Relaxing Long Weekend? Not quite.

We had a long weekend down under with the Queen's birthday on Monday. And so as you would do after a long and busy week at work, I slept in and relaxed most of the weekend.

Not quite.

With a friend of mine, Pierre, we decided during the week to go to the Blue Mountains for a mountain bike ride.  I love this beautiful place, close to Sydney (~1hr drive) which has plenty of mountain bike tracks. While I have been there several times to do the famous Oaks trail, Pierre organised the ride which included both the Andersons trail (30kms) and the Oaks trail (30kms).

Pierre tracked it with his app, you can see the itinerary here.

So Saturday, I woke up at 6am (as you do) and went to pick him up before heading off to the blue mountains to do some mountain biking. 

The weather was perfect, sunny with no clouds, but chilly with temperatures close to 0 degree celsius. We got to Glenbrook around 7.45am after one hour drive, parked close to the Visitors centre (strategic location due to the proximity of its toilets) and rode to Glenbrook station to take the train to Wentworth Falls.

It's always great to see so many people waking up early in the morning, coming with their families, mates and jamming the train with their mountain bikes.

Bikes in the train

We got off at Wentworth Falls, and Pierre took the lead as we had to ride a little prior to getting on the actual Andersons Trail. There was some construction work on the way and following Pierre onto the road, I got really scared when we found ourselves in the middle of the freeway with literally no lane for bicycles! Pierre then crossed both lanes to get out on a bicycle/pedestrian path. After a big fright, we then rode to the start of the trail and had a great time.

The Andersons trail is really a great track, with an adrenaline charged rush down a steep downhill. The downhill ends up in an icy cold creek that you, sadly, have to cross and get your feet wet!

After this, is a dreadful 3km steep uphill! I did not have much fun there with my old bike.

We then got onto the famous Oaks trail, that I love and we had a blast.

I discovered half way through the track that there was steam in front of the lens of my GoPro (checking back home -  the videos are just no good). Thankfully, for the best part of the Oaks trail after that (the fast section, single trail and technical bit at the end) there was no steam. I will have some great shots/videos to share after the editing is done.

Amazing time, great company and great weather! Will definitely go back there with Pierre and do some more shots too!

After relaxing for a few hours at home (and yes I did do a few stretches), having a massive (and not so healthy) pizza for dinner, I then decided at 10pm on Saturday to enter a 14kms race on Sunday at 6.45am. 

My girlfriend was not so impressed with me as:

• she was going to be woken up another day at 6am

• we had to go to a friend's 30th surprise birthday party at 12pm sharp. 

The 14 kms running race was taking place around the Iron Cove and the Leichhardt Park, a flat, fast and scenic race. I will update the post once the photos are published so you get an idea.

Race itinerary - Copyright Sri Chinmoy

The race was really enjoyable with great views of the cove, people rowing and the city in the background. The organisation was great and so was the weather. 

After riding 60kms the day before, not having really prepared physically, mentally and nutritionally, I was actually happily surprised with my time. I completed the race in just over 1 hour. 61 minutes and 48 seconds to be precise (which equates to 4m40s per km). The results are available here.

And for those wondering, yes, we did make it on time to our friend's 30th surprise birthday party and I did make it up to my girlfriend (bringing her delicious French pastries for breakfast).

And finally, on Monday morning, both my girlfriend and I had a well deserved sleep in (and did I mention that I also slept 14 hrs? ;)

MS Fun Run & Training for a running race

In my last two posts I shared with you that I was preparing for the MS Fun Run, which was yesterday.

Having been down with a flu-type viral infection in the last few days I was in no shape or form to run it and decided not to do it. It was a smart move as pushing my body through the race would have certainly extended the sickness and I would not have performed as best as I would have hoped. The good news is that I now feel much better and will be able to get back to work tomorrow.

One of the best way to prepare for a race and especially a running race, is to get the itinerary from the organiser's website and actually run the course prior to the race.

It might not be easy to train for an adventure race (due to the time it takes to do the race and/or the gear required), but it is much easier for running races. Especially as the itinerary generally does not change from one year to another (unless there are roads specially closed for the event).

In the last few weeks I went to run the actual course a few times. This helps planning and managing the race (how to negotiate the course, where to run, when to cross the road, cut corners, when to accelerate, slow down, etc.). You will see that for every training session you run on the actual course, you will shave off seconds and minutes as you get closer to the actual race. 

Last Thursday, I actually ran it close to the time it was scheduled on Sunday (early morning), this is the best way to prepare as you can fully assess the gear you will need to wear and how easy or hard it will be (based on the light, temperature, etc.).

If you are able to run the course a few times prior to the actual race, this will give you a really good advantage and idea of your final time (though you will not have the adrenaline and push from running against other competitors)!

Despite not running the race on Sunday, I am happy that my entry fee and donation went to a great initiative to raise funds and awareness around Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and that the event in Sydney has raised over half a million dollar! If you also want to donate to this great cause, go on the website anytime: http://www.mswalk.org.au/nsw/

Out of curiosity, I went to check the race results on the website and saw that my best running time of 31mins 52s corresponded to the 7th position overall and 3rd position of my category.

My training time having been more around 34 minutes lately, that would have corresponded to 15th out of over 600 participants which is not bad and something to aim and beat next year!