The disappointment of Pluvio 

The boys at Deviation 

Vat, Mister G and Spud at Carlotta's Arch 

Spud, Mister G, Meaghan and Vat 

Spud, Vat and Mister G at Jenolan Caves 

Six Foot Track - Going All The Way

After running the section from Megalong to Pluvio return earlier this month (as documented in the blog's initial entry below), today marked my first journey over the full length of the Six Foot Track. A plot of track is below:


My preparation started a little later than usual, arising at 5am (mind you, this was the first morning of daylight saving, so maybe it wasn't later!) to grab a tin of creamed rice and a cup of strong coffee. Finish packing, quick surf of the net, couple of visits to the toilet, pile of tape applied, and I was out the door about about 5:45. Stopped at the BP on Parramatta Rd at Five Dock, bought some food and used their toilet, picked up Mister G at Concorde a touch after 6, and we were headed west.

After a couple of stops on the way up, we met Spud at Explorer's Tree, took some photos, and we were on our way at about 7:45 or so (7:48:26 am, to be exact).

My observations on the run are as follows

• the stairs at the start (well, after a bit of a steep decline) are steep, slippery (thanks to the plant life it's always wet there) and treacherous. If you're at the back of your starting back, be grateful you're being forced to walk down this section - if you're even slightly clumsy, you'd be a DNF with a broken limb before you can say 'it looked stable'
• the going's quite good through the next section as the road evens out on the run out to Megalong, as you cruise along with properties on the left. As you approach Megalong Valley Road, the road deteriorates into a more 'rustic' type path, with a few stiles to be crossed. Keep an eye out for white pegs on the left, which have accurate markings from the course measurer's efforts. The course remains like this until Megalong Valley Road, where it becomes decent road for a short period before cutting through farm land and running alongside Coxs River, where it becomes particularly 'technical'.
  
• it's all very cruisy until Coxs River, and then it starts to get fair dinkum. The course was notably more eroded than when I went through on October 5, so stones underfoot were an issue. The run's quite hard on your feet. It does widen into a proper road through here, though.
• the steep sections run up to Pluvio, although there's quite a nice section through the Alum Creek after Mini Mini. From there, the road rolls more gently, although there are some shorter steep inclines, and certainly from what we saw the road deteriorates notably as you continue your run through to the forestry section near Deviation, with quite large rocks and broken up sections underfoot.
• once you get to and cross Caves Road, it becomes a much more traditional trail, with a few steps to negotiate (doubtless exciting the Striders' STaR planners). It is quite technical through here, with runners on shot quads and not concentrating fully presented with numerous opportunities to fall.
• you'd think it'd get easier from there, but it doesn't. The descent down into Jenolan Caves is probably the worst battering you cop during the event. Initially it isn't too bad, with the track surface okay, but as you continue the rocks seem to increase in size and sharpness until it's somewhat akin to running on smashed up tiles - one thing that struck me through this section was the sound of the rocks under foot as we ran, the 'tinkling' sounding almost as if the rocks were the smashed remains of fired ceramics. This would be a particularly bad place to fall - straight down would be a long slide to numerous stitches and ruined race clothing, to the right, and I doubt you would stop until Caves House, with plenty of hard trees and pointy rocks to clip on the way down.
• the steep footpath after Carlotta's Arch is actually a relief after the above section. The incline isn't so bad, and the surface is reliable.
• the food at Caves House is awful and expensive, feelings exacerbated by the wait. The milkshakes from the bar are acceptable.

I had a great day out with Spud and Mister G. We caught Meaghan just before Alum Creek. There were a few highlights, which included:

• numerous horror stories of doubling back towards the end of Twelve Foot from Spud and Mister G during the early stages past Nellies Glen
  
• painfully slow rock river crossings at Coxs and Alum Creek. I of course finally accidentally dunked my feet literally on the last rock hop of the last crossing. I had packed spare socks anticipating such an event - heh, sometimes you win
• Spud's disappointment at the non-event that are the rain collectors at Pluvio
• a curiously solo bull standing next to the track watching us go past on the way up to Mini Mini. I don't know about the others, but my escape plan involved scaling an eight foot high stone wall - I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been a problem, unless the others had the same plan
• some silly sections of typical male competitiveness coming out over the last 15km or so. There were a few sections where it got a bit silly, where I think none of us wanted to be the first to say 'ah, screw it, let's walk this uphill bit'. We weren't a lot over 2 hours from Pluvio
• the big finish. We all just went for it after Carlotta's Arch, flying down the steep descent to the finish, earning a cheer from some of the 'diners' gathered at Caves House. Mind you, the three Coolrunning Tritops were fairly eye-catching
  
• Mister G's mum taking the time and trouble to pick us up from Jenolan Caves. That was brilliant, and saved a hell of a lot of time and logistical work. Thank you!!!

