12km = tough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is Saturday = Long run day!
I just came back from a 12km run, the longest I've ever gone. Actually, I can't even remember ever having walked 12km let alone run parts of it. It took me about 100minutes which is alright. It feels really good now that I'm home, had a shower and am now having coffee in bed, but I have to admit it was pretty tough along the way. The first 6-7km were OK but then I really struggled for about 2-3km before it got a bit better again towards the end. Those tough 2-3km were pretty hilly which is probably one of the reasons why it was harder then the rest. But it's good to see that I can recover from a low during my runs. It was tough for a few km but I kept going and then it got better towards the end.
Nevertheless, thinking about the fact that this run today was just a little more then half a half marathon makes me panic a little. There is no way I would have been able to run another 9km today. But luckily I still have a few weeks till the half marathon, so hopefully by then I can do it.
Next week is recovery week which means I will 'only' run about 9-10km on Saturday, but the weekend after that is my first ever race - 14km.
Otherwise things have been pretty hectic this week and I haven't trained as much as I should. My sister is still staying with me and of course I want to spent as much time with her as possible. We went on a 4 day trip last week and will be going on another trip around the country today until Monday. Besides that work is very busy at the moment especially since I'm taking some days of to travel around with my sister. That just doesn't leave much time for running and the gym. But things should be getting better after this week and as long I manage to do my long runs on Saturday plus 1 short run during the week and 2 gym sessions I should be alright.
This whole half marathon thing is extremely important to me but I also have a lot of other things that are important and sometimes I need to priorities them. But as I said the week after next I will be back to my old schedule with 3 runs and 2 gym session.

busy, busy, busy

These coming two weeks will be a real challenge for my training plan. My sister is visiting and of course I want to spent as much time with her as possible. At the same time I'm very busy at work as I have a new colleague and I need to work him in and also do my own job. Usually that wouldn't be a problem I would just do some late nights, but at the moment I would really like to get home early to spent time with my sister. Keeping up with my training plan is much more difficult now then it was last week when all I had to do is work 9 hours a day and train 1 hour a day. That still left plenty of time to just relax and do nothing. But today, for example, I got up at 6, went to the gym and had a 1 hour workout. at 9 I was at work, at 6.15pm I left and rushed to my Weight Watchers Meeting. I didn't stay for the meeting but I wanted to weight in to make sure I'm not dropping the ball now that things are a bit hectic. At 6.40 I was home, got changed and then me and my sister went to a shipping mal to have dinner and do some shopping. It was a fun day, but now I'm really tired. So keeping this up for the next two weeks is gonna be difficult.
That makes me appreciate how easy things are for me in some way. I've been reading about some other people who are training for a half marathon and want to lose weight and some of them also have families to look after. I imagine that eating and living healthy is much more difficult when the changes you make in your life affect other people a lot and not all of these people might always be supportive. For me its all just about me. I don't have to consider a family or anyone else. I just have to plan and schedule my day and food and that's it. So I have A LOT of respect for those women that manage to do this while also looking after their kids and husbands and all that.
Well, so far I've been doing good and have sticked to my training plan and healthy diet. But next Monday and Tuesday I'm of work and we will go for a long weekend trip. I hope I will be able to at least stick to the healthy diet. I will let you know how it all works out.

The losing weight part – I’m not on a diet, I’m getting fit

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that one of the main reasons why I’m doing this is because I want and need to lose weight. However, so far I haven’t really written anything about that at all. Today seems like a good day to tell you a bit more about that part of this whole project. Why? Well, as of this morning I’m unhealthily overweight which is a good thing because until last week I was extremely unhealthily overweight - I guess you have to judge success based on your starting point ;-) So let me tell you how I’m losing weight and why I haven’t really written much about it (and probably won’t in the future).

