super generic girl

the awesomely average life of a girl like all others

Category Archives: running


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early morning runs rock

Today, I went for my first run since the Auckland Quarter Marathon last Sunday. The weird thing about it? I ran in the morning, before work. And no, I wasn’t on a late shift.

I jumped out of bed (and by “jumped” I mean slowly rolled out while cursing my life), got into my running gear and headed out of the house. It had to be a very quick process because I knew I was racing against my lack of willpower and laziness. It was 6:45am.

To be fair, it was only a short 5km run so it’s not like I ran a marathon, saved some children from drowning and then baked a pie before doing a full day’s work but, you know, it’s better than hitting the snooze button for half an hour while lying down regretting not having gone to bed earlier the night before.

I’m not entirely sure I’ll ever make a habit of it but it definitely proved to me that, rather than make you tired, exercising in the morning is the productivity boost you need to then be able to go to work and kick the crap out of your to do lists. It also felt pretty awesome to be running while it was getting sunnier rather than running as it starts to get dark (on weekdays, those are my only two options).

It was a good thing I unintentionally went for this morning run on the deadline day for one of the publications I write for. I had what seemed like 4 million words to write before the end of the day and they were all written.

*pause for patting self on the back*

Now I’ve got a free evening to do whatever I want without feeling guilty about not being out running! Yay! Maybe I’ll go running to celebrate. I do need another energy boost if I’m going to tackle today’s NaNoWriMo wordcount…


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How much did this run suck? Let me count the ways.

As part of the training for the Kerikeri Half-Marathon next month, S. and I ran the Adidas Quarter Marathon in Auckland this morning. I wasn’t nervous at all about it and now I realise maybe I should have been, at least a little bit. Underestimating runs is a really rookie mistake and I’ve been entering these events since January so you think I would have learnt.

Last night, I was still awake at 1am, with the alarm set to wake me up only 4h30 later. I had all my running clothes set aside and ready, something I had done earlier in the day when I was sort of stressing out about having to get up so early. “Don’t stress,” said C. at the time. “You and Stacey do this kind of distance all the time.” I didn’t stress. There was no carb loading, no early bed time, nothing. And there should have been.

At 6:20, S. started ringing me. Still very much asleep, I wasn’t really sure at first why she was ringing me and it took me a few seconds to actually realise that OMFG we’re supposed to be at the start line before 6:45am! I raced to her house and from there, we got on her scooter and raced down to Victoria Park, near where the start line was meant to be. I was still putting my time chip in my shoe and S. was just coming back from the bag drop off area when we heard the run starting. We could see the start line in the distance and there was a fence between us and the rest of the runners. The security guards pointed us in the right direction to get around the fence and we started running right then but were still pretty much the last people to cross the start line, behind all the walkers.

Luckily, dodging the walkers wasn’t nearly as hard as I expected (certainly much easier than it had been around the same spot for Round the Bays, last March). About 1km in, I remembered that, in the mad rush to make it down there in time, I’d forgotten the very first thing I’ve been doing for the past 27 years as soon as I roll out of bed in the morning: going to the bathroom! I didn’t want to make any toilet stops and get stuck behind walkers again so I just focused on trying not to think about how much I needed it. Except focusing on not thinking about it makes you think about it even more. Small glitch in the plan.

I also decided to take my hydration pack for its first run, thinking it would be good training to take it to the half-marathon next month. I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t adjust the straps properly or what else it was, but I ended up with burn marks on my shoulders from the straps rubbing on the skin with each step I took. Not fun. Now I’m considering not taking a hydration pack on the half-marathon but I guess I’ll make a final decision after taking it n a couple more outings.

Luckily, the course was flat and we felt good for most of it (other than some soreness, probably due to not having had time to warm up, and my desperate need for a toilet). As we crossed the finish line, I pretty much begged the lady who was handing out bananas to point me to the nearest toilet. At least running and hiking are forcing me to get over my mental block against public toilets.

