Eastside 5k: Race 3

I have found myself annoyed recently by the absence of race reports for various minor (...and a few more major...) races, so from now on I'll be trying REAL hard to blog each one, no matter how inconsequential it seems at the time. With that in mind, I present to you a very boring race report about race 3 (for me, 4 for others) of the Eastside 5k series.

Conditions: were OK. Phil thought it was a bit humid and a bit windy. I can't say I noticed either.
Numbers: were down on last week, probably up on the week before.
Key competition: Turquoise Hat (beat me in Race 1)
Feeling before: odd. We had just learned of the death of an acquaintance, and I was nervous about a big court hearing the next day. I told Phil a couple of times "I don't WANNA run fast".
Feeling during: Relaxed. Steady. Consistent. Semi strong.
Feeling after: Much better!
Time: 23:19 (18s down from week 2, 1:37 down from week 1)
AHR: 180 (up from week 2, down from week 1)
Splits: 4:40 (167) 4:42 (179) 4:48 (184) 4:52 (184) 4:18 (187) (the last k is always a teeny bit short, because I'm not too bad at running this course fairly tightly)
Comments: Turquoise Hat was there, but seems not to have raced. Darn her!
Place: 7th lady
Overall grade: A

O for Oarsome October: Week 3

Swim
3 swims, including Wednesday's mini tri; total time 1:27

A bit of a blah swimming week- squad on Monday was slow and boring, then the "bonus" swim I planned for Wednesday became a pretty pathetic 25 minute session due to bus delays. We were all set to make up for it yesterday, but when we arrived at the pool there was another "contamination". Argh!

Bike
2 rides, including Wednesday's mini tri; total time 3:08

Saturday's bike session was pretty good, but my back/shoulders are still bothering me (despite Friday's massage). I'm going to need to start wearing my contacts and working harder on my posture. Maybe a new fit?

I rode out to Te Miro (about an hour), then did my "half IM effort" as an out and back on a good bunch of rolling hills. I didn't get my heart rate up as high as I would have liked, but I'm happy with the effort, given that I haven't been riding hard at all recently. My speed for the interval was about 27.5km/h, which isn't quite what it should be, but it could be worse!

Run
6 runs, including Tuesday's 5k and Wednesday's mini tri; total time 3:49

I snuck in a cheeky 40 minutes while Phil was doing his long run on Friday night. It was the perfect evening for a run, and it meant I enjoyed my wine with dinner even more :) Saturday was a 10 minute run off the bike, and it was fine. Well, it was hard, but it was meant to be! Pace was a little over 5:00, including the horrid little steep hill by our house.

My long run on Sunday was a CHORE. I did a few chores (and a lot of mucking around) in the morning, and headed out late (about 11:30). By that time, the drizzle had come, and it pretty much didn't leave for the next 2 hours. I headed out along the new bike path, which opened on Saturday, but sadly it's still not quite finished, so I ended up back in Leamington with 45 minutes to spare. The drizzle eased, but was replaced with stifling humidity, so I basically plodded around in a snotty mood for 45 depressing minutes. I was bloody glad to get home! My AHR for the run was 141, super low for me (probably a mixture of fatigue, a general lack of motivation, and maybe- hopefully- a wee increase in fitness??)

Total time: 8:25(ish) (plan said 10:25... Coach can't add, but it took me until Friday to twig!)

Two days; two races

I love after work race season. It's crazy and full-on, but, oh how fantastic it is to be able to experience the adrenaline and thrill of racing, for a fraction of the cost and with a fraction of the pressure! We're very lucky in Hamilton to have two high quality races right on our doorsteps, with the Hawks Eastside 5k on Tuesday nights, and the Mafia Tri Club's Twilight Mini Tri fortnightly on Wednesdays. This week, Coach Paul generously allowed us to capitalise on that luck by racing both!


Eastside 5k


You may recall that last week's 5k was satisfying, but pretty ghastly. I had hoped to take off a good bit of time this week (I was thinking a minute or so, if I was lucky), but watching the poor ducks flailing in the headwind on the way over made me pretty sceptical of my chances!

I tried to make sure I held back for the first wee while- there's some good little hills early on, and last time I was a heaving burnt out mess 1k in. As it happened, I still hit 1k at about the same time as last week, but feeling a lot less shattered. It's hard to tell if my splits were "even" or not, given the hills and the wind, but I felt as if I was "about right" most of the time (although I got passed more than I'd have liked!). I only had lap pace/time most of the way, so very little sense of how I was doing overall, apart from "OK" (I know that 5 x 5 = 25, and 4.5 x 5 = 22.5, but in between I'm just guessing). At about 4km, I checked my watch and realised for the first time that taking a minute or so off last week's 24:56 was actually going to be possible! I tried to pick up the pace a bit, and ran the final k at 4:37/km pace, for a finish time of 23:37, a 1:19 improvement on last week's time!

Although I'm still a good way off my best times, that was just what I needed to start feeling a bit more confident. I'm not going to see any more improvements like that, but at least now I am pretty sure that the 24:56 was a product of humidity and the weekend's adventure, not just plumb lack of fitness. ONE day, Runner Kate will be back.

Mafia Mini Tri

I had hoped to return to this event a couple of weeks ago, but was briefly and bizarrely sidelined with food poisoning-like symptoms as I got changed into my tri kit after work. Luckily, nothing like that this week!

I dilly dallied about whether to swim- the river's still a bit high and quite fast, and the weather wasn't great. But when I saw a 12 year old girl preparing to get in, I (wet)suited up, and joined the hardcore crew, instead of the woossy duathletes. Definitely the right decision- the water was freezing, but exhilarating, and we were carried downstream in currents of something like 6.5km/h! I overshot my exit a bit (again) and had to do mad panicky windmill arms for a few seconds to get out. The lead male swimmer waited for the 12 year old (and me, but I think I was just a bonus) and we all jogged up the giant hill to T1 together.

I whizzed through T1, and was second out on the bike course overall. Now, this was only because:

• 12 year old had to put shorts and a jersey over her togs
• a few other hardy swimmers had missed the start and jumped in late
• everyone else was running, which takes a fair bit longer

...but it was still awesome. Probably the only time I will EVER experience the feeling of being first lady :)

I rode pretty well, with an AHR of 172, and average cadence of about 93. By the first roundabout (a little less than 1/4 of the way in), I could still (sometimes) see fast dude, and the late-starting swimmers were still a good distance behind me. It was pretty choice being in front of Phil! However, sooner or later, they all started to catch me. First the swimmers, then Phil and his arch rival. I managed to stay fairly close to them for most of the second lap, but then they got away from me. My secret dream was to get into T2 ahead of the actual female leader, but I knew the second time I hit the roundabout that that was a bit of a pipe dream. To be fair, she represented NZ at AG Long Distance Worlds this year, and is about to head off to Xterra Worlds too... She passed me towards the end of the second lap, and swiftly passed the two guys I was trying to keep in sight too. However, it can't have been by THAT much, as she was just leaving T2 as I pulled in.

My time for the bike was around 34ish minutes, I think, for around 16km. I always feel bad for not being able to average 30 on this course, but Phil told me today that he normally doesn't either- today was his first time, so I don't quite feel so bad!

The run. Oh the run. It's been a LONG time since I ran off the bike. Since last time I did this tri, in fact (but I didn't blog about it, or even buckeye... so I don't know what my time was). So, fittingly, my legs felt like bricks. Ow. The run starts downhill, so I was very much doing the awkward triathlete shuffle. I started at around 4:45/k, but couldn't hold it, and ended up running each of the 4 ks at about 4:55- 4:59/km. I don't think I got passed on the run, though a couple of women behind me would have been ahead of me if we'd all done the same event. I didn't do much passing either- maybe one guy who was walking, and a little leapfrogging. But I felt good, and I was working hard, and that was enough for me. I honestly feel like it was one of my best, most consistent triathlon efforts ever.

...Oh, and since I was the only female who did the medium course tri, I won!

Training "performance"- a contradiction in terms

Most weekend warrior endurance athletes are fall somewhere right of centre on the "Type A" spectrum. We tend to be all-rounders, A-students, high achievers. We miss the simple days of school where success was measured by how well we memorised our multiplication tables or how many words we spelt correctly.

Don't deny it- you wish your boss could give you As!

It's not surprising that we turn to swimming, biking, running and competing to satisfy our Type-A urges. It's not the reason I do what I do (lots more on that here, here, and here, and on pretty much every other page of this blog) but it would be a lie to say I didn't get a buzz from going further or faster or higher or harder or just plain BETTER than before. I mostly compete with me, but I'll freely admit that going further or faster or higher or harder than other people is a motivating factor too.

