ON THE MOUNTAIN OR THE ROAD?

I had choices to make this weekend: I could run Peninsula Marathon or half on Sunday, or I could hit the mountains on Saturday and cycle with the runner on Sunday... It was a no brainer... On Saturday morning I joined Jayde and Will at the club for a little jaunt on the mountain! I had planned on running the Oceans Trail route. 22 km on Devil Peak and into Newlands forest. Weather man Pete had told us it was going to be hot and windy, but he was wrong, again and the wind was on holiday and as we headed through UCT to Rhodes Mem we knew it was going to be a perfect day on the mountain. OK Will and I knew it was going to be a perfect day on the mountain... Jayde on the other hand had a pair of legs that belonged to someone else!!! And they weren't going to get him up any of the hills (cliffs) that lay ahead... 3km into the run he threw in the towel and left us to the single tracks.

6.8km in, 440m climb done!

 I stopped at Tafelberg Road to take a couple of pictures:

the view of Cape Town

Look the other way you couple see Table Mountain and the path that lay ahead of us:

onward and upward

This is the best part of the route, it doesn't climb much (OK 50+meters is a lot for that 1st km) and follows a "contour" around Devils Peak. The path goes all the way to Kloof corner the other side of the Cable Station, but today we turned and headed up to the saddle between Devils and Table Mountain (Another 161m climb).

Lion's Head in the distance

After round Devils Peak on the upper Contour Path we dropped (357m) to Rhodes Mem.

Will before the last drop to the block house.

From there we climb into Newlands forest for a last loop and then back to UCT...

2h42:16, 22.6km and over 1000m of climbing it was a great moring out...

Sunday was another early morning... Thankfully I wasn't running the marathon, with a 05h15 start I would have been up before 04h00!!! 05h30 was earlier enough. That gave us 30min to walk the dogs and get on the bikes and out the door.

From home we headed to Town on the Main Rd, it didn't take long to before the lead guys started coming towards us... About 3km into our ride we stopped at the 15km mark to watch our friends come by and see how they were doing. Nic had already past (the guy I had been racing in the Trail races) and would finish with a 2h36 (I did get to see him again at 37km). With 2000 people running I felt I know half the field but I wasn't going the hang around all morning watch the guys (and girls) come past the 15km mark, this was more than just a supporters day I was out training for the Argus Cycle Tour. Soon Dawn and I were on our bikes and this time we set of after the race slowing down to chat to the runners as we past them.

Peninsula Marathon follows the Main Rd from Cape Town to Simon's Town, and is normally run into the South Easter...

With no Wind this morning Stef was moaning he was running to fast!!! and a couple of others didn't want to listen to my telling then to take it easy as the really race (Oceans) is only 7 weeks away...

at about 36km

Dawn is cycling with her friend Jana (on her way to 3h18 and a PR), and Maxwell going backwards!!!

We hung around at the finish for over an hour before cycling home and finishing our 60+km ride. It was now 11h40 and 30 degrees, but I still had to run, so before it got any hotter (34 by 14h00) I headed out for an easy 5km around the block. It felt good to be out running after spending 4 hours on and off the bike, a bit like training for IRONMAN, no I don't think I will be doing that again in a hurry...

With another weeks training so it was time to relax in the evening:

Dinner on the patio