See, the problem is that I have lost weight before; I’ve just never managed to keep it off. I simply don’t believe in diets anymore and even less in my ability to do one successfully in the long term. That is why weight loss cannot be my goal this time. I’m simply not motivated to lose weight because I don’t believe anymore that it could actually solve the problem for good. Therefore, I’ve decided that I’m not on a diet. What I’m doing is getting fit! There are so many things I always wanted to do but never could because of my lack of fitness. Like doing some of those beautiful, but tough, walks here in NZ, or simply being able to walk up a hill without getting out of breath. The fact that I’m losing weight while getting fit is sort of like a VERY welcomed side effect.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like losing weight is not important to me. It absolutely is! It’s just that I’m trying to take my mind of that part of this journey as much as possible. By thinking of it as getting fit I can actually believe again that I can lose the weight AND keep it off. I’m sort of tricking myself here a little ;-)

I am very much watching what I’m eating. I’m sort of doing Weight Watchers. Why ‘sort of’? Well, because I’m going to the meeting and I do listen and take their advice (which is really great by the way) but I’m not always counting my points exactly. I usually have a general idea of how much points I’m eating but I’m not taking it too serious and I’m not keeping a food journal or something similar where I’m writing down everything I eat and the exact points value. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, as mentioned before, I have lost weight in the past and I know how much and what I should be eating. The main reason why I’m overweight is not that I don’t know what is healthy food and what isn’t, it’s more that I didn’t care in the past. I’ve always been eating relatively healthy meals, it’s the snacks and food I used to eat in addition (mainly chocolate). Therefore, I feel like I’m able to eat healthy without keeping track of every single point I’m eating. The second reason is that counting points would make this a diet. I’m 26 years old, I don’t want to count points for the rest of my life, I want to get to the point a healthy and balanced diet just feels normal. So if I were counting points right now than I would want to stop at some point, which would make this a temporary diet.

The one thing I am absolutely certain about when it comes to diets is that there is no ONE perfect diet for everyone. I think everyone’s individual perfect diet depends on their personality and habits. I strongly believe that one of the keys to successful weight loss is to know yourself and design a diet for you! It’s one of the reasons why I like weight watchers. They give you tools and advice but what you do with it in the end it up to you. I know that I’m busy and I hate annoying little details. So sitting down every day and thinking what exactly I’ve been eating, how many grams salad sauce I put on my sandwich this morning and who many ml of milk I had in my coffee – that is just not gonna work for me!

I guess you can argue about whether this is the right way to do it or not. Fact is, it’s working right now and if I get to the point where it’s not working anymore I can always count my points for a while to make sure I’m eating the right stuff and the right amount.
I’m generally easting very healthy these days, with lots of veggies and protein and less carbs and I’m drinking a lot of water which I think helps as well. Also, I’m hardly drinking any alcohol at the moment (I do make exceptions every now and then but very rarely). This is simply because not drinking is quite easy for me and thus it feels logical to safe those calories and rather have a little bit of chocolate ;-)

What I really do love about weight watchers are the meetings though. It’s always very interesting and fun and I like being accountable to someone once a week. It’s also great to be part of a group and see that others are struggling with the same problems.

So that was my entry about dieting and weight loss. Not sure if there will be many more of this kind but I will keep you in the loop and let you know if my way of doing this works out for me.

Sport in the Morning Week 2 - has anyone seen my determination?

This is week 2 of exercising in the mornings and somehow my determination has left me. I did my runs on Monday and Wednesday so I've been good as far as that is concerned but I haven't been to the gym on Tuesday or today! I simply couldn't get out of bed! For my defence, it really is very cold this week and that has made it so much harder to get out of bed. But still ....
The problem with going to the gym in the morning is that it also means that I have to get ready for work there. That means I have to shower there and get dressed etc and I prefer doing that at home. However, the gym is only 5 min from work and 20 min (with traffic) from home, so driving back home to get ready is just a total waste of time.
When I go for my runs I can shower and then have my much loved 30minutes coffee in bed session and then get ready for work. When I go to the gym I can't do that. I usually get a coffee on the way to work but it's just not the same.
Well, I'm gonna go today after work. As tomorrow is rest day anyway it doesn't really matter. However, if I go in the evenings on Tuesday and then for a run on Wednesday morning that might be a bit much.
I think I'm just gonna wait and see if I make it out of bed next week, but if it keeps being so difficult I might have to change my routine a little. At the end of the day this is suppose to be fun and not torture ;-)

Looks like the weather is not on my side afterall

A couple of weeks ago I said that the weather had been on my side so far as I haven't had any runs in the rain despite the fact that this is Auckland and it's winter. Well, I take that statement back after I had the fourth rainy run in a row this morning. On Saturday I did 8.5 km in an hour and 10 minutes. It started raining about 5 minutes after I left and didn't stop till I was back home. I was totally drenched and it's not like 8.5 km wouldn't be hard enough just on it's own.

