Training Log

I know some of you out there are interested in how my running is going. Well rather than just tell you I will show you by post my running log here. I will post them in two week blocks for you. Each week I will highlight one of my runs and tell you all about it. I will also have a map for you to check out. I hope that will be good enough for you guys to tide you over.

For a quick overview my training has been going pretty well over the last two weeks. I have done three workouts and averaged 73 miles a week. I have a Half Marathon coming up on the 18th of May It is called the Huntly Half Marathon and 10k. Last year the winner was 1:10:12 and then spaced out from there. It should be a tough race. Leo is also racing that day in the 10k. I have elite entry into the race, I emailed the race director and he was glad to give me elite entry. Leo has elite entry into the 10k. So that is the focus of my training, I am looking at some other races to keep my focus and keep the training rolling.

Without further ado, My Rlog (Running Log).

Monday April 7th: Real easy 8 miles
Tuesday April 8th: 10 miles in the Okura trails, feeling good.
Wednesday April 9th: Am 5 miles from the Joys Hilly, Pm 5 from the Joys Hilly, Felt good.
Thursday April 10th: 8 miles and 5 x strides
Friday April 11th: Am 3 miles from the Joys Hilly, PM WO 5.25 mile tempo 5x Orewa Loop 29:07 (5:32 pace) Felt really good, ran smooth controlled and relaxed.
Saturday April 12th: 8 miles real easy legs a bit heavy felt better at the end of run.
Sunday April 13th: 14 miles Okura Trails and some road, felt better and felt better as run went on.
Total Miles: 72

Monday April 14th: 8 miles 4x strides, feeling good recovered from workout.
Tuesday April 15th: Farlek WO 10x1min w/2min rest. Long Bay Hilly Grass trek and some beach. Felt strong on the efforts and kept an honest pace in the 2 min rest period.
Wednesday April 16th: 10 miles sore and heavy at start felt better as run went on.
Thursday April 17th: 8 miles from the Joys Hilly, no chance to do strides. Took all hills real easy. feeling better.
Friday April 18th: WO 3x 2 Orewa Loop(2.1 miles) w/ 4min jog. 11:09, 11:08, 11:00 for 2 miles they equate to 10:36, 10:36, 10:28. Felt it in the last one but pushed trough it. Ran smooth comfortable and relaxed. Felt really good.
Saturday April 19th: 8 miles feeling really sore but worked its way out towards the end of run.
Sunday April 20th: 16 miles at Shakespeare Park, Hilly as a MoFo. Felt tight at start, smooth in middle and felt like asshole in the end.
Total Miles: 74 miles (All singles)

As you see the Orewa Loop is in Bold and Italics, that is because I will explain my bread and butter workout loop.

The Loop Starts at the Main Entrance to Victor Eaves Parkon Hatton Road, it heads slight uphill, then you get the same slight down hill. This takes you to your first right where you turn onto Centreway Drive. This is a long flat straight away with no sidewalks. Then you turn right onto Florence Ave. where you have a slight downhill on the whindy road. Right before you make your last right onto Hatton Road you start a slight uphill that you finish with. The Orewa Workout Loop is 1.05 miles of pure amazingness. It offers many different types of scenery and terrain to run on. I would say that this loop would rank among of the sweetest mile repeat loops in the world!

I hope that everyone's running is going smoothly and I look forward to seeing some sweet results from all.

Postie School Graduate!

Hey All, as many of you know already I have a job at the NZ Post. I know how ironic? I will be writing a book at the end of my stay about the US Post and the NZ Post. Hey maybe I will travel the world working for the various post companies. Then you guys will never see me again. Just Kidding. Here is a little summary of my four day certification course.

Day One

The Postie School is located an hour from Joy house. So inorder to be at the school for the start of the day this requires me to leave the Joy house at 545, incase of city traffic. In turn that requires me to wake up at 515. Ouch I know... So that is how day One, Three, and Four started.

I wake up at it is pitch black in the room and all I hear is howling winds and heavy rain. Terrific my start is going to be in the rain. However it is school so hopefully I will be indoors for the day. We left on time and managed to miss the bad traffic but still hit some, I arrived at the training school at 700, I chillax in the car for twenty minutes and then head for my first day.