(What’s that? Enough with the toilet talk, you say? Fine.)

After finishing the run, we realised the scooter had been towed and we had to walk all the way to where the mean people had taken it. More sunday-morning-run-related suckiness, of course.

I guess, looking on the bright side, we had a good run, managed to make up for starting so far behind, finished on a decent time and didn’t get injured. This is how I’ll probably remember it in a couple of days time. Except I’m writing this blog post now and not in a couple of days time and, right now, it sucked arse.

Time to go back to bed.

P.s.: Confused by the different times in the screenshot above? The explanation is here. Basically, net time is how long it actually took me to go from the start to the finish line. The official time is the time that it took me to cross the finish line from the moment the run started (back when I was still putting the chip in my shoe).


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running randoms

  • My friend and running buddy Stacey wrote a really good article about why we run for the magazine she edits. She speaks the truth, that one, especially when she says stuff like “we have stopped running so we can eat bad, and started eating right so we can run well”. Except I haven’t reaaaaally started eating as healthily as I should be doing… yet.
  • When I was in Singapore last week, I discovered yet another reason why running is awesome: if you’re in a new place for a really short period of time, it’s the perfect way to get some sightseeing done (especially if you combine running with jetlag and lace up your shoes when half the city is still asleep!).
  • There needs to be some sort of global campaign to make people realise running on a treadmill and running outside are not the same thing.
  • It makes me very happy that both my homes, New Zealand and Portugal, use the metric system. Saying 6 miles instead of 10km doesn’t sound nearly as impressive.
  • Rockmyrun.com, I did not know you existed. Finding you today made me happy.
  • Only 23 days until the next half marathon.


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saturday

   

I woke up later than I wanted to and with a stupid headache that felt like a hangover. Except I only had one glass of wine on friday, after pretty much crashing a wine tasting at work (don’t judge, you would have done the same) so it couldn’t have been a hangover. Anyway, I tried to nurse the headache with coffee and crumpets, pretty much one of the best breakfast combos ever. It only sort of worked but I felt like I needed to go for a run. The weather was nice outside, for a change, and the next half marathon is only 34 days away (!).

   

Apple has updated the software for the ipod nano and now I get to have the Nike+ integration without having to add any extra gadgets to my running shoes. With that new software, I get to tell the little app how far I want to run (or for how long) and it then tells me how I’m doing. I’ve been using it for a week now and I’m still not sure whether it is amazing or stupidly unhelpful but it’s definitely one of those. On one hand, I like being able to track how I’m doing during the run but, on the other hand, the voice always tells me how far I’ve gone just at that very moment when I’m about to get my mind off the running (which is when it supposedly gets easier).

I told it that I was going to run 10km and set off on my run. I decided to take my camera along because the weather was nice and, since I wasn’t feeling 100%, I wanted an excuse to take it slow. By the time the app lady interrupted Feist to tell me I’d reached 3km, I was already thirsty and feeling my body overheating. It was all downhill from there and, unfortunately, I’m not talking about the terrain.

I kept thinking to myself “what an idiot, you remember to bring your camera but not your water bottle. you retard!”. I had to alternate between running and walking a couple of times which really sucked because I’ve been trying to get better times when I run. At the 8km mark, I decided it was time to stop. I’m meeting my running partner tomorrow for what is supposed to be our “long run” for the weekend so used that as an excuse to drag my sorry self back home.

Lessons learnt today: always take your water bottle/ hydration pack, especially if the weather’s warmer. Don’t tell Nike+ you’re going to do something and then give up. Might as well set the bar a bit lower instead of having to see on your profile that you chose the 10k workout but only logged 8km.

   

Well, at least there were daisies.


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Here we go again…

Photo taken during my last trip up to the "winterless north", where I'm running the next half marathon. Pretty!

All signed up and paid for. The next half-marathon happens next month in Kerikeri and, if I survive, it should be one to remember (hopefully for good reasons).

