Into the mountains

On Sunday I travelled to current hot training location of Kedumba Pass to get some serious climbing in. The plan was to park near the hospital and run to Mt Solitary and back to soften up the legs a bit then do a full lap of Kedumba Pass and try to run all of the way back up. It was a cool clear morning and nice running weather although there was a strong breeze on the exposed sections which was pretty cold. I took it pretty easy on the way out and walked most of the Mt Solitary climb but it's still a tough run. After a brief rest to take in the view I started the return leg to the car, the steep descent tested the quads a bit more and then the long climb out of the valley had me working pretty hard but I can safely say the legs were nicely softened.

After some refreshments I started the big downhill back into the valley, again I took it at an easy pace and went as far as the sign for the slab hut before turning and starting the long climb. It was getting pretty warm in the sun out of the wind and I just tried to keep a steady pace and run the whole climb, it was mostly OK but I did walk a couple of short steep sections, especially near the overhang. Nice to get to the end for about 37km all up.

Looking across to Mt Solitary

View from Mt Solitary

My apologies to the young lady I passed on the way up Kedumba, she was walking and I was running (slowly) and I said hello as I went by but she had headphones on so hadn't heard me approaching. It's fair to say she completely freaked out and screamed pretty loudly, she actually freaked me out a bit with her scream.

On the wildlife front I saw a wallaby, two lyre birds and a wombat, much better than the snakes I usually see in summer.

Here is a link to the Garmin file of the run

Tuesday was supposed to be a 45min tempo with the HuRT squad but my legs were still pretty shattered so started off pretty easily and picked up a bit towards the end for about a 3:50min/km average.

Starting again

I had plans to start some big training after the city mile but a decent week was followed by a viral chest infection that kept me out for about a week then another easy week coming back from that. Last weekend I managed to do the Athletics NSW road relays for Striders, I ran the first leg of 35+ and the last leg of the open team. It's a good event, always nice to be running for a team rather than alone and the Striders team of Tuckey, Fattorini, High and Highnam won the gold which made it even better. The time wasn't great but not too bad and some more speed work and consistent training will help with that. Sunday saw me do my first long run since the North Face 100, 35kms along the M7 cycle path on a warm winter's afternoon and it was run at around  4:10min/km pace so that's a good sign.

All plans now are around the world long distance mountain running championships in Switzerland on 9th September, they are being held in conjunction with the Jungfrau marathon which is a race I've wanted to do since walking parts of the course with my wife many years ago. Race details can be found here http://www.jungfrau-marathon.ch/en/ but it's basically an uphill marathon with most of the climbing coming in the last 15k. Looks pretty tough and there should be some crazy fast times by the top runners.

My in-laws arrived from Wales a few days ago so they can help with the kids while I'll be aiming to get some consistent big weeks of training in and I'll also head to the blue mountains a few times to bash away at some big climbs. Speed is also something I'll be looking at and I started today with a bit of a test at the ANSW short course cross country championships. 3 loops of the course for 7.5km and I came 21st overall in 26:07 and 3rd place in the 35+ category (can't believe I'm officially racing in the old-boys category now). Happy with that although I ran 24:51 in 2009 on the same course so not quite where I want to be. Another team gold medal for Striders 35+ though with Fats, Tongey and Macca so Captain Tom will be happy. 4 weeks now to C2S which will be another test.