So it goes

Well, it has been 3 days since I updated, and I have managed to do a run a day since then.

On Monday I ran the Upriver Loop, it was pretty standard, nothing too exciting! I had a Cavaliers trial game later that day, which was a bit too late in the day for my tastes, it finished at 10pm, I didn't get home till half ten, then in bed at 11... And slept terribly.

On Tuesday, I headed out on a new route. I followed the river up to Rutherford Street, then followed it up till Opawa Road, then headed up and over a small hill on Port Hills Road and back home via the river again. If you could do an aerial view of the run, it would look like an 'o' that a small child drew, not round in any way, but sortof 'o'ish.

Today I headed around the Bottle Lake Forest track. I hadn't been around it since it reopened post-quake. There is a landfill there, which is being used to store the liquefaction and the rubble from the quake, so there were large areas fenced off, as well as a steady stream of trucks. The track was completly different to the one I last ran (sometime in February I think); and unfortunatly got somewhat lost once! So despite having to double back at one point, my run was ok. The new track is much closer to the beach, so there is alot of soft sand rather than a track. This unfortunatly is not ideal when you are trying to rehab some hips; so I think this track might get sidelined for a while, just to let my hip get a bit better....

Not sure if I will manage to get a run done tommorow, I have a day of relieving, and then the second trial for the Cavaliers is tommorow night.

Not sure, we will see.

CP

So.

Well, times are a bit tough really at the moment.

I say that, and the thing that makes it so tough is that my motivation for running has hit rock bottom. In fact, my motivation has been attempting to find something below rock bottom, attempting to tunnel through it. Is there a good reason for this? Probably not. My hip has been recovering, my hockey has been developing alright. I am currently jobless, which you would think that would help me run; but I guess the lack of purpose during the day, means I have been lacking purpose in most areas!

What is the solution? Not totally sure. The canterbury representative team has it's first trial on monday, so perhaps that will be the spark I need?

Don't know. Managed to go out on the heritage loop, so at least I have done one run...

CP

A hill!

Well, my brother offered to join me for a run today, and since I have nothing better to do, and it is such a rarity to have someone to run with, I took him up on the offer.

We headed up Cannon Hill Road, and made a large figure 8 shape, following various roads and alley ways up the hill, and then down again. It worked out to being a good 7.5 km run, done in 34 minutes. Not super speedy, but certainly, still a good run.

It also marked the first run on a hill since my rest period. My hip was not sore, rather just it fatigued quickly, and was noticably tired for most of the run. Which, unfortunatly means it is far from 100%. This means that hill running might have to be avoided for the forseeable future, just to give it more time to settle. Thems the breaks however, and I am sure I can cope regardless.

I have a busy night tonight, with more activity, so it only being a short (7.5km) run, that will work out well, here is hoping my hip settles nicely!

CP

And so it continues

Well, getting back into it has been an interesting experience. It is kindof amazing how fast you lose your acclimitisation to doing longer runs. Today I headed out around the Heritage Loop (like so many times before) and although I could run the distance with no real worries, I still felt far more fatigued and a bit sorer than I remember being on a run which (in my opinion) was quite short and flat. It worked out to being a good 12 km, so at least I am starting to keep my distances up!

Not much else to report beyond that, I am slowly getting back into the swing of it, hopefully I can start building back up to where I was before the 10th....

CP

Well... another run

So, another run. After the success of yesterdays run (mainly being able to do it) I figured I would keep riding my luck and head out for another run! I headed out around the up river loop, nothing too excessive! Worked out to being 13.77 km (55 mins), which was actually a bit longer than i intended, but, thats not a totally bad thing. I wasn't too sore really, which is also a pretty good thing.

I should be really busy at the moment, but I am just waiting to see what is going to happen for a few opportunities. I am not a very patient person at the best of times, so this whole waiting thing will get pretty frustrating if it continues on too long....

CP 

Hey look a horse! Perhaps I will get back on it....

Well, today marked my return to running. I headed out for a very, very casual 5km run around the "5km Loop", and felt... alright while doing it.

It has been hard lately to fit runs in, with placement being so very busy, I really felt that I needed a total break from alot of things, running included. It was also made much harder once I started to have some niggles arising especially from the Arrowsmith run, but also from hockey, which has always been pretty tough on my hips. Is my injury gone? Probably not. Physio would certainly agree with that statement! Is it at a managable level? Yes. So, from that perspective, it is going well. It will be more of a case of managing it in the long term.

So, what does that mean for this plan? Well, I am now going to have to get back on track. I was trying to average about 300km per month- meaning I would finish sometime in October (best laid plans); that is still very much feasible. I had such a good first month, and my second was pretty damn good too, meaning I am still pretty much on track to keep up that average.

I also want to run a marathon, sub 3 hours. So, with that in mind, I will need to tailor what I am doing with my running, doing 2 longer runs (25 km) per week, coupled with more smaller runs.

But then again, part of me really would like to get back into focusing on hockey. I do enjoy playing, and as ever there is the chance for higher honours, but I am apprehensive, for the simple reason that I am not confident I will enjoy playing at that higher level. This is a far from definite statement; I don't think I have been playing well enough to warrant selection of late, but maybe with a month or so of hockey specific focus, I could be playing well enough. Which would still leave me plenty of time to finish my running.....

In short, I don't know.

CP

No running

Well, I haven't run for a while, and so haven't been updating this in a while either. The reason why? Because I wanted to rest after the Marathon; and then unforunatly, a problem reared it's ugly head. My left hip has become an actual problem, hockey and running are not combining well at the moment to keep it happy!

So, what does that mean for this? A few more days recovery. I will hopefully start getting out again for some shorter runs tommorow, or possibly even tonight.

I am going to take my time with this, for the simple reason that, there is still over 8 months left in the year, and still 1800 km to go. Which, on both counts is long; and with that in mind, I have decided to try and do something smart (for a change) and actually make sure I don't push it too far.

This all coming from a person who decided to run 3000km in a year, so expecting me to do something smart would seem unlikely....

CP

100 Days

Well, today marks 100 days of my year of running. To celebrate, I headed down south, to Lake Heron. Why you ask? For a high country marathon of course! The 42.80 km course takes runners up into the foothills of the Arrowsmith Mountain ranges, where they are treated to superb views and get to be punished in a 11.2km uphill, in which 900 metres are climbed.

How was it? Long. It made me critically aware of how little actual preperation I gave to this run- I mean sure I tapered, but playing hockey yesterday probably was not my best decision, given the run today! I learned alot about marathon nutrition etc, I was using GU lollies (like... leppins but in lolly form), they were great, except when I got tired, chewing them became a little bit too much to handle! The uphill was pretty great, amazing views, and I didnt feel too average as I ran up. I was figuring the uphill was going to be the hard part; it was the first 11 km of the run, and I figured it would be the most difficult. I was wrong largely, the downhill was what turned out to kill me! The last 5 km were excrutiating, and seemingly never ending. I think that would be attributed to a lack of experience and proper preperation, but I was certainly hurting then!

The run itself was amazing. I really can not emphasise how great the views were. It was well organised, and brilliantly, at the end, there was a steak sandwich waiting for you! I couldn't stomach finishing mine, but I made a good attempt. Plus, I managed to win a spot prize, choosing the mystery bag (of course, it's so mysterious!), which netted me a bottle of wine, some oil and various other swag. All in all a great day out!

I finished 5th, with a time of 4 hours, 11 minutes.

So, now I am sitting down at home, once I finish writing this, I will hit the shower (finally) and then off to bed I think!

Tommorow I might reflect on the past 100 days, since I wont be out for a run I think!

CP

One weekend run

Well, hockey on a Saturday meant that I have tended to not run on a Saturday, and just done one run per weekend. Which has worked out well last week, where I still managed to do a good 75 odd km. This week however might be a bit different, I wont run Thursday or Friday I don't think, in preperation for the exciting things happening on the 10th!

Todays run was a simple Upriver Run, just cruising along the flat. I was feeling a bit average really, just tired and slow really! Worked out to being 12.44km, in 53 minutes. So, despite me feeling tired and slow, it still was not that bad a run really. There were plenty of people out walking, I passed the Opawa Farmers Market, which was absolutely pumping with people!

Plan for the week... well getting some more runs in obviously! I have been thinking seriously about doing some duathlons beginning in May, so I would obviously need to start spending some time on my bike! With Pioneer pool and Gym opening, I might stop by their spin class, they have 3 early morning classes per week, so I might look at doing that, 3 times a week should be pretty feasible before work! I might do just one this week, as a sort of tester before getting into it properly next week.

I don't know really, it is a goal if nothing else!

CP

April First

Well, I survived april 1st without anyone pulling any april fool's tricks on me, so thats all good!

I went again in search of a track up the hills to run, turns out the Harry Ell is open, so I headed up from Princess Margaret Hospital, following some back roads and tracks, which meet Dyers Pass Road around the church close to the Takahe. From there, I kept following Dyers Pass rd, then onto the Harry Ell right up to the sign of the kiwi. On the way down, I followed the old Dyers track back down; then hooked back onto the Harry Ell, then ran right down Dyers Pass rd to the roundabout where it meets Colombo st and Centaurus rd, then followed Centaurus back around to Princess Margaret Hospital. Worked out to being a good 15.26km, done in 1 hour, 8 mins. So not too slow, which is good. The run is now going to be known as the "Bottom to Top", and given the track closures, I think I will have to head up it another few times this year!

Not sure where I will head next to find another track with a hill to run up; I think I may have to go as far a field as Hallswell, or even to the other side of the Port Hills- I probably couldn't do a year of running in Christchurch without going up Mt Herbert at some point!

But, right now, it is time to eat some chips, drink some juice and relax.

