Freeze Yer Nuts Off....
SATURDAY 1/7/06, 7.30AM, 70K, WEEK TO DATE 124K, 6 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100
I put on a little Fat Ass run of my own to help me do a 100K training run, which SW agreed with. I devised a winding route from Wentworth Falls which dropped into the Kedumba Valley, around Mt Solitary, up Taros Ladder to Narrowneck, service trails to Medlow Bath, Katoomba Airstrip, Neates Glen, into Blackheath via Evans Lookout and Govetts Leap, Hat Hill Rd, Perrys Lookdown, Grose Valley, Victoria Falls, Mt Victoria (One Tree Hill, highest point in the Blue Mts) Mt York, Hartley Vale...
Martin Horne had another go at the achilles on Friday and advised that I might want to limit myself to 80K. I was prepared to go with this, but if I felt great at 80K I'd keep going.
After sleeping through the alarm, we had four starters at 7.30. Myself, Virtual (Brendan), Sleepy (Steve) and Herrmannator (Jan) with Steve's partner Lois doing support, as was crew supremo Mel.
Really cold windchill at the start- I wore a longsleeve polypro, tritop over that, waterproof jacket over that, beanie, gloves, shorts.
We dropped down into Kedumba Valley via the long downhill of Kedumba Walls, through the farm, got my feet wet crossing the Kedumba River, then climbed to Solitary Pass, descended to Cedar Creek to refill, then a long climb out of there to Cedar Pass, which was a steep pitch to the foot of Taros Ladder. Steve and Brendan had not used Taros Ladder before- think they found it an education.
Up on the ridge we were back in the biting windchill again and jackets were donned again. I rolled along Narrowneck feeling pretty good to the first aid station at 41K. Threw down some hot chocolate and fried rice, then left my pack behind and set off with just a handbottle. Jan elected to stop here due to knee soreness.
Pretty uneventful mix of sealed and dirt road running to the airstrip, where Mel treated us to a feast of hot chips etc, I changed into a fleece shirt and we left for Neates Glen and Evans Lookout before it got dark.
Neates was fun. A technical descent into a narrow canyon with excellent echoes and repeated crossings of a creek on stones, before a long climb out via wooden steps to Evans Lookout.
The steps woke up the achilles and it was quite sore as we strolled into Evans Lookout. I took a small headlight as dusk descended and we ran out to Govetts Leap where Mel would meet us again- the last aid stop before negotiating the Grose Valley.
I was feeling good, energy levels were great, but the clifftop track to Govetts had plenty more steps and I was limping a bit when I got there, deciding to proceed no further. The others set off and I ran out to the highway to give myself 70K in just over 10 and a half hours. Mel picked me up, we went home, I had a shower and a pizza, then we drove out to Victoria Falls to meet the boys with some food.
Alas, bad trail conditions meant they didn't turn up till 4.15am...
Achilles aside, I felt this was a pretty good run personally. No energy fluctuations during the day at all, I felt pretty good all the way, was running uphills at the end. Making progress.
I put on a little Fat Ass run of my own to help me do a 100K training run, which SW agreed with. I devised a winding route from Wentworth Falls which dropped into the Kedumba Valley, around Mt Solitary, up Taros Ladder to Narrowneck, service trails to Medlow Bath, Katoomba Airstrip, Neates Glen, into Blackheath via Evans Lookout and Govetts Leap, Hat Hill Rd, Perrys Lookdown, Grose Valley, Victoria Falls, Mt Victoria (One Tree Hill, highest point in the Blue Mts) Mt York, Hartley Vale...
Martin Horne had another go at the achilles on Friday and advised that I might want to limit myself to 80K. I was prepared to go with this, but if I felt great at 80K I'd keep going.
After sleeping through the alarm, we had four starters at 7.30. Myself, Virtual (Brendan), Sleepy (Steve) and Herrmannator (Jan) with Steve's partner Lois doing support, as was crew supremo Mel.
Really cold windchill at the start- I wore a longsleeve polypro, tritop over that, waterproof jacket over that, beanie, gloves, shorts.
We dropped down into Kedumba Valley via the long downhill of Kedumba Walls, through the farm, got my feet wet crossing the Kedumba River, then climbed to Solitary Pass, descended to Cedar Creek to refill, then a long climb out of there to Cedar Pass, which was a steep pitch to the foot of Taros Ladder. Steve and Brendan had not used Taros Ladder before- think they found it an education.
Up on the ridge we were back in the biting windchill again and jackets were donned again. I rolled along Narrowneck feeling pretty good to the first aid station at 41K. Threw down some hot chocolate and fried rice, then left my pack behind and set off with just a handbottle. Jan elected to stop here due to knee soreness.
Pretty uneventful mix of sealed and dirt road running to the airstrip, where Mel treated us to a feast of hot chips etc, I changed into a fleece shirt and we left for Neates Glen and Evans Lookout before it got dark.
Neates was fun. A technical descent into a narrow canyon with excellent echoes and repeated crossings of a creek on stones, before a long climb out via wooden steps to Evans Lookout.
The steps woke up the achilles and it was quite sore as we strolled into Evans Lookout. I took a small headlight as dusk descended and we ran out to Govetts Leap where Mel would meet us again- the last aid stop before negotiating the Grose Valley.
I was feeling good, energy levels were great, but the clifftop track to Govetts had plenty more steps and I was limping a bit when I got there, deciding to proceed no further. The others set off and I ran out to the highway to give myself 70K in just over 10 and a half hours. Mel picked me up, we went home, I had a shower and a pizza, then we drove out to Victoria Falls to meet the boys with some food.
Alas, bad trail conditions meant they didn't turn up till 4.15am...
Achilles aside, I felt this was a pretty good run personally. No energy fluctuations during the day at all, I felt pretty good all the way, was running uphills at the end. Making progress.
posted by Mister G at 2:25 pm
1 Comments:
Great stuff Mr G - the Grand Canyon (Neats) is one of my favourite short runs - I love it through there.
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