My new challenge

[Rigpig]

I’ve always topped up my weekly running with either walking or hiking but since lockdown I have been doing more hiking than running. There are a fair amount of hiking trails where we live in the Waitakere ranges but many are closed because of a disease that’s killing off New Zealand’s native and Iconic Kauri tree. It can be transmitted on people’s shoes from one area to another so the tracks are closed. Anyway there are still plenty open and my nearest one is a short drive away. It’s about 3.65Km there and back but has some steep gradients so it’s quite hard going in places. I used to do it just before I started C25K and it took me just under an hour with at least 3 stops to catch my breath. Back then I used to watch in amazement as people occasionally ran past me and shot off in to the distance and wondered if I would ever be able to do that. So I started timing myself and managed some time ago to do it in 45 minutes without stopping at all. I must stress that this was a real achievement for me as one incline in particular is quite steep for around 70 meters and getting up there without stopping nearly killed me. Anyway Once I had that benchmark time without stopping I started to chip away at it and get faster and faster I’m now running around 50% of it and power walking the rest and as of yesterday’s session I’m down to 34:16 and reckon I can bring this down a fair bit more over the coming weeks. It really is hard going for me and I’m exhausted when I finish but I think it’s really improving my fitness, I was finding longer runs quite boring but this has got me really enthusiastic again, I’m going to try a flat run this weekend and see if I have improved my pace and distance but for now I’m quite happy doing what I’m doing.

Hope you are all managing to stay fit and healthy.

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Tim

[Enxo Graduate]

Well done! You really are cracking on!

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Wow... nearly half the time than you used to do it in, and a huge chunk of that 45 too... wonderful progress!

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate]

Good post and run from you Rigpig, that time of 34.16 is also very special for me, that was the exact time I had on my very first parkrun.

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

There is nothing like hill training to build stamina.

[Hidden]

Hi Tim, that’s a great challenge you’ve given yourself, you’ve given me some ideas for some of my post graduation challenges as there is a great ridge near me to run up and down to the sea and then back again. I’ve been avoiding climbing back again whilst I get 30 mins under my belt.

Sorry to hear about the disease affecting the Kauri trees, we are not the only species under attack are we?

Let us know how your flat run goes at the w/e, I hope you find you’ve made great progress 🤗

[Nilsam Graduate]

This is a fantastic plan, Rigpig. I look forward to reading about how your flat run pans out. 🏃‍♂️👀👍