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I oma ahau ki te mahi

Running to work has definitely proven to be far simpler than I envisioned over the last couple of years. I thought it would be a slog, too hard to get up, too hard to run without a proper meal/coffee. Instead, I have been wakin gup at 5.50, alarm out of reach, coffee on, toilet stop, read the news and head out. Listening to podcasts and audiobooks means that the time is doubly productive. I'm almost TOO good! Haven't really pumped out a proper long run in the last two weeks. I think my legs are still getting up to speed with the big jump in distance from this time last term, but hopefully this weekend I will do a 26+km run on Sunday. No real aches or pains, slight niggle in the knee after a run but it goes away if I stretch properly. Just need to ensure I am following the routine. Funny how it is fine for some people to talk about going for a run in the afternoon as if it is a great thing, when I say I ran to work people act like I'm king of the blaggarts!

Two Weeks in

Two weeks in and feeling good. Have pumped up the Kilometres with my work commute schedule, although last Thursday's double up was tiring - so the rest day on Friday before driving down to Rotorua for the half was welcome. Tough work setting the 1 hour 30 pace for the half. Course is flat for the first 4km then a 100m incline just before hitting the trails. Cue lots of hills, tight turns and a complete lack of working GPS. Ended up hitting the last couple of kms under 4 minutes, but came in at 1.29.36 Body is feeling great considering I have hit higher milage than ever before. Will be interesting to see how it continues over the winter months. Haven't been doing any speedwork yet, hopefully will introduce some on Wednesday afternoons.

Saturday 27th

Nearly a  week down in my first week of base training. Feeling absolutely fine at 96 kms for this week, averaging around 4.45 pace. Keeping things easy. Yesterday I was supposed to do an hour at a ‘steady’ pace but couldn't do the pace I wanted. Ideally I should be doing these at around 4 minute pace but just didn’t have it in me. I think this is largely due to the hangover I had from Wednesday night. Lots of beers, rums, other substances all combined to leave me with a terrible sleep Wednesday night. I still battled out a 19kmish run on Thursday but definitely didn’t push myself and I think the evening still had an effect on me on Friday. Today (Saturday) felt good the whole way – again, didn’t push anything but did an hour twenty run. Tomorrow I am supposed to do 2 hrs 30 or 3 hours running. Will see how this afternoon goes watching footy – might end up plowing on into more beers throughout the day which could throw a spanner in the works. Either way, I will have to head out

The Beginning

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It sounds so easy when planning on Holidays and reading from the book. Run Once a day, sometimes twice. Run long, sometimes run quick.   Run up hills. Stretch. 100kms a week – around about 8 or 9 hours. Yet I know it won’t be that easy. Firstly, I can be weak when it comes to getting stuck in. I’m going to need to be tough, hence the idea of running to work and cycling sometimes. If I can do that once every day, boom, 65ks a week, plus an extra run on Wednesday. And it should only really add half an hour total to my commute time – a win -win. First run yesterday, 13 km in 1 hour. Easy. Did two 200 metre splits – one was 28, one was 36. We’ll start in the middle and say I can do one in 32 seconds as a baseline. The goal is to get that to 28 seconds, which would be fuckin quick – 1.06 half marathon. Reality is a bit different. Below are my ‘current’ race paces according to Jack Daniels. I have 7 weeks of basebuilding to go. I will run a parkrun on the Saturday before the