Palmy North Half Marathon

Well I have gone forth and achieved another PB! Woohoo! I do believe that every race I have done since Richard has been coaching me has been a PB! Crazy eh! Good crazy though :)

I flew up to Palmy on Sat am to stay with Geoff's brother Pete and his partner Jill. They were both planning on doing the half marathon as well, poor Pete tho he was really sick and after being up coughing all night Saturday night decided it wasn't such a smart thing to do. So it was down to the girls, although I did offer to wear his transponder for him but he wasn't keen, I have no idea why, except maybe cos he can run a 1.35 half marathon!

The weather in Palmy was pretty sucky to be honest, fair enough it was warmer than ChCh but it was bucketing with rain and a bit of hail just for good measure. I got taken on the grand sightseeing tour of Palmy which didn't take long but the windfarm was very impressive and well cool, check here for more info. Amazing to think that one of those turbines can power 900 homes!

After waking up at 2am, 4am and 6am to pelting rain I was seriously thinking about not racing, the weather was gross! As luck would have it by the time we were up having breakfast it was nice out, blue sky and everything! It held off until after the race started which was good as at least we got to start in dry weather! At about 15-16kms for me it got really nasty, it was a torrential rainpour and I was utterly soaked! Oh well, once you're out there its easy to keep going!

I decided that I was just going to treat the day like any other long run day in training so I kept things pretty normal, I'd had a normal training week and didn't really worry about carbo loading for the day. It meant things were pretty lowkey for a race and as Pete and Jill only lived 5mins from the start we turned up about 10mins before start time and were pretty much straight into it. My plan was to treat and keep my HR around the 155-160 mark as I knew I could maintain that for long periods of time while running. The first km was downhill so that was cool, although I was trying not to take off like everyone else as Pete had warned me that everyone overdoes that first km as it is downhill, not much point smashing yourself at the start of a half marathon eh!The first few kms rolled along quite nicely and as Pete wasn't racing he drove round the course taking photos and cheered us on which was cool. I was feeling pretty good at the 5km mark although I was aware that my HR was higher than I wanted it to be, I tried to get it to drop down but without much luck. Figured I would just keep trucking along and see what happened. At about the 6-7 km mark we came through a tunnel and started running along the river, at the top of the path here there was a lone bag-piper piping away! That was really cool! Stuff like that always makes me feel a bit emotional tho so had a wee sniff after I ran past. It was real pretty along this stretch, river on one side, trees etc on the other side. I did a PB of 58.22 to the 10km mark which was cool, they had someone calling out times at the half way mark and I did 61mins to halfway which is wicked but I also knew that I wouldn't be able to maintain that pace for the next 10.5kms! At about 8kms I was real hot and just couldn't get my breathing sorted with such a high HR so had dropped to a walk and stripped off a layer which I threw to Pete along with my cap when I saw him next. Richard was keen for me to negative split the race so that plan was now out the window, although I was confident that I would hit my goal time of 2.10 and even toyed with the idea of making it in 2.05! From halfway we headed out around the Awapuni Racecourse, wow that is a massive place! It seemed to take forever to get around there and kinda did my head in, I know that's kinda silly as 21.1km is 21.1km no matter where it goes! It just seemed to take forever to get around there! Still I was on the home stretch now and the route headed back the way we had come so I knew what the rest of the course was like which was good and meant I could just focus on getting home, and then it rained! And boy did it rain! I ended up running with my glasses in my hand, about now I regretted giving Pete my cap as it would have been real handy in the rain! Finish line was the same as the start, up at Massey Uni, so you guessed it... that nice downhill at the start was a nice uphill finish! Its not really much of a hill tho, it would be smaller and less steep than the Halswell Downs, it just hurts when it turns up 1km before the end of a race! The final 100m is on the flat tho so sprinted in where thankfully Pete was waiting with my jacket and a towel! Official results aren't up yet but I clocked in on my watch at 2.09.30 which is a PB by about 20mins and given the conditions on the day, the lack of taper and general prep I am pretty blimmin' happy with that!! Jill did a PB as well knocking a minute or so off her ChCh time, she even managed to get hard enough to throw up when she crossed the line! hehehe, I'm pleased I didn't get to see that!

