Sunday Run (11)

Endomondo Running Workout: Shepherd St to Doll's Point and back

Truly a difficult run, not least because of the weather. Irritatingly, the GPS software decided to stop after 7 seconds and since I was running with it in my pocket I didn't notice. But if you look at the Brighton lap from a couple of weeks ago (March 6th) and add this bit onto it, you'll get the idea. It's roughly 32 km, in 3 hours and 7 minutes. I have to say that the last 5 kilometers seemed to pass very very slowly but I've learned that "seemed" is not entirely reliable. As the legs stiffen up they still work.

Thanks to the weather bureau which provides 10 minute visual updates of radar tracking of storms I was able to avoid the heaviest rain. It's been bucketing down up here. Avoiding the heaviest rain didn't mean all the rain though, by any means, and on Botany Bay the rain was coming in horizontally from the ocean, along with a decent headwind. OK, it was a side wind, but according to my calculations only about 70 degrees out of a possible 360 of wind is actually helpful. Sideways or head on, wind just doesn't help.

Not that running in rain is all bad. At these distances you're going to be wet whether it's raining or not, and at least when it's raining you're cool, and cool is a good thing. It's a curious feeling, mind you, because the outside of your skin is cold, and the inside is hot. On average you might be cool, but no one place really feels that way.

The river was really high, as high as I've seen it, probably a combination of tide and rain, so the underpass at Tempe was half a meter deep in water, which meant using the station stairs as an alternative route. Luckily that was on the way out - not sure I was up for stair climbing on the way back. I saw a cormorant - I think - doing an impression of a bird choking; when it saw me it jumped into the water and swam away, underwater. Very curious, do cormorants always swim like this? Only about half the neck above the water, the whole body submerged? I thought it had a yellow beak, but Liz said she'd never heard of a cormorant with a yellow beak before. Who knows, but it was certainly the first time I've seen whatever it was around here. Actually, on Saturday's run (I missed Friday) I saw a pelican looking quite pleased with itself on the river near Canterbury. It'll be sad if the Libs sabotage the river for the sake of a new freeway, which they will be under pressure to do. I can put on a brave face about running beside freeways, but a river is better.

Practically no-one was out, unsurprisingly. A Korean Baptist picnic was gamely battling the wind armed with umbrellas and guitar, but I suspect they were grateful to have the place to themselves. A warm and sunny Sunday morning by the seaside is a pretty secular experience typically. At least, face to face with Nature, one has some sense of the magnitude of the world.

Brighton-le-Sands is quite visible from the beach, but as you run south a park intervenes between the road and the sand, and the park widens nearly all the way down to Doll's Point - a place I've never been before. Most of the trees in the park are pines, so the ground is a needle carpet. This emphasises the differences with the ocean beaches, where trees are typically figs & eucalyptus. The bike path & the jetties are more run down the further south you go; not many tourists down here, I'm thinking. It's almost - not quite, but almost - remote.

Then I ran back, uphill all the way.

Sunday Run (10)

Endomondo Running Workout:

These are starting to mount up now; I might have to find some new routes. A perfect morning for running, cool and clear. I can't remember if I confessed to getting lost on my previous run to Coogee, but I managed  to avoid that this time, arriving as planned, somewhat surprised by the number of people up and about in Randwick as I passed through. On the last run I arrived at the north end of the beach  and exited in the middle; this time I arrived in the middle and deaprted via the south end, which, I can now inform you, has an extraordinarliy steep hill. The leading light of the CRRC was actually running in the "Six Foot Track" (q.g.= "quid google") 45 km race Sunday AM and this hill forcibly reminded me that I'm not quite ready for the Blue Mountains yet. Just after I turned right at the top of the hill another runner shot past me (young, so knees able to move quickly downhill)  wearing a 6ft Track race singlet. That's a subtle - in the sense that only a runner would recognise it - boast because 6ft Track is a really hard race, but the way this guy was handling the hills he had probably earned it.

