Andrew is getting fit

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One of my colleagues at work lives quite close to me and he was keen to go running this morning.  We arranged to meet up at 6:30 to get a run in before work but by 6:45 he hadn’t shown up so I decided I’d just go for my run anyway.

It was an absolutely beautiful morning, just perfect.  Auckland is such a great city for running in.  Look where I was running this morning:

Excuse the poor quality of the shot  but I was trying the panorama shot function on my cellphone and I didn’t get it quite right. Having said that I think it captures the scene reasonably well. That is the Orakei Basin and is another volcano I believe.

I’d left my ipod behind as I had thought I’d be running with a partner so I was alone with my thoughts this morning.  Normally I’m listening to a book or a podcast (Phedippidations is a favourite) but today I got to thinking.  You know, I’m truly blessed.  My life is pretty spectacular nowadays.  I’ve got a wife I’m madly in love with, a darling monkey daughter, a job I love, fantastic family, great health and fitness and I live in a beautiful city.   Compared to most people I’ve got it made.  It hit me then that I’m happy.  Sure I have problems.  We all do.  I could do with more money for sure.  That annoying coworker is still annoying.  But in the greater scheme of things I’m happy.

And then afterwards, while having breakfast I read a great post by Leo, a fellow runner, talking about the secret to having a fantastic 2009:

Stop waiting for happiness. Happiness is right here, right now.

Words of wisdom and so true.

Here’s my running map for today:

I did 11.2 happy km in 1:11:34.

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Tags: Life, running // 14 Comments »

Today is Sunday and, as is the case for most runners, that means it is Long Run day.  I got up at 5AM to beat the heat and headed out.  Conditions were perfect and it was great to get out the door.

Today’s route took in 3 volcanoes.

The first one I ran around was One Tree Hill.  There is a beautiful track that runs around the volcano:

It was really nice running under the trees.  The park was surprisingly busy for so early in the morning but I guess a lot of people had the same thing in mind as me.

I then headed out towards Mt Eden.  This volcano is rather steep and it was quite tough jogging up it.  I’ve run up it a few times but I haven’t done many hills over the last 7 weeks as Taipei and Christchurch are both flat.  Auckland  is quite hilly! Especially if you choose to run up the steepest volcano in the city. I passed a lot of people walking up and one keen fellow sprinted past me near the top.

The views from the top were pretty good:

The sun was coming up over the other side of the volcano:

After this I headed over to the 3rd volcano which is under the Auckland Domain and this is where I discovered that I’d run out of gas.  My legs started to feel rather heavy and the run wasn’t as much fun anymore.  Fortunately I was only about 3-4 km away from home at that point so I headed back.  I think I need to get used to running a lot of hills again.

Here’s the elevation chart from my Garmin:

I finished up doing 17.75 k which was slightly shorter than my planned 20 but I think it was a good call to cut the run short.  Tomorrow is another day after all.

All in all a beautiful run even though I got a bit lethargic towards the end.

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Tags: fitness // 13 Comments »

Running:

2009 is going to be my Marathon year.  I want to run a marathon.  I won’t make any plans for more until after my first one.  I’ve picked the Christchurch Marathon on Sunday 31 May 2009 which is not that far away.

I’m also going to do a wide variety of shorter races.  I’ll do a few half marathons, a number of 10Ks and at least 1 5K this year.  Hopefully I can break all my PRs in these.

Other fitness goals:

I still want to do the hundred.  I’m not even going to consider the Two Hundred Situps program until I’ve finished the One Hundred Pushups program.  I maxed out at 46 pushups in 2008 which is still more than I’ve ever managed to do but I would like to do the 100.   Damn you Steve Spiers.

I’m also thinking of taking up Aikido but I think that will have to wait until after the marathon.

Weightloss:

I’m in a pretty good place with my weight at the moment.  I’m still technically overweight (according to BMI) but I’m pretty happy with things.  I’d like to get to a normal BMI and so that will be my goal this year.  It’s not a big number this year and I think that is a good thing.  Truth be told I’ll be happy if I’m just lighter in 2010 than I am today.  Even one pound will do. Although…if I’m lighter I can probably run faster so maybe I’ll try for more than one pound!

To help with the weightloss I’ve entered Running Hoosier’s 13 week challenge.  I’d encourage those of you who are interested in losing weight to do the same.