Unless there is some sort of disturbance in the natural order of the universe, this half-marathon should be pretty much the opposite of the previous one, at least as far as the weather conditions are concerned. Kerikeri is located in what is often referred to as “the winterless north” and the run is in November and not in the middle of winter in one of the coldest areas of the island, like the Taupo half-marathon in August.

That said, and not wanting to be a negative nancy, the icy winds and cold temperatures in Taupo are part of what prevented me from giving in and walking last time. Hopefully, the heat won’t force me to walk. Oh god, just being a whiner aren’t I? Just ignore me, please.

The full name of this next run is actually Fullers GreatSights Kerikeri Half Marathon. Great Sights. See? Focusing on the positive. That’s better.

The goal will be to improve on the time from my first half marathon, a pretty slow but not all that tragic 2:15:47. I’m pretty confident about it because it looks like it is mainly downhill and if there is one thing I know for sure is that downhill equals good. But that’s something to worry about on the day. For now, the goal will be to get off my bum and get out there to run.

Training starts… Now.

(Okay, tomorrow.)


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setting up a running playlist

I can’t run by myself without music. It takes my mind away from the whole running process and the right songs help me find my pace and run more comfortably.

When I started running and realised this, I had a bit of trouble finding the right songs to run to. In fact, my running playlist is still (and probably will always be) a working in progress. I realised then that most of the songs in my itunes library were way too slow to set a comfortable running pace and so I spent some time looking for some new stuff to listen to.

I tried running podcasts (there is quite a selection out there) but I just can’t relate to any of those techno beats they usually play in those. I tried audiobooks, thinking that maybe I’d be able to distract myself from the run to the point of focusing only on the audiobook and running longer as a consequence. It didn’t happen. I tried other podcasts but then found myself running on the street and getting weird looks from people as I ran along laughing out loud because of Karl Pilkington‘s theories. Laughing out loud when you’re out by yourself is not only embarrassing but, if you’re running, also screws up your breathing. Lesson learnt.

In the end, I gave in and, one day, spent a good couple of hours googling half-marathon playlists and any recommendations for good songs to run to. There is a lot of stuff out there and I learnt a couple of things in the process:

  1. the songs that help you run aren’t necessarily songs you would describe as being your usually style of music but they still help you clear your head and run at a comfortable pace so you just embrace that.
  2. there is a surprisingly high number of runners out there running to the beat of Celine Dion songs. I’m not sure I understand this.

Anyway, I thought I’d add some of my current running songs to the already large number of such lists on the internet. Because I can.

  • florence + the machine – dog days are over
  • florence  + the machine – kiss with a fist
  • regina spektor – fidelity
  • postal service – such great heights
  • the killers – mr brightside
  • amy winehouse – valerie
  • anika moa – running through the fire
  • gin wigmore – oh my
  • iron maiden – run to the hills
  • arctic monkeys – when the sun goes down
  • cee lo green – forget you
  • mgmt – kids
  • anything by franz ferdinand
  • most songs by vampire weekend
Got any suggestions of good songs to run to? Let me know!


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a half-arsed commitment

One of the 1,458 reasons why running is awesome is the way it makes me want to improve other aspects of my life. Like what/how I eat, for example.

When S. and I started this running malarkey, the idea was that, well, if we were going to get together for a curry anyway, we met as well run first and then gobble down the curry. Our sense of entitlement lasted a few months, admittedly. We often felt like we had the right to reward ourselves with the tastiest thing we could think of, just because we had made the effort to go out and run.

That has, however, begun to change. Rather than having my brain tell me that I ran, therefore I deserve a curry, I now try to follow the logic that, if I ran, I shouldn’t ruin the effort with something unhealthy.

(You’d think I would have gotten to this stage a bit quicker, wouldn’t you? I’m not that smart.)