I walk into the classroom and there are two other individuals sitting at a square Boardroom like table. There are also three instructors standing at the front of the room. I grab the only seat left that has books infront of it. Then the instrustors introduce themselves and we are off on our way. Page after page of information that we need to take in. Its boring but atleast its not in the rain. after three hours of information they send us on our break, but before the break the dreaded words come out of the instructors mouths "I hope you dont mind getting wet!" Ah Bugger!!!

After break we get outside on the bikes and have a crash course in delivering mail. We ride around on the bikes in the parking lot of different obstacle in the road. We get soaking wet but have a good time. We head back inside around one take some id photos and then are sent on our way homes for day two. Day two will be an observation day at the branch, hopefully the weather gets better!?!?

Day 2

Day 2 starts out the same as day one, just not as early. I awake to heavy rain a pitch blackness. I head down to the Branch for 700. Today is an observation day, I tag along with a postie and see what goes on. It is very similar to US Post except that I am on a bike while deliver the mail. It doesn't suprise me that my first day out and about is in the pouring rain. Hey just like my dad says "If it wasnt for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all!"

I am following around Rhoda. She has been doing postie for far too long she tells me, but it keeps her slim so she enjoys it. I follow her every move, just like a stalker follows a stalkee. The day was going smoothly until we head out the door to start delivering the mail. I load the bikes on the bike rack and jump in the car. Rhoda drives out to the starting point with the bikes, and I follow. Good thing I follow because Rhoda hits a huge bumb and the bike rack comes off the car completely. So it takes awhile to get sorted but in the end we do. Then we get out to the starting point and Rhoda relises that she has forgotten the starting mail. She drives back while I sit in the car and wait for her return. She returns 15 minutes later and we are ready to strat the day in the rain.

I follow behind Rhoda on my bike. Remember the rain is pouring down still and will for the rest of the day. Of course it stops when we finish but only when we finish. So the following is pretty boring. The area I was in with Rhoda was rather hilly so it was not easy. I just could not wait to get out of the rain and into some dry clothes. After being out there for 2 hours my dream comes true. We have finished the mail and I can go home! The drive home was crazy because I had to drive on the Motorway for the first time by myself in a Hurricane! It was so heavy you could not see past the hood of the car. So much thunder and lightening it shook the car. It was a crazy experience. I drove carefully and made it home safely.

Day 3

Today back to the early rise, 515. Woke to pitch blackness, but no rain. it was a nice feeling. however that was short lived on the way down to the training school the rain picked up and was a mess. At training school it was rather boring just taking in information and practicing sorting. I will spare you all the details but it was extremely boring. They did let us out early. So after a wasted day in my eyes we were let out an hour early. Remember I get paid the whole day even if we get done early. If anyone wants details of the boringness let me know. I will strain and try to rememeber the boredom, but I can not make any promises that I will remember.

Day 4

Last Day of 515 wake up, YAY! Yes still darkness and yes there was rain. Today was supposed to be the "fun" day at the training school. HA yeah right, more boredom and information. We did more of the same from the day before. Practicing safe and healthy technique, sorting and sitting and listening to the instructor. However towards the end of the day we also had speakers come and talk to us about other aspects of NZ Post. We had a big long talk from a guy that is the head of security and he told us "Dont tamper and play with the mail! Dont steal or I will beat your ass and fire you!" (Imagine a big red haired dude 8 feet tall pointing his finger at you SCARY!) At the end of the day we had to take a test and needed 90% to pass. I scored 96%!

I know I know, "Why didnt you score a 100%?"

It doesnt matter thats why! I passed the exam and got my certificate! I was now officially a Postie and could start work for real.

In my opinion the training school is a big waste of time. They hold you hostige for three days and all you do is get information on top of information. If you ask me what I have learned I will tell you I cant remember. O well I got paid for the boredom. I guess it is the least they could do for us.

And that is Postie Training School!

