super generic girl

the awesomely average life of a girl like all others

Category Archives: running


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people are awesome

Will you just check out that fully-coloured progress bar?

Three weeks after starting our fundraising mission for KidsCan, and one week before the big day, we reached our $1000 target! I am super thankful to everyone who has contributed and will be thinking of them and their support when I’m out on that trail feeling like giving up. So thanks all for being amazing and helping us out. The fundraising page will be up for another couple of days so if anyone is keen to take us over our goal, that’d be awesome-times-infinity, of course. In any case, one of the beers I’ll have right after the run this coming Saturday will definitely be for all of you who’ve donated.


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the home stretch and delusional marathon dreams

random photo from our first ever trail run which happened in the same area as this weekend’s run, about seven months ago. We hated it then. Good news is that we didn’t hate it quite so much this time. YAY!

This saturday morning, I glanced at the clock on my computer screen just as the digits changed from 8:59 to 9:00. Oh shit, I thought to myself. It dawned on me that, exactly 14 days from that very moment, I’d be on the start line for the hardest most challenging run I’ve ever done. And so, in good old vera fashion, I panicked a little bit inside. And then I calmed the hell down because, really, what are you gonna do, right?

I’ve spent the past month and a half training for that day which is now a mere 12 days away. I should have trained for longer but that is how late we heard about and signed up for the run. I should also probably have run more. But if you take into consideration the fact that, two days ago, I couldn’t even bend my right knee and spent a super rock ‘n roll saturday night at home icing it, then I guess it’s fair to say I’ve been working my way through this self-imposed training schedule. And all those “I should have” are not worth stressing about anymore.

On Sunday morning, we clocked 17km along Riverhead forest, in West Auckland. It still amazes me that I have so many options for trail running so close to home. I guess that really is part of what living in New Zealand is all about. But, anyway, I digress.

After that run, we headed home and spent some time looking up marathons online. There are some amazing runs out there in the big wide world and we figure our first marathon needs to be in a pretty special location. We’re toying with some ideas at the moment for marathons we can run in a couple of years’ time. For example, we found one that crosses three countries. Between that and the French marathon that has wine stations instead of water stations, it’ll be a hard decision. And then there’s also the Great Wall of China marathon. Walking along the wall is challenging enough but it is, to this day, one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Running a marathon on it would definitely top that by quite a few extra awesomeness points.

At one point, I looked at the link for a marathon in Siberia and said it would be amazing to do something like that. Stacey quickly pointed out that I had just described running 42.2km across Siberia as “amazing” which I guess should be enough to claim some sort of mental health disability benefit.

And now that I’ve rambled on enough about training and countdowns and fun marathons that are too far from my budget and OMFG ONLY 12 DAYS TO GO, I’m going to remind you that you can still donate and help us raise money for KidsCan. Do you hate New Zealand children? I didn’t think so.


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route changes and a new heart-attack-shaped elevation chart

The Big O Trail Run is now a big X, due to some necessary last minute changes to the route. Blame it on the new landowner of part of the original route (which circled Lake Okataina), who decided he/she didn’t want any stinking runners going through his/her property. This is the bit where I kind of want to write a fairly long rant about that person’s attitudes towards a running event that had been happening there for years but I’m going to stay all zen and shit and not say a word about it. On the bright side, we will now run past the same point (the event centre) twice during the run, meaning we will not only see people twice but we will also have a chance to refuel if we need to (and I definitely will need to because there is no way I can carry enough water for 35km).

The changes to the course also mean, obviously, changes to the elevation chart. I had all my fingers and toes crossed for that bastard hill at the start of the original route to disappear but… nope! It’s still here, in all its steep glory. I have never in my life run 35km, let alone 35km offroad. But to be honest, the elevation chart scares me far more than the distance. Look at all those threatening pointy bits!

Sixteen days to the big day. We continue to do light runs on weekdays and longer runs on weekends, as per our super amateur self-imposed training plan. We will do one long trail run this coming weekend (location TBC) and the, the following weekend (the final weekend before the run of doom), we will enter the Shakespear Regional Park trail run, part of the XTERRA Auckland Trail Run series. After that, it’ll be tapering and carb loading time (quite possibly my two favourite parts of the training).

We’re also continuing to collect donations for KidsCan here so do donate if you feel like doing something nice (or if I know where you live and you don’t want any unpleasant surprises).


