Training Log Archive: Mounty

Took a little bit of kiddie juggling, but I managed to orchestrate a window to head up to Hornsby for the 6Hr rogaine with Bull. He'd enjoyed the last one in November so much he was keen to go again, noting however that a good chunk of time between now and November had been spent by him on a food and fun tour of the US & Europe.

The day can be pretty much summed up in one word - hot! Really hot, and humid to boot. The first couple of hours were tolerable, but the remainder all felt a bit kokoda-esque at times. Kokoda however didn't have taps and
a red bull shop, so I can't really complain.

Quite an interesting course was set, starting at Thornleigh and heading up through Berowra valley following the GNW, with the usual collection of controls in the middle making planning more complicated than drawing up a big loop.

A quick start this time with an obvious direction sending the quicker teams-in the same direction with obvious impacts to pace. A decent turnout of decent runners today with Richard Green, Steve Ryan & Gill Fowler dotted amongst the group.

Bull & I took a slightly different loop than the others and found ourselves solo fairly early on. Perhaps not the perfect order at first, but close enough and ticked along without problem, crossing paths in weird directions with the others regularly.

The temperature was tolerable for the first couple of hours, and in hindsight was probably a good strategy to pick off K's early. Started to get hot at the top of the map (near the rifle range) and got sillier as we climbed out of the valley. Ran in to Andrew Tuckey on a big fire trail hill doing reps, which given the conditions suggests he's motivated for the upcoming running season. Nutty.

We emerged in to the streets around Hornsby Heights in the middle of the day, and entertained a local cricket match by lying under a tap to cool off and throroughly soaked all clothing.

Navigating had gone pretty well to date, but Bull was looking pretty knackered so the focus was on sneaking little rests where possible - red bull stop at a shop, the occassional checkpoint in a slower moving area etc to ensure survival.

There was no real risk of being late as our loop had plenty of bailout options, and thus it was pretty much a case of rolling along complaining about the heat and sticking heads under waterfalls when they showed up.

Finished with a few minutes to spare on 2750, with next team on about 2530 I think. We covered about 46km, having done 25k in the first 3hrs (on the slower part of the course). The course was clearable with 50k of running which would have been doable on a cooler day, or at a time of year with a fitter Bull.

Depsite all the whingeing about heat above, was a fun day out with a good course in a nice area.

C • Nice work! 5

One of the motivations for continuing to run is to stay fit enough to enjoy cruising through the bush without undue effort. Today offered some nice payback after a bit of grinding recently with a most enjoyable dusk spin around the Bantry Bay/Manly Dam loop. Good legs, good engine and relaxed vibe. Luverly.

Finished with a swim, which these days includes getting dive bombed by a 35kg black beast.

C • 35KG 1

The upside of Annika having a few early starts this term (at Pymble for training by 6:45) is that it gets my arse out of bed to do something useful. Dropped her at Roseville, then did a lap around my favorite run of the area - round the top of Middle Harbour.

Weird contrast to spend an hour in deserted bushland, to suddenly emerge next to peak hour traffic on Roseville bridge. Headed home did an hours work, then headed to the city traffic free.

The reward for working late last night was a morning bush run at the very respectable hour of 8am. Lots more wallabies in the valley than there used to be.