Monday, April 05, 2010

The Hills Were Alive.....

Driving back over Range Road after Easter Sunday lunch with friends at Robertson, I decided to do my long run over this course which I hadn't ventured on for months...too many, too steep hills! However, I wanted to do a long, continuous run instead of the shorter loops I've been doing of late and this was going to be it.

At 7:00a.m it was raining, so back to bed for another hour ...or two! At 11:00a.m it was very overcast, plenty of black clouds but no rain so I set off for a run of anything up to 24km...if the legs held out on the hills! The pace was to be 7:06min/km but doubted that I'd keep that on the hills...and I didn't.

From kilometre 3 to 8 was a hill so steep that the surrounding ridges resounded with the sound of my groaning! From there on, it's one rolling hill after the other, the surrounding countryside so beautiful it more than makes up for the pain in getting there. I took some photos but they're not the best because of the heavy cloud and no sunlight. None of the Autumn colour changes have begun yet, so I'll return - when I recover in a few weeks - when all the trees and hedges will be dressed in their finery of red, orange and gold.

Tonight, I can hardly walk; my poor old legs are stiff and sore, telling me to get out there more often and harden up! So for today, Easter Monday:

23km in 2 hours 40 minutes.
Avg. Pace 7:45
AHR 111 (70%); MHR 128 (81%)
5km Splits 40:44; 42:22; 39:28; 3:52 (3km in 7:10).


A great day out on the ranges and I will return!


4 comments:

  1. That looks like beautiful countryside - love the photos. Well done on a tough hilly run - that will toughen up the legs!

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  2. "harden up" you reckon

    "I shall return"

    You sound like general Douglas MacArthur there LL!

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  3. I can't get the slide show to work :(

    Anyway, great run, and not a cloud in the sky!

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  4. It's a book! Click on the bottom right hand corner & see what happens!

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