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on why I’m going to harden up and become a running commuter (sometimes)

I’m not a dumb person. No, really, I swear. Yet, for some crazy reason, it took me over a year to actually decide to get organised and run home from work. It’s not that genius of an idea now, is it? I mean, running with a purpose, from point A to point B – that’s pretty straightforward. And really, it’s actually quite logical to think of running as a means of getting somewhere, more than just running for the sake of running. However, the thought had only crossed my mind for a few seconds a couple of times before quickly being discarded because the logistics of it all just sounded too complicated. Spoiler alert: they actually aren’t.

On Wednesday, I bought the hydration backpack that I’m going to wear during the run of doom on OMG TWENTY ONE DAYS. It’s a 9L backpack (that includes the 2L hydration bladder) so it’s got room for a few things without being too bulky. I wanted to try it out but had no real reason to, with my running buddy going away for the weekend and us being a few days away from hitting the trails for a proper long training run again. That’s when the little lightbulb lit up above my head. I could use the backpack to commute home from work. Freaking genius, I thought.

I realise it’s not something everyone can do but I live less than 10km from work so, really, any excuse I can come up with should be overruled by the fact that I’m just a big fat wuss. There are actually two routes that I can choose from (short and hilly-ish or long (well, 12km) and flat). On Friday morning, I wore clothes that I could easily fold into my backpack (plus a long coat that I had to leave at work) and got on the bus to work with my backpack. At home, I left my usually heavy-as-bricks shoulder bag with most of the stuff I usually carry (clearly unnecessarily). The backpack had some food, my debit card, ID, keys, iPod, phone and phone charger, as well as running clothes. I got changed into these after work and headed out the door before it started getting dark.

I chose short & hilly and ran 8.5km home. These days, it gets dark pretty early in Auckland so it was almost pitch black by the time I got home but the short route is also busy with lots of cars so I never felt unsafe. It was cold, though, and that was the main reason I headed for the short route rather than the long one when I left the office.

After the cold (must remember to pack an extra layer), the second most annoying thing about this commute were the traffic lights. Of course I got them all red. I could see the sky getting darker and darker as I waited for the lights to turn green for pedestrians while I looked at the driving commuters all nice and warm in their air conditioned cars. I got home about 45 minutes after leaving the office. It seemed longer than that because, once it started getting dark, there wasn’t much for me to look at anyway so it got a bit boring. But then I realised that, on some days (most days, actually), that is pretty much the duration of my commute home anyway. Except this time I managed to save money, squeeze in an outdoors workout (and skipping the late night gym workout) and lower my carbon footprint. Because I didn’t feel like I had to workout that evening, I also got extra time to do whatever else I wanted to do (read: lie on the couch eating pop tarts and re-watching HIMYM episodes. Don’t judge!).

It was only 8.5km but it made all the difference in my training week overall and, for that reason too, it is something I am going to make an effort to incorporate into my routine at least a couple of times a week. I don’t like the idea of running to work in the morning (having to shower at work would mean I’d have to get up earlier and be more organised, two things that are never going to happen). But an evening commute sounds easy enough and means I can no longer use the short winter days or work as an excuse not to run. This way, work actually almost becomes a reason to run.


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adventures in trail running – rangitoto romp

Training for your first long distance trail run means, among other things, no more weekend mornings in bed. This sunday was no exception. I was out of bed at 7am to give me time to have coffee, eat and prepare my trail mix for the morning’s adventure: the rangitoto romp. After a quick stop at the bakery (if a trail run isn’t an excuse to start your day with a chocolate log, then I don’t know what is!), we made our way to the ferry building to get on the 9:30 ferry. The trip takes less than half an hour so we hit the trail just before the clock hit 10am.

As usual, starting was the hardest part for me. The first couple of kilometers were hard and my heavy legs really wanted to run back to the ferry and back home and back to bed. But after that, it all turned amazing pretty quickly. It helps that Rangitoto is a real special place – a 600 year old volcano, so young that raw lava and scoria still forms the majority of the terrain on the island. The loose scoria made for some tricky bits along the run. What you see above is a photo of one of the easy parts, really. A lot of our time was spent watching where we put our feet because, really, breaking both legs would not really contribute positively to our training.

