September

Septembers distances. Starting to ramp up towards the end of the month. 

Another Challenge

Well, as far as this weeks trainings gone, there can be no complaints. 4 runs for a total of 28.9km ran. This is the biggest single week I've done since I started training after wellington. So I'm quite happy with my efforts. But as I said in the previous post, I'm also much happier with the speeds I'm now getting. Even running as fast as 5.50/km for 8km runs. Not a month ago I was happy with 6 and a half minutes for 5km. So progress is definitely being made.

The big news of the week, is that I've entered the Waitakere city half marathon. This is on the 10th of October. Cornelis is going to be using it as a training run for the Akl marathon, and I'm doing it as a challenge on its own.

So with less than 2 weeks to go, I have a big week ahead of me.

Update

Well, I'm not sure what week of training it is anymore, and it's been a long time since I updated this thing, but here we go anyway. I've given up on running a full marathon this year, I just don't have the time around my studies to do the miles I need to do. How ever I haven't totally given up! I am still running, and have been averaging 20-25km per week. Also the diet, which I said I was going to start has been going well. I'm far from perfect, but have dropped my weight significantly, about 12kg down so far, and my fitness is improving. On average I'm 30 sec / km faster than I was in July. In my last post I was happy to get down to 6min/km, now that's normal and 5.30 - 5.45 is fast. So for the rest of the year I'm aiming to get my half marathon time down to the 2 hour mark... and I'm thinking that this one is possible. I'm targeting the Kerikeri half marathon in November for this. I'm also entered into the round Taupo bike race, as part of a 2 man relay.

And finally, the distances I ran in August:

Week 6

Well another week down. This week I started with a great 5k run, taking another minute off my best time, set 2 days ago, and getting below 6min / km for the first time in this training so far. That was followed by a not so fast 8, and 5 k on the next 2 days. The good thing about those runs is that I felt terrible, slow, heavy legs etc. But still ran times that a few weeks ago I would have though were good. So I am starting to get better.

University and work commitments combined to stop me doing a the long run on the weekend, but I did manage a 8k. Again, didn't feel good, but still came home faster than the previous 8k from the same course. So all in all a positive week.

For next week things are stepping up. Not in terms of running, in terms of weight. Its back to the South Beach Diet for a while, until I get my weight down to where it needs to be for a marathon. Hopefully it all goes well.

Week 5

Well, I'm a bit late posting my week 5 summary, but it would have to be the best week of training so far. All 4 runs got done, 2x5km, 1x8km and 1x10km, and they all got done in good times. The 10km run was done at 6min 35 sec / km, which is about 10sec/km faster than any of my earlier long (or medium length for that matter) runs. I also felt nice and comfortable doing it, and would have been happy to carry on at the same pace for longer. I followed that up with a 5km the next day, that knocked a minute off my previous best time for that track.

So all in all, a satisfying week. I'm starting to feel as if I'm making progress, the fitness levels are going up, and the long races I have planned for the next few months are starting to look more achievable.

Month of July Log

This is what I ran in July

Week 4

Week 4 done, that means 1 month down, 3 to go... 1/4 through the training program.

This week was good, without being great. I seem to finally be over my blister problems, so I actually feel I can run now. But I am feeling very up and down about my runs. Some days I go out and feel fantastic, some days I feel terrible. I need to figure out what it is that makes the difference, be it diet, rest, the time of day, what ever... Or else things are going to start getting difficult.

This week I managed to do all 4 runs, but couldn't manage the long weekend run. I just felt terrible after a few hundred meters, so called it a day after 5 of 15km. Still I ended up with 23km this week which isn't too bad.