot started to get lazy I focussed on lifting it. I refused to let it start slapping around. After a while I no longer had to think about running well and I simply focussed on what was around me. At Oriental Bay a group of wetsuited swimmers were entering the slightly choppy water. At Hataitai Beach the water was mirror calm and an instructor was teaching a group of beginner kayakers. At Balaena Bay a couple of cyclists were stopped at the changing rooms for a bit of on-the-road maintenance.

There was a Northerly blowing again, which came as a surprise as I expected it to be going south. When I got to Greta Point I kept on going and before too long I was at the Wind Wand. I didn’t feel like turning around so I headed right over the saddle to Newtown, running over the rise without stopping.

I kept pushing myself all the way down to the Basin Reserve and down Cambridge Terrace. I ran back down onto the waterfront and continued back past Frank Kitts to the Meridian Building then back up to the gym. All up I think the run would have been around 70 minutes, more or less. I did start to feel a bit tired over the last ten minutes or so. It worried me that I was feeling slightly worn out after only an hour, but I consoled myself with the thought that this was day six of a long week. I figured that with fresh legs I would have been fine. I also knew that I’d been pushing the pace quite hard throughout.

I’m taking a complete rest day today. Although I used to like to do Balance on a Friday I’m realising that, for my sanity if nothing else, I need to take one full day out each week. No running around in the morning packing a bag of gym gear. No going to the gym. No putting on running shoes. I’ve spent today sitting at my desk or eating vegan chocolate beetroot cake. I’m looking forward to burgers for dinner, a bottle of cider and an early night in my fabulous new bed.

In other news I had my annual Endocrinologist appointment yesterday morning. At least, it will be annual from now on. My Endo had missed scheduling my six-monthly appointment and, given that I’m so well, we’ve mutually agreed that there’s no point in her seeing me more than once a year. I’d rather she spent that time helping her more needy clients.

As always she ordered a barrage of tests and this year I had seven vials of blood drawn. We talked a bit about exercise-dosing my Hydrocortisone and she pointed me to some information on the UK Addison’s website. However her main advice was that I should just work out through trial and error what works best for me and she approved of my experiments so far.

In addition to yesterday’s seven vials, today I am two blood draws through a day curve (three draws in total). We are trying to determine how fast I metabolise my meds. If I metabolise them slowly (which I suspect I do), then I can get away with taking one bigger dose before a long workout. If I metabolise them quickly then it may be better for me to take smaller doses throughout the workout. It will be interesting to see whether we can draw any meaningful conclusions.

The weather forecast is looking pretty horrendous for this weekend. I’ve booked into two RPM classes tomorrow morning in case it’s too nasty to ride (120kmph winds anyone?). Hopefully it will be better for Sunday’s two hour run. In theory I’m heading into a slightly easier week after that with a 21km time trial next Sunday.

Looking back I’ve complained about feeling tired a bit this week but the reality is slightly more optimistic than that. I had quite a big weekend of training, which I felt on Monday, but after that I went through a process of active recovery so that I felt better each day. Admittedly I was two swim sessions and a weights session down, but I think I got the most tiring stuff done. Next week, with no more RPM classes, I will make sure I’m at the pool before work on Tuesday and Thursday. That way there are no excuses (other than that of my still-taped neck and shoulder spasming again).

Fast Fail

So, today's 8km run at a 5 to 5.15 minute per km pace? Yeah, not so much.

Given that I didn't get back from yesterday's long run till around 6pm it may not have helped that I had to run before work. leaving at 7.30am. It also didn't help that I'm not normally a morning runner. The strong Northerly didn't exactly contribute anything positive either.

Still, even if I was well off pace I got it done. That's got to count for something, right?

Fighting to Find the Enthusiasm

Dave had me down for another 110 minute run today and, to be honest, I had to really push myself to get out there. After yesterday's cycling and running efforts Hamish and I spent a few hours wandering around the Cuba Street Carnival and then I spent the evening messing around at home and got to bed too late. I woke up this morning late as well and lacking in energy. By the time I was out of bed the temperatures were already skyrocketing and the northerly was whipping past our house at a pace that was sending all the trees sideways.