CP

The end of March

Well, March is all but over, and I finished it off with a run. Today I headed up from Ferrymead, up the McCormicks bay track (11.7km, 51 mins) . I was hoping to follow the route I took last time, but it just was not possible due to earthquake damage on the downhill track. Instead, I followed St Andrews Road home, which turned out being a long downhill, or it at least felt like it! It was pretty good, but the uphill was a bit harder than I remember it being! Maybe I need to try and get back into the hills, which in itself might be a bit hard given track closures....

So, March has ended. I ran 24 times, covering 311.61km in 22 hours, 42 minutes. So basically, out of 31 days, I almost ran for a whole day. Not too bad really! I had my longest run to date this month, when I covered 30km on the 7th. But, next month is a new month, and I am confident I can top 30 km!

I have been planning something special to mark my 100th day running so far this year, which will happen on the 10th of April. So, only a week and a half to go till I reach it, 100 days running seems like a pretty darn long time!

CP

And now for something different, Running

Well, another day, another run. I headed out after school following the Upriver Loop, which is just basically running up following the river to the Brickworks pub on Centaurus Rd (not going in sadly), then running back home on the other side of the river. It worked out to being 13.25km, done in 56 mins. A good run, it was pretty hot, I am not sure I am used to the frosty mornings quite yet, getting up early is still far too hard for me to do too many more early morning runs! Perhaps I will try again tommorow?

Not running on hills has done wonders for my average speed, todays run was averaging around 4:16 per km, which felt pretty easy actually. All this bodes well if I decide I want to do some shorter running! So although I am averaging slightly under 12km per day, my average per run is much higher, at 13.44. All in all, pretty darn good!

But, since today is Wednesday, the rest of the week is downhill from here! The last few weeks have been pretty tiring, it will be good to get the next 2 weeks finished and over with. But, I can cope with being tired, it is my partner who has to suffer through me being grumpy!

CP

Three Runs, Two Days

Well, yesterday was a bit hectic, so I didn't end up doing a post on here. So, as the title says, I have done 3 runs in the past 2 days, two yesterday, one today.

Run One. Was early monday morning, in an attempt to try something new, I thought that two short runs might be better time wise than one long run. So, I headed out for a sneaky 5 km loop, running from my house, up to St Martins School, following the river, then back via St Martins Road, then Opawa Rd. Worked out to being 25 mins, 51 seconds, and being 5.86km.

Run Two. Was the second shorter run for the day. I headed for a quick flat run, effectivly running half of the Heritage loop, I stopped at the last bridge before the Estuary, turned around and came back on the other side of the river. In all honesty, I should have turned around one bridge earlier, the path was relativly non-existant on the other side of the river, so I have plenty of tiny gorse cuts to show for it! Was 5.29km, done in 22 mins.

Run Three. Well, this run was back to the theory of one long run being better. I simply followed the heritage loop, doing 11.22km, in 49 mins. So, not too slow really, and another good 11 kms done!

Overall, it would be nice to keep up the habit of doing a small run in the morning; it would mean that most days could be double runs, plus if I did a 5km in the morning, it gives me the option of either a shorter run at night which would be good, or a longer run which would be great!

I might try another morning run tommorow, but with a late hockey training tonight, I might really need my sleep in!

CP

Recreation

Well, as a treat to myself for making 1000 km, I took a few days off running. I have been fighting a cold lately, so the few days off were well timed from that perspective! It was a good break, although it was not without exercise; since hockey is now getting into full swing with 2 trainings per week, plus a game on Saturdays.

As for today's run, I thought I would recreate my earthquake run, from where I dumped my car. I wanted to see how far it was. So I headed from home, recreating the route, expecting it to be a good, 5 or 6 kms, which is what it felt like on the day! Turns out, it was about 4 km. It certainly felt much longer. So from where the car was, I followed Colombo Street, up to the river, and then followed that home. Worked out to being 11.96km, done in 51 mins. So a good 4 min 19 per km which is not bad over 12 km!

My partner was in a Duathlon today, and did really well. There is a duathlon series beginning in May, running for 4 weeks. So, some duathlons could be happening in the future! Some ideas are now fermenting at least...

CP

1000.

Well. 1000 kilometres. What can I say? It took 77 hours, 54 minutes. Almost 78 hours, done over 81 days. So looking at roughly an hour every day spent running. I have been averaging around 12.4 kilometres every day, comfortably above my required average of 8 km a day! At this rate, I will achieve my goal of 3000 km sometime in early September, but I know the twists and turns of this year are not done with me yet!

I don't have much else to say, with so much going on with school during the day I am pretty jaded when it comes time to write these! But today's run was 10 km (42 mins), I went to Ferrymead via the Heritage loop, then stopped off to Physio on my way for a quick check up, then headed out to hockey training. So, a pretty action packed night! And far too tired to think about any form of celebration for the 1000 just yet, I think I will try to have something big at the end of placement, I might run away overseas for a while actually!

Time for a sleep I think. Or perhaps some school work.....

More interesting things tommorow I think...

CP

3 weeks of March gone...

Well, 3 weeks of March have passed. I began with not running for 3 days, and then I spent a week doing alot of running, and since then I have started a more stable running program! But, that all being said, in 3 weeks I have covered 242.20 km, which aint bad at all. Excitingly, I am now 8.68km away from the 1000km mark. I have no clue how to mark the milestone, with everything that has been going on, I have given the celebration part little or no thought, I have been more focused on a) placement, and b) actually getting the running done! So I really don't know. Hopefully I will work something out!

Today was another 12.77km done, in 57 minutes. Was a pretty good run, didn't feel sore at all and was good to spend some time thinking, especially since I have been so busy at school, pretty long days, which are very busy for the whole time! But that's the real world I suppose. Thats the way it is! I will cope, busy is not bad really.

I might have a different opinion in a week or two, but who knows! Hopefully will go for an early run tommorow, since I have a hockey training tommorow night.

CP

One run

Well, I managed a paltry one run this weekend. Yesterday's hockey game was early (12:30) so I had little motivation in the morning, and then afterwards couldn't really be bothered! We won hockey however, so that was all good. It was interesting to be back on a hockey field again, I have only been on it one other time this year! So from that perspective, alot of my skills were lacking. I was giving a masterclass in missing the goal, which I tragically ruined, by actually putting one in. Will be good to actually start training, hopefully my skills will come back! Otherwise I might have to realise that I didn't have any to start with....

As for the run, I headed up following the river to Ferrymead, then up Bridle Path rd, to the Gondola. I followed Port Hills road back to Aynsley Terrace, then back home. Basically, I followed the Ferrymead Loop, but I added a small hill climb on Port Hills Rd. Overall, pretty good. I am still a bit sore at the moment, from both hockey, and the last week. I will stop by the physio on Tuesday, just to make sure everything is doing what it is meant to! The run was 15.23km, done in 1 hour, 8 mins. Not slow by any definition, and another good 10 km + run.

More excitingly, it leaves just 21km left until I reach 1000....

CP

Memorial Day

Today is a Memorial Day for those lost in the earthquake on the 22nd of February. There was a large memorial service in Hagley park, with the Prime Minister, as well as Prince William, as the Queen's representative. Today then, is a day of remembrance. I was blessed enough to not have anyone in my close family who were lost on that dark day, but friends of friends, people I had known in my past, people who I had met, had shared a drink, or a moment with or had conversations with, I will never have that privelidge again.

But, once tommorow comes, we need to start looking forward, start looking towards rebuilding, reconstructing and restarting our city. It won't be as simple as a jump start to the battery, it is going to be a long process, and once which is going to be immensly frustrating to many, many people! Already we are seeing issues with traffic, which is simply going to continue, because the companies that work on the roads simply have so much work to do, that it will be a long process.

As to today's run. I headed out from my place, up past Ferrymead, then kept following the main road out to Redcliffs. There is a track up which travels up a valley to a cave from the end of Bay View Road. I have been getting frustrated by tracks being closed (so inconsiderate by them!), so when I saw that this track was closed, I thought I would be a rebel and head up it anyway. When I did that up Rapaki track on Tuesday, it was not an issue. Today, it was much more of a problem. The Cave track has suffered very badly from slips, whole sections were missing, wooden bridges lay at the bottom of the valley, far from the track where they are meant to serve. That meant my running slowed down significantly in those bits! I have always thought of myself as a bit of a billy goat when it comes to running on hills, but I was being especially ginger about my footing, I had no desire to end up at the bottom of the valley with the bridge!

Worked out to being 21.02 km, done in 1 hour, 39 minutes. So, it means that in spite of not running for two days, I still managed to get 62.77km done this week. All good really! Also, it means that there is just 36.67km left until the 1000km mark, very exciting!

Hockey tommorow, I think a small run in the morning will be in order.

CP

Another Run

I had the best of intentions for a run today, I planned to head out around Bottle Lake, but there was a problem. Namely that Bottle Lake was closed! So between that, and most of the hill tracks being closed, there is a serious lack of tracks around for me to run!

So, I headed around the roads from Bottle Lake, just doing a very long lap of the block. Worked out to being 12.69km, done in 56 mins. So not too slow, not too bad at all. Pretty tired from the week of teaching, I have a day off tommorow, so I think I will try to head out for a longer run tommorow, not sure where just yet however!

Just a quick update today, I am going to head out to meet a few teaching friends for a relaxing beverage, to celebrate both the end of the first week of placement, and it being St Patrick's Day.

Hockey starts Saturday too, I wonder how my abilities will be....

CP

Early morning run

Well, my new theory of running early in the morning is going pretty well. And by that, I have actually completed one run!

I headed out on the River Loop; except I followed the roads, for the simple reason, that it was dark. Looking forward to Daylight Savings, so that it is a bit lighter in the mornings! By following the roads, it cuts out around a km from the run. So, it worked out to being 10.33km, done in 45 mins. Was pretty good really, I felt suprisingly good given that it was so early in the morning! I still remember a coach once telling me that the morning is not at all good to try and be strong or fast, but if you want to do cardio it is ideal. Plus, if you are wanting to lose weight, its best to wake up, excercise, then eat breakfast. Apparently that is the ideal way to start the day!