PBs replace As as the new markers of success. We crave age group awards [not that there's any bloody chance of me winning one of those in NZ any time soon....] instead of the flash principal's awards they used to give out at assembly.

But we don't race enough to keep our Type A urges satisfied. Soon it's infecting our training too. And THAT, my friends, is the point of today's post. Don't you love how I took 5 paragraphs to get there?

Recently, I've observed an increasingly high number of posts dealing with people's disappointment with specific training sessions [No doubt you wouldn't need to look hard at all at this blog or my buckeye to find a fair few from me]. They tend to end with some sort of comment along these lines:

"I'm really disappointed in my performance on my long run today. I feel like a failure."

Usually, this is not because the gorilla [see this post] in question threw a giant tanty or canned their bike ride because it was a little bit windy (this happened... more than once. It seems I may have been too ashamed to blog it) or cut their 20k run down to 3 because they got scared of a big barky dog. Nope. Usually it's because they ran until they fell down but missed their goal pace. Or biked until their legs fell off but got dropped. Or swam a minute slower on this month's time trial than last month's. I do this all the time, so I'm not admonishing anyone- just examining.

I think the problem stems from treating training as something that requires "performance". It doesn't. Races require performance.

Training is the studying, racing is the exam.

The purpose of training is to GET better, not to BE better.


(image credit)

You might have mini-tests on the way- MAF tests, 5k races, Yassos. Just like the practice exams at school. But the purpose of these still isn't to perform- it's to LEARN. Is the studying/training working? Will the studying/training help my performance on the day that counts? Should I study/train more/less/differently?

I think that by keeping this in mind, I'm going to be a lot better at dealing with difficult training sessions.

I'll remind myself that that stink run is like that time I read that frustrating House of Lords decision over and over again and just couldn't grasp it. But, in the back of my brain, SOME of it's still sinking in and that ghastly run is the same. Maybe it's time for a mini break from the case/run to look out the window /sit on a park bench and watch ducklings.

"Failing" a MAF test has almost undone me twice this year. But next time, I'll remind myself (as Coach Paul has told me all along) it's like trying a practice exam and finding it difficult- you pause, make a coffee, listen to some music, and then you figure out how to tweak your study plan. It's exactly the same with the run.

I know this isn't exactly groundbreaking stuff, but I think remembering this will help me to adjust my attitude, and it might work for someone else too.

Eastside 5k- short race, short report

I went in with a goal of 25:00, conservative I thought, to reflect the hilly course and the decent training my legs have been doing over the past few weeks. As it happened, it wasn't so conservative! I started well, but just didn't have enough in me to keep getting up the steep wee hills along the river trail. With 1k to go, I was running close to the wire, but gritted my teeth and crossed the line at 24:56.

I'm actually happy with this- although I've run on the river path before, I've never tried to run FAST. I found that the steep and frequent climbs made getting into a rhythm very difficult, and I didn't have anything in my legs to push the downhills- I was getting passed uphill AND losing ground downhill! I think familiarity with the course, and a better idea of who my "competition" is will help to gradually bring this time down over the coming weeks.

Elevation profile

(obviously this exaggerates the elevation a LOT, due to the small scale, but believe me- enough steep wee hills can really break you!)

So THIS is happening.

13 February 2011

Oh yeah.

O for Oarsome October: Week(end) 1

What a weekend! Phew! I think this is going to be a two-parter!

Saturday:
On Saturday morning, Phil and I woke up early (6am) to drive to Tauranga to meet Mike for a long ride adventure (Mike, like many others, knows that I'm pretty much up for any ridiculous workout if it comes packaged as an adventure).

We'd dabbled with the idea of riding a (n imperial) century, but each decided it was probably a bit much of an undertaking at this stage in the training (also, since I hadn't cleared ANY long ride with the coach, I thought 100 miles was pushing it....) so I started researching metric century-ish rides in the Bay of Plenty. The full 160 will have to come later (Mike, how about a post- Tauranga Half summer adventure?)

After weighing up various options (actually, I made a "short list" which repeated the same loop three times) we settled upon a Bay of Plenty standard, the Tauranga / Rotorua loop, going out through the Oropi Gorge, and coming back through Paengaroa and Te Puke, finishing along Welcome Bay Road.

It may not have been 100 miles, but it was 120ks of awesome, as illustrated by this elevation chart.


I hadn't appreciated quite how hilly the first half was, and since it was quite a gradual climb (a good 30-odd ks), I found my slow pace very frustrating, especially since I was aware that I was slowing the others down too. I really don't know why I'm so slow!! As we rode on, I stopped letting it bother me- I wanted to get to the end in one piece more than I wanted to show off for the boys!

After the long climb, steep climb up the gorge, and nail biting descent, we rode around Lake Rotorua, following the iconic marathon course for a few ks. We had our first proper stop at a local dairy, and cruised around the lake, enjoying a break from climbing and head winds! We picked up our pace enough over the next 15 or so ks to bring our average to a pathetic 20km/h for the first half. If my AHR hadn't been 160 at that point, I'd have been feeling pretty rubbish- but I knew I was working about the right amount, and feeling OK, so I felt confident in blaming the terrain, at least partly.

Riding around the marathon course was great. Mike and I both ran it in 2007- it was the first time I'd *met* him - though I'm not sure spotting someone at the finishing line and giving him a whoop really counts as meeting - and it was amazing how vividly I remembered it having only ever been there once. It didn't hurt that it was a gorgeous day and the lake was glistening, unlike race day '07, when it was pissing down.

Then the downhill back to Tauranga (sea level) from Rotorua (one of the higher NZ cities) began. As the profile shows, it was pretty much downhill all the way home- but with an awful lot of wee, and not so wee, rollers. At one point it was just hang on and cruise for 5k- such bliss, and after the grueling climb it didn't even feel like cheating ;) The downhills gave us some time in the bank if we wanted to maintain our first half average (... we HOPED we wouldn't be slower than that overall!) By 4:00 we had 15 minutes in the bank, and by 5:00, it was 30.

We had another longish stop in Te Puke at about 4:15. By this time I'd ridden further (and for longer) than I had since last year's half ironman, and although my legs and heart were still doing OK, my shoulders and nether regions were starting to feel it. The time from 3:40 (when I suggested a break at 4:00) and 4:15 (when we found a good place to stop) seemed like forever. I was well dropped, but I was happy enough with my own exertion and pace, so I ignored it.

It wasn't long before I reached my personal distance record of 100.31km, reached a VERY long time ago in the Taranaki. I think passing that gave me enough oomph to get through the next 20ks. Riding Welcome Bay Rd and back through Tauranga also helped- great varied terrain, and the scenery's OK too. I did let the men go on ahead- I felt much better being proud of my own pace than feeling frustrated at being so far behind.

We arrived back at Mike's at 3:20pm or so, with a total ride time of 5:35ish. Our average speed for the second half was about 24 km/h (.... or 2:30/k!), which is actually faster than I often average for a weekend ride. Not too shabby for my longest ride ever!

Nutrition note:

I followed my normal nutrition approach to long training rides- plenty, and random. Closer to race day, I'll practice a more sensible nutrition strategy, but for a long, slow ride, with no goals other than surviving, I prefer to just eat what I have to hand and what I feel like. As it turned out, I think our food served us well- I was never hungry, and my energy levels were mostly OK (in the overall context of my longest ride ever.... I can't say I was a box of birds the whole way!)

So, here's what I had:

1.5 bottles of Lemon /Lime "Red 8: Sports Hydrate"
A few Natural Confectionery Company dinosaurs (Don't chop the dinosaur, Daddy!)
A peanut butter sandwich on Molenberg (with Pic's, of course)
A piece of banana and date loaf (left over from our week's lunchbox baking)
A sausage in a piece of white bread (how could I not- they were selling them for $1)
Part of a curly wurly
Half a bottle of Raspberry Lo-carb Mizone Isotonic (I wasn't being carb conscious on a long ride. I have loved this for ages, and hate it's rebranding as lo-carb...)

Some September Stats

Today when I was entering the stats for my (sweaty and miserable) run into Buckeye, I noticed that it was the 30th of the month. A-ha! I thought- what better time than to check my monthly stats. And so I did:

Swim: 5:45

Bike: 11:00 (including spin)

Run: 19:05

And, because I love the random stats:

Total calories burned: 21,617

Average calories burned: 720

Average daily training time: 1:12

Total number of workouts: 31

Total run distance: the length of an Ironman bike course (112 miles)

As I commented elsewhere, this isn't exactly a mega triathlon training load. I suspect that in a few weeks time, I'll look back and laugh at my paltry 8 hour weeks. But when you put it into the context of this year, it's damned impressive. In May, June and July, I did around 23-25 hours per calendar month, so I've added a good TEN hours this month. And what makes that particularly awesome is that I'm in a heavily run focussed segment of my training, so my hours on the bike have, if anything, been down (getting a 10+ hour week in is much easier if you spend 5+ hours pootling around on a road bike every Sunday....)

