super generic girl

the awesomely average life of a girl like all others

Tag Archives: running


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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!


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What I’ve been missing out on

Sunrises are right up there in the list of things I never expect to witness myself, along with polar bears cuddling baby owls and Nicole Kidman starring in a movie that I enjoy. And yet, I took this photo early this morning. While I was out running. By myself. Before 7AM. Getting goosebumps yet? Because that is some freaky stuff right there! I was out running before the sun was up. And as if that wasn’t already weird enough, I saw a lot of other people out exercising as well (including a couple of old men doing Tai Chi in the park near home). Was this some sort of gravitational unbalance that made us all fall out of bed before we were meant to? We may never find out… but it was enjoyable and I might actually do it again. 2012 is weird.


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halfway point

This year, I’m trying to up my training by convincing myself to go for double digit runs even during the week. I need to get used to the idea that a 10km run is a short run or else I’ll get stuck with the idea that the half-marathon is the longest distance I can run. So let’s practice: yesterday I went for a short 11km run. Except it didn’t feel short at all. It felt long and horrible and I didn’t actually enjoy myself one bit. The throat infection that prevented me from running for three weeks is still not 100% gone and even though I’ve started easing my way back into running after that short hiatus, I definitely feel a lot less fit than I was prior to getting sick. It actually amazes me how quickly your fitness levels drop when you are forced to take a break.

But anyway, I decided to run along the cycleway that goes parallel to the motorway near home. Choosing that route forces me to run a few kms each time because, once you get on the cycleway, you either run at least until the next motorway offramp or you have to turn around and go back the same way you came (which pretty much breaks the lame-o-meter for that run). I chose to head west for the first time and the image above is a blurry cell phone photo I took when I reach the halfway point on my run. I thought it was a good place to turn around and go back because: a) I was exhausted, b) it was starting to rain and c) it’s a road with my name on it.

I’m not sure I’ll be trying this route again. It was boring, scenery-wise,  and the cycleway to the west has some skinny parts that made me turn off the iPod to feel more confident I wouldn’t get hit by a cyclist trying to squeeze his way past me.  But it had a couple of hilly bits which were good because I was told the half-marathon I’m running next month (assuming no more bugs decide to rent real estate in my throat) has some fairly steep bits. Oh god. Another half-marathon next month. Oh god.

Because of the stupid sickness, this was only my second run of the year. By the end of January 2011, I had run over 100km in 30 days. This month will definitely be a much different story.  But that’s okay because I fully intend to kick ass in February. So there’s that.


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2012 started on top of an active volcano so it’s already officially an awesome year

Happy 2012, everyone! What you see above is Mt Yasur, an active volcano on Tanna Island (Vanuatu) violently spitting lava. We took this photo on the evening of the 31st of December, last week. This was how we said goodbye to 2011 and how we greeted 2012: standing on top of an active volcano, the ground beneath our feet shaking violently and the noises of a rumbling volcano echoing through the valley. It was pretty much the best new years eve ever. I didn’t see any fireworks, for the first time in my life on a new years eve, but I still had the best fireworks display one can ask for, courtesy of mother nature.

I have just returned from a wonderful trip to New Caledonia and Vanuatu and have about 6943 posts I want to write about the amazing time I had on those islands. But first, and you’ll understand my reasons for being a bit late to this, time to reflect on the 2011 resolutions and make some for 2012.

2011 was the very first year of my life when I made new years resolutions and actually carried them in my mind throughout the year, rather than forgetting them within the first week. Keeping those resolutions in mind made my year a truly spectacular one. It didn’t just end in a spectacular way, it was actually a really good year.