Apart from the fact that Coogee is about 1000 times groovier than Brighton-le-Sands (my other beach), it also has the slap-hiss of breaking ocean waves on the sand versus Botany Bay's gentle swell. Real estate dreams.

The run back through Kingsford and Kensington was all street/pavement, not so exciting. The Inglis stables are on Barker St, south of the Prince of Wales hospital, but they were deserted. Seems like an extraordinarily valuable chunk of land; I still can't really believe the horse racing industry exists at all, let alone that it finances this kind of operation. When we were living in Harris Park (near Rosehill track) there were a couple of two-horse racing stables operating out of suburban backyards: that's more my idea of racing, such as it is.

Anyway, an OK run from a training point of view. Maybe a little bit short.

Sunday Run (9)

Endomondo Running Workout

Looking for an easy run this week after last week's gut-buster (although more accurately, thigh-buster) and picked on the Brighton-le-Sands loop which in my mind is about 20 km (I remember the first time I ran it was on the day of the Sydney marathon last year, and I had to finish off with a couple of laps around a football oval to build up the extra 1.0975 kilometers. However, the best thing about it is that (when I run it by myself) is that it is substantially flat, as you can imagine following a river down to the sea and running alongside the shore would pretty inevitably be. Normally when the club does the run we come back through Arnecliff, for the hills. But this was a scheduled quiet day, and the other Andrew, who is the CRRC guide, was off resting up for the 6ft track 45 km race next week, so I had no guide and that meant no Arnecliff. I was a bit surprised when I got home and found I'd run 23 km - someone must have stretched the Grand Parade, Brighton's imaginatively named beachside road. Probably a real estate agent; it sounds so much better than General Holmes Drive, of which it is a direct continuation.

Perhaps I was a little late setting off because I missed the spectacular dawns of the last couple of weeks - mind you, that could also be a side effect of atmospheric conditions. Perhaps the air wasn't refracting. I just re-read a book on the surveying of India by George Everest; refraction played a big role in his success. Indirectly, amongst other things, it meant he was better off surveying in winter than summer (there's more refraction in winter and it means you can take sightings further) and this hugely reduced the toll of sickness in the surveying parties - which were enormous, I had no idea. Another thing I realised, in passing, while reading this book, was that all the maths I learned at school would have been more than enough to do the maths required for surveying. I wonder if that made school education feel more relevant to students? Probably not. (Thinks Stalky & Co)

I'm not sure how I failed to notice before that this run takes you right under the approach path for the EW runway - maybe the wind was in a different direction this AM -  but a point on the path halfway between the freeway and the hockey club (Kyeemagh RSL) is exactly in line. No more will I say that planes fly low over Shepherd St. I can't say I saw the pilot wave back, because the sun reflecting off the glass made him a bit invisible, but I'd be damned sure he saw me waving. Also, just past the hockey club, you get to run almost parallel to the runway for a couple of hundred metres, separated only by the engineered course of the Cooks river, which is pretty narrow at that point. Surprisingly the noise isn't particularly overwhelming from the side.

The beach was very empty and just raked, if raking is what tractors do. Manicured, in preparation for the day's beach volleyball. It was pretty cold this AM, so I doubt a big crowd was heading down (but our local market was packed - later - despite the grey skies). It's such an unimpressive beach - for Sydney - it's hard to imagine anyone using it, although of course if you live locally you do.

Having reached Brighton I turned around and came back. Nothing exciting happened, except perhaps that my fastest kilometer was the 19th; that's not usual. Normally it's the 3rd (it's downhill into the park where we meet)

sunday run (what are we up to, I forget)

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/s30eGUuSRtg
http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/gD3joAATKVE

Finally a fantastic morning for a run, still very humid but not hot and with a cool breeze. Dawn clouds tinged orange/pink with glimpses of green/blue sky, and 15 degrees of rainbow in the southeast. It must have been raining, but the pavements were dry.

There were four of us this AM. We took the so-called Earlwood Waterfall, also (I discovered today) known as  Cup and Saucer Creek - equally inappropriate for the visual impact - route, and came back along the bush track which has been cleaned up a fair bit since my last run on it a month ago. It's a bloody hilly route though, it's 10k that seems a fair bit further. The worst is the staircase at the end; it's a very aesthetic staircase coming down the escarpment and wrapped in treeline, that has to be conceded, but it's murder on the knees.