So, very good day with excellent company. Can't wait to get out there again next month!

Mid-Week Maladies, Petulance, and Redemption

Well, I've been bad and not posted for a week. Basically, after falling ill and not running on Wednesday, I had a big tantie and haven't posted for a few days. Read on...

Monday
After the misery of the STaR, I got out of bed, and managed to push out a fairly uninspired 10.27km in 50:25. As is always the case with these recovery runs, I started out feeling like complete junk, and from about 6km onwards felt okay, legwise. I felt pretty smashed up all day, though - very tired, and even more irritable than usual.

Tuesday
Got up not feeling particularly flash, but managed to drag myself to Rotary Field f0r 15 minutes of 30 on/30 off, after the compulsory 3 lap warm up. I concentrated hard on my stride, feeling I was reaching out in front. From about the fourth rep it was apparent that not all was right with the world, and after the eighth rep I had a huge dizzy spell that necessitated a little sit down. I jogged out a couple more laps to see if I'd feel any better, but didn't, although the dizziness passed. I gingerly got the car home, but felt progressively worse and elected to take the day off work.

Wednesday
Woke up with a massive headache, called in sick, and went back to mid until late morning. Visited the doctor in the afternoon, who suggested that I had most probably had a stomach virus on Sunday, and that perhaps continuing to run with it wasn't terribly smart. Explaining to him that I simply thought I might have been hungover did not elicit much sympathy. I felt better in the afternoon, so to be frank the visit to the doctor was pretty well to obtain a medical certificate.

Thursday
Awoke feeling better, and managed to keep my promise to get to Rotary Field and accompany Mister G. I simply circulated, gradually increasing the speed as I became comfortable with the fact that I was not going to have another dizzy spell as the heart rate increased. Managed about 6km in around 29 minutes, and was starting to feel better about things.

Friday
I wasn't getting up, and that's all there was to it.

Saturday
The prospect of getting to the Bay Run was all too much, and given Sunday's plan to run the Six Foot Track, I thought a simple 'system check' jog would be plenty - 5.4k m in 26m20s around my local area. Again, once the blood was moving, the legs felt pretty good.

Sunday
I ventured to Six Foot Track with Mister G and Spud, meeting up with Meaghan along the way. I'll post separately on this, but it was 45km in 5h34m17s, not counting the stoppages, which I think took it to about 6h05m. Photos will also follow for this training run.

Summary
For a week that basically fell in a heap on Tuesday, it actually panned out pretty well. I really enjoyed getting running the Six Foot Track with the lads on Sunday, and ended things on a positive note. It was about 71km for the week, given me my highest monthly total ever of 394km. Would have been nice to crack 400km, but it just gives me a target for next month. I'm feeling much stronger at the moment, which was borne out with the relative ease I got through today. Sunday represents the longest I've ever been on my feet, and the longest distance covered. New ground!

Cool and sunny recovery

The storms in Sydney on Sunday evening cleared much of the humidity from the air, and I awoke at4:50am (alarm set for 5:30) to clear skies - you can certainly tell daylight saving starts on Sunday.

I managed to get through 10.25km in 50m25s, and was feeling pretty good at the finish after an unenthusiastic opening 5-6km. The sun was particularly bright, the air was cool and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

I see the forecast for Sydney for the rest of the week shows things being fine for the rest of the week, although possibly some showers on Wednesday. Hopefully we can avoid some of the nonsense of last week.

STaR Struggles

Today saw my long run with the Strider STaR North Head run, starting in Clontarf, working it's way along the Balgowlah Heights shoreline to Manly, around North Head and up past the beach to Queenscliffe, through Fairlight and up into Manly Vale and North Balgowlah past Manly Reservoir, into Seaforth and back to Clontarf.

I had the pleasure of picking up Mister G and Johnny Dark, who was making his STaR debut today - it seemed at once odd and familiar to see him in the white and emerald singlet.

