Another blog about running

For me, the first stanza of this year has been dominated by two things: one of our school's educational audit and my resumption of running. The two things were a tough act to balance both.  

In the preparation for the audit, there were late finishes, and meetings at any time of the day. Those lead to evenings that I couldn't run, and usually sleeping later, a harder wake-up and sleep deprivation to get runs in. Then the week of the audit, there were requests for information, usually that could not be simply extracted, leading again to late nights.

That all being said, things have been surprisingly smooth on the running front, I'm tracking ahead of my best year, 2019, in terms of mileage at the same point although my pace seems a bit slower. Yet I'm still knocking on wood before every run. In 2020 for every start, every moment of overcoming, came a niggle, recurrence or injury. So far, with reasonably regular supplementary strengthening exercises, I have managed to get by without much worry that the machine will breakdown. I've been pleased enough with things to want to blog about it for quite some time except for the fact that I'm superstitious and don't want to jinx myself.

2019 is turning out to be a useful measuring stick as it was the best build-up and culminated in a good Rotorua Marathon time (early May). This year I'm running The Dual (a trail marathon on Motutapu and Rangitoto) on 10 April so while a little earlier in the year, I can know how I can continue to raise my game from how my fitness has improved in the past. 

The Dual is linked to 2019, too. It was on conclusion of the Auckland Marathon that year, with my fitness truthfully the highest it has ever been in my life, that I wanted my next marathon to be on trail, and the idea (and convenience) of a Hauraki island trail marathon was too good to give up. And after registering there was injury. There was Covid. And there was the entire frustrating 2020.

Now in early March, I am one run away from completing my first 100km week of the year (another echo from 2019). 100km is recognised as something of a sweet spot for marathon training and I intend to stay in the 100s for the next two weeks before tapering. 

This morning I finished my first run over 30km since the 2019 Auckland Marathon and I'm pretty satisfied with how it went. Five weeks to go to The Dual, I hope these good times can keep rolling!