Kristian Day

25/08/10

So, I guess this is day one of fundraising, and day one of this Blog. I'm not very good at the whole blog thing, so I 'spose I'll just give you a run down of todays run. I doubt anybody will read it but I guess I can use it as my own personal..well..Public diary.

Did 1 1/2 hours up in the mountain bike park, the recent rain has made all the tracks really muddy and chaotic ( which I love ), coming into spring time there seems to be baby goats and cows everywhere which is awesome.
I'm actually pretty lucky to live so close (15min drive) from a custom built mountain bike park with over 80km of trails in it, I know finding decent trails and hills can be a problem for some but I'm forever finding new places to run, and for that I'm grateful.

I recently bought some new shoes (Inov-8 roclite 295) and they are awesome! they grip really well and don't hold water, also very light and have zero extra control ( for pronation etc) and also have a fairly low heel which is causing my calves to "bulken up" which is a plus. I recommend them to anybody who's trail running and wants a fairly lightweight shoe.

I ordered a fancy GPS watch aswell, which tells me my distance covered, pace, HR etc. I probably didn't need it, but it's cool and may come in handy especially on longer runs where I may want to know the distance I've gone.

Right, this is probably the longest one of these posts will ever be, and if anybody has read this far welldone, and don't worry you wont have to sit through it again.

Peace and Love.

-Kristian,

• Kristian Day
• 2010-08-25 16:26:15

27/08/10

So, I guess an update is in order being the end of the week and all. Next week I'm Rearranging my training so that I have two decent runs on Wednesday and Friday and a long one on Sunday. These will be key runs, while the rest of the week I'll just play by ear. This fits in better with my study timetable than what I am currently doing, and will probably help keep me away from the pubs on Saturday night ;)

Todays run was 2:25 on the trails and the first time I got to test out my new Garmin Forerunner, I should just say it was a humbling experience. I clocked up just under 24km which comes to around 10kph on average. For me this seems a bit slow as I can run a road marathon in under 3hrs. I'm not too worried though because this whole thing isn't about racing or being the best and I had a decent amount of climbing to do (708m) which would equate to 1400m if I was too do another lap and run 50km which I think puts me about right.

Otherwise todays run was another amazing time, there was rain forecast for this afternoon but it seems that the clouds parted for me and all I got was amazing sunshine! So I even got to run around like a hippy with no shirt on. There is still enough mud up there to dry out and build a house with, and my feet were constantly being sucked back into the earth which proved a fun but knackering battle, It also means I don't have to worry about been run over by speedy mountain bikers as I imagine it would be even tougher going on a bike and it seemed there were none up there.

I also got an Email from Mal organising a training run around Waikeremoana later this year, I'm pretty stoked with this because it's been on my to do list for months, and this is the perfect opportunity and also means I don't have to go it alone around there.

Also before I finish this I would like too say a big thanks to everyone who has donated so far, and to Ash and Kirsty for your comments.

I also have a link so you can check out todays run on Garmin connect:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46299467


Until next time.
Kristian.

• Kristian Day
• 2010-08-27 16:12:06

5/09/2010

What a cool week this week was, got in some pretty cool runs and am learning a thing or two. First off these are some cool stats that garmin spat out for me:



Distance:
91.24 km
Time:
08:42:36 h:m:s
Elevation Gain:
2,549 m
Avg Speed:
10.5 km/h


These are pretty cool, however Im looking to atleast double the elevation and add about 30km or more to the total distance within the next couple months, probably by increasing the total time on my weekly long runs on the trails while lowering my pace.

This week I changed my long run from Friday to Sunday, this meant I saw a whole lot more bikers out and about, but alas im yet to see another runner! It was alright however because I took my iPod out for the very first time.

At the end of this weeks "long" run, a 2 1/2 hour 26km jaunt, I felt good and I think if had eaten more calories I probably could have kept going at the same pace at least for another hour before I would have to start thinking about slowing down. I used my car as a type of aid station that I ran back too after about 75minutes so I could grab something to eat and re-fuel my bottle.

This puts me on to a very important lesson I've learnt, calories are your friend, atleast for me anyway, because I find myself getting sluggish after about an hour and half of consistent running. This makes a big change for me because I ran the Wellington marathon on nothing more than two cups of water and one energy gel while still coming under 3hours. It just goes to show that trail running especially on undulating and boggy terrain is a completely different beast than the mundane pounding of the pavement I am so used to. Also-if the garmin heart rate calorie worker outer thingy is right- I can use up about 2500 Calories in a two hour run, Hence I think I will start having a few honey sandwiches handy, aswell as maybe using a sports drink rather than water for the extra fuel.

So overall a sweet week, and I think I'm on track. Next week I will run for 3hours for my Sunday long run and hopefully get to around 30km, but we will see.

Until then, Peace.
-Kristian,

• Kristian Day
• 2010-09-05 14:34:43