Made the trip down to the Ironbark Basin for some trail miles in the
heat of the day. I had already put in 1/2 an hour with the dogs down at
the river and wanted to get in around 30kms. I was running very easy
and wearing the heart rate monitor, trying to keep it aerobic, so ended
up walking lots of the hills. I really must get down there more often.
Had it all to myself with the odd echidna and rosella. Pausing on the
cliff top climb out of the basin I looked back over the heavy green
scrub to where I had just been on the ridge. It really is a fantastic
place to run, unpretentious, undiscovered, uncrowded and truly magical.
I was trying out my new Tevas. They handled it really well. I got a bit
of toe rub with the toe-box being a bit narrow but they are really
light and responsive. My legs were a little tired initially after
running late last night but tomorrow will be a rest (weights) day
before another long run on Sunday. But by the end I felt really
comfortable which is a promising sign. Pulled up after 3 1/2 hours. You
gotta love a good run in the bush.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Favourite trail and tevas
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Hardrock
It is hard to describe the feeling I experienced when I opened the list
of qualified entrants for Hardrock 2007. Wendy said she has never seen
me so excited. But there was a healthy dose of fear mixed in there. As
I have said, Hardrock both excites and scares me. It is such a huge
event. To be accepted and actually drawn at the lottery is
unbelievable. It is such a fantastic opportunity. WS will still be my
main focus but I can't help but feel it is dwarfed by the enormity of
HR. My plan is to train for WS as I would have done. But now I have to
be way more focused. And I will need to add some solid walking with a
pack. I have started my base building and have already got my weekly
mileage up to 70-80 km per week which is high for me. The trick is to
maintain this and build in quality slowly without getting injured. I
really want to do well at WS. I am confident that if I stay healthy I
can run a good race. Once WS is over, and presuming I don't come away
injured I will head over to Colorado and hike and camp on the course to
acclimatise. I won't need to run at all but recover and acclimate to
the altitude. Man this is going to be big. No, this is going to be huge.