And there is no rest for the wicked, I was back in the pool this morning! Only a 30min swim tho which was nice, I thought about checking out Jelly Park but couldn't be bothered driving that far so just headed to Centennial, also sat in the spa for a bit afterwards so feel quite good now :)

It's nearly race day

Palmy North half marathon this weekend, weather is looking interesting, thunder, rain and norwesterlies but 12 degrees, which actually sounds warm given how coldies it has been in ChCh. I think I have packed just about every piece of running clothing I own cos I really don't know what I want to wear in that weather so figure best be prepared! Am hoping that I have remembered to pack my running legs, I think they have gone AWOL on me! I went for a run at lunchtime yesterday which is something I don't normally do but I had something on straight after work and had to swim before work so lunchtime was the only part of the day left so I don't know if it was a combination of running at lunchtime (it was warm too! weird), running in Hagley Park (which I don't enjoy) and that I think I have beaten the cold/flu that was threatening! Whatever it was I didn't feel like much of a runner yesterday so am hoping that spending most of today chilling out watching the Olympics and living in my compression tights will mean that my running legs will be back by Sunday! I did take the dog for a leisurely walk on the green track at Bottle Lake this morning, it was nice in there without the weekend crowds! Then ran around and did some rather unexciting jobs like buying energy gels and going to the library.

Ohh, found an interesting event if any ChCh girls are keen, its an 11km run but you get to plant trees half way round which is pretty cool. It's all part of the carbon crusade, link is here. It looks fun and I am kinda keen but currently I have another half marathon in my program for the following day...

Quote for the Day:

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.

- Raymond Lindquist, writer

I am training for Ironman

Yep we all know that right but I am only just realising what this really means in some ways. Yep I get all the time and effort its going to take and I am balanced about that. I am just discovering other things tho like I don't get to taper for a half marathon when everyone else does. They do because it is a key race for them whereas for me it is actually just a long weekend run that happens to be a race. Hmm, I didn't see that coming! Now I have had a few days to think about it and chat to others it makes sense, it was just a surprise I didn't expect. So while other people have a nice relaxed week heading into a half marathon I get to do my normal week which included a 14km hill run with the marathon clinic, the only difference in my week is an extra rest day on Saturday. So while I was adjusted to training hard the day before the short distance tri's such as the PhysioMed Womens Tri's I hadn't thought about the so called 'bigger' events. Funny thing is that I am regularly running further than 21kms most Saturdays so I don't really know why I thought it would matter being a race rather than just a run but there you go. All good, have my head around it now! I am hoping that I get at least a mini-taper before the Half Ironman in November, best I ask soon I think rather than wait and find out the hard way!

Am just trying to stay healthy now as I can feel a snippet of a cold appearing and the last thing I want to do is be unwell for the half marathon so I did pull out of last nights run and stocked up on some herbal remedies etc and had a very early night and feel heaps better today so fingers crossed that all will be ok.

Quote for the Day:

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present.

- Unknown

Another new program

Gosh 6 weeks rolls around fast and before you know it its time for a new program all over again. Its always exciting getting a new program cos while some stuff stays similar, eg spin on a Weds, you never know what other wee surprises will be in there. Some good and some not so good! It seems if you are training for Ironman you don't need to taper to race a half marathon... Hmmm so I emailled Geoff's brother who Richard also coaches and is also doing the half marathon this weekend and asked how his week was looking, wow his is soo cruisey! I'm tempted to become a one discipline girl if I get to have a nice program like that! hahaha, I said that to Richard and he kindly reminded me that I was the one who wanted to do IM and he is right, so I guess I get to pay the price and train hard all week and race hard in the weekend as well! And he has some crazy idea that I am doing the Oxford Half Marathon in September but that I am going to go for a bike ride first? Hmm, I have suggested that we review that craziness after this weekends effort. My pleading that a half marathon is a long way didn't go down well after I had just said that I had fun doing Tuesday's 14km hill run.... silly me!

I've decided to switch my swimming up a notch or two now, I struggle to stay particularly focussed at the pool so am going to trial swimming for distance rather than for time. I tried it this morning and it was ok. Normally in an hour swim I will swim about 2.7-2.8kms depending on what drills etc I do so I decided that I am going to aim to swim 3kms in each one hour session. This means it will take a little over an hour to start with but I have a goal of getting that down to an hour and it means I will have better focus and I proved this today so we will go with this plan for a bit and see what happens. Will be interesting in a few weeks where I have to do a 90min swim and see how far I can get in that time, sounds like a good challenge!

I have another of those fun 2 hour runs before spin later in my program so it will be interesting to see how that goes this time, it made spin quite challenging last time round! Pretty rewarding tho to do all that effort in an afternoon!

So 30 weeks till the big day, only 4 more programmes when this one is done and dusted! My my time flies when you're having fun!

Quote for the Day:

Silence is argument carried out by other means.

