Marathon

This morning was my first training session for the Auckland Marathon, coming up on October 29th. I did a ~6 km run which took me 37 mins. A shocking time considering I've done 5 km in around 23 mins. However the point was to slowly build endurance through long slow runs, which will help me last the 42 km distance.

I had a training programme devisied by the amazing Wayne Oxenham of Orion Health. Basically he stressed that I start slowly, then each subsequent week I put in a little more effort. Once my effort reaches a peak I taper off my effort. This is what is called a recovery period, which is critical to building performance. After recovery I start small again, then put in just a bit more effort until I peak again. The idea is that I should be able to hit my peak more readily and recover quicker from that peak.

After training I went to Kathmandu to buy some Polypropelene clothing. Since winter brings all sorts of rubbish weather, especially in Auckland, I felt that this item will be crucial to my training in the winter period. Basically Polypropelene, or in lay terms Thermal Underwear, will keep me warm whilst running in cold weather. It will also keep me dry if I happen to be caught in a rain storm. Well I'm not exactly sure how dry but obviously I'll have to wear some sort of light waterproof jacket on top!