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Tags: Milestones // 27 Comments »

It is summer here in New Zealand and the weather has been really hot. I know a lot of my readers are experiencing the depths of winter now so I won’t expect too much sympathy.

I got out of the door at about 5:45 AM this morning to get my run in. Conditions were perfect. The sweltering heat of the day hadn’t hit yet and the sun was slowly rising. There were one or two other runners out and it was just beautiful.

I snapped this photo on Tamaki Drive.  It was really nice as the sun was out on the sea but the path was still in shadow which meant it was nice and cool.

I was testing out some new running shoes.  I managed to get a real bargain as my shoes normally cost about $280 (New Zealand dollars - shoes are expensive in NZ) but they were marked down half price in a Christmas sale and to top it all off  there was a buy 2 pairs get an extra pair free.  So I managed to score three pairs of shoes for the price of one.  I’m very happy with that.

The new shoes seemed to work out alright.  The right foot felt perfect and after about 5K the left foot was feeling very good as well.  My legs are still rather sore from my trail run on Sunday so I’m going to have an extra rest day this week I think.

Overall a nice easy 11.17 km.

Well that marks the end of 2008 and my first year of running.  I’d like to wish you all a Happy New Year and offer you my sincerest thanks for your support.  I could not have done as well as I have without the encouragement I’ve received from my readers.  Thank you all.

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Tags: running // 14 Comments »

It’s that time of year where everyone appears to be evaluating their efforts over the last year. I’m going to do the same!

1. Fitness.

I think I’ve exceeded all my fitness goals. At the beginning of 2008 I couldn’t run and my goal was to be able to run the quarter marathon at the Auckland Marathon in November. Well I ran the Half Marathon instead and am now regularly running in excess of 40 miles a week. A half marathon distance is just a Sunday run now. Not bad if I say so myself.

I’ve hit 1375 km for the year to date (850ish miles) and still have a run scheduled for the last day of the year tomorrow. The couch can kiss my proverbial!

2. Weight.

I’ve exceeded my expectations but I’m also a little disappointed with my weightloss progress. I’m well over 20 kilograms lighter than I was this time last year but I know I could have done a lot better. I haven’t really lost any weight since July and over the last few weeks I’ve regained a few kilograms while on holiday. The regain is annoying but I know I will lose those kilos rapidly so I’m not too bothered.

About July I hit a milestone that I never thought I would when I hit the 100 pounds lost mark. I felt good and got comfortable and let my eating habits slowly slip back into a more relaxed routine. I was maintaining fine up until December when I slipped into some bad habits again and have been pretty much overeating for most of it.

As such, I’ll chalk the weightloss as a victory but write in a ‘could do better’ comment on my grade card!

Overall I am tremendously pleased that I have managed to discover a love of running. Running has become part of my life now and I can’t go without exercise. I’m also extremely pleased that so many of my family and friends have taken it up as well. It’s brilliant!

I couldn’t have achieved what I achieved without the support of my wife. Thank you Darling!

I’m thinking about my goals for 2009 and will blog on them later this week. I want to have some realistic yet challenging goals so am giving them some serious thought.

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Tags: Life, Milestones, fitness, running // 24 Comments »

I’ve been in Hanmer Springs since Christmas.  Hanmer Springs is a small Alpine town in the mountains in the south of New Zealand.  It is famous for it’s Hot Springs.

I’ve had no internet connection while there hence my silence.  You’ll be pleased to note that I’ve still  been running although that has been well offset by some Christmas indulgence when it comes to eating!

My wife, father and I all went for a long run on Sunday morning.

We went in to the Dog Creek Nature Reserve which is a small forest crossed by a myriad of hiking and mountain biking trails.  It was a trail run which is quite different from my normal road or treadmill runs.  It was really beautiful out running in a forest.  The birdsong was spectacular and it was really special watching the sun come up through the trees.  We found a good circuit and did a few laps through the forest.

I’m very proud of my wife who did her longest run ever.  She managed an amazing 12 km.  She’s did really well, especially considering the tracks we followed were undulating a lot.  We actually went up and down 4000 ft during the run.

My dad did quite well as well.  He did about 16 km which was pretty good.

I pushed on after they peeled off and did another lap of our circuit to finish off with just over 20.7 km.  It’s definitely a lot tougher running on the trail than it is running on the road!

That takes me to 64 km for the week which is another distance record for me.

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Tags: running // 8 Comments »

I’m down in Lincoln for Christmas with my family.

