The Dual | 2014

This year Mark did The Dual 10km with me on the beautiful Motutapu and we also decided to camp overnight with a couple of friends.

Honestly, considering how competitive Mark is I should have known that walking with him would be a little…ummmm…painful! Also, he thinks he is being really motivating and all he does is piss me off.

This is the third year in a row that I have done this event and for some reason this time around I felt really nervous about doing it. Last year I had been doing some walking events and also Shake Up’s via MMNZ and I was definitely fitter than when I first did it in 2012.

2012 - 2:51:55

2013 - 2:37:19 (-0:14:36)

2014 - 2:31:14 (-0:06:05)

Improvement 2012 vs. 2014 - 0:20:41

So shaving 20:41 minutes off my time vs. the first time I did the event is pretty good. Still next year I will be aiming to try and do the event in much less time as I know that I will be fitter and hopefully I can add stairs and functional training back into my workout program.

For me The Dual is really a mental challenge as well as physical. I know every inch of the course and sometimes forget how hard the last 3-4km’s can be. I want to be able to do it faster and not dread each hill as it comes around. Definitely the first climb is much easier than the first time that I did it when I thought “what the hell have I gotten myself into”.

So the plan for 2015 is to train smarter for this event. Also, with the camping side of things we are definitely not camping the night before and we need more padding to sleep on and more blankets. Also, the food options were really disappointing so we will definitely be better prepared food-wise next year. It was still amazing to stay overnight as we felt relaxed and in no way rushed to try and get on the next ferry. We were able to swim, listen to music and just soak in the atmosphere. Overall, while it is a hard event it is also extremely rewarding and very beautiful.

The Color Run

Mark and I in the Colour Mosh Pit

So the first event for 2014 was the first ever Color Run in New Zealand. To be honest when I signed Mark and I up for this I was really excited and then on the day I felt a bit “meh” about it all.

Once we found the MMNZ gals I felt heaps better as it was such a nice way to see them all. It feels like a big (colourful) family when we are altogether.

We ended up walking with a few of the gals and it was such a cool family friendly atmosphere. I even got down in the colour and rolled around in it. So much fun! We will definitely be doing it next year.

I have decided that rather than just doing as many events as I can this year that I am going to be more selective with the ones that I do. I already decided not to do the Albany Lakes Series as quite frankly walking 2 x laps of 5k is just boring. Also, we will be missing Round the Bays this year as we will not be around.

So to date we have 3 that are definite as we are already signed up:

The Color Run

O Rock

Motutapu

From there I will decide what to do. I know that we will do the Auckland Quarter Marathon and I will do Sculpt, but I need to find some more that are interesting.

I am also going to focus more on resistance training than I did last year. I have definitely go the cardio under my belt and exercising at least 5 times a week is a well-established habit now.

What events have you done or signed up for that you love?

Walking Stars

The beautiful, inspiring Liz and I

On Saturday night I walked a half-marathon (21km) as part of Walking Stars to support the Cancer Society.

It was an event that I signed up for way back in June and to be honest I always thought I would have done enough training so that it would not be a massive mission to do the event. Suffice to say I did not train for it with walking etc. After I did The Dual for the first time in 2012 I always swore that I would never do an event without training beforehand…oops! About 6 weeks out I knew that it would be really difficult or even impossible for me to complete the event and I wanted to pull out. A friend from MotivateMeNZ encouraged me not to pull out and so I went with trepidation in my heart.

It is the longest distance I have walked to date. Also, it is a night event which started at 8.30pm on a Saturday night. I would love to say that it was a beautiful starry night however it was overcast and showery at times. In retrospect this was probably good as it would have been hard going on a ‘hot summers night’ (yay Meatloaf).

I am not going to lie…it was hard and without Liz there I would have probably given up and caught a taxi back to the domain. At about 10.1km I was really starting to hurt; not muscle pain so much but my feet were aching. It probably did not help standing at a carboot sale from 5.30-10.30am that morning. I also moaned and slowed to a virtual crawl in some places. The long walk from under the harbour bridge to The Strand seemed endless and the point where I realised I had to do another lap of the domain just about brought on tears of frustration. The really good thing though was that I did not get blisters (thanks Kate for your Coconut Oil tip) and my joints did not really hurt like they have in the past.

I am amazed at the power of the human body and what it is capable of. We finished in 4 hours and 50 minutes.

However, it was the people along the way, the supporters, the volunteers, and the random high fives from people in bars, the toots and yells of support that made everything a little bit more bearable. Then there were the people who were in pain in the final few kilometres of their journey and they still managed to dig deep and be supportive despite their own struggle were amazing.

So many people took the time to really think about their outfits and we were surrounded by men and women wearing glow sticks, Christmas lights, bunny ears with lights and stars…it was amazing! I had outfit envy a lot.

I do not know if I will ever walk that distance again; if I do I will definitely train for it physically and mentally. However, I did realise that I never want to run a half-marathon as it is simply just not me. I thought I did and now I know that running is not necessarily for everyone. 

Events 2013 vs. 2014

Before The Crank 13/09/13

I can’t actually believe that it is the 1^st October…seriously? Where did that time go? Our RPM instructor today said “7 weeks until summer” to motivate us to work harder; I am sure I pushed myself a bit harder after that!

This year I wanted to increase the number of events that I did vs. 2012 and by May I had already done the same amount that I did in one year. Then I went to Korea and everything kind of fell over from there.  On the plus side I have continued with my RPM journey and tomorrow night I am going to try Les Mills Body Attack for the first time; yes I am FREAKING OUT. I do need to start walking etc. again otherwise in November I am going to DIE with three events!!

So this is 2013 vs. what I plan to do in 2014

2013 (3 x events still to go)

20th January - Westfield Albany Lakes SummerSeries Race 1 (10km) Time: 1:47:33

10th February - Westfield Albany Lakes Summer Series Race 2 (10km). Time: 1:51:02

3rd March - Westfield Albany Lakes Summer Series Race 3 (10km). Time: 1:48:05

10th March – Ports of Auckland Round the Bays (8.4km). Time: 1:36:49

17th March - Coatesville Classic (8km). Time: 1:33:07

The Crank 6am 13/09/13

23rd March – Partners Life Dual Motutapu (#1620) – Rangitoto Traverse (10km). Time: 2:37:18

14th April - Whenuapai Half Marathon (#0071) (10km). Time: 1:47:01

21st April - Orewa Beach Half Marathon (10.5km) Time: 1:59:20

12th May - Mazda ORock 6K Obstacle Course - (6km) Time: 1:14:14

20th July - Charity Spin Cycling Ride

13th September - The Crank

17th November - Sculpt 6K (6km) Time: 107.14

30th November - Walking Stars (21km) Time: TBC

2014 (so far)

26th January - The ColorRun™ (5km) Time: TBC

23rd February - Mazda ORock6K Obstacle Course - Time: TBC

9th March – Ports of Auckland Round the Bays (8.4km). Time: TBC

22nd March – Partners Life Dual Motutapu – Rangitoto Traverse (10km). Time: TBC

TBC April - Whenuapai HalfMarathon (10km). Time: TBC

13th September - The Crank

XX November – Adidas Auckland Marathon (10km). Time: TBC

XX November - Sculpt 6K(6km). Time: TBC

So there we go! Bring on 2014!

Who is with me????