So as it turns out the weather is one of those really cheeky fellows that are all nice and make you feel like they are on your side and just when you start to trust them and rely on them they stab you in the back ;-) Well, I guess that proves it's a weatherMAN - no, I'm not cynical, this is my sense of humour (-:

Choosing a Training Plan – aka: Mission Impossible

After signing up for my first two races, a 14km on the 11th of September and a 16km on the 3rd of October, I realized I really need to get my training plan sorted. However, that was easier said than done. Just for the fun of it, go to Google and search for “Half marathon training Plan”. You will get about 65,000 results. Of course there will be some double ups and some are not actually training plan, but is does give you an idea of how many training plans there are. And they are very different, too. Of course you could say “Just pick one” (as many of my friends did) but that is just not how I do things ;-). My way of doing this: read about 1,000 training plans (OK so I’m exaggerating a little, but I really did read A LOT), then analyze all the information, get frustrated because there are so many conflicting information, and then decide to just pick the first one I read :-) (I know, what a waste of time but I just couldn’t stop myself). But I have modified it a little bit based on everything else I’ve learnt so I guess all the reading was not completely wasted. I will tell you about my ‘personalized’ training plan in a few minutes, but I thought before I do that I outline why it was so difficult to find one (just for the fun of it).


1. Setting my goal
First of all you need to decide what your goal is for the race. Do you want to achieve a new personal best, finish in under 2 hours or just cross the finish line (alive) – my category. So that should have been the easy part as I knew from the beginning that my only goal would be to finish the half marathon. However, there is one little problem and that is called Harbor Bridge cut off. For those of you that don’t know Auckland, we have a Harbor Bridge similar to the famous one in Sydney. The half marathon starts on one side of the bridge and ends on the other, meaning you have to cross it. As it is the only real traffic connection between Auckland Downtown and the North Shore it can only be closed for the marathon for a very limited time. More specifically this means that everyone who hasn’t crossed the bridge by 9.20am will be moved in a bus and driven across the bridge and can continue running on the other side. Now, I might not be the most competitive person ever, but I do really want to run the whole thing. Besides, the Harbor Bridge is the absolute highlight of the Auckland Marathon so driving over it in a bus is not really an option. The middle of the Bridge is 13.5 km from the start. Start is at 7am but considering that the fastest people get to start first and slow people like me have to wait. So that means I probably won’t actually start till about 7.10-7.15. So I need to be able to run the first 14km in 2 hours. So I need to somehow incorporate that into my training plan.


2. Finding the right training level
This is where it gets surprisingly complicated. First I thought ‘this is easy, I’m a beginner’. But then I actually read some of the definitions of beginner and turns out a lot of training plans consider someone a beginner when they are able to run about an hour without problems (that makes me think some of the people that write these training plans should look up the definition of ‘beginner’. I mean seriously if I can run for an hour WITHOUT PROBLEMS how can I possibly be a BEGINNER?). Well anyway the conclusion here is that I’m not a beginner, so what am I and where do I find a training plan for that category? Well, as it turns out, there is a category called ‘Absolute Beginner’ and that is where I fit in :-). But it took me quite a while to figure that out.

3. Training by minutes or km?
I admit I was somewhat surprised when I saw that most training plans have you train by minutes instead of km. For me that doesn’t really make any sense. I mean everyone is doing a different pace, but come race day we all have to go the same distance. So shouldn’t someone who plans to run a marathon in let’s say 3hours have longer training runs than someone who plans to finish in 2 hours? Shouldn’t I be training by distance? Some training plans, even those for beginners, schedule their longest training runs at about 100-120 minutes. Given my current speed (and being optimistic that I will get faster during the training program) that would mean I run about 14-16km as my longest training. But that means I’m still 5-7km short of a half marathon. I think I should be running at least 18-19km once before the race just to have the confidence that I can go the distance. However, there must be a reason why the far majority of training plans is by minutes instead of km …

4. What, when, how often and for how long?
Another somewhat complicated question. Most ‘experts’ seem to agree that the minimum is 3 runs per week but after that it really just seems to be up to you and how much you want to do. Some plans have you run up to 6 times per week while other are just 3 runs per week. Most training plans also point out the importance of cross training. However, somewhat frustrating is that no plan really seems to incorporate that. Some have a ‘cross training’ day but they hardly ever specify what to do and for how long. I’ve read many times that strength training is also important for runners, but again, I haven’t found any training plan that really incorporates strength training. And here is the problem with it all: The people at that gym say I should do 3 circuit training (=strength training) session per week. Most training plans say I should run 3-4 time per week and have at least 1 cross training (biking, swimming, etc.) day. In addition everyone seems to agree you need at least 1 rest day per week. Well, too bad my week only has 7 days ;-)