Well, at least in his opinion. I have been a little sore of late, I think I might head for a massage/physio just to get them to have a rub before the game at the weekend. Might as well try and be nice to the body at least!

Hopefully might get a short-ish run in tonight, I want to catch myself up to averaging 1 run per day, and I am tragically about 7 runs behind. So a few double run days is in order I think! Plus, it is only 70km before the 1000 too......

CP

A busy day, in which I fit in a run

Well, real life has decided to start attempting to kill me, then dance on my grave. Well, actually that is an exaggeration, but a nice mental image none the less! Real life is certainly starting to ramp up, I left home for school around 7:45, then was quickly home, before heading out for a run, then off to fitness training, then met a friend for a coffee and am now home, over 12 hours later. So I am sleepy!

The run today took me up into the hills, I headed up the Two Peaks, the first time I have been in the hills since the earthquake, 3 weeks ago. The hills bear plenty of scars from that time, there have been plenty of rock slides, and plenty of damage to the tracks, with many rocks down. Slightly unnerving, and certainly the tracks will be more unstable than they used to be. Might be a case of being a bit cautious with the hill running, it certainly would not be high up on the list of places to be in an aftershock.

The run was just a 7.35km short one, done in 36 mins. Not fast, at all. But, given my tiredness at the moment, probably about all I can manage at the moment!

So, tommorow I think I will try to run in the morning, before school. This is because my first game of hockey for the season is on Saturday, and I have only had one session on the turf so far this year. I am feeling pretty unprepared for Saturday, so I will being my hockey gear to school tommorow, and hopefully spend some time on the turf afterschool tommorow.

Thats the plan at least,

CP

2 days off, then a run

Well, the time I spent in Wellington was thoroughly restful, but not at all productive in terms of the running goal this year. I took my shoes with me, with the intention of getting a couple of runs in; but it just didn't happen when I was there, I was enjoying relaxing, eating good food and catching up with people far too much!

So, today I went again around the Heritage Loop (11.35, 50"). It was the first time I had headed out around the loop, since the Feb earthquake, and the track really showed it. The track runs along the banks of the Heathcote river, and as such has suffered reasonably badly! Much cracking of the track, serious in some places. Also, there was one part which was under water! This was particularly interesting because where the water was; was about a metre and a half above the river level, and appeared to be flowing pretty well! Didn't smell like sewerage (thank god), so unsure as to what it actually was!

I have started placement today, so the amount of time I can dedicate to running is now under pressure, but I forsee myself hitting 1000 sometime next week, and getting up around the 300+ km mark for March in total. All things going well at least!

CP

900

Well, a quick update today for the simple reason that I only have 5 minutes before I need to go an catch my flight!

Well, what can I say but 900 kilometres down, 2100 to go. By completing todays run, I have managed to knock off a pretty darn good milestone, as well as largely catch myself up for the 5 or so days that I didn't run last week. Now the next goal has to be crossing over the 1000 km threshold!

Today marks the end of McLeans Island Week, over the week, I have run a total of 119.15 km, done in 8 runs. 7 of which, were laps of McLeans. In total, I completed 9 full laps of McLeans Island, as well as completing a half lap twice, so really that brings it up to a round 10 laps of McLeans. Now, I can safely say that it will be a few weeks before I come back here!

Time for a flight, I am sure I will get some running done while I am in Wellington, might head for a swim too, its almost impossible to have one down here!

CP

10 Days of March gone...

Well, it is already the tenth of March. And it is also Thursday, which means just one more day left in McLeans Island week.

I headed out around McLeans Island (shock horror), and completed one and a half laps, so a grand total of 18.16 km, done in 1 hour, 18 mins. So, another pretty good time (4'18"km) and another good distance run. This means that to reach 900 km (the goal for this week) all I have to complete is 12.57 km tommorow, which should be just one more lap of McLeans Island tommorow sometime during the day. I felt... alright. Legs have been feeling pretty tired of late, but they still seem to be able to keep on running at least 12km fine, it is just when I go over that distance that they start complaining.

I am flying up to Wellington tommorow for the weekend, to get out of the earthquake zone for a while, so I will go around McLeans in the morning before I go. I will make sure to do a couple of runs while I am up there too, one of my friends up there reckons he has a pretty exciting run for me, so I will probably do that on the Sunday.

University is updating us all tonight on what is going on with our course for the next 5 weeks, so tommorow I should have a better understanding of what running I will be able to do over the next month or so. Of course, adding to that, Hockey will start up properly soon, so it would be nice to have a good 1000 km under my belt before the season starts!

CP

W-W-W-Wednesday

Well, it's wednesday. The title is a nice shout out to the more "Hip" among you, basically it is just a shameless attempt to make the blog more interesting. You can't fault me for trying.

To be honest, I am still suffering from Monday's run, my legs are feeling not sore, but rather perpetually tired. Add on to that the press ups and burpees from last night's fitness session did a number on me too, apparently I have spent far too much time working purely on my running not my other muscle groups! Well, enough whining really, I managed to get through another lap of McLeans (in keeping with McLeans Week), as well as doing an extra bit of a loop, to increase the distance. Certainly not a massive run in anyone's book, but still another 15.7 km done in 1 hour 8 mins; which equates to a not bad pace.

So, if I want to reach 900 km by the end of the week, I will have to complete 30.73km more, in the next two days. Now, since it is McLeans week, I will do one lap a day of the course, meaning I need to find another 6km from somewhere. I think I might try and do a short run tommorow morning, before I go coaching, it is either that, or I will have to make my laps of McLeans just that much longer!

Here is hoping my tired legs can survive!

CP

Intelligence? What intelligence?

There were two runs today, the first was according to my weekly plan of running around McLeans Island everyday for the week. I headed around the track (once this time), worked out to being 12.10 km, done in 51 mins. So again, a pretty good time, my average speed for March is down around the 4 min 17 sec mark per kilometre, it is amazing how much faster you are when you aren't running up a hill! Was certainly a bit sore from yesterday, as you would expect. Not painful sore, rather just a bit tight and it took a bit longer for me to loosen up into the run. But overall, I can't really complain, it is a pretty good time to be cruising around the 12km track in.

The second run took me from my parents place to the Hockey Turf, to run a preseason fitness session. Now, this really does fall under the category of "Dumb Ideas I should have thought about before doing". Lets review the evidence. Yesterday, 30 km run. This morning, 12 km run. Ths evening, 5 km run. Then on top of that, a fitness session for hockey. Which I think officially qualifies me, as at least 2 screws loose in the head. But, the run to hockey was another 5.18 km, making todays total 17.28 km. Which, if I want to reach 900 km by the end of the week, leaves me 46.43km to go, in 3 days. Not impossible, I would be looking at probably three and a half laps of McLeans Island.


Right now, it is time for some well earned rest I think!

CP

299 days to go

Well, today marks the 66th day of the year so far, so there is only 299 days to go!

I again headed out to McLeans Island, I think this week will be "McLeans Island Week"- where I will run around Mcleans Island everyday this week. Already have done 3 days, just 4 more to go to finish the week! Todays run was good actually. I decided to do a second lap of the track, then a third. So todays run, worked out to being a new record, at 30.04km, done in 2 hours, 7 minutes. Now this is a pretty quick time, which might go a long way to explaining why I am quite so tired right now!

Today was the 60th run so far this year, I am still 6 days behind having a run a day- I think in the next few weeks I will try to catch up with a few double run days. As a sort of goal, I think (all things going well) that I might try to reach 900km this week alone, which was helped monumentaly today with the long run!

Right, it is time for some food, especially some sugar. Otherwise functioning beyond the next 5 minutes might be difficult....

CP

800 is up

As the title says, I have crossed the 800km mark. Certainly, all things considered I am pretty happy with my achievement! Even if it is 6 days later than I had planned on it being....

I have still been heading out around McLeans Island, for the same reasons as before, it is easy to get to, no earthquake damage and it is far more interesting than running along the road. Another 12.55 km run, done in 53 mins. I have been trying to make sure I run over 12km each time, so I did an extra bit of a loop in the forest, to make sure I was over. My average speeds for the track still apprears to be decreasing, down to 4'13" per km today, a 2 second drop from yesterday, which was an even further drop from the day before. I haven't been trying any harder, or feeling any faster, but I will take it!

Further aftershocks last night, it is certainly pretty hard to try and get on with life when there is still every chance that there will be further aftershocks! I will be helping out Sport Canterbury this week, helping them run programs with students. It will be good, from every perspective. It will be good to use a different set of skills, and at least get myself back into the mode of teaching! From a purely selfish perspective, it will look good on the CV, as well as good references for job hunting. And from an alturistic perspective, there will be plenty of parents who really could do with a break from their kids for a couple of hours, it will have been really hard on them, since no school means kids are home, and especially if parents are need to be, or are meant to be at work. So, I will be helping in a way that I see as being highly important!

Lets hope for no hail tommorow, that was a particularly unpleasant part of today's run.

CP

Back to McLeans

Well, seems like I am making a habit of going to McLeans Island, and there is a real reason for that. It is really the only track on this side of town! Being this side of town is pretty important, I dont want to spend any more time driving more than I have to, the streets still need to be kept pretty clear so that the clean up can be done properly!

And aside from that, I really don't enjoy running on he road anywhere near as much as I enjoy running on tracks or in the hills. And since the hills will be off limits for a while, I will have to make do with the track out at McLeans Island. Might branch out and head to Bottle Lake at some point, just to mix things up!


The run worked out to being a nice 12.3km, done in 52 mins. So, apparently as far as times go, I have been speeding up each time I have been around the track! Haven't been feeling the fastest at the moment, in spite of the times.

