tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73971722753951964962023-11-16T08:02:39.579-08:00A Geek's Log of his Endurance Fitness Adventures.Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-65706672214495711852012-11-28T15:28:00.000-08:002013-03-18T23:40:11.259-07:00

I did this run last year as well and as I was at the start line, I remembered that it was painfully hot the previous year. Standing at the start line, I also quickly realized that it was much hotter this year! This was easily one of my toughest runs even though I have run much longer distances than 14km before, the combination of heat and my lack of long distance fitness made it a grueling task

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-63479536802280277832012-11-04T18:34:00.000-08:002012-11-04T18:34:55.157-08:00

I completed the 10km Sun Herald Run4Fun yesterday on a very interesting course around Sydney Olympic Park with a finish inside ANZ stadium. It was my fastest 10km to date and I managed to finish it in 57m 27s, I was pretty happy to cut 2 mins off my time from two weeks ago at the St George Beach Side Dash. There were around 8000 runners taking part and I was expecting a very

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-36948965034828933802012-10-28T21:20:00.003-07:002012-10-28T21:22:05.330-07:00

I completed the 10km St George Beach side Dash on 21 October which was a bright and sunny Sunday. It was not my fastest 10km but I managed to finish it in 59m 37s. I had done this run before in 2007 and finished that in 52m, although I think that route was a bit shorter than 10 km. This is a very nice route which runs alongside the beach, but its a bit windy

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-35936281456527242492011-12-18T23:00:00.000-08:002011-12-18T23:02:10.596-08:00

I ran my first Cross Country Run around a week back and it was a brilliant course. The weather was a bit on the hot side but in the end I managed to pull through comfortably although my time was not as fast as I wanted. I'm starting to really like running off track now and have even started to incorporate cross country running into my weekly training runs. I also find that running on grass and

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-43525559109682649322011-11-28T22:14:00.000-08:002011-11-28T22:14:09.449-08:00

I had a fun 8km run over the weekend at the Sri Chinmoy Cooks River Run held near my old suburb at Hurlestone Park. I didn't know what the route would be and when I rocked up for the run at 7am in the morning I was very excited because I realized that I had run that route many times when I lived in Hurlestone Park, in fact it was the same route I used almost very day when I trained for

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-51157054655602675752011-08-29T21:14:00.000-07:002013-06-21T07:53:54.995-07:00

Last Sunday I completed in my first Duathlon which was the last race as part of the Hills Tri Club's yearly Duathlon Series and was held at my regular training location, Parramatta Park. This was also the first time I had taken part in a race that involved Cycling. The race was 3.2km Run - 19.2km Cycle - 3.2km Run and was conducted with standard Triathlon Australia rules (No drafting, blocking

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0Parramatta Park, Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2150, Australia-33.8093497 150.99401639999996-33.8155237 150.98908389999997 -33.8031757 150.99894889999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-2347780575888776882011-08-16T19:07:00.000-07:002011-08-16T19:08:26.309-07:00

2011 has been a pretty bad year for me with injuries, it started off really well and I was getting fit gradually just in time for the running season. Unfortunately I then had a pretty bad fall playing indoor soccer and badly injured my right knee around two months ago. It took me more than a month to be able to walk without a limp and a few more weeks before I could run. So City2Surf was a real

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0Sydney NSW, Australia-33.8689009 151.20709139999997-34.2412264 150.78688789999995 -33.4965754 151.62729489999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-73070672937146800452010-10-17T01:41:00.000-07:002010-10-17T01:47:49.731-07:00

I'm been trying for a very long time to get started with triathlons but have not been able to find the motivation to keep up with a regular training program. In the past I've started a few training regimes but almost always slipped away from the programs after a few months. The main reason for this being that my swimming skills are really very poor and i find it very hard to drag myself to a

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-61472627660693549032010-09-05T23:59:00.000-07:002013-06-21T23:29:25.044-07:00

On Sunday 29 August I ran the Chevron Perth Marathon. It was the most gruesome run I have done till date and I somehow managed to finish the 42km distance in 6h 07m. Before the Race: Leading up to the race, I had not run as much as I had planned. Unlike my first marathon last year I took this run a little less serious. I only did a half marathon and two long 30km runs around 5 weeks before this

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-4200922468102977392010-08-10T17:17:00.000-07:002010-08-11T18:35:00.962-07:00

I completed my first Sydney City2Surf yesterday with a time of 1h 23m (83m). It was an amazing experience with 80,000 runners taking part in the “largest fun run in the world”. There were so many people at the start line and I had to line up for more than 40 mins with the Blue group to get going, after which the roads were jam packed with runners for at least the first 3 kms. At around

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-25127245298220105372010-07-14T18:53:00.000-07:002012-10-28T21:23:16.958-07:00

This was my first race for 2010 and it was good to be back, I did this more as a training run than a serious race but did end up running the 21km in a time of 2h 15m which is usually faster than my training runs so I was happy. I was also happy that I managed to do the whole run without consuming any Gatorade, I have been trying to cut down my dependency on the sports drinks for longer runs so

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-9386479638181022272010-02-22T02:36:00.002-08:002010-03-09T02:23:16.283-08:00

As mentioned in my last post, I’m still not going to be able to do anything physical for around 2-3 more weeks, but I really want to set a new goal and aim for it during my recovery stage. I’ve been busting my brain trying to work out a realistic goal that I can attempt without making my injury worse and I think I’ve got it. It’s not a crazy goal but I believe it’s going to be challenging for me

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-29174105814302455392010-02-22T02:36:00.000-08:002010-02-22T02:37:57.757-08:00