Well, the good news is, there are some things everyone seems to agree one:

• I need to run at least 3 times per week
• I need at least one rest day
• I should be doing several shorter runs during the week and then 1 long one on the weekend
• I need to do some form of cross training
• Training weeks should generally be structured in a build – build – recover - build – build – recover- … rhythm. Meaning for two weeks I increase the distance of the long run and then I week I take it easy followed by two weeks increasing the distance and so on.
• I should be doing some hill training. But since this is Auckland you would have a hard time finding a run without any hills in it so that shouldn’t be a problem.

OK, so what I’ve done now is to take a training plan that includes all the aspects that everyone agrees on (which happes to be the first one I read) and then modified it a little bit to fit me. I chose this training plan because it schedules runs during the week in minutes but then the long ones on the weekend in km. Besides that it perfectly aligns with the 14km race I’ve signed up for on the 11th of September and the 16km one on the 3rd of October.

So here is what my average week will look like:

Monday: short – medium distance run (30-45min)*
Tuesday: Gym – 20-30min Strength Training
Wednesday: short – medium distance run (30-45min)*
Thursday: Gym - 20-30min Strength Training and a short run on the treadmill (25-30min)
Friday: REST DAY
Saturday: Long run
Sunday: Gym – 20-30min Strength Training and some cross training if I have time

*Monday and Wednesdays will be a bit interchangeable. If I do a longer one on Monday I do a shorter one on Wednesday. This will probably depend on things like weather, work commitments and my general mood. Also, closer to the even I will probably include a few 60-80 minutes runs during the week as well.

Saturdays will built up as follows

And if I survive all of this, without getting injured or begin taken away to that place for crazy people, I will be a half marathon runner by the end of October ;-)
OK, now I feel like I should apologies to those of you who have actually read this whole post. I know it’s kind of long and not really that fascinating and quite obviously I’m totally over thinking the whole thing. But hey, no one forces you to read my blog ;-)

A change in routine

Today is the first day of my new 'running in the morning before work' routine.
Everyone knows I'm not exactly a morning person so in the past I have preferred to run in the evening after work. That has worked pretty well for me so far. However, there are two reason why I've decided to change that and go in the mornings instead. First of all, the actual half marathon starts at 7am - BTW, whose idea was that? Why does an event that only really takes 4-5 hours has to start so early in the morning? If you ask me, a 9am start would have been much better :)
Anyway, as running apparently is a early morning sport I need to prepare my body to do this level of exercising at that time of the day. So I might as well start now and get used to it.
The other reason is that my job involves a lot of contact with companies all over Asia Pacific and they are all 4-7 hours behind New Zealand. As a consequence I often have very busy afternoons and frequently late meeting and conference calls. I usually like going out for a run after I've spend all day at my desk staring at my computer, but when I get home at 8pm after a long day the motivation is pretty low. As it's now only 12 weeks till the half marathon, I think it's gonna be quite important that I train regularly and develop some sort of routine. So I decided I might as well get the training out of the way in the morning so that I don't have to worry about it anymore the rest of the day. Besides, I'm one of those lucky people that have quite flexible working hours, so now I'm starting a bit later which gives me enough time in the morning to go for a run and still have time for my much loved "1/2 hour coffee in bed" session every morning :-)
So that was the plan. Well thought through and with good arguments - as pretty much everything I do - and I was motivated to make it work. Until this morning that is, when I was rudely awoken by my alarm at 6.15am, it was raining like hell outside and it was so nice and warm in my bed. I almost decided that this was a really bad plan (I mean seriously what was I thinking. running at 6.30? Me, who usually doesn't even have enough energy in the morning to make breakfast? Me, who needs at least 3 'snooze' phases before I'm even half awake?). But then the determination won over the laziness and I got out of bed. And i had a good run. I was a bit slower than usual but I think that is just because I need some time to get used to be active at that time of the day. And the fact that it was raining like the end of the world is close was not exactly helping either. But I made it through and once back home I had a hot shower, made coffee and then went back to bed for half an hour. I was really proud of myself and happy that I didn't give in to the lazy part of me that just wanted to stay in bed this morning (-: