Training Log Archive: robw

Camped Saturday night down at Mt Clear with Kathy and Marty Dent to do a long run with Marty on sunday morning. I was a bit nervous about the run after hearing tales from Martin Fryer about his last run with Marty and getting sick on wed and not running for the last part of the week didnt help. On saturday evening i started feeling sick again but felt a bit better in the morning and decided to do the run anyway - as Marty said feeling a bit sick would replicate the second half of an ultra perfectly so it would be good training.

We did a loop from the campground along the mt clear fire trail through the mt clear orienteering map to a geocache at the sthn tip of the ACT.
Then we headed up to the top of mt clear where marty found another geocache after a bit of searching. This was 18k with around 600m of climbing.

I wasnt feeling great but not too bad. I was struggling a bit on the hills and marty had a fair few photo breaks to let me catch up. Hard to know if i was feeling a bit crap and weak from being sick or from running a bit faster than usual.

After the top of mt clear we continued north down a very steep hill where we dropped 600m in about 3k and Marty found another geocache. I wasnt carrying much water to minimise the weight and had run out at this point which was about an hour 50min. From here we headed west over a steep ridge to the naas valley which we then headed up back to the campground.

The last hour was a real struggle with no water and consequently no gels, plus hanging onto the pace. Very stuffed at the end but good training considering i probably wouldnt even have gone out for a run if i'd just been at home.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/244284879

C • not slow 5

Missed SS when max started spewing just before we were about to leave. On the plus side at least it wasn't in the car or on the bus earlier in the day.

Anyway went out on black mtn once the kids were in bed and did 45 min tempo on singletracks over blackie little blackie and aranda hill. Feeling quite good but wasn't running incredibly fast but was on little twisty tracks.

SS xc at barrenjoey dr, 5k, 16.33

New best time for this course and another super battle with grant. He started fast and we settled into a bunch including nick walshe James minto and one or two others.
After a few km it was just the 4 of us well behind the leader. I was just hanging onto grant but sat in behind on the windy stretch on the gravel road.
On the last lap grant surged just before this windy hill and put 15 meters into me, I pulled back level and then he surged again coming into the twisty track through the forest, I stayed right with him but nick was starting to drop a bit and James had cracked.
Grant eased up and then with about half a km to go surged again which was a clever tactic but my legs had something left to wind up a sprint and beat him by 2 sec.
A great fun battle, it's going to be a tough summer if every race is this intense.

C • Cracker 3

Evening jog up mt painter and around and over the pinnacle. Not surprisingly after the race yesterday and a few long days and nights with vomiting kids it felt like, and was, a bit of a plod. Good to get out anyway and hopefully it freshens me up for tomorrows xc.