I had a few things on my to-do list, including giving the bathroom a thorough going over, tidying and weeding the courtyard and throwing load after load of washing through our machine. In the end I managed to wash, dry and fold all our clothes, clean half the bathroom, spray a bit of Roundup around and sweep the stoop. All up not a complete failure, but not enough of an effort to get this place up to scratch. I escaped by heading into town with Hamish for a bit of shopping, but felt so lethargic that it was a struggle just to walk around. Shame I still had that run to fit in then.

Enthusiasm. Missing.

By 3.30 though I was filling up my Camelbak and throwing on my running gear, switching on my Garmin and heading out the door. The good thing about living where I live and running from home is that it's always possible to convince myself to get started by turning left at the end of my street and running downhill for a couple of kilometres, so that's what I did. Down to the bottom of Farnham Street, then right at the bottom and all the way to Island Bay and the Southern Coast.

I could tell that this was going to be a different kind of run. Where once upon a time I used to suffer a lot from sore, aching leg muscles these days I experience fatigue more as a feeling of slowness or heaviness. I was still moving forward but I fel like a heavy sack of bones. Realising I wasn't going to be fast today I gave myself permission to run at Dave's prescribed long run pace and concentrated instead on maintaining my form, which can slacken off when I'm tired.

Twenty minutes in I started to warm up a bit, as expected. Forty minutes in I once again found my long run rhythm. Not that anything about this run was particularly effortless or even terribly joyous. I wasn't in the mood to be out there running. The novelty had, for the time being, worn off. I wanted to be hanging out on the sofa. I felt almost bored with the whole thing.

I had a few vague ideas about where I was going to run but mostly I was making things up as I went along. I ended up turning left at the Southern Coast and running around to Lyall Bay. As I ran past Island Bay the sand was blowing in my face. Rounding the point where the Marine Centre was to have been built the headwind was so punishing that I was at one point stopped dead in my tracks. Randomly I bumped into a colleague at around this time, both of us in the middle of nowhere.

When I got to Lyall Bay the Garmin was telling me that my planned route was going to get me back to Vogeltown too quickly, but I was sick of fighting the wind so I turned up Queen's Drive and started climbing up towards Newtown. I'm in a weird place at the moment where I've been doing so much hill climbing on my runs that I feel better uphill than I do on the flat, and so Queen's Drive and Crawford Rd were one of the better parts of this run.

When I got to the roundabout at the top of Crawford Rd my Garmin was again warning me that I was going to have to stretch this run out. I should have turned down towards Evans Bay but I didn't want to run on the flat, nor did I want to battle the northerly again. Stupidly I stuck to my plan and ran down into Newtown, however at the bottom of the hill I turned right instead of left and then turned right onto Adelaide Rd to extend things out a bit.

It was at about this point, nearly 90 minutes in, that I started to find a little of that enthusiasm. I remembered how a couple of weeks ago I was suffering a meltdown of monumental proportions this far into the run. At about this point in time I'd been slumped over at the bottom of a hill trying to work up the mental fortitude to keep going. There was none of that today. I might have been slow but I was steady and strong and my legs didn't argue at all as I climbed to the top of Adelaide Rd, descended and then headed up Britomart. The climb up Britomart and onto Liardet that had nearly killed me a couple of weeks ago posed no problems at all.

Unfortunately time was an issue and I got to the dairy with twenty minutes still to run. I turned and ran back to McAllister Park, skirted its boundary, ran back onto Adelaide Rd and then continued down towards Island Bay for another five minutes or so before turning around and running back up the hill, finishing on the corner of Britomart Street right on 110 minutes, 25 seconds. Right next to another dairy, where another Fruju iceblock was waiting.

I can definitely mark an improvement in my long runs compared to my 90 minute run. I thought I was really slow today but I was actually on average running within Dave's target pace, albeit at the slower end of it. If the wind hadn't been a factor and if there had been slightly less hillage then I would have been faster. If I hadn't spent yesterday doing hill repeats on Cleo then I would have been even faster still.

