PLATTEKLIP GORGE

With the year coming to an end I decided to take to the mountain one last time for 2010. To get me out of bed and on the trail early I let a couple of friends know what I was doing and asked them if they were keen. Will was so keen he ran to the start... So while I was sitting in the car, that was been shaken by the wind (which was still pumping) he arrived with his hat in this hand. (to windy to wear.)

The famous mountain had the table cloth on and it was moving in the wind. We walked the couple of meters across the road and looked up to what lay ahead:

I started Mr. Garmin and took the lead, asking Will if he want to go any faster, but his legs were tired from the run to the start. It didn't take us long to catch the first of the early morning walkers who politely moved to the side to let us pass. I watched the altitude climb from about 369m but the distance wasn't working it took us over 13min to cover the 1st km. (and I swear as I watched the meters tick over they were at one stage counting backwards...) As we approached the cloud line the rocks became wet and visibility dropped, mine more-so then Wills is I had to take off my glasses. The wind was so strong I could feel that I could be blown off the mountain if I wasn't careful.

I looked at the time as I took one of the last zig-zag's and with 27min on the clock I thought a sub 30 was on the cards, but as hard as I pushed my legs didn't have anything in them and I summited in 31:07 with Will 20sec back. (2.2km and +_650m of climb with a record of about 27min, we did OK, and now in 2011 I have a target to aim at, that record!!!)

From there we took the trail to the Cable Station

The view down to Camps Bay

The view of Cape Town through the clouds..

The best time down is just under 12min, and with the wet rocks we weren't going to be anywhere near that... 28:06 but, OK no butts we were slow!!!

The Office is closed this week, so I'm on leave and sitting at home... Well I don't sit very well, so I have lined up a few things for me to do while at home; like fixing the dog box (maybe I've been in it to much this year so it's broken), cutting the ivy, running up the mountain, and cycling to Cape Point. Last night I looked at the weather report and decided that today would be the best day for a little cycled. The weather report was important as it told me that today would have the least wind!!!

So last night I moved my bike to the front door and text a couple of friends inviting them to join me for my little ride. Well at 06h30 when I left the house I was man alone... I took off down the Main Rd at a slow, but steady pace. At this point I will tell you that the ride to Cape Point isn't really that far, and only had a couple of real hills on the way back if you kept riding round the Peninsular. I don't do a lot of cycling and only really use the couple of rides as cross training, and since I do Argus year I need a couple of rides. The first 10 or so km weren't that bad, it wasn't till we turned at Lakeside that you really felt the wind!!!

I put my head down and started the fight!!! It was never ending and very unfriendly. Then at Fishhoek I stopped to check my bike computer and was past by a real cyclist (he had a racer and his cycling pants and top matched). I hopped back on the bike and set chase catching him and then, instead of tucking in out of the wind I past him!!! I couldn't drop him and it didn't take him long to take the lead again. This set the tone for the next 10km as I kept trying to pass and drop him with no success. I really didn't have a chance on my Mnt bike with nobbles and shocks. (The fact that I ride in 5fingers doesn't help on speed either.) For the last couple of km into Simon's Town I had given up and was just going to use him. I was hoping he was going to take me all the way to Cape Point. I wasn't in that kind of luck as he stopped at the Square. I was on my own again.

I was now getting tired of the wind:

The pictures don't do the wind justice, but here at Miller's Point (30km into the ride) I was deciding to turn, but in taking these pictures I saw a text from Mark making some excuse about his Dad's birthday as the reason for not joining me, and now nothing was going to stop me.

Cape Point in the distance, lucky for me I wasn't going all the way to the Point, just to the gate...

Made it, but as you can see I'm a little broken... and I've finished my water. I decided against going on around the Peninsular and just headed back the way I had come...

Now I can tell you about the wind (which thankfully was behind me): On one of the down hills I was sitting up and doing 56km/h without peddling! (I felt as if I was in a vacuum... traveling at the same speed at the wind!!!)

Yes the road is still closed and one is should cycled with the cars over Boys Drive, well I was to stuffed for that so I hopped on the pavement and took on the pedestrians, even stopping to take pictures of the sea...

OK so the ride was all of 71km done in 3h39. I know its not very fast, but I turned at 35.5km in 2h08!!! and got back in 1h31 including the km on the pavement...

Next time I borrow Wills bike and get him to ride as well so I can slipstream the whole way...

ONE RACE LEFT FOR 2010

On Wednesday I ran my first race since the marathon, in fact it was my longest run as well... We went through to the Waterfront for the Sundowner 10km run. Now unlike other year the weather played ball. The wind of the past weeks took a break and the sun popped behind the clouds to break the heat we have had in past years.

With 2000+ people running I was lucky to be standing on the front line just behind my wife, so when the gun went off boy did she have to run!!! She left me standing and it took we almost 500m to catch her. With this being my come back race I wasn't going for a time for myself, but was, if my body let me, going to run with Dawn and see if she could sneak under 44min.
Now I was running with Mr. Garmin and he was telling that we were running fast enough going through the 1st km in 4:11. Now that was 1km one as per Mr. Garmin, but the race marker was a few seconds away. I wasn't worried as a board or 2 are always a couple of meters out. We were running fast enough to break 44, but as the km past it seemed to Mr Garmin that everyone km was a couple of meters to long... Mr. Garmin had us at 5km in 23:30, but the 5km board only past at 22:01. I wasn't worried, even if the race markings were to continue as the first 5 had, as we now had the little wind behind us...