Whats Hott in New Zealand Week Two

I just want start off by stating that yesterdays post was a complete and utter farce. It was completely made up in my head. I am just trying to get some well needed interaction done on the blog. It has been a one person conversation and I dont know if my message is reaching out to the readers. So yesterdays post was to cause caios and liven up the reaction. Now that I have your attention here is my message:

Say No To Drugs!

No No thats not it. I actually want to share with you Week 2 of Whats Hott in New Zealand. I hope that you all enjoy.

Top 15 Music Singles

1 NO AIR / JORDIN SPARKS FEAT. CHRIS BROWN
2 ONE BY ONE / THE BLACK SEEDS
3 BLEACHING SUN / THE PHOENIX FOUNDATION
4 ONE WILL HEAR THE OTHER / SHIHAD (Music Video Below)
5 DREAM CATCH ME / NEWTON FAULKNER
6 LOVE SONG / SARA BAREILLES
7 BETTER TO BE / LIAM FINN
8 THE NIGHT / GOODNIGHT NURSE
9 SKANKENSTEIN / KORA
10 ALWAYS WHERE I NEED TO BE / THE KOOKS
11 GIVEN UP / LINKIN PARK
12 ONE DAY / OPSHOP
13 FEELS LIKE MAGIC / HORSEMEN FAMILY
14 LOVE LIKE THIS / NATASHA BEDINGFIELD
15 BETTER IN TIME / LEONA LEWIS

Top 5 Music Albums will no longer be included in Whats Hott in New Zealand for the fact that I dont like it and I cannot locate a realible source that updates their website. Sorry for the Inconvience. -Hurricaneone

Top 5 Movies in Theatre

1. Definately Maybe
2. Never Back Down
3. Step Up 2: The Streets
4. Rambo
5. The Bucketlist

Top 5 Videos to Buy

1. Outrageous Fortune Season 3
2. Flight of the Conchords Season 1
3. Ratatouille
4. Transformers 2007
5. Outrageous Fortune Season 1

Top 5 Videos to Rent

1. Eastern Promise
2. The Heartbrek Kid
3. The Assassination of Jesse James
4. This is England
5. Death Proof

Feel free to let me know what else you would like on this section. It is only the second week and more work can be put into it if necessary. Hope all enjoy.

PS Brush your teeth, it will get the bad taste out of your mouth that my little joke left in there.

Dearest Readers...HELP!

I received the following email from www.blogspot.com just this afternoon. I will copy and paste it, but I am just letting you know in a nutshell that my blog does not get enough comments and support. They want to remove it from the site because it is taking up too much space. I have one week to improve or the blog will be gone... FOREVER!

The following was received at 1420 on April 14th 2008.

Dear Michael L. Petrina

We are sorry that we have to write you and tell you this, but the use of our website has been determined a failure. You are not producing enough views, comments and responses for us to continue to support your blog, hurricaneone@blogspot.com . We feel terrible in doing this. That is why this decision is left up to our panel of judges. They are known as C.E.P., or the Celebrity Entertainment Panel.

The panel is made up of three individuals that will ultimately decide whether or not your blog is worth keeping. The members will look over previous post and review the content for an entertainment value. C.E.P. will also look at the post of this coming week and judge those not only on content but replies and comments. If they are not satified your blog has met their high standards the blog will be taking off the site.

The three C.E.P. members that are encharge of looking over your blog are Alec Baldwin, Zac Efron and Bobby Brown. Alec Baldwin was selected to your committee because he grew up on Long Island, New York. Just like you did Mr. Petrina. He can relate to you and your surroundings. Being from Long Island you both were exposed to similar things. Plus Alec has been divorced for six years now and has had enough with 60 second dating, internet dating and dating co-stars. In his spare time now he likes to read blogs and critique them, and he is an advocate for the Massapequa High School Booster Club. Zac Efron was selected to your committee because he is in the same age bracket as you are, the twenties age bracket. He is also a white male hearthrobe. He knows what teen girls want, and can grab their attention with ease. While reading your blog he will indentify with the ability to draw in young teens into reading your blog. He is very busy at the moment so your blogs better be good to keep his interest otherwise kiss hurricaneone.blogspot.com good-bye. Lastly Bobby Brown was added to your panel simply because reading blogs is better than doing drugs.

