Training Log Archive: Brooner

A couple of trips up the climb to Bunyan lookout near Springwood, testing Wizard sticks on the climbs & descents, doing some scrambly off track stuff up and down on the first third, then an effort to the top. Back down then an effort back up and over Martin's lookout to finish.

Event: Wingello Wingaine
 

After rogaine & than Euroka camping plans fell through, plotted this one on Friday night as a big time on feet session, and so it proved.

Was feeling pretty grim in the morning and previous night, really cold, so slightly concerned I was getting sick. But was dropped off at Asgard plateau and ran an hour or so and was feeling fine, so when I got back to the car I ate a slice of pizza, picked up another couple of bottles, and headed back out for more.

The plateau was really nice running with great views, nice single track and a few older firetrails, with some pleasant cross country running to join them up. Was practicing with the wizard sticks which was good, useful on technical descents, still annoying on narrow singletrack. Started raining on and off an hour in, then settled in from around two hours in when I headed down towards Victoria falls.

From here it was slow going, down past the falls was a fun descent, but from there to Acacia flat it's often overgrown singletrack going up and down and contouring a hillside, and no quicker than it was two years ago. Finally had to get the headtorch on around 26km, and the final section seemed to go on forever being a couple of km longer than expected, so had another slice of pizza and got a podcast on from 29km to get me through it.

Glad to reach the Perrys junction, as I knew at least that track up to Perry's lookdown is runnable (albeit a big climb), and went up at a decent pace, faster over the second half than recent attempts though a couple of mins down on my quickest efforts. Possibly more evenly paced thanks to wizard sticks, or else they're beneficial on that sort of steady/steppy climb? 37 Sign to Sign.

Pizza aside, didn't eat that much, and didn't drink much in the damp conditions either. 3 bars, two gels, 1.2l electrolyte, 1l water.

Lots of roller fun.

NRG winter hills, added my usual extra loop but then went the wrong way, so added some extra stairs in as punishment, eased off up Ben Boyd as calves/Achilles were complaining. Times were generally ok.

Don't think this is the session to get me through Mt Difficulty, not enough vert - think I'd be better off spending this time doing some steep hiking instead, even though that's likely to require some long evenings spent in the dark.

NRG speed session, with a 30 min fartlek in St Leonards park. 3 mins easy, 2 moderate, 1 fast. Flagging a little by the end, with a bit of pain in my right foot, but fine the following day.