Monday, December 19, 2011
Waterfall again
Endomondo Running Workout: was out running
We got the word on Wednesday night that Glenbrook was on; just enough time to start getting properly nervous. Have I trained properly, should I drop down to the shorter distance? I've "tapered" pretty hard in the last three weeks through a combination of flu - ok, a filthy cold - and bad weather. Normally I'm happy to run in the rain, but not, I think, when breathing is difficult. I doubt, so bad was this cold, if I could have kept up with my nose.
So, anyway, it's been a bit light on, dropping from 100+ km a week to 40-ish. I'll have to file it under "experimental". At least my knees aren't too bad, and in fact on Tuesday I did notice that I was springing up the stairs quite lightly.
Ha! Just as I was starting to feel confident, on Friday the NSW Parks and Wildlife people notified the organisers that a 2cm rise in the river would mean the evacuation of all runners WITHOUT their cars. Leaving aside the fact that it would have been (surely) extremely muddy/wet/dangerous, I doubt anyone was particularly prepared to desert their car in a national park for an unspecified amount of time. There's clearly some irony in this - and I detected a degree on angst and conflict amongst the organising committee in the emails, but anyway, once again, Glenbrook has been postponed.
The CRRC decided to go down to the Royal National Park again, this time for the Waterfall-Loftus run. This is pretty much 20km (the GPS was off for about 20 minutes), with a very technical (read steep & rocky) descent, which we took very slowly, not being completely mad for the first 3-4 km, then a 3-4 km run through rainforest on what we call "single track", not rough, but challenging. It's easy to trip on the fronds, so you have to pay a lot of attention to where your feet are going. High stepping is good - shuffling means an almost certain fall. (My mind wandered for about 30 seconds trying to remember if it was Foster or Loftus we were running to, and that's all it took to fall over - nothing serious though). It's hard to concentrate on such a small topic; it's an interesting mental discipline. We disturbed a grey kangaroo having his morning drink at the creek - he hopped off about 50 meters and peered down at us with beady eyes before setting off up the hill. It's nice to see wildlife in the wild - most of the kangaroos you see around Sydney are on golf courses, which is not really quite right, although they are still quite good to see. I've now seen a lyrebird & a kangaroo while running. I will have to start a checklist.
After the first 8-odd km there's a fire trail, Lady Carrington Drive, for about 11 km, which is (relatively) easy running. It's not easy, because the surface is pretty uneven and you still need to pay a lot of attention to your footfall and stride, but it's possible to maintain a pretty good pace. We managed to keep a 5:30 pace going, which was good. It's hard to push yourself outside of an official race, but we were psyched up for a hard run so we did the best we could. In fact, we did pretty well, because my legs today (Monday) are definitely post-race legs. The final stretch, 3-odd km is pretty much purely uphill to the Loftus station. At the top of the staircase - try climbing a staircase after running 20 km - was an information board about the "honeymoon steps". Originally the steps led from the railway station to Audley House, a popular spot for honeymooners. Cue speech about the toughness of the average 19th century person; I guess if you could afford Audley House you could afford a servant to carry the bags. It wouldn't have been much fun toting the bags up and down those steps.
It's hard to say how another 14 km would have gone. It's always my view that the last 7km takes care of itself - what else is there to do except finish? - so I think I would have probably managed it, but I would have been a lot stiffer today! The Glenbrook organisers haven't finalised whether the event has been cancelled or postponed, so I may yet find out.
We got the word on Wednesday night that Glenbrook was on; just enough time to start getting properly nervous. Have I trained properly, should I drop down to the shorter distance? I've "tapered" pretty hard in the last three weeks through a combination of flu - ok, a filthy cold - and bad weather. Normally I'm happy to run in the rain, but not, I think, when breathing is difficult. I doubt, so bad was this cold, if I could have kept up with my nose.
So, anyway, it's been a bit light on, dropping from 100+ km a week to 40-ish. I'll have to file it under "experimental". At least my knees aren't too bad, and in fact on Tuesday I did notice that I was springing up the stairs quite lightly.
