Auckland Marathon Race recap

I did it! Marathon number 3 done and dusted. Here are some highlights from my weekend and the recap of the marathon.

Saturday we headed down to Auckland to peruse the race expo - I always love me a good expo all about running!

Free smoothies - Yusss!

A future runner? This dude LOVED the expo!

And to have a lunch with these lovely ladies - fellow runners and bloggers:

So awesome to hang with a great group of girls as crazy about running (and blogging) as I am :)

From left: 

Me

Michelle from Run Kiwi Run

Vera from Super Generic Girl

Sheryll from Run to the Mountains

Jody from Kreachr's Little Corner

Check these awesome runners and bloggers out. I had a blast with them at lunch!

The rest of Saturday involved some serious prep (making sure everything was ready as I knew my brain would be off until at least 10kms into the run) and some serious relaxing.

Race Day:

It was a 6.10am start - this is way too early if you ask me but then it's nice not to be running in the real heat of the day. I slept terribly the night before because my alarm was set for the middle of the night 3.45am (what the heck!?!) and I didn't want to miss it. I haven't been up at that time of the night since I had a new born!

We wanted to be all ready to get to the start in case there were traffic delays, and for the all important last minute toilet stops. At the house, before leaving, because of all my nerves, I had a few issues with (ahem) my tummy. I didn't think anything of it at the time, just that it was nerves. Turns out that because of that I didn't really have much in the tank to run on... But I will get to that.

It was a glorious morning, such a beautiful sunrise and the start is at the most gorgeous spot on the waterfront in Devonport.

I was wanting to start with the 4.15 pace group as this was my goal. Well my goal was really just to beat my PB of 4:19, but with how well my training went I thought I would be on track to run a 4:15 no worries. Something must have happened last minute and I never saw a 4:15 pacer so just went off my Garmin for my pace. Right from the very beginning my stomach did just not feel that great. I think it was too empty and, despite all the hydrating I did the WHOLE week before, I continually felt thirsty and dehydrated. Eek!

Heading over the bridge was amazing, the weather was perfect (hot, but still great) and the view was awesome. I was on track for my 4:15.

I hit the half way mark at 2:09, 3 minutes slower than I should be for 4:15, but that's ok, there are no hills in the second half so I should be able to hold this pace. The turn around point was at just over 31kms. This is the hardest part I think. It feels like it just takes forever to get to that turn around and the whole time you're watching runners going back the other way wishing like heck it was you!

But I got there and then I was on the home straight. I got to the turn around in 3hrs 15. I was a bit gutted because I knew I was out of reach for a 4:15 and probably even a PB but I was still confident I could get in around 4:20 which I would have been happy with. Then at around 34kms I hit a small wall. Not the wall, but perhaps just a little fence. I needed fuel, and bad. I just had no desire whatsoever to take my gels. Just the thought of thick sugary goo just made me feel queasy so I stuck it out to the drink station where I had powerade or coke (who would have thought coke was so awesome in a marathon, I hate it any other time!) and water - plenty of water!

I kept on at a very sluggish pace, but I was running all the same. Then I really hit the wall at around 37kms. This is also where I lost the 4:30 pacer - gutted again! I knew there was only 5.2 kms to go but boy was I struggling. I wanted to cry, like seriously. What am I, a girl!?

I run/walked until around 39kms where I told myself I just needed to man up and get to the finish so I could stop! I saw Tim at 40kms and he ran with me to the finish. I was so sore by this point and my mind had given up, if he wasn't with me I don't know if I would have run that whole way so I was very thankful to see him and have his encouragement.

The finish is in sight!

My best supporter!

I finished in 4:37:08. And still beat the 4:30 pacer... Say whaaat!? I am so happy I finished it and I am happy with that time (now). I actually felt really terrible at the end and ended up having to lie on the nearest patch of grass for a while before I felt ok to get up. Haha. Once I got over feeling so ill and the fact that I felt like my time didn't reflect how well I trained, I actually was really happy to have done it and in that time. And hey, it's a course PB!

I am really proud of myself for my accomplishment only 8 months after having a baby. It's not a PB but it sure is a damn fine achievement. Heck, a marathon is a marathon and not all races will be best ones but I am sure there will be plenty more where that came from :)

And the best part about the finish? Having this guy there to celebrate with:

He just wanted to get his hands (and gums) on that medal - he is totally going to be a runner!