We made it back to Auckland on the lunch time ferry feeling a lot better about running and life in general. My calf muscles were still a little bit sore from Wednesday’s run and so, to try to recover a little bit faster, I hardened up and bought a 3kg bag of ice from the petrol station on the way home. Add icing leg muscles on a cold day to the list of things I don’t like doing.

S. had done this run before on the same day I ran the Whenuapai half marathon and she didn’t exactly have fond memories of it. Fortunately, we changed that today. To make this training day even better, we have now reached $450 in donations, meaning we are nearly halfway to our target! If you haven’t helped out yet, please do so. If you have, you rock our sweaty little running socks off. Gross, I know. I’ll shut up now.


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every kilometer counts and so does every dollar

While out in the Waitakere wilderness on Wednesday (aren’t alliterations just so much fun? No? Ok then), S. and I talked a lot about how motivation plays a big part in getting ready for what will be the biggest challenge of our lives so far. Sure, our bodies need to be fit, but a big part of it (maybe the biggest) is nothing to do with fitness. We’re motivated to push ourselves but that personal goal, albeit massive, isn’t quite enough.

So we decided we needed a bigger purpose. Instead of running 35km in the forest just so we become officially the most badass people we know, we’ve decided to do it for another reason too, and a much more meaningful one at that. After debating about it for a while and coming up with different ideas, we settled on fundraising for the KidsCan Charitable Trust and raise money for children in need in New Zealand.

I don’t want to go all Mother Teresa on you, you see. But I know that when I’m out on that trail, I’ll be as desperate as I will ever have felt in my life and I’ll probably want to give up. Lots of times. No, more times than those. So, in a way, this isn’t completely selfless. Doing this run for KidsCan will mean that, when it gets really, really tough and I feel like I can’t push it any further, I’ll have some extra motivation in my mind.

This is where you come in. We have set up a fundraising page which will be open for donations over the course of the next four weeks, as we prepare for the big day. If you can, please help us help KidsCan. We put the page up last night and already had a few donations come through and I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate every single one of them and how much every single one of those people who have taken the time to support this cause will be on my mind during that run. Each of those dollars going to KidsCan is another reason for me to get out there and run.

So if you can spare a dollar (or a bit more), please head to our page and click the donate button. It’s super quick and easy, every single cent goes straight to KidsCan, and you’ll get about 3456 karma points in return. I’ll think of you as I drag my sorry self up and down those god forsaken hills.

P.s.: For more information on KidsCan, head over here. They explain it way better than me.

P.p.s.: We’ll be posting updates on the fundraising page and I’m probably going to go all trail-running obsessed on you over here for a while. If I don’t die on that trail, I promise to go back to sometimes writing non-running related posts again. Pinky promise!


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a last minute off-road half marathon

You know how sometimes you ask people why they do a certain thing and they answer “because I can”? Yeah, that’s not why I signed up for this 35km trail run. Quite the opposite, actually. I signed up because I didn’t (don’t) think I can do it. Which is exactly why I’m going to try.

Today we are exactly one month away from the big day. Am I ready? Not even close. But of all things I’ve tried to do to somehow prepare for this, running an off-road half marathon for the first time in my life yesterday was, by far, the best one.

It was a last minute decision, made after a short night run with S. on Monday after work. We sported some sexy head torches and headed up and down beach reserves along the harbour, when we realised we’d have a public holiday just two days later. I was jet lagged after flying in from the US the day before from a week of very little running and so the idea of running 21km in the forest on Wednesday sounded nothing short of a nightmare. So I agreed to it.

And then came Wednesday morning. We set on the track after grabbing some sugary goodness from a bakery on our way to the beautiful Waitakere Ranges. After stuffing down a strawberry jam and cream pancake while trying not to die on a windy gravel road on our way to the Whatipu car park, we started running.

And then about 1km into it, I stopped (for the nth time). My legs were as heavy as rocks and I was breathing like someone in the middle of a full-blown asthma attack. So I panicked and threw a tantrum, of course. Told S. I’d wait for her in the car, that trail running was not for me and I was done with it, that there was no way I could ever do it. S. did her part and told me to snap out of it. She said I could do it, that it was all in my head. Don’t tell her I said this but, yeah, she was right. She must have been right because we ended up running our little hearts out in that bush and loving pretty much all of it.

