Fully Sick - Monday the 7th of March, 2011

As the one person who reads this blog should know, I was supposed to have a race this weekend just past. Given the commonness of my late blog posts, however, that one man and his dog, probably wouldn't have even expected a post this soon. But, as fate would have it, last Thursday afternoon I started to get that "chills in your core/bones" feeling and by Thursday night I was feverish. I missed Friday's "leg stretching" easy run, but optimistically held onto hope for Sunday's race. In the end, letting go of the race was probably the right decision, as when I woke up on Sunday morning, I felt terrible.

So, I skipped the Sunday run, and, after having not ran for the previous 5 days, I couldn't hold out any more, and decided to head out on a post-dinner very easy run last night.

When I walked outside it was just very lightly raining. Not really the best weather for someone recovering to run in, but I was already there, so I headed out anyway.

As I ran down towards the harbour-side path I could feel the wind swirling in my hair (probably better termed a "mane" now, as I haven't had a haircut since my wedding!) and bracing against my chest, the rain beat lightly on my face, and I could hear it, almost the same as you hear rain against a tent wall, or against windows in squally conditions. I felt calm. I felt relaxed and I felt cleansed.


Looking up as the foliage of a tree barely stands-out against the dark clouded sky


Running along the harbour-side track, towards a tall building, pointing the way


The dim lights reflected in the wet tiles

This feeling of calm lasted well past the end of my run, but unfortunately my sickness returned and I developed a strange rather sharp pain in my right knee. A result of no running and then some, I suppose. I'm still feeling sick, the day after the run, but have decided not to let this 'flu stop me from doing the things I love, even if I can only do them in smaller doses.

I'm very much looking forward to my next slow, easy run.

See you on the roads
~ Joe

Three from three - Tuesday the 1st of March, 2011

So, to finally beat my recovering, out-of-shape running form into something that might survive the mountain marathon, I set out on, what was supposed to be, a fast-ish road run. It's the last "proper" run before the race (although I will run a very easy 6km on Friday or Saturday to stretch my legs).

Worried about more hot conditions, I bought along my water bottle and new running sunglasses (Optic Nerve Shindigs - will report on them later once they've seen a bit of use). As I should have realised, the act of bring these along meant that cool conditions would return, making me carry the extra pound (the water bottle is about 600ml) for very little benefit.


Cloudy conditions return


Birds on a wire


A small village next to the prison at the top of the hill, and also the place I got a shot of the pigeon man on a previous run.

My legs were notably tired and I was seriously slowing down towards the end of the run, but managed to maintain a healthy average of around 12.5km/hr for the run. Overall I was quite happy with the run, and while ready for a couple of day's rest, looking forward to the upcoming punishment!

See you at the starting line!
~ Joe

Time to heat things up a little - Monday the 28th of February, 2011

Since the trail run was shorter than expected, and I pulled up quite good afterwards, I decided on a Monday-Tuesday, 1-2 punch (or a uppercut-1-2 if you count Sunday's trail run) to get prepared for the upcoming race. I decided on a hard hilly trail run for Monday, with a faster and easier road run on Tuesday.

So, on Monday, I headed out to hit the trails... But lo and behold... it was Summer! (If only for a day!) The persistent cloud and cool conditions had suddenly been replaced by bright overhead sun, hot temps and moderate humidity (just a taste... I'm sure things will be much worse in full-blown summer). Unfortunately, I wasn't really prepared for these conditions and didn't have my water bottle belt, in fact, I'd forgotten to bring any water bottle to work with me at all! So instead, I decided to buy a drink at halfway along the course to stave off dehydration and headaches so I could run again the next day.


Heading down the stairs towards the dirt trail, near the start of the course


On the trail, bright sun overhead


Need. More. Pow-ahhh. Tackling the climb up towards Tseng Lan Shue


A strangely angled shot of water running under the bridge. I liked the dark reflections of the leaves on the water


Still climbing.


On the flat paved section heading into the village with Kowloon Peak peaking on the horizon


Bright and sunny, but quite clear thanks to damp conditions on previous days

The run was certainly made harder in the unexpectedly hot conditions, but I managed all the climbs quite okay, and felt fine that night. Things are starting to look up for this weekend's race... Bring on the next hill!