Ha! Just as I was starting to feel confident, on Friday the NSW Parks and Wildlife people notified the organisers that a 2cm rise in the river would mean the evacuation of all runners WITHOUT their cars. Leaving aside the fact that it would have been (surely) extremely muddy/wet/dangerous, I doubt anyone was particularly prepared to desert their car in a national park for an unspecified amount of time. There's clearly some irony in this - and I detected a degree on angst and conflict amongst the organising committee in the emails, but anyway, once again, Glenbrook has been postponed.
The CRRC decided to go down to the Royal National Park again, this time for the Waterfall-Loftus run. This is pretty much 20km (the GPS was off for about 20 minutes), with a very technical (read steep & rocky) descent, which we took very slowly, not being completely mad for the first 3-4 km, then a 3-4 km run through rainforest on what we call "single track", not rough, but challenging. It's easy to trip on the fronds, so you have to pay a lot of attention to where your feet are going. High stepping is good - shuffling means an almost certain fall. (My mind wandered for about 30 seconds trying to remember if it was Foster or Loftus we were running to, and that's all it took to fall over - nothing serious though). It's hard to concentrate on such a small topic; it's an interesting mental discipline. We disturbed a grey kangaroo having his morning drink at the creek - he hopped off about 50 meters and peered down at us with beady eyes before setting off up the hill. It's nice to see wildlife in the wild - most of the kangaroos you see around Sydney are on golf courses, which is not really quite right, although they are still quite good to see. I've now seen a lyrebird & a kangaroo while running. I will have to start a checklist.
After the first 8-odd km there's a fire trail, Lady Carrington Drive, for about 11 km, which is (relatively) easy running. It's not easy, because the surface is pretty uneven and you still need to pay a lot of attention to your footfall and stride, but it's possible to maintain a pretty good pace. We managed to keep a 5:30 pace going, which was good. It's hard to push yourself outside of an official race, but we were psyched up for a hard run so we did the best we could. In fact, we did pretty well, because my legs today (Monday) are definitely post-race legs. The final stretch, 3-odd km is pretty much purely uphill to the Loftus station. At the top of the staircase - try climbing a staircase after running 20 km - was an information board about the "honeymoon steps". Originally the steps led from the railway station to Audley House, a popular spot for honeymooners. Cue speech about the toughness of the average 19th century person; I guess if you could afford Audley House you could afford a servant to carry the bags. It wouldn't have been much fun toting the bags up and down those steps.
It's hard to say how another 14 km would have gone. It's always my view that the last 7km takes care of itself - what else is there to do except finish? - so I think I would have probably managed it, but I would have been a lot stiffer today! The Glenbrook organisers haven't finalised whether the event has been cancelled or postponed, so I may yet find out.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Sri Chinmoy - Cooks River
Endomondo Running Workout: was out running 15.77 km in 1h:18m:25s
Well, Glenbrook (the 34km run) was cancelled due to the rain, so we (the Cooks River Running Club) were able to attend our "own" race. We actually managed to recruit 3 members at the post race pancake prandium, so well worthwhile. Another bonus is that I was able to watch Liz in her first 8km race; she and a friend are aiming for the city-to-surf next year and it looks like they are well on target.
I managed a very narrow PB, which is sort of reassuring, as I'e been feeling very slow recently, but arguably the PB is only down to the "missing" 230 meters. Still, it's a PB on the course, about 5 minutes faster than this (my first serious) run last year. And I've been training for distance, not speed, recently, so it's OK. In fact, I probably had a bit more in the tank, given that my last km was about 25 seconds faster than my 2nd last kilometre. I had to shave another 2 minutes off to get into 3rd place though, and I'm not sure that was ever happening.
It was a fantastic morning for it; the breeze blew up a bit for the last 4 km, but it had a cooling effect as well, and of course, it's only in the wrong direction half the time. The sun was shining, and the river was full, and the trees provided a nice mixture of shade and sun. After the last week's rain, the grass was certainly green.
