When I read Atomic Habits by James Clear the chapter where he talked about behaviours reflecting your current identity was a massive light-bulb moment for me. The idea being that in order to build new habits you have to believe them first, and to build lasting habits you have to create a new identity first. Rather than think of a run as something I had to get done, if my identity is I am a runner then it’s as simple as “well I just run because I am a runner” like I have an accent because I was born in Britain or I read lots of book because I am a bibliophile. I am a runner, that will always be part of my identity and realising that simple truth made me enjoy running on a deeper and more cellular level.
Murakami said in his great book What I think about when I think about running that “When I'm running, I don't have to talk to anybody and don't have to listen to anybody. This is a part of my day I can't do without.” This is something that just speaks to me. More than any other reason I love to run to express this simplicity. Running sharpens my inner voice, declutters my mind and allows it a valuable reset from the push, pull and prodding of daily responsibility. In this regard running is something I completely cherish. Other forms of exercise don’t get me into that same space. I usually have too much else to think about like technique. Those moments of solitude are a gift.
I try hard to remember on those days when the running didn’t feel as good, I didn’t manage the pace or couldn’t complete the distance, that I still did it. Doing things when they are hard is how we build resilience. I like to think of these sessions as foundational building blocks that are creating the safe structure to progress with my goals. Its not going to be pretty and it certainy won’t be perfect all the time but at least on those days when its tough and ugly I can smile knowing my brain got me through it. I have another big reason to believe in myself and I have proven I can rely on myself when it’s hard. It will get hard again but I can draw on those experiences and smile knowing I’ll be ok.
I first read about (I told you I was a bibliophile!) Katherine Switzer from Bryony Gordon’s book on running. She included a whole chapter on Katherine and the female pioneers in the sport who first showed the world how ridiculous it was to think women couldn’t run long distance. I remember reading in complete disbelief that medical professionals at the time believed a woman’s uterus would just fall out of her vagina if she attempted to run as far as 26.2 miles. When I have days of feeling less motivated I think of these stories and these women. Thinking about them and the bullshit they had to overcome just to run is all the motivation I need to get out my front door.
My favourite pacing partners are my two dogs: Willow and Douglas. You will have seen them on my socials from time to time. Willow is the black springador and the better runner out of the two, Douglas is our darling ridgeback cross who is a bit reactive to run off leash, but I will often take him for a 40-minute plod while Willow scouts off ahead. They are both Parkun veterans and what gives me such joy is to see how much they love just being outside and running about. It’s so simple for dogs, isn’t it? Just run and have fun. I try to follow their example and will often repeat the mantra Just run and have fun in my head. It works. I was born under the Chinese zodiac of the Dog and when I am feeling especially whimsical, I think this gives me the intuition to read my dog’s mind, be more dog I see them tell me in their eyes. We should all be more like dogs and live that simple life.
The first thing you do when you arrive at your Air Bnb in a new place for a break away is get your trainers on and explore. It is one of the first things I do, sometimes it’s crack a beer or have a coffee depending on how stressful/long the journey, but seeing a new place for the first time on your own two feet is a really awesome feeling. Being curious about our environment, noticing landscape and terrain, saying a friendly hello or how do’ to a local. Being curious is part of my nature. Flying back home to the UK in August, the first thing Shaun and I did – couldn’t convince Josh – was go for a 40-minute run to shake the legs out. Sometimes getting lost is all part of the fun. You can draw some pretty crazy-looking shapes on Strava!
I am food motivated. Sometimes when my mind drifts on a training run I will be imagining the dinner I’ll be rewarding myself with once I’m done. Roasts are my usual go-to after the Sunday long run. Pork and crackling, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, veggies and lashings of deeply flavoured gravy – that’s all the motivation I need to polish off those final few kilometres so I can get home, shower and start brining that meat! I love thinking about dinners I will eat before a race to nurture and sustain myself through the next day, I love thinking about food as my reward for tough efforts or runs where I don’t give up even though it’s hard. I love eating knowing I am also responsibly exercising and expending my calories. I love how emotive food can be. I love how it brings people together. Planning a meal for my family or going out to dinner with my girlfriends or my husband. Food is central to my life but I get to enjoy it to the extent that I do, I believe because I also push myself to exercise, keep fit and be healthy.
Bella Mackie wrote about how taking up running one day as a reaction to her crippling anxiety sent her on the most incredible journey with her mental health, It has given me a new identity, one which no longer sees danger and fear first. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I ran myself out of misery. It has transformed my life. I am most passionate about this. The salve running provides my brain has transformed my life. I set-up Mangata with this message in my mind, that running has made me feel less alone in the world. Running has a power to heal and it heals me. I’m not saying that because I run I no longer have bad days, but the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other has proven to me that I can keep going, I can keep running, I can do it.
