Wednesday, July 18, 2012

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.

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