A long run, however you look at it.

I realised it's about time I got some decent long runs in before the Alpine Loop the Lake on April 19th. I'm just aiming to finish, and I expect it to take around 3 hours, so I need long runs the next three weekends. I've been keeping up with plenty of 70-90 minute runs, including the odd backpack commute and plenty of offroad stuff (I think Phil and I have spent about 8-10 hours on the trails over the past three weeks or so, which isn't too bad), but it's actually been awhile since I ran long.

Today I ran up in the Western Hutt hills for what was going to be 2 hours. But because I did an out and back that was really an up and down it was only 1:52. I promise it FELT like 2 hours. If you trust my nike+ it was about 11 miles, but that's 5.73 on the way up and 5.29 on the way back, so I'm not sure how much I do trust it. If you trust mapmyrun it was at least 12.5 miles, which would mean I ran at around 8:50 pace. I don't believe that either. But either way it was good and fun and pretty hard, with around 1000 feet of ascent. That's not a huuge amount, but believe me there was a LOT, and it wasn't gentle. The views of the Hutt valley, the hills and the harbour were fantastic, even with the fog and I loved the feeling of being slightly in the wilderness as I left the suburbs. When Normandale Rd ended, I ran for a mile or so towards Old Coach Road in good old Belmont Regional park. Lovely :-)

Time to be a flexible warrior. Hope y'all had good weekends and workouts!

Update: Sad!

Good Friday Ride

You'd think that after after 18 months of riding, I'd have learnt that an easy "out" means a bitch of a "back"!

I did learn that Wainui is great "Kate" appropriate riding. Headwinds and uneven seal aside.

EWWWW

After work P and I drove down the road to our local trail for a run. It was awesome. I ran really strong on the way back and negatively split the crap out of it. Stretched. Wandered to the car. Opened the door:

"My handle's wet!"
Hmm. It's not raining.
"And there's a puddle on the ground!"
Hmm. An isolated puddle under a wet door handle."
"You don't think.....?"
"No! Eww!"

Actually, yes. EWWWWW!

Fun!

First, a chocolate fish (or many) for Elizabeth for *getting* my last title.

It's been a good weekend. We had our engagement party/bbq yesterday, complete with literally the best chocolate cake ever and lots of singstar (that's me and E rocking Freddie Mercury).





Almost as excitingly, we found a great new way to work out and have fun together, and an awesome trail to hang at. P rides his new baby (mtb) and I run. He's faster, but not as much as you might think, and provided he gives me a head start and waits around every 10 mins or so, we see a lot of each other and both have a blast. We did a cheeky 40 minutes yesterday (we were frantic with last minute planning) and around an hour today. It's great- just 5 minutes from home, and there's at least 90 minutes of flattish, scenic and relatively sheltered trail (if you go there and back), which is a rarity in Wellington, where everything is called "ridge", "peak" or "summit"- or sneakily called "walkway" (meaning HILLS). Of course, there are hills galore not far off. Take a different turn half an hour in, and you'll find yourself climbing up to the Belmont Trig (500-odd metres above sea level).

Who am I? 24601

I'm not who I was when I started the blog. I'm not sure if it's temporary or permanent; whether the real me is just a normal girl trying to balance work, life and exercise and as a consequence has Not Worked Out Once this weekend, or whether the real me is driven and compulsive, competitive, athletic and currently on a bit of a hiatus.

And I guess that's because I'm both. I'm me. I'm not the lazy fat-kid, and I'm not the super-duper marathoner who eats 3 1/2 hour Makara loops for breakfast. I'm writing a more personal blog elsewhere now (I'm not leaving this one or even taking a break- just writing in two places), and 6-word memoirs are currently doing the rounds in those circles, so I thought I'd put some here. This is who I am today.

- still enjoying my shiny new ring
- looking forward to adventures with Hubby*
- wedding forums occupy too much time
- bootcamp made my quads hard again
- sleeping in on weekends is OK
- really need to ride my bike
- running round another lake in April

*he will be by the time we head overseas in 2009/2010
**chocolate fish if you get the title...