Roller Coaster

Today Total: 21km's
Week Total: 58km's
Month Total: 120km's
Year Total: 1119.4km's

Edit: Links have been inserted below for the elavation profile and a satellite image.

Saturday was a scheduled rest day and boy did I need it. After training on Friday night and then heading up to Gwandalan I woke up feeling really bleh. Thank goodness the lawns didn't need mowing. I was very weary in the legs all day and was not at all convinced I was going to run Sunday morning.

I woke up at 5:30am and it was just such a glorious day I knew I had to get out and be a part of it. So I jacked up the camel back and manouvered my body underneath it and headed up the road. 2L of water and 4 Gu's was more than I needed but I was planning on heading into injun territory - ok exaggeration - I was heading into Munmorah Rec Park. Not exactly wilderness, but it could conceivably be a number of hours before the cavalry arrived if anything went wrong so better safe than sorry.

The only drawback with having a place on a lake is that unless you run around the lake the only way is up. The first 2k's of this run are a grind, continual up particularly the first k. The next 4 undulate slightly but the trend is also up, so it is over 6k before your down muscles get a fair dinkum go.

When I left home I was intending to run trails, but the amount of water lying about made me change my mind. This isn't as whimpy as it sounds as to take the trails option means I have to pass through a swamp about 80m wide. Last time I did it after rain I had to prise a Kayano out of the mire after sinking to my thighs in glutinous muck. So instead I stuck to the road and ran the "roller coaster" - several of successive big dippers - as can be seen from the link below 2 of them in particular are a reasonable workout. I did walk a bit of the up but not much.



Where is it

At the 12k mark I couldn't ignore the rumblings in my tummy anymore so an excursion into the bushes was called for. Thanks goodness for green ferns, enough said. Back on to the track and I now trundled along a fire trail for a k or so to get me back to the Pacific Highway. The PH is always a bit of a drag, but with this run it was only 1.5k to the turnoff and it was time to re-trace my steps back down the dirt track on the verge of Kanangra Drive (happily 6k trending downwards) and back to base.

I was really happy to have completed my first long run for a while - may there be many more to follow.