Keith Bateman (world champion in my age group) turned up and ran the 8km in 27 minutes. It's ridiculous, but very impressive.
Glenbrook now rescheduled for December the 18th. Lots of worries about the heat, but fingers crossed. A bit of extra training won't go amiss, either.
Well, Glenbrook (the 34km run) was cancelled due to the rain, so we (the Cooks River Running Club) were able to attend our "own" race. We actually managed to recruit 3 members at the post race pancake prandium, so well worthwhile. Another bonus is that I was able to watch Liz in her first 8km race; she and a friend are aiming for the city-to-surf next year and it looks like they are well on target.
I managed a very narrow PB, which is sort of reassuring, as I'e been feeling very slow recently, but arguably the PB is only down to the "missing" 230 meters. Still, it's a PB on the course, about 5 minutes faster than this (my first serious) run last year. And I've been training for distance, not speed, recently, so it's OK. In fact, I probably had a bit more in the tank, given that my last km was about 25 seconds faster than my 2nd last kilometre. I had to shave another 2 minutes off to get into 3rd place though, and I'm not sure that was ever happening.
It was a fantastic morning for it; the breeze blew up a bit for the last 4 km, but it had a cooling effect as well, and of course, it's only in the wrong direction half the time. The sun was shining, and the river was full, and the trees provided a nice mixture of shade and sun. After the last week's rain, the grass was certainly green.
Keith Bateman (world champion in my age group) turned up and ran the 8km in 27 minutes. It's ridiculous, but very impressive.
Glenbrook now rescheduled for December the 18th. Lots of worries about the heat, but fingers crossed. A bit of extra training won't go amiss, either.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Glenbrook - 1
Endomondo Running Workout: was out running 22.73 km
Well, if slow is the go, I seem to have that under control. I'm just getting slower and slower.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Hunters Hill - 2nd try
Endomondo Running Workout: was out running 19.63 km
We tried this once before, and were thwarted by the Water Board. Sadly, they are running more than 6 weeks late on their bridge-closing project, so we were similarly thwarted today. Still, we didn't ge tlost on the fallback this time & so it was a nice 20km run in (mainly) the lane Cove National Park.
Monday, October 31, 2011
The back garden
The camellia is increasingly out-of-place, in terms of origins, but it's leaves really glory in the strong light. Aesthetically speaking, it's quite pleasing. Well, shiny, anyway. It collaborates nicely with the dappling initiated by the tree fern above.
What we want to do with this bed now is plant a lot of small flowering plants, because the upper storey on the other side of the garden is so well established now.
As you can see, losing the melaleuca and grevillea hasn't made a huge impact on the overall effect of the view from the upstairs window. On the right you can see the tree fern(s) and our eucalypt, but all the
trees on the left are borrowed.
There's a lot of work to do to make all this work, but I think it will be quite good. The biggest problem is that the last couple of years we've been slack with weekly maintenance, so there's a lot of weeding, pruning and miscellaneous small jobs to do. At the moment I'm putting out a green bin every two weeks which is completely full, and still losing ground.
I think I'll probably need a skip before I'm finished.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Royal National Park
Endomondo Running Workout: 27.49 km in 3h:24m:26s
Phew, this was tough. One thing about trail running is that when you get tired, the whole business becomes exponentially difficult; I lost count of the number of times I fell over in the last 7 km. It's incredibly difficult to just keep lifting the feet high enough to stay out of trouble, and this was a rocky trail. So rocky, in fact, that there were plenty of sections where walking was the only option. Tremendous concentration is required; there is nothing automatic, no sections where you can rest in the rhythm of regular movement. I dredged up a mental trick from my Wilke days on a production line; lower your expectations of time (Wilke's) or distance (trail) past and the finish line (lunch break) arrives unexpectedly sooner. It's a simple trick but it still seems to work. Not that it makes much logical sense.
Anyway, all I got from the falls was a couple of grazes on the legs and arms. I haven't quite overcome the nervousness associated with breaking a shoulder on a fall, but it is receding. In point of fact, I'm a lot stronger now than 18 months ago so I think that I have more resources to minimise the impact of a trip. These falls are more heavy stumbles than full on falls.