With the end of September comes the end of abstention (from DRINK, guys, from DRINK). I've had a few more "tastes" than I should have, so I'm not super proud of my performance, but, quite frankly, complete sobriety is balls, and there's plenty of time for that in the years to come, so instead of having Pisshead October followed by No-Booze November, I've decided to take a more sensible balanced approach to both months, with one night of grog per week. The rest of the time, I'm taking a leaf out of Kath's book- it's mocktails all the way! Time to stock up on soda water and fun flavours.

In summary:

1) Go me!
2) Roll on October!
3) I get to drink WINE tomorrow!
4) 44 days til Karapiro. Holy crap!

Weekly rundown

A nice solid week, totalling a little over 9 hours. I'm feeling pretty good, and definitely enjoying my training, in all three disciplines.

It's starting to feel like tri season is coming- which, of course, it is. Phil and I have got ourselves on the committee for the Mafia Tri Club, which I hope will help us to get more involved in the *scene*... Though it might interfere with my vague plans for a marathon and rowing year next year!! We're the bike and run coordinators, and we'll be organising occasional group training sessions, as well as trying to "match-make" new members. We've missed having a bunch of training buds, so this is far from purely altruistic.

I'll be volunteering at the World Rowing Champs at Lake Karapiro in early November, and my commitments to training and volunteer days are picking up a little bit, so it's going to be even more important than usual to keep up with things, especially with the Karapiro half coming up shortly afterwards. Thank goodness for bright evenings!

Swim

A typical swimming week. A squad session at St Peter's on Monday, and a cruisy session with Phil at the pool in TA after work on Friday.

Swim time: 1:25 (a little down on what it should have been)

Bike

I had a longer than usual midweek ride scheduled for Wednesday, and was stoked to get home early and head out with Phil. We managed to get about 45 minutes in before it started getting dark, and another 15 in the semi-dark. It was still light enough to see in front of us, even without our super hardcore lights on, but I was a little jumpy, especially with the frequent showers. Phil was only riding for an hour, so we headed home and I jumped on the trainer for a (much less enjoyable) half an hour.

The weekend's "long" ride was only 2 hours, and we decided to head out on the MTBs, as we were in Auckland for a family gathering. My mojo was pretty low, and I spent the first wee bit feeling a bit stompy and sulky. It didn't help that there was an event on, and I was constantly worried about getting in the way. After half an hour or so, I started feeling a lot better, but I'm still a lot slower than the boys, and didn't exactly feel gnarly. We finished our usual loop in about 1:20- 1:30, and decided to call it a day as we had places to be. So, not exactly a win week on the bike, but not bad either. I was definitely glad to have some mojo return by the end of the ride- can't wait to get down to Rotorua a few more times over summer!

Bike time (including MTB and half-hour spin): 2:50

Run

This wasn't my best running week, by recent standards, but wasn't bad either. On both Thursday and Friday I felt a bit weak/dizzy during the runs (only a little bit, nothing worrying)- which I attribute to a mixture of not eating properly and slowly changing seasons. The long runs are proving to be great for my self esteem- it's amazing how much more awesome I feel after a 2 hour run than after 1:40.

Running highlights of the week were:

- evening 10k run at the lake in Hamilton with Phil;
- running along the quickly growing pedestrian/bike path from Leamington to Karapiro- it's looking brilliant!
- today's 20k around the bays in Auckland. Much warmer than I'm used to, but was great to do a nice straightforward run- and to hit the 20km mark for the first time in goodness knows how long! (in training, anyway).

Run time: 4:50


Total time: 9:05

Last couple of weeks: Rundown/highlights

I think it's now evident that I am NOT capable of blogging regularly. The long draft still sitting around from our epic Beervana/Wellington weekend is testament to that. So, since we're getting into The Season, I'm going to revert to the bullet point weekly update.

So, how are things going?



General
In general, I'm starting to feel like a triathlete again. I'm not quite making it up early every morning, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the extra light in the morning and the evenings, and I am getting most of my training hours in every week. I'm a little nervous about my riding and my general fitness, but I know I can get through Karapiro now, and I am SURE I'll be able to dominate September through December in order to rock Tauranga.

Swim
We're back in the pool, and back to squad sometimes. Swims are still pretty short and easy, compared to what I was doing last year, but, well, swimming 3.5k hard 3 times a week didn't exactly help me out with my race times! Going to squad on Monday night was great- there's nothing like an outdoor pool in the evening. Also, I'm convinced that the St Peter's pool is shorter than our usual pool in Te Awamutu- my times were miles better!

Bike
I'm riding well enough, but we're not doing the distances we were this time last year either. We've done a few 3:00 to 3:30 rides, but we're mostly in the 2:00 - 2:30 range. My endurance has been OK for the longer rides. Last week's ride was 2:30 around the countryside around Te Miro. My legs were feeling a bit thrashed, and the weather was ghastly- muggy and windy for the first 2:10, and torrential rain for the rest. If I hadn't been so close to home, I think I'd have pulled over and found some shelter!

Run
My running is feeling great. It's slow, but getting stronger and stronger. I'm doing 2:00 weekend runs, which is big for me, since my marathon training days at least! Last year I don't think I ever ran 2:00, outside of races.

Today my run took me out through the country and up the ginormous hill we rode a few weeks ago. After rolling countryside (complete with evil cows and bad, chasey dogs) for a few k, you start climbing. And climbing. And climbing. There's a few hundred metres of respite after the first steep climb, but after that it just winds steeply up and up for a total climb of nearly 4km.


(Yep, it's steep!!)

When you get to the top, you can keep running along a rolling gravel road. Totally invigorating, especially on a crazy, Wellington-style windy day!


(this is what happens when there's a bit of wind in the Waikato)

Running from Cambridge to the top took just under an hour, so I ran along the gravel road for a k before turning and running back down the hill.



(I didn't follow the first piece of advice this time, but I did follow the second!)

Next time I'll definitely start a bit closer to the hill, so I can spend more time on the gravel road (and also, so I can finish on a downhill, instead of 4 boring flat ks!)

My mid week runs have increased too. When we started the run-focus, my short midweek run was 30, but gradually grew to 60. Last week I had a 45 minute tempo run scheduled, and I'm pleased to say that 45 mins is definitely short again. Phew!

Weight
The elephant in the room. In short, I'm trying, but I'm still F.A.T. About 5kg heavier than my race weight last year- GAH!!! I'm off the booze in the hope that things improve this month, but every time I weigh myself I'm disappointed again. I feel like I'm doing a very good job of not rewarding myself with food (too much), and eating healthy, balanced meals, but I guess I just have to do more.

A long run!

I have so many posts started, but no energy/time to finish them, so here's a story about my "long" run this morning instead....

Today I had 2:00 scheduled- my longest (in duration) run since Rotorua '09, and my longest (in distance) training run since goodness knows when!

My dear husband found me an iconic 'Tron training route last night, and he was even kind enough to drive it with me this morning. Though even THAT didn't stop me doing some creative navigation and adding 2.5km to my route! I was off and running by about 9:45, and P headed out to the farmers' market in town.

I stopped about 1km in to buy some fuel for my run- a Cadbury brunch bar (they're not too bad, despite the brand name and chocolate base) and ten wine gums- then got on my way.

The run takes you out past the subdivisions, through the lifestyle blocks, and out into the country proper. It's pretty much rolling the whole way- flat for maybe 2km or so!

I love country running, but it does take a bit of getting used to! First, there's the fact that you're ALWAYS running- after that early stop, it was all running, all the time. No pansying around at crossings, no loo breaks, no water fountains. Great for the ol' endurance, but- as I've said before- very different to town running. Secondly, there's the footpath (or lack thereof) factor. It sounds simple- run on the right side of the road, facing the traffic coming towards you. But sometimes it's safer to be on the wrong side, particularly on (some) blind corners. So there's a lot of crossing from one side to the other and back again, all the while looking out for hooning utes... Then there's the camber. I always seemed to be on a slight lean- not awesome for my poor feet (in their way-too-old shoes). Lastly, there're the animals. Great when it's cute ickle lambies and calves frolicking in the fields. Less great when it's stray cows, or barky farm dogs.

