Training Log Archive: nmulder

Day 2 of Wartrail.

Rode with Ryno the whole way. First time that I've done the second half with someone. Makes it a lot easier.

The usual neutral section out of Balloch to the dirt road. Then a few of the better riders went ahead on the first hill. Ryno went with them a bit, but I re-caught him at the bottom and we started Lundeans Neck together. Went over the top in 1h11, which I think is a bit behind usual.

Felt good through Telle, but was off last years pace. Steady to Majuba, with Ryno being caught off-guard by the climb. At the top we were in 3rd place, a long way behind Craig C-B and the Change-a-Life team. Then steady again to Sterkspruit. We were caught by a Vet just before the CP and by the Merell team girl just after. She flew past on a 29er, despite us having a good split for this leg. We got to Herschel ahead of the 2011 pace for the first time. The final leg was an absolute snorter, taking off lots of time from last year, but not enough to beat my 2007 time of 5h55 (and Max speed of 70.1km/hr on Majuba descent). We finished 5/6th, about 40 mins behind the leaders.

CP name - distance - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2011 - 2012 - Av - Max
Lundeans 22.??km - ???? - ???? - ???? - ???? - 1h11
Telle Y 49.88km - ???? - ???? - ???? - 2h08 - 2h13 - 22.5 53.9
Majuba Nek 19.67km - ???? - ???? - ???? - 3h18 - 3h22 - 17.4 50.7
Sterkspruit 20.23km - ???? - ???? - ???? - 4h12 - 4h15 - 22.4 52.8
Herschel 23.74km - ???? - ???? - ???? - 5h39 - 5h36 - 17.9, ??
Ndlokovana 17.95km - 6h33 - 6h54 - 5h55 - 6h31 - 6h18 - 25.2 47.4

Overall Av 21.1, Mx 53.1

Day 1 of the Wartrail.

Weather was fine, but with cloud on the mountains. This made nav a bit tough and slowed us down about 10 min or so. Also got a bit cold at one stage. Ran most of the way with Ryno, doing his first Wartrail.

Ryno and I had a steady start out of Lady Grey, tucking in behind the usual lead pack of Nico Scheoman, Craig C-B, Tommy and the Change-a-Life team runner. All together at CP 1 (Tower), getting there in near record time. Nico tried to surge a bit, but we held on and got through to day light, albeit in the mist.

At about 3 hours, a few kms before CP2 (Olympus), I followed a fence down the hill instead of crossing it. Lost about 2 mins, but more importantly, lost contact with Tommy, Craig and Nico. The gap would grown gradually until the last CP where Nico floored it.

We started feeling our heavy legs on the jeep track between CP2 and CP3 (Snowdon), slowing down even more to CP4 (Avoca). Just after this we were caught by Cobus, with Ryno joining Cobus. I took it easy and recovered a bit for a decent final section from CP5 (Skiddaw) to the Finish (Balloch).

So, finished 6th behind Nico, Craig, Tommy, Ryno and Cobus. Almost 1hr slower than last year's time. Nico took another new record (8h09), Ryno and Cobus about 15 min ahead.

Split 2005 2006 2007 2011 2012
CP1 1h17 1h16 1h22 1h14 1h15 - fastest 1h14 ('11)
CP2 3h16 3h14 3h37 3h01 3h11 - fastest 1h47 ('11)
CP3 4h55 4h51 5h43 4h31 4h54 - fastest 1h29 ('11)
CP4 7h00 6h45 7h33 6h15 6h46 - fastest 1h44 ('11)
CP5 ?h?? ?h?? 8h55 7h31 8h16 - fastest 1h16 ('11)
Fin 9h57 9h42 10h21 8h55 9h49 - fastest 1h24 ('11)

Wartrail this weekend. 60k mountain run, 140k bike, 60k river paddle. River looks a bit lowish. :-( Weir at Aliwal North is sitting at 68 cumecs at the moment.

Eco Park and Swartkop.

Av 21.1, Mx 49.6

A Kinetic Night Trail Run at Bryanston Golf Course. First race at this venue on a nice route. Quite soft grass most of the way, with a few small climbs on the second half of the course.

Started off steady and tried to speed up after halfway. No exact marker, but I must have been equal splits or fractionally faster. Felt like I finished 20-something, so not too bad given the short recovery period.

Results