The Dragon Runner

Mid Year Reflections

18 Jul 2019

I started this year with a handful of key goals after finding myself in a low point towards the end of 2018.

• Complete my 100th parkrun;
• Complete the Sri Chinmoy Track Marathon;
• Continue my focus on 5km parkrun events.

Over the first half of the year I have met all of these goals & set my eyes on new goals for the second half. I have run 5km at parkrun on 21 occasions at 16 different locations with my times improving from 40 minutes to 33 minutes. My 100th parkrun was celebrated at Shellharbour on May 11 with Rick Patzold, Karin Tappouras, Belinda Lockwood, Glenn Lockwood & Tim Lockwood; and I completed the Sri Chinmoy Track Marathon on June 15.

Over this period I have been using the Running Challenges add-on for parkrun to put a new & exciting outlook on my favourite weekly runs. These ready-made global challenges are great fun but should not be considered as anything more than personal collections. My goals from the challenges I am actively pursuing are:

• Pirates! which requires participants to sail the seven seas with an arrrgh (otherwise expressed as complete 7 different parkruns whose name begins with 'C' plus one starting with 'R'.
• Alphabet Challenge which requires participants to run at least one parkrun at different venues according to the first letter of their name. The only exception is 'X' because there are none of those anywhere in the world.
• Cowell Club which requires participants to complete parkruns at 100 different locations.
• p-index which requires participants to complete 'p' parkrun events 'p' times each.

Outside parkrun I have returned to longer fun runs & training as I attempt to build up my strength & mileage capabilities.

10 Jun 19	Shell Cove Festival of Sport (9km)	1:07:15
7 Apr 19	Lindfield Rotary Fun Run (10km)	1:14:59
5 May 19	Sri Chinmoy Royal National Park (10km)	1:14:36
1 Jun 19	Western Sydney Half Marathon (21.1km)	2:56:05
15 Jun 19	Sri Chinmoy Track Marathon (42.2km)	8:05:17

My weight has stabilised at around 100kg after being as much as 113kg at the start of the year. I am currently continuing to limit & monitor the carbohydrates I consume, but I am not strictly following the keto diet at present. It is my intention to shock my system with another strict period of keto dieting in the coming spring.

My fun run goals over the next few months involve a few half marathon races & a lot of personal night time training. I am currently entered in half marathons on 28 July (Westlink M7 Running Festival), 25 August (Dubbo Stampede) & 21 September (Forster Running Festival) with further runs being considered for October & November. I will continue to focus on events of 10km to 21.1km distance as I take the next steps in my distance running comeback.

#reset #refocus #rebuild #health #fitness #wellness #beactive #challengeyourself #pushlimits #becomebetter #dowhatittakes #nevergiveup #metime #newlife #fitter #faster #stronger #jorg #upandrunning