Thanks to all you lovely people who supported me and encouraged me through this whole journey. The last 4 months have been awesome!

A run, a plank and some more healthy baking...

I started today again with another run - 7.4km. My manky toe nail is still a bit red and sore and infected but today is a public holiday so I made the most of having the hubby at home and got out for a run senza buggy again. Maybe a bad move but my toe doesn't seem to have gotten any worse (yet). And I loved it (the run)! It made me remember how much I love starting my day with a run, then I can enjoy the rest of the day knowing I have done my dash. It still feels quite hard running, which in itself can be really demotivating, however I know it'll only get easier by getting out there and actually running. So I will!

Today's challenge for the 30 Day Abs Challenge was this:

Day 3. Plank Test #1
This is the first of five plank tests. Hold a plank for as long as you can with proper form. Your goal is to build up to 90 seconds. How long can you hold it? Write down your time so you can track your progress. This is what proper form looks like, thanks to el husbandio....

How to do a plank: Starting at the top of a pushup position, bend your elbows and lower yourself down until you can shift your weight from your hands to your forearms. Your body should form a straight line. Brace your abs (imagine someone is about to punch you in the gut) and hold. Focus on form: Don't drop your hips or raise your butt.

I did my plank and managed to last 70 seconds, which is actually terrible but it can only get better right? The challenge says to aim for 90seconds but I think I would like to aim more for 3 mins or something. I am sure I can get there!

I also found this recipe for some protein cookies. They are quite different from your standard but waaaay better for you and actually taste not too bad. They are 100 calories per cookie and a good guilt-free afternoon snack with a bit of protein to keep you going.

How are you going with the abs challenge?

What is your favourite healthy baking? 

Healthy food guide have a delicious healthy brownie recipe that I enjoy, will have to post it sometime. 

What's the longest you've ever held a plank for? 

I think mine is about 3ish minutes - I would love to do 5 mins but I find planks so hard!

Here is tomorrow's challenge, make sure to visit the website for all the extra links and exercises:

Day 4. Training Tip: Move Your Butt
Your booty and your belly are unlikely partners in crime. Here's why: Over time, sitting around too much renders your glutes practically useless and causes your hip flexors—the muscles that connect your hipbones to your legs—to become stiff. This couch-potato combo tilts your pelvis forward, which increases the arch in your back and puts stress on your spine. From a cosmetic standpoint, it pushes your abdomen out, making even a relatively flat stomach bulge. That means that to lose your gut, you've got to work your butt. The glute bridge march and hip-thigh raise will help you get a stronger behind.

Combat tight hip flexors with this stretch: In a lunge position, lower yourself so your back knee is resting on the floor. Push your hips forward, keeping your back upright, until you feel a stretch in the front of your back hip. Hold for 10 seconds, relax, and repeat. Switch legs. You can increase the stretch by reaching your arms over your head.

An apology and what makes me happy...

Playing catch ups - yesterday's and today's posts are here...

Day 13, Monday: Issue a public apology. This can be as funny or as serious or as creative as you want it to be.

I apologise to the girl who I cursed under my breath yesterday because she was running in a sports bra and short shorts. I only cursed you because I am jealous of you - nothing was jiggling. JEALOUS! So maybe I'm not sorry?? Or maybe I'm just sorry that my head wasn't on your body?
 

Day 14, Tuesday: Ten things that make you really happy:

The only hard thing about this is picking only 10 things, but here goes (and they are in no particular order/ranking)...

1. These two guys definitely are top though:

   

   My two favourites - thanks for making me the happiest person alive!

2.  Running - I love it, it makes me so happy (most of the time)

3. My friends - I have soooo many wonderful friends from all over the planet whom I just love and appreciate so much

4. Same goes for my family, I have a wonderful family and family in-law - love you all!

5. FOOD - Not going to lie, I love to eat - ice cream sends me to my happy place!

6. Jesus

Amen brother!

7. Getting new running gear - yip, geek! Happiness is new running kit

8. Achieving goals

True story!

9. People who read my blog - you guys make me happy, thanks!!

10. Summer and sun - these make me sooo happy. Nothing I love more than a beautiful sunny summer's day at the beach with great friends and food - that's pretty much everything from my list!!

What things make you happy?

What I have been up to lately - running and the rest...

