Later today I’m heading down the coast to do two days of cycling in the mountains with Big Andy, one of the Tour de Bois. For that reason I did my weekly lap of Centennial Park this morning. I ran it in 17:42 (4:39 per km), which was a 48 second improvement on last week. Once again, it’s not a fast pace and I wasn’t struggling at all in either my lungs or legs. The purpose of these runs is to get my body used to a faster pace than I’ve been running in recent months, via a sustained 4  km effort (actually, a tick over 3.8 km). So far, so good. I felt comfortable and there wasn’t the slightest peep out of my Achilles.

On This Day

Jan 22, 2012

Distance today = 30.16 km; Total distance = 1112.11 km; Location = Mana, NZ –  41 05.669′ S, 174 52.137′ E; Start time = 0903, Finish time = 1301

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/143563329

Another planned short day, with a run of 30 km out of Wellington. I started the North Island stage on Mount Victoria, a high hill in the centre of the city, with 360 degree views. On a clear day you can see the South Island, so it seemed an appropriate link to what I’ve just done.

I gave the support crew the day off, and caught a bus back to Wellington, where we are staying. I’ll start tomorrow’s leg at the Mana train station where I finished today.

We are staying two nights at the lovely home of John and Liz Huckerby, for which we are, once again, greatly appreciative. It’s a beautiful place, with some great views of Wellington.