Lincoln is a town (population 2,727, census 2006) in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on the Canterbury Plains to the west of Banks Peninsula, 22 kilometres south of Christchurch.

This morning I went for my long run out in the Canterbury countryside.  My dad came along and we ran along a cycling/walking track which used to be a railway line.

My dad gave me a history lesson about the local area as we ran.  He’d done quite a bit of research about the local history for a speech he gave to his Toastmasters group.  It was quite interesting and made the miles slide along.  My dad won the Toastmaster of the Year award for his local club which I’m quietly impressed by.

We ran past this fellow having a snooze at the side of the road:

It was a very nice run as we went quite slowly.  We did 18.2 km in 2:05:48 for a very comfortable long slow run.

Yesterday we went to a local cafe and had afternoon coffee and cheesecake.  Boy, the cheesecake was the most delicious cheesecake I’ve ever had.  Cookies and Cream and a nice large slice too!

60.7 km for the week.  Hopefully that burns off the cheesecake!

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Tags: fitness // 12 Comments »

I’m switching my weigh-in day to Friday.  It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while and I figured today was the perfect opportunity.

When I left on holiday I weighed in at 91.8 kg.  On Sunday morning after I got back I weighed in at 93.6.  This morning I was 92.1.  I seem to have undone most of the holiday damage just by eating my normal food and not overindulging on snacks.  I’m very glad that I ran while on holiday as I think it would not have nearly so easy to undo the damage then!

It’s funny how our perceptions change.  On Sunday I was feeling rather chubby as my pants were feeling a trifle tight when I bumped into someone who hasn’t seen me for over a year.  They were amazed at how skinny I looked.  Just goes to show that it’s all a matter of perception.

My weight loss counters are not working at the moment as Traineo is in the middle of an upgrade and they are still trying to fix that functionality.  I’ll leave them in even though they aren’t showing as I’m sure they’ll get fixed soon.

I had a good run this morning.  I ran for an hour and did 10.99 km while keeping my heart rate at 146 or below.

I’m off on holiday again today.  I’m going to Christchurch (in New Zealand) to spend the Christmas holidays with my parents.  So the next post will probably be reporting in on my long run on Sunday.

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Tags: running // 6 Comments »

I have decided that I’m going to try running by time when I run in the gym from now on.  I have tended to pick a distance such as 5K or 10K as they are nice “round” numbers that correspond with common race distances.  I think that it makes more sense for me to focus on time while I’m doing low heart rate training as I can get a bit more distance in my workouts that way.  So instead of saying how long did it take me to do 10K I’ll say how far did I go in an hour.

When I first started my low heart rate program I hopped on the treadmill and did a test as to how long it took me to do 10K keeping my heart rate under 146 beats per minute and it worked out to just about an hour.  So about a 6 minute per km pace.

For my run today I managed 11.09 km in the hour which is about a 5:25 minute per km pace all while keeping my heart below 146 bpm.  That is more improvement than I dreamed I would get from the whole program which I’m planning on continuing for at least another 10 weeks.  Hard to believe that I’m getting faster by running slower but it really seems to be working.

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Tags: fitness, running // 6 Comments »

I went to the gym before work this morning as I had a hankering to visit the ‘dreadmill’.

The treadmills in my gym are polar compatible (which means they can pick up my polar heart rate monitor) so it made sticking to my target heart rate (180 - age = 146) a breeze.  All I had to do was adjust the speed a bit.  I can also set the machine to do a constant speed and it will adjust the incline to keep the heart rate stable but I find that’s a bit too slow to respond for my liking so I prefer doing it manually.

When I run outside I wear my Garmin 305 GPS watch which also has a heart rate monitor and I’ve set it so that a little alarm goes off when my HR goes to high.  I then have to slow down sometimes to a near crawl when I’m going up a particularly steep hill.  But I digress.

The run this morning was pretty good but felt quite hard towards the end for some reason.  I think it’s more that there is a lack of distraction in the gym as compared to running outside.  I did 10K in exactly 1 hour.  I think this shows the low heart rate stuff must be starting to work as I don’t think I could have done 10K in an hour without a higher heart rate.

The whole point of this slow, low heart rate training is to increase my aerobic fitness and cardiovascular system.  I’ve noticed that my resting heart rate is dropping.  It was in the low 50s before and now it’s down to the mid 40s so I must be doing something right.

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Tags: Tools, fitness, running // 14 Comments »