We had had my partner's brother and his partner over for dinner the previous night. I'd had too much white wine, four cheeses pasta and my partner's trifle, so I hadn't bothered getting up at 3am to get something to eat, and when the alarm went at 5 I wasn't feeling fantastic.

This stayed with the me through the run. I had to make a quick visit to the toilet on arrival at Clontarf, and again at Manly Hospital. I'd set out with my usual 6:10am group (with the usual suspects), and fell quite a way behind with my unscheduled stop there. I ran 4km in 16 minutes over one loop of the Striders' North Head 10km course, and on a humid morning it stung, and I continued to feel it all the way through the run.

I still felt fairly ordinary at the finish and had to go to the toilet on arrival at Clontarf, plus make a quick stop on the drive home. I was able to eat some fruit and drink a tin of Coke, which helped a little - I didn't touch my gel through the morning. I've had a nap this afternoon plus eaten some protein and fat, and am feeling better now.

Still, I managed to run out the full distance. I have to go by the distance of 29.2km as per the map, as the Garmin added in two bonus kilometres at about the 6km point for some reason. This gives me my first 100km week (100.4km to be precise), and well into my first 300km+ month (323km to date, and on track for 400+km by month's end). I've held up okay - don't seem to have any significant issues, and my feet are gradually coming good.

This week will be an interesting one, with my second venture to Six Foot Track coming on Sunday. We're doing the full length, so that'll be a tough 45km to finish the month with.

I've got a little 10km recovery jog planned tomorrow, and, to echo a theme, it is of course raining....

Unstructured Saturday

Got down to the Bay Run this morning a bit after 8am, wearing my relaced Series IX DS Trainers with thin Asics Kayano socks and a heap of tape over my right heel.

Friday's little 5k recovery run helped a lot as I felt a lot more free right off the bat. Fellow Coolrunner Hatch caught up with me very early and introduced himself, and we chatted through to the 3km mark where he turned around. I pushed through to the 4km mark, and decided I didn't particularly feel like doing the 3 x 3km I had pencilled it. From there, it turned into a bit of a fartlek session, which included two quickish laps of Timbrell Park.

Overall, 12km in 52:59. Legs felt pretty good, shoes went pretty well, and it was a lovely morning. Good start to the weekend!

The Friday Experiment

Got out for a fairly ugly 5.3km in 27:20 this morning, in a recovery run. As mentioned last week, I was quite 'junky' last Saturday after taking Friday off, so I thought I'd try a little 5k recovery jog today to see how that panned out Saturday. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

At least it wasn't raining....

Side note

The distance covered this morning means that this month is now my biggest for mileage ever, slipping past February (I think) this year. October's already seen my biggest week, which I should slip past again this week. Told ya I was ramping it up!

Damp Thursday intervals...

...well, underfoot, anyway, and to be frank, nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. There was a little debris (mostly sticks and leaves) on one corner at Rotary Field, and the section nearest the buildings was waterlogged, but overall it was fine. It was a little warmer than expected, and quite humid.

Got through the usual 3 lap warm-up, whereupon Mister G appeared and then managed 400 metre repeats of 77.66, 77.92, 79.62, 78.01, 78.25, 78.85, 80.20 and 80.05, with a two lap warm down. I felt a bit sore in the quads and this seemed to manifest in a lack of power from about the third repeat, and I was starting to battle with the last two - the damp surface no doubt not helping.

I was thinking last night, I've run in the rain more times this week than I have in the 2 3/4 years I've been running....

A good Wednesday wettening...

So much for my hopes for a dry run home - it pissed down pretty well the whole way home. Started out drizzling and got heavier and heavier as I went along, the highlight being the north east wind across the Fig Tree and Tarban Creek bridges which was strong enough to require me taking my cap off - meaning I got the full spray of the wind and rain in the face. Nice.

Still, 10.68km in 51m08s. Funny how you run quicker in the cooler conditions. Felt pretty damned good once I got on to the Pacific Highway.

Now, I just need to hire a boat for 400m intervals tomorrow morning...