Well, no earthquake updates again. So I suppose anyone who is reading this purely for an earthquake fix, probably made a poor choice. There is only so much I can say, and since I have become oversaturated with the footage of the same things, the same information, I can only assume people reading this have as well.

CP

Two in a row!

Well, today I managed another run. It really felt like the past week has caught up with me today, the list of things that are sore is unfortunatly quite long! Perhaps a reminder that I should really be stretching more often!

I headed out again to McLeans Island, this time I was alone; which meant I only needed to do one lap! To be honest, today I really dont think I could have done two laps, legs were tired as well as it being incredibly hot (car said 30, probably less) and windy. Worked out to being 12.01km, done in 52 mins, so really not a slow time at all. The track is 11km around, but I run from the car, which is where that extra kilometre comes from.

So, overall for this week, I have completed 32.25km, in two runs. Not a particulary good week, in comparison to the others that have been, but given everything that has happened, probably fair enough!

February worked out to being 298.39 km, done in 23 runs, over 23 hours, 34 minutes. So, the main thing for March is to get up and past the 1000km mark, a good achievement in my book, given that it will be done in under 3 months.

So, thats the goal so far. No earthquake related stuff today, I have become oversaturated with the news footage, with the politicking and the sheer repetition of stories. So, you don't need it from me as well.

CP

An actual run

Well, as the title says, today I did an actual run. I have not been for one of those since last friday! So, almost a whole week without a run. Which when I am trying to run 3000 km in a year, anything more than 5 days off is probably not ideal, because I would be in danger of losing motivation!

I headed out to McLeans Island since it is close to my parents house (and well away from the damage...). I took my partner with me, I planned on a full loop, while my girlfriend planned on the shorter loop. My loop was good, I had been feeling pretty grumpy today, there are too many things out of my control, university especially and it is starting to become frustrating... I know I can't do anything to hurry it up, but it just catches up with me sometimes when I try to plan beyond tommorow.

My plan of meeting up with my girlfriend as she finished her loop ran into a snag when she was not back. No problem I thought, I would just go around the small loop backwards, and meet her on the way. The sole problem with that was that she had gone for a while, then turned around and come back! So, I basically did over one and a half laps of the track.

So consequently now I am tired. But, 20.24 km run today, in 1 hr 28 mins. So, a reasonably quick pace (4:22 per km) which is suprisingly good actually, given both my lack of running, and the amount that I have been doing lately.

Nothing new to report on the earthquake front, except that yesterday alone, Fulton Hogan (a multifaceted construction company) moved 42,500 tonnes of silt. That amount of silt equates to the same amount that Fulton Hogan moved in total after the September 4th quake. So there are alot of people, everywhere in Christchurch doing great work!

CP

Earthquake plus 8

Well, today marks the 8th day since the Earthquake. I spent the last two days on my bike again. I started out from the other side of Fitzgerald Avenue- one edge of the cordon, and worked my way away from the central city. My goal was to meet, greet, deliver food and water and find jobs. I was doing this because the large student armies (SVA and Comfort for Christchurch) are struggling to find the best use for their resources (which are vast). Areas such as Avonside, Wainoni and Aranui are still without power. Without power, they are unable to contact the SVA groups, and so are therefore unable to reach help. I headed out yesterday alone, but today I had another person with me, as well as the Student Volunteer Army (SVA), who had come to the same point as I had, so sent much of their army out to the streets going door to door.

So, what have I learned or found out, I met alot of people on my travels and they were from all walks of life. I met some who were angry, frustrated at the system. I went down a street, where I was the first person with any authority they had seen. Which is scary, given that any authority I had, was the self-appointed variety. These areas with no power, water or sewage you could understand them being annoyed and frustrated, a week later there were still nowhere near enough Port-a-loos for the streets, and it is the streets which are entirely rental properties with Housing NZ. I met plenty of people who were the other end of the spectrum, really happy to chat to people, and to have any help that was coming to them. Some of the areas were completly totalled, roads which are destroyed, piles of silt the size of houses and ruined water pipes. The cracks in the ground- some vast; are in places still changing, one of the more impressive sights I have seen is a green wheelie-bin, which was in a crack as a warning to motorists, only to have the crack close on it, totally annihilating the rubbish bin. It sat flat, still in the crack, its wheels in other places on the road, testament to the destructive and changing powers of the earth.

In these stories of tragedy, of rack and ruin, there have been plenty of lighter moments. Today I was cycling past the cordon on Bealey ave, and there was the traditional army component. A team of soldiers, plus a light armoured vehicle. But, along with that there was an ice cream truck. Nothing lately has brought a smile to my face more than seeing a soldier sitting in the turret of an armoured vehicle, chowing down on a soft serve cone. Another one is the enjoyment I find in trying to learn sign language from the translators in the news briefings. Or in finding relations of people I know out on my rounds, I met the mother in law of one of my hockey team-mates purely by conincidence!

I have to say, all of the military personnel that I have had cause to talk to have all been amazingly nice people. They were operating in the same area as I have been, working primarily as a large work team, but also with smaller teams to find jobs. These guys were professional, but best of all, they were more than happy to share their information, to work together with us and the other groups. They were happy to sort out small jobs that I had found, and I am sure people appreciated their quick help, in contrast to the wait which using the student groups would have.

In all of the areas I have seen, people are making do with what they have. I went to a street which had a burst water main, damage from over a week ago. It was still pumping out water, which the locals could use (as unhygenic and unsanitary as it sounds) obviously after a good boil. Communities have banded together, simply because they have had to. The dust and wind today will be an ongoing problem, as is sanitation.

Well, 180 km on the bike travelled in the past 3 days. Multiple neighbourhoods travelled through. In my opinion the clean-up phase is winding down, and it is becoming time for the rebuild to begin. The big question now is, what next? What will the city look like now? Or more importantly, where to begin?

Have I done good? I hope so. And really, sometimes hope is all you get.

I know this was long. But, thats the way it is with me.

CP

Slack Updating

Well, for those two people who read this religiously (who am I kidding, there is no one who does that!), you will have noticed that the updates have been a bit slow in coming. I have not been running, which is not ideal in terms of this blog, but for the purposes of rebuilding Christchurch, not really that important.

I was out on my bike today, delivering for Nurse Maude, as well as doing some odd jobs around the city. I stacked some bricks, opened up a garage; which was being prevented from being opened by a large amount of wood which had slammed into the door. Dropped some food and water to an elderly guy, who was cleaning his whole house so his arthritic wife could return home from a motel. I was working with a group, but I found it pretty frustrating in places- the problem now is not the amount of help; that is flooding in from every where. The problem now is really about the logistics between those who need help, and those who can give help. I am not sure what I will do tommorow, I like the idea of helping people, and really did enjoy being out on the bike all day. The temptation is to get out and try and do my own thing, but I think I might give the bike group another go, at least for the morning. There is a job that I know of, which I might look into tommorow too.

After all of that, no mention of a run. Well, I see that being the case for the next week or so. It will be ok in the long term, I will complete my 3000- I am just going to be set back a week or two.

CP

No run.

Well, as the title says, no run today.  

It really just wasnt possible. Instead of running, I headed out over to the other side of town, to one of the most affected areas, to try and do some good. I was joining in with a whole group of guys, organised through family ties who had been doing the clean up for the past 2 days. Those guys are absolute legends, they have been out in that neighbourhood for three days, helping anyone, and everyone they can. No desire for repayment, for fame or for any tangible reward, except for the pride of helping people. They do the job, to a high standard, and all they ask in return is that the people they help, try to pass it on to their neighbours.

So, I am in awe of their dedication and hard work. I was priveledged to be able to be with them, and I will begin again with them on Monday; they are taking a break tommorow. Well earned I say.


The running therefore, is probably going to suffer for a couple of days. For those who might cry offense at this, I simply say, sometimes there are things that are far bigger than an individual person, and in those situations we have to stand together, help out fellow man, as we would hope they would do for us.


As Churchill said-

"A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality"

Some words to think as we look towards the future of Christchurch.....

CP 

Running again

Well, I figured one rest day was enough! I headed out around a large block, leaving from my parents house. I headed out to Harewood road, from there, up to Greers road, from there past the evacuation centre at Burnside High to Memorial ave, then home again down Memorial. Worked out to a nice 10.09 km run, done in 43 mins. So, pretty quick really, about as quick as I have ever done them so far. So I am pretty happy running wise, was good to get out and do it!

As for everything else, well.. My immediate world is alright. My family are together, we have food, water, power and most exciting of all, we are allowed to flush our toilet; albeit sparingly. We are staying with my parents, who live out of the damaged areas. So the short term is sorted. And the long term? Well, who knows. There are people with far more power than I working that one out for themselves.


50km in 3 days to keep with my 800km goal, not 100% sure it is possible, but we will see. I think I might try to head out around McLeans Island tommorow, should be open ( I hope?)

CP

Earthquake part 2

Hey all,

No run again today. Its just too hard, given the situation. Damage is extensive, infrastructure is stuffed. My family and I are ok, we are going well, but the scale of the situation is simply immense.

On a personal note, I am lucky. The tracks that I have run so many times this year, the valleys which I have travelled, the ridges I have traversed. Many of these, are quite simply gone, in some instances, taking people with them. It is an unimaginable tragedy, one which I am struggling to comprehend. It is too real, too close to home. It has really affected me, not only in my running, but also as a person.

I have nothing to recover from, it is more I need to fully grasp the situation, which I have as yet failed to do. But I will, bear with me, it can be pretty hard to not be morbid at times like this.....

CP

Earthquake.

As I am sure everyone is aware, Christchurch was hit by a large magnitude earthquake yesterday, which has caused a great loss of life, and unimaginable damage to the Central City.

