Manly Dam (2)

Manly Dam - map and biometrics

It's another amazing natural resource in the middle of suburban Sydney. The course is named after the dam, but half of it is actually is in Garigal National Park - the tough half, in my opinion. Particularly the ascent out of Bantry Bay. I'm not sure why, but this (the 3rd time I've run it) was tough. It might have been the absence of a taper. I'm in the middle of a program at the moment aimed at doing 95 minutes for a road half marathon some time in April. I'm averaging 75-ish km. per week at the moment and feeling generally pretty good with it, but it might be that the legs are a bit heavy come a race day. I'm not really fussed about a PB on a trail, because trails are intensely weather-dependent, so I don't usually other that much about resting beforehand: I might try for the next one though.

When I left home at 5:30 it was bucketing down. When I arrived at the course, it was still bucketing down. I'd just decided, at about 6:20, that it was too hot to run in a rain jacket, and so reconciling myself to getting drenched, when it stopped raining. By 6:40, when we got away, the sky was beginning to clear. Running trails in the rain is hell if you wear glasses - can't see through them, and can't see without them. In fact, without is better, but it's stressful. I haven't really done that much without glasses since I was 8. Fortunately you don't need the detail (mostly) and 2-4 metres is reasonable viewing, but you spend the entire run in a state of furious concentration.

Normally I'd run a half without carrying water, but I took the running belt (600 mls worth) and used it all, plus I guzzled down fruit at two of the checkpoints, which I never do - it's rude to eat and run, right? - so there was definitely something about the weather. 

The video gives bits of the run up and down the first hill (see the profile in the Garmin link). It's steep, but in the main well stepped so you don't overstress the quads. This is the kind of uphill I used to be pretty good at. It's not sensible to try to run pass everybody in the first 5k, so you don't get to see much variety in the backs.

I'm hoping to solve the camera/battery problem for the next run - in fact it fell off about 5 minutes after the end of the clip above, and most of that 5 minutes it has water on the lens, so the footage is  not that viable. Even if it hadn't fallen off the battery wasn't going to last the distance - but I do have an extender, which is good for 7 hours. If I can mount the camera solidly, without the strapping being uncomfortably tight (it fell off when I was loosening it for that reason) I'm quite optimistic it'll provide OK footage whenever I'm not going too fast; I'm pleasantly surprised that it's not too bouncy.

Like all the small events, post-run catering was fantastic. I didn't run a particularly good time (2:02, 2nd in my class) but still I was back in time to beat the queue at the bacon and egg sandwich providore. Plus the nice coffee man gave me a second cup on the house. (He had a new chilled nitrogen-infused coffee - apparently it has the texture of Guinness - but I declined. Hot coffee is the morning drink.)

Some video experiments

I've been working on running videos for a long time without any success. The double problem of the "bounce" and the extreme duration is tough to beat. There are stabilisation filters, but to get good results you need better cameras, and I suspect a better computer than I have. If you look at my Youtube videos you will see the Sydney ferry - auto-stabilised by Google - and the side effect of the pulsating bridge. So the point of view has stabilised, but it's only useful really if I crop out all the artefacts. Sometimes that will be OK, but running videos are usually going to be focussed on the distance/landscape.

Shortening the videos is achieved by editing; life is too short for that to be a practical solution. So ultimately I've decided on the tactic explored here, which is the auto-edit, multiple still approach.

With the canoe, the camera was shooting at 30 fps, which means an effective exposure of 1/30th sec. Because the canoe is slow, < 6 kph most of the time with me in it, and smooth-moving, the stills are reasonable quality. However, the auto-edit (1 frame per 7 seconds) means that the flash of an interesting bird is only caught by accident. Overall, the clip does give an idea of the creek though, so I'm pretty happy with it.

