night trail run

finding some available running time is sometimes difficult with a large family and work obligations. so in order to get the back-to-back long runs in this weekend i went out and did my first night trail run. so after working all day on some house renovations at my parents house i stayed home long enough to enjoy some time with the family, cook dinner and bath the little ones before driving up to leura. i parked the car at 8:00pm at the fairmont resort and planned on running from the start to CP1 up to CP4 and back down sublime ridge to CP5 and on to the finish. well that was the plan...

i found the trails and made it to CP1 (up Golden Stairs) up to CP4 and back down Stairs and on to the federal pass again but i couldn't locate the trail onto sublime. ended up running back to leura cascades and ran to echo point on a track i can't remember the name of. came out onto the road (cliff drive) and decided that with over 3:30 of running the road might be the quicker option back to the car. i felt amazingly strong on the climb up from leura cascades and ran it hard with the aim of depleting my energy reserves but at the top i still felt good. at the top i found i park i remembered running through and jumped back on the track and ran past gordon falls and golf links lookout and back onto gladstone road. with 15 minutes left before midnight i dropped my bag off at the car and ran a hard loop through the streets of leura. was very quiet out. what a run!

the week so far...

saturday: 32 km - 2:40 - long
ran up to springwood and back. felt stiff at start but loosened up. pain in groin midway through run was distressing. stretched and soak in hot bath after run helped.

sunday: 30+km - 4:05 - 1200m climbing - course recon (night trail run)
ran from start to CP1 to CP4 down stairs and back with exporational side trips to lookouts, deadends and unknown trails... energy-wise probably the best run i've had in some time. legs felt strong running all stairs except for the steep slippery metal ones. very quiet on track with the exception of the numerous waterfalls.

monday: 16 km - 1:08 (4:15/km) - recovery run
planned recovery run but 45 minutes into the run completely bonked. last 20 minutes was all about survival but did managed to pick up the pace. good depletion session training my body and mind to run hard when tired. post run recovery strategy - one litre of water followed up with two kg of bananas 20 minutes later and feeling better...


tuesday: 16.5 km - 1:10 (4:15/km)
the problem of gaining fitness is knowing when to back off and allow your body to recover and absorb the training. in regards of getting in some recovery today's run was a dismal failure. i spotted previous 100k team mate gpb and thought it would be nice to catch up with him so i quickly parked the car and chased after him. it took 3k to finally catch him which splits of under 4min pace and the result was that i was a little toasted but feeling good. we ran together catching up and holding 4:15 pace until we parted ways. of course i should have backed off here but didn't and for the next few kilometres i turned it up a little more. finally reached the car and had a little stretch and food before driving home. struggled through the rest of the night and had to force any food into me - stomach wasn't happy.

wednesday: 7 km - 0:35 - recovery
with less than 4 hours sleep i canned any thoughts of running long this morning and thought an hour should do it. but facing an hour of running my body revolted and decided that it had had enough. so i listened and headed home. good call!


thursday: sick!!! - about 1:00 - easy running
went to bed sick and woke up feeling worse. will head out at lunch but will (bolded and underline to emphasise the importance to me of taking it easy) take it very easy. need to feel better to go into the long weekend with all guns blazing, firing on all cyclinders,... yeah you get the idea!


*** i remembered what was written above in bold and took it easy - and felt ok after about 10 minutes of running.

friday: still sick - 2:30 - kedumba hill climb
it was supposed to be hill repeats but...
i woke at 4:30am to get myself up to Wentworth Falls to begin a long session of hill repeats at kedumba. felt like crap but feeling highly motivated. beautiful morning with the full moon casting enough light to be able to run with at times but under the canopy i used the headlamp to illuminate the track. i've run out here twice before but i still questioned whether or not i was supposed to take the trail to the right about 5km down. i kept heading straight and after a few kilometres i realised my mistake. oh well. i headed down for an hour passing through clearings at the bottom and with the light of the full moon the view of the surrounding cliffs and mountains were breath taking. i felt one with my surroundings.

turning around and heading back up the hill it became quickly appararent that running with a bronchial infection was not the best thing to do when the oxygen demand of running uphill is called upon. with a steep 3km climb at the bottom and a further 9km of climbing beyond i struggled big time. by the time i reached the car i decided that any further attempts at running down and back were not on. i need to get better.

summary: about 150 kilometres of running

- two good long runs back to back last weekend, followed by two good days of marathon paced threshold and a little high climb to end the week. sickness has ended plans for a big weekend of training over the long weekend.