Dawn lost it on the 8th km and lost a little time something we couldn't afford to do with on time in the bag. I was now a couple of meters ahead, and when Mr. Garmin told me it was 10km in 43:09, but I still had 184m to go!!! I finished in 43:55 with Dawn 10sec back just missing 44.

All that is left to race / run is the Boxing Day Manor House race. (I'm going to need that after all the Christmas food I'm planing on eating.)

Now let me leave you with something Daley Thompson use to say: I always train twice on Christmas Day and New Year's Day as I know my competitors won't be training...

RUNNING AGAIN

So I'm on the 'come-back trail' or at the moment the 'come-back road'... Monday I started where things went wrong 2 weeks ago. But this time I did things a little different, I sent the boys off ahead of me, and where they turned into the forest I went straight up to Rhodes Mem... Not wanting to put too much strain on the calf on my first run back I walked half the 500m hill. I didn't do the 10min of stairs, but did walk up and down a couple of times encouraging the boys as the spring was drained from their legs!!! After my rest I easily made the short run back to the club. Day one and the body was still working.

A quick trip to Pretoria does nothing for my running, but a day off in my come-back was just fine.

Wednesday saw me head out with Will for a 6km run. After a very slow start I was running at 4:30/km on the flat... all I can say is it's a good thing Will turned to run home, because I hadn't planned on running at that pace, and I'm sure my calf wouldn't have taken kindly to much more of that.

Thursday was a public holiday, the type of day I would normally spend on the mountain, so I decided to head to the mountain, but with the wife and dogs for a gentle walk.

I'm wearing a knee guard because I have 'big' veins and it helps with blood flow, or so I'm told.

We walked a couple of the routes I enjoy running

Dawn climbing through a fallen tree.

Me trying to be artistic with the flowers and Dawn...

It wasn't all over grown single track...

I'll run a bit on the weekend and then take it from there, but by the new year I hope to be running well enough to line up for the Bay to Bay 30km...

Next week I'll have to have a look at the year that was and it wasn't a good year by any means.

A NEW WEEK

I had big things planned for this week; like running twice a day, or even cycling in the morning, BUT I’m still not running… So what is going on in my life. Monday saw me leave work half an hour early and head straight to the physio. Have you ever had crucifixions on your calf? Well after half an hour of trying to crawl off th

e table he stopped. Why did he stop? Well he wanted to stick javelins in my calf!!! I should have had my camera with me, I was pinned to the table with about 10 of these things stuck in my leg.

Tuesday's program was 12 x 500m with 60sec rest. I wasn't going to be running, but as coach I was going to be standing on the side of the track taking times. So I cycled up to the club and sent the boys off on a warm-up. I then popped back on the bike and did a couple of laps of the track cycling. With the boys back and ready to run I left the bike and walked to the 500m mark. I set them off and started my walk to the finish line. Now I'm not one for standing around, so I did a couple of lunges on my walk back. OK I did 50m of lunges. Now they did 12 x 500m so you've guessed it... I could hardly walk on Wednesday and I can still fe

el it today. My legs were so sore!!! I guess if I'm not running this Tuesday I'll do it all again…

My Star Athlete had decided to run the Avbob 15km are on Saturday, so I was up early to give my support and take a couple of pictures. It's a flat race out in Tableview, but boy does the wind blow!!!

This is one of the pictures I took.

ps my Star Athlete is also my wife…

WHY, WHY, WHY

So after my recovery week, I was ready to jump in and get training again... But the coach in me said we needed another week on the come back trail. I was back at the club on Monday and with no more races to aim at this year we are building for 2011. Monday's session was to be an easy run through the forest and up to Rhodes Mem for a couple of stairs!!

We started off slowly and turned into the forest, then with a few seconds over 10min on the Garmin (1.79km) something jumped up and bit me... well that is what it felt like. I had torn/strained my calf!!! I sent the 'boys' on to do the session without me.

I walked/hobbled back to the club and headed for the fridge. I was in search of beer, but the committee had drunk them the week before while painting the clubhouse. No problem I found a bottle of red wine!!!

On Tuesday morning I gave the Psycho I mean Physio a call and got an appointment with Grant on Wednesday. Wednesday was a good day for me as I had taken the rest of the week off, I had planned on running up the mountain, but that wasn't going to happen now. Not one to sit around without doing anything I hopped on the bike and went for a cycle only 75min, but I had plans for later in the day...

I was taking on the pool, not swimming, but running!!!

I put the belt on and tied myself to the fence and set off. I thought about wearing the Garmin but I wasn't going to get very far being tied up!!! After 10min I had done enough... Now what do I log in the logbook, 1.5meters in 10min? Or do I call it 2km saying it was at 5min/km? (was running about 55 steps to the minute).

Thursday morning I was back on the bike, this time for 2 hours and one mountain (Ou Kaapse Weg). Things were going OK till 1h45 when I hit the wall... I didn't hop in the pool as I got home, but waited for the evening before my 11min run.

Enough said, and I'll try running next week, till then it's cycling and the pool!!! Maybe aqua-cycling is the way to go!!!

As for now I have my birthday to plan.