My family and I are ok, we are physically ok, with only a couple of minor injuries. As for the properties, well.. My house has had some further damage, my neighbourhood looks like a floodzone, with silt clogging every drain. There are houses destroyed, walls down, and roads which are sinking or have sunk it into the sea. My run today took me past the airport (deliberatly, I like looking at the planes), and once I reached there it absolutly started pouring down. Watching hundreds of people being marshalled by men in camo uniforms onto military aircraft in the pouring rain seemed like a scene that happened a hundred times in every disaster movie I had ever seen; suppose that means we are actually in a disaster.

I did go for a run yesterday, but it didn't count. What happened was that I was at university when the earthquake struck. So (like everyone else) I wanted to get home to see loved ones, so I got into my car. I managed to get as far as Colombo street, before the gridlocked traffic due to the damage finally got to me. So I got out, and ran firstly to my brother's house, to see his wife and son, before stopping past home. I had not heard from my partner, so my run continued to her work, which was at a school nearby. She was fine, as was everyone I managed to get in touch with, but the damage is extensive.

Today I headed out from my parents place, to the Airport, then followed State Highway 1, before going back to through Burnside park, then back following the route that I used to take to school. Worked out to being 9.51km, done in 41 mins.

Alot going on, and there is a long, long way back to normality here in Christchurch. For all those in Chch, stay safe, and for all those outside of town, my hope and prayer is that you have contacted family, friends and loved ones, and that they are safe.

Until tommorow,

CP

21st Feb

Well, another day another run. A casual 52 days on the trot! I did another run/yoga day today, like I did last wednesday.

I ran the Heritage loop backwards, but stopping in Ferrymead to head to Yoga, before heading home. As always, I tried to stick to the trails next to the river as much as possible, rather than running on the road, it's just more fun that way! Worked out to being a 13.54km run, done in 58 mins. I was going at a very good clip before yoga, but then slowed down markedly afterwards!

The hockey trial last night was pretty good, didn't feel any ill effects today! It is always hard in trial games to 'get up for it', especially when you are playing out of position etc. But it was good to have a play, if only to see which skills I retained, and which I have lost over the summer!

Yoga was good, difficult but good. I will probably be sore tommorow from that, but I am ok with it. I mean, when has anything good ever come without hard work? It is one of those things that is even sweeter when the work has been put in, so much more satisfying!

Along those lines, I remember a coach once called me a robot with my training, a compliment that I have always remembered!

Training run tommorow,
CP

Fifty plus one

Well,day 51. Was feeling pretty good before I started my run, was feeling fresh and ready to go, feeling that I was really starting to get some good fitness, given I was feeling so good after a 20km hill run yesterday.

I was largely wrong. Turns out I was as tired as ever! Not so much as to stop my run, but it just more forced me to have a stop (or three) on my run. I headed up the run that I decided was called the Gorge Major, which is up the Gorge Track, cutting across and up to Huntsbury ave, then down Major Aitken and home via the river. Aside from feeling pretty tired, the run was good. It was suprisingly busy on the tracks, a fair few walkers and bikers, but interestingly I didn't see anyone or any cars coming down Major Aitken, so that was the most pleasant and satisfying part of the whole run! Probably didn't hurt my mental state that I was on the downhill either.... Worked out to 15.11 km, done in 1 hour 11 mins.

I am right on track to achieve 800+ km by the end of February, and then to achieve the big 1000 early in March.

Well, the first real hockey commitment of the season starts tonight, so we will see how my "good fitness" holds up when I am holding a hockey stick!

CP

Fifty

Todays run took me from Princess Margaret Hospital, up to the Sign of the Kiwi (via a couple of back streets and tracks), then from the Kiwi, I first went right, folloing the way to the sign of the Bellbird, but only went around a couple of valleys. Then, after turning back, I went along the track behind Sugar Loaf, followed by the MTB track, to the Lava Flow. Following the Lava Flow track down (I do really like this track!) into Bowenvale, and then followed the river back to Princess Margaret.

It was a pretty good run all in all, there were a fair few people on the tracks, am still yet to see anyone on the Lava Flow, apparently I am the only one mad enough to want to keep going down it! Worked out to being 20.61 km overall, done in 1 hour 39 mins.

So, today's run marked 50 days running so far. 50 days running, 700.86 kilometres travelled. So, averaging a pretty sharp 14km per day, meaning that continuing at this rate, I will be hitting the 1000 in around 21 days, or 3 weeks time. Then at this rate, I will be competly done, sometime near the end of September!

My short term aim is to get up to 800km+ to round out this month, which should be easily done, considering I already have a long run planned for next weekend. No clue how far or where I will go tommorow, not feeling like a rest just yet!

CP

49 Days

Well, I realised why my technology decided to up and break yesterday, it was clearly because I reached 666 km, and it was influenced by that!

So today was rounding out week 7, as well as being the test for my now (supposedly) fixed technology. And it worked! So basically whats happened is the watch has had to do a total reset (awesome I know), but I haven't lost any data from the website, plus the watch can still talk to the website without fail! Stoked!

Todays run took me from the Takahe, up to the Sign of the Kiwi, from there I headed around the back of Sugar Loaf, then followed the MTB track for a while, until I reached the Lava Flow Track, which leads down into the Bowenvale valley. Then, up the Bowenvale, following one of it's offshoots (Eastern Spur I think) to reach Victoria Park, then back to the Takahe. A good 13.93km, done in 1 hr 9 mins. So not exactly fast, but it was good to get it done, and especially good that my tech is back working!

I really enjoy the Lava Flow downhill, there is so many things about a technical and steep downhill run that I like, having to concentrate and being challenged constantly among them. The only disadvantage is when your body can't handle it, say if you roll an ankle. I did that last time coming down the Lava Flow, which took every ounce of fun out of it, but today I managed to keep my ankles in check, so it was a satisfying experience!

CP

Technology Fail.

Well, my technology is failing. I headed up the Valley Track (as normal), down Rapaki, then headed up to the right, up Port Hills Road, over the hill there, then back home.

So, I have no idea how far, or how fast. Or even how many km's I have done.

The nike plus technology that I use, has absolutely stuffed itself. The watch has stopped, the website wont load.

Anger. Much, much anger. I will try to sort it tommorow, will be in touch.

UPDATE!

I have got the website to work. So today's run was 12.12 km, done in 55 mins. Plus the watch is now back working, but I lost all my data from the watch... Annoying. At least I still have it on the website, so all is not lost!

CP

Running and Yoga

One thing that I believe in life, is that you need balance. So, despite my running for a few thousand kms this year, I still hope to have other areas in my life which are well aside from the exercise. It is in a way like the chinese concept of yin and yang (I know, I am paraphrasing something fierce). But on a more localised scale, running strengthens certain muscle groups. Obviously, your legs get a real workout.

So, to provide myself some balance in my exercise, I am going to start doing yoga, at least once a week. I do it with the goal of becoming stronger through my core, so I rely less on my larger muscle groups for fine control, so they are free to do what they are designed to do, give me power and make me run fast. The stronger I can have my smaller muscle groups, the better I will run. There is a Yoga centre out at Ferrymead (I have added the link to the side bar), which I am going to start going to. First night was tonight, and I sure as hell felt it! Some exercises were ok, but some, some I was really weak at. Well, it gives me a starting point!

I ran to yoga, following the Heritage Loop, I did it in reverse, so after the session I only had a small run home. The run worked out to 12.21 km, done in 54 mins. I also found out that my next school placement is one block away from my house, so that will hopefully free up some extra time during the 5 weeks I am there to make sure I get my runs in!

CP

Rant.

Quickly, today’s run was up the Pylons track (12.95, 1 hr), and was pretty darn good. It was a training run with the Hockey team, which the guys performed pretty darn well on. It is a pretty steep run, and they did very well to finish it! Not everyone has been running as much as I have! In fact, probably very few have. Certainly no sane people!

If you don't want to listen to a rant, stop now, I fully accept that I tend to ramble.

My rant starts with some background. I play indoor soccer with a team from my brother’s work. We are a team of very much football amateurs, which unfortunately won their grading games, and are in the top grade. So we usually are playing against much better opposition, and they usually win by a lot. That is not to say that we are not competitive, rather that we just lack some of the more flashy skills, that are fundamental it seems to success in indoor.

Losing is an interesting concept, I care when I lose hockey, I get depressed about it, blaming myself for every missed opportunity, every missed decision. I am becoming better with age, but the fact remains, I care a great deal. So when it comes to indoor football, I don’t care. I care so much for hockey, that everything else I see as a fun release, where I just enjoy playing, whether I win or lose. 

So today’s game was against a team of younger guys, likely all teenagers. They were highly skilled, certainly well above our skill grade. So, as it has been the trend of late, we lost. As I said before, I don’t care that I lost, it has happened before and it will happen again. Why I am so angry, is the way that the other team acted. Early in the first half (losing 3-0), one of their players went down in a tackle. Nothing out of the ordinary for indoor soccer at all. He comes up, looking for a fight. I simply respond, ‘Why?’ So he continues, and the ref settles him down. It was from that point that my interest in the game disappeared, and any respect I had for them vanished.

It continued through the game, at half time, their best player was playing with the ball, kicked it at our goal, and hit our goalkeeper in the back. One of my players reacted, saying “What the hell?” (or something along those lines), to which the opposition began getting angry about. He was wearing a NZ football shirt, with his name on the back. I respect his achievements, but it doesn’t give him any special privileges, and I sure as hell will defend my players. He refused to back down about his kick, I was standing in the middle of the field, telling both players to calm down. His refusal to accept that he had stuffed up was tantamount to the size of his ego. On the football pitch in his world, he could do no wrong. He was the master. So how could he have made a mistake? So he got angry. And threatened. And yelled. And then tried to kick it really hard at one of our players.

