Easy K's - Friday the 11th of February, 2011

As is my favoured preparation, I went out on a light, flat, easy run on the Friday before my Sunday race. The upcoming KOTH meant that Friday's run was spent pulling back on the reigns and taking in the surroundings.


Flat


Multicoloured phyllodes litter the ground


Wonderful overcast conditions: wet ground but not raining


A strange mail box (still in use!), sort of built into a post... Cool!


Another strange sighting: looking sort of like a barn, a residential (I think) U-shaped building with a covered centre area (completely unsure of the purpose!)

A very relaxing run, and mentally very good preparation for a long, difficult and slow paced race like the upcoming Sunday trail run.

See you at the starting line!
~ Joe

The Second Shooter - Tuesday the 8th of February, 2011

After the very very hard run on the previous Sunday, my legs were still sore, but I needed to get moving again and start preparing for the upcoming KOTH Mountain Marathon.

So, I decided on a easy-ish, fully paved route, albeit with quite steep climbs.




A dis-used gate on my little back-road detour down towards Hang Hau


The view towards the High Junk Peak Trail, that I've now ran quite a few times at lunchtime.


Originally I thought I was taking a photo of an abandoned road, that I'd never ran before, until I spotted something in my shot:


Another shooter!
(although of the less creative bend)

I went a little further up the hill, waded through a some foliage and climbed a wall to get a better look at the little sniper:


Gone! (At least the gun is still there)

To me, he looked like a quite young kid, maybe mid to late high school, and judging by the sound and the distance to his target (an empty drink bottle) the gun (despite size) must be a quite weak BB / pellet gun.


The direction he was shooting... into this abandoned house. Looks like a great place for a couple of photos at a later date tho!


As I headed back to the road and up the hill, I spotted this likewise spiky fellow!

I wouldn't say it was a great run, given the sore legs, but an interesting one!

Happy to be on the "firing" end of my shooter.
~ Joe

Scientifically Designed to Break your Soul - Sunday the 6th of February, 2011

So, a week out from the King of the Hill (KOTH) Hong Kong race, I decided to run a reverse version of the route I ran a few weeks earlier. I mean, sure, that hill seemed pretty long on the descent, but I've hiked it numerous times... how hard can it be on a trail run?


Heading out of Sai Kung and looking towards the Ma On Shan... That's what I'm climbing!

Bright sun is beating down, my back's wet... already? oh, I see, my water bladder is leaking. I quickly re-seal it: I don't think I lost that much water at all: no problemo... ah... so foolish.


Looking away from Ma On Shan, out towards the eastern islands as I begin the climb


The climb starts up a road that gains 250m (vertical) over 2km before turning onto a trail, dipping a little and then getting really serious.


This shows the route quite well, with the trail basically climbing up onto the ridgeline on the right of the photo, and winding it's way (up and down) towards the mountains obscured by haze on the left.

Incidentally, I love long runs / hikes where you can point at a distant landmark and say that you're going over (or come from) that thing. It really adds a sense of scale (by some magnitudes) to the adventure.


Sun really beating down by this stage, the subsequent hard pushes followed by slacking off, is a formula that's designed to inflict maximum damage in minimum time.

Reaching the top in about an hour, that's 15mins of flat running and bladder fixing followed by a 45min non-stop-thigh-burning hill climb. Just over a 550m gain in about 5km!!

If you were to design a 45min workout, hard effort for 12mins followed by 3mins at a slower pace with 3 repetitions might be a good way to compress a lot of work into the time frame. You'd probably be pretty tired afterwards (I sure was)... not really ready for a 20km very hilly trail run! Bring it on... as Courage Wolf says: "You remember that last guy who gave up? Neither does anyone else"


A para-glider standing around, trying to draw a large enough audience for take off


At least someone's enjoying the sun beating down as my water supplies start to dwindle


Cruising through the mountains towards Tate's Cairn


Lots of water here, but none that I'm going to drink!


Vistas open up as I just about reach the cross-over between MacLehose and Wilson Trails


Looking a little to the left of the above image


An abandoned building at the bottom of the steep Wilson Trail downhill section

By this stage I was almost totally out of water and planned to buy some at Tseng Lang Shue... but... oh... closed for Chinese Nwe Year? That's... unfortunate. So on I run down towards HKUST.


I see the light.

Getting to the end of the 26.5km I'm totally parched and worn down. I couldn't stomach more than 1L of water and jumped straight in the shower to cool off. I came away with quite a bad headache, fever that night and a lesson about being self-reliant with water!

See you out on the parched trails!
~ Joe

PS.