Thanks for reading,
LH x
]]>
Well, I am getting back into training, Shaun has had elective surgery and is now out of action for a couple of months. So, this means that I will be doing the Coastal half marathon solo down in Taranaki on November 19th. This gives me 7 weeks to put a focused plan together, my training so far has been under the heading of “just go out and enjoy yourself”. I’ve decided to create my own plan for this one following 4 runs a week, building to 5 when I feel ready to add some speed work in. This will include 1 long run, 2 x recovery and a tempo run.
It’s nice to have had the last few months running with no injury pain, taking things slow and running for the fun of it. I am happy now to be working toward a goal. In November I will be aiming to cross the finish line and my training will have emphasis on just completing the distance without injury (the first time since 2019!) and enjoying my running. We have the group 70.3 Ironman booked for January and I’m on the running leg, then I will be looking to smash a time goal.
I am quietly confident that if I stick to my 5 runs a week plan, with some cross training for triathlon thrown in, I will be able to get to the start line in Taranaki confident of running the whole 21.1kms. Whilst procrastinating before my run the other day I stumbled across a youtuber who completed a full ironman with just 6 months of training! I am sure I can prepare my injury-prone carcass to just half of the run portion of that event in seven weeks. “Mind over matter” – I hear my mother in my ear.
But for now, it’s just about pulling on the runners and getting out there with a happy mindset and a healthy body.
Wish me luck !
LH x
]]>The weather was good, bright and blue skies, a little light wind but overall pretty appealing conditions. Josh ordered his usual hot chocolate and then we headed over to race briefing after a quick stretch and warm up.
The race felt easier than the Hunua three weeks ago - mainly due to the shorter course. But as our legs were pretty beat up from the 90km cycle the day before, I didn't notice the relief too much! The trails were quite steep in parts but also bent and cornered onto some flat hard and fast sections. Every race in this Auckland calendar brings some exceptional views and it is always such a delight to turn a corner and see some gorgeous skyline or hear a new birdcall. The series has rewarded us the privilege of experiencing Auckland's best of nature and it has been a thoroughly sensory delight. It was a shame that the series had to complete without the final race in Riverhead - this was the one that Josh was looking forward to most of all due to the fun mud slides! Alas Auckland lockdowns put an end to that dream. But we will be back racing again next year and I might even take on a longer distance.. Saying that now that the memory of Hunua has long receded! Haha.. Till next year Auckland Xterra - Thanks for making Winter extra awesome :)
Thanks for reading
LH x
]]>We didn't give ourselves much time to spare before the race start, I think when you live a bit closer you leave it even later to leave the house! So we did end up having to rush to catch the end of the race briefing and then we were off! Leaving the Mangatawhiri Campsite for the woodland trails heading out toward Blackberry trail and then snaking alongside the Managatawhiri river in it's neighbouring dense bush.
The first half of the race was mainly flat and packed trails, passing some neat little streams and feeling utterly lost amongst the magnificence of the ranges. I passed the aid station at 2.9kms with just a wave and a smile but regretted it later, for the next aid station was after 8kms and my legs were really hurting! This felt like a very long race. Perhaps I was a little more tired than previous weeks but the trails seemed to just keep forging out in front of me, with each laboured step I didn't feel like I was making great progress. The three of us had splintered off at the very start and my mind drifted to wondering how Josh and Shaun were coping with the course and if they shared my mental fatigue with the distance.
The second half of the race was more promising of challenges. The open gravel track narrowed into single trail and rose and fell in waves of undulating rhythm. I mentally shut out the nagging in my knees that told me they had gratefully had enough for the day. I kept climbing and falling with the forest and kept looking at all the amazing fauna along river road. Eventually we wound our way to a final downhill and the faint sound of finishing cheers could be heard some way off. I was slumping my legs along with me at this point and I could have cried when running into the final paddock before the finish line the course was telling me to run in a circle rather than a direct line to the finish! It really did feel like it wasn't going to end and I was a little relieved when I crossed the line to the sound of Shaun and Josh cheering my name and it was good to hear that they too had found this course felt longer than the kilometres on our watch told us it was. I was grateful for the fair weather though, mild conditions meant we didn't have wind and rain to battle with along with our legs.
It doesn't take long to recover though and we treated ourselves to home-cooked roast pork and crackling, with gravy, roasties, veggies and Shaun's specialty - Yorkshire puddings! Until next time Xterra - thanks for the awesome challenge!