I am very satisfied with today's run. My pace was slow, but the same sort of slow as my weekday morning runs. I started feeling stiff after a solid running week and a good 2.5 hour ride yesterday, but my average pace only improved over the remaining 1:45. 50 minutes flew by like *that* and next thing I knew it was 1:15 and I was still feeling good. I found it easy enough to (sort of) control my HR on the climbs- it was drifting up to 155-160, but I could keep it from going any further. I easily had enough in the engine at 2:00 to keep going while I looked out for Phil, and I managed to really push the last few steep climbs.

Frequent running has been fantastic for me- it's not hurting my cycling, and I'm feeling a million dollars. My endurance is there (yesterday's 2.5 hour hilly ride felt quick n easy), my strength is on the way- it's just the speed that's outstanding, and with summer, increased training, and healthier eating, I hope that will come soon (it better... Karapiro is discomfitingly soon....)

Spring in my step

Spring is coming to the Waikato, and I'm loving it!

My renewed sense of focus is paying off, and I'm feeling better, happier and more like me. I haven't been 100% on the morning workouts, but I'm getting there, and they're slowly starting to feel normal before 6am again!

Part of Coach Paul's new plan for me is upping the running again. I'm running 4(+) times a week, and my long runs are increasing to 2:00 this weekend. After a tanty last week, I've been going GPS-less for my morning runs, so I'm focussing only on HR and having a good time. It's working, and I don't think knowing just how slow I am when I stagger out of the house at 5:30am is of any benefit whatsoever. I'm still using the GPS for my afternoon runs, as I'm a total type A, and I was stoked to run 13.5km at a comfortably aerobic pace of 5:59/km in Napier over the weekend. It's the first time in a good few weeks that I've run sub 6:00/pace at E1. I attributed it to the sea air, but I'm feeling generally bloody good, and I've been feeling normal again during all of my runs. It helps that the weather's improving, but I also think increasing my running is going to be good for me.

I'm also settling back into swimming. I definitely look forward to heading to the pool after a day at work- and, hey, I can get through any swim workout if I've got a nice hot spa to look forward to!

We're in Wellington this weekend, and I'm planning some big runs- can't wait to conquer some hills!

Re-focused

I haven't been posting much because I haven't been training much and what training I've done hasn't been much good.

That's a bit of an exaggeration. I started a post last week about how being back in the pool was making me feel like me again, and me 'n' Eric are still having plenty of fun rambling around Cambridge.

But we've both been feeling a bit unfocused and for me, the lack of focused manifested itself in a depressing and painful 1:57 at the Taupo Half Marathon two weeks ago.

But it's a new week and a new training plan and I'm going to get back into it.

First step is committing to morning workouts again. Yep, every day. Even if my lazy husband (who managed to run a 1:29 half despite missing pretty much all of June and July...) rolls over and stays in bed. If I can't get my scheduled workout in (i.e. if it's swimming, which requires marital co-operation), I'll at least do some yoga.

Next step is cleaning up my eating and, more importantly, drinking a bit more. I need to lose the pudge if I'm going to kick ass in Tauranga. We eat fairly healthily, most of the time, but we've definitely been drinking too much here. So debauched August (Phil's 30th, and we're celebrating at a beer festival....) will be followed by Abstemious September, Sober October and No-Booze November (...with the exception of a celebratory brew after the Karapiro Half... I'm only human).

Then, I'm going to change my mindset. Balance is great and all, but for the next few months I'm going to keep my eye on the prize. I love being a driven training machine (...sometimes...) and this could be our last chance for a while to train together for an endurance event. I'm not going to squander it.

Last of all, I'm going to accept that I may have already blown it and move on. I hope that's not the case but it might be. I've changed some medication recently, and I feel like that might be to blame for some of my struggles. Anyway, whatever the reason, I'm not as fit as I want to be, or as I should be, even with some patchy weeks. But if I dominate my training and my eating and my non-drinking over the next 3 (til Karapiro) to 5 (til Tga) months and I cross the finish line in 6:30 (Karapiro) or 6:01 (Tga), I know I'll feel better than I do right now.

Any tips for re-motivating myself?

A (very good) weekend in the life: Sunday

The original plan was to do the Okoroire Fun Ride today. It's a great event, great course, and I had some serious redemption to do after last year's disaster!

But I was sick earlier this week, busy at work (not big hours in comparison to my old job, but still pretty frantic) and I didn't want a repeat of last year's two-in-a-row while sick race debacle. So we decided to pull the plug, and get some good training instead. And we sure did!

After yesterday's "long" run, we decided to tackle the Maungatautari loop again. This loop makes up most of the Karapiro half ironman course and, in short, it's an absolute b*tch. None of the climbs are that bad, but some are pretty steep, and they gradually eat away at your legs until they're totally dead. The road is pretty lumpy in places, and there's sure to be a headwind somewhere. It's not all bad- there's a couple of places where you get to go nuts for a few k, it's pretty quiet (vehicle) traffic wise and it's pretty damn stunning!

I was pretty stuffed by the end (and STARVING, despite consuming a peanut butter and raisin sandwich during the ride, and oatmeal and peanut butter toast for breakfast), so we chilled for a little bit before we headed out. I ate some apple and yoghurt, and a few dates, and planned our meals (and BAKING) for the week. Then it was more house visiting, a sunny wander around Cambridge, and more errands (vege market and supermarket).

I baked this when we got home. It smells lovely! (it will be awhile before I try it, as we have another pudding planned... oops!) Now I'm blogging while Phil makes penne with savoury lentils (it's SOOOO good). Then we'll watch Family Guy, and go to bed- ready for another week of training and lawyering.

So, there you go! A weekend in the life of Hotpotato and husband.

Hope your weekends, whether exciting or ordinary, were equally fabulous!

A (very good) weekend in the life: Saturday

The alarm was set for 7:30am so we could get a good "long" run in. I was feeling pretty groggy, despite a pretty name (and totally booze-free) Friday night, but I eventually dragged myself up for breakfast: instant coffee and a yoghurt mash, with homemade applesauce, plain oats, a sprinkling of muesli and some naturlea.

We moved a bit slowly, and it was about 8:20 by the time we got going. And since our first house appointment (we're sort of looking, but not with a capital L) was at 10:30, I didn't quite have time to do the full Kairangi loop (about 15- fairly hilly- km). I did an out and back along the gorgeous country roads (for pictures, see here), finishing with 1:23 on the clock.

We visited two houses, then popped into the farmers market (for grapefruits, Cloudy Mountain cheese, a brioche to share and Vitality manuka honey), Rata cafe (for my flat white), the deli (for agave and parbaked Marlborough baguette), Simplifood (for looking only) and the supermarket (oats and more oats).

We returned home for lunch (totally indulgent- toasted baguette with cheese and salami) and some chores, before Phil drove me out to Karapiro for a training day for the World Rowing Champs volunteers. I'm a "Spectator Services Ambassador" and I think it's going to be pretty fantastic. The day was slow at times, but definitely inpsiring. Can't wait to be around when NZ dominates in November! I'm confident that it's going to be a pretty epic event- NZ's biggest international sporting event since 1990 (... guess it won't be holding that honour for long...) - so get in quick to get your tickets!

It was an absolutely stunning day in Cambridge, so I wandered towards home from Karapiro while Phil made his way out to pick me up. We had a brief afternoon tea at home, reading and doing some internetting, before getting prettied up for date night.

We spent a fair while trying to come up with the perfect place to eat. Where could we find good beer and wine, choose between tapas and good quality restaurant fare, and feel at home in jeans? Then it hit us: House on Hood. Simply the best place in Hamilton- even NZ? We chatted about life, the universe, the future and everything while Phil enjoyed a Yeastie Boys Pot Kettle Black and I indulged in a TW Chardonnay- one of the best wines I've ever had. Then we ordered dinner- a lovely tapas plate of chorizo, peas and feta to start followed by beef (eye fillet cooked blue, oxtail lasagne and chunky fries) for Phil and lamb (with potato and tomatoes- lovely but a bit boring) for me. We may have also ordered more drinks- Phil had a Brew Moon and I stuck with the TW.. Yum!

We'd had enough fun for one night (facebook was right when it said I act 82...) so we headed home to watch Parenthood (the TV show, not the Steve Martin movie) and have an early night.

A boring, ordinary day but a perfect one. And the weekend just got boringly, ordinarily, better....

A (photoless) day in the country

My day in the country started early- for us- when the alarm went off at 7am, and I got up to eat my morning-after oats (the lazy girl's version of "overnight oats" 1/4c scotch oats, 1/4c organic whole oats, 1/2 c Naturlea plain yoghurt, 1 grated apple, some cinnamon, LSA, agave, and a carefully measured teaspoon of Ceres organic almond butter (at $15 a jar, and a fair few calories too, I can't let my teaspoons grow into tablespoons...)) and hot (instant) coffee.

