I missed Wednesday night's training as I wasn't feeling well. This made me worry about Saturday's run! In hindsight, I think the rest might have helped me. This weekend we were in Launceston. Tasmania for St Patrick's Day celebrations. The good thing about running is that you can do wherever you go. So not being in Sydney was no excuse to pull out for the weekend!
On Saturday we headed down to Wine Glass Bay in Freycinet National Park. We treated ourselves to a night in the Freycinet Lodge, in the National Park. But we had to earn it first - that is, we had to do our run before we could enjoy the comforts. Despite the stark contrast in temperature ( I think it was 16-18 degrees, compared to Sydney's 27 degrees), we set off in our light running gear. Dave wore a small backpack with some jumpers, water, food, plasters and of course the camera! I ended up thanking our lucky stars that it wasn't hot. We chose the 11km hike, which the guide indicated as a 5-hour medium paced trip. We ran it in 2 and1/2 hours.
But this wasn't the usual type of running terrain. I think this was more like ultra-marathon terrain. Up hills, jumping over rocks, branches, tree-roots. It was way more fun than any other day's running I'd had so far. I loved it. I didn't even realise how long we'd been going for. In fact we did more that 11km because at one stage we got lost, backtracked because we thought we'd missed a turn, and doubled back on ourselves again when we realised we hadn't gone far enough for our turn-off! We saw one wallaby on the entire trek. No fancy birds, no snakes (apparently there are tons of tiger snakes there), not even a drop-bear! Just us and the wilderness. Well, and a few other brave hikers. The funny thing was that we would have deceptively looked like athletes running through the woods and over hills - little did they realise!
I really enjoyed the run. I think the forest floor meant that there was less impact on my legs and knees. I definitely noticed the difference for the short distance we had to run along Hazard's Beach (twice because of our confusion....). We finally stopped for a short rest on Wine Glass Bay - long enough for a drink, a snack and a quick photo. It wasn't the nicest of weather at that stage, so we weren't inclined to hang around too long to get cold.
The climb up to the look-out over Wine-Glass Bay was difficult, but by that stage we had been going for over 2 hours! It was worth it though. I'm fully convinced I have enough energy to keep going for this length of time - which is reassuring as I expect it will take me that long to run the half-marathon!
I'll admit that I was hobbling that evening. The Freycinet Lodge was the perfect place to recover and I slept like a baby. A well earned treat!
"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop."
Confucius
http://www.cantoo.org.au/Sponsor-a-Participant.html
On Saturday we headed down to Wine Glass Bay in Freycinet National Park. We treated ourselves to a night in the Freycinet Lodge, in the National Park. But we had to earn it first - that is, we had to do our run before we could enjoy the comforts. Despite the stark contrast in temperature ( I think it was 16-18 degrees, compared to Sydney's 27 degrees), we set off in our light running gear. Dave wore a small backpack with some jumpers, water, food, plasters and of course the camera! I ended up thanking our lucky stars that it wasn't hot. We chose the 11km hike, which the guide indicated as a 5-hour medium paced trip. We ran it in 2 and1/2 hours.
But this wasn't the usual type of running terrain. I think this was more like ultra-marathon terrain. Up hills, jumping over rocks, branches, tree-roots. It was way more fun than any other day's running I'd had so far. I loved it. I didn't even realise how long we'd been going for. In fact we did more that 11km because at one stage we got lost, backtracked because we thought we'd missed a turn, and doubled back on ourselves again when we realised we hadn't gone far enough for our turn-off! We saw one wallaby on the entire trek. No fancy birds, no snakes (apparently there are tons of tiger snakes there), not even a drop-bear! Just us and the wilderness. Well, and a few other brave hikers. The funny thing was that we would have deceptively looked like athletes running through the woods and over hills - little did they realise!
I really enjoyed the run. I think the forest floor meant that there was less impact on my legs and knees. I definitely noticed the difference for the short distance we had to run along Hazard's Beach (twice because of our confusion....). We finally stopped for a short rest on Wine Glass Bay - long enough for a drink, a snack and a quick photo. It wasn't the nicest of weather at that stage, so we weren't inclined to hang around too long to get cold.
The climb up to the look-out over Wine-Glass Bay was difficult, but by that stage we had been going for over 2 hours! It was worth it though. I'm fully convinced I have enough energy to keep going for this length of time - which is reassuring as I expect it will take me that long to run the half-marathon!
I'll admit that I was hobbling that evening. The Freycinet Lodge was the perfect place to recover and I slept like a baby. A well earned treat!
"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop."
Confucius
http://www.cantoo.org.au/Sponsor-a-Participant.html
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