Along the Alexandria Canal (a bit OTT for the stumpy remains of an aborted 19th century transport plan) we saw a couple of rowing shells (fours) out practising. So, something athletic does happen in that rowing club. Most of the rest of the run was a bit makeweight, just adding in loops until we got up to the 30 km mark. It's harder than knowing your route in advance, because it's more difficult to-set intermediate goals; at least that's how I found it.

I was experimenting with eating & running for the first time. I can't quite work out how to deal with the nutrition problem on the marathon. A lot of people say that you can't actually digest anything fast enough to make use of it, but I reckon they're running a lot faster than me. It's going to take me 4+ hours to run 42 km, and for sure I can digest a meal in four hours; usually I'm hungry two hours after breakfast, even without exercise. But it's also true that you don't feel much like eating when running. Still, no stomach cramps seems promising. Fruitcake is more pleasant than al the synthetic gunk you can buy, and seems pretty god value in terms of calories/gram. That's why people run marathons: it lets them eat cake.

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Sunday Run (7)

Endomondo Running Workout

Man, oh, man, this was a tough tough run, even though it wasn't, comparatively speaking, that long. I managed to turn off my GPS tracker when I stuffed it into my armband, so attached is record of the club run - it doesn't include my to and from home. It wasn't just me that struggled either, the other Andrew, who is preparing for the 6 ft track marathon in March, and has at least one sub 3:10 marathon under his belt (I know because he ran in Boston, and you need a certified 3:10 on a measured course to be allowed to enter) didn't find it easy going. You can see from the times; it's very rare that as a duo we don't manage to run under 6 minute pace. (It's very nice of him to wait for me)

The problem was the humidity, which seemed like around 95%. It wasn't particularly hot, perhaps 25 at 6:30, but I sweated litres of water, and it wasn't evaporating anywhere. Seems like I carried it all the way home in shirt and shorts. I don't know if there's a physiological basis for this, but my heart rate was much higher; that's what actually makes the run seem like hard work. Normally I run around 150 bpm; most of this run was over 160 bpm. (My cardiologist is happy for me to run around 175, but she isn't doing the actual running!) Perhaps the heart beats faster to try and facilitate the cooling?

This is a variation on the "Waterfall" route (sadly, the waterfall is down concrete, although quite a nice wetlands is developing in an old brick pit at the base), but steering clear of the bush track which is not in good shape at the moment. There's nothing hugely exciting on the route, but one noteworthy thing is the use of the "dead" land next to the freeway for running tracks & trees. In a way, the designers have made the pariah of suburbia, main roads, into a bonus. OK, I don't live near it; but it's 200% nicer running alongside the M7 than the Princes Highway. It cost a lot more to build, I'm sure, but some of it was well spent. Mind you, I'm glad I'm not a cyclist. The new cycle paths are OK, but they just vanish randomly. At least, a runner being a kind of pedestrian, we get footpaths. If they're lucky they get a picture of a bike painted under a parked car. In some ways, it's no wonder that they tend toward the grumpy & self-righteous: cycling would be such a great way to travel if it were safe.

Oh well. No votes in it.

On Sunday I had just started down the last major hill before home when an old Greek woman asked me to carry her green waste from the front garden around to the bin in the back lane. I'm not sure whether the thought of the rest outweighed the proximity of the upcoming (cold) shower, but anyway, I'm a good citizen. It's really hard to start moving again after you stop, though. Momentum is everything.