That player reminds me of too many athletes and sportspeople I have seen. They achieve so much so early, that their maturity is unable keep up, and so their ego becomes massive. What will happen to them? Who knows. Wayne Rooney is an example, teenage superstar who has not really achieved much since. But then, look at Dan Vettori, one of NZ’s greatest cricketers, he began his career at the ripe age of 17. But then again, maybe he will get smart to the wrong person, and end up with a broken face.

If by some miracle he reads this, I have only this message. Everything you say and do has power, by treating others in the way that you did today, you didn’t gain power like you planned to; you lost it. And it hurt you. The path to happiness is not paved with swear words and threats, but with hard work, collaboration and honour. And honour is what you, today, have lost.

CP

Quick morning run

Since I have a pre-season hockey game tonight, I figured I would head out for a quick morning run. I headed up the Two Peaks Redux, only doing some mild changes to remove some extra down and ups. Run was pretty good really (10.42km, 51:40), except the fact that it was horribly windy! I have said it before, but headwinds on an uphill are just rude, especially particularly strong ones like todays, and on hills like Rapaki!

But thems the breaks I suppose. So, a six a side hockey game tonight, here is hoping that some form of ability comes back! I am sadly not holding out alot of hope however, I think any hockey ability will be a week or two away... Oh well, at least I can run right?

I am thinking that getting up to 750km by the end of next week is a pretty good goal, since I am at 630 km really already, should be easily achievable!

Time for a shower, then to do some work at uni,

CP

Two Days Running

So, the title relates to the fact that I realised today that I have spent two whole days (49 hours in fact) out of the 44 days so far this year running! Which for those math nerds out there, actually means that so far this year, 5% of my time has been spent pounding the running tracks. I am sure over half of the year sp far was sleeping and probably at least 10% complaining about being sore from the 5% spent running!

Todays run was just a quick Heritage Loop (11.18, 50 mins), nothing fancy really. I have just been going through the motions the last couple of days, not really feeling that 'into' my running. It's not a catastrophe, it will be more of a case of needing a new short term goal to keep me going! I will have a think over the next couple of days, and be in touch when I find out!

CP

Run one, of Week 7

First, I want to congratulate all the athletes who managed to finish the Coast to Coast this year, it is certainly an achievement! I heard the rivers were reasonably high, so that will have definitly had an affect on the run times, plus some pretty interesting river crossings for those who are a bit shorter or skinnier! So, well done to those who took up the challenge.

I headed up the Gorge track to the shelter up there, and decided to go for a bit of an explore. I cut up to the Farm track, then headed up to the Pylon Track, which crosses from the Farm Track, down into the Valley Track. It worked out pretty well, the downhill on the Pylon Track is pretty excitingly steep! Had one little, minor incident with a tussock not really being attached to the hill, which caused a slight problem when I stepped on it. Aside from that little stumble, I managed to complete the run unscathed! It was a pretty simple case of following the Valley Track back, I did divert up Rodgers to add a bit of interest, not to the top, but about a third of the way up it heads back down again. Was an 11.62km run, done in 56 minutes. It was pretty hot, but I am well aware how running in the cold is going to be later in the year!

So, in other news the first event for the year has been found! My Dad is unable to do an adventure race up in Wellington, the Tararua Mountain Race. A casual 35.4 km hill run, which involves an overall 1200m climb. Will be good times! So as of the 12th of March it will mark the time to take my 3000km out of Christchurch!

CP

Tired

Tired. Pretty much sums up my week!

I didn't get home from uni till 5:30, so I wanted to head for a run, but couldn't really be bothered going long! So I made up a new run. I headed out along the river, then cut back down Rutherford Street, which I followed to Aynsley Terrace, from there I headed to Port Hills Road, heading up the hill there. Then back down Opawa Road, before heading home. A long and probably confusing description, but in short, it is a big figure 8 leaving from my house, and works out to 8.04km, which I did in 34:14. So pretty good really!

Just the 3rd run that has been less 10km, in 42 days. Not bad at all.... Up to 595.78km now, so its all going pretty well! Probably wont be a long run tommorow....

CP

Quick Update

Well, headed out for a quick run up the Two Peaks, but to keep it in line with my goal of 10+ km per day, I extended the run on the flat, by continuing straight at Wilsons Road up to the river, then following that back, rather than just going straight to Hansens Park, then home. Worked out to being 11.3km, done in 54 mins. Pretty standard really!

I have noticed a difference in runs when I am focused on what I am doing, on the running itself as usually being faster and better runs, where as today, I was more focused on the innumerable number of thoughts going on in my head, rather than the run itself. But I suppose all the runs serve the purpose!

Just a quick update today, suppose I should aim for the remaining 12km tommorow!

CP

Busy

Today was busy. I met my parents for a quick coffee in the morning, but from then on I was basically at uni doing work, or at least trying to do work until 5pm, when I went home! Those who are working sorts are probably scoffing at me saying that uni is work, but, even they will have to admit that sometimes, it actually is. Today was one of those days. One of my lecturers has offered me a pretty sweet opportunity, and my brain has been going a million miles a minute trying to work out all of the different possibilities, the only thing really achieved is a headache.

I managed to squeeze in a cheeky little 10.71km run up the Valley Track, but since there were one million people on the Rapaki Track (probably a slight exaggeration) I came down Roger's Track, just to get away from them! Did it in 49:29, so pretty good time really. My legs were (are?) a bit sore today, they were not particularly happy about the concept of heading up a hill! Perhaps I should have gone on the flat... Oh well!

Tommorow is going to be busy too. I hope to run in the morning, but, I really don't know.

CP

Training Run

Tried to play hockey last night, I was comically bad! It's interesting to not do something for a few months, you remember yourself being at a certain level of ability, then to come back after a couple of months, you just really aren't at that same place! Here is hoping that it comes back.....

Today was a hockey training run, my brother decided to take the group heading along the flat, so that left me in charge of the hill run. Probably sadly for them, because we headed up the Three Peaks! I did however shorten it a little, we didn't continue to head up the hill after the St Martin's stairs, instead we headed down Aotea Terrace. The stairs were pretty tough, especially on those guys who haven't done much fitness! Pretty hot, but a pretty good run, and I managed to come back minus one person, she opted to head home a bit earlier. Plus the run there and back, it was 11.49km, done in 53 minutes.

So... That is 60km for the week. Easy as that! Still 3 days left this week, and I am already at my average. Suppose I might aim to get up to 600 this week then? Not sure, there is a real chance I wont have time for a run on Thursday, but I am not sure yet.

Feeling good, still pretty interesting running with other people, I am definitly not use to it!

CP

7 days already gone in February...

I have no idea where the time is going, a whole week of Feb is already gone!

I headed up the Valley Track to Rapaki, then down Rapaki to home. Not flashy, not long and certainly not fast! I am still sortof feeling the debilitating effects of the run on Saturday, legs are a bit jellyish still! Was 10.24 km, in 47 mins. Pretty low key, but as always it is good to get a run done! Could have done without the rain and wind however, but thats the breaks I suppose!

Just a quick post today, because I need to talk to the EQC people, to sort out our house,

CP

The Day After...

Today was a pretty damn hot day! Got up to 36 degrees C apparently; which lets be honest, is far too hot for any sort of running! I had a sleep in after last night, so running in the morning was out! Instead I headed out to a nice breakfast out in Sumner. Then the day got hotter and hotter, until I just bit the bullet and headed out for a ferrymead loop (11.03km, 54 minutes).

Well, the run. For all those runners, you know that feeling of when your legs turn to jelly? And basically you just run on autopilot, hoping not to trip yourself up? Sadly that was the way I started the run today. So not fast, not strong, not pretty, but I managed to finish another run of 10 km+. I know for one thing, I will sleep well tonight!

I will have another flat run tommorow I think, will head out in the morning, tommorow is looking like a reasonably busy day, not all bad, but I will have to make sure to find time for a nice little run in the morning!

Interestingly, I am already 2/3 of the way towards my weekly average.....

CP

Probably not my smartest idea....

So, here is the scenario. A friend of mine got access to an awesome bach out at Taylor's Mistake, and myself and a few friends were heading over there for the afternoon, and a barbecue tea. Here begins the stupid idea, I came to the conclusion that since I needed to go for a run anyway, I decided to combine the two! I will leave it up to you whether you call the psychiatrist to have me institutionalized.

I headed up the Valley Track, to the Summit Road. From there, I tried to follow the Crater Rim walkway, or MTB tracks as much as possible. There was one bit, where the track I was on just... disappeared. It got replaced by some form of scramble/goat track/rock climb, which left me at the top of Mount Pleasant, with not a track in sight, and a slightly confused looking sheep looking down at me from atop a rock which I was attempting to scramble up! I managed to hack a cross country trail through the tussock, and eventually reached a MTB track, which I managed to follow to where I wanted to go! There were alot of people on the Rapaki Track, plenty of cyclists on the roads as you would expect on a weekend day. I followed the Crater Rim to Godley Head, and then dropped down from there to the last leg into Taylor's Mistake.

28.66km, done in 2 hours, 31 minutes. It was... hard. I took a bag, so had some food, but really, it was probably verging on pushing my limits of how far I can comfortably run at the moment, there were some parts of the run today which given the choice, anything else would have been preferrable!

Managed to get sunburnt, just to add insult to injury. Gutted.

I think a more normal run tommorow is probably the best option. Perhaps a nice 10 km loop out to Ferrymead..?

CP

500

With a lap of the Heritage loop this morning (11.13, 50 mins), I brought my total kilometres up to 504.28! I have crossed the first real milestone towards my 3000, I am officially one sixth of the way there. Just.... 25 more weeks at this pace! Or 125 days if you prefer to think of it that way! But, to be honest, my pace will drop, hopefully not too much, but it will. I am currently on Independent Inquiry at the moment, and will be on it for the next 4 weeks, so I do have the ability to spend more time running than working if I have to! However once the Inquiry is done, I am on another placement, which will be full on, I am basically going to be teaching the whole time, so the running has a real chance of getting buried under a pile of paperwork! Hopefully not, but the chance is there. Thats my work plans for the next 9 weeks, here is hoping I can fit in plenty of running, and that the legs stay good.