Long Wednesday goes longer

This morning's lesson is that if you wake at 5:10am, and your alarm is set for 5:30 so you can get out for a run, get up at 5:10 - do not remain in bed so that:
a) the alarm will frighten the crap out of you when it goes off,
b) you don't actually go back to sleep and have some freaky dream

Finally got out onto the road at 5:50am, and managed a pretty good quality 23.02km in 1h53m56s, running from Gladesville to the Bay Run, up Lilyfield Road to Victoria Road, the CBD via Anzac Bridge (where there was a solid headwind), over the Harbour Bridge into Kirrbilli, over the expressway into St Leonards Park in North Sydney, Crows Nest, and then in St Leonards itself. Pace was a couple of seconds under 5 min per km overall, but came off a bit once I hit Anzac Bridge. Thankfully, despite some rather ominous cloud cover, the rain held off and I managed to get through without getting rained on.

If the wind can keep up, and the rain hold off, this should hopefully help Rotary Park dry off. I ran on the grass through St Leonards Park and it was quite firm, with a surface not dissimilar to Rotary Park.

I'm starting to eke out the distance of the mid-week long run, so it was pleasing to get through it quite well this morning. Hopefully the 10.5km recovery run home won't be too bad tonight.

Wet and grey Tuesday

With Sydney experiencing a good solid drenching on Monday and overnight, I made a change of venue, away from Rotary Field to Timbrell Park. This meant a change of surface from grass to tarmac.

It was raining heavily again this morning, and quite cool into the bargain, so got through an unenthusiastic 1.2k warm up, 2.37k of 30 on/30 off repeats, and a 1.2k cool down.

I can live without these drenchings, but the forecast doesn't look too good in this respect until Friday. Call it character building.

A test of faith passed

Well, I awoke about 4 or 5 minutes before the alarm went off this morning and heard rain. The alarm went off and I hit the Snooze button and had a bit of a think about things. I realised that even though I'd get wet, I'd be a lot better recovery-wise for the run, so I got up.

I actually felt okay, better than last week, and worked through 10.1km in 49m53s. It did resemble a bit of a cross-country run at times with the footpaths quite flooded. The rain wasn't too bad, except for the last 1.5km where it of course pissed down.

So, on a morning where I had just about every excuse in the book to stay in bed, I managed to put in a 10k run. Call it passing a test of faith.

Newsflash - Solid Training and Speedwork Pay Off!!!

Well, after yesterday's junky 9.5k, I was a bit apprehensive about the internal half, which seems to be a good sign for me.

I went out for dinner with friends last night and had my traditional two stubbies of Cascade Premium, had a heap of water and basically ate myself stupid. Rose at 3:30am, had half a tin of creamed rice, a strong cup of coffee, back to bed, up again at 5:50, usual toilet ritual, and I was good to go at 6:15 for my 7:04 start.

The Striders' internal half is a handicap event, and there'd been a fair degree of toing and froing on this front. The first edition of marks saw me at 89 minutes, which given the harder course and two recent low 86 minute half marathons, I thought was fair - which I made the mistake of mentioning to the club president. That cost me three minutes, and more interestingly put me with a couple of Striders who'd recently run mid 82 minute halfs. I guess the theory was they'd tow me through to a quick one.

Things panned out a little differently as I lined up for the 86 minute mark and I was by myself! I had half a plan cobbled together of heading out at 4:05 pace for the first 10k and seeing what happened, and I was tempted to run that.

MPHaz and Vespachick went out in the group a minute in front of me and I thought I might set myself the goal of catching them and trying to hang off whoever proved to be the quicker. I reeled MPHaz at about the 6km mark, where I was rolling along just above 4:00 pace. I picked up Vespachick and Steve B who were running together just after the 10k mark, which I got through in 40 flat. I decided to run with them for a little, enjoying the chat, as I had a bit of a 'snowball' feeling through the 10k mark, that it was all going a bit fast, out of control and I was setting myself up for a disaster.

I started to leave them at about the 11km mark, and headed towards Scribblys. It was about here I started to see various Coolrunners out in front of me - O Runner, Blue Dog, Amjan, Gefjam, KevTiller and Mister G - and I think the feeling I was catching them on provided huge motivation. I caught all of them except O Runner, who ran a good PB today, and overran Blue Dog with about 1.5k to go.

Looking at my 5km splits through the race (and these are GPS splits, not Action's accurate ones, although my watch read 21.174 km, so no complaint for overall accuracy), I went:
1-5km - 20:24
5-10km - 19:53
10-15km - 19:26
15-20km - 19:20
20-21.174km - 4:25

Overall pace is 3:58.

