Scary hills (aka Week 15)
6 August 2023
Rude start to proceedings this week, kicking things off - the day after last week's Turramurra hills - with a tricky fartlek session. 40 mins of bouncing between heart rate zones, with little 1 min zone 2 recoveries between each (it's never enough!). The other hard session was another Progression Intervals run, three sets doing five lots of 30s on Z3, 20s in Z4 and 10 in Z5. All by the scenic Bay Run - no better place to be tortured. 58km in total for the week.
The fartlek on Monday was a real confidence booster. Felt strong and was happy with the pace notwithstanding the tired legs. Just what I needed as we come to the pointy end of things. If I can get through the final big run unscathed I'm going to be coming into the race feeling prepared - now excuse me while I go touch every timber item in my house.
This weekend's long run was encumbered slightly by a self-induced sore head, owing to the preceding evening's festivities. The punishment was a cruel game of hill hunting through Rozelle. The rules are simple. First rule of hill hunting is, you don't talk about hill hunting. Second rule is, you see a hill, you run it. Got 21km out of it and 700m off climbing. My path took me into Calan Park, which I've previously threatened to explore, and gave me a great chance to suss out some of the running options in there (most of which are hilly!). It's a fun little playground of interlinked roads and paths with plenty to see and do. It's also super creepy. Like, "did I just see a ghost looking at me it is that abandoned building" creepy. But it you don't mind adding the risk of getting cursed into your running, it's great. It's also excellent if you've started a running blog using moody black and white photography, and have a post talking about how creepy somewhere is. Ahem. Anyway, here's some pictures of the lovely Calan Park:
Once I'd survived that death trap I made my way toward the exclusive Balmain Shores, which has a couple of gnarly hills that are great for stuff like this. If you're looking for options, they are:
Bottom of Warayama Pl up to Darling St (about 750m and 40m climbing) - a few sets of traffic lights, so be careful!
Bridgewater Park to Fruitologist (about 200m and 20m climbing) - shorter but less cars, and nice mix of gradient.
Stairs at Balmain Shores (same as above, but with stairs) - ouch
Hell Hill (about 140m and 20m climbing) - the gradient on this is 12.8%, and pure torture. It's great for training. But ouch. So much ouch.
So that was it for this week's running. I bought my mandatory evacuation insurance for the run - that's a fun thing to have to have that I haven't had to worry about before. Nice to know at least that I have the option of a helicopter flight out if I fall down the wrong side of a glacier though (wonder if I can call on them during ski season too?).
Thanks for reading. Yours in running,