overflow » Running

Chorlton-cum-Hardy

ames — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:29:39 +0000

Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a suburb about 10-15 minutes out of Manchester’s central city. It has this amazing park called Chorlton (or Ivy) Green which links Chorlton to Didsbury and Sale. There are loads of waterways, and paths to run, cycle or walk around. I explored a little of it last weekend with KC but can’t wait to don my running shoes and explore more. It’s a massive area, so will take a few runs or rides!

The compulsory bicycle shot

Back on two wheels

ames — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:22:28 +0000

Since I have been focusing on running I’ve barely ridden my bike. Often only once a week for the last two months, aside from fixie commuting. Each week I’ve noticed a gradual reduction in cycling fitness, and my average heart rate steadily climbed. Since the Onehunga run, I haven’t run – in fact I can’t! My physio banned me from running as I have peroneal tendonitis which is going to take at least 4-weeks to heal. I can’t stand the thought of getting unfit so this week I threw myself back on the road in the rain and hail. I don’t mind winter riding too much. It used to bug me racing in the rain, wet and cold. In fact it turned out to be the reason I flagged winter club racing. That was when I had to train in the rain. Now there is more choice in it. I want to train in the rain because I want to ride my bike. Same weather, different attitude.

Mission accomplished

ames — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:37:17 +0000

For 4-months I’ve been pounding the pavement training for the Onehunga Half Marathon. Injury put woe to the Half, but I continued on training for the 10k event instead. My goal was 55:00 or an average of 5:30min/km. It was going to be tough, especially given I injured my foot last weekend. The physio said that I could run if it didn’t hurt on a little 3k jog the day before, and it didn’t so I lined up. About 3-4km into it I could feel my foot welling up (bugger it), but carried on anyway as I was running to schedule.

The physio might be a little annoyed, but hey, I’m giving them work to do! The last 3-km was particularly hard but I knew that a couple of people I wanted to beat were only 50-100 metres behind me so it was game on, finishing ahead of them and in 54:23 – ahead of my goal. Woohoo!

I can barely walk now but hey Sunday afternoons are for relaxing, right?

Woe to Gazelle week 9

ames — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 03:54:38 +0000

Forcing my body into awkward positions and re-training my posture like a kid about to be smacked has paid dividends. No more calf pain, and I’m back into my stride with 3 runs a week. Phew. I have only 6 weeks until the Half so I’m still not sure if I can in fact do the Half. Nonetheless worst case scenario I will do the 10k.

The mighty Waikato river

This week was an adventure. We went down to Hamilton for a wedding and I did my favourite type of running: point to point. Even on my bicycle I liked the idea of setting off from point A to point B. I don’t really know why, but I like it. Hamilton presented me with a misty morning thick enough to give a teenager an awful fright as I huffed and puffed through the mist behind her. She suddenly cowered, looking behind to see if she was about to be run over by a truck, or attacked by a dog. No, it was just me puffing.

Hamilton is great for running because it is so incredibly flat, allowing confidence to grow as 30 minutes feels easy and the endorphins are filling the veins. Loved it.

I love the new year

ames — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:08:20 +0000

It’s like walking into a shop you’ve never been into. A whole raft of possibilities await! And as corny as it sounds, I love writing my list of things of what I want to achieve for the year.

Hangovers from 08:
- Run a half marathon (hopefully the Onehunga half – I’ve made a bet with one of my clients so it’s locked in now! I can’t avoid it anymore.
- Get an iPhone. Of course there are materialistic gadget purchases on the list.
- Write another book.

New Editions:
- Get an old Leica M6 or M7 film camera. The Manolo Blahnik of cameras. Then eventually an M series digital. Probably an M9 by the time I save up enough… I think most modern SLR’s are ugly. So a rangefinder classic looking camera is more my style. Superficial – yes. But I don’t care.
- Travel Asia for a significant period of time.
-Garmin Forerunner for running. Yep, another gadget. I was born for gadgets…
-Europe is a must.
- A photopgraphy course.
- A writing course.
- Learn French.
-Continue to live within my means!
-Do do nothing, a lot. I spend to much time “doing” and it’s exhausting.
-Stop buying Moleskines. I have too many.

An ominous sign perhaps?

ames — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 06:42:57 +0000

We went to watch my sisters friend, Annalise, do her first full marathon today. She did 3:39. Damn impressive I reckon. It’s always inspiring to watch people do events such as this. So much so I trotted out for my 3k run happy as, thinking, OMG 42.2kms must hurt like hell, and how pathetic my 3k felt like an effort!