I've kind of blown through a few medium term goals with this little effort today. I had been hoping to edge to a sub 4 minute pace half marathon, but I was more thinking the Sydney Marathon Clinic December half marathon. I would have been happy with 85:59, so to blow that so comprehensively into the weeds on a hilly course marked by an accredited measurer is thrilling.

To gain such results after a solid (not spectacular) six weeks work, and what basically boils down to four speed sessions is astounding. I found today that I could actually catch my breath at 4 minute km pace on the flat, which made recovery from the two big climbs at Lane Cove without losing pace much better.

I was thinking of dropping a speed session for a hill session in November - I'll be rethinking that. I need to get some input on what to do with my Saturday session. I've been having some doubts about the 3 x 5km 'tempo' session on Saturdays, so there might be an opportunity to shuffle something in there.

So, after getting all of my PBs in a degree of order, they're out of whack again. Today's time suggests a 10k time of mid to high 37s (my next goal) and a marathon of 2h55 or so - eep!

I also ran the half in my 'bargain basement' series VIII DS Trainers. Had absolutely no problems - I guess the lighter shoes do help.

Awesome - really wish I'd taken this up 10 years ago. Time to get serious.

Saturday struggles and thoughts on the rest day

After Friday's rest day, I got up with my partner and went down to the Bay Run to work through a 10k session, generally easy but with a few quicker km thrown in to get a feel for pace for Sunday's internal half.

The moment I started I felt stiff and quite sore - almost like shin splints. I have found the Bay Run a place that I battle with lower leg pain before, so it's nothing new, but I really did feel very ordinary in the legs. I ground out a couple of k, forced through one km at 4:00 pace, got to the 4k turnaround point on the CR 5k course, battled back, did a lap of Timbrell Park at about 4:05 pace, and wobbled back to the Drummoyne Rowing Club. Saw Action along the way, and bumped into Black Wiggle. We stopped and had a chat for a couple of minutes (he's moving into track mode for the summer season), and oddly enough I felt better on resumption. Managed 9.5k in about 43:22.

After this morning's efforts, and discussions with Mister G on the topic of rest days, I wondering if perhaps I might be better putting in a token 5km on a Friday morning. There might be a build up of junk in the muscles after my work mid-week, and perhaps a little recovery jog might help to better flush that out.

Might try it next week and report back on results.

On the plus side, the bad run's out of the system before tomorrow...

Ahhh, resting Friday...

Just the customary cycle to and from work this morning. Legs feel pretty good this morning, and I'll probably head out for a 5 or 10k run tomorrow just to get some feel for pace.

Heat, blackouts and intervals

Well, thanks to the blackout that hit Hunter's Hill, Gladesville and surrounds last night, I didn't update with yesterday's runs, so here's three runs in one hit.

Wed AM
A quite warm morning saw me head out just on 6am for my midweek long run, now moved to Wednesdays. Ran into St Leonards via the city, with a little loop in The Rocks and via the bridge over the expressway that leads into St Leonards Park. Very slow, ugly run, accentuated by the sharp sun I was pretty well fully exposed to for the second half of the run. 18km covered in an 1:37 or, with some good climbs.

Wed PM
Waited until just before sunset for the 10.8km run home from work, which I knocked over in just over 54 mins. Conditions weren't quite as bad as I expected, although I would never call the run pleasant. A highlight was the havoc on the roads caused by the blackout. Why on earth all these people in their comfortable seats, with their airconditioning on were so angry is totally beyond me. At least the copper on point duty at Penrose St and Burns Bay Road and I had an excuse. A relief to get home, although slightly surreal. Power come back on at about 3:20am, about 40 minutes after I jokingly predicted.

Thur AM
Ah, North Chatswood intervals. Joined Mister G for our increasingly traditional 8 x 400 session. Timed it with the Timex, and got accurate splits of 79.68, 77.84, 78.67, 78.24, 77.66, 78.53, 79.20 and 78.99. Good little session, especially since I was feeling a bit knocked around after yesterday.

Now, a couple of easy days in the lead up to Sunday's internal half marathon...

Tuesday morning intervals

Managed to get down to North Chatswood this morning for my first attempt at the 15 minute 30 sec sprint/30 second jog session. Went pretty well, although I felt like I was in bottom of a hole I couldn't get out of at about the seventh repeat - "How can there be eight to go!?!".