S. got there a few months ago but the change for me has been a bit slower. The minute I finished the half-marathon in August (yep, I’m mentioning it again), I got in the car and devoured a bag of jelly beans, which was followed by a large combo from Burger King (a triple whopper, chips and full-fat coke, of course, because, you guys!, I’d just finished a half-marathon!). I then had peach crumble and ice cream which I followed with more peach crumble and ice cream, after a nap. So yeah, a fountain of health.

Going back to training after that, however, has put my mind in a different place. My fitness level right now is not as good as it was back in August and I know I have to do more than just cross my fingers and hope it’ll all improve soon so I get back to how I was. I have another half-marathon to run in 6 weeks and curries aren’t going to get me across the finish line.

So I’m sort of maybe kind of going to try to give this no-sugar thing a go. Mostly. With the exception of the Wednesday cinnamon roll (a tradition is a tradition) and the odd mistake here and there (not my fault that Whittakers has just launched a Berries and Biscuit chocolate bar!). Brace yourselves for some angry blog posts but, hopefully, writing this here will mean I will hold myself accountable for this decision.


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distance means nothing

Before we started, when our shoes were still nice and clean

Judging by the title of this post alone, you could assume this is going to be about how much my friends and family in Portugal and other parts of the world rock (hello, all!). Could be but no, it’s yet another post about running.

In case mentioning it every chance I can isn’t mentioning it often enough, I ran my first ever half-marathon in August and was damn proud of myself for it. Up until then, and after entering a few runs, the half-marathon had been the hardest run I’d ever had.

That was until I signed up for my first trail run, thinking it would be, you know, sort of like on road running. Yeah, there’s a lot into that “sort of”. It is *nothing* like running on the road.

S. and I had initially signed up for the long 15km course but, after taking a long break from proper training, we thought we’d be better off emailing the organisers and enter in the 9km category instead. Best. Decision. Ever.

Yesterday morning, we got to the place where the run was taking place and our first reaction, as soon as we arrived, was “oh shit, look at those hills!”. The scenery was amazing but there was no enjoying the views on that racing course. Running on steep terrain is tiring enough in itself but running through paddocks, forest and 4wd tracks is even more exhausting, not just because of the extra physical effort required but also because we have to pay attention to each step we take, to avoid putting our foot down wrong. I rolled my right ankle three times and my left ankle once. Fun, right? Luckily, it was never serious enough to make me give up halfway. What was making me want to give up halfway was seeing the steep hills in front of us, climbing up for what seemed like a million years and reaching the top only to find the track turned and kept on going up.

We both wanted to give up a few times during it. It was cold, our legs were giving up on us, our feet hurt from so many little mistakes… but we were both glad to cross the finish line and celebrate with the fattiest greasiest food we could find (not pictured: the chocolate brownie I devoured after the sausage).

post-run sausage on bread and hash brown

That said, there were a couple of good moments. Like the “Baywatch – farming edition” moment when the glorious S. took off her running shoes and jumped into a creek to save a scared lamb that had fallen in it and was desperately trying to climb up. She had to run the rest of the course with cold and wet feet but it wasn’t too bad because she was soon going to have her shoes filled with mud anyway.

S. saves a life while running because that's just how cool she is

Some people are really passionate about trail running but I really can’t see myself getting into it. If the hard terrain wasn’t bad enough, the kilos of mud I brought home in my shoes (and socks!) would be enough to put me off. But it was a good experiencing, in retrospect. The whole way, I kept thinking about how hard the whole thing and how much easier the 21.1km of the half-marathon had been, even with the wind and hail, compared to these 9km. Distance really is just one of many factors when you go out for a run. And it’s not even the most important one.

Post-run shoes and some manure, for good measure

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have half a forest to go scrape off my shoes.