The first running video is my first real essay with this new technology. It has a lot of problems, but it's a start. I attached the camera to my head (not very comfortable after the 1st 90 minutes) and I forgot to orient it correctly. The raw footage has the sky rotated 90 degrees. Fortunately that can be more-or-less remedied in the editing suite, but the cost was the side black bars. Next, I can set the camera to record at 60 fps, which helps to reduce the blurring from the unstable gait, but at a cost to the image quality because the camera captures half as many pixels per frame to do it. Also, the aperture control is automatic, and slow to react to changes in shadow, so a lot of the frames are dark. At this stage I haven't worked out how to automatically discard them. But for all that, there are some nice images here - the sky/clouds towards the end, and there's a few more tricks I haven't tried yet. The great thing is - it takes 10 minutes to create this video from a 1 hour run, and it would take 10 minutes from a 2 hour run as well, which makes it at least feasible to video document the runs. some of the trails are well worth the trouble!

Here we have the result of a hand held camera. I think it goes for about 10 minutes, and I defy anyone to watch without nausea. This is what running would look like if your brain didn't have absolutely phenomenal stabilisation processing. I think I can make a case for the "art" of the artlessness of this, but not sure there's a career in it for me.

Finally, below, one more video recorded by accident while testing the new battery, and some new software that ended up as the basis for the two videos above. Nothing flash, but pleasing, nonetheless. (It's only 3 minutes, and yes, something does happen)

Manly Dam - 21(18)

Manly Dam - map and statistics

I started off pretty slowly - I'm not sure exactly where the cameraman jumped out from, but I think maybe about 5 or so km into the race. Anyway, the particular slowness in this shot is caused by a combination of nervousness about descending generally combined with a nervousness about the right knee, which has been playing up. Stairs have to be the right shape to attack; they either have to be narrow so you don't need to stride, or they have to be wide enough to fit in a full stride, which is about 1.3 meters at speed. These were neither, hence the "no neck" look.

The landscape is pretty typical for Manly Dam / Garigal National Park. It isn't all like this; there are some more open areas, and some near rainforest areas as well, but in the main it's this sclerophyll. Likewise, there's a mixture of fire trail, tarmac and pre-fab pathway, but the bulk of the run is on more-or-less technical single track.

Last year I ran it in sub-1:50, I think, so I was a little disappointed in the time, but it was very wet, and I didn't attack the course so maybe 1:57 wasn't unreasonable (last time I beat the 40-49 age group home). It's a great course though, and I really enjoyed the run. It's well organised - free coffee! and I've signed up to do it all again in February.

Stromlo - 30 km

Garmin data

Perfect running at Stromlo - cool and dry. The location is primarily a bike track for off road bike enthusiasts - we were running on the fire and maintenance trails, so there were no incidents. We did meet some horses, and one fairly stressed kangaroo bounced across the road at about 8K. It was a well organised event, with Rob de Castella likewise bounding around enthusiastically as chief spruiker. The man is a serious enthusiast. I like running too, but it can't possibly be as good for you as he thinks it is!

 Before the race; in fact a little nervous, but also pretty excited. The gloves are the result of a tip from the organisers of Manly Dam and Camay National Park to the effect that the most common injuries their first aid tent sees are the palms of the hands, after a fall. I'm a famous faller - irritatingly - so I've taken the advice on board, although so far I haven't needed it. Which means I don't fall in every race, doesn't it?
                The headband keeps the sweat out of the eyes, but more importantly off the lenses of the glasses. It attracts a deal of mockery from those who don't remember the great 80's fashions but I haven't found a better solution. I actually finished a race once without the glasses because they were so smeared I could see worse with them than without them.
                I've actually gotten thinner - but not lighter, puzzlingly - since I bought the belt, which holds 4 200 ml drink dispensers, allowing me a mix of sports drink and water. The belt seems to be perpetually about to fall off, although it hasn't yet (and didn't this time either).

 On the left you can see me finishing, and on the right going through 10K in 46 mins. "Compare and contrast...." Certainly too fast, in a way, but it's very hard to work out timings on a course you've never run before. Certainly faster than I planned, but what could I do? I wasn't pushing myself, as you can see. I felt strong on the downhills - which is a big factor in the good time. Once the legs feel a bit wobbly, running fast down rocky tracks is much less appealing, so the 2nd half downhills aren't nearly as fast.