On Wednesday I ran... Woop! As I mentioned in probably several posts before I had my baby, I am going to blog my post partum journey to getting back into running and the Auckland marathon. The marathon is on November 3rd this year and I just bought my ticket the other day, thanks to Ruun for sponsoring me. No backing out now. I am going to do the plan from this post which I started last year, but then got pregnant. It is the FIRST plan from the book 'Run Less Run Faster'. Check it out in the post. It is a 16 week training plan so I need to officially start it in July. However, before I begin with the training plan I am just aiming to:
- Slowly rebuild my running fitness
- Strengthen myself for running again
- Slowly build up to long distance runs.

On Wednesday I went for a 6km run with Mr F in the buggy. Not going to lie, I'm not sure if it was me running with buggy in tow, or the buggy running with me in tow. It was somewhat painful towards the end but I loved it none the less. Yesterday I was a tad sore... Running sore, which is my favourite sore when I am getting back into it. It means things are happening and getting back into shape... Unless it's an injury.

Speaking of injuries, towards the end of my run when I was trying to run up a hill (when I say trying it's because I think I was running but I bet I didn't LOOK like I was running) I felt my IT Band reminding me that it had been a while since I had run properly. This means that I need to get back into my strength training and stretches to help get my IT Band set for running again. The Run Less Run Faster book also has some great stretches and exercises for IT Bands.

Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of myself with a beetroot face after the run, but here is one of me and Fletch before hand:

Running is a great way of getting an overtired baby to sleep - so glad he loves the buggy, definitely a runner's son!

 And here's what else I have been up to lately...

Tim had a long weekend last weekend so we spent some time out the family bach (that's a beach house for all you non-Kiwis).

Up at the lookout, was a bit windy that day.

View from the lookout

Getting in a bit of exercise with Fletch in the front pack.

Super Dad and husband babysitting and vacuuming - who said men can't multi task?!?

I am playing my second game of hockey tomorrow which will be fun so no running this weekend.

Also, just want to mention that I am trying to get to 100 like on my facebook page so I can have a giveaway. If you haven't already, go to my facebook page here and like it and share it so I can have another giveaway. The giveaway will be open to local and international readers and likers so GET ON IT! 

What are your plans for the weekend? 

Anyone have a running training plan they absolutely love and would recommend?

Wonderful weekend inspiration...

Tomorrow I am heading north with my hubby to celebrate his Mum's 60th... Will be fun to catch up with the family and celebrate all of Sue's great milestones in 60 years.

I am a huge fan of inspirational and motivational quotes and sayings
so I wanted to leave you with some little gems to motivate you and inspire you through your weekend.

Thanks to this always trusty website and my crazy addiction to this amazing website, here are some treats for you...

Like a workout or treating a friend

So true! Get out there and work your booty off!

 I love this one as I am a firm believer that each day, each place, each thing you do, and so on, is TOTALLY what you make of it! So enjoy this day, this weekend and...

 And...

The T-Rex Workout...

For Tim's birthday last month he wanted this 'thing' called TRX... I thought it was like a BMX or something like that, which I then thought was totally weird because he HAS NEVER been into any such thing...

Anyway, turns out it is a workout thingee jig which is actually totally awesome! And totally makes sense because working out is one of the things he IS into. You can read more about TRX training here, but this post will be all about it. Woohoo!!

"At TRX we believe in training movements, not muscle. We produce best-in-class training equipment, workout programs, and education courses to help you achieve peak performance, reach your goals and get the results you want."

So Tim got his TRX suspension training kit (I call it the T-Rex) and has just started to teach me some awesome workouts you can do on it.

Source

This is the suspension training kit that you buy and set up somewhere in your house. It is all you need and you really can get any sort of workout possible from it. I kinda thought it was just another lame home gym style thing, until I had a go and realised how great it was.

"The TRX Pro Kit has all the equipment, workouts and education you need to perform hundreds of exercises that build strength, flexibility, core stability and power, anywhere, anytime. The TRX Suspension Trainer provides fast and effective workouts, scalable to all levels of fitness and intensity. This revolutionary system leverages your own bodyweight as resistance, putting you in control."  (www.trxtraining.com)

We have ours set up in our garage and because it's basically just some well designed and thought out straps, you can take it with you on holiday, or wherever you want (yes, Tim did take it with him on our last holiday *cough TRX nerd cough*). And because I love my husband so much, or should I say because he loves me so much, he even agreed to be my model for some pics to put in this post. Most awesome husband ever - sorry ladies, he's all mine!

