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

15th January

So, the 15th of January rolls around, another hot and sunny day for running! Bit of wind up, but highly enjoyable conditions. I thought I would head up in the hills again today, getting my lovely partner (she didn't mind, honest!) to drop me at the Sign of the Takahe, from there I would head up to the Kiwi, then follow the Crater Rim Walkway to the left, around Sugar Loaf, then over Mt Vernon, before coming down the Valley Track to home. Worked out to be 14.37km (1 hr 11 mins). Felt pretty sore and tired, like I had been doing plenty of running on the way up, but was feeling much more like an actual runner on the way down. Not sure how that will balance out tonight, we will have to see! 200km up for the year so far, certainly not a bad effort for 15 days!

Been still thinking about talent v training, I think success comes from a combination of both, for example running on rough terrain (like I do most days in the hills) I think is a skill I have, it is one I have used very frequently and so have done plenty of training to become good at it.However, genetically I also have long legs, which aid me in taking longer strides, to be able to step up rocks more easily than a person with shorter legs.

I promise, I will rant about a new subject soon! Light run I think tommorow.

CP

Week Two

So, Week Two completed, 14 days completed. Today I ran out to Ferrymead to meet my brother, where we headed up a run of his own design, then ran home. The run there was pleasant, flat and hot (another sunny day...). Then heading up the McCormicks Bay Track was what he described as a "gutbuster", this coming from an experienced hill runner such as him meant a pretty serious up hill! After suffering through that, there was an extremely fun downhill down the Heathcote Quarry track, which was steep and technical enough for me to really enjoy it. Then ran home following the other side of the river, past the Ferrymead Golf course, then adding slightly more on the end to increase the distance. The most exciting part (for me besides finishing) was that it worked out to be 22.03km (1:41), which brings the total this week to 100 km! And bringing my whole total up to 192 kilometres, in 14 days. So averaging 13.7 km per day, for 14 days.

Also was wearing in some new shoes today, which worked out well, they are comfortable and do the job nicely. Wearing them in by doing a 22km run probably wasn't quite what the shoe guide said, but I do what works for me.

Plan for the next wee while is to complete the last few km reqired to get up to 200, then I am definintly going to have Monday off, going to head up to Hamner for a soak. Might have Sunday off as well, it will all depend how sore I am while running tommorow. And besides, I figure I have earned it?

CP

Another Day, Another Run

Another Day, another run. Headed out around Bottle Lake forest (12.37, 56:44), and added some more distance to it to make the km's tally hit 170 km, in 13 days. Not too shabby really! Nothing much to report, the sun seems to keep shining everytime I run, and the km's are nicely ticking over.

Had a good conversation with a friend who knows alot about these things about genetics v training as causing success, it is a pretty contentious debate it seems, all of the people I have brought it up with have taken very different points, choosing different aspects to focus on. For example, it is absolutely undeniable that the Jamacain sprinters are phenomenal. But their training is not 'great', it is only tailored for the individual athletes. So then, their genetics has to be the key, with the training to extend those gentic traits. The simplest example is that a man who is only 5 ft tall, can never be Kobe or LeBron, it is a simple matter that Basketball as a sport requires height as a particular skill.

So then, following on from that, are we all genetically predetermined to have specific skills and abilities? If so, we are then totally responsible for finding them, nurturing them and using them to excel. Lets just hope yours is exciting like sprinting, rather than something like the perfect mouth shape to create the sound "oooh"....

Bology lessons will be infrequent on this blog I think. Enjoy it!

CP

12 Runs, 12 Days

As the title says, 12 runs done in 12 days. Not a half bad effort at all! Feeling definitly tired now, going to have to hit a spa/sauna sometime this avo, and do some good rehab today, otherwise 13 runs in 13 days might not be such a good idea!

Todays run took me along the Heathcote river, from my place to Princess Margaret Hospital. I wasnt really sure how far it was, and it turned out to be further than I had hoped! 17. 53km later I am home! It took 1 hr 20 mins, which is pretty quick (4min 15sec kms) but there were a few stops due to traffic, and tiredness! So it isnt really a super success. I definitly would not call myself fit at the moment, rather just trying to push how far I can handle- and hoping my fitness will eventually catch up to my stupidity! Here is hoping it works.

An interesting statistic to leave the day, every olympic 100m mens final for over 25 years has been entirely contested by athletes of african descent (ergo 'black'), and there is one exception in the last ten years of the World Championships of 100metres, in 2007 a Serbian came 7th. Superior athletes? Superior genes? Superior training? Interesting stuff.

