Night Training

Last night - after the heavy rain, Denis and I went for a 15 km night run along the cliffs on the Golf Courses and then into Botany Bay NP. It was good to be out there and test the torches and the equipment at night. This will help for the big run in 2 weeks time. For Denis it was a first and he enjoyed it quite a lot - so much that he started heading off on the last 5 km so fast that I never saw him again. One thing is sure - he won't be able to keep up that speed in the Blue Mountains for long.
All the gear is now tested and ready and after this weekend I will start tempering down. Weekend before the race I am organising a bucks night - it is going to be a tough one - light beer and water for me, I guess.
Save and happy running

Back to the mountains once more...

After an uneventful week running wise - sore legs on Monday and Tuesday, days I covered with cycling and stepper sessions in the gym followed by a great massage on Wednesday, then a rest on Thursday. Friday a short 10km on the treadmill. Today I was lucky to get a lift with Steph and Lena back to the mountains. We did once more CP4 to the Finish and back to the car at parked at the Oval. Just short of 40km and 6hrs later, we were glad the kiosk was open and able to serve us a nice, warm soup. It was cooler then last week and I can only imagine the temperature we will have in another 3 weeks time up there. The wind was freezing at some places and if one stopped, the legs started seizing up immediately...guess, that means to simply keep going on race day :-)
Lead our small group of 5 onto a little de-tour on the way to Wentworth Falls - it was a nice track to start with leading to a great look-out, but soon it kind of turned into a jungle track were one needed a big knife to cut ones way trough - we almost decided to turn around (after 1 km into the Underwood) only to thanksfully discover a mere 10 m later, that we are back on the main track! It was also much softer and wet with the rain we had last week. Fingers crossed it will be dry on 16 May - would hate to run 100km in rain and cold wind....bring back the Sahara and sand dunes, I would say.
Glad that I did this last section of the race once more - it just will help to move a bit easier at night during the race, knowing what's ahead of you.
Two more weeks of hard training ahead and then we will temper down to get ready for the big day. Safe training and happy running

Training Weekend in the mountains

Last weekend Denis and I went up to Katoomba to train on the race course - the plan was to cover the last 35 km of the race - the stretch most likely to be run late afternoon and at night.
We started at noon from Katoomba and to start with we had to 'battle' hordes of tourist coming up the 900+ steps of the Giant Stairways! I am looking forward to these steps after 70km into the race - it is going to be fun 'running' down those stairs....I only hope there won't be any tourists! Once we turned off the main track and onto the race course down Jamison Valley it was great - all alone in this big area of bush - beautiful. The course was perfect, so was the weather. Denis struggled since he tried out a new sports drink which he could not keep down and the result was dehydration and slowing down for him. Another proof that it is important to test all your gear and nutrition well before a big run and race. Once we crossed Jamison Creek it started to get uphill and somehow we had to get up those cliffs again on the other side of the valley. Boy oh boy were those hills steep....considering that we were fresh and on the race day this would be into the 80's these hills sure will be a test of strength and willpower. Once on the top of the cliff it was a breeze to head to Checkpoint 5 and on back to Leura. Another good test was the temperature..as soon as the soon went down low it cooled down and in May it will be cold so warm clothes for the race are a must. Sunday morning we went for a quick 20km run along the first 10km or so of the race just to loosen our sore legs up a bit. We just made it back before the fog and rain came in. I only hope that on 17 May the sun will be with us - would be a real pain in the bum to cover 100 km in rain, fog and high humidity.
Well, what can I say - another test well done, now a few more weeks of strong training on hills and endurance and then we should be ready for The North Face 100
Happy running

Easter Bunny

I took the few days off to clock up some extra km's and I am glad I went out Friday and Saturday to get a good 70km in - Sunday was Easter Bunny visit so today I simply had to brave the torrent and run off some of the chocolate eggs in the rain. I hope this weather is not a sign of things to come as I am not really looking forward to the Blue Mountains in the wet next weekend. Plan is to run the first 15km and the last 35km of the North Face course next Saturday to give us an idea of the section we most likely are going to run in the late evening and night. Save training

MdS 2009

This years Marathon des Sables certainly was a special one - first the rain and flooding prevented the race to start and the first stage had to be cancelled, then the weather made the road book (race schedule) irrelevant as organisers had to check every day where they could go running across the desert and where they could put up the camp every night. So competitors had a hard race for different reasons - temperature were kind with 30 degrees but the humidity, mud and heavy sand certainly made it a tough one. The 10 times winner had to pull out during the longest every stage - 91km in one go! Most of the Aussies survived and finished! It just shows that mother nature can be the real winner in such circumstances. The last week I was sick with flu and not much running done. Started again with slow jogging during the weekend and hopefully will be ready for some good, long runs over Easter and then for the second Blue Mountain training camp the weekend after. 5 weeks till The North Face 100.
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Markus