It’s not like anything particularly major happened. I’m still not a Lotto winner (possibly because I never remember to buy a ticket). But several little and not so little things made 2011 a really good one. I didn’t fullfil all my resolutions 100% but I worked on them throughout the year and having those goals made it feel like everything I did actually mattered somehow. To sum up:

2011 goals:

enter 12 running events – sort of check. I entered 11. Sickness led me to pull out of one in June and I thought I’d make up for it in December but sickness was, once again, to blame. Still, two of the eleven running events I entered were half-marathons – which is twice the number of half-marathons I was planning to run, so I’m pretty happy with that.

run a half-marathon – check! And check!

start a savings account – check!

travel to a pacific island – totally managed to blow this one off the scale! Within the past 12 months, I went from zero Pacific Islands visited to four Pacific Islands visited and I didn’t even have plans for any of these trips when the year started. *pat on the back!*

write more (for fun) – I didn’t do quite as well on this one as I’d planned but I did start this blog so that should count!

visit my family back home – Yes! And it was as amazing as always!

learn to swim – I’m going to put a green tick on this one because I actually hardened up and took a course back in July. Call me weird but I don’t like swimming. But I did it.

join couchsurfing and host someone – done!

do a multi-day hike – another green tick! It was just a 20km hike with a night at a hut but it still counts.

give up soft drinks – ha! Not sure what I was thinking when I came up with this one.

See? Not too bad. There were some other things I had in mind when the year started like get more into crafts and have little projects going on but that really didn’t happen and I abandoned that idea pretty early on.

What about this year? My goals for 2012 are actually not all that different than my 2011 ones. This year, among other little things, I hope to:

reach all my running goals for the year – which I’ve already blogged about here

eat better – something I sort of started in 2011, probably due to all the running madness, but haven’t focused on enough

waste less daylight – Sleeping in is overrated (now this will be a challenge…)

spend less, own less stuff – just because it’s a bargain, it doesn’t mean I have to have it. Actually, if it’s a bargain, it probably means I don’t have to have it.

and a few other things that were already on last year’s list (like visiting family again). So there you go, not much but enough to keep me out of trouble.

Here’s to a wonderful year!


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RIP iPod, hello new running gadgets!

This morning, I went for my first run in five days, which is, in my world, an abnormal number of days without running. My last run had been on Thursday last week. My iPod stopped working on that same Thursday. Coincidence? Don’t be silly, of course not.

I had an amazing 10km run by myself after work that day, complete with pukeko sightings and everything. It was sunny and not too warm and I got to try out a new running playlist. By the time I got home, I hit the ‘stop’ button on my iPod and it gave up on life. The screen went completely white so I can’t do anything with it. I tried restoring it as the website suggested but it didn’t work.

Apple has refused to fix it for me, despite admitting that it is a known issue and completely unrelated to the crack on the screen (that the iPod has had since January). Eleven months, a few running events, hundreds of kilometres of training and two half-marathons later, I’m iPod-less.

I’m not sure why it had such an impact on my running schedule but, if I’m running by myself, I really can’t run without music. I almost feel bad about this handicap – it sort of reminds me of the joke about the blonde who died when they took her headphones away (yep, I really did just google that joke so I can link you to it).

Lucky for me, I have a new phone capable of handling all manner of apps and whatever else the cool kids are using these days. Yesterday, I loaded it with a few of my favourite songs to run to and downloaded the MapMyRun app. The phone is considerably bigger than my now broken iPod Nano but has one particularly great advantage over the iPod: it works.

It’s a good short-term solution and it may even be a good long-term one. Now I need to find out how long the battery will last for while simultaneously playing music, tracking my time/distance and stopping to take the occasional photo. If it’s anything less than two hours, I’m going to have to find an alternative because there is no way I’ll be able to run a half-marathon without music.

In the future, I may just have to suck it up and invest in a Garmin Forerunner (what I really mean by this is: hot damn, I want a Forerunner and now I’m just coming up with an excuse to justify it to myself) and a small mp3 player of some sort (maybe an iPod Shuffle, if I’m ever able to bring myself to give money to Apple again).

Tell me, what gadgets do you take out with you while running? Anything you really can’t run without? 


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santa runners everywhere!

What to do on a wednesday afternoon after a day of work? Join over 900 people all dressed in santa outfits and go for a 3km run along the Auckland waterfront to support KidsCan, of course! The atmosphere was awesome and even though the run itself was very, very short, it was still very much worth registering and making our ways down there for it. Christmas and running together… what’s not to love?

I sort of wished it had been a longer run but was also thankful I didn’t have to run in that costume any longer. It’s summer in Auckland and even real santa (yes, REAL santa!) would swap that suit for a singlet if he was here. Yay, running! Yay, Christmas! I would like more running events to dress up for now, please, thank you.

photos by the lovely pierre gerardieu