I wish you the best of luck Mr. Petrina, and we sure hope that the popularity of your blog will grow ten fold in the future.

Sincerely

Ginger Vitus
Email g.vitus@blogspot.com
Toll Free 1-800-blogspo
Telephone (310) 867-5309
Fax (310) 869-0210

This One is for Cenzo... and The Real Post

1990 Toyota Corona

If You Do Not Want to Read 1990 Toyota Corona skip down to THE REAL POST
All the following information was provided by www.wikipedia.org

In two recent conversation with my dad, he has asked me what kind of car does Leonora drive. Both times I had responded "Toyota Corona" and both times he has replied "Corolla? Corona is a beer!" He does not seem to believe me, so I am here to prove him wrong.
The car that Leonora and I drive around is a 1990 Toyota Corona. It is light blue and goes by the name TC. Yes that is short for Toyota Corona.

A Little Background Information

The Toyota Corona is an automobile manufactured by the Japanese automaker Toyota between 1957 and 2002. While in the United Stated it was classified until 1983 as a compact car and later on as a mid-size car. In Europe it was always regarded as a large family car. The Corona became massively successful in export markets: confusion easily arises because Toyota applied model names inconsistently in different places. Following the 1969 parallel introduction of the Corona Mark II there were disparate models sharing the Corona name. As time went by, models branded in much of Asia as Coronas turned up in European markets as Carinas, while ten years later in North America the Corona was successfully replaced by the larger Camry. In addition, because of the similarities in names, it is very common mistake to confuse the Corona with the much smaller Toyota Corolla.

The car that Leonora and I drive is the eight generation and more formly known as the T170.

It eventually faced competition from the smaller Toyota Carina as that model grew in size. Because of Japanese taxation laws, both models got to the maximum 1700 mm (66.9 in) permitted for a lower tax bracket and in the 1980s and early 1990s, were the same size. A Corona Coupe was spun off in the mid-1980s. It was based on the 4th Generation Celica notchback Coupe, but with fixed headlights instead of retractable.
The Corona T170 Series was launched in Japan in December 1987 which in 1988 became new Carina II in Europe -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Corona

So dad after all that research are you still going to tell me that it is a "beer"?

The Real Post

Well now that I have that battle out of the way, a victorious one at that. I will move on to tell you about my week. Nothing much has gone on. After a weekend of such excitement and fun, I follow that with a week of boredom. For the reader that is. I am truely am enjoying just relaxing doing a whole lot of nothing.

The week started off with a call from the New Zealand Post. They offered me the job! I start with training school on Monday. Thats good news, now I will have a source of income. But it also means that I have to enter the Real World. Dum Dum Dum...

Later in the day I go down to Shoe Science and look for my free pair of New Balance Sneakers. The process is rather cool and different. Yes I am going to explain it, but if you dont want to read it scroll down the page to where it says Goody Goody Gumdrops.
The process starts of with you running barefoot in the store. You start out in front of the camera and run down to the back of the store, then you turn around and run towards the camera in the front of the store. After that the video is played back in slow motion and they watch the pronation of your foot. They look to see in which direction you foot rolls when it lands and based on that they can give you choices of sneakers to choose from. Since I could only get New Balance I was limited to two options for my foot pronation. The choices that I had were the 1223 and 902LW. They then put the sneakers on and film you again. They do this for both of my choices, so this process can take awhile if you have to choose from many different models. The difference in my choices was a simple one. The 1223 is a training shoe and the 902LW is a racing shoe/lightworkout shoe. After viewing the film and considering how each felt I have to decided which one to get. Since I will not be training in this shoe I can choose either one. I select the 1223 based on its color and cushioning. It has a little more to it so it will last me longer. Plus it is closer to my price limit and I want to get all my monies worth.

