Introduction

Welcome to my blog. The title originates when my primary athletic activity was competitive walking, but now that I am back to running it also includes that.

Not all content is accessible from the main page: for example, the rogaines, racewalking, and ultramarathon pages all include content that is only accessible from those pages.

Ultramarathons

Ultramarathons are any event longer than the standard marathon distance of 26.2 miles / 42.195km. Standard distances for ultras are 50km, 50 miles, 100km, and 100 miles. There are also 12 hour and 24 hour track runs, and multi-day "stage races".

I have currently (September 2012) completed 30 ultramarathons, plus 1 DNF at about 66km at the Molesworth Run. Reports for most events are provided below.

See also

Rogaines

Rogaining is the sport of long distance cross-country navigation. Events can be as short as 2-3 hours or the standard 24 hours. Teamwork, endurance, competition and an appreciation for the natural environment are features of the sport. Rogaining involves both route planning and navigation between checkpoints using a variety of map types.

GN Phillips and RJ Phillips, Rogaining, 3rd ed, 2000



The two main umbrella organisations for rogaining in New Zealand are: My reports for selected events are provided below.


Hiking and Mountains

The Hiking, Trail Running, and Mountains pages are all inter-related, but with some subtle differences:
  • Hiking is not an organised race, and may include Coastal Adventures, activities in the Mountains, and hiking in other locations;
  • Trail Running covers organised events, some in the mountains, but others on local hills and trails; and
  • The Mountains category covers both events and hiking in various places that can be classed as mountains.


  • Racewalking

    Racewalking only has to meet two technical requirements:
    • no loss of contact, as judged by the human eye; and
    • the leg has to be straight from the moment of first contact until it is upright.
    More detailed rules are here.

    I'm not particularly good at racewalking, often falling foul of the straight leg rule. But I still give it a go and here are the results of my endeavours.


    Running

    This blog is primarily about my walking activities, but sometimes I do run. Here are reports for events where I have run.

    Shorter Races

    I classify events as ultramarathons, marathons, rogaines, and "shorter events". So a "shorter event" is just something that is shorter than a marathon and is not a rogaine. Consequently there's a mixed bag in here: running, racewalking, half marathons, 10k and 5k races, , etc.


    Tuesday, January 11, 2011

    Another Mixed Training Week

    Last week's post was written just after I had done 5x500m repeats. The next day I was definitely feeling the effects of the speedwork, with several tight and sore muscles. So Wednesday was a light recovery session, 9.5km in total.

    Thursday was my first tempo session for many months. I could still feel some of the effects of Tuesday's speedwork, particularly in the way of sore shins. I slowly warmed up for 4km, then did 3km at about half marathon race pace, then warmed back down again for a total of 10km. The whole session was faster than I have done on that course for many months, so I was happy enough with that. But big improvements still need to be made!

    Friday was a rest day in anticipation of a 50k session on Saturday. But Saturday's session was a disaster... toilet stops required every couple of km, and after 20km and 8 toilet stops I decided to call it quits. My legs were sore and I was feeling like I had walked 40km rather than just 20km. My guess is that something was wrong with my electrolyte levels, hence why I was "losing" so much water. So I went home to rehydrate with lots of electrolyte drink.

    Sunday was about 21.8km on an undulating road circuit through the rural area in the Mangaroa Valley behind Upper Hutt. Monday was another rest day.

    Tuesday was time for speedwork again, this time 4x800m with 500m rest. My average pace was faster than for the 5x500m, and I felt like I could have done a few more when I finished. Will probably step up to 4x1km with 400m rest next time. After that I need to start thinking about reintroducing some short races: 3000m and 5000m on the track, and 5km on the road.

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