See you on the roads!
~ Joe

Overestimated - Sunday the 27th of February, 2011

Luckily, this title isn't related to me overestimating myself and ending up broken down on a trail somewhere, but rather the distance of a what was supposed to be the last long run before next weekend's 38km KOTH.

In order to properly test out if all systems were go for the race (after last week's sickness), I figured a long Sunday trail run would be ideal. I decided to head up Wilson Trail Stage 4 (as I did a couple of weekends ago), but instead of turning north towards Sai Kung, swap to MacLehose Trail Stage 5 heading west past Lion Rock to Tai Po Road. As I was mixing two different trails, I didn't have a firm idea of the length, figuring it to be around 20-25km. As it turned out, the trail was quite a bit shorter, right around 15km, but no less difficult for the reduced length.


Heading out of Tseng Lan Shue towards the hills


The downhill sections were distinctly less fun than last time, where this time, in the damp conditions, stepping on the darker coloured rocks was a quick way to end up on your arse


Misty but quite humid and warm conditions prevailed


Flooding... wonder if he had insurance?


Quite a little colony they have


Getting more misty the higher I climb




As I came over this hill before heading up the road (which is quite steep, despite appearances), I noticed that on the top of the concrete cutting/peak just right of centre, a pack of dogs were sleeping and surveying their domain:


It reminded my very much of "Pride Rock" from the Lion King!


Moving onto the south side of the ridgeline, with Kowloon just visible beyond the misty veil


Kowloon


Awesome winding dirt trails around the back of Lion Rock


A sign detailing one of the many war relics found along the Lion Rock ridgeline


The Pillbox (sorry for poor photo quality!)


Almost to Beacon Hill

I must apologise here, to the couple I passed at the bottom of the climb up Beacon Hill. As I pushed up the stairs past them, they asked me: "is it much further to the top?" to which I answered: "not too much further, almost there". My failing memory had forgotten the rather large and steep hill just after the one they were on! So: I'm sorry! Hope you guys made it up all the hills in high spirits!


Another war relic: a tunnel


More misty views of Kowloon


I found this beautiful little flower right beside the trail


The sun starting to heat things up towards the end of the run


The trail winding around gullies in the final 2-3km of wonderful flat dirt trails




The initial climb up onto Kowloon Peak is immediately obvious on the elevation profile, just as it was immediately obvious to my burning legs on the Sunday! Smaller (but still tough) climbs at Lion Rock and Beacon Hill are also pretty obvious from the profile.

This was a great little run, and probably easily doable in under 2hrs (I ran it in about 2hrs15mins). A run like this really shows what a difference a little elevation can make to a trail run. Back in December, I ran the 15km AVOHK Tai Lam Chung Reservoir race in about 1hr10mins. That route had a little elevation, but mostly on roads. When compared to this route (also around 15km) it's inconceivable that I could run it in anything approaching 1hr30mins! I've read that this is called "Fell Running" where the hills and elevation gains are a significant part of the overall course difficulty. All I can say is: bring on the next hill!

See you at the peak!
~ Joe

Back in the hunt - Thursday the 24th of Februaru, 2011

After a couple of days of antibiotics, I was feeling well enough to start to run again. I was also becoming increasingly more anxious about the upcoming KOTH race.

A minute and a half into the run, and I spot a familiar old friend:


Back in the Lizard Hunting game.

I made sure the run was nice and easy, but got tired pretty quick anyway. Obviously not fully recovered.


Playing it safe


Textural

During the run I was a lot more tired than I normally would be on such an easy jaunt, and afterwards it took me ages to cool off, but overall the run had no lasting negative impacts and I was very happy to be able to start preparations in proper for the upcoming KOTH race.

See you on the trails!
~ Joe

Perfect Conditions, Imperfect Condition - Tuesday the 15th of February, 2011

After a rest on Monday after the KOTH race, I decided Tuesday was a good day to get back into it with a relaxed run up the hill towards Tseng Lang Shue. My body was still decidedly suffering and it was a slow slow run, but I couldn't ask for better conditions, with the ground mostly dry-ish, but plenty of low cloud.