-Ernesto"Che"Guevara (1928-1967)

I've been slack

Well slack at blogging anyway! I guess if I'm going to feel not so motivated about something its better to be about the blog than the training!

Last week was an easy week anyways so not a lot of excitement going on. Quite seriously the most exciting thing I did was buy new togs, mental notes to stay away from adidas ones as both pair have crumbled under the pressure of regular use, having said that it appears I may have been washing my togs too frequently so there you have it. Really more exciting stuff did happen, I got to zip down to Dunedin for a day for work which meant I missed spin on Wednesday, never mind, I texted through my request for a hard class while I was enjoying a wine in the Koru Lounge! heheee

Running club was mean last week, 14kms of hills on a weeknight, now thats cruel! And I forgot to put my compression tights on for some reason and thought all was well until I ran again on Thursday and then my legs certainly let me know that they thought running was a cruel joke, luckily only had to run for 40mins though.

Saturday saw Kalina and I head to the plantation in the snow for a chilly 40min run! It was nice, very cold and slushy but nice! Then off to the pool for a swim, loving that QE2 is 50m lately, much easier for counting lengths. Then a soak in the spa to warm up before Kalina and I headed off to Dressmart for a spot of shopping! Ohhh too many sales and too little time! I did manage to buy the nicest dress for $40 down from $280!

Long bays with the lads on Sunday, it was brrrr coldies to start with but nice once the frost thawed a little. The boys are kind and let me sit in on the way out on the flat and waited on the hills for me. Thank you kind boys if you happen to read this :)

Quote for the Day:

Love is an electric blanket with someone else in control of the switch.

-unknown

Then the good, the bad and the downright dirty!

So yesterday was the good! Considering that my day called for a 2hour 20 run and a 45 min swim there was a lot of potential for this to be a nasty day! After talking with Richard earlier in the week about the fact that I didn't really pay a lot of attention to my HRM other than look at the data afterwards.... This is mainly because at this stage of the game for me I have found it more beneficial to just try and keep running no matter what rather than put to much focus on my training zones, so now that my running has come into line and progressing quite well I have decided that I need to keep an eye on my zones (apart from those Tuesday hill runs cos they are just hard out!). After spending some considerable time playing round with my HRM on Sat am, I even had to get the manual out, I finally managed to correctly program in my Ownzone for my run. Add to that a quick detour to the Palms to get some nutrition cos I had forgot to go out and buy some gels at lunchtime on Friday (prob cos it was stink weather out and I had an evil headache that was refusing to leave home, ie me) then the dog and I headed off to his favourite place! He is so excited when he pull into the carpark at the plantation! Its funny! We got all loaded up with fuelbelt, water bottles, gels and even some treats for the dog. I decided I would be a bit boring and do 2 laps of the blue track again (once clockwise and once anti-clockwise) followed up by a final blast through the middle and back to bring it up to the 2 hours 20. Hmm quite a daunting length of time to be running, its the longest training run I have done to date and will be the last long run before the half marathon in 2 weeks time. I have gone longer on race days as my half marathon times are nothing to write home about, however these have involved a reasonable amount of walking. Today was good, other than stopping twice to try and find the blimmin' dog, why he thinks its funny to disappear into the really dense parts of the forest is beyond me! Then he bounces out looking all cute and looks at me as if to say why are you calling me, I've been right here all along! Grrr!!! So yay, cool that I can run that far now! Back to the HRM thing, I was a bit worried that I was going to hear 'beep beep' for the whole run but managed to stay within my zone fairly accurately most of the time, often when I was beeping I would look down and I would be one beat above my zone and it was pretty easy to pull it back. I hit the lap timer after each lap of the track so I could see what happened to my HR as I got more tired, I was pleased to see that between lap 1 and 2 my ave HR was only about 2 beats different, it was slightly higher on the second lap. But for the last wee blast to make up the time I was beeping flat out and was about 5 - 10 beats above where I should have been and just couldn't drop it back, so definitely more challenging to stay in the zone when you are tired. Still, I'm pretty happy with the overall effort. Swimming was fun as well, the pool was quite empty at QE2 which was nice. I did a fair amount of swimming with the pull buoy since my legs were sore from running also its good for working on my position in the water which I need to focus on so I swim better. Sat in the spa for a bit afterwards as well, I think I quite like this Saturday swim thing where I don't have to rush off anywhere afterwards. Managed to get quite a nice back massage from the spa jet, then did my legs as well, now this part may have looked to others as if I was pleasuring myself given the way I was propping myself on the edge of the spa so the jet could massage my leg, but tough, needs must and I sure as hell felt a lot better afterwards! heheee