Sunday Run (6)

Endomondo Running Workout: 27.94 km in 2h:46m:35s

That's the new personal record! An absolutely beautiful morning for running, it must have rained most of last night because everything was wet but the morning cloud was high, which is good, because running in either rain or rain jackets isn't as much fun as you might think. It was probably around 20 degrees, which counts as cool too. It is of course a cliche that the rain makes everything nicer, but that doesn't render it any less true. It even makes the cement feel softer underfoot. Best of course are the smells, which I can't really describe all that well, several different eucalypts, plus some very resin-y pine & something quite peppery in a few different places, plus a musty, prickly sort of smell at a few points in Annandale. One of the resin-y smells struck me as being high up in the nose; is that a useful description? It's not that bunging down a few personal impressions about smell is hard; what's difficult is saying something that might be meaningful to other people. I don't know if rain keeps the mangroves' bacteria under control (maybe it was high tide) but once we got down to the Cooks River there was no trace of the mangrove sulphates. Wet grass has its own smell too of course & there was lots of that.

This was primarily the Hawthorne Canal run - we tacked the Cooks River on afterwards for a bit of extra distance - which I think I mentioned somewhere else earlier. Anyway, to recap, Hawthorne Canal is the  enclosed Battle Creek/Long Creek which runs from Summer Hill (approx) into Iron Cove.

We (the CRRC - 2 of us this week) met at Petersham Park, less than 2 km from our place and embarrassingly unvisited in 15 years. Petersham Oval is inside the park, a really picturesque cricket oval, with a solid brick, maybe 1930's, grandstand plus hill seating and a couple of pavilion/pergola things scattered around with a view of the cricket field. Not only is it picturesque, but it is - lays claim to be - the oval on which Bradman scored his first Sydney grade century. Either 118 or 110 (it didn't quite stick) and he also managed 3 wickets. He was eighteen.



The path alongside the canal starts next to the base of a typically eccentric bit of Sydney bridging which  really feels like one of the great improvised (because nothing about the road system connected to it suggests that planning was involved)  flyovers; I've driven over it more than 100 times coming home from the north and I've driven under it more than 1000 times along Parramatta Rd, in both directions without ever seeing a hint of a canal.

I've never seen this path before, either. You could just about walk past it on foot and assume it went nowhere specific because the first 50 meters or so is quite overgrown. Well, all to the good really, as nothing is more charming than a secret passageway.

Once past the first overgrown section the path opens out and it's a tranquil, tree-shaded run (or walk or cycle) alongside a canal that actually looks like a small canal rather than, as I was expecting, a large drain. At least, it did the morning after a heavy night's rain. The water is pretty Yarra-coloured, but given the amount of clay in the area that's not a surprise.

Past Marion St. the overhanging trees move back from the path which now runs through parkland to the bay.

White Fig alongside Hawthorne Canal

            














It's funny: in my mind Balmain is an enormous distance away from Marrickville, partly because we have always visited it by car (and the traffic is always terrible, so it takes a long time), partly perhaps because the cultural distance is also quite great. Liz and I wanted to live in Balmain/Rozelle when we first started looking for a place in Sydney, but we just couldn't find a way to afford it. Balmain has buckets of charm, it's Paddington plus water. It was gentrified a long time before Marrickville, plus it's got its own ferry stop. Running through it this morning, I realised it just isn't that far away. Probably, taking a direct route, I could run there in 40 minutes. Interestingly, Balmain Road runs through Leichardt from Stanmore, parallel to Norton St, and Balmain Road is one of those roads that's suffering from the modern disdain for motor vehicles, being made increasingly inhospitable to those who might wish to drive along it. There must have been a time when Balmain was quite strongly connected with the Inner West, but now with Balmain Road reduced to local residential throughput and Victoria Road seeming more like a barrier than an access path, it's almost possible to ask how Balmain thinks of itself in relation to Sydney. (They're perpetually threatening to desert Leichardt Council, so perhaps they don't think they are related to Sydney.)

Coming back through Annandale we found another canal - White's Creek, but similarly in an engineered course - also tree and path lined, plus a park with an aqueduct. An aqueduct!

OK, it's not a Roman aqueduct, but it still has presence. Curious how one can wax lyrical about pipes carrying water and overlook the engineering merits of the miscellaneous other pathways the 21st century relies on, notably transmission lines and oil/gas pipes - I'm pretty sure I've whinged about them elsewhere.


