Week 4 - A Scenic One

Running:  Year to Date
  
Distance:    349.25 kms in 4 weeks at ave  87.3 kms  ( up from 86.4 kms ave last week)

Last week:  90.1 kms

Altitude:  7,298 metres in 4 weeks at ave  1,824 metres  ( up from 1,624 metres last week)

Last week:  2,427 metres

A couple of really good trips this past week. A good run/some strong walking up to Mt Rob Roy on Saturday morning with company training for several different mountain events. A couple hadn't been down my way so I took them to all the scenic lookouts just so they can say they have been there.
We first went up Theodore Hill, then detoured into the Solar farm, top of Mt Rob Roy ( to the trig itself, which is hidden to the side on a rough track), then back to the short steep climb up Tuggeranong Hill. This trip of 33 kms accounted for almost 1300 metres of climbing, fair chunk of the weekly total. Great morning, the others all went well.
The second and certainly the highlight of the week was a trip to the Snowy Mountains on Tuesday to start a run from Charlottes Pass to get to the very top of Australia at Mt Kosciuszko. We did the Main Walking Track loop to add some distance & height making around 23 kms for the day with 760 metres of up hill. Not a real difficult trip at all, but thoroughly enjoyable with some strong walking & good running on the downhill.
Charlottes Pass is about 1850 metres above sea level & Mt Kozi tops out at 2229 metres. That's not very high by world standards, but we certainly noticed the extra effort required at this higher altitude.
A beautiful day, heaps of others about as Tuesday was Australia Day, so we stood on top of Australia on Australia Day. A great feeling.
A short tempo session on Sunday afternoon was good trying to get some speed back into the legs to be ready for the CBR 6 hour in March.
A good week, we are having some strange summer weather which is making consistency a bit difficult.

Week 3 - Just Average

Running:  Year to date

Distance:   259.15 kms in 3 weeks at ave  86.4 kms ( down from 87.02 km last week)

Last week:  85.1 kms

Altitude:  4,871 metres in 3 weeks at ave  1,624 metres ( down from 1,709 metres last week)

Last week:  1,452 metres

A mixed week with a good long run ( 35 kms) on Saturday morning and a nice track session ( 9.8 kms at 4' 20" ) on Sunday afternoon.
In between, 4 days of less than 10 kms due to, too busy, a day trip to Sydney ( 8 km walk near the harbour) & a couple of very warm weather days.
Short term plan for early this year has changed with dropping the 100 km trail run in Canberra in early March for a 6 hour track run in mid March, also in Canberra.
The 100 km is almost the same as last year's except they are running the course in reverse with a few minor changes. But the entry fee has almost doubled.
I can run the course any time except it's mostly north side of the city.
The track run is part of a 48, 24 & 12 hour program so should be good fun afterwards watching many familiar faces going around in circles.
I need to get more speed into my running as well as increase the distances to be able to run without stopping for the 6 hours. Still plenty of time to be ready.

Week 2 - A Hot One

Running: Year to Date

Distance:  174.05  kms in 2 weeks at ave  87.02 km ( down from 98.8 kms last week)

This week:  75.25 kms

Altitude:  3,419 metres in 2 weeks at ave  1,709 metres ( down from 1,827 metres last week)

This week: 1,592 metres

A couple of highlights during the past week. A really good run up Mt Tennent on Saturday morning with a dozen others all of whom I did not know except my usual running mate.
Most of this group are training for Six Foot Track and haven't been up and down Mt Tennent before. Easy to understand why, as it's about 750 metres of up hill in the first 7 kms. We did a loop around the back of the mountain, so 4 kms of fast down hill on the fire trail followed by more up hill to complete the loop. Then the technical 4.7 kms down the walking track which requires plenty of care as it's rocky, very steep in places & plenty of steps & logs to negotiate. Only the last few 100 metres are really open runnable.
My best run up and down for almost 3 years, happy to be as close to the younger ones as I was.
Most of this week's distance & altitude came from this one run.
The other highlight, or lowlight, was the hot weather from Monday to Thursday morning. We are having summer in full with temps this week reaching the very high 30's C.
Managed to run all days this week, but with these hot days, pulled back the distance & kept it flat. These day only around 7-9 kms each resulting in the low weekly total.
However, all good. A bit of heat is always welcome. Best part, very low humidity and little wind.

A New Year - 2016

Running:

Distance:  98.8 kms  in first week

Altitude:  1,827 metres in first week

We start a new year leaving behind the good and the bad from 2015.
So far, so good with this week slightly above the final averages from last year.
Couple of highlights, a nice Saturday morning run at the Cotter to farewell Clint who is heading to New Zealand to work & live.
The day before and the first day of the year I headed to the grass running track to run 25 laps in lane 5. A good session with 11.4 kms done in 50 mins. As usual, ran bare feet on the grass which was in reasonable condition at the time and would be much better with the rain we had on Tuesday.
That meant a day off running, very welcome to have an excuse to rest after 13 straight days without a spell.
But, the next day, as I have experienced before, was terrible with the legs just not wanting to move with rhythm.
Off to a solid start, plenty to work on in these early weeks & months of 2016.