The 30K picture has me looking better than I feel, plus you can't see the blood on the left knee. Still, I'm quite pleased with the fact that I managed the last two kilometers in sub 5 minute pace. There were some repeats built into the course, and the comparisons are instructive:

Kilometer	1/11	2/12	3/13	4/14	5/15
time	5:04/5:21	5:05/5:12	5:20/6:15*	4:34/5:01	5:12/5:21
Kilometer	6/26	7/27	8/28	9/29	10/30
time	5:21/5:41	5:16/7:16#	5:16/6:22#	4:10/4:44	4:33/4:55

* Shoelace

# upward bits .... that's where the lack of training shows - on the flatter sections I'm only 20 seconds slower (~7%) after the additional 20K, but on the hilly bits I'm averaging 30% slower!

I did in fact fall at the 15K mark, on a perfectly flat bit of road for no apparent reason - well, my foot slipped, but on an innocuous part of the road. The gloves were a saviour - I would have had massive grazes on the palms otherwise, and it's much harder to ignore hand pain than leg pain. In fact I didn't notice any knee pain until I stopped. It was only a shallow (large-ish) graze, nothing like the deep cuts I've had before. It is crucial to keep running after a fall, assuming you haven't damaged anything, because if you stop for too long you suddenly get very discouraged. 

Karloo and Uloola Falls - Royal National Park

  Melbourne cup day a break, because I work for a Melbourne company that is incapable of managing the administration in having different public holidays for staff in different states.

So, I took the troops bushwalking - well I offered, but not many took the offer up, partly due to the casual Cup-related work on offer for the students, partly because of the weather. In the end there were three of us.

I've been running in Royal National Park a few times, but really only on Lady Carrington Drive (I think), so I don't know the walks. This was really the first, probably of many I feel, as there is fantastic public transport access.

40 minutes from Central to Heathcote, and the bush starts 10 minutes from the station. My phone ran out of battery, so there are many fewer
pictures than there might have been. It did in fact

 rain, but not heavily - a classic English drizzle really, for 2 of the 5 hours.

Most of these pictures are from water level - a lot of flowers, most familiar in form if not in name. Although I have an idea that there are a few Australian, as it were, "forms" that are shared around a variety of species, so I'll spare people my guesses.

 
The grasses in the above caught my eye with the very black - I assume seeds - tufts.

A classic rock pool - not raining at the moment this picture was taken.

There were a lot of these - not something I think we've attempted at home.

More rock pool vistas. The path is very well marked, except along the creek banks where there's no real necessity for it as the creek is not difficult to follow.

Cockatoos + house - the top one is actually emerging from a hollow in the tree. This taken from the top of the ridge, about 200 meters into the descent.

These were everywhere, up hill and down dale.

Lots of these trees, but not many with the impressive array of bumps.

I've never seen this fruiting before - amazingly like bunches of grapes. I also saw fruit on some of the casuarinas - also round green globules, but smaller and not bunched as here. I don't think I've seen those before, either - which is amazing when you consider how many casuarinas there are around the Cooks River.

These were also on the upper levels, near the bush-suburbia border. Thee were also an enormous number of gymeas on the ridges, but very quickly vanished going downhill. I was surprised by how few of them had flower spikes - they may have been very young plants. It looked in place like the most recent fire wasn't all that long ago, and I wondered if the gymeas might not be opportunistic post fire.

New plantings

With cat protection ... sadly the neighbourhood is a bit cat-infested at the moment. Obviously better than rats...

This is some kind of (hopefully) dwarf casuarina.

Similar hopes for this banksia - at least it has small leaves.

 This is shooting up - hopefully not a presage of future greatness.

 Looks amazingly like a juniper, but apparently not.

Very small indeed.

 There are a few of these in the neighbourhood, they're very indigenous to the Cooks river. On the evidence of the area, 3 meters should be about tops, but the label, I have to say, is threatening a lot more. Could be chainsaw territory!

Mind you, we've been killing a lot of plants in the last 2-3 years. Who knows how many of hese will survive!

Woronora wildlife