CP

Day 11.

Thought I would head up the Rapaki Track, and instead of dropping down onto Roger’s Track, I headed the whole way to the top. To be honest, I didn’t feel that great while running. Tired, plus also the smoothie I had for breakfast didn’t really want to sit down right!

Not ideal. At all! But, that being said I did get to the top! Came down via the Valley track, the two tracks meet at the beginning of the big climb at the end of the Rapaki track. So the run was 11.64 km ( 58:56)- but I didn’t restart the watch at one point, so I probably missed a km or two before I restarted on the downhill. I will do the run again in the next couple of days (Friday I think), to get a proper measurement! Plus, doing the run while feeling better would be nice also!

I have been reading a pretty interesting book, about sports psychology, it has been pretty interesting stuff actually, and I will have to share some of it! Once I have worked out the best points of course!

Well, 49km so far this week. Need to do another 41 km if I want to have another 90km week- not impossible by any stretch! Might happen, tomorrow will be the 150km up at any rate.

CP

10

Well. 10 days gone, 10 runs completed. I thought I would try a new (old) run today, a run that my brother showed me a year or two ago, heading up the Gorge Track, then heading up to the right, up to Huntsbury Road, then coming down Major Aitken Drive, before finally coming home via the river. Its about 15 km, which was done in 1 hr 11 mins, so about 4 mins 46 per kilometre, which is not too bad, the track from the Gorge to Huntsbury is pretty nasty.

Using all of my cunning I decided this run will now be known as the Gorge Major!

Well, 128.5 km down, plenty to go.

CP

Week 2- 9th January

Had an average nights sleep, so what was there to do but to get up and go for a run? After something to eat and the customary trawl of the internet for something interesting to read (while the eaten thing digests).

Headed up the Two Peaks Redux, there were plenty of people on the track today, was actually kindof put out by there being people on every part of my run, even the steepest bits had people walking on it! A very strange change to the past week, where I have basically seen no one (except Dan Carter while running at Bottle Lake). Numbers wise, it was a 10.10km run, done in 49:17, so roughly 4:53 per kilometre, which is not really that bad all things considered (all things being that it was up a hill).

Goal for this week is to run 10+ km each day, which will work out at 70-80km for the week. Nothing much else to report!

CP

8th January

So, the 8th of January rolls around.

Went to my nephew's first birthday party, spent some time with my sister, but... I managed to still get a run in!

Since it is a new week, I figured I would try to make a new run, and since I was feeling the effects of last week, it was going to be a flat one! Headed up to Ferrymead again, then turned left (as opposed to right), to follow the Estuary. However... you cant get too far, apparently it is a Wildlife Protection Area (no go zone!) at the edge of the Estuary- so I headed up to Sandy Point, then backtracked, and followed the river back to home. In short, a new, flat run, which adds up to a good 12 km, another 54 minutes spent running.

I found this link on one of my friends blogs (and shamelessly copied it), thought it might be interesting to those of you who are interested in success (I mean, who isn't?). TED is a conference dedicated to every area of human development, success, and all areas, for the sake of overall development.

Richard St. John's 8 secrets of success | Video on TED.com

Perhaps something to motivate hmmm?

Oh, and 100km down. No big deal....

CP

Week One.

Managed to get in a good long run., went from the Takahe to the Bellbird today as a loop, plus added a bit of extra distance, to make the run 22.14 km (1:47, 4:50km). I did the extra, because it means that this week I have completed 91.06 km!

So. One week down, what did I learn?
1) Blisters suck. More seem to keep appearing, which is a considerable annoyance.
2) My tech (Nike plus watch, this blog etc) all works well. 
3) I actually do really like to run (probably a good thing considering what I am trying to do here!)
4) I want to find more runs

I guess final thoughts in this late blog post is that I am happy with the start I have made, I ran (on average) 13 km per day, for 7 days. This means that this week I ran 1.5 times what I need to be completing each and every week this year. The prospect slightly scares me! It is all well and good to do the running now when I have very little else on, but to do it when I am busy, that will be a different story.

So, in short, I am excited about it, but scared at the same time. Pretty much the usual for anyone trying to do something new!

 CP

6th January

And so it continues. Headed out around the McLeans Island recreational track, works out to be 11 km, plus I went the wrong way at one point (smooth) and ran from the car, so it worked out at 12.85. Took a good 52 minutes, so averaging around 4 minute kms, which isnt half bad at all. Certainly am feeling alot better, like I can actually run 10km without falling over and dying....

