I threw in some more speed on my run this morning – a pretty similar foray as last Thursday. Today I ran 1 km in 3:36. This really surprised me. My legs felt better than a few days ago, though I was breathing more heavily. Anyhow, I followed that up with 2 x 200 metres in 36 and 37 seconds respectively.

I really don’t have any reason to push the speed any further than that. The shortest race I have planned in the next year is the 32 km on King Island, so raw speed is not a priority. But I find a bit of speed work always leads to a higher level of fitness and better overall running.

This photo shows me approaching the Marlborough region in the far north of the South Island of New Zealand. Yes, that’s the region famous for NZ sauvignon blanc wines. We stayed that night just west of the town of Blenheim, guest of one of the wineries. The next day I ran to Picton before hopping on a ferry across the Cook Strait to Wellington.