APRIL 2025 Monthly Running Challenge

@quilteryoyo Not at all! My office administrator just said "Good for you" when I told her how long I went. My lunch is 12-1. I got back right at 1pm. I was late as I still had to change and get back to my desk. That didn't take long at all.

Good morning! Logging two runs - yesterday I worked from home and ran 3 miles at lunch. It was still very windy but the sun was shining. This morning I ran 4 miles. We typically do 5 miles in the mornings but one friend had a last minute change to her schedule so we all cut it short in solidarity.

@martaindale & @quilteryoyo we already follow each other on Strava 😁 Name on its Dicte, same profile pic as here😛

Forgot to do a bit of reporting. Currently at total of 74km/150km for the month. Should be on track. Have a 25k trail race run end may. Currently have a love/hate relationship with Garmin. Yesterday, was supposed to do a threshold run but couldn't get the HR up, dead legs. The other day supposed to keep it below threshold but no, dipped the toes too many times over. Also need to learn to warm up for the warm up run segment 🙄Also need to stretch more 😐️ and I used to be such a good stretcher.

That's great @angf0679 . You are doing great.

Nice running @Teresa502 . You are a good friend. 😉

@WarmJellyfish I glad you told me. I was actually wondering the other day who Dicte was. 🤣 I should have noticed the profile picture. Lots of us have love/hate relationships with our Garmin's.

Sounds like a great run today @John772016 .

Happy birthday @kgirlhart.

Have friended you on Strava @WarmJellyfish - and I love trails (more on that shortly).

I've been hopeless on here again and am miles behind.

I hiked the Routeburn at the end of last week and absolutely loved it. I knew it would be beautiful, but I was blown away by how stunning it was - it was ridiculously scenic (no wonder they keep making films here).

I'm happy to report that the hike wasn't as hilly or as technical as I expected - I think those describing it to me may not be trail runners… That being said, we took things slowly anyway and enjoyed the views. As we were doing the guided walk (less about the guiding and more about the hot showers and wine with dinner) there was loads of time, including a daily side quest - up a hill to a view mostly.

Anyway, with the pictures doing the 1000 words thing, here you go. (We were very lucky with the weather. Not only does Fiordland have over six metres of rain annually so you can expect rain any time of the year, a cold front had come through a few days prior dropping the first snow of the season on the mountains, however, aside from a bit of drizzle at the beginning, with cloud obscuring a few views, we had lovely weather.)

I spent the first couple of days saying to myself, this would be awesome to run, maybe I should get a few friends to do it with me. The Routeburn track is 32km long, but the side quests on our hike added a few more kilometres. I'm thinking, 32km in a day is doable - they say you can walk it in eight hours!

Next thing, they tell us that we're going to have to get up and leave an hour earlier than scheduled on our last day as it's the Routeburn Classic, and we want to be almost off the trail before being swamped by up to 400 runners!

As it turned out, the lead runner passed me about 5 minutes before the end. I recognised him as he flew past (the running world in New Zealand is small and friendly - he popped into my local parkrun when I was timekeeping about two months ago and set a new course record!). He did the whole thing in 2:43. There's 1400 metres of elevation and very uneven underfoot for a lot of it. Unbelievable.

Guess what I'm signing up for next year?

Home now and back running, or sort of. We have had a cyclone come through in the last few days so it's been very wet and wild (the drought is long gone!). I ran on Monday while the weather was still civil, then missed a few days thanks to the wind (I love running in the rain, but 120km gusts, no thanks, and that's without the flying tree branches and pinecones!). Got out today. The rain is mostly gone but it was still windy, which was only nice because it was sooo humid. I couldn't keep my heart rate down and figured it was the heat.

Garmin has resumed hating me. I was 'unproductive' for the whole Routeburn, and both runs this week are equally poor - just as well I don't give a hoot what Garmin thinks!

01/04 2.86 miles
02/04 3.02 miles
03/04 2.18 miles
05/04 3.12 miles
06/04 3.13 miles
07/04 3.01 miles
08/04 2.85 morning &
1.04 evening miles
09/04 2.21 miles
12/04 2.87 miles
13/04 2.86 miles
14/04 2.85 miles
15/04 2.85 miles
16/04 2.86 miles
17/04 2.86 miles
18/04 2.87 miles

Total 43.46/ 70 miles

@martaindale Love the new runners

@kgirlhart Enjoy your Birthday weekend!

I have a nice weekend coming up, one of my sisters and I are booked into a spa tomorrow morning and then on Sunday evening it's a family dinner my Dad organised because everyone one is home for Easter, some live in Galway, and some in UK. It's to celebrate my Mum's 80th birthday which was in December, but she wasn't well at the time and with some family not living here, it was postponed until everyone was home. Some are looking forward to it and others are complaining about the timing, the usual family politics😂

Sis-in-law: "let's meet at a bar near the venue"

Me:

One of my favourite breweries is practically giving it away this weekend!

Oh, and speaking of calorie carnage this weekend...

Those chocolate eggs accumulating. Think my kids are too old for this but keep getting gifted them from aunt's, grandparents etc. (one doesn't really have a sweet tooth at all!) Wife and I on the same page. This weekend only. All have to be finished by then. then back to it Tuesday

01.04 strength
02.04 7.0km 55min 7:51/km - slow
03.04 strength deloading
04.04 5.0km 37min 7:28/km - warmup, 4x800m fast, 200m slow
05.04 strength
06.04 6.1km 47min 7:44/km - slow
07.04 4.0km 30min 7:27/km - warmup, 2.41km fast
08.04 strength
09.04 8.0km 62min 7:43/km - slow
10.04 5.0km 37min 7:26/km - warmup, 15min fast
11.04 strength
12.04 5.1km 40min 7:48/km - just shite
13.04 dancing like crazy at concert
14.04 mostly travel day
15.04 swimming
16.04 3.0km 24min 7:52/km - just slow
17.04 strength
18.04 7.0km 54min 7:43/km - slow

50.29/81km - 1.7km ahead

It's Easter, weather is shite as usual. Went running in a rather cold, but windstill drizzle. I don't think I ever got warm, but I still managed to run 7km.

April total: 45.6/100 miles

YTD: 286.8 miles

4/1: 3.2 miles

4/2: 1.5 miles

4/5: 4.2 miles

4/7: 4 miles

4/10: 5.1 miles

4/12: 7 miles

4/13: 3.2 miles

4/14: 5.1 miles

4/15: 4 miles

4/16: 5.1 miles

4/18: 3.2 miles

Short one this morning. Saw my first snake of the season, a smallish copperhead, at the edge of a paved trail through a wooded green space. I didn't see it until I was pretty close as it was right at the edge of the sidewalk. I then spent the rest of the run playing snake vs stick.

I'm camping this weekend at a state park a couple hours from my house. I've never been to this park so looking forward to exploring. It has quite a bit of trail because there are equestrian sites here so I will have plenty of trail for my long run tomorrow and am planning on a short one Sunday before I drive home.

After a long work week I went on an easy run.

4/3 1.04M at 13"44
4/5 2.39M at 14"31
4/7 1.88M at 13"58
4/10 1.18M at 17"33
4/12 1.97M at 16"26
4/14 1.99M at 14"18
4/16 2.06M at 13"56
4/18 1.99M at 14"02