Then we headed out for a 2 hour hilly bike ride. It was still frosty when I looked outside a little after 8, so I knew it was much colder than usual (the frost has usually gone by the time we leave at about 7:40am). But I didn't realise quite HOW cold it was... the lawn outside our house was quite sunny, and I'm used to mild Auckland winters, where you're almost always overdressed in anything more than knee warmers, so when I felt the rays of sun, I swapped my winter gloves for my normal summer gloves and took off. I knew before we got out of our culdesac that it was a mistake- the Southerly bit as soon as we started moving, but I decided to be staunch, and told myself I'd warm up once we got up the first wee hill. I was wrong. Before we were even 1km in, I was practically crying in pain, and had to tuck my tail between my legs and ask Phil to turn around to go and get the winter gloves. Staunchness Fail. I picked up another layer while I was there- I wasn't dressed up that much, but more than I'm used to (knee and arm warmers, jersey, bibs, booties, winter gloves with polyprop Kathmandu liners, thermal headband and a windproof vest). My hands were still throbbing so I warmed them up a bit before we got going.

We had decided to take on the challenge of Sanitorium hill- it was always in the pipeline, and after telling a judge it was on the agenda, we had to follow through! I've run partway up before (I was interrupted by Phil crashing his bike...) but neither of us had ever ridden it. It's about a 3k climb, starting off quite steep then levelling out for a bit, then getting steeper and steeper and steeper as it winds its way up. I was strong but slow for the first 10 mins or so of climbing, then started really feeling the steep grade- you know, the feeling that if you take a breath your bike will roll backwards out from under you and down the hill. I nearly gave up at 11 minutes, and 12, and 13, and then at 14...

...I stopped.

I pulled over to the side of the road, huffing and puffing, and stood there for 30 seconds or so to collect myself. Then I hardened the f*** up and got back on- I had to remind myself of all the heinous hill starts we did in Auckland to convince myself to get back on! I felt pretty poos about it, but when the next 2-3 corners were equally insane-o steep I knew I'd done the right thing. It's been a long, LONG time since I wussed out on a climb, so I should be able to trust my judgment. I reached the top with a sigh of relief after about 17 minutes (..i.e, slower than I run!)

My relief was mingled with trepidation. What goes up must also go down. *gulp* I tested my brakes, lost a layer of gloves (Phil's fingertips were still tingling) and got on my way.

The short story is that descent was the longest THIRTEEN minutes of my life. Yes- you read right, it took me nearly as long to get down the damn hill as it did to get up. I was shaking with fear the whole way, and I'm getting a bit of tickle belly just writing about it now! It wasn't just steep, it was windy as heck and it didn't help that in places the road was pretty gravelly. I know I'm a descending wimp, but it was seriously hideous. Phil agrees and he's hard.

We spent the rest of our 2 hour ride exploring country roads. It was still cold- neither of us ever felt overdressed, and I started regretting giving Phil the gloves, but it was absolutely stunning out there.

We changed quickly at home and headed to the Cambridge farmers' market for one of Mavis's cinnamon buns, a loaf of pumpkin sourdough, Pirongia cheese (if you ever get the opportunity to buy this, TAKE IT) and a random selection of veges, including celeriac, fennel and white-y yellow baby carrots. Phil headed off to the football (his team was playing in Hamilton), and I pottered around the house, doing chores, and googling recipes for the weird ingredients.

At about 3:00, I headed out with Eric again. I rode the 16k or so to our friends' farm, where I changed into jeans and gumboots for a jump in the woodchips, a walk through the paddocks and a visit to their neighbours 30 adorable new jersey calves (the oldest were 5 days old and the youngest were born this morning).

Now we're topping off a perfect country day with English style ale, (low fat) beef sausages, roasted fennel, mustardy celeriac mash, and steamed yellow carrots... oh- and the All Blacks!

I heart 200s

Last night I got to do 200s- a distance I’d never really trained with before (normally my "speedwork" has been more about the 400s and 800s than sprints and 200s). This is part of Coach Paul’s “build up my strength by killing me now” programme.

The 200s were great because I got to go FAST (my average paces were around 3:30/km), but I never totally wanted to die the way you do with a 400 (sorry 400s, I love you too, y'know). I'd the first 75m or so building into my rhythm, the next 75 huffing and puffing and pushing, and the last 50 focussed on our finish marker and straining to get there.

Anyway, the cool thing is that I was able to hit all of my (ten) 200s between 43 and 46 seconds- despite being on a cobbled path instead of a track, but with the benefit of a tailwind to cancel that out! (and according to Garmin they were definitely on the long side rather than the short side) This isn't particularly fast or anything, but it IS faster than my VDOT formula says I should be (it says 51s, based on my recent 10k time). Now, normally, I do not advocate trying to beat the VDOT numbers, but when the goal is to go all out, I think it’s OK to do it, and to be pleased.

Coachly guidance

Here are Coach Paul's suggestions for why I had a bad day yesterday (paraphrased by me):

• Bad day: most likely cause since I've been doing my MAF pace training on the same course
• Reaction to my anaerobic training (see "Hill Sprints" below). It's no secret that anaerobic work interferes with aerobic base building which is why Maffetone et al have the 155 cap rule when developing the aerobic system. It's also obvious that I struggled with the super-anaerobic training over the weekend (though I do think this was out of the ordinary- I coped MUCH better with horrible hill sprints on bootcamp in 08) However, the strategy this time 'round is to develop my strength, power, pain tolerance etc and now is the best time to do it., not nearer the race season.

His short point is not to stress- my winter programme focuses on strength, power and breaking that CG down- and to remind myself that the MAF tests are there to learn about myself as an athlete as much as they are about testing and seeing my improvement, and that REAL and PERMANENT improvement only occurs over a number of years.

Anyway, even if the test wasn't great, I still had a fairly solid 11km run last night, and I've had some pretty good trainer sessions, showing that my strength is improving. We're getting closer to the pre-season race-season, and I'm looking forward to Okoroire, Taupo Half and The Legend. Awesome.

MAFailure

Tonight was our second MAF test. The goal is (obvs) to improve, but since my HR crept up a little too much last time, I expected my overall pace to be a leeeettle slower than last time.

However, I was NOT expecting my overall pace to be nearly TWENTY SECONDS per k slower than last time. Surely I haven't gotten quite THAT much less fit? And surely my MAF pace isn't now what my "steady" pace has been recently? Did inhaling second hand smoke really improve my performance THAT much?

I feel fine, and felt fine during the workout. My MAF interval workouts have been going well, as has training in general (apart from cycling,which has been inside and a bit lacklustre). So what is going on??

Time to eat my jaffle, watch some Glee, email Coach and wallow in my MAFailure grump.

Hill Sprints

Coach Paul has been displaying some seriously sadistic tendencies recently. Case in point? Hill Sprints. 15 minute warm up, followed by 8 x 15 seconds of heinous all out pain broken up with 1 minute recoveries, and topped off with a cool down.

Nah, who am I kidding, I love it!

Anyway, the first time we did hill sprints I really struggled. I was feeling a bit dead-legged when we started, and I just couldn't push myself on the sprints. So Phil would get to the top, puffing and heaving, and I'd TRY and TRY to push hard, but I'd end up at the end of 15 seconds feeling pretty much normal. I talked to the Coach, and he told me that women often have bigger problems silencing their "central governor" (the officious bystander of endurance racing) than men, because we're smarter and have better self preservation instincts (I'm paraphrasing... just a little.. Coach may not have said smarter....)

Since I have issues shutting up the man on my Clapham omnibus (big points to anyone who gets my loser references in this post!) , I'm trying to take this workout really seriously. Last year, I really felt like my performance at Tinman suffered because I couldn't go all out, so I'm trying to learn to push a bit harder- something I was definitely better at when I was younger.

Anyway, we picked a slightly better hill this time (the steep bit coming into Cambridge from the South) and set off. I was pretty stoked with my first couple of reps- hitting average paces of under 4:00/km (which is actually pretty good- even though it's only 15s, it takes a bit to accelerate). After 4 reps though, I lost it. My heart rate wouldn't go as high as it had been, and I was feeling dizzy and a bit ill. I'm actually attributing this to being a woman as well- it was not just a case of working too hard, and similar things have happened to me when I do weight training and other anaerobic activity at certain times of the month.

I completed sprints 6, 7 and 8 feeling pretty awful, and walked for a few minutes before sending Phil on his way and jogging slowly home. Although the session looked like a fail, it felt like a win to me- I managed to knock out some great sprints, and although I felt like poo, I jogged home without walking again. Another session to look back on when I'm coming around the Mount on the second loop in 6 months!

