Kids are exhausting..

Kids! Who'd have them? They interrupt your sleep, they're noisy, make mess, use up all your time..

Don't get me wrong, I love them with everything that I have, but they're awfully frustrating sometimes. Especially at midnight when they won't go back to sleep!

Running and being fit makes me a better mama I think. I have more energy to cope with three young boys plus there's something about running hard, puffing and sweating that's really cathartic and an incredible stress relief. 

So it's Sunday afternoon, I'm feeling shattered and probably in the throes of PMS, I have the choice of sleeping or a long run.. I know which one feels more tempting right now but I know which will make me feel better in the long run (pardon the pun!)

But first, a coffee... 

Mothers Day, 10k

This morning I took part in a 10k charity run here in town.  It was to support women and their families living with breast cancer.  Runners/walkers were encouraged to wear pink. I've never seen so much pink in my life!!

I had to buy a pink shirt especially for the occasion!

My goal was to beat the 60 minute barrier, and I nailed it, coming home in 55:53!! 

However, as my Runtastic app recorded 9.8km, I don't know which of the two is more accurate (but the kilometre markers on course were pretty bang on) so probably my time for 10k would have been more like 57 minutes :)

Very pleased with myself, and definitely rewarding myself with chocolate on the couch this afternoon :)

Me and my three boys after the race

Progress Report, end of April 2015

It's been a mixed bag this month - ten days away on holiday including Easter treats, but I feel I've done well. I gained around 1kg but promptly lost it again when I got home and back on track.

Total mileage was 51.2km this month - but only 10 activities compared with 14 in March.

My fastest run was a 4km evening run - 22.07, average pace of 5:31km (the first km was 6:00 and the other three were 5:23 or faster).  This is the fastest I've ever run.  I felt amazing! 

My longest run was 9km last Sunday - a training run where I actually aimed for 8km but misjudged the loop that I added on in the middle.  I got home in 53:54 which is only JUST shy of the 6:00min/km goal I intend to beat next week.

Holiday running

Long ago, going on holiday was always a good excuse to take a break from exercise.. Now it's a perfect excuse to explore some new places by foot!

The Whakarewarewa forest (Rotorua) was just beautiful. Gorgeous redwood trees, so springy underfoot and quiet! Just lots of tourist traffic. I only explored one walk (with a steep uphill side excursion for 'fun') and there was a gorgeous spring along the way (see below). 

We also had a couple of days at lake taupo, was just lovely running in a different neighborhood, a bit of trail running and some time along the lake front. Just gorgeous! 

Events 2015

I'm in the process of setting some personal goals for this year, part of that is setting out where I want to go (figuratively) with my running. 

Long term I'd like to complete a half marathon. My first goal would be to finish, but my secondary goal would be to meet the 2 hour mark. (Far out, 2 hours of running?! That's crazy!)

A half marathon in 2 hours is a 5:42 min/k pace.  I ran 6.5km at exactly this pace. It's hard to imagine running this distance again two and a bit more times at this speed, but by August it's possible.

Well, confidence is key, right? And I've written it down now so it's something to work towards ;-)

The half marathon is early August.

I've got four months to train.  I read recently that in order to run a half marathon, ideal weekly mileage would be 25-30km.  I'm currently averaging about 15km. So I guess I need to work on that.

I plan to find some events to run in the coming months too - here is what I've found...

April

May 10 - Mothers Day Fun Run - 8km

June

July 19 - 15k -  (a great lead up to the half - would start tapering after this event I guess)

August 9 - Half marathon 

A 'bad' run..

So every now and then, I have a 'bad' run. When it just feels like a struggle - achy joints (this week it's the hips) and just feeling sluggish.  It's a real battle to not get dragged down by that.

I've been running with the buggy on kindy mornings, as it's getting dark in the evenings now (and dinner time is stressful enough without having to coordinate everything to be ready by the time hubby gets home to look after the boys) and I've never been a morning person.  It's okay, and will have to do for now.

Yesterday I headed out at lunchtime, was feeling crappy, so ended up run/walking for a couple of kilometres. Decided I've give the steps at nearby park a go, ended up doing three repeats of that before baby decided he didn't want me to leave his side and lost his nut.  So we ran/walked home.  It wasn't a great workout and it didn't add anything to my fitness, but at least I tried, right??

In February I ran 46km with runtastic.  My goal for March was to increase it to 60km.

It's the 26th of March today and I've run 50.5km.  I'd love to get those last 10km in before the end of the month!!

New shoes!

New shoes! Hooray. Can't wait to test them out. 

These are the Brooks Adrenalin GTS 15 - this season's version of my current shoe (GTS 12). They look quite different in design (insert technical detail the shoe clinic dude told me here!!) but felt totally familiar on my feet walking around and on the treadmill. So, all that's left is to give them a whirl around the block and see how they go. 

    

I'm totally not a pink/purple person usually. But these are kind of fun! And an injection of girly spunk into my household of boys.

No filter on this shot, I promise. They really are this bright!!

That weird (possibly) ITB niggle of last week seems to have resolved itself with a bit of rest (5 days of no running then starting off with 2km to test it out. 5km today and all felt great. 

Still, will heed advice on easing into the new shoes over next week or so.