How far next week? I am not sure, I suppose reaching 600 has to be on the cards....

In other news, my sister achieved something really great yesterday, for which I am really proud of her.

CP

A friendly afternoon run...

So, another day, another run. I headed up for a run again after school, still not sure about going for runs at 5pm at night, but it seems to be pretty good once you are going! I headed up the Three Peaks, except this time I headed down Major Aiken Drive rather than down into the Gorge Track. It was pretty good really, once I had done the first hill it was all good from there. I only stopped once, after the St Martins stairs. Anyone who has headed up those stairs is probably well aware of why the stop was necessary! Worked out to being 15.48 km, done in 1 hour 13 minutes. Another good hill run done. Perhaps I am actually getting fit? Who knew that doing lots of running made you better at running, I am shocked!

I have been having a Sanitarium Up and Go drink before I head out for my run, they seem to be working pretty well at keeping me fueled. I have struggled for a long time to find something that is filling and energy rich enough to be worth it, but they also have to not be terrible on the stomach! Certainly too many bad experiences with lactose based stuff means I was a bit wary of Up and Go, but the soy is much nicer on the stomach!

Well, 7 km to go until 500. Not bad aye?

CP

Dial M for....

It would be Dial M for Monday, but it's not Monday- so that doesn't really work. It is more Dial M for... M. Todays run if you were to look at it from above would resemble a giant M; so that was the only thing I was able to think properly about all run! Somewhat pathetic I know.

I headed from home up the Gorge Track up to the shelter up there, then came back down the Ridge, then dropped down onto the Valley Track. I headed up the Valley Track, to where it meets Rapaki, then came home down the Rapaki Track. So... basically a giant M! Was 14.52 km, done in 1'12". Fun Stuff! Not sure about the whole running after work thing, it was pretty hard to get started! I dont really know which I prefer, running in the morning or running at night. I think morning is a bit nicer really!

 I got a new toy today too, Shoe Clinic had given me a $50 voucher, so I splashed out on a new camelback for my longer runs- that one on the 31st persuaded me that perhaps I should take some water and food with me when I run for more than an hour! Tried it out today, and as with all new toys you end up playing with it trying to change stuff about it more than you spend time actually using it for what it is meant to do! Still not sure I have put the straps right....

CP

Welcome to February

So, a month of the year has already gone. Where? I have no idea. Perhaps under the couch, the same place everything else I seem to lose goes...

So I ran today, suprise suprise. It was a training run with the hockey team, we headed up from Hansens Park up the Gorge Track to the shelter, then followed the ridge back down to the Dry Ridge Track, then down onto the Valley Track. We then headed up a bit of Roger's Track, but didn't head to the top, just followed the track along about a third of the way up. It was a pretty good run, I was hanging at the back of the group to make sure that we stayed together. It was a pretty uneventful run, its nice to run with people as a change, I mean there have only been what... 3 of my 33 runs that have been with people? It is certainly a change from that perspective! So, 12.4 km, done in 1 hour.

I have been thinking about February, what I want to achieve this month, how many kms etc. I am also thinking about some events in the future, I am thinking a marathon (or two) will have to happen during the year- I am feeling like it is time to set some new goals!

CP

January Ends

So, the first month ends. I tried something new today, headed out for a run early this morning to see how bad it would be to try and run 10km at 7 in the morning! I headed up the Valley Track, and came down Rapaki track. It was... alright. In future I will definitly have to eat something more definitve before the run, certainly would have been easier if I had more fuel in the tank! It was also particularly windy again today (severe weather warning for upper Canterbury...), head winds on the uphills suck, especially when it is going up a valley, which is effectivly a wind funnel. Irritiating! Worked out to being 10.49km, done in 52 minutes. Not super fast, but lets be fair, I had a pretty mega run yesterday, today was never going to be fast!

So, the month then. I started the month at 0km, and have ended the month with 450.73 km. A bit of a change! I have run for 35 hours, 54 minutes, which means I am roughly doing 4'47" kilometres, which is not too bad at all! I ran 32 times, and averaged 14.53 km per day. So, overall, I have made a very good start!

I think I will try to get up to 500km this week, should be feasible. We will see at any rate.

CP

30th Jan

Well, tommorow marks the start of the working year for me (I know, being a student probably doesn't count as working), so I figured I would try to go for a long-ish run today, to make it so that I didnt have so much to do during the week.

So, with that in mind I headed out from home, up the Valley Track, to the Summit Road. From there, I followed the Crater Rim Walkway to the Bridle Path, headed down that, then followed Scott's track into Ferrymead. From there, I followed the river home. The run was... longer than expected. I didn't really plan how far I was going to go, and so probably did not do the best preperation for the run; I think in future when I do these longer runs I will be careful to make sure I carry food/water, because I was getting seriously thirsty by the end of it! Scott's Track was much steeper than expected, I was hoping for a nice gentle downhill but instead got more uphill! Not what I was hoping for at all! So, the run added up to a whole 25.2 km, done in 2 hours and 5 minutes. Not too bad really, Just under 5 minute kms, and considering the climbs involved, not too bad at all.

Plan for tommorow is to run 10 km or so, at some point. Might try to do it before I have to go to school, to see if I can get into the routine of early morning runs. Unsure. Perhaps the Two Peaks? I haven't done that in some time.

CP

Windy

One word to sum up today's run would be "windy". There is some serious gusting and swirling winds going on today, which made for some pretty average running when I was heading into the wind!

I was going to head out for a run with my brother, but he was tragically struck down with 'cantbebothereditis', so I went for a run by myself (once I finally tore myself away from the cricket). I headed out on the river loop out via Ferrymead, aside from the wind, it was a pretty good run! It wasn't in the hills, which probably explained why I wasn't too sore. So, run worked out at 10.16km, in 45 minutes, and despite the wind, a good run.

Not sure what I will try to do this week, hopefully will be able to do 10km per day, but I guess if I get the time, perhaps I will try to reach 500?

Anyway, time to get back to the cricket,

CP

28th January

So, another week ends. There are only a couple of days left until I have finished my first month! I am unsure if I would class myself as excited, I have days in which I am happy to run, happy for it and that there would be nothing I would rather do than run. However, there are days which are the exact polar opposite, days where running is a chore. Certainly there have been a few days where that has happened! And that is what it is, I just need to keep ahead of it and keep doing the work.

Todays run took me from my house up the Gorge Track, to the shelter, where I turned and followed a track along the ridgeline (not sure what its called), then dropped down, and back up to the ridge, following the tracks I normally did (albeit in reverse) for the Two Peaks Redux. I ended up at the base of the Valley Track, and from there, ran home via the river. 11.72 km, done in 58:50. Certainly not setting any land speed records, but as I said, some days I just need to keep the km's ticking over.

So, stats for the week are that I completed 120.54km, which is definitly a new record! It is also twice what I need to be averaging per week for me to complete my goal. That amount of km's will definitly not be able to be kept up, I am hoping to keep it around 70-80 however. So, in the 4 weeks so far, I have completed 404.86km, run for 32 hours and 11 minutes which means averaging 14.45km per day so far.

Well, a start has been made.

CP

27th January

So, headed for a hill run. I parked at the base of Whaka Terrace, then headed up there, to Huntsbury Ave. I followed Huntsbury all the way to the Summit Road, then went along the MTB track (I have decided I like them more than the Crater Rim), then dropped down the Harry Ell walkway to Victoria Park. From there I followed the tracks into Bowenvale, then followed that back to the car. 18.55km, done in 1:34.

The only thing that I have to say about that run is that a head wind on an uphill is just plain mean! Also, that I probably wont do that run again for a while... if at all. Whaka is not a fun uphill! Plus there are far more fun ways to get to the Summit Road.

One more run left this week, gotta run 6.5km to make 400, not sure where it will be; might make it a flat one. Perhaps McLean's Island, or the Hallswell Quarry. Unsure....

CP

26th January

Well, another day gone, another run completed. Waking up this morning was pretty difficult to be honest! Definitly felt like I needed more sleep. None the less, I managed to get a run in the afternoon, once I had woken up properly! I headed out over the Ferrymead River loop, following the river out to Ferrymead, then heading left, following the estuary and following another river branch back home. Worked out at 11.54km, in 51 minutes. So, another good run done, the km are ticking along quite well, 10km is being a good benchmark for a run.

So, just 25 km left until I reach 400, perhaps I can do it this week? Only two days to go, 12.5km per day? Should be easy...? Certainly hoping I am less tired tommorow.

Also I have been informed by a reliable source that I have been naming some of the tracks in the hills wrong, the Valley Track I have been mis-naming as Roger's track. I have now corrected this!

CP

Double Run Day.... It's so intense.....

As the title says, today was a double run day!

First, I headed up from the Sign of the Takahe, to the Crater Rim walkway, which I followed to the Lava Flow track (the excessivly steep track, designed specifically for suicidal mountain bikers), headed down into the Bowenvale track, which I followed back up to Victoria Park, then ran down from there, back to the Sign of the Kiwi. The run was.... Pretty crappy really. It was hot, I was tired, I managed to give my ankle a good roll before starting the downhill, which made the downhill completly unsatisfying! Then the climb into Victoria Park, albeit under 3 km, is an absolute swear word (not sure which one, choose your own). But, 14.41 km, in the slow (comparitivly) time of 1 hour, 15 minutes.

