Training Log Archive: nmulder

Non-Stop Wartrail - 60km Mountain Run, 153km MTB, 62km River Paddle.

Raced with Mac, Nathan and Alex A. as Team Cyanosis.

We started at 07h00, expecting to run slightly slower than 2015, but then keep a similar or slightly slower time on the bike, and thus arrive at the river just before the 6.30am start.

We paced ourselves well in the early states, going slightly slower on the climb to CP1 and then keeping a steady tempo. Found a nice fat Puff Adder along the route between CP1-2. Generally kept better lines than in the previous years, following the jeep track perfectly and judging the climb up to Avoca spot on as well. Once again, the course gets more and more runnable every year.

Very quiet run, with no locals on the route. The Team Salomon boys also started at 7am, but they dissapeared into the distance just after CP1. We never caught the teams who started at about 4am.

Overall, felt very comfortable on the run and was well within my limits the whole way. Went fractionally slower than last year on most of the splits, but felt a lot better.

CP	War 2016	War 2015	Sky 2012	War 2012	War 2011	War 2007	War 2006	War 2005	Best Split
Microwave Tower	1h18	1h14	1h10	1h15	1h14	1h22	1h16	1h17	1h10 - Sky'12
Olympus Hut	3h12	2h56	2h51	3h11	3h01	3h37	3h14	3h16	1h41 - Sky'12
Mt Snowdon	4h46	4h26	4h23	4h54	4h31	5h43	4h51	4h55	1h29 - War'11
Avoca Peak	6h39	6h14	6h03	6h46	6h15	7h33	6h45	7h00	1h40 - Sky'12
Skiddaw	8h07	7h27	7h26	8h16	7h31	8h55	?	?	1h13 - War'15
Balloch	9h43	8h51	8h47	9h49	8h55	10h21	9h42	9h57	1h21 - Sky'12
Edgehill			11h06						2h19 - Sky '12
Bridle Pass			13h24						2h18 - Sky '12
The Turn			14h58						1h34 - Sky '12
Mt Halseton			17h25						2h27 - Sky'12
Wartrail			18h59						1h34 - Sky'12

30 minutes in transition for food and change to bike.

Left Balloch at about 5.14pm, so 30 min behind 2015 times and only about 1h of light before it got dark. Last farm section into Rosslyn was in the dark. Found yet another snake on the road just before it got dark, this time a small Berg Adder. Two snakes in 1 day, this after 0 since Tasmania in 2012.

Caught the majority of the teams just after leaving Rosslyn, with one pair on the side of the road pulling out from a crash and concussion. Got ahead of Saffey and Castle Lite team, but they re-caught us as we were following the railway lines after the gate, rather than the track next to it which we didn't see in the dark. Saffey then led us down into the first big gorge, which helped with speed. On the climb out of the river crossing, we followed the mowed track this year instead of tiger-lining it, but the tiger would have won. Caught the Salomon pair here and they pulled out shortly afterwards with a bike mechanical.

Section from Delta to CP9 went okay with no problems. We also did more of a tiger line this year from the railway line down into the valley (instead of following the bends on the GPS), which definitely helped save a few minutes. We also didn't miss the turn-off this year to Lupela Lodge on the tar downhill.

Race was colder this year than in 2015, but I only put on a jacket and CP9 and tights at the top of Joubert pass. The climb from Lammergeier up to Woodlands also seemed easier than last year. We were chasing one final team (mens pair) over this section, but in the end, we missed catching them, with them getting to the finish more than half an hour ahead of us.

The final section from Lady Grey to Ndlokovana was rerouted to avoid the farm fields outside town. This made it much, much faster as we took the tar road around.

Got into transition just in time, but then found out the paddle start time had been changed back (again) from 6.00am to 6.30am. Only problem with this timing was that all the support crew cars passed us on the dirt road into Ndlokovana.

CP	War 2016	War 2015	Best Split
Left Balloch	5.14pm	4.39pm
Rosslyn Farm	1h55	?	? - War'15
Railway Gate	2h46	2h29	? - War'15
Delta Farm	4h31	?
CP9 Farm	6h01	5h33
Lammergeier	8h06	7h20	1h47 - War'15
Woodlands Exit	?	8h52	1h32 - War'15
Lady Grey	10h56	9h52	1h00 - War'15
Ndlokovana	12h28	11h52	1h32 - War'16
Arrive River	5.42am	4.31am

Quick change in transition into paddling kit, and then carrying our boats down the canyon to the river. We were only let go at about 6.36am, so spent a few minutes on the water warming up. The mass start for the Wartrail Day 3 stage was probably about 3-4 minutes after we left.

Watrail paddle - paddled with Alex until the Hot Springs, but then Nathan swapped into my boat due to leg problems in the other one. Lost a bit of time with this change. No swims this year. River running at about 150 cumecs, which was even more forgiving than last year. Probably only 2 small wave trains and no major eddies. Ground over 1 gravel bank and got close to one or two sandbanks.

Total race time of 28h35.

CP	2016	2015	2012	2011	2007	2006	2005
Cumecs	150	140	100	700+	25	400	149
Hot Springs	2h08	2h05	2h31	1h44	3h04	???	???
Aliwal North	4h59	4h47	5h44	3h47	n/a	4h05	4h56

C • What was happening between ... 2

Warmup ride with rest of Cyanosis team up part of Jouberts Pass and back down into Lady Grey. Non-stop Wartrail starts tomorrow morning.

Av 12.8
Mx 47.1

Loop of Emmarentia park.

6 laps of the dam with Nathan pre-TT, plus 1 after.

3 laps of the Dabs time trial.

Cradle loop clockwise, but out via Nooitgedacht / Logwood, Muldersdrift, Avianto and back via Elandsdrift.

Av 20.9
Mx 56.9

2km in 8:25. Breathing is good, so leg speed needs work for now.