Land of the Kiwis A runner in New Zealand

Milling About

Today was a pretty lackluster, overcast day in general. Cary, Jane and I made our way into downtown Tauranga to just walk around, sample various bakeries, and wait out the weather. Much of the morning was spent listening to Jane hate on Starbucks. Much of the afternoon was spent smiling knowingly at her after she downed a Starbucks "Tall White Chocolate Mocha Soy".

The "main event" of the day ended up being a viewing of Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, and Rachel McAdams (At $15NZ, I can safely say movies are more expensive here. Based on number of people filling the theater I would say they could afford to jack that up a little even. Conclusion: Kiwis love the movies. Likely corollary: technology [entertainment systems] is/are more expensive here). Not really worth reviewing; it was entertaining, but long and had a weird ending. Actually, it was just the ending, really, because the climax hit, and then the movie started wrapping up... and wrapping up, and wrapping up, to the point where the tension was once again starting to build... before abruptly ending. Well, aside from that, it did entertain for almost 3 hours so... mission success!

The training I was supposed to do today involved a gym, which is not very handy around here. So, despite my efforts, I will have to start the lifting routine when I get back to Wellington in 2 day. However, I did ramp up the run to compensate a bit.

5' stretching. 2' warmup followed by 38' solid AR/AB pace probably hovering around 5:45/mi (3:33/k) effort twice around a golf course. 7' slow jog home. 6mi, 47'

10' luxurious stretching and ice achilles. I have also begun to take 3x400mg Ibuprofen starting yesterday. The achilles was in very good shape for the run. Afterward, it both calves were tight (but not weak!) so I'm not going to count this as the first of 3 workouts at 100% achilles.