It helped that the landscape was breathtakingly beautiful (giving us an excuse to stop every now and then for some photos) and it also helped that the weather was nice.  It also helped that, rather than being the chickens I wanted us to be when we took off, we ended up making the decision of running the whole damn thing (we had the chance to cut it down to 15km at an intersection and still decided not to).

I had to keep reminding myself to breathe properly and yes we did walk when the inclines were too strenuous for our poor little legs. But we also ran. And ran. And ran. And, about halfway through it, I even admitted how much I was enjoying myself, prompting S. to remind me of my little brain spasm at the start of the track.

So yesterday, after a month of training (with a week to forget, training-wise, in the US), I ran my first ever off-road half marathon. I got home with very sweaty clothes, mud and even blood on my legs , I swallowed a bug in the process (whatevs, extra protein, right?).  But S. was right, it was all in my head. And once I convinced myself that I was going to do it, I did it.


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whenuapai half marathon recap – a bittersweet PR

last sunday, april 1, I woke up before the sun to some very sad news from home – news you never want to get, especially when you’re half a world away. I had two hours until I had to be at the start line for the Whenuapai half marathon and felt like doing anything but running. Except there was nothing else for me to do because this distance from home is a son of a bitch. So I added a tissue to my half marathon kit and headed out the door and to that start line.

I thought maybe if I focused on what was going on at home it would actually, in some twisted way, helped me get the run over and done with. I was wrong. It was brutal and the fact that all I wanted to do was be home with my family meant I could not get my mind off the fact I was nowhere near where I wanted to be.

So this ended up being my least enjoyable half marathon to date. I wanted to give up a couple of times after the 18km mark, my legs felt nearly as heavy as my heart and the sun felt like it was burning my face. And yet, this was my best time. It was just 2:05, nothing to write home about, and it actually came as quite a disappointment (I spent the first half of the run thinking a sub-2h half would finally happen and ended up getting too tired and having to run a slower second half).

There was a sweet brunch in the sun with friends afterwards that slightly made up for the suckiness of the run but it definitely wasn’t a day I’m going to want to remember.

Still, half-marathon number two for the year (and fourth overall) can be ticked off the list. Bring on the next one!


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I seem to have signed up for a 35km trail run in 2 months’ time

Oh hi, still there? Awesome. How’s it going? Done anything stupid lately?

Me? Oh, where to start?

Well, a couple of weeks ago, my friend P. told me he had a ticket to the Whenuapai half marathon for April 1. At first I read the email and thought “nope, not doing a half marathon in two weeks’ time without any training”. Then I thought about it some more. When I think too much, stupid stuff happens. So now I’m one sleep away from running my fourth half marathon in less than 12 months, this time with almost zero training (my longest run since the February half marathon was 10km long).

Then, last Monday, while I was at work not even pretending to cope well with last minute deadline-y stuff, an email came through from S. suggesting a 35km run in the forest taking place in exactly two months time. I read her email a good two or three times (ok, maybe ten) to make sure I wasn’t in some sort of work deadline-induced hallucination stage. It still sounded like she wanted to do a 35km trail run. So I called her to make sure she wasn’t the one who was high on something. She hasn’t admitted to it but she has to be doing drugs because I called and she confirmed that I’d read the email right.

Somehow, within two minutes of that phone conversation, I had registered and paid for this insanity too. And then proceeded to feel light-headed and panicky for the following, oh I don’t know, 76 hours.

Now that I’ve had time to sleep on it, well, nothing much has changed really. I continue to think this is, by far, the stupidest idea ever (and I’ve had some really stupid ideas so that’s saying something) and I continue to have no clue about how I’m going to survive that.

I mean, COME ON! My longest distance so far is 21.1km. On road. An even surface. And you might still remember the time I ran a 9km trail run and wanted to die afterwards. I don’t run uphills very well at all. This 35km run has a number of them, including a peak of 700m before we even reach the 5km mark. It calls for mandatory gear like a first aid kit and an emergency blanket. First aid kits are for when you get hurt. Emergency blankets are for when you’re lost and cold in the bush. If anyone is going to need those, it’s probably going to be me.

I know I have to get serious about this. I know. I’ve been reading about trail running in the past day or so – it’s a start. But giggling about about finding out that speed work on trails is called fartlek is not going to help me with this. (but, seriously, fartlek.)

