Day 102 - Short mile

Had a drink at work and maybe that worked against me but it was a struggle but managed the whole run but felt crap most of the way. No break at the lights but stopped for 5 seconds to check my bag after paranoia set in that it was feeling too light.

Distance: 1.46 km
Time: 7:26
Average Speed: 11.8 kph
Soundtrack: Jesus Jones - Doubt

Day 101 - Longest run yet

2.7 kms and the longest continuous run yet. Ran from 2 stops before Mt Eden Village and stopped at the lights for less than 10 seconds, ran all the way to Balmoral Road, waited for maybe a minute or more at the lights and then all the way home without stopping/walking (except the intersections where there was traffic to walk around carefully) and there were cars blocking driveways, footpaths and intersections.

Distance: 2.7 km
Time: 14:24
Average Speed: 11.0 kph
Soundtrack: Running Mix - Grouplove/INXS/Fluke/Feeder

Day 100 - hard work on a new route

This was a bit grim but I ran 2.1 kms (though my GPS registered much less) and there were more rises and falls than expected and a LOT of road crossings to get to the Cinema for my NZIFF film this afternoon.

I noted that when I was at the hospital it had only picked up 220 metres when it should have been 800-900.

However I hit 100 days of running today and so over a quarter of the way through the year!

Distance: 2.1 km
Time: 11:23
Average Speed: Unknown.
Soundtrack: Running Mix.

Day 99 - Hard work but good run anyway

Did not feel as good as it did yesterday but still managed to do it without stopping and the pause at the lights was only 23 seconds.

Tomorrow will be a longer one.

Distance: 1.48 km
Time: 7:07
Average Speed: 12.4 kph
Soundtrack: Audioslave - Audioslave

Day 98 - Great!

Ran from a little way beyond the usual bus stop and knew almost instantly that I was ahead of my usual pace and burning through my run in record time. By the time I got past Balmoral I felt like I was making great time and not feeling bad at all, then the three bus stops along Mt Eden I kept pace with the two buses stopping and interlacing at each one until the last one where they were leaving as I arrived, which was a good pace.

Ran all the way with no stops apart from the traffic lights at Balmoral.

Best time by 6 seconds but potentially more like 9 seconds once you figure the extra 20/30 metres and the fussing crossing the road.

Distance: 1.51 km
Time: 7:03
Average Speed: 12.8 kph
Soundtrack: Jesus Jones - Doubt

Day 97 - early run on no breakfast

Yesterday was a bit odd so with the prospect of another film this afternoon at the NZIFF there was an opportunity to get the run in early.

However on no energy in the tank and no breakfast before the run I felt it almost immediately and barely made it to the corner before feeling tired and breathless. I made it to the steep part though and knew I would not make it the whole way. Ran all of Watling, rested/walked on 20 feet or so or Mt Eden and the same on St Leonards, so three non run parts in all.

Distance: 1.62 km
Time: 8:43
Average Speed: 11.2 kph
Soundtrack: Running Mix - Garbage, Yes, George Michael

Day 96 - And odd little run

Today I went to the Film Festival and decided to run home from the village. However I needed to pick up some bread and tomatoes, and ran out of room in my nag to store all my clothes AND the groceries. So I walked up to the 1.2 km mark and then ran in jeans with everything else in my bag and carrying a dozen rolls in one hand.

So I ran/walked about 75% running and then walking pausing, crossing and going to shops.

Distance: 1.30 km
Time: 7:32
Average Speed: 10.3 kph
Soundtrack: Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto

Day 95 - second fastest time

All though it could have been fastest as only 3 seconds slower previous and potentially slightly longer and fussing with the app takes a few seconds to do. Running to beat heavy rave music does kind of help out - especially when it's familiar music that makes you want to move.

Ran from Fairview to Balmoral and into a head wind yet felt like I was making very good time. Then all the way from the lights to home including a nasty bout of ice cold rain the face for the last 300 odd meters.

Distance: 1.51 km
Time: 7:08
Average Speed: 12.6 kph
Soundtrack: Jesus Jones - Doubt (Trust Me/Who, Where, Why & International Bright Young Things)

Day 94- short jog in the afternoon

Day stacking up against me and I have to work from home with a heaeache and nausea so decided that a 1km run and only running a light pace would be the way.