Now for the bad, damn weather! Today was sposed to be a nice 4 hour cycle. Well, I headed off with Geoff and we met up with Boonen at Coffee Culture Cashmere as planned. We changed our plan from our original ride tho cos the hills were going to be nasty in that weather. We headed off over the Halswell Downs and I was soo cold and miserable by this stage that I piked out and came home! It was just gross out and it was cold and I was cold and it really wasn't fun. Yeah I know it could be like that on race day too, but hey I have done a helluva lot of training in the rain and crap so I think I'll be ok with that if it happens on race day! Got a flat tyre about 3kms from home, that really pissed me off cos my tyres were muddy and gross so I got absolutely filthy changing that and managed to break the end of the valve off in my pump. Had to waste a CO2 cartridge cos I wasn't carrying my normal pump for a change. Still the hot shower was nice when I got home, then walked the dog to the dairy for the Sunday paper and sat down with the paper for the afternoon.

The downright dirty was my bike after todays ride! I only cleaned her last week too but now she was filthy! Poor girl, so I spent a good hour or so cleaning her this afternoon and changing the rear tyre again since I stuffed the valve on the one I put in.

Quote for the Day:

The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary.

- Unknown

First the week...

Gosh I've been a wee slacker! No blog updates for a week now! I'll give you the weekly stuff then do the weekend separately! At the moment I am tapping away on my blog while soaking my feet in the foot spa, ahhh feels good!

Week was good, all the normal stuff happening. Swim on Monday, thats usually when I do a 1km TT to see how I am going as its my long swim of the week. TT time was about normal give or take a few secs so I'm pretty happy with that esp as I am working on my technique at the moment. I must say it is sometimes a bit hard to get exciting about swimming 40 lengths, esp as once that's done I still have more than half my swim session left to do! Can't wait till its warm enough to open water swim again, no more black lines on the bottom of the pool and turning every 25m.

Tuesday at the marathon clinic was hard! Eeek, I think I felt a little ill when we got the email about the run! Imagine this if you will...... run up Barrington St, up Hackthorne to the Takahe, down via Kidson Terrace, Dyers Pass Rd then hill repeats x 3 up Merlewood, down Dyers. If you have ever been anywhere near Merlewood you will know that this is evil! I was quite relieved when they said we had the option of doing 1, 2 or 3 repeats up Merlewood. I didn't want to be a sook so figured I would aim to do 2. Well getting to the Takahe was harder than normal for some reason, I had a goal to run non-stop to the Cup, well that was a goal that wasn't achieved. Can't win em'all I guess. So was thinking maybe just once up Merlewood would be the go. Started running with one of the guys and we managed the first trip up Merlewood after having a nice chat on the way down Dyers. Neither of us was feeling particularly excited about doing another repeat. We looked at each other and said well do you wanna go again? I said that it didn't feel that bad now we had been up there so I would do another lap if he was keen, he agreed that if I was in he would join me so that was nice. We headed back down Dyers for another lap, it hurt a little more this time but I was feeling pretty good after not piking out after one lap. Had to work hard on the way back running with him tho! When we were chatting earlier he told me his slowest 1/2 marathon time was 2.06, eek I would be happy if that was my quickest time, needless to say I had to put in a fair bit of effort to stay with him on the way back down Barrington, conversation from my side was reduced to the occasional grunt! hehee

Hmm spin on Wednesday, poor Graham is always pushing me to go harder at spin, what he didn't understand was how hard that Tuesday run is and how mean it is to go to spin the next night and expect to put out a similar level of effort. I emailled him my program after this weeks effort and he now believes that Richard must be punishing me for something since my program is so much harder than his! I guess thats the difference between cycling only and training for IM!

Thursday I was going running with Kalina, the weather was nasty as out and about! The Avon just about flooded its banks and threatened to cross the road and head up the drive yet when I texted Kalina to ask if she was still keen for a run she said yep, I'll just get changed and I'll be right over! Man was I impressed! It was a night when most people would want to stay indoors but Kalina has been taking some serious hard pills lately and she turned up all ready to go and never complained about the weather or how hard it was!! We took the dog with us and headed off round the river from home which is just over a 5km loop. Zac had his first off lead run near traffic and he did really well, I had one of my wee flashy bike lights attached to his collar so the cars and I could see him in the dark. Kalina was awesome as well, she ran non-stop for the whole run and even managed a sprint finish to the end!! We were soaked but had heaps of fun out and about on a stormy night!

Quote for the Day:
Don't take life too serious. You'll never escape it alive anyway.

- Elbert Hubbard