Petersham-Leichardt-Rozelle-Balmain-Annandale is about a 15 kilometre loop and from here we ran down to Cooks River and did another 13 kilometres. My training program dictates that the longest run required before the marathon is only 32K (did I just write "only"?) and I'll tackle that in the next couple of weeks. Fingers crossed, but based on this run, the 42K in Canberra looks at least possible.

Sunday Run (5)

Endomondo Running Workout: "was out running 21.54 km in 2h:07m:37s using Endomondo."

I had a bit of a bobble in the routine last weekend (as in the last weekend of January) and I ended up trading a 20+ km run fora couple of15 km runs; well, that was the plan. Except, like a bloody idiot, I got lost on the second of those (on the Wednesday AM after the hottest ever night temperature since records have been kept) and managed to go substantially more than 15 km before I found my way back home. I don't usually take out water because it's a pain carrying it but on this occasion I had as a concession to the heat & it turned out to be a good thing. Down around Wolli Creek & along the coast run(s) there are quite a lot of bubblers, but once you head inland and along the roads - and even along the upstream banks of the Cooks River -, public drinking water is hard to find. Wednesday's run wasn't without pleasant aspects; I ran along the Bardwell valley bush track and it was certainly 5 or 6 degrees cooler than the paths. There's a high canopy that keeps 90% of the direct sunlight out. In places there's almost a sub-tropical rainforest feel to the bush. Unfortunately the heavy rains of a couple of weeks ago, and some storms have  damaged parts of the track quite badly & it's a perilous run. It's hard to keep one eye out for snakes, one for sticks, one for rocks, one for overhanging branches, one for the path and one for spiders' webs. Slow progress; still, I understand the attraction of trail running. It's hard work but rewarding.

Anyway, Sunday's run was set for 6:45 to avoid the worst of the heat (Liz went for her's at 6:15!) but Sunday wasn't too bad, as it turned out. We (the CRRC - I met member #5) went on a run through a suburb I hardly knew existed. I've heard of Turrella, but it isn't really anywhere in particular. It appears to have been built from scratch by a team of apartment developers in the last five years - of course the bit we ran through may not be typical of the rest of it. Mind you, developers creating suburbs isn't a new concept; Annandale was designed holus-bolus by a builder/developer as a "mode village" back in the 1870's.

Plonked on a roundabout in Turrella - maybe still in Arnecliff - is a cheerful looking piece of generic sculpture; a bit like motel art, really, inoffensively non-figurative, probably designed by a piece of software that turns out designs to architects' specifications. Need something for a centrepiece to three blocks of angular grey blocks of flats? Here, try this green and curvy thing, guaranteed to distract, at least momentarily. Mind you, it may be easy to mock, but that intersection looks better with it than it would without it. Sadly, I still haven't quite mastered the art of running photography, so no pictures yet.

Eventually, heading west, we arrived in Bexley, Kingsgrove, Beverly Hills, places unvisited by me except as stations on the East Hills line when we lived near Holsworthy (in Wattle Grove) in our first months in Sydney. There are excellent running paths on both sides of the freeway, but it's hard to wax lyrical about a freeway, although, the above ground section is a vivid reminder of how lucky we were that from Bexley seawards they put the M5 in a tunnel, under the remnant bushland, golf courses, creeks & parks.

Running - I guess walking too - connects you to the places you live much more than driving. It also rams home some points about geography (of which Sydney has more noticeable demonstrations than Melbourne), particularly that access, rather than proximity, defines locality. The Cooks River may not be a mighty torrent, but it still has to be crossed and there are only limited places you can do that; those limitations in turn have features to be considered. If you cross at Illawarra Rd (probably the oldest bridge) you are committed to climbing the Bardwell ridge - and it's steep. If you want to avoid the ridge, you have to head to the Princes Highway, but that's starting to take you a few km. east. In a car, those decision points are obscured (certainly to those like me with limited imaginations), but on foot the whole hotchpotch of Sydney (my bit of it) starts to make more sense.

BTW, for some more local history, take a look at http://arncliffesydney.blogspot.com/