All the steep parts I walked and slowed down for all street crossings.

Maybe 4 walks including lights? 80-90% running overall though.

Distance: 1.14 km
Time: 6:25
Average Speed: 10.7 kph
Soundtrack: High Violet - The National

Day 93 - Cold mile - showing off a little

So normal enough run for now with bloody cold air and low visibility on the way home, but today as I started off a girl ran past me as I was getting ready and so I left enough room for her to get well ahead before I started running. Problem was that I caught up with her at the lights and had been making ground the whole way because I was obviously running faster (I am much taller, longer legs etc...). So on the second leg I overtook her even with her headstart at the lights.

The problem was that as I ran ahead I sped up and maintained it until I was maybe 200 m ahead so I did not just look like I was trying to overtake her, even though I kind of did.

So before I reached home I stopped twice and even with that my pace was mostly faster than yesterday.

Distance: 1.48 km
Time: 7:25
Average Speed: 11.9 kph
Soundtrack: Mandatory Fun - Weird Al

Day 92 - gear issues but made great time

I ran the same distance as yesterday but had issues with gear (wireless headphones broke so had to change to wired) and pacing - armband cut off sound to headphones by pressing on volume so had to fix that too.

Apart from that (at the lights) no stops on either leg of the 1.51 km trip.

Distance: 1.51 km
Time: 7:17 (improvement on yesterday)
Average Speed: 12 kph (ish)
Soundtrack: INXS/Garbage/Grouplove

Day 91 - Cold wet but good run

Ran from Fariview which is about a mile (just under by 50 odd meters) and this time the lights timed just right so I ran non stop with no traffic/road pauses.

Ran the whole way without stopping and the temperature would have been well under 10 degrees possibly less than five with windchill and the like.

Distance: 1.51 km
Time: 7:34
Average Speed: 11.9 kph
Soundtrack: Running Mix: Garbage (x2) and Underworld

Day 90 - cold mile 1 stop

Felt sluggish today and would have taken a shortcut through the park to do 1 km but there were a crap-load of people in there with their dogs so I just ran the mile in the biting cold wind and rain.

One stop on the steepest part do St A's, but this time only maybe 20 feet of it as my legs started burning and my will gave out on the last rise. Ran the rest of the way in an ok time, had to edit Runtastic as I did 8:37 but then when resting unpaused it somehow and added another 30 odd seconds to my time.

Distance 1.57 km
Time: 8:37
Average Speed: 10.98 kph
Soundtrack: Women of Trance Vol 10

Day 89 - short run in the cold

It's so cold today and I can see the rain coming in so I ran through the park, halfway round the block and up to the dairy for a quick pick up and then back home.

Officially it's 12 degrees out but it's more like 2.

Distance: 1.04 km
Time: 5:40
Average Speed: 11.0 kph
Soundtrack: Women's Voices of Trance Vol 10

Day 88 - Feeling Awesome - Ran the whole block without stopping!

It'll not mean much to many, but today is the first time I ran a whole mile round the block without stopping or walking (usually the steep part of St A's is a 20 meter walk) and instead of wearing myself out I made it the whole way in decent time

So I feel pretty great that I decided to attempt it instead of trying to smooth out or preempt how much energy I'll have/need.

Distance: 1.56 (more like 1.6 but thats GPS for you) km
Time: 8:08
Average Speed: 11.5 kph
Soundtrack: American Authors - Best Day Of My Life/ P!nk - Blow Me/Underworld - Born Slippy

Day 87 - A Good Run

Ran from the village and felt pretty good the whole way, out of breath but managing to do the first leg without stopping (waited 90 seconds for the lights) and then the second leg also without stopping.

The air is very cold here in the middle of winter but today it was crisp and dry, just freezing so it was not too bad.

Distance 1.91 km
Time: 9:42
Average Speed: 11.8 kph
Soundtrack: MOS - Running Trax Winter

Day 86 - work from home morning

Had to work from home this morning for a conference call/demo with some people in the US and so decided to have a lunch run today - in the bright light, fortunately above and not in my eyes. Ran a short 1 km course without stopping even in the steepest part of the park which rises about 8 meters above my house.

