A lot more pain but plenty of gain.

This last week was dominated by low points but ended on a massive high.

I've been struggling with a back injury for the last couple of months which has been getting progressively worse. Last week it was so bad I was knocking back up to 12 heavy duty anti inflamitory pain killers a day just to be able to get to a point where my body could function. Combined with helping to look after my sick kids as well as surviving on 2-3hours restless sleep a night while still trying to train is not a good mixture and Friday I crashed big time! I ended up heading off home from work mid afternoon & going to bed with another healthy dose of pain killers.

Much of the next 36hours was spent resting & thankfully I woke up Sunday morning feeling relatively refreshed. It completely reinforced just how important rest and recovery is in any training program.





Today was the day of the Total Sport Volcanoes Challenge an event I have wanted to compete in for a couple of years. As so very aptly described on the Total Sport Website "The Volcanoes Challenge is a unique inner city navigation event where competitors run to, and up, Auckland’s iconic volcanoes, in any order that they choose...All multiple volcano events start and finish in One Tree Hill with no prescribed course route, so participants have the ability to tactically plan their quickest route based on maps, strategy & fitness..."

After having weeks of wind and rain it was great to wake up to a beautiful (slightly chilly) day with crystal clear skies and not a breath of wind - perfect conditions.

My brother Rod & I entered into the longest event the 7 Volcano Challenge which was estimated on the website to be around 24km. Being well into our preparations for the Sydney Marathon we decided to run with another friend the 5km to and from the event as well giving us a great workout.

Arriving just in time for the start gun it must have been a slightly bemusing sight for passers by seeing 500 odd people all head off in different directions. We chose an anti clockwise route so we could run along with some friends that were doing the shorter 5 volcano challenge.

All in all the day progressed nicely and apart from a couple of navigational errors capped off by Transit NZ carelessly putting a new motorway where a street should have been (according to our map!). This lead to some debate & lost time however we still finished in a credible 2hrs23min. With the extra 10km thrown in taking us over the 3hours on the feet for the day things seem back on track for the first main goal for the year the Sydney Marathon.

The body held up fine and with some more physio and visits to the Osteopath I should hopefully get the back sorted out & I am now aiming for a solid time of 3hrs45min for Sydney. The theory is this should be fast enough to be very happy with the time but not pushing so hard I can't recover for the Auckland Marathon in time (either way I'm confident it will be a PB and much faster than my first Marathon last year of 4:21).