Then, I went home and rested. And did nothing. It was brilliant. Until 5:45 rolled around, and it was time to have a crack at run number 2. I didnt really know how far/what kind of run it was going to be today, since it was a training run for hockey, it is always a bit hit or miss who turns up, which changes where the run can go. There have been runs which have been just myself and my brother, so we would usually end up doing some silly long hill run. Luckily, there were some other people there, so the super long hill run was out! We just did a normal hill run (if there is such a thing!). The group split into two, one heading on the flat, the other up into the hills, naturally I went to the hills. We followed the Valley Track up the valley next to the Rapaki Track, it was quite different to head up the track, as I have only come down it so far. Overall, the run was pretty good, I am such a sucker for a nice steep bit of rock hopping, that always makes me happy and that track definitly had enough to keep me happy! So, after heading back on the downhill down Rapaki, the whole run ended up at a nice 13 km, in 59 mins.

So, overall for the day, 27.41km done, 2 hours and 14 minutes later. I am going to sleep so well tonight!

And if you thought that double run day was intense, check this double rainbow!

CP

Last week of holidays...

So, today marks the last Monday of my summer holidays, and apparently around the country the weather is terrible. Here in ChCh however, it is lovely and sunny! So, another sunny day, another hot run. I headed out to Bottle Lake Forest, where I did a lap of the Blue Track (the one I did in the past), but to mix it up I did it in reverse. Mindblowing, I know. Then I headed around the Green Track, since I didnt know how far it was, and wanted a bit more of a run. Turns out Blue+Green adds up to around 15 km, so I think I will try and always do both when I go to Bottle Lake, 15 km is a pretty respectable distance!

So, 15.27 km, done in 1hr 11 mins. Not at all bad. The run itself... I felt tired to be honest. I think the run and a game of indoor soccer yesterday might be catching up with me today! Which is a pity, because that is what I plan to do tommorow. Hmm... Might be an issue. Oh well.

Running tommorow, I have a hockey preseason training run. No idea what it will entail, but I might try and go for a run in the morning, that way I am not relying on the run tommorow afternoon for my kms. Plus I would like to hit the 350 tomorrow. That would be ace.

Anyway, its showertime,

CP

More running!

Another day, another run. Headed out to Ferrymead, following the river to the Heritage park. Then I followed the other side of the river back home. 5km out to ferrymead, 6km home. Nice, simple and a flat run. Just what I needed after the run yesterday!

So, 11.05 km, done in 49:58. End result, 36km so far this week.

So I have been thinking about the end of the month, I think I will aim for 420 km, rather than just 400. The reason being, to get up to having a whole 3 weeks in advance for the first month. That would certainly be a good start to the year!

CP

Heading to the Hills

I am not totally sure what inspired me, but I really did enjoy the last few runs up into the hills. For better or worse, it meant that I was always going to be doing another hill run today!

So with that in mind, I tried to think of a run that I hadn't done before. I headed to Sumner, where the plan was to head up the Captain Thomas track, to Evans Pass. As it turned out, it was a pretty good track up to the pass, one which I would definitly look at doing again. From Evans, I headed along the MTB track (loving them at the moment, not to steep, good running) headed for Godley Head. It was pretty good running, I was worried about overheating by wearing a poly pro, but as it turned out there was plenty of wind at the top, so I was pretty happy for the extra warmth! Once I had reached Godley Head, I was feeling pretty good, so I figured I would head down to Taylor's Mistake, following the track down. There are few things I enjoy more about running than a good downhill, with enough rocks etc to keep it interesting! I headed back up to the Summit Road via the Anaconda MTB Track (keeping my love of them going), before following the same way (Cpt. Thomas ) back down into Sumner. Once I had reached the top of the Anaconda track I was definitly feeling tired, that last crossing of the hill was definitly tough!

But that being said, I have been feeling much better while running, certainly I have been feeling far less tired/unfit/cruddy while running up hills, so much so that it took until well into the run before feeling tired. The run was all up 25 km, done in 2 hours, 5 minutes. So averaging effectivly just over 5 minute km's, which given the climbs involved, is not a bad time in anyones book. Certainly a good way to start my assault on the 400!

I have also added a link to a friend of mine's website, of his new project, expanding what he already does as a Dietician; Life Nutrition Sports Dietician. I will sometime in the future definitly talk to him about food ideas, especially if I want to turn these 3000km into training for something good in my future.

Tommorow will be flat, perhaps McLean's Island again. Maybe I will try find a new flat track?

CP

3 weeks completed!

So. 3 Weeks down. I enjoyed my run in the hills yesterday, I figured I would head again into the hills today, and since I enjoyed the downhill at Bowenvale. I headed up the Rapaki track, to the Summit Road, then headed on the slog over Mt Vernon. Was pretty windy and a bit rainy at the top, but once over Vernon, I followed the MTB track to the Lava Flow track, to head down to Huntsbury. The lava flow track is a pretty exciting downhill! You would have to be all kinds of mad to do it on a mountain bike, it has some pretty steep/rough/nasty downhill parts, which I found difficult in places running, let alone on a bike! From there it was pretty simple to follow the Bowenvale track back to Centaurus road, then followed the river home. A 20.21km run (1:39) to round out the week! Its starting to become a bit of a trend for a friday, all of my longest runs (20km+) have all been on a friday.

So, with that run it means the stats for the week are that I ran a total of 92.19km this week, which means so far I am averaging somewhere in the vicinity of 95km per week! That is well above the 60km I need to be averaging, so, all is going well!

I have decided that the goal for the end of the month is to round out to 400km, so I need to complete 115.73km in the remaining 10 days, which should be easily achievable!

CP

20 Days gone

20 days gone, 20 runs completed. Thought I would finally hit the Bowenvale Track, one of the more popular tracks in the Port Hills. I headed up the track, following it up to Victoria Park, from there up the Harry Ell track to the Sign of the Kiwi. From there, I went around the back of Sugar Loaf, following the Mountain Bike Track from there too the Huntsbury track, where I headed down, following some side track to cut back ontoth Bowenvale track. Overall, a 13.94 km run (1'08") done, so another good run completed today! Probably a run best done during the week, the Mountain Bike track would be kindof awkward if there were any cyclists on it, I got lucky, never met any cyclists. Except a couple coming down at the start of the Bowenvale track, but other than that there were no other people out. Might have had something to do with the rain... Or the wind.... I dont really care, thems the breaks!

One more run left this week, not sure where, or how far.

CP

250...

So, another day, another run. Headed out to McLeans Island, to do a lap of the track out there. I thought I would head up the River Track while I was there too, in spite of it being closed (and somewhat fenced off...) to add some more distance to my run, as I didnt really feel good enough to warrant doing two laps! I understood why the River Track was closed when I realised that the Waimack river had decided that one of it's branches needed to go over the track completly! Which didnt help, so I headed back to the track. However, I also learned that the rain yesterday meant that some areas of the normal track were flooded too! So much for not getting my feet wet, and a couple of quick creek crossings (not really alot of water, but more than none!) I was at the end of the run. All up just a gentle 12.51km, done in 56'51". Not slow by any definition, and the key thing is another 12km done this week.

So far my plan of having 10+ km runs as my everyday sort of run has been going well, I have only run less than 10 km twice so far this year (the rest day, and Jan 2nd when I ran 8 km), so my plan of trying to get plenty of km's done early in the year, in preperation for the busy year is working perfectly!

The 250 km is up, taking 19 days and 19'36". Not bad, not bad at all.

CP

And the rain comes down...

Well, the run of good weather has officially ended. Today was (and is) raining. Didn't head out to McLean's Island, couldn't be bothered driving for 20 mins there to go for a run, followed by another 20 min drive! Plus, I felt like a hill run. So, headed up the Gorge track, I thought I might try to get up to the Summit Road, but the Gorge Track (appears) to finish at the shelter, so I headed up and over to Major Aitken Road, then headed down it. A nice 15.04 km run (1'12"), in the rain. Felt pretty good, I had been getting a sore achillies and my knees were getting a bit sore- but looks like it was just me being tired. All feeling good today.

Oh, here is something the wonders of the news produced today, http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/wellbeing/4550256/Stretching-may-help-ward-off-runners-knee. Turns out, stretching, makes your knees hurt less. Shocking revelations. How ever did I cope without this information!

CP

Rest Day!

So, a rest day. Basically a day to do nothing, relax and not run. How did it go? Well.... Interestingly enough, I failed at a rest day. I went to Hanmer, had a relaxing day up there in the hot pools, playing some minigolf (which I tragically lost- heartbreak).

So I got home, had some extra energy, so I then thought that a nice little 5km loop would be in order! So.. a complete failure at rest, but a good 5km run (20:48) done, which of course makes it 30 km so far this week.

So.. I need to work on my "rest" methods. Perhaps next time I will be able to not run? Who knows, only time will tell! At any rate, the km's are still ticking along, and I am feeling good. Thinking McLeans Island tommorow, perhaps two laps?

CP

16th Jan

Today was hot. Plain and simple, a very hot day here in Christchurch! With that in mind I didn't head out for a run untill the early evening, which although being cooler, the wind had picked up in a quite nasty fashion! Certainly running up hill with a head wind is a less than pleasant experience.

Headed up the Rapaki Track, following the normal route for the Twin Peaks, then headed up the St Martins stairs up to Huntsbury Road, then coming down a pretty steep trail down into the Gorge Track, then running home by the normal route. Added up to 11.2km, done at a gentle pace of 5 min kms (57:58), not fast by any stretch, but the key is that the km's are still getting ticked off! Oh, and rolled ankles suck pretty hard! Overall a pretty good run, the head wind up Rapaki was a bit rough, but overall, feeling pretty good, definitly looking forward to a rest day in Hanmer tommorow!

Now, time for dinner, resting tommorow, I will still try and get 60-70km in this week, already at 25 for the week so far, so there is no reason that I wont be able to get up to that amount, even with the rest day!

CP