Distance: 1.07 km
Time:  5:33
Average Speed: 11.6 kph
Soundtrack: Garbage - Stupid Girl & Born Slippy (the start of) - Underworld.

Day 85 - tired

Today had a rubbish lunch of a pie and a lemon slice, followed with a couple of biscuits. I try to make my lunch more substantial than that but today just did not have it together.

Stopped 3 times on the second half of the run, paused for only a minute at the lights but made the first half in good time and not stopping, though I felt pretty tired almost straight away.

Need to have better lunches and lighter dinners to lose some extra weight, make running easier on the load carried.

Also added a full bottle of milk on top of the kilos of clothing and shoes on my back.

Distance: 1.88 km
Time: 9:50
Average Speed: 11.5
Soundtrack: Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (Album)

Day 84 - 2 km and only half recorded dammit!

these GPS fails are beginning to annoy and I have manually edit the stats which looks awful and is halfway cheating when it's the bloody GPS signal that is failing. Since it can see the time it should know from the start to the finish  I was not running at 6 kph but twice that!

Stupid tech.

Did well and ran from Stokes Road to Balmoral Road feeling good, and then stopped on Watling after I crossed over and had trouble restarting, ran the rest of the way without stopping.

Distance: 1.96 (ish)
Time: 9:58
Average Speed: 11.98 kph
Soundtrack: The Neighbourhood - I Love You (album)

Day 83 - GPS failed again!

Ran in the rain uphill again did slightly better as I think I only started walking twice and the second half was all in one go without stopping except for traffic (dodging not waiting).

GPS failed about 60% of the way through and the app closed down unceremoniously.

Distance: 1.6 km
Time: 8:31 (estimated on music length)
Average Speed: 11 ish (10.2 on the uphill part so probably faster over all)
Soundtrack: Lemon Jelly: '64-'95 (Come Down On Me & A Man Like Me)

Day 82 - short run - an ok time

Short run today after a mid afternoon nap and feeling a bit weary. Ran to the dairy (about 300 meters) picked up the Lotto ticket that Max would have usually done and then ran the rest of the way home. The uphill parts of Watling were a bit sapping of energy but I ran all the way up them to the park but it set me back and even on the downhill parts I felt drained, more practice on uphill will be needed. Running down Mt Eden road is much easier since the grade is 80% down and only a little rise on the rest.

Also discovered that my headphones had been left on from yesterday and had no charge so had to use wired ones and that was distracting while running in an annoying way.

Distance: 1.06 km
Time: 5:31
Average Speed: 11.5 kph
Soundtrack: Grouplove - Ways to Go (x2)

Day 81 - Running with a bag sucks

Though I was determined to better than yesterday as this route is all downhill. But bag over no bag makes it harder and then weather was once again rubbishly cold and windy, the last leg was in a headwind which made it a bit ploddy.

Still made possibly the second best time on this course to date.

Distance: 1.52 km
Time: 7:08
Average Speed: 12.8 kph
Soundtrack: INXS/American Authors/George Michael

Day 80 - Good run and feel good about it

Really had trouble scheduling today and decided at the last minute before I went to actually choose a time. Had appointments in the morning and took the kids to the circus in the afternoon so running home after work was out.

Ran the mile round the block and stopped mostly out of habit on the steep part of St Andrews. 3/4 of the way down Watling I knew I was going to make it the rest of the way home without stopping. I felt a bit like a machine today, in a good way.

Harder on the last stretch but since I saw what time I was making I actually sped up - which burned at my lungs but not my legs and I got home in good time.

Distance: 1.58 km
Time: 8:11
Average Speed: 11.6
Soundtrack: The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - Out Of Frequency

Day 79 - cold late and fully clothed...

Well not that I run nude or partially, more that I had to stay in the office later than usual and had to run in the dark which I hate doing. Also the storm has abated for now but the temperature is still very low and the ground very wet.