It was enjoyable, my motivation is holding, now if I could just not roll my ankle for one run, that would be super sweet!

I will run again tommorow, not sure how long, not sure where.

CP

5th January

So, Day 5. The rain has set in, but I really dont mind too much, except that I left the washing on the line. Gutted.

Went again up the Two Peaks Redux, but this time I did it 'forwards'- by heading up Rapaki and down Roger's track, rather than the other way around. I also came home via Hansens Park, and I went a bit further up the river on the other side before coming back home. I did this to make the run a round 10 km, last time I just ran till the end of Marshall Street and back, this way is far more interesting!

Felt much better running wise today, I definitly enjoyed the downhill on the Gorge Track, nothing like a bit of rock jumping to make you feel good about the world!


Was a 10.08 km run, done in 49:29, so it was faster than yesterday (by all of 5 secs per km), which isnt suprising, despite coming down Roger's track, there is still a nasty climb on the Gorge track.

Not sure where I will go tommorow, will aim for another 10+ km run, not sure where...

CP

Run 4

Here we are, the 4th of January, which is firstly my nephew's first birthday, but it also means run number 4.

Headed up the Gorge Track, to complete what was effectivly the Two Peaks in reverse. I extended it however, by heading further up the Gorge Track than I previously did, an addition which added about 1.5km to the journey. Now, the reverse of the Two Peaks is not for the faint hearted, there is a pretty evil climb up to the Rapaki Track; which begs the question of why I thought it would be a good idea to do it!

Short answer is, I dont know. But, 10.04 km, in 50 minutes later, the run is done and that climb is well behind me!

Had a good chat to my old athletics coach last night, I think one of the best quotes came out from it "3000 km is a long way". Yes, yes it is. and all things going well I will have completed it and be relaxing this time next year! He also had some good ideas about further fitness things to do, watch this space.

As Nikos Kazantzakis put it, “A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free”

CP

Day 3, which means run 3

So, day 3 is upon me. Went for a run, from my place, following the river up to Ferrymead, then up to the base of the Bridle Path, then home. Worked out to be 12.37km; which was further than I intended! (this is now to be known as the ferrymead loop for I intend to do this one again)

Day was... hot. very hot. Probably not the ideal decision to go during the heat of the day, well, at least I had sunblock unlike on the first! Certainly hoping tommorow is a bit cooler.... weather report says my wish will be granted, a cool 21, unlike the 30 today!

Overall, not really feeling the greatest I have ever felt while running, no reason to lie! But, it is only day 3, and I really havent done alot leading up to this, so what was I to expect?

Blisters are... there.
Legs feel.... alright.
Fitness is.... improving (hopefully)

CP

Day 2

Day 2... which means run number two.

Run today was one which my brother (I think) created, called the "Two Peaks". Essentially, running from my house, up to Rapaki Track, then dropping down into the valley down the Dry Hills track (I think), then heading up the other side of the valley, then down again, then running home.

You can see how it has the title of the "Two Peaks"! It is a shortened version of the "Three Peaks", which to be honest I would have quite liked to have done today, but I was feeling a bit sore and average. Lets be fair, there will be another chance to do the "Three Peaks" sometime soon without a doubt!

So the run was a nice 8.26km, which roughly equates to exactly what I need to do 6 times a week to meet my goal! Expect to see more runs up this one! Run was 40 mins, 15 secs, roughly equating to 4 min 52 sec kms, which when you are spending half the time climbing, is not too bad.

If nothing else, it is a starting point. Run again tommorow, might make it a flat-ish one. Unsure.

CP

Run number One!

1st of January, which means this project is officially "Begun".

First run of the year was a loop of Bottle Lake Forest, starting from Spencer Park, following the Blue Track. Worked out to being 15.28km, once I had come from the car, took me 68 minutes, so an average time of 4 mins 27 seconds. So, aside from all the numbers, it was a sunny and hot day, the track was soft and squishy in places and the weather was prime for running. Scored some sweet blisters on my toes, probably my own stupid fault, its not like I have done much running lately! They will be good to toughen the feet up, plenty more kilometres to go this year!

In keeping with my plan, I will try to get a good start on the project in january, trying to get some good numbers on the board, so I am ahead of the mark, for when I assume the proverbial will hit the fan in the future!

Well, sexy skins tights are on, relaxing in the lounge. Unsure as to where tommorow's run will be, perhaps the hills?

CP