Training Log Archive: nmulder

Drove home the LONG way. Decided that the R351 going north out of Katberg looked like a nice road to drive (It's nice and yellow on Google Maps). Turned out to be nothing more than a very rocky 4x4 track that took us plenty of hours to drive. We then turned off it onto farm tracks going in the direction of Tarkastad, which where actually faster to drive. Found a great area though for expedition AR. :-)

Day 2 was also bright, warm and sunny with a slight cool breeze. I started off hard up Geju Peak, having decided that I needed to push the lead group if I wanted to improve on my 3rd place ranking. Only Jacques and Izak stayed on the climb, with us going over the saddle in 39 mins, 2 mins faster than course record speed. :-)

I kept pushing on the descent as well, going hard on the off-trail grassy section off the peak and then in Malan's Forest. We got to Mnyameni in 1h38, which was still ahead of Ryno's record.

I pulled the pace back a bit on the climb up Mnyameni River so as to save myself, but just after the top, the other 2 broke for it when I stopped to refill water bottles. I managed to keep the gap down to 2-3 minutes in the Wolf River valley. I ran well here, checking in with the Marshal well ahead of PB and just a couple of minutes behind target time.

Izak and Jacques must have upped the speed and pushed each other hard through Zingcuka Forest as the gap grew from 3 to 7 minutes by Schwarzwald Road marshal, even though I had my best ever time on this section of the course. I'd more or less decided that I'd have to settle for 3rd and was now racing my target and PB times.

I felt good going up the first climb up the Hog, but was a bit dizzy when I refilled water on the terrace area before the final assault. Had a beautiful sighting of 2 blue cranes from about 30m up here. I tried to spot the 2 front runners on the contours and zig zags but couldn't see them. I was a bit shocked then when I suddenly caught Jacques on the first contour track across the face of the mountain. I was walking here, but passed him easily as he was walking at least half the speed that I was - totally blown. I also got a sighting of Izak on the upper contour which showed the gap had grown to 15 min as he continued to push hard.

I kept pacing myself up and over the Hog, coming off it a good 14 minutes ahead of PB pace. The final kms to the finish are mostly downhill and I pushed hard, trying to get my target time, which was under 7h00 - as set by Stijn last year ;-). This didn't happen as I hadn't calculated the running time for these sections properly and I ended up in the finish in 7h09. I still managed to do PB splits on this last section and still felt pretty decent on the finish line.

Izak finished in 6h51, with slightly faster splits at the end then Ryno's results in 2013. A real dark horse. Jacques took another 1.5 hours to cross the finish line after I came in, so I moved up to 2nd overall.

Once again a great race and I was thrilled with my result. Lost 10 mins on day 1 getting lost, and then another 20 or so getting ill. Still work to be done here. On Day 2, I don't think I could have found more than 1 or 2 minutes to go faster with my current speed ability. It was a great day and probably go down in memory as one of my best ever days of running (the other being the 4th stage of the Cape Odyssey 2007ish).

2015 version might have a different date to avoid fire season and big clashes on the calendar. Hope I can slot it in to my calendar.

CP	2014	2013	2012	2008	2006
Geju Peak	0h39	0h41	0h45	-	-
Mnyameni Hut	1h38	1h42	1h48	1h39	-
Wolf River Road	3h47	3h59	3h59	-	-
Zingcuka Hut	4h20	4h35	4h40	4h32	-
Schwarzwald Road	4h36	4h53	4h56	4h53	-
Hogsback 8k mark	5h40	6h05	6h00	6h01	-
Back of the Hog	6h11	6h25	6h36	-	-
Kettlespout Falls	6h43	7h14	-	-	-
Finish	7h09 (Arminel)	7h43 (Arminel)	(7h54) (Hogs_Inn)	(7h23) (Hobbiton)	- (Hobbiton)

C • Well run! 3

Day 1 of Hobbit Trail Run

I'd been looking forward to this and set myself a tough goal this year of beating my PBs for both days, hopefully finishing on the podium as well. The field was maybe a bit weakened by Skyrun the previous weekend and a conflict with a Lesotho Ultra, so there was a decent chance, with Jacques M the only regular top name. Only 5 people in the field had run the race before, so lots of newbies. Weather started off cool and overcast but got a little warm by the time we got to Doornkop.

We had a lead bunch of 5 on the way out, with me as the designated spiderweb swatter. I set a decent pace. Trail was good until McNaughton's Krans, where it continues to get fainter with each year. On crossing the Evelyn River, we lost the trail and ended up climbing too high out of the valley. I recognized where we were when we hit a large forest track where we always sign in with Mike the sweeper. I turned right back down the hill and found him 300m later, but Jacques had turned left and proceeded to run all the way to CP1 (Gwilli Gwilli hut) on the vehicle roads. The rest of us set off on the hiking trail and got to the hut in 2h19, about 18 minutes after him. Had a target time of 2h10, but estimate a time loss of about 10 mins around the Evelyn River area, so I was feeling decent compared to last year where I also did a 2h19 to CP1.

Two of the pack were dropped at Gwilli Gwilli, with just myself and Izak vd M trying to stay within reach of Jacques. I had a great section here to Dontsa Hut, running about 1km/hr faster than previous. Upon crossing the Dontsa Road, Izak pulled away at a frightening speed whilst I tried to maintain consistency ahead of the climb up Doornkop. He was a novice, although had done the trail twice as a hiking group many years ago. I recaught him at (New) Dontsa Hut when we spent a few minutes searching for the (Old) Dontsa Hut that he remembered and only finding a ruin. Got into Dontsa in 4h48, some 5 mins off my PB and 8 min off my original target time.

I had a decent climb up the first section of the next leg past Donsa waterfall. Izak pulled away on the flat terrace before the final climb into Doornkop and near the top I started feeling ill. Stopped for about 3 mins to be ill, but felt great for a short while thereafter, recatching Izak on the downhill where he was going quite slow. He sped up as I passed him and retook me shortly after hitting the Eseka Forest at the bottom. I think this is now 4 out of 5 times that I have gotten ill on the climb up Doornkop. My pet theory is heat sickness, but the day only topped out at about 23'C with a cooling breeze. I had drunk and eaten much better this year than previous, but I still managed to throw up. I need to do some research on this to figure out if it is heat / enzymes / dehydration / food choices...

Got to the top of Doornkop in 6h13, so only 3 mins off PB, but I lost the opportunity to beat it after that. Slowed down into Cata Junction, where I was 7 mins behind and then a bit more into the finish, where I ended up 18 minutes off the PB and 30 mins behind target time. At least it felt like a much better finish than last year where I was coming off a very bad training base impacted by illness.

Finished 3rd on the day, with Jacques 25 mins ahead and Izak 13 mins ahead. Jacques also blew on the last section and Izak was strong into the finish. Big 30 min gap to the 4th place behind me, so I knew I could just focus on moving up the rankings on Day 2.

CP	2014	2013	2012	2008	2006
Gwiligwili Hut	2h19	2h19	2h29	2h10	-
DontsaHut	4h48	5h13	5h24	4h43	-
Doornkop	6h13	7h03	7h00	6h10	-
Cata Junction	7h07	8h09	8h00	7h00	-
Finish	8h11	9h13	9h02	7h53	8h46

Drove down to Hogsback.

Around Witkoppen Park and back.

Upper body