Benchmarks

Some time between 2004 and today, I developed a little set of mental benchmarks for triathlon achievement. Basically, somewhere deep inside, my little head decided that in order to be a *respectable* triathlete, I had to be able to:

• Swim faster than 2:00/100m
• Bike faster than 30km/h and
• Run faster than 5:00/km

What's interesting about these benchmarks is that they haven't changed with time. They don't really depend on distance. They just ARE. They're the same from sprint to ironman (if I ever do one). In fact, they're quite inconsistent with the race goals I set- if I could do all of these things at once, Id be a damn sight faster than I am!

I don't get (too) disappointed if I don't meet them- I've never run a 10k in an Olympic tri at 5:00/km, and I think my best bike split is STILL, frustratingly, 29.9km/h! Actually- if anything, they make me feel better (apart from the bike...) 39:50 for a half IM swim?? Nevermind, still below the benchmark. A 24:50 in a sprint tri? At least it's still under 5:00/km!

Anyway, I'm interested. Do these benchmarks make sense to you? Is a 30 minute Olympic distance swim equivalent to a 1:20 ride? A 50 minute run? Do you have your own benchmarks? How do they compare with these?

Sold Out.

... but not before we got in! 7 months to go!

Training in Cambridge: Pros and Cons

A couple of weeks ago I had a bit of a moan about training in Cambridge. I missed the harbour. I missed the hills. I missed Wellington's bright mornings and glorious sunrises. I even missed Auckland's dastardly red fence. Then Phil gave me a metaphorical slap, and things are better, so it's time to write a balanced report on our new training home.

But I'm still doing Cons first...

Cons
The DARK. The all pervading constant mother-freakin dark. If we want to run around our perfectly ordinary suburb after about 5:30pm or before 7:00am, we don't just need hi-vis gear, we need rear lights and HEADLAMPS. HEADLAMPS people- for footpath running! (Auckland and Welly are both so delightfully light polluted that running in the early morning or late evening just wasn't even an issue)

...which brings me to FOOTPATHS. Or lack thereof. Most of Leamington isn't too bad, and I'm not expecting there to be footpaths in the proper country or anything, but the problem is that the footpaths MOVE, and more to the point, that it's so dark you can't see them, and they're all totally shielded from the few streetlights there are.

The FOG. The other night I was running, in the dark, with my headlamp, and all of a sudden, I couldn't see a thing, only my headlamp reflecting back at me. It was eerie and creepy and weird.

The humidity. In summer, when it was bright enough to run before and after work, it was painfully humid. But now that I'm a mature grown up who can accept running mazillion minute ks without throwing an I'm so fat and unfit tantrum, I know that humidity, like wind and heat, is just something that will make me more awesome one day.

The non-hills. Wellington and Auckland are predominantly hilly. Duh. But they both have 10+ ks of pretty much perfectly flat coast for those times when you care about measuring pace. Cambridge and Hamilton are pretty much flat. But pretty much flat is still annoying when a couple of wee hills or a false flat messes with your pace for the whole run. And it's next to impossible to map a decent and safe flat run, so the track with the teenage stoners it is!

Pros
In the weekend (and when it's light) we can drive to the country (see previous post) for some sweet, sweet running.

The cycling is pretty fantastic, apart from the dark and fog. 15 minutes of riding in pretty much whichever direction we choose and we're out in the middle of nowhere, with some fantastic climbs, roller coaster rides and some gorgeous countryside.

There are no traffic lights. When we go out for a 3 hour ride, it takes 3 hours, not 3:30! This is definitely making me fitter and stronger- my steady runs are steady runs, rather that moderate semi intervals!

So there you go.

Our strategy for making our workouts funner and more effective is to:

• do our workouts in the morning where possible- since I'm working fewer hours we've lost this habit a little
• do some of our run workouts in Hamilton, where it's not quite as dark!
• celebrate the weekends, by making our weekend runs a real treat- going offroad, driving out to ride somewhere nicerm etc.

What about you? What are the best and worst bits about your training home?

Sunday run: Cambridge

No further comment...

Ironman?

CAVEAT: This post sets out my personal opinion on what’s right for me. I’m not meaning to criticise anyone else’s decisions, but if you feel as if I’m being rude, please feel free to let me know- nicely!

Once or twice (ok, ten or twenty times) every season, and a few times every off season, I get a flash of the “should I?”s

Should I just bite the bullet and do Ironman? (well, an iron distance race… I’m a Wanaka girl at heart…)

Why not? I know it’s on my bucket list, I’ve built up a decent enough endurance base, I’m financially secure, child free, and working fairly predictable, ordinary hours. Now’s really the best time for me to take on that challenge…

But deep inside, I feel like Ironman is something that (for me) has to truly be earned, and I don’t think I’m anywhere near earning the right to race yet. I’ve always felt a little uneasy when non-runners or non-triathletes take the plunge from couch to marathon, or mini-tri to ironman. No disrepect to them- everyone chooses how they want to challenge themselves to achieve their goals, they put the hours in, and their ironman is as much of an achievement as anyone else’s, but that journey is not for me.

For me, respecting the distance and respecting the sport go hand in hand. I did 8 half marathons, and took over ten minutes off my time before I ever considered doing a full, and I think that’s the way I’ll approach Ironman too. I didn’t want to be a marathoner- I wanted to be a runner. And now, I don’t want to be an ironman- I want to be a triathlete. It’s not about how slow or fast you complete it, it’s about how seriously you take it. And for me, in my endurance sport journey, completing an ironman for the sake of striking it off the bucket list, just isn’t taking it seriously enough. I’ve said to Phil before, and I’m saying it *out loud* now:


I will not do Ironman unless or until I am fit enough to aim for a sub-13 finish (*or I turn 49, if that happens first…)

I don’t care if my first Ironman is sub-13 or not. But at this stage of my fitness, I want to know that sub 13 (or even sub 12:30) is in my reach, because that’s when I’ll know I’m ready. Does that make sense?

Stay tuned for my non-Iron race plans for the season later this week!

Guest Post!

I'm guest posting at Modernation today while Amanda rides a (full proper imperial) century. It's a post I'd been planning to use here with my tips for new cyclists, so please check it out and leave a comment there :)

Huntly Half 2010: 10k race report

Today I ran my first standalone 10k since 2007 (when I ran what's still my disappointing 10k PB of 47:54 to finally break 48:00 ).

I had no idea what to expect- apart from my recent MAF test (and a couple of super sprint tris), I haven't run faster than about a 6 minute k, or at a heart rate over 155, since I started training again in March- but I thought I could do OK. I didn't really have a *goal* per se, but I think my rough ideas were:

Exceeds expectations: anything sub 48

Outstanding: anything between 48 and about 49:30

Acceptable: anything sub 52

Poor: 53ish

Dreadful: 54-55ish

Troll: over 55

I warmed up for about 90 seconds (lame), with a few pick-ups. I found that my "fastish" pace in warm up tended to be in the mid-high 4:00s (4:37-4:40 ish), which I thought was a good sign. But my legs were feeling stiff even from the start- I definitely should be doing more stretching, as this past week hasn't exactly been a tough one, and I probably should have warmed up better too.

I seeded myself in the middle-front of the pack- in a position I think probably roughly reflected my eventual finishing time. But I saw a disturbing number of baggy capris, logo t-shirts and sensible shoes around me, and realised I'd be running right into the back of people as soon as we started. So, I skipped forward another 7 rows or so, until I felt like I was seeding myself rather optimistically. But I was STILL surrounded by muppet walkers. Sigh! Why is this a problem in every race??!!! It's not rocket science!

Luckily, it didn't take too long to get through, and within a minute or so the field had spread out pretty well. I looked down at my garmin (which was set to show lap pace, time and distance, and to autolap every 1k) and it said 4:14. Oops!

Although I've done a few half marathons recently, most of my racing has been in tris or dus and it was strange starting running on fresh-ish legs. I checked my pace so it slowed to about 4:37, but it kept sneaking down again, and I finished the first k in around 4:35 thinking either I'm going to crush my PB, or I'm going to blow up spectacularly. I hoped for the former, but suspected the latter was more likely.

I kept a more sensible pace for the next couple of ks. They were a little hillier- with about 4 wee bridge climbs over ks 1-5, and a bit off offroad grass running. Nothing to complain about, but it does slow you down maybe 5-10s a k, I think. I certainly noticed that, although my pace stayed safely in the high 4:40s/low 4:50s on the road, it crept up towards the 5:00s on the grass and gravel.

