Training Log Archive: andyhillIn the 7 days ending Jun 3, 2012:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | Su | |||||||
Sunday Jun 3, 2012 #
8 AM
Run race (Glow Worm Tunnel Marathon) 4:40:00 [5] 42.1 km (6:39 / km) +1529m 5:38 / km
ahr:155 max:175 shoes: Brooks Trance 10
Planned to use this as a warm up for Andorra Trail in a month but wasn't looking forward to it the closer it got. The days leading up to the race it was raining and very cold so left it till the morning of the day to make up my final mind what I was going to do. I woke up at 4am race day morning to a phone call from my dad who was pulling out coz it what pissing down. I still decided to go and the whole drive from Sydney to Newnes it was wet.
The start was from the town of Newnes and I settled behind the lead group of the 3. The lead group was getting a little fast, I never wanted to do this race flat out so after only a few km I found myself on my own. The first 10km was nice slight uphill single trail (48 min).
The cliffsides started closing in on both sides as I was getting closer to the glow worm tunnel with the trail getting rougher. I got to the tunnel but lost 30 secs or so trying to switch my light on coz my hands were too cold. The tunnel was pretty cool, it was pitch black and 600m long. I couldn't see the lead group ahead but couldn't see the runners behind so it was a long lonely trek through the tunnel. I was busy looking where I was stepping rather than noticing the glow worms but I didn't see many the times I looked up. My only other experience going through a glow worm tunnel was in Waitomo Caves in NZ where there were millions of them so this tunnel was a little disappointing in comparison. Still a fun experience though to do it part of a race.
I finally got to the top of the uphill at 13km for the first time since the start. Then it was a nice flowing downhill all the way back to the start point at 21km (100 min). Annoyingly though the mandatory bag collection was not directly on the course so had to run 30m off-course to pick my bag off and drop off my torch. In that time I got passed by a runner who took his mandatory bag from the start.
The next couple of km was flat until the hill of death. It started as a fairly steep climb but then it got really steep. Because it was wet, it was slippery and I was on my hands several times to help lift myself up. There was even a rope climb section. It was relentless with the steepest pinch climbing over 300m in 1km which took 15 min. It was much harder than any climb I've ever done before.
I got to the top in 2.46 but the decent was still tough. It was very rough and thick in places with the track not too defined. The downhill felt like it took forever, I passed one runner to get back to 4th. It was 5km to the turnaround point in Glen Davis. After a good refuelling I turnaround feeling better and started to climb the accent back to the top of the nasty climb. I got to the top feeling ok and slowly made the decent back down the hill of death. I was slower than normal being very tentative with my bung hand. I got passed to fall back to 5th in the flatter section but didn't really put up much of a fight for the position and coasted to the finish in 4.40.
Looking at the results now I was 6th. Not sure where the other runner came from as there were 2 out-and-back sections so I would have had to pass them. The winner must have finished strong (or me slow) as he pulled loads of time on me in the last 10km finishing an hr ahead. Overall still pretty happy considering only 2 months training and no taper.
The start was from the town of Newnes and I settled behind the lead group of the 3. The lead group was getting a little fast, I never wanted to do this race flat out so after only a few km I found myself on my own. The first 10km was nice slight uphill single trail (48 min).
The cliffsides started closing in on both sides as I was getting closer to the glow worm tunnel with the trail getting rougher. I got to the tunnel but lost 30 secs or so trying to switch my light on coz my hands were too cold. The tunnel was pretty cool, it was pitch black and 600m long. I couldn't see the lead group ahead but couldn't see the runners behind so it was a long lonely trek through the tunnel. I was busy looking where I was stepping rather than noticing the glow worms but I didn't see many the times I looked up. My only other experience going through a glow worm tunnel was in Waitomo Caves in NZ where there were millions of them so this tunnel was a little disappointing in comparison. Still a fun experience though to do it part of a race.
I finally got to the top of the uphill at 13km for the first time since the start. Then it was a nice flowing downhill all the way back to the start point at 21km (100 min). Annoyingly though the mandatory bag collection was not directly on the course so had to run 30m off-course to pick my bag off and drop off my torch. In that time I got passed by a runner who took his mandatory bag from the start.
The next couple of km was flat until the hill of death. It started as a fairly steep climb but then it got really steep. Because it was wet, it was slippery and I was on my hands several times to help lift myself up. There was even a rope climb section. It was relentless with the steepest pinch climbing over 300m in 1km which took 15 min. It was much harder than any climb I've ever done before.
I got to the top in 2.46 but the decent was still tough. It was very rough and thick in places with the track not too defined. The downhill felt like it took forever, I passed one runner to get back to 4th. It was 5km to the turnaround point in Glen Davis. After a good refuelling I turnaround feeling better and started to climb the accent back to the top of the nasty climb. I got to the top feeling ok and slowly made the decent back down the hill of death. I was slower than normal being very tentative with my bung hand. I got passed to fall back to 5th in the flatter section but didn't really put up much of a fight for the position and coasted to the finish in 4.40.
Looking at the results now I was 6th. Not sure where the other runner came from as there were 2 out-and-back sections so I would have had to pass them. The winner must have finished strong (or me slow) as he pulled loads of time on me in the last 10km finishing an hr ahead. Overall still pretty happy considering only 2 months training and no taper.
C • Cake 4