The upside of trail running is of course the fact that the bush is a nicer place to be than the side of a highway. I haven't been in the Royal National Park many times (maybe once?); it's another reminder, in the South rather than the North, of the way that Sydney wraps itself in bush. Another, more subtle difference from Melbourne. The ocean vs the bay smacks one in the face, but the bush vs the agricultural hinterland is not so immediately obvious if you are living in Marrickville. I think I've said it before - I've thought it before - and I'll say it again: I might have taken geography a lot more seriously if I'd grown up in Sydney. Sydney's geographical complexity is more visible than Melbourne's.
The out-and-back loop we ran has as its spine Lady Carrington Dve - it's a fire trail, despite the name - which runs alongside the Hacking River. We actually ran in three completely different environments; eucalyptus forest (by which I mean tall trees), rain forest (much wetter, darker and cooler) and then, on the way back along the top of some unnamed ridge, the kind of stunted, scrubby, wind-beaten brush that I associate with exposed landscapes. (If you click on the link above, you can select the satellite option, rather than the map option, and the colours will paint the picture for you). Likewise the rocks seemed to be in three distinctive categories, broad horizontal strata, tightly packed wavy folded strata, and amorphous boulders ranging from the bloody enormous to the not-small-enough-to-avoid-tripping-over. I'm afraid I can't offer any more technically precise description of the landscape. Apart from Lady Carrington Drive, though, it was substantially empty and judging from the extent to which the trails were overgrown, empty is its normal state.
Phew, this was tough. One thing about trail running is that when you get tired, the whole business becomes exponentially difficult; I lost count of the number of times I fell over in the last 7 km. It's incredibly difficult to just keep lifting the feet high enough to stay out of trouble, and this was a rocky trail. So rocky, in fact, that there were plenty of sections where walking was the only option. Tremendous concentration is required; there is nothing automatic, no sections where you can rest in the rhythm of regular movement. I dredged up a mental trick from my Wilke days on a production line; lower your expectations of time (Wilke's) or distance (trail) past and the finish line (lunch break) arrives unexpectedly sooner. It's a simple trick but it still seems to work. Not that it makes much logical sense.
Anyway, all I got from the falls was a couple of grazes on the legs and arms. I haven't quite overcome the nervousness associated with breaking a shoulder on a fall, but it is receding. In point of fact, I'm a lot stronger now than 18 months ago so I think that I have more resources to minimise the impact of a trip. These falls are more heavy stumbles than full on falls.
The upside of trail running is of course the fact that the bush is a nicer place to be than the side of a highway. I haven't been in the Royal National Park many times (maybe once?); it's another reminder, in the South rather than the North, of the way that Sydney wraps itself in bush. Another, more subtle difference from Melbourne. The ocean vs the bay smacks one in the face, but the bush vs the agricultural hinterland is not so immediately obvious if you are living in Marrickville. I think I've said it before - I've thought it before - and I'll say it again: I might have taken geography a lot more seriously if I'd grown up in Sydney. Sydney's geographical complexity is more visible than Melbourne's.
The out-and-back loop we ran has as its spine Lady Carrington Dve - it's a fire trail, despite the name - which runs alongside the Hacking River. We actually ran in three completely different environments; eucalyptus forest (by which I mean tall trees), rain forest (much wetter, darker and cooler) and then, on the way back along the top of some unnamed ridge, the kind of stunted, scrubby, wind-beaten brush that I associate with exposed landscapes. (If you click on the link above, you can select the satellite option, rather than the map option, and the colours will paint the picture for you). Likewise the rocks seemed to be in three distinctive categories, broad horizontal strata, tightly packed wavy folded strata, and amorphous boulders ranging from the bloody enormous to the not-small-enough-to-avoid-tripping-over. I'm afraid I can't offer any more technically precise description of the landscape. Apart from Lady Carrington Drive, though, it was substantially empty and judging from the extent to which the trails were overgrown, empty is its normal state.
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