The session is mercifully short, though, and the 30 seconds seems to pass very quickly, both in sprint and jog mode. The interval mode on the Garmin can be quickly set up for this session, and you will consider smashing your watch as the seven second warning at the end of the rest period comes up AGAIN!

Haven't seen the full numbers yet, but not counting the 30 second jogs I covered over 5km for the session, including the 1.3k warm up and 1.3k cool down. I'll have a look this evening and post the numbers.

Tomorrow is mid-week long run in the morning with recovery 10.5k in the evening (run to and from work, in other words). Forecast top is 34, so the evening run will be fun...

Recovery Monday

Managed to grind out a fairly ugly 10.2k recovery this morning in just over 53 minutes - on reflection, 6 or 7 might have been more appropriate. Still, it's in the book

One thing I've noticed - when your mileage gets up to the mid 90 kilometre mark, you certainly do take your recovery runs a lot more easily.

Photo

Just fooling around with the features - dug up a photo of me suffering in the late stages of the Gold Coast Marathon.

vat_man @ Gold Coast Marathon 

Sunday STaR - Mosman Reversed

...and so the other long run of the week, the Sunday Strider STaR. This week, Mosman Reversed.

We started at 6:10 from the rotunda at Balmoral Beach, worked our way north to The Spit and over the bridge, a little loop through Clontarf and back over the bridge again to head south via Beauty Point, along Quakers Hat Bay through the western edge of Mosman, into North Cremorne and on to Cammeray, through the golf course and over the Warringah Freeway in St Leonards Park.

We then crossed back over the expressway into Neutral Bay and headed over to Kurrura Rd, working our way through Shell Cove, following the track through Cremorne Reserve to Robertsons Point, north back up Mosman Bay, over to Sirius Cove Reserve where we picked up the path that runs past Taronga Zoo on to Bradleys Head.

Heading north, we worked our way through Clifton Gardens, Georges Heights before picking up the south end of Balmoral Beach for a good strong finish.

I think we cut out a little section near Georges Head - the path was undergoing a fair degree of construction through here. The Garmin indicated 28.6km (the guide lists the run at 31km) but with the numerous twists and turns of the run the GPS was gently easing behind the guide all the way, and was 2.5km behind at the time of the detour. I'll book it as 31km, at just over 2 hours 30.

I started to wilt through the last 10km (Tuesday catching up methinks) and the calves were feeling it. I've now cut up my left heel as well as my right - oh well, nothing more tape can't deal with! We had a strong little quartet at the finish, with Sue, David G and new Strider David (who ran in a Strider emerald polo and Dunlop KT26s no less - he ran 3h22m at the Sydney Marathon and looked very strong today) seeing the 6:10 all the way through.

The week ended up a little short of what I was hoping for. I had scheduled in 111km, ended up managing 96, my biggest week ever, and on the back of a 93km. An excellent start to October, and other than my feet (which I can manage) no real injuries. I should start to results start to come through in the November Lane Cove 10k and the SMC half marathon later that month.

This week will be a bit easier, although there'll be two speed sessions at North Chatswood - a 15 minute session of 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, and the Thursday 8 x 400 session accompanied by Mister G. Key, though, is the final Strider Super Series event on Sunday - the Internal Half Marathon.

A couple of things on the STaRs:
- I was really looking forward to it this week. They're a brilliant way to do your long runs - good company, bit of a feed at the end, and I've absolutely no doubt I push much harder when running these than I would when doing long runs by myself.
- they're a brilliant way to see Sydney up close. We moved up in Easter '98, and I can't say I'm overly familiar with Sydney. These runs provide an excellent way to have a look at particular suburbs and neighbourhoods.
- a tip for map reading. If it appears there's a choice between a relatively gentle route, or some steep hill or stairs. it's usually the hill or the stairs.

Had a little nap this afternoon and will kick off the week with a gentle 5-10km tomorrow morning, depending on what time I get up.

Meh Saturday

Well, I had scheduled in a 3 x 5km session to run on arising this morning.

However, a Friday night at Rozelle's Welcome Hotel with friends put paid to that. Enjoyed a good solid lie in, and did some shopping in the morning.

