Wingello

Southern Highlands telemetry...

So, finally, pretty close to 2 years after my last serious run, I finally got out onto the road again. City-to-Surf was really a training run for this, the Southern Highlands half marathon in Wingello State Forest/National Park (although I have to say a lot of that national park appears to be pine plantation).

In point of fact, I ran C2S too fast for a training run, and the fall in the last kilometer meant that I trained lightly for this, so I was a bit underdone, but anyway it's going to take a bit longer than 3 months to get back to the level of endurance I had in 2012, when I was running 100+ km a week. Since I will never again be running that much, I'll probably never get that kind of stamina back, but that's OK. One of the things I discovered while injured was/is that I like running too much to injure myself doing it, so I need to set goals based on injury avoidance as the highest priority. That's going to mean a little tempering of the competitive spirit; I think I can divert that into the 5km Saturday runs.

So, despite the light training, I'm very happy with this run. 1:49 for a trail half - my PB for the half is 1:45, and that was on the road in Canberra. I know one of the guys who came in behind me has a 3:30 marathon in Canberra; extrapolating from that means this 1:49 is much much faster than that 1:45. If that's right, it means 45km per week training is going to be fine for some quite decent running. (45km is the current weekly ceiling, under advisement from physio & specialist.) It's difficult to know, from a subjective point of view, how to evaluate it. In terms of trail running, the surface was pretty good; dirt road, a bit sandy, some rocks & tree roots, a little wet but no puddles, not too slippery. It was hard to attack downhill (which is something I've learned to do on the road) because I really didn't want to add a third fall in three months; that was a bit of a problem because the uphills were pretty tough and cost a lot of time. I felt pretty rubbish between about 13-15 km, and I lost a bit of concentration, and slowed down a little more than I would have liked. Against that, I finished with 2 sub 4:30 kilometers, and that, for me, is pretty extraordinary. Arguably it means bad resource management, but I don't think I was leaving a lot behind.

The last trail run I did was Fitzroy Falls - now defunct - which was a full marathon. It's just impossible to compare them; a full and a half are such totally different animals.

I think the next run scheduled is at Kurnell, another trail half, but hopefully a little flatter. This week I'm resting completely; no runs, just a couple of swims.