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.


    Saturday, July 30, 2011

    The Training Week that Was(n't)

    This last week had been planned to be a big week of training in preparation for the Great Naseby Water Race at the end of August. But a cold got in the way and my eventual mileage was well below where it should have been.

    • Sat - I could feel the cold coming on and should have taken the day off. Instead I walked my harrier club's King of the Mountain race. How could I pass up a race?
    • Sun - The previous day's race had exacerbated my cold so I did indeed take the day off.
    • Mon - there was snow on the hills. Very low on the hills. How could I pass up a run in the snow when it might not snow this low again for years?
    • Tue - Heather was down and we were going out to dinner with friends, so this was a good day not to train. And, yes, my cold had freshened up after the run the day before, so it was a good thing not to run.
    • Wed - just a very short run. I still had my cold, and Heather's legs were only just starting to loosen up after a very hard massage the week before.
    • Thu - a nice evening run up to Birchville Dam and back. It was a slow one as I was still feeling the effects of my cold and Heather's legs were still recovering.
    • Fri - we were planning a big day for Saturday (50k) so took this as a rest day.
    • Sat - the plan was 50k, but we only ended up with about 20k. I was stuffed as I was shaking off my cold. Heather seemed in better shape, looking like she could easily go another 10k when we finished. We went shopping that afternoon!

    The end result was total weekly mileage that was at least 40k less than planned, and no decent long session. The 100k is looking less likely at Naseby, but the 80k / 50 mile should still be possible.
    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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