I finally headed out to the Bay Run at about 1pm, in sunny, warm and fairly breezy conditions, and did a fairly unenthusiastic 2 x 5km (20:15, 20:10). Should have done more, but I wasn't really interested, and with a hilly STaR tomorrow (and a host of other excuses) I was happy to call it quits at 10km.

30km tomorrow around the lower North Shore. Should be interesting.

Rest Day

I got some advice on my proposed weekly running schedule yesterday from none other than Action. Amongst his suggestions was taking Friday as a rest day.

I had been thinking about getting up and running 10k this morning, but with a former flatmate visiting and a couple of wines last night, when the alarm went this morning Action's advice suddenly seemed very attractive.

Splits yesterday were between 76 to 80 seconds.

Roll on the weekend...

Intervals

Well, managed to get out of bed at 5:30am to get over to North Chatswood for intervals this morning. I'd complain about getting up so early, but Mister G managed a 4:15am start to get over there by 5:50am, so I can't, really.

I tried the interval mode on the Garmin, with mixed success. The GPS plotting isn't fantastic over the shorter distances, and Rotary Field is a fairly bushy setting. Don't think I'll bother with it there in future. The mode itself is very good, with it measuring out the distance and then giving the pre-set rest time - it's just the GPS aspect that compromises it.

So, ran 3 laps as a warm up, 8 x 400m with a minute rest inbetween, then a gentle 2 laps to finish. Felt a good solid session, despite legs that are still fairly sore from Tuesday. I'll put up some times when I get a chance, but including warm up and cool down it was 5.434.km in 21:30 or so.

Laziness and Recovery

Alarm went off at 5:40am and after a brief discussion with the other half, it promptly got reset to 6:20am. Can't say I was surprised, but I really could have and should have gotten up. Life goes on. Quads and calves were a little stiff, plus the aforementioned heel, but nothing too serious - reminded me of the day after my first couple of 30k STaRs.

I had the car today and didn't make the usual cycle to and from the office.

My legs got stiffer over the course of the day I managed to talk myself (well, with a little prodding from my e-mail correspondents) into heading out for a gentle (very gentle - a bit over 26 minutes) 5k. It was slow but I feel better for it.

Off to meet Mister G at North Chatswood's Rotary Field for some speedwork tomorrow morning....

Heel?

Did I say left?

I meant right. Where's that damned wine bottle?

2005 Six Foot Track starts here

Well, I can say my 2005 Six Foot Track starts here.

I had planned three or four weeks ago to take the Friday and Tuesday of the NSW Labour Day long weekend, extending it into a 5 day break. With this thought, and my partner currently in negative annual leave, it seemed an ideal opportunity to get some time on my own, and familiarise myself with the hardest part of the Six Foot Track.

I dropped her at work, and made the trek up to the Megalong Valley, parking the car and joining the track where the Six Foot Track crosses Megalong Road at the cemetery (about the 8k mark of the race). I ran/walked from here to about 300 metres after the Pluviometer, and then made my way back to Megalong Road. Total run was 4h 16m (4h 42 including breaks) and covered 36.2km, according to my new toy, the Garmin Forerunner 201, which performed beautifully during the run.

Before I set off, just after 9am, a group of 5 well equipped hikers in their mid-20s came through. They appeared to be a mix of Australian and English blokes, and were planning on taking 2 days for the hike. I wished them well, and set off carefully across the cattle grid that starts this section of the track.

This section rolls fairly gently through quite open countryside - the track changes from defined gravel road to quite narrow path through farmland, with traditional Australian obstacles of cattle grids, climbs over fences and gates as you go along. It's fairly easy going along here, and possible to cruise along pretty comfortably for a few kilometres.

The track narrows further as it aligns with Coxs River. It's quite treacherous through here, with quite good sized nasty rocks underfoot. I nearly rolled my left ankle through this section both on the way out and the way back, so would certainly advise others to be very careful through here. Kangaroos bounding down the hill here didn't help concentration.

You work your way down past the Swing Bridge (I stopped for a moment turned the GPS off here, as I went out and back across the bridge, because I'm basically a 34 year old teenager and it looked cool. It was fine out, but coming back got a bit spooky) and down to the infamous Coxs River crossing.

It's worth noting that it's quite a steep descent through here and consequences of a fall would be quite nasty - in addition to the rocks I mentioned above the course has rocks and branches on either side.

