Training Log Archive: AndreM

Event: Red Hill
 

Decided to get up at 630 for 730 depart - which we pretty much managed, leaving at about 750am. Quite cold to start with, had to put gloves over my bikes gloves. Beautiful morning with clear skies and mist and nice track and bush. North along tracks Tableland from the hut to Surveyor Rd to Nockine Rd and then finally Firewood Rd. Firewood road has the longest hill I've experienced in a long while (6km). The towing system that Tim setup on his and my bike worked great, and I unfortunately started this never ending hill towing Janet since Tim had until then done most of the hard work. This ride was harder than I thought it would be, and longer, we estimated about 21k but it was about 30. Pushing the pace to try get to the orienteering preferably by 1030, but only arrived at Mundaring Dome at 10 totally done and called it a day. Enjoyed plates of hot food and drinks in the sun.

Pleasant ride down from Mundaring along the heritage trail, through Guilford, Midland (?) and then over to Belmont, Rivervale. Job done, about 210k on the bike and 23k on foot. An awesome weekend and very happy with our preparation as a team.

XPD training weekend with the team. We left Janet's in Rivervale at 750am, right on schedule. On top of Mt Dale by noon. Lunch at Mt Dale bibb hut, with a short break looking for Janet's lost pannier which fell off on the rocky descent from Mt Dale. Hit Brookton Hwy at about 2pm on schedule, continued down the powerlines south and then Leona Rd, and then a track cutting across to Randall Rd where we left the bikes for a trek. Rained on and off throughout, wearing two bike jerseys and arm sleeves was fine.

Trekked through the bush, on a ridge with Mark leading the way. To the top of unknown peak NE of Mt Cook. Hit the granite patch for excellent views of Mt Dale and east. The bush got thicker towards Mt Cook so we took the track that went over the ridge to the Mt Cook bibb hut, with a bush bash short cut once over the top. Arrived Mt Cook hut about 6pm on schedule. We have some super fast walkers in the group - the trek legs should be no problem in the race.

After a quick feed we proceeded back to the bikes mostly along tracks. Then a short cut at the end through very pleasant bush and hit the intersection with the bikes almost spot on. A bit of walking in the bush to find the bikes in the dark. Tim and I behind Janet and Mark most of the way.

Ride back north to Beraking bibb hut. Back to Leona Rd, up the powerline a bit, found the track that cuts directly to the Brookton Hwy and Beraking Pool Rd intersection, north along Beraking Pool Rd. This is where our concentration dropped off a bit and I lost contact with the map a bit. Rained a bit here too, getting colder. Luckily the major tracks are marked. Passed Smit and Qualen (didn't see it) then took Reservoir Rd west to the main Beraking valley intersection and then Tableland north. Luckily we brought our tracker Mark along who was familiar with almost all the tracks from there south from his 'runs with the dogs', no wonder he's winning rogaines! I should also mention that in the dark hours Tim continued his yeoman effort of towing Janet up the hills. Found the correct track to go north on, and hit the Beraking hut pretty cleanly around 1am, with drizzling rain, and two disturbed trekkers complaining a bit. Pitched our new you-beaut tent on a nice spot overlooking the valley and jumped in for a cosy sleep about 145am. The sleeping setup - 3 person tent with 4 of us in it worked really well.