My last 2 weeks.
Mon. My daughter's moving house "training session".
A long brute of a day. Skipped all other means of training.
Tue. A nice sharp 20 km mtn bike ride in 52 min then a feeling fast 5 km run 26 min with 3 x 800 pickups the ladt one at 4.35 pace.
Wed. 45 min kayak and a cruisy 6.6 km fartlek run.
Thu. 60 min easy on the mtn bike.
Fri. 35 min kayak. Off on 3.5 hour drive to the foot of the Victorian Alps. I did a nice steep 45 min hike in the evening.
Sat. Unofficial 4 Peaks day one. Mt Buffalo 10.2 km 1100 m. elevation gain. 1 hr 40 m.
I got dropped early from our group of 4. Hit the first time check in 31.30 the first time under 32 in 5 years so I happily settled into my own pace. Finished off well with a bit in the tank. Ended up a minute behind the other 3. Nearly 4 mins faster than last year's unoffficial run.
Sun. Day 2. Mt Feathertop. 11.5 km 1400m elevation gain. 2 hr 6 min. 5 off us headed off together. Off the back by the km so just slotted into my groove. Hitting decent splits all the way but the others were out of sight. I lifted the effort a notch from 6 to 8 km. This is the "fast" part of the course. 8 through 10 is rough under foot with lots of big gnarly tree root steps and rocks. I caught a fella who had started half hour earlier at the 10 km mark. The last km up the steep knife edge face to the summit is a brute. I felt really strong at this point though. Despite having to vary the usual line due to snow I managed to clock a 5 year pb up the steepest part where it ave.30% gradient. My buddy flying 50 trail star Lisa clocked a pb of 1.58 and the othets 2.00 to 2.04. Last year we did 2.09 so I was happy with the run. We hiked back down the 11.5 kms.
Mon. Day 3. Mt Hotham. 14.6 km 1400 m elev. 2 hr 38 min.
Just 3 of us.The first 5.8 is relatively fast running up and down more moderate hills. Lisa was rolling along out front and I slotted into 2d spot with Lisa's daughter 26 yo Bec (19/39 5k/10k) trailing.
At 5.8 we cross the river and hit what is my sweet spot of a climb. I ran past Lisa and plowed along at around 15 min km pace for the next 3 kms. Lisa caught up when the gradient eased but Bec was off the back.
At 11 km Lisa let me go to wait for Bec. From there we hit a very rugged climb 30 to 40 % gradient. I was now fell walking rather than running. 20 to 23 min km pace. I caught a couple of early starters. At 12.5 the gradient eases as the course emerges from forest to bare alpine meadow. Now back to running and 13 to 15 min km pace all the way to the top where this climb meets the Razorback. I was spent by then so was happy just to cruise the last rocky 1.2 to the finish.
Lisa and Bec came in 3 and 5 mins behind. I ran 2.44 last year. Pretty happy with that.
Tue. Day 4. Mystic. 11.2 km 700 metres elev.
A loop course and the only one not in Nat Park. Much of the course has been logged in the last 2 years. Last year we missed a turn due to new logging work.
4 of us headed out. Lisa setting the pace up the first climb. On the 2d climb which is very steep and rough the 2 of us broke away but half way up Lisa let me go deciding to wait for the other 2. I pushed on solo and had a really pleasing run the rest of the way around. I eased off on the final couple of downhill kms with a slight tightening in my "chronic" left hammy. The other 3 rolled in 10 mins behind me.
Back to the BnB packed up and the long drive home.
Wed and Thu back at work and no training.
Fri. Eady 38 min kayak and cruisy 5 km run.
Sat. Lazy 14 km mtn bike.
Sat Easy 10 km forest run 59 mins.
I will be getting back into some training this week.