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Notes on running my first half marathon

I used to be one of those people that say stuff like “running? Only if it’s to catch the bus” and stuff like that. I remember the PE classes in high school and how, once every three months, the teacher would ask us all to run a mile (if I’m not mistaken, that used to be 12 laps of the soccer field in our school) so he could track how fast we could go (and by fast, I mean slow in my case, of course). Once every three months, when that week came along and I knew I was going to have to run that mile, I’d try and come up with excuses why I couldn’t attend that class. I’d go all whiny kid on the teacher and say stuff like “but my throat is sore” or “my stomach hurts” to try and get him to let me off but he never did. I hated every second of it.

That has changed. Yesterday, me and my running partner finally reached the goal we had been working towards in the past few months, as we cross the finish line at the Taupo Half Marathon. No matter what, I’m not the whiny girl trying to get out of having to run a mile for PE class anymore.

I know there are lots and lots of people in the world who can do it. There also lots of people who run full marathons and even some who enjoy running ultra marathons. Still, I’m pretty stoked about our achievement, as it proved to me that you can really accomplish the stuff you want to achieve, if you just bother to get your bum off the couch. Last year, I couldn’t run more than two or three kilometres without struggling with my breathing and just walking home instead. A year on, I’m seriously considering aiming for a full marathon.

Anyway, this particular half marathon was pretty hard work, by anyone’s standards. No matter how much you enjoy running or how good you are at it, no one can convince me they enjoy running with strong ice cold winds, rain and even hail hitting them in the face like rocks. We picked the Taupo Half Marathon as our goal because we thought it would be more scenic than the Auckland one (which happens in October) and, plus, it would be a good excuse for a roadtrip to one of my favourite parts of the country. With a couple of months to worry about it, I signed up without putting much thought into the fact that I was signing up for a half marathon in one of the coldest areas of the island (it’s where we go skiing, for goodness’ sake!) and in the coldest month of the year. Bad move.

There are some key lessons I take from this whole craziness. I guess the main one is that you can run a half marathon even if you have had lung problems or if you were a wimpy kind who thought running was for losers who couldn’t play proper sports (I grew out of that, don’t hit me). You can also run a half marathon if, only a few months before, you thought running 5km was a pretty long run (and this is why I’m not so scared of the idea of running a full marathon anymore).

One of the best decisions I made throughout the whole training process was head to the Shoe Clinic and get myself a pair of proper running shoes. I’d gone to my doctor before that about a persistent pain in my right knee after each run and he explained that the only thing that would fix it would be a pair of shoes that was adequate to my feet. The guys at the Shoe Clinic did a great job of explaining everything and showed me how I put my feet down on the ground when I run and why I need a certain type of running shoe. As soon as I put my new running shoes on, I knew we’d be great friends (even if spending that much money in one pair of shoes totally goes against my religion).

The worst decision I made throughout the whole process was to pick a training schedule and forgetting about it about, hmm, two hours later. My training ended up being frequent but very irregular. I used all the excuses I could think of and only really got into training seriously about three to four weeks before race day.

I’ve also realised that the runners who told me running was as much about mental strength as it was about physical exercise were spot on. It is as much about keeping your body going as it is about getting your brain to agree to let it keep going. I spent the entire length of the half marathon in a sort of internal monologue arguing with my weaker side that wanted me to slow down, walk, take breaks and even give up.

Having a good playlist really helped too. I spent a good few hours putting that playlist together and even tested it in some runs prior to the half marathon. Having the right songs for the different stages of the run was a huge help (call me lame but you try slowing down when Florence is yelling at your ears to “run fast for your father, run fast for you mother…”).

What helped the most, though, was having my own private support crew there. C. and his parents were near the 4km mark ready to grab my jacket off me and hand me some jelly beans and I then ran past them again at the 17km mark where they had water and Powerade in hand. We had previously arranged for me to meet up with them later in a car park nearby, because we thought it would be way too busy for them to be able to park and wait for me at the finish line. About 15 or 16km into the run, though, I realised having them at the finish line would be a way of ensuring my weaker side wouldn’t win that internal monologue. So I ran past them at 17km and asked them to be there at the end, not realising they had already decided to do so anyway. I can’t tell you how much it helped me, being able to break the run down by the stages when I’d be seeing them.

