Week 3

Well another week of training done. This time I didn't stick to the schedule, mainly due to the big nasty blister on my foot from last week. I only managed 3 5.2km runs, so 1 long run down on what I was meant to do. Instead of the long run, I did 20km on the bike, so not ideal, but not the worst that could happen.

I still have to get some new shoes, and I still have the remains of a blister on my foot. That said, I don't want to fall to far behind, so I'll be trying to stick to the schedule again next week.

Week 2

Week 2 done, and mostly all going well so far. All scheduled runs got done. We're still not going fast yet, running around 6min 50sec per km on the long runs at the moment. Going a bit faster on the shorter runs now however.

The bad news is that I've got quite a nasty blister on my left foot, under the arch. So I'm going to be buying myself a nice new pair of running shoes, which will hopefully fix the problem. But until then, and until the blistering goes down I'm going to have to take things easy. Better to miss a few days, than damage myself badly and miss weeks latter.

So, until then, cross training is the way forward.

Week 1

Well, week 1 (week 2 from the program) of our marathon training is now complete. Which means so far things are going well. Week 1 was 3 5km runs, all done in 32-34 minutes and a 10km run, which took 68 minutes. So we're going slowly, but that's OK at this point, I think...

This week's schedule goes 5km, 6.5km, 5km and 8km. Which looks to be no harder than last week. So hopefully the weather behaves, and we are able to keep our 100% strike rate going.

Coming Next

So, what I've learned from the previous months races is that my training needs to step up significantly if I'm going to get results that I'm happy with. So I have decided on a training program to follow, and have decided on some events to build towards;

1. Whangrei half marathon, 12 September, Goal: Personal Best half marathon time

2. Auckland city marathon, 31 October (this will depend on getting a ticket off trademe as they are sold out) Goal: Finish full distance marathon

3. Kerikeri half marathon, 20 November, Goal: sub 2 hour half marathon

4. Round Taupo cycle race, 27 November, Goal: Completion (in a team)

Disappointment

My next challenge was a 2nd half marathon. And for some reason I thought that Wellington, in winter would be a good choice. Myself and 2 friends went drove down to attempt the harbour capitol half marathon.

If I'm honest with myself I know that my training suffered following the northern crossing, so I was not expecting to set the world on fire.

However, once again in nasty, cold, wet conditions, I was still disappointed with my result. Whilst I was able to finish (and I still think that finishing is something to be proud of) I ran 2hr 30 min. 10 minutes slower than I ran in Kerikeri last year.

I guess this means I will have to go back and do another until I'm happy with my result.

Northern Crossing Done

Well, I said in a previous post I'd be training 5 times a week to get there. That didn't happen nearly was many weeks as I would have liked it to.

But, I got there, It was slower than I wanted, partly because I wasn't as fit as I wanted, and partly due to the conditions. We are looking at strong headwinds, and heavy rain for the duration. It took over 7 hours. But I completed my first multi sport event!

One job done.

Goal 1, The Northern Crossing