Out across the bridge and up the hill


Lost belongings


Naturally Pink


A tangle of branches against the cloudy sky

In retrospect, the cold/flu that was setting-in almost certainly contributed to this run feeling harder than it normally would. At the time I dismissed it still being tired from the weekend. Despite that, after this run, I felt so relaxed and calm... Very positive and looking forward to the next run. Unfortunately, the very next day my symptoms appeared and I didn't get another run in for 9 days!

See you at the doctor's office!
~ Joe

King of the Hill HK Island Mountain Marathon - Sunday the 13th of February, 2011

Once again, apologies for my recent lack of updates! I've been sick for the past week and a half... 9 days without a run! A significant length of time for me! I went back and looked through my training log and found that since August 2008, I've only had two "0km" weeks (Sun to Sat without a single run). One of those was a cold/flu while the other was when I got married! Quite a good record really and one I'll be able to slyly preserve thanks to a run last Tuesday (the 15th) and a run today (the 24th).

Anyway, back to the King of the Hill (KOTH) competition! As I left home early on the Sunday morning, the light rain was unexpected (I didn't have quite enough waterproof bags for everything in my run pack, but close enough). The rain coupled with the cold weather and low cloud made for some super atmospheric conditions (even if they probably did play a part in me coming down with a cold/flu/sinusitis).



The start area was rather crowded, but most of these people turned out to be running the Half Marathon version of the race, and moved out 15mins before us full-on crazys. There were fewer people running the full version than I expected (about 90 finishers) and it didn't take too long before everyone was spread out.



I spent most of the run hanging with a friendly Canadian I'd met, and traded contact into with, the weekend before (on my long hard trail run). Having a trail partner does have many advantages, one of them being a seldom seen picture of myself on the trail:



About here I should apologise for the terrible quality of photos from the run. *Everything* was soaked and I didn't have a dry square inch to wipe water off the camera lens before shooting. Thus, all my photos look like the blurry mess above.

The first 15km or so of the run were as expected. Occasional patches of pavement, but largely awesome (albeit very muddy!) dirt trails. As I mentioned above, the mist and low cloud only added to the atmostphere, more than making up for the lack of sprawling vistas. Suddenly, running along a dirt track, we were directed up a goat trail towards the peak. This goat trail degraded into a scrub bash, then to a rock scramble, at times using ancient (maybe not that old - I know how fast ropes age here, but pretty old) weathered ropes to climb slippery rocky sections (even including a rusty old ladder tied into the rock face and surrounding trees). This all culminated in a scramble up a mud slide using trees and branches to pull ourselves up.


Don't be fooled by the apparent angle in this photo... trees and branches were a necessity on this trail!

This scramble / climb / slide section was completely unexpected! But don't get me wrong, it wasn't unwelcome! The trail run finally crossed the mountain top, heading down a road on the otherside before veering onto a dirt trail that crossed a mountain stream... oh, we weren't continuing on the trail... No... Our path led down the stream bed! Part scrambling along the muddy banks and part rock hopping (or in my case, ending in the stream and getting my shoes filled with water!) and despite the previous rock scrambling section, I totally wasn't expecting the route to take a turn such as this! And on a side note, while hopping down the stream bed, I couldn't help but think of the many "beware of flash flooding" signs posted on every minor watercourse in Hong Kong, and how the current conditions might be not be an expected time for a flash flood.


Using a rope up a steep section underneath a power pylon

The last 6km included The Twins, a 900+stair unrelenting stair-master challenge. Thankfully when crossing onto the second of the twins, you only dip into a saddle and the climb isn't nearly as bad. The last 3km was also thankfully rather flat and I did my best to power to the end. I was very thankful to cross the finish line and very depleted. I changed and headed home for a well earned rest.




All-in-all, an awesome event, over totally unexpected and exciting terrain. Now I'm starting to get a little anxious about the upcoming 40km Sai Kung version of the event. Hopefully the course will be equally interesting without quite as much vertical challenge!

See you out on the trails!
~ Joe