The key factor in today's run was the mental side of things, which is why I'm proud of myself for just getting out there and doing it, even given that I didn't really feel like it, and even if I felt so slow and heavy. Even my bad runs are still a lot better than they were a few weeks ago. However I won't lie when I say that, when I was messing around during that last twenty minutes, knowing how much further I will have to run on the day of the marathon did scare me slightly. I have so much more work to do and so little time to get it done in. I will do it though, even if I have to write HTFU on both arms and my forehead!

Burning the candle at both ends

Well, I posted some pictures of our Northland holiday, so it's probably about time to pad them out a bit. My ability to enjoy life at all ends of the spectrum can sometimes be a little disturbing. I love my running and my cycling and I believe in eating to fuel my workouts and in a healthy lifestyle in general. However that doesn't mean I don't sometimes through down the food like a Captain Cooker pig, and my liver must sometimes suffer as well. It wasn't that long ago I was spending all night on the dancefloor and sleeping all day, even if these days I'm likely to be meeting up for a ride as everybody else is leaving the clubs.

Our Northland holiday was a chance to catch up with some very dear Auckland friends, with whom we have spent a fair bit of time eating, drinking and dancing over the years. We were celebrating a commitment ceremony and an engagement. The exact nature of the relationships is somewhat complex and unorthodox, but it's exactly right for the people concerned. We were also thrilled that we were going to be there for our tenth wedding anniversary, and that half our wedding party (the male half) would be there with us.

We drove to Auckland on Thursday, but not before I'd fitted in my scheduled 6.30am RPM class. We stayed the night in Albany with members of Hamish's family and, after having driven from Ohakune with the air conditioning on, it was rather a shock to open the car door to get hit with a rush of humid air that felt like it belonged in Suva, not in the northern fringes of Auckland. Needless to say we were grateful for the breeze that got up later that night, but very little sleep was had.

Up early the next day we drove to Whangaumu Beach on the Tutukaka Coast, north of Whangarei. We got there at around mid day and I was handed a glass of wine. I pretty much had a glass in my hand for the next ten hours. The afternoon was spent outside next to the beach, but a fierce wind blowing in made things interesting. We women all dressed in our best frocks, the wine continued to flow and, by the time waiters were bringing around platters of food I'd had just enough to drink to make the idea of trying delicacies like chicken livers seem appealing. Needless to say the chicken livers weren't a big hit, and thankfully I was still sober enough to avoid the oyster shots.

The ceremony was gorgeous and brief and then the food and alcohol continued to flow. By 10.00 I was dozing off at my table but, as the party moved to the room next to where I was staying, very little sleep was had. At 7am the baby in the next bedroom started crying and, realising that three hours was going to have to do, I got up and prepared for my long run.

I was scheduled to run for 110 minutes, mostly flat with a few hills. Unfortunately there was no way I was going to get in a mainly flat run, unless I ran back and forth along the beachfront for nearly two hours. I warmed up for a kilometre or two by doing just that, and then it was on to the first of four monsters. The only way was up, and up was steep!

At the top of the first hill I took a side road which undulated for another couple of kilometres before ending at a signpost to a lookout. I clambered up to the top (it was really, really steep) and took the photos from my earlier post, then ran back down again. Back to the main road, over another big hill, down another side road, this time down to water level, more photos, back up to the main road, over another hill, down another side road, back again, over another big hill, and then another. As if that wasn't bad enough, I then had to turn around and run back over all those monster hills again.

Now in considering the success or otherwise of this run, let's note the following:

• I was hung over a bit, or at least, I was certainly dehydrated
• I was suffering from a severe lack of sleep
• The hills were insane
• Being Northland at the height of summer, it was extremely hot.