GOODY GOODY GUMDROPS

After Shoe Science I went to the Westfield Mall in Albany. It is a new mall that has been built in the last two years. It is the basic run of the mill mall. It has all the same stores, they just have different names. I.E. Farmers = Macy's, JcPenny's, Lord n' Taylor etc. Other than that it is the same old mall. Smells like 1001 different body fragrances mixed, snoty teens and old women walking laps. O yeah and the occasional "I am the Shit and Everyone should know it Male Jackass" (I know that is a long name but that was the nicest way I could put it to keep this a PG-13 read. Otherwise I would of used the word D*******G)
The rest of the week has been pretty basic, sitting around playing on the internet, sitting out back watching the birds, chatting online to home, chillaxin' etc. Just soak up the last few days until I have to go back to the Real World. Dum Dum Dum...

Here is a little treat for you guys!

Say No To Drugs, Kind Regards -Mike

What's Hott in New Zealand

What's Hott

In New Zealand

So I have decided to let you all on the World of Popular music and movies in New Zealand. This will be the first installment and I will try and update it every week around the same time. Within this section you will be able to find the top 15 songs of the week, the top 5 albums, top 5 movies in theatre, to buy and rent and I will also like to have a link to something New Zealand. I.E. Music Video, Movie Clip, etc.

Top 15 Singles

1. With You - Chris Brown
2. Low - Flo Rida Feat. T-Pain
3. YAHHH! - Soulja Boy
4. Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis
5. Love Like This - Natasha Bedingfield Feat. Sean Kingston
6. No Air - Jordin Sparks Feat. Chris Brown
7. Love in the Club - Usher Feat. Young Jeezy
8. Don't Stop the Music - Rihanna
9. Love Song - Sara Bareilles
10. Scream - Timbaland Feat. Keri Hilson and Nicole Scherzinger
11. One Day - Opshop (Song Below)
12. Sensual Seduction Snoop Dogg
13. Piece of Me - Piece of Shit aka Britney Spears
14. Wanna be Startin' Somethin' 2008 - Michael Jackson Feat. Akon
15. Feels Like Magic - Horsemen Family Feat. Sweet and Irie

Top 5 Albums

1. Back to Black: Deluxe Edition - Amy Winehouse
2. Unbreakable: 2008 NZ Tour Edition - Westlife
3. Exclusive - Chris Brown
4. Sleep Through the Static - Jack Johnson
5. Dig!! Lazarus Dig!! - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Top 5 Movies in Threatre

1. Rambo
2. STEP UP 2: The Streets
3. The Eye
4. 3:10 to Yuma
5. 2 Days in Paris

Top 5 Videos to Buy

1. Outrageous Fortune Season 3
2. Flight of the Conchords Season 1
3. Ratatouille
4. Transformers 2007
5. Outrageous Fortune Season 2

Top 5 Movies to Rent

1. Eastern Promises
2. The Assassination of Jesse James
3. Heartbreak Kid
4. This is England
5. Gabriel

Devonport Weekend

This has been a weekend that has been marked by

Beauty, Consfusion, and Excellence

Beauty

For those of you who have never been to Devonport, New Zealand (which is all of you whom are reading my blog) it is a place of BEAUTY. Devonport is a seaside town that overlooks Auckland City. Devonport was a major player in some navy battler, and has two memorial hillsides that pay homage to those battles. The photo above is take from Mount Victoria and the other memorial is North Head. Both hillside memorials contain old artifacts and tunnels that were burrowed into the hillside. This is all to commemorate those in the battles.

The town is a one street town. One Street in and One Street out. It has a similar vibe to that of Greenport, NY minus the Harley Bikers and the Stuck up Rich Snobs. The town is welcoming with many mum and pop shops, sidewalk cafes and seaside boardwalk. Parking is a premium and fought over. We have to park around the corner on a side road. We walk the town going in and out of everyshop in just over two hours. We then head to Mount Victoria located at the top of Main Street Devonport. Whinding our way to the top on this clear day to gather in the views that it has to offer us. The memorial is very basic an old underground missile and some of the air shafts for the burrowed tunnels. The cool thing about the air shafts is that they are painted like mushrooms to disguise them in a way. After Victoria we returned to our car to head over to explore North Head.

