Tigy’s Blog

Location:	Woodhill
Distance:	14km
Time:	1:10:46
Place:	58/229

Managed to knock off the third race in the series in the weekend out in Woodhill.

It was good fun, although my build up has been dogged by this bloody calf/achilles injury. I haven’t been able to run properly since the Run Auckland race the prior weekend, so although I knew my fitness base wasn’t completely crap it wasn’t great either.

Started with a 10 min warm up jog before the race so my calves wouldn’t be too cold and allow me to start harder, this may have cost me a bit in energy but at least I didn’t tear anything. Did the first 10 min of the race with a friend at a pretty quick pace to get onto some clear trails, after that I had to let Brent go on ahead as I couldn’t quite keep up. Managed to stay roughly in touch with him and just finished 45 seconds behind him. In hindsight I probably could have caught him but thought the run was a bit longer than it really was and was keeping some juice in reserve.

The course was pretty nice, undulating sand based trails. Very little mud and generally plenty of room for passing which made it nice. Managed to have my eyes closed for the photo coming up to the finish line, but at least I didn’t look like a half shot horse!

Given how much trouble my calves have been giving me I really need to give myself some time off. I’ve planned in 2 weeks of no running and then I’ll ease back into it. Want to do the Auckland half marathon in November so I need to get better so I can start training. Will let you all know how it goes!

Location:	Takapuna
Distance:	9.5km
Time:	0:44:20
Place:	6/35 (M 30-39)

Last run of the Run Auckland series was on the weekend. Still nursing a bit of an injury so my plan was to use this as a bit of a trial and training run for next weekends trail run. Have to say I was pretty happy with how I went on what was a fairly easy course.

I knew once the race started I wouldn’t be able to go as slowly as I should so I took the time to go for a very light 10 min jog before the race started to make sure my legs were warm. I really think that made a big difference as even though I ended up cooling down a bit before the start I found I ran pretty freely and was able to keep a quicker pace than I had previously. The lack of training didn’t seem to make too much difference, although its hard to judge as the course was much flatter than the one I ran last time.

Despite not having a good training base I still found I was able to find a good rhythm and really listen to my body. I knew with a couple of km to go I had plenty of juice left but kept it easy so I didn’t hurt myself again. Good running seems to be as much about knowing when to slow down as it does about being able to go fast. Last 500m was a sprint finish which I love, officially I came in third in a three way sprint but I know it was actually a dead heat for second place and I did come from about 100m behind the other two.

Location:	Hunua
Distance:	14km (aprox.)
Time:	1:17:20
Place:	53 / 194

Completed the second race in the XTERRA Auckland series in the weekend. I’ve been on light training for a couple of weeks and complete rest for the week leading into the race, and I really felt it this time.

The course had some great trails in it, but also some long stretches of dirt/gravel road that really dragged on.

It is fair to say it is the hardest run I have ever had in my life, by the time I crossed the finish line I had nothing left at all in me, my legs were wobbly and as soon as I stopped I started seeing spots. Completely and utterly exhausted!

Given my lack of build up I found setting a pace really hard, my injury in my leg didn’t help and although the first 40 minutes were pretty sweet the last 20 really killed me!

What did I learn?
1. That the difference between your base-line and peak fitness is huge. Building up and peaking for a race correctly is just so important if you want to do well.

2. That unless you’ve been doing some good conditioning leading up to a race it’s bloody hard to gauge how fast (or slow) to go.

3. I need to get back into training again!

Another month before the next one so I’ve given myself a training plan which I hope will get me right. The next week is complete rest through to Sunday or Monday, then running 3-4 times over a short distance the next week and then build the week after that until I’m back up to my peak distance!

There were two photos taken at the finish, I’ve published the better of the two. To the other one someone quoted, “If you were a horse my dad would have shot you…” Sort of sums up how I felt