So yes, I walked up little bits of some of the steeper hills. I stopped to take photos. I stopped to answer a txt during a brief patch of phone reception. However I had a thoroughly wonderful time. I enjoyed running on the shoulder of the road, whether through bush or past farmland. I smiled and greeted passing locals. I skirted around fresh roadkill. I came across a peach tree growing on the side of the road and hunted unsuccessfully for ripe fruit. I guess you could say I went sightseeing.

Performance-wise, sure I walked a few brief bits, but on the flat my pace was easily within my target range. Even as I was running the last few kilometres and making up time up and down the beach again I felt great. I had a very, very good run.

Clever me, I even made it back to the beach in time to smell the aroma of bacon wafting over the neighbourhood. A brunch had been organised for guests down by the beach. Still in my running gear, still with a Camelbak on, I jogged through down the side of the motel to the makeshift bar overlooking the water. I slugged down two glasses of water and then picked up a glass of bubbly and the drinking started all over again. All class, that girl!

The day was spent lying around consuming leftover wedding food and working our way through the considerable amounts of leftover alcohol. My diet pretty much consisted of cupcakes and wine. That evening a huge storm rolled in and all plans for a barbeque had to be abandoned. Once again the lounge outside our bedroom became party central and I ended up snoozing for a while on the sofa of an adjacent flat. Despite that I once again managed little more than three hours of sleep.

Sunday continued in much the same manner as Saturday, albeit with a slower start to the day. We ate cupcakes and drank wine. Midway through Sunday afternoon I decided it was as good a time as any to do my Monday homework run. It was either that or mash my legs trying to get a ride in on those insane hills like I was supposed to be doing.

The scheduled run was supposed to be 5km long, flat and fast. About the only part of that I actually achieved was the 5km part. I did my little up and down the beach thing but that still left me with around 3km to go and, in my slightly sloshed, exhausted and overheated mode my legs got stuck in second gear. There was no speed to be had.

Instead of continuing to run laps of the beach I took off up a sideroad from the base of the hill along a route recommended by one of the guests. This still involved a climb, but a slightly less meaty one. It was still damn long though, not to mention airless. Its major consolation was the opportunity to indulge in holiday home porn. There were some seriously nice houses to be oogled.

At the top of the hill was the consolation prize - more beautiful views. After that it was down, down, down, and back to the house for a shower, followed by more cupcakes. There may also have been more wine. It's highly likely there was more wine. I disgust myself.

At 8.45 that night I came across Hamish lying on our bed (actually a mattress on the floor). He muttered something about grabbing a nap while things were quiet and he had the chance. Seemed like a smart idea to me. I lay down next to him, fully clothed. Well, it turns out that my body was quite keen on extending that nap, and neither of us moved for the rest of the night, not even when the party geared up next door again.

Ten very heavy hours of sleep later we were up and away, driving down to Taupo for the night. We were both still very tired but it seemed a shame to waste the opportunity so, after finding a motel room with a lake view, I got Cleo out of the car. The idea was to ride the 20km to Kinloch then turn around and ride back again. Unfortunately the road was full of cars, four wheel drives and trucks and they were all intent on getting home as quickly as possible. After being passed too closely at over 100kmph a trillion times, and after one too many loud honks, I did something unusual for me these days, I thoroughly lost my nerve.

Turning around I rode back towards town and discovered that the first part of the Taupo Cycle Challenge course is indeed all uphill. Riding back took half the time riding out did, which unfortunately got me back to the motel far too soon. Trying to salvage something from the day I kept going, riding south towards the airport, stopping at the lookout to check out the view, and then riding back to the motel. What was supposed to have been a two to three hour ride lasted no more than one and a half. However Hamish was waiting back at the motel for me and it seemed rude to keep him waiting. Besides, Nic and Leonie had given us a bottle of Moet for our anniversary and it was speed-chilling in the motel room fridge's freezer.

After one violently strong shower (my skin was literally pierced by each drop of water) Hamish and I sat in the window of our motel room looking out over the lake and enjoying our Moet. It had been just over ten years since our last bottle - which we drank straight from the bottle, standing up in our student bedsit flat on the day I handed in my Masters thesis (once again with the class).

One highly delicious glass down we put the bottle back in the fridge and headed out for pizza. We enjoyed a meal at Portofinos (and another glass of wine), then returned to our room to finish off the bottle of Moet. I even managed to locate a peanut slab in my backpack, left over from the Taranaki race, which we shared for dessert.

On Tuesday we were back in Auckland by 1.30 so that Hamish could make a 2.00 meeting. Seeing as I'd only had a short ride in Taupo, and given that I hadn't done my 20 minute post-ride run either, I decided I had some catching up to do. The Gearshifters RPM class was on at 6.30 so I checked into Stefan's 5.45 class as well. I got there early and knocked off 20 minutes on the treadmill, monitoring my reassuringly low heart rate.

I don't think my heartrate stayed low though. We went pretty hard throughout our 90 minutes of spinning. Dee chose some great tracks for her class, including KD Laing's "What's Going On" (especially for the Gearshifters backrow chorus singers) and "Run Away" - the one with the lyrics "Oh, Oh, Oh - I've got to run away", which incite even the most reluctant vocalist into song.

And that's about where things all went a bit pearshaped. I slept badly on Tuesday night and wrenched my neck and shoulder, then aggravated it by still doing my (otherwise brilliant) 55 minute hill run at lunchtime on Wednesday (including part of the city to sea walkway) and following that with weights on Wednesday night. By Thursday morning I was at my desk nearly in tears and in so much pain I was nauseaus.

A few desperate calls got me a last-minute physio appointment which loosened me up enough that I at least stopped feeling sick. However I had to face facts. I was not going to be able to complete my one hour run that night. After putting so much effort into making sure I got my workouts in while away I was absolutely gutted. I consoled myself with the thought that I could make it up on Friday if I felt better but unfortunately I didn't. A second physio appointment made only a little more headway and I still felt extremely sore. I was ordered to rest and take voltaren with the intention of loosening everything off enough to attack it properly on Monday and I was banned from running and from cycling.

Oops.

So, I kinda, sorta may have rode AND run today. In my defence the voltaren really helped, although I supsect it helped only in the sense that it hid the pain rather than actually coaxing my neck muscles out of their spasm. However by Friday night I was feeling improved enough that I kidded myself into thinking I was ok enough to ride this morning. I am my own worst enemy! In my defence I couldn't face the idea of not riding with the Gearshifters again. I'd already missed the first ride by being in Northland.

Whatever, however, at 7am this morning I was up and preparing to ride. Whereas the weather had been perfect all week this morning it was foggy and windy and wet. Even that wasn't enough to stop me, which is just as well, because I ended up having one of the best rides in ages.

A small group of us left from Freyberg just after 8.30. We headed out past Evans Bay and around the Bays. A stiff northerly made things fun and we took the opportunity to practice bunch riding - drafting, riding two abreast and rotating the lead clockwise. Rapid cycling our positions I ended up having to share the lead more often than I would usually feel confident with, given how much I suck at riding into the wind. Plus, we rode fast. Sure, we had a tail wind a lot of the way but even into the giant headwind we still stayed over 25kmph. Dee told me afterwards we averaged about 35kmph over that section of the ride. I was working hard to hang in there. I felt like I was having to surge on a regular basis but for a change I had the power to push it. Perhaps all that hill running is giving me a little extra pedal strength as well.

I did the whole standing on my pedals thing up the Pass of Branda and, for once in my cycling career, held my place in the bunch all the way to the top. I was well chuffed when we stopped in a car park on the other side to regroup and things continued to improve from there. Our next task was to climb to the top of Sutherland Rd in Lyall Bay. Sutherland Rd is a nasty, nasty hill. It climbs and keeps on climbing and gets steeper and steeper as it goes. I've been up there once before and it nearly killed me but I was ready to give it another go.

Up we went. I started near the back of the pack and by two thirds of the way up I was overtaking one of the instructors. I was WHAT? Oh yes. I am, it seems, still a climber. One of the other new riders, Nick, who is easily the fastest in the new squad, and I ended up leap frogging the rest of the way up. He beat me to the top, but it was a close thing and I beat him back down to the bottom.

From there it was up Crawford and three five minute hill repeats up Alexandra Rd on Mt Vic. Then it was back up again to the top and then I grabbed the tail of one of the other women on our way back down Palliser Rd. She was flying and I was nervous but there was no way on this planet I was going to wimp out and grab my brakes. My cycle computer shows my maximum speed was 57kmph and it must have been at some point during the descent. Wow.

Back at the car I threw my running shoes on and did my required twenty minutes. My Garmin has some interesting stats for that run as well. Sure, it was only a short spurt but I hadn't exactly been spinning my legs out over the previous two hours. All the same I was holding my pace at around 5.30 minutes per kilometre (if not under) and it felt easy. There is something seriously going on with my fitness right now. I don't completely understand it but I think it's good. I'm pretty sure it's good.

I guess the short version of this blog involves the words 'eat', 'drink' and 'train'. I guess a life lived at full volume is a life lived well. However, given that I value both my liver and my waistline I'm picking that a little moderation might be advisable over the next few weeks. Maybe.

Celebrating

A commitment ceremony, an engagement and a 10 year wedding anniversary. Lots of wine, lots of food and good friends.

Good times!

Running on the Tutukaka Coast

Photos from my 110 minute run when we were up north on the weekend. The hills were monsters and the heat got pretty oppressive, but who wouldn't enjoy runs with these kinds of views? I think it was worth the time taken to stop and pull out my phone to take a few pictures!

Sorry to Bore You All

But I had another great run today.

Despite yesterday's RPM class.
Despite this morning's lower body weights.
Despite my legs in no way being fresh.

I don't now whether it's the B12 shots. I don't know whether it's simply that cycling increased my fitness more than I realised. Perhaps starting from a more advanced place means I'm getting my running legs back more quickly than I thought I would.

All I know for sure is that today's run rocked. My metabolism was going insane all morning. Despite the cereal before my weights session, the yoghurt after it, the fruit afer that - by 11.00 I could ignore the hunger pangs no more. I caved and bought a noodle broth from Boxo then waited until 12.00 for it to settle.

By 12.15 I was off on my 50 minute hill run. The weather was perfect. It was overcast, a little cooler than it has been of late, and there was no wind. I headed up Bowen then up Glenmore past the gardens. At the top, instead of running over the viaduct I turned left towards Karori.

I was second guessing myself the whole time. I wasn't sure I would make it back to the gym within 50 minutes. However I was feeling great. My heartrate hardly spiked running up the hill and I was maintaining a 6 to 6 and a half minute pace for most of the climb. I wanted to see if I could go all the way, so once I was through the Karori tunnel I headed for Aro Street and enjoyed the bush outlook and the long downhill into the valley. I didn't push the descent, letting gravity do the work. Once I was back on the flat however I picked up the tempo and was mostly able to keep the pace under 5.30.

The bypass has ruined Willis Street for running, so I got to sprint from intersection to intersection pressing stop on my Garmin each time. I should have run up onto the Terrace and avoided all the lights, but I got a bit lazy and didn't want to face another two steepish climbs. Instead I headed up Boulcott Street, which felt insanely easy. I got back to the gym on the Terrace with five minutes to spare, so ran to the end and back, finishing a shade under my 50 minute target.

I'm still a little nervous about my right ankle though. Thankfully all that is on the cards for tomorrow is an RPM, then Friday is a complete rest. I have a twenty minute run off a 2-3 hour bike ride on Saturday, then Sunday is a 110 minute run. Hopefully my ankle will be able to cope provided I continue to rest it. It's getting stronger, it's just taking a little time.

We're off to the Bay of Islands in the morning for a civil union. Cleo is coming with me and I'm taking a camelbak and lots of cool running and cycling gear! I'll be back online Wednesday and hopefully no disasters will have befallen me in the interim. Happy training everyone in the meantime!