Tag Archives: hills

Wellington Botanic Garden

This is an aerial view of the Botanic Garden in Wellington. It’s about two minutes run from my office but I haven’t really explored it lately. Years ago I used to run there a bit but recent training has meant I’ve concentrated on running flat over measurable distances.

Yesterday I went round the gardens with a guy from work and was reminded what a great place it is for aimless and unstructured running. Lots of it’s hilly and on well-maintained tracks and trails, and you can criss-cross back and forth for a session of any length.

I was there again today getting slightly lost. Good stuff.

Tinakori Hill

Went up to the top of Tinakori Hill today, not just for the first time running but the first time ever. Steep. From Tinakori Rd up St Mary’s St and then on to the Tinakori Ridge track is a 250m ascent over about 1.75km. (And ok, I walked a bit, but only a minute or so!)

Tracks in pretty good condition, muddy in places, and stretches that seemed — at the time anyway — virtually 1:1. The route is saved at Map My Run.

Found myself at the Northland shops again but this time kept to the ridge and headed round to Kelburn before sprinting down through the University. Good to stretch the legs though the average overall pace was still only about 6:30/km.

Today’s run: 7.5km, 49 mins

Slow hills

I’ve started to diverge a bit from the training schedule: Thursday’s 45 minutes turned into 50, yesterday’s 70 into nearly 80, and today’s 35 into a 75 minute hill run up to Kaukau and then onto the Skyline Track. Good running, taking it slow and carefully on the hill tracks. The ascent had to be the biggest challenge – roughly 18 minutes uphill slog, but managed it with only a brief bit of walking when it got really rough and steep. Stiff southerly on the summit too.

Today’s run is the first I’ve mapped using Map My Run, which you can view here. (I did embed it in the post but it reloaded every time I viewed the page and just started to piss me off.)

Oddly enough I feel like a turncoat for not using Google Maps, which has been my mainstay lately. Google Maps aren’t as useful, though, for off-road routes and the little elevation widget on Map My Run is kinda handy. On that note, the ascent to the top of Kaukau is roughly 280m over about 1.5km.

Today’s run: 10.5km, 75 mins