The final lesson is that this half marathon wasn’t really the end goal or the point of all this training. Not even 24 hours later, me and S. were already searching for what other running events we could do next. So far, we’ve decided to sign up for an off-road run in September (15km) and another half-marathon in November (this time in usually sunny Kerikeri). I doubt the weather will ever be *that* crappy and now we can finally say “21.1km? Been there, done that!”. Virtual high five, S.!


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It’s the (not so) little things

Around lunchtime on 29 November 2009, I typed my final word on the document that I had had open for the previous 29 days, added a “the end” for dramatic effect and grabbed my phone to call C. It was sunday and he was out on a bush walk with some friends.

It was a gorgeous day outside, as it had been in the few days prior to that. I had massive bags under my eyes and was in serious need of some vitamin D so I remember feeling really bummed out I couldn’t join them for the walk. “I DID IT! IT’S FINISHED!” I said, as soon as he said ‘hello’. Instead of his usual patronising “hmm okay, honey” (usually said while he quickly tries to remember what the heck I’m talking about), he said “All done? Wow! That’s awesome!” and proceeded to tell the person walking next to him that I had just finished my first NaNoWriMo challenge and, with that, my first 50,000 word novel.

The reason for his genuine satisfaction with my achievement (which, on a universal scale, is pretty minuscule, I do realise) was because he had seen how hard each of those days had been, working full-time in a writing job, only to get home and write another 1667 words on top of that, when my brain was begging for a break. I printed out my “winner’s certificate” and felt genuinely proud of myself.

Was it because I had written the next New York Times Bestseller? Of course not, I’m no Snooki! I had over 50,000 words of complete rubbish (so bad I haven’t dared to open the document pretty much since that exact same day, for fear of dissolving into a pool of embarrassment).

So no, it had nothing to do with the kind of work I had slaved over. It was just about the fact that I had set myself to do it… and I had done it. Bonus: I had managed to stick to my self-imposed rules: 1) do not take any time off work because of it and 2) do not cancel any pre-scheduled social engagements because of it.

In the great scheme of things, doing the thing you love the most every single day for 30 days shouldn’t be hard. But like most things in life, turn it into an obligation, give it a deadline, and it enters the “tedious chore” danger zone. That was what I was afraid to happen. It didn’t.

Anyway, I started thinking about this after watching this short TED talk by Matt Cutts about how small sustainable steps make you achieve your goals in a much easier way. It all sounds pretty obvious until you start thinking about how you usually have big ideas (I want to write a novel! I want to run a marathon!) and then get completely overwhelmed by the scale of those ideas and toss them aside in favour of something a little easier.

In a way, I think that’s the same logic behind my decision to enter one running event per month this year (I’ve entered five so far, having missed the June one due to a cold and the July one due to not wanting to give organisers $50 for the only run that fits into my schedule… but I’ll catch up). The point is, this goal is not to run a marathon (CALM DOWN!) but to slowly progress towards something of the sorts.

(The fact that I’m going to be running my first ever half-marathon in 3 weeks time and still have no idea how I’m going to live to blog about it is a subject for an entirely different blog post.)

Last January, I also set myself the “mini-goal” of running 100km during that calendar month. It turned out to be fairly easy to reach, with summer days being a big help and getting through the month tracking the numbers and seeing them increase was actually quite exciting, like I was in a race against myself… and winning!

Thirty days seems like short enough for me to stick to something in case I don’t like it and it also seems like long enough for me to do something I like very often without getting sick of it. Plus, it means I’m making each day matter, somehow. Well, most days.

***

image credit goes to my friend & running buddy S. and you can sort of see me with my dorky knee brace during our very first running event, on Waiheke Island, back in January.