So instead of changing into running gear I just changed my shoes and ran in jeans and wooly jumper over the same short course as yesterday and managed the same pace on a 50 meters more of running distance:

Distance: 0.74 km
Time: 3:39
Average Speed: 12.1 kph
Soundtrack: Cochise - Audioslave

Day 78 - Hellishly Cold

Though that's an oxymoron I am sure.

Too cold to run too far so I got off the bus 3 stops away from the house and ran the rest in one go, my face smarting all the way and running out of breath because of the cold air and rain.

At least I ran some - I was tempted to just sprint home from the nearest bus stop to see how fast that was ( a good excuse if I ever saw one ) there is a storm warning for tonight so power may die too.

Distance: 0.69 km
Time: 3:24
Average Speed: 12.1
Soundtrack: Underworld - Born Slippy (half the song)

Day 77 - Felt good!

Still exhausted, or more rightly, tired... but still felt good about the run from almost the get go.

Ran all the way to the lights, waiting exactly 1 minute for the lights to change (full phase is 90 seconds) then ran all the way home with no stops.

Am tired and sweaty but nowhere nearly as usual until now! Feeling pretty good about this one.

Distance: 1.49 km
Time: 7:23
Average Speed: 12.1 kph (from no walking I assume)
Soundtrack: Todd Terje - It's Album Time!

Day 76 - Really didn't want to - but did

Stopped twice - once as per on the very steep part and then at the start of my street for a few seconds then ran the rest.

Result was ok but mentally was thinking about giving up on the whole year as a bad idea and a pointless exercise, which it is, but I knew that starting out too.

Almost came home through the park but changed my mind at the entrance when all these dogs and their idiot owners decided to use my park simply because it's a designated dog park. Selfish bastards!

Distance: 1.57 km
Time: 8:40
Average Speed: 10.9 kph
Soundtrack: P!nk/Fluke and something else - oh yeah it was Fluke - which is in my mix twice for some reason...

Day 75 - Uphill half, downhill half...

For a while I have wanted to try running up Mt Eden Road and then running the flat section towards Three Kings, but the uphill section has looked quite daunting.

So today I finally gave it a go. Got about 3/4 of the way up the slope to discover it was even longer than I thought and there was more uphill sections beyond the crest I could see from my street. Pushed through it and stopped a few times before the end of uphill but made it up and then crossed carefully (and still a car refused to stop at the pedestrian crossing) and ran back downhill, stopped at the dairy to pick up a Lotto ticket, then ran home again.

It was not raining when I left, it started raining lightly on Mt Eden Road, started pouring down on the downhill stretch., was drenched when I got to the dairy, and thinned out to stop when I got home.

Bah!

Distance: 1.55 km
Time: 9:00
Average Speed: 10.4 (quite slower on the uphill half)
Soundtrack: Only Happy When It Rains (Irony Much?) - Garbage & Blow Me - P!nk & Suicide Blonde - INXS

Day 74 - The Benchmark Walk

Same course but walking.

Apart from sick of freezing to death in my bike shorts today I needed to pick up dinner on the way home, so running was not an option and by the time it was over it would be too cold and dark (I trip over my own feet in even half light).

So I walked the course to see how much of a difference running makes.

Distance: 1.80 km
Time: 18:01 (usually 8-9 minutes)
Average Speed: 6 kph (running at 11-12)
Soundtrack: Avett Bros, walking tempo!

Day 73 - Still freezing but not raining at least

Actually felt pretty good about run today, better than yesterday but slightly slower over a longer distance. Yesterday was miserable though and painfully cold.

Stopped twice but not until near the end and when crossing a road.

Distance: 1.48 km
Time 7:35
Average Speed: 11.7 kph
Soundtrack: Jack White - Lazaretto

Day 72 - Short run and frozen limbs

Okay today I wussed out a little because it was only a few degrees with the wind chill and rain, and most days this week I have been running in the miserable wet and cold.

So I took a short course but ran nearly all of it unbroken as the lights favoured me today. I did stop for a few seconds (21) while I checked and re-secured my bag, even though it was fine, after a few days of things flying open paranoia sets in.

I hoped to outrun the rain, but about 50% of the course was in the rain.

Distance: 1.23 km
Time: 6:13
Average Speed: 11.9
Soundtrack: Classixx - Album