Training Log Archive: nmulder

Raced with Nathan as Team Cyanosis in the Double Moon race around Harrismith. Knew a lot of the course, but it was a great race nonetheless.

Leg 1:
5km Trail Run around Mt Evereverst Nature Reserve.
Calf muscle held up for a while after the start. It was a simple nav run with 4 checkpoints, but the leg started niggling after 3km and I decided to start walking from there. Came into transition about 6 min behind the leaders.

Leg 2:
31km MTB from Mt Everest to a farm next to the Wilge River.
Got the route prediction pretty spot on. We had a slight tail / cross wind on this leg, so we pushed hard, moving from about 6th place up to a very small lead in transition. Rolling hills on loose dirt roads.

Leg 3:
40km paddle down the Wilge. We left transition just behind Warriors (Piers) and Aramex (Avierinos). Overtook Aramex just before the N3 bridge at Montrose, but Warriors were pushing hard. Caught them again about 8km later, when they had put a small hole in their boat from dragging it. At about 1/2 way got joined by the 120km teams, putting in at the bridge above the Wilge canyon where the Harrismith race put in about 5 years ago. Shot all the rapids with no real problems and then had to dig deep across the final 10km of flattish water to Harrismith town.

Leg 4:
36km hike across the Platberg.
Left Harrismith camp ground and went through town to the Nature Reserve. A few CPs in the reserve which is has now got quite dense forest. My limited knowledge only helped slightly, as we kept to the roads where possible and only cut a few corners. Did a bit of shuffling, but no real running. Caught up a few 120km teams who had fewer CPs, but didn't really get past them with any speed :-P

Went up the Platberg at the Zigzags. I suffered here with lack of hamstring strength. Got dark at the cross on top before we crossed to Gibson Dam. From there had to descend off the back, but we found a nice quick descent almost straight away that got us through the cliffs. In the foothills back to the Wilge transition the map wasn't so updated, so we missed seeing a path or two and cut cross-country to get back on track.

Leg 5:
130km MTB from Wilge River via escarpment to Mt Everest
Spent a short while in transition before heading out, with a presumed lead of a few hours as we hadn't seen any 250km team descending Platberg behind us. Covered the first section to Tintsa Pass quite nicely and started descending the Deepdale 4x4 pass before we slept for 40 mins.

Got light at the lowest point of the course where we crossed the Sandspruit, then started climbing up the old railway line on Van Reenen's pass. First section was tough until we hit the old line, where the gradient was brilliant. Coming over the top we hit a good Berg wind and I fell apart. Did the last 40km in about 4.5 hours as we battled straight into it. Very tough.

The last leg inside Mt Everest reserve was a 13km hike around Mooihoekkop, but I was too broken to start something that we estimated would have taken 5-6 hours. This leg later got shortened to 4km before the next team arrived, but by then we'd already packed up to head home. :-(

Overall a superb training weekend. At least I suffered a lot, which I presume meant it was good training. :-)

Final bike stats:
Dst 161.94
Av 14.6
Mx 62.5

Decided to test out the left calf muscle by doing Double Moon AR this weekend.

C • Nothing like easing into it... 1