Route map and elevation plot:

Taking it easy - Wednesday the 2nd of February, 2011

My final run in the year of the tiger. Times are changing... onto the year of the rabbit!

Since I only had a half-day on eve of Chinese New Year, I decided on a long easy ramble on the roads and trails in the mountains that surround Tseung Kwan O. As this post is quite late, I'm just going to go with a quick photo post!


Buildings in Tseung Kwan O as I head towards the trail


The small harbour outside "Oscar by the Sea"


Heading up the hill towards the trail head


Lam Tin Morning Trail!


Awesome vistas out towards Lam Tin / Yau Tong


What's up little buddy?


The small village about halfway along Wilson Trail Stage 3


This car was previously only overgrown, but has now become a permanent part of this carpark!


Looking towards Razor Hill... I'll be heading over it (again) sometime soon!

I light cruise down the very well travelled hill north of HKUST didn't warrant any further photos, but I'm behind schedule anyway. Prepare for a tonne of trail photos!

Cheers,
Joe

Lizard Hunter - Monday the 31st of January, 2011

As the second stage to make up for my lack of trail time on the weekend, I decided on a long Monday lunchtime run down to the High Junk Peak Trail. This is the same trail that I ran the Sunday before, but as I don't have that long a lunch break, I have to make some adjustments to the route. I only run the "front" half of the trail and take a detour around the eponymous High Junk Peak. In fact this detour is the marked trail with the route over the peak considered too dangerous for general public consumption! The benefit of these adjustments is that the trail section I run is 75% different to the course I ran last Sunday (although my time spent alongside the road is largely the same).

The sun was beating down, and I got quite a sweat up, but the cool wind kept me from overheating. Pretty nice conditions for a run, but nowhere near the beauty of my sunset cruise.


Heading out along the road, I passed a village with many flags out along the road, possibly celebrating Chinese New Year.

Moving on, I spotted something a little odd beside the road...


Spot him in there?


Another scaly friend hiding amidst the overgrowth! I'm becoming quite the lizard spotting expert with the second lizard sighting in as many weeks


Quite dark colours comparatively


But equally happy for me to snap quite a few photos of him

After getting a bucketload of photos, I moved on, fighting my way up the hill and onto the trail section


Ahhh, awesome dirt single-track trails. Hard work at times, but so calming compared to running along the roadsides


Having had a reptilian run-in already, I kept my eyes peeled for something of the more slithery variety


Quite a bit of haze around, but a beautiful place to run nevertheless


Dirt trails in Hong Kong aren't quite as uncommon as I originally thought, but many of the best known hiking trails are heavily paved, making these dirt trails something of a treat

This run is never easy, finishing with a steep hill to get back to HKUST, but I always return mentally relaxed and positive. An awesome route, and as I said about one of my previous trips, the 25mins of trail is well, well worth the 55mins of roadside to get there.

See you out on the trails.
~ Joe

Further Night Lights - Sunday the 30th of January, 2011

I was originally planning a long weekend run out on a trail on Hong Kong Island, to learn the course for the King of the Hill (KOTH) competition but since it was the final weekend before Chinese New Year, I decided to stay home with the wife and help clean, squeezing in a late night 10km after dinner. So get ready for further blurry photos from a further run! (like err, a homonym... you know?)

I used to run this route a bit when I first moved to Hung Hom. It takes on the only sizeable hill I've found anywhere in southern Kowloon, and is about half along roadside footpaths and half along the waterfront. Unfortunately, the waterfront sections aren't as enjoyable as they should be because they're generally very congested with people, and I spend all my time dodging tourons instead of enjoying the sights!


Heading out along the (dreadfully over-denoised) road, approaching the sole hill


The Kowloon Wholesale Fruit is just starting to get busy at 10.30pm for the next day's business!


Looking across towards Central


Light displays now appear to be a permanent fixture at the Star Ferry Terminal in TST


For Chinese New Year I guess

I worked hard for the entire run and was pretty happy with the time overall. Perhaps I'll have to include late night, fast 10km runs as a staple from now on.

As Courage Wolf always says:
Drink Pain, Sweat Results...
~ Joe

Blurry Night Lights - Friday the 28th of January, 2011

Skipping the lunchtime run in favour of a climb, a quick (both a short duration and at a rapid speed) late night run was exactly what I needed.

After "chimp-ing" (so named for the resemblance to a chimpanzee picking nits) the rear LCD on my Pentax I was sure most of these shots were in focus. Alas, turned out to be entirely untrue after checking the photos on the PC and here are the salvageable shots!


Blurry harbour lights


A partially lit mural


Strange white balance and a bridge reflected

The run however was entirely satisfactory, if a little short.

See you reflected in the dark!
~ Joe