I raced a blonde girl in a baby blue t-shirt, and a guy with gross hair, a way too loose offwhite wife-beater and too much visible underarm. Really, I should have made it my aim to pass wife-beater guy and find some tastier eye candy! I think I hooked up with this group at around 3 or 4k, and I finished within probably 30s to a minute of all of them. I think the fact that, on the whole, I spent most of the race with roughly the same people suggests that although I undeniably started too fast, my gradually slowing pace was due at least in part to the changes in the course- from road, to bridge, to grass, to gravel.

I hit 5k in about 24:20, and knew a PB was out of the question. I wasn't supposed to be looking at my HR, but I caught a glimpse as I whizzed past it to check time and average overall pace at 5k, and it was in the mid 180s. I was definitely starting to feel it, but knowing I only had lap markers 6, 7 and 8 to go before I got to drop the hammer for the last km kept me moving along- and so did my ongoing race with baby blue girl!

The last few ks (I think from 7 to 9.5ish) were almost entirely on the gravel lake walkway. Although I think it slowed me down (I saw some disturbingly high 5:20s and worse during this section), I really liked the feeling of making my way around the lake- I could see roughly where the finish area was on the other side of the lake, and chipping away at the remaining distance bit by bit was remarkably satisfying (unlike at Blue Lake, where the beach seems to keep moving away as you run around the lake track!). My race with baby blue girl intensified- we were at the awkward stage where we were running at about the same pace, so neither could properly pass the other. Every time I moved to pass, I had to keep the pace up for quite a while before moving back to the left. And sure enough, as soon as I did it, she'd be ahead again- but just close enough to my pace that she felt slightly "in the way"... if that makes sense.

I finally passed her for real around the 9km marker. I knew the last k would not be over quickly, but was pretty confident I could pick up the pace a bit. I remember looking at my watch 30s or so after the autolap changed over and realising that I only had an 800 left. I remembered all of those fast 800s I did, back when I was a runner, and tried to knuckle down.

Not far before the finish line, we joined the half marathoners again. They were going for a 2 hour finish, and were cutting it pretty fine, so although we 10k-ers were a little faster, pace-wise, they were more determined. Some were just slow enough to get in the way- but the finish line of a multi-distance race is the one place where I (as a total mid-packer*) don't think the usual "slow gives way to fast" rules apply. If they've run 11ks more than me, I'm not going to get too irritated if they're in my space! I had enough in me to start a couple of sprint-offs with some of the half-marathoners- but not quite enough in the legs to keep them up. Ah well- I feel good knowing I spurred a couple of people to finish 3-5s faster than they might otherwise have ;)

In the end, I crossed the finish line at somewhere around 49:40 on the clock. I probably crossed the mats 10-15 seconds after the gun, so I guess my net time might just slip into the 49:20s, which would be nice. My garmin time is 49:08. That's wrong (I started it a little after the start mats because the damn thing switched off JUST as the gun went off), but if I extrapolate it, I end up with 49:26 or so, so I guess 10-15s off is about right. I suppose that instead of trying to conjure up an answer, I can just wait and see what the official time is!

So, I guess that puts me somewhere between acceptable and outstanding. It certainly feels like an "acceptable" effort to me. But "acceptable" is pretty good really, for an unfit and overweight me!

Splits, for Paul:

AHR 178	0 X	1.00	@ 00:04:37
183	0 X	1.00	@ 00:04:48
182	0 X	1.00	@ 00:04:54
184	0 X	1.00	@ 00:04:55
185	0 X	1.00	@ 00:05:04
184	0 X	1.00	@ 00:05:06
184	0 X	1.00	@ 00:05:11
185	0 X	1.00	@ 00:04:58
186	0 X	1.00	@ 00:05:07
188	0 X	0.93	@ 00:04:25

*of course, it'd be a whole different kettle of fish if I were actually WINNING the 10k and some slow-ass half walkers were in my way. Then there'd be swearing.

An easy ride

Today's ride was bliss. Because I'm "racing" tomorrow, coach allowed me an easy run or ride, so instead of riding any of our usual hilly loops (Kairangi, Te Miro/French Pass or Maungatautari) we cruised through Cambridge for an out and back towards Te Miro.

The weather was just perfect- clear, sunny and pretty still, and just crisp enough to put our knee and arm warmers on. After 45 minutes, we'd just started to hit the hills, but they were still nice spinny ones and although they screwed our average "out" pace, pedaling fast and hard on the downhill on the way back well made up for it :)

Anyway, there's no great story in this. It was just nice to do an easy ride for a change, and to come back with a semi-respectable average speed for a change too! It was a nice reminder that our shared love of hills mean the routes we usually ride are actually not that easy, and that I'm not quite as slow as I think I am.

Stay tuned for:

• a "race" report; and
  
• my very first guest post
  

Happy weekend everyone!

PS: I've added some "Pages" at the top of the blog. If you're new or just curious, have a look!

Blogland etiquette and a promise

Updated: check this link out. Rachel says it so much better than I do.

First, I should say that I'm not saying this in response to any one incident- anyone who knows me in real life can testify that I've held these views for a long time.

Blogland etiquette has been a subject of interest recently. It seems that, all too frequently, I see bloggers responding to "critical" comment,s or- frankly- anything other than a simpering, "way to go", by playing the victim, and all of their friends jump in to support them, or to take down the "troll."

I'm not talking about rudeness, or meanness. I've seen some horrific comments left on people's blogs, and "trolls" are not some fantasy creature. Reading someone's blog even though they irk the crap out of you, so that you can leave them offensive and nasty comments is never OK. I don't think the fact that a blogger has put his or herself out there is reason enough to abuse them, or treat them with anything other than respect.

But, at the same time, sometimes bloggers, like all people, do things that are wrong. And readers have a right to their own opinion on those things. Bloggers have a lot to gain from attracting as many internet "friends" as possible, and letting them into their lives. When readers come back to a blog again and again, it's because they feel like the blogger's friend, or they wish they were the blogger's friend, and the blogger has succeeded as a personal/exercise/food blogger by cultivating that artificial friendship.

If you want someone's compliments on your race reports, you have to accept their constructive criticism, their frustration and their disappointment, unless it is expressed in a rude or hateful way. If your decisions affect the people who have invested emotionally and financially in you, expect them to hold opinions on those decisions and to react to them. The old adage "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" is helpful, but it has its limitations.

The problem is that if anyone who says anything negative is turned into a "troll", the blog is going to become less and less realistic, and more and more of a fairy tale. Commenters start lying, rather than risking the wrath of the blog world.

My favourite example of this is the food blogger who recently complained about the lack of hummus and falafel at a local Greek restaurant. I don't think any commenter had the guts to point out that hummus and falafel, while delicious, are not Greek! Now, this blogger is not an example of someone who overreacts to criticism- in fact, I've seen her handle it with real class - the example is just there to illustrate the nervousness commenters seem to feel about saying anything remotely controversial.

Maybe this is easier for me to say- I've never been a famous blogger and I never will be. I'll probably never get an offensive comment (*unless too many people read here and assume I'm bagging one of their own*), and I've never had anything other than friendly, well-meaning advice, from my few friends and readers. I have no doubt that I'd be hurt if I did get told off. I'd be hurt if a real life friend told me I was behaving badly, too!

But guys, dear readers of mine, I'll tell you now that you can feel free to tell me to pull my head in when I need it, offer me advice, disagree with any rant or rave I publish, or correct any misguided advice I give. If you're a walker and it upsets you when I complain about clogged race starts? Go ahead and tell me. Maybe I'll learn something. If you're a swimmer with an explanation for the lane hog behaviour I hate- I'd love to know how to understand things better. If you think I'm training too hard/too easy, too long/too short or too slow/too fast. In fact, if you want to tell me to stop bitching about my weight until I'm willing to stop laying off the beer and the curly fries would help me drop the kilos- go for it. But don't call me a fat, moany, knowitall b*tch. Say it nicely, say it with respect, and I hereby undertake to respect you right back.


Who's with me?

Cycling: a progress report

My cycling hasn't received a lot of attention here recently, but it's going well.

I built myself a real base last year, and I'm feeling like I'm actually making new gains now, rather than starting over again. I know, it's kinda obvious, but it feels as if I've now finally turned a corner with my cycling, once and for all. I've said goodbye to scared-y Kate once and for all (though there are some things I'll NEVER like), and I'm learning how to avoid hitting my cycling wall as the rides get longer.

