running

by

Just like that – hip hip (not) hoorah

hip

For almost two years now (since I’ve been diagnosed with FAI) I’ve been working on my mobility by spending a fair amount of time on a foam roller, a ball, or anything else that helps break up the fascia adhesions and tightness that hinders mobility. I’ve discovered that releasing the “knots” in the quad of the FAI hip brings instant relief for any discomfort or pain, and therefore started to focus 99% of my energy on that area. During this time I’ve also taken up some body-weight strength training in the form of lunges, squats, hip thrusts, deadlifts etc. I was unfortunately not very religious about it and my routine was rather haphazard. Things were going okay until last summer, but as with most things in life, when things get tough or life gets busy, looking after oneself goes out the door. Admittedly, I’ve been rather lax the past few months about my hip. I didn’t have much pain, and when I did experience some discomfort, breaking up the adhesions in my quad did the trick. This happened a few times a week, and apart from that I didn’t bother to keep up my maintenance and conditioning in any of the other areas of my body, let alone balancing out left and right. This has turned out to be a big mistake. Continue reading →

by

New Plymouth Joggers and Walkers Club Half Marathon

The old Taranaki Daily News half marathon

Date: 7 October 2018
Distance: 21.1km
Time: 2:23.44
Previous: 2011, 2014

There were other runners, even though it doesn’t look that way on any of the other pics!
Two years to go to the 40th anniversary of this event.
The event offered water only at the aid stations, so we had to take our own stash of jelly sweets along.
Lonely morning out, so we had to entertain ourselves out on the course.
More on-course entertainment. 🙂
One third down.
Running along country roads just out of town.
Back in suburbia.

We’ve done this event a couple times before, and for some unknown reason we’re usually on a downward spiral during our training cycle. Not that we have a formal “training cycle” in any form or shape, but somehow we’re always either injured or just plain unfit this time of year. But doing the event is always a good excuse to see friends who live in New Plymouth. They unfortunately have gone through some hardship recently, having lost a brother (and brother-in-law) to point-blank murder, so it was under very sad circumstances that we caught up with them. (Not to go into the details, but it was a good reminder of some of the reasons why we emigrated to New Zealand eight years ago.) Continue reading →

by

Red Walk & Red Nose Family Fun Day

Date: 30 September 2018
Distance: 10km
Time: 57:18

Gerry, me and Rob.
At the start of the 10km event.
Jane and Jackie making the most of it.
On the way to the halfway point.
Catching up with the 5km participants on the way back.

Gerry and I participated in the Palmerston North edition of the event, which aims to “raise money and awareness for the amazing work Cure Kids does to help fund valuable research into a variety of child-related illnesses and conditions in New Zealand”.

What we thought would be a low-key fundraising walk turned out to be a decent size event – well organised and very enthusiastically supported by the local running and walking community. An enjoyable and festive 10k out-and-back run/walk along the river (there was also a 5k option) was augmented by loads of spot prizes, yummy food and great coffee at the finish, jumping castles for the kids, and more. Nor sure how many turned out but it was certainly a good crowd.

A good event for a great cause – must do again in 2019!

 

by

Hauraki Hundee – Trail Trilogy

Date: 16 September 2018
Time: 15:49.32
Distance: 100km (we measured 107.6km)

 

Pretending to nap behind the registration desk.
Race briefing at 12:45am.
And so it begins. Already tired from lack of sleep, but the 100km awaits.
Too dark to take photos, so this was the last one for the next five hours.
Me, Evander (?) and Elee (the tail-end Charles on the bike).
Lots and lots of flat gravel tracks.
Selfie-time.
Hedgehog scull.
The Hauraki Rail Trail must be the flattest track in the country.
One of the organisers ran in to chat to Elee and then joined us on the way back to his spot.
The first “hill” on the course going over the bridge.
About 700 metres long.
The Kopu aid station.
One of many similar bridges in the section between Kopu and Paeroa.
Team le Roux pic, thanks to Evander.
More than 50kms done, but a lot still ahead.
A few of these garden chairs were attached to trees in this section. 🙂
The turkeys in the front. Love their gobble sound. It always gives me a chuckle.
Passing under one of the roads.
Near Paeroa.
Running through Paeroa. We’ve driven through the town a few times in the past – never thought we’d be running through here as part of a hundee.
One of the road crossings in Paeroa.
Paeroa aid station, which is also the start of the half marathon.
Finally we reached the Karangahake Gorge which is the most scenic part of the course.
Just soldering on to the finish.
Some event signage en route.
On our way to the 1km long tunnel. The exit of the tunnel is just a tiny white dot.
Was it not for the lack of sleep, cold air in the tunnel and my tired body, the tunnel might have been quite enjoyable.
The four of us (Gerry, Evander, Elee and me) were within shouting distance for at least 99% of the course.
Jog time. As the kilometres passed it was getting harder and harder to start running after our walk breaks.
Great to see these two again, and they even “organised” a duck for our amusement (just peeking around the corner at the left of the bridge).
The final aid station.
Much more variety in the last part of the course.
Hitting a sheltered patch.
At long last we reached Waihi.
And got company on the road.
Cute little girls mimicking the Hauraki Rail Trail sign, showing us the way.
So tired, but so relieved to have made it to the finish.

As we were driving up to Thames on Friday morning, the thought of wanting to attempt a 100km run on the tiny amount of training we’ve done the past five months, was not something my mind was willing to deal with. It just ignored the prospect and pretended it wasn’t happening. Only after a good few kilometres into the race did it start to sink in that I was totally and utterly buggered. Continue reading →

by

Catchment Ultra recce

Date: 22 June 2018
Distance: 50km
Time: 9:08

There was a time in my life when I thought it was pure madness to run anything further than 27km by yourself in a training run. It already took some brain gymnastics to run anything further than a 21km and not get a medal. But to run ultras you have to also do long training runs and while training for a 5-day stage race back in 2008, we finally got our heads around 23+km training sessions – without medals! We have always tried to do our extra-long-runs (e.g. further than 27km) at events. Events to me is not necessarily a “race”, but often just a LSD training run with the added bonus of having aid stations along the way. Continue reading →