The End of University

Well, last week, the first week of November was exam week for me. So was a bit of a stressful one to be honest. The good news tho is that its all finished, and I can relax for a bit. In terms of my training, I got through all the runs I wanted to, 4 x 8km, but only managed one of the rides. So good, without being prefect.

I'm now 2 weeks away from the Kerikeri half Marathon, and 3 weeks away from the round Taupo cycle race. So I should be starting to peak in my training. I think that I'm going OK so far for the running side of things, definitely have more miles behind me than I have had at any other stage this year, so I should be able to complete the run in reasonable shape. However I'm starting to get a bit worried about the cycle. My longest ride has been 19km... less than 25% what I need to be doing. I know that I can finish it, but I have a feeling its going to be a long, and painful ride...

End of the month

Well, on a whole, the 2nd half of the month, following the Waitakere half marathon has been good. I've been getting more consistent in running longer distances. I can honestly say now that my normal run has changed from 5km, to 8km. Which is good, but I still need to start doing long runs regularly.

My diet has not been that great for the last few weeks. That's mainly due to studying for exams. But it's been good enough, that my weight has pretty much stayed constant at 103kg.

And finally I got back on the bike again this week, a 10km and a 15km. So no where near the 80km I'm going to be doing in a month, but at least I've started.

Finally, Octobers runs, somewhat dominated by the half marathon:

Motivation

So, today I'm feeling tired, and not at all motivated to go for my run. Movies like this help. No matter what it is in life you want, if you want it enough, and are prepared to make sacrifices then you can have it. Time to be like the kiwi, and go for that run...

Went sailing instead

Well last week was an OK one, without being great. Had a few problems with my new program I'm trying to get going. firstly I tried to start the 100 push ups and 200 crunches programs at the start of the week, and I was hurting for 5 days after! Now I know a bit of soreness is a good thing, but that's a bit much. So I'm going to change the program, and just keep on week 1 until The pain starts to improve. Also last week was my last week of class for university. Now I know its no excuse, but my diet was pretty awful. I'm not sure what the number is, but I'm sure my weight's gone up. And the last thing that went wrong is instead of my long run, I went sailing, I did the Coastal Classic, which took up 2 days by the time I got home... So I'm a bit down on my target for the week. 

Coastal Classic Start, in there somewhere.

The week after the race before

Running wise, it's been a fairly light, but satisfying week following the half marathon. Only 26km run, but I think that that's ok following a big run like I did last week. And I've been reasonably happy with my runs too, it was 26km at good pace, not just dawdling along.

I've also been doing some thinking, about what I want to achieve for the rest of the year. I spent some time on the runners world forums, trying to find out why my time last week was not what I was hoping for. One of the things that stood out was that I just didn't have enough miles behind me to be worrying about running PB's. And to be honest, I don't have the time (either hours a day, or days available) to get the sort of mileage I really need between now and Kerikeri, It's only 5 weeks away.

I'm still going to run it, but instead of having a goal time of 2hr 10 min, I'm going to set myself some different goals for this one.

1. Run the race weighing less than 100kg (As of today I weigh 103kg)
2. Run every step, however slowly (That is something that has really bothered me from Wellington and Waitakere, I walked for parts in both)
3. Enjoy the run (For the last 2 halfs, I've gotten so disappointed half way through, when I realised I wouldn't set the time I wanted, that I hated the 2nd half. A feeling I need to change)
4. Have 2 training runs longer than 15km.

If I can do those things, then I'll walk away feeling good about myself. And to be honest, the time will look after itself anyway. 

I've also decided to add some strength training to my week, I've started the 100 pushups, 200 situps and 200 squats programs. It's only body weight stuff, but it's a lot more than I've been doing up until now, so it has to help. 

Waitakere City Half Marathon

Today I ran the Waitakere City Half Marathon, I finished in a time of 2hr 27 min 29 sec. Which is faster than my last effort in Wellington, so that is a good thing. But it is well down from what I was aiming for, and what I feel I'm capable of. Considering I was doing 1 lap of the course in 61 minutes a week ago I should be capable of much faster. So I'm going to have to do some work, find out why I didn't perform, and do better next time. I am still aiming to run under 2.10 this year. 

September

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