Here's what's been happening this week, cycling wise:

Monday: 45 boring minutes on the trainer. No comment- except that I'm now riding my trainer on resistance level 2, after spending the last couple of years on "L" (i.e: not even 1)

Wednesday: 55 minutes of spin at the Cambridge Tavern. We do an aerobic workout not too dissimilar to the sessions Paul gives us- with one-legged drills, some super-spinning, and plenty of big gear work. Oh, and lots of choice nineties music to listen to. The reason I want to talk about spin is because it's made me realise just how much stronger I am now. I watch my HR and my cadence on my Garmin, and when we do our big gear work, it just seems I don't have enough gears ;) On Wednesday, I was working hard not to overdo it, because I was shocked by the gears I was riding, but every time Mark visited me, he'd flick my gears UP. I almost had a heart attack when he pointed out I was riding in a higher gear than Phil, and asked if I kicked his ass on the road!! But then we realised it's because Phil's sadistic trainer increases the resistance exponentially when he's producing more power.. Oh well- I was stoked for a few seconds there!

Saturday : Saturday was our longest ride so far. Phil planned a fairly unforgiving 72k loop, that took in most of the half ironman course (basically, we did the Maungatautari loop from Roto-o-rangi Road, but skipped Norwegian Rd, and finished at home, not in town!) Our legs were stuffed when we started, but we soon started feeling much, and on the whole, it was one of my most successful "long rides" ever. The hills in this route weren't as brutal as the hills on our usual Cambridge rides (Norwegian/Kairangi and Te Miro/French Pass), but there were definitely some steep climbs, and it was one of those rides that was very rarely flat, so you were always concentrating, or climbing, or recovering. The main things I noticed about this ride were that my climbing cadence was much higher than usual, and that I wasn't struggling as much to keep up with Phil. Phil's average power for the ride was 137, and his normalised power was 174, I think. That's pretty good for a "with Kate" ride, and although my numbers would obviously be lower (I'm usually a little behind, and Kate+bike weighs- a wee bit- less than Phil+bike), I can still use Phil's numbers as an OK indicator of my performance, relative to other rides with Phil). One thing I can now say for sure is that I won't be doing the Karapiro half, at least not for a PB!

Sunday: We did our Norwegian/Kairangi/Norwegian route. It's a lovely country loop (including some bits of the Half IM course) with some jolly steep climbs, some fun and some technical descents, and what is (usually) a very fun roller coaster (but wasn't so fun with a headwind). We were both pleasantly surprised by how good we felt after yesterday's efforts and, although our pace was slow, our average and normalised power were pretty good (average 128, norm 172).

So, all in all, a very solid week of cycling, building up on some other pretty solid weeks. Cycling at the moment is my favourite discipline- who ever would have thought it??

In which Hotpotato runs her MAF test and tries not to inhale

Coach Paul has added regular MAF tests into our training, starting from this month. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, visit Phil Maffetone's website (watch out for the dinky music) and this article here.

Briefly, the MAF test is done on a flat piece of road or athletics track. You warm up for (say) 15 minutes, then run 8km at the upper end of your aerobic zone (for me, around 165 bpm), recording each km split, and your average HR for each km.

Phil and I decided to try out the Cambridge track for our MAF test this evening. Since it's so bloody dark and Cambridge spent all its money on freakin' trees instead of streetlighting, we loaded ourselves up with lights (Phil was kind enough to lend me his headlamp, and he ran carrying a MTB light in his hand..)

As soon as we got to the track, it started persisting down. Then we discovered that the Cambride athletics track is made of grass. Great. Running around in the grass and the mud for an hour. Probably not the best "test" surface either, but by this stage it was too late, there wasn't anywhere else we could go, so we sucked it up, and got moving. Oh- and even better. The grass on the track wasn't the only grass around. Some wee Cambridge miscreant was partaking in the space between the track and the neighbouring football field, and the smell was just short of overwhelming every time we looped past!

I found that the 8k main set went by fairly quickly, even though I was running around and around and around a grassy circle. It was quite interesting to identify the *slow* areas in the loop, and to watch my speed pick up while my HR went down in the *fast* areas. As Phil lapped me for the third time, he confirmed that he was finding the same thing.

Anyhoo, the point is to compare progress over time, so here are my splits, for posterity.

AHR 164 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:29
AHR 166 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:36
AHR 165 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:38
AHR 166 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:35
AHR 166 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:41
AHR 166 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:38
AHR 167 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:40
AHR 167 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:42

I'm actually pleased with this. Well, it's roughly what I expected to see, anyway. And based on previous research into MAF and race times, it suggests my 5k race pace would be 21:45, which would be a pretty epic PB for me (20s better than my best ever, and about 1:30 better than most of my recent efforts). Huh! Yeah, right!

MaxWell Overture

Hey-ho, do you know
That mountain biking is really neat
A day in the trails is such a treat
Away from it all, you’ll have a ball
And just pray you don’t have a fall….

A little shaky on A-trail
then Tickler was an epic fail
gripped handlebars til my knuckles were pale
then up and up at the pace of a snail

from frontal lobotomy we had to get down
so we hucked our way down Huckleberry Hound
my love for rollovers was newfound
and adrenaline rushed as we rode around…

…Corners with its sweeping berms
and rutted, rooty, crazy turns
I swooped and whooped into the ferns
and up the climbs, I felt the burn

We split for the next half an hour
cos D decided to devour
Chop Suey, Spring Roll, and Sweet and Sour
while I stuck to the roads (because I am slower)

Then it was time to end our ride
Our spouses were waiting and our legs were fried
So after Dragon’s Tail, we turned and sighed
And rode back to base bursting with pride!

But of course we could not go away
without coming out for another play
so we went back for more the very next day
for more adventures- hip hip hooray!

PS: not the original post, I couldn't face writing that novel again!
PPS: I hope you can figure out the tune for this, leave a comment or email me if you want a hint!

Dammit

A long, long, LONG post about my MTB adventures on Saturday (with links to all the trails I rode, and videos and EVERYTHING) is ALL GONE.

I'll be back later- but now it's time to drink tea, eat homemade ginger kisses, and watch Modern Family.

*sigh*

Out of my depth

Phil and I went along to the Hamilton Hawks evening run after work tonight. Phil's been once before, but I missed it because I was in Rotorua for work.

For those of you who haven't who been around since 2005, this was by no means my first foray into club running, so I thought I knew what to expect. I ran with Wellington Scottish (aka best, most awesome running club in NZ) for a couple of seasons when I first started running, and tried my best to maintain my links with them when I started finding Saturday runs more difficult to fit around work and my long Sunday marathon runs.

... but it turns out that the Hawks' Thursday night run was a far cry from my Scottish mid week runs. When I turned up, I noticed a whole lotta tights, compression sleeves and compression socks, and a whole lot of dudes. There were maybe 5 women there, with an average weight of 40-something kilos, and an average body fat percentage of about 12%.

I realised pretty quickly that I wouldn't be able to stick with the group, so just took off and let myself drift back. Before too long, I met an injured ultra marathoner who was kind enough to run with me, a good few minutes behind the rest of the pack, and a hundred metres or so behind the tail end charlie. But it was a mixed blessing, as my new friend's "easy, lagging, recovery" pace was a little over 5:00/ks, even on the undulating course.

I let my ego get the better of me, and, miraculously managed to bluff it for the 7-odd ks we ran togetherjust well enough to hold a semi-comfortable conversation, without puffing too much.

We finished the loop at an average pace of about 5:15/k (AHR 173), and I jogged back for about ten minutes to find Phil, bringing my average pace and HR to more sensible levels.

So, won't be doing that again! (but I am secretly happy that I could hold a semi-respectable pace while chatting and running some wee hills....)

Training together, apart

Now that Phil and I live together, we don't need to spend quite as much of our training time together.

But it's still good to run and ride together when we can, and our training plans are co-ordinated so we are doing roughly the same things one the same days. But running with Phil means I'm huffing and puffing and certainly not running in E1. Or it means he has to run so slowly he's practically walking, which leads to him getting injured because it throws off his gait.

So, we're finding new ways to train together, apart. We've been warming up together, then splitting up, running an out and back, then "cooling down" together, or trying to run loops that will mean we bump into each other part way through.

We discovered a goody the other day. About 2 minutes into our ride, Phil realised he'd forgotten the pump, so he headed home to get it while I rode on. I tried to hold a decent enough pace so he didn't catch up to me too quickly, while he hauled some serious ass to catch up with me by the time I got to the hilly loop that makes up most of our usual ride (he didn't succeed).... So by the time he joined me again, he'd worked a bit harder than usual and was happy to cruise up the hills with me (it helps that my climbing legs have come back pretty quickly)

Pride kept us both motivated while we were apart, and by the time we met I was feeling confident- stoked that I'd held him off for so long, and he was feeling chuffed enough with himself not to get frustrated with me. We got to spend the tail end of our ride gabbing away on the country roads, enjoying the late summer, late afternoon sun.

Training WIN!