Work at the moment is busier than ever and I’ve got a bunch of commitments coming up that I can’t (and don’t want to) get out of. So I’ve got to get organised. With that in mind, I’ve singled out three key things to focus on in the next couple of months:

Running

Not only do I seriously need to up my training, I need to shift from the road to the trails. Waitaks, we’re coming for you!

Sleep

I’ve been sleeping an average of five hours a night over the past few months and that’s just not going to cut it. I know I can’t realistically expect to start sleeping like a normal person from one night to the next but I think a goal of averaging seven hours each night is not too far-fetched. Maybe. Hopefully.

Food

Goodbye, processed crap! Well, on most days, anyway. Goodbye, 7th cup of coffee of the day. I miss you already! No, seriously, I do. I haven’t had any processed sugar (chocolate bars, cookies, lollies, anything!) for a solid five days now. A couple of days ago, I walked past a lady eating a chocolate and caramel slice and I nearly shed a tear. I’ve also been limiting my coffee intake to two a day (HOLY CRAP!) and replacing the afternoon cups with tea. I don’t know how much longer I can keep pretending that my grapes are M&Ms and, let me tell you right now, celery sticks definitely do not resemble Doritos. I’m going to allow myself a couple of cheat days here and there but, overall, this is it. And it sucks. At least for now. I want a donut. I want ten donuts. Damn it.

 

Yesterday after work, S. and I met up at the bottom of Mt Eden to try and do some hill training (something we have been avoiding like the plague for months). The plan was to do it on the road because we were really just going to focus on the climb but we ended up finding our way through a few offroad tracks up and down the mount and, I’ll even put it in writing, it was pretty damn fun. It was only a little over 5km in total so not enough to tell me anything about how that 35km one on the trail is going to go. I’m nowhere near ready for it. But what fun would it be if I was anyway, right?


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Cathay Pacific half marathon Auckland recap

Last sunday morning was awesome and it wasn’t even spent in bed like all sunday mornings should be. Instead of the usual routine of trying to sleep in while a cat gives me a less than friendly back massage and begs for food, I headed into town and ran my third ever half-marathon instead. Third ever and first of a plan of four for this year. After my first half in Taupo last August and the second one in Kerikeri in November, I was really excited about running a third one.

So excited I injured my knee a week before race day. Am I the clumsiest person you’ve ever met or just second clumsiest? With a bruised and sore knee, I dragged myself out the sunday before for a 15.5km run before deciding it was probably time to just jump straight to the part of the training that involves sitting on the couch eating lots of crap and feeling sorry for yourself. So that’s what I did. One 5km run all week and the knee showed little sign of improvement.

So on race day, I had to sport a super sexy knee brace and hope that I could end the 21.1km course without having to have my leg amputated or OMG a knee brace tan line. Spoiler: I still have both legs.

The data in the images is off my Nike+ app thingy (I call things thingy because I’m technical like that). The organisers of this event didn’t actually record anyone’s time which was kind of sucky for people like me who like to know exactly how long they take from start to finish. My nike+ isn’t always super accurate and actually think I ran more like 21.9km. I also only stopped it about 20 seconds after crossing the finish line so none of that is precise, just a good indication.

This wasn’t my best half-marathon time but it was, by far, the easiest half-marathon I’ve ever done. Nothing to do with the conditions – there were a couple of uphills to annoy my old-lady’s knee, the weather was maybe a little too hot and the staggered start didn’t exactly give me the whole adrenaline rush I normally get from these events. But for some crazy reason, I got really into it and felt amazing the entire time. I remember passing the 6km marker and feeling surprised because I felt we had only just started.

At about the 12km mark, I spotted my awesome friends (*waves!*) who had driven there to see me run. They followed me in the car for a while, stopping often for photos, high fives and just a whole lot of shouting my name. Not sure they have any idea how awesome I think they are for doing that but yeah, they are kind of fabulous that way. They left me at about 18km and drove to the finish line. I ran a really good final 3km along the waterfront, made slightly less amazing by the many walkers I had to dodge and the damn knee that kept on reminding me of its existence. I crossed the finish line only to realise and, pretty much as soon as that happened, my knee stopped hurting. It’s been three days, still not hurting. In fact – and here’s the real first! – nothing is hurting. I was walking around in high heels the day after, which was kind of a novelty for me.

So this is it. First half-marathon of the year done, three more to go. Roll on Rotorua! I’m pretty excited about kicking your ass in two months time!