Thanks for reading
LH x
]]>We set off in our usual formation with Shaun out front, then Josh and then me at the rear. Josh was determined to keep his cotton longs on to race even though I tried to talk him out of it knowing he would quickly warm up and they would just drag in any wet weather, but he insisted on comfort, of course when I saw him at about the 10.5km mark they were rolled up to his knees, so stylish!
The course was really fun, plenty of soft trail underfoot that I was happy about. The frost burned off as the morning wore on and we ran under beautiful blue skies and crisp sunny fresh air in our lungs. This course was the longest of the series so far but the kilometres fell away without much of a struggle. There were some hilly sections - about 230 metres of climbing all in, but they gave way to fun trails and never really felt like a struggle.
We all really did think that this was a super fun course and all had the fantastic post-run feels and good vibe takeaways. And the best moment of the day? Well the giant mud puddle around the 10km mark of course! What a blast that was, and thankfully the course cameraman was on hand to capture the fun. Josh got photo of the day, definitely!
Hot chips and choco milk at the finish rounded off a truly stellar event. We are absolutely looking forward to race #4 in Hunua! And we are definitely coming back to Waiuku for a hike soon
Thanks for reading
LH x
]]>After some soul searching I realised that all I really wanted was to have a goal, train for it, stay healthy and complete the goal. The marathon distance has eluded me having tried twice before and both times ending up injured and needing to pull out. This year my number one priorities are to finish a marathon distance road race and complete a long course triathlon (half ironman distance), so I am targeting Auckland Marathon on October 31st and Rotorua Half on December 18th. Finishing both of these races will be a massive achievement, so I had to really do my research about how best to approach them.
Now we are into Autumn I am looking at covering my base training, getting in plenty of mileage and laying some good solid foundations to propel me into my races by the end of the year. After hearing about low heartrate running I decided to look into it a bit further and came across Dr Phil Maffetone, who is like the OG of this sport science and created ‘The 180 Method’. Low heartrate running is designed to increase your aerobic capability so you can go faster by going slower. The idea being that when we run slower with a low hr we don’t stress our system, we stay beneath our lactic threshold keeping us in aerobic productivity not anaerobic blowout. The 180 part of the title being the number you subtract your age from, this is your aerobic threshold and you have to keep your heartrate at that number or below. I am 39 so mine is 141bpm.
I am looking forward to seeing how my training evolves trying to stick to this guiding principle of 80% of my training being in aerobic hr and the 20% at a more intense level. I hope this will keep me injury free, motivated and consistent. Running at an average hr of 141bpm is going to be quite difficult as my gps watch (I use the Garmin Fenix 6) usually has my hr a little higher. I may look into wearing a chest strap monitor or actually getting myself tested at a lab to discover what my personal and unique thresholds are. More of that to come! For now I will log all my training and return here to journal how it goes, how I feel and what (if any) improvements I notice.
Thanks for reading,
LH x
]]>Josh was the biggest surprise of the day. First thing in the morning he was true to teenage form and absolutely didn’t want to do it. I have learned to just ignore these little gripes and moans and rebuff them with an alarmingly always positive tone of, “Oh, you will enjoy it once you get there and you’re running / you will love competing and beating some of the other racers.” I would have found myself infuriating at the same age, which is of course all the fun of doing it to my own son.
]]>
We were a little nervous, as this is the first race of the series and our first race for a few months, plus the peninsula and its big steeping climbs were going to make our legs and lungs work extra hard! But the nerves soon gave way to excited energy, even the driving Nor'easter and hampering rains couldn't deter us as we made our way to the race briefing and start line.
Taking off for the first of many climbs we hauled ourselves to the top of the pass, climbing is tough in Shakespear Park but the views are spectacular and worth all the hard efforts. The trail is very open and we found ourselves being blown sideways on the ridge line! Sometimes it felt difficult to put one foot in front of the other but the camaraderie of your fellow runners was fantastic and you never felt like you were struggling alone.
Facing the final climb up over the pass my legs were feeling pretty heavy. I passed Josh at the aid station just before and he rallied himself with the powerade and lollies on offer. I don't often stop for drinks unless I'm going for a long run, I sometimes find it harder on my running rhythm to stop and drink, preferring to just bypass and kick on. The final kilometres took us along the open trail with the rain easing, and a windswept run along the beach watching the kitesurfers having fun out on the water. Even with the wind whipping up along the beach I could hear the cheering coming from the finish line. That cheering narrowed on the sprint finish to the rallying voices of Shaun and Josh, freshly finished and high-fiving me on my way to the line. I felt so happy and proud to have finished I had to give a big beaming smile over the finish line!
Then it was time to head to the food truck for hot chips and beers and a mingle with the other runners. What a fantastic day! Looking forward to Waitawa in 3 weeks time :)
Thanks for reading
LH x
]]>