I’m still maintaining an average of almost 20 km per day this year, but it’s starting to take its toll. I’m feeling a bit ‘body tired’. I was going to do some speed work yesterday, but decided against it in favour of today. However, I reckon that would have been a mistake too, so I opted for some leaping and bounding drills instead. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that pushing through fatigue with speed work is a recipe for the rapid onset of an injury. I’ll have an easy day on Sunday, the last day of my running week.

I’ve dropped a couple of kilograms this past week. I’ve found over the years that continuing to run through a period of ‘heaviness’ can be beneficial down the track. Your body develops extra strength coping with running with additional weight – almost like resistance training – and when those kilos come off, the running feels so much easier and you’re stronger to boot. I always seem to put on weight leading into Christmas, but it comes off easily once the silly season ends around February.

This photo was taken near Lompoc in California, just down the road from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, where a runway for the space shuttle exists. I’m not sure any space shuttles ever landed there though. The region was one of my favourites of the whole world run. A few days after this I reached the coast again at Santa Barbara.

On This Day

Jan 6, 2012 

Distance today =55.69 km; Total distance = 306.88 km; Location = Outram, NZ –  45 51′ 10.3″ S, 170 14′ 28.7″ E; Start time = 0828, Finish time = 1647.

What a day! Huge hills, with a total ascent of 838 metres, but more telling was the amount of descending – about 1000 metres of it. It has taken its toll on my quads, and I’m sure they’ll be sore in the morning, but that’s to be expected. The main thing is I have no injuries.

That’s two big days in a row now. Yesterday was 59.73 km and today was 55.69 km. I wasn’t going to do that much on either day, but things just panned out that way. At least I’ve been viewing fantastic scenery, with great gorges and valleys, punctuated by rugged hills and mountains. And I had a fantastic burger for lunch today at Clark’s Junction Hotel. I would recommend the place to anyone travelling between Dunedin and Middlemarch. And a top bloke serving too. I also finished with a great chocolate milkshake at Outram.

I am reaching a few milestones. Today I passed 290 km – why is that significant? Well, it represents my first 1% of the trip (total of 29,000 km), and it’s only taken five full days of running, with a couple of less than half  a day. I’ve now totalled 306.88 km. Also, tomorrow I will reach the most southerly point of the entire run, just before Dunedin.

Thanks to the Whitehorse Hotel in Becks and the Strath Taieri Hotel in Middlemarch for free accommodation in recent days. It’s greatly appreciated. Thank you also to Gail at the Strath Taieri for the donation.

And the support crew have been superb too. Without them I’d not be able to do this sort of mileage. Has there ever been a better support crew for a world run? I think not!

Finally, we’ve had heaps of enquiries on the web site from all over the world. This is fantastic. The support crew have been working on replying to as many as possible, but please don’t be offended if we don’t get back to you. At some point it simply becomes impossible to reply to everyone.