Over the last two and a half months I have been forced to stop running and doing anything physical, due to a really bad infection in my right foot that started after I didn’t treat some running blisters I got after my last marathon. Even though I’ve taking really good care of my foot over the last couple of months, I unfortunately got struck down with some other internal allergy my body formed

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-24538220543172381402009-10-15T19:48:00.000-07:002013-06-21T23:31:01.632-07:00

As soon as I crossed the finish line I caught up with my Mom (Who had flown down from India to see me) and remember feeling great after that. I was not tired at all, I was sore but I felt I could run around 10km at least. One thing I did do wrong was that in the 2 weeks prior to the race, I cut down my running as I was afraid I’d injure myself. Because of this, on race day I found myself 3kg

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-64228746269038354262009-10-15T19:44:00.000-07:002009-10-15T20:17:43.496-07:00

So I trained as hard as I could have and finally it was race time, September 20, 2009 and the gun fired off at 7.30am.1) I eased into the run, just focusing on getting to the first 14km mark (warm up), I was very stiff as my warm up was not that great (no matter how much you plan things still go wrong, the taxi cab I called for the journey arrived 30mins late and I ended up rushing to the start

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-88570945094840373682009-10-15T19:16:00.000-07:002012-06-20T00:28:48.947-07:00

On September 20, 2009 I successfully finished the Sydney marathon in 5:01:25. It’s my proudest achievement to date as it took me three months of full time training and it was still an unimaginable challenge in the end. I thought it would be great to write down the key processes I followed during my training and hopefully it may prove useful to any first time marathoners and help me improve my

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-88454023045839173762009-10-04T04:55:00.000-07:002009-10-04T05:03:19.149-07:00

I’ve been meaning for a couple of months to post about this and finally got to it. I recently did my first Muay Thai grading with the Fiterite Gym in blacktown. I am very proud to have achieved this and hope it will be the first of many grading to come and singlets to work towards.It was around 45 mins of being judged on the following:Warm up and stretch routineGladiator workout (a continuous

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-30419319861195931732009-07-13T00:50:00.001-07:002009-07-13T01:07:14.704-07:00

This is the hydration plan I hope to follow for my runs more than 2 hours or more than 20km.My Needs:I hit the wall quick so I need a steady intake of carbsI sweat a lot so I cramp so I lose my electrolytes (Salt, Sodium and Potassium) quickI feel that due to my seating I need to give priority to my electrolytes intake over my carb needs, as if I stay hydrated I would have more base energy

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-44361688139640603682009-06-02T22:44:00.000-07:002009-06-02T22:54:06.037-07:00

Used for events:10km Bondi Barefoot Softsand + Bolt RunsUsed for following reasons:I did a very long run 5 days before the actual event and had very bad muscle cramps and tissue damageI wanted to build my up energy reserves for what I knew would be a high energy consuming runWhat I was hoping this diet would do:This diet was aimed at helping my muscles and tissue recover (high carb, protein and

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-44684757309265104512009-05-31T17:19:00.000-07:002013-06-21T23:32:40.417-07:00

------------------------ Before the run ------------------------ I signed up for the 10km soft sand run one month before actual race day thinking that it should be a very easy run as the distance was nothing new for me. But what I failed to consider was that running in soft sand whilst being barefoot can be a real nightmare, especially if you run using the same technique you use when you run on

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-25852712549322931412009-04-07T00:01:00.000-07:002013-06-21T23:33:38.152-07:00

I just got from my 3 week training holiday to Thailand where I spent 2 weeks training at the Rawai Muay Thai Camp. I’ll have to say, that it was easily one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life. Prior to visiting the camp I had not been Muay Thai training for around 3 months and even though I am relatively fit, I did struggle through these 2 weeks. The Full time training program goes like

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-26171153239093660682009-01-24T02:13:00.000-08:002010-02-22T02:37:45.685-08:00

A week and a half ago after a long run I came back home and noticed that I had a few running sores (blisters) on my right foot. I didn’t take much notice of them as I get them from time to time but they seem to heal pretty quickly. One of the sores was on the side of my foot and the other was right on the center of my right foot’s heal. A few days later I found it hard to wear my shoes as I set

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-88013807024381680622009-01-02T01:56:00.000-08:002010-10-17T01:53:57.837-07:00

As part of my training for my first half Ironman triathlon goal for 2009 I have started doing Brick training which is basically training for two disciplines during the same workout. I will be doing bike/run and swim/bike Brick sessions. Here are my personal best Brick session timings. ------------------------ Bike/Run Bricks ------------------------ 22km Cycle (6 rounds) & 7.5km Run (2

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-47363649967790519292008-12-02T01:37:00.000-08:002010-10-17T01:52:53.857-07:00

OK here goes! My biggest challenge to date. If I want to get into Triathlons next year then I need to learn to swim. Its been more than 15 years since I actively swam and I never really attempted to learn freestyle (preferred breast stroke). But the time has come for me to learn freestyle and I fully acknowledge that its going to be my biggest challenge to date in my currently active fitness

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397172275395196496.post-67637638488250661292008-11-21T22:27:00.000-08:002009-01-10T21:59:08.720-08:00

Around 2 weeks ago I thought I'd mix up my fitness and endurance training and take up cycling, i also want to get into Triathlons next year so it was the logical way to go. I bought my first road bike, a Cell Team Shimano 105 and have started putting in cycling training sessions 1 to 2 times a week.My current best cycling times are:(I'm going to maintain a complete history so I can see how the

Mark Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14500731936285757278noreply@blogger.com1