I've had some real concerns about getting my feet weet through this section - I'm a bit blister-prone, so was worried about macerated feet.

I had half a look for a dry crossing, and thought, well, may as jump in at the deep end, so waded through. The water came to the upper part of my thighs, and was quite cool - which was a bit of relief, as the sun was quite strong and there was limited relief from a southerly breeze. Mental note here - might be worth bringing spare socks.

I remembered the comments that Six Foot started at Coxs, so I took a moment to grab a drink and a gel from my backpack. The Garmin read an altitude of 270m, which I see agrees with the decription here.

There are camping grounds with toilets and a water tank here. The water is of good quality.

From here, the course becomes a reasonable quality gravel track, and becomes very steep in the climb to Mini Mini. It opens up into farmland - I disturbed some horses at play on the way back - and there is surprisingly little shelter from the sun. The road winds a bit initially, and from there it obviously became impossible for the designers to weave the road to lessen the incline and it just goes straight up. I jogged the flats and walked the steep sections here (as I did pretty well the whole way).

After Mini Mini there's a short flat section where you cross water three times - Little River and Alum Creek, if I recall correctly. It's pretty easy to get through here without getting your feet wet, although I felt I was on a roll and didn't bother with the wider first crossing.

From there begins the haul to Pluvio - it didn't feel as steep as the climb to Mini Mini, but certainly went on for a lot longer. The surface is quite slippery too, with a fairly firm gravel base with small 'ball bearing' gravel over it. On the way down I was sticking to the softer edges of the road, just to ensure my feet stayed underneath me.

Pluvio's at a large junction, where the Six Foot Track heads right. Elevation here was 994 metres. The Pluvio is on your left as you arrive - basically a fenced off area with two plastic 'pots', one green and one black. I saw no signage indicating the function of these devices.

My GPS read about 17.7km at this point, and I jogged about 300 metres further up the track (which seems to climb gently further from this point) to round it up to 18, before commencing the return leg.

I'd seen a few hikers through the course, so was able to say hello again as I came across them on the return leg, including one lady who was struggling but relieved to hear she was only 300 metres short of Pluvio.

I started to suffer a bit with the run (and running the hilly Striders STaR 30km on Sunday) and took a ten minute break at Coxs on the return leg. It was becoming increasingly obvious that my feet had taken a bit of a battering, but I wasn't game to take a look in case I found something I really didn't care for.

I came across a snake in the middle of the path between the Coxs crossing and the swing bridge. We stood regarding one another from about seven yards apart before the snake came to the conclusion I had no intention of otherwise interacting with it and headed down the hill.

I was gradually grinding to a halt over the final 5km, and wasn't feeling particularly well after taking my third gel at Coxs - I felt oversugared and in need of some protein. I walked the uphills, and jogged the flats and downhills. It became increasingly apparent I wasn't going to make it back to the car in under 4 hours (not counting breaks) so enthusiasm was further drained - I just wanted to get back to the car and sit down.

Mental note for the closing stages of the real thing - lift your bloody feet!

I got back to the car, stopped to gather myself, took some water and changed my shirt, and immediately bolted to Katoomba for a milkshake and a pie, after which I felt a hell of a lot better.

So - my first run on the (in)famous Six Foot Track. My thoughts?
- if you're planning on running it for the first time, you'd be very well advised to get out there and see it. You'll have an idea of what you're in for, and what you need to cover off on in training.
- the middle 18k of the course is much more open than I realised. There are quite a few sections through there which have NO cover at all. If the sun's out (which it usually is in March in Sydney) it's going to be quite draining.
- lift your feet when running and walking. There's a million rocks, branches and roots just waiting to catch your foot and send you sprawling.
- think about spare socks for the Coxs River crossing.
- the run appears to get a heck of a lot more serious at Coxs. I can't wait to see the first 8 and last 19km are, but if you're in trouble in Coxs, it ain't gonna get better, that's for damned sure.
- you don't need trail shoes.
- there's no shame in walking the uphill sections. Unless you're sub 4 hours, in which case I seriously doubt you'd be reading this.

So I'm sitting here on my second glass of wine, contemplating a destroyed pair of Thorlos and a left heel that's a bit of a mess, and I'm actually not too bad soreness-wise. I can actually see myself doing a recovery 5-10km tomorrow and then doing some speed work on Thursday.