North Head is a larger version of Victoria. It contains more missiles and more tunnles. The tunnels here are capable of being explored, as long as you have some sort of torch, otherwise you will be found in complete darkness. Luckily for us our cell phones have built in flash lights. Pretty handy feature! We walk the tunnels and take in the Beautiful views that North Head offers. We drove to the top and we walk around the hill on its convuluted paths.

All in all we take in Devonport in just under 5 hours. On our way out we stop at one of those sidewalk cafes I spoke of earlier. It is a hip joint that is full with teens and young adults. All the sidewalk tables are taken and the inside couches are full as well. We opt to take our food to the alley way tables. The cool alley way offers us a selection of several tables and the fresh air that is welcomed after being stuffed in the cafe ordering your food. After we eat we head back home...

We took this trip to check out the sights and also because the next day is a road race that I will be doing. I had to pick up my number and my timing chip. Instead of just traveling there to get it and return we make a day of it. Plus North Head and Devonport are on the list of 101 things to do in New Zealand. I can say I have done close to 30 of those things. only 71 more to go!

Consfusion

A weekend that is marked with confusion is misleading. The whole weekend was not confusing, but Sunday morning was. We start with setting the clocks back 1 hour. On the eve of a race these means that I have to recalculate bed time, wake up time and departure time. I decided to get into bed around 10pm and wake up at 545 am. I need to wake up three hours before my race this way I can get a full meal in my tummy.

So after the confusion of the time situation we ge to the race and that confusion. They tell us that they will stagger the starts of the 5k and 10k with the 10k being first. The part that confuses me is how they do this. They line us all up and shoot of the 10k and then wait a few minutes and send of the 5k. I cannot work out how it happened but I managed to be started at the back of the pack. Whatever, I get started and get to the front of the 5k, and then I run into the back of the slow ass 10k runners. The course eventually goes onto the beach, not only that but it is high tide so there is only soft sand to be run in. We are on the beach for 300 meters, I have the duty of weaving in and out of the slower runners. After we get off the beach the 10k and 5k continue along the same path until there is a turn off. At this turn off I am supposed to pick up a cyclist to lead the way for me. And you guessed it, he is not there. I am left to tackle the course following signs and the slacking volunteers.

I am told different things from different volunteers..."Stay Left!" "Stay Right!" "Get in the Road!" "Stay on the Footpath!" I criss cross back and forth over the road and the foot path. I eventually get to the main road where I know how to go until the fork. I get to the fork and there is supposed to be a volunteer there to tell me which way to go. Of course he is SLACKING! sitting down reading a book, i go the wrong way until he yells at me to turn around and go the opposite way. As I ran back I jokingly called him a slacker, and got a good chuckle out of the crowd. Finally on the right path and all that is left is the steep uphill on the grass to the finish.

Excellence

As I run up the hill, that bike rider finally catches up to me. He apparently was riding next to the second place guy. I was 3 minutes ahead of him at this point. I run up to the hill, the crowd cheering on my excellence and victory. I cross the finishline, no clue what my time is, no clue if I ran the complete course. All I know is that it is over and as of right now I am the winner. The winner at this event receives a 250 dollar gift voucher for a free pair of shoes. I have to sit around to receive my excellent prize. (Shoes here are 2.5 times the price of shoes in America)((So shoes that are 90 dollars in America are 245 dollars in New Zealand)) A prize that will come in handy for a runner. They call the awards and I go up and recieve my award. They never announce my time. They never make note of it. It is not posted anywhere. The old course record was 1730 and I wanted that. I was not sure tho. Between the Beach, the Hills, going the wrong way and the Killer Finish it is hard to guess my time. I later find out that I ran 1640. I am the Most Excellent Runner (MER) to tackle the 5k course! Below is a photo of me with my Most Excellent Prize (MEP)

They also gave us a bag of protein bars, protein potato crisps and Knee Joint Relaxer?!?! Dont ask me what I am going to do with the relaxer.

This concludes my weekend of Beauty, Confusion and Excellence.