He's totally sold it to me, I mean just look how hot he is working out on the T-Rex...

T-Rex training is serious business... Doing a standing row - works lats and traps

Single leg squat with lat row at the top - feel the burn!

Double leg squat with lat row at the top - great whole body workout to warm up with.

Sprinters stance - as named by TRX themselves and as you can imagine, a great workout for runners' legs in every way possible.

Tricep extensions

Bicep curls

This one's called the booty shaker... Not actually but it's what the picture looks like. It's called a knee tuck and you can do a press up at the end. Awesome core/shoulder/chest/arms workout!

These are just a very small sample of the workouts that can be done, and as you can see, all the workouts are just done using your own body weight which can be modified for extra resistance and trickiness. For example, the squat exercises can be made harder by moving your feet further forward - that gives extra resistance and extra booty burn... YEOW! Also, the knee tuck and press up workout can be made harder by moving your arms further forward, or easier (in my case) by moving your hands back.

This is such a great piece of equipment to own, especially if you are a runner as it provides tonnes of great workouts you can do to help with strengthening your legs, your IT bands, your core, your glutes, and pretty much actually just all the muscles in your whole body. It's also great for stretching - what all good runners should do but most probably don't do anywhere near as much as they should (*cough me cough*).

Well, after my first ever T-Rex workout and doing some awesome killer workouts, we just had to have a super healthy dinner to top off the night... Delicioso Garlic and spiced chicken and veges on top of tumeric quinoa with a side of avo and beetroot... Bit of a random combo, I know, but it was just everything I felt like.

YUM!

Have you ever tried a T-Rex? 

What are your favourite workouts for runners? 

What meal makes you feel uber healthy and good after a workout?


Acknowledgements...

Thanks to Tim for being my wonderful model and for giving me all the technical names for the workouts. Otherwise, they'd all have names like the 'booty shaker'. Eek!

We went on a holiday...

That's right, Tim and I went on a holiday - and not a work related one. Treats! He had a lot of leave owing so thought he'd take a few days during school holidays to pop down and visit his brother and sister-in-law in the beautiful Coromandel.

We were gone 5 WHOLE DAYS which was sooo wonderful!

We relaxed, fished, hiked, beached, went on lots of walks and did some more relaxing and WE LOVED IT! Classic Kiwi beach holiday!

The first day we headed over to Whitianga to check out Cathedral Cove, and on our way we came across this guy and his strange but cute pets...

OK, this pig is not so cute but he has a 4 day old piglet under his jumper which was SUPER cute!

 Got to admit, it was a little bit strange and I'm not sure if this guy has (or would ever have) a girlfriend, but he was friendly enough. The pigs and chickens, and there were peacocks too, just roamed around and lay all over the road and side of the road... Never seen anything like it before! They were all very friendly animals though, never harm anyone.

 After the pigs we moved on to this lovely spot...

Can you guess why it's called Cathedral Cove??

 For all you non-Kiwi readers and Narnia fans, this is the beach where the beach scenes from The Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe and Prince Caspian was filmed. It's our claim to fame and what put NZ on the map I think... After Lord of The Rings.

We hiked up and over to get there first... We were happier than we looked!

Inside Cathedral Cove looking out... Gorgeous Beach!

 Tim and I had some cuddle time and I forgot to suck in my tummy... Or turns out you can't actually do that when you're preggers?!?

This is part of the land that split off from the mainland after many years of weathering... Sooo cool!

Awww so cute!

The In-laws... Lucky no rocks fell on them. I'm NOT being sarcastic, promise, love these peeps!

 The next day we headed up the coast a bit and did a spot of fishing. Matt took the long line out in the Kayak and it was a team effort getting it all back in... Apart from me, I took the photos.

Tim looking super proud with some of the day's catch.

 A hard earned lunch... Chip and Dip sandwiches... YUM! By the way, you have to wear blue clothes to fit into this family... It's kind of regulation. Since you're just new Kirsty, we'll let you off. But at least your beanie is blue!

And this was our lovely room at Matt and Kirsty's bach-house which was stunningly decorated all beach themed. It was pretty cool!

All and all it was a great holiday, we had an awesome time with family and got in some much needed relaxing before coming back to set up my class room and for Tim to get stuck into some more house reno work... Fun times!