cycling at eikenhof dam

I drove out to Grabouw yesterday for my first "real" bike ride in years. The hills are big, the fires have taken huge amounts of forest, but the scenery is still awesome...

running in tokai

I went for another run at Tokai yesterday, with a old map from a previous orienteering event. There's lots of water, rivers and mud in the forest after all the rain, and everything smells fresh and clean.

running in tokai

I've started a new 21km training program 3 weeks ago, to try and improve my speed and endurance for orienteering a little. The program has all the usual sessions: hills, speed, long runs and tempo runs, which I've always been doing (or at least been trying to do) but it has given me a much better structure to follow.

In the past whenever work got too much, I'd start skipping quality sessions, and I think that's why I never really improve. So far it feels pretty good, tough, but not so hard that I can feel an injury coming on. Still hard enough to keep the legs tired though. Most of my orienteering races are around 10km long, so I am hoping that by focusing on a 21km program, it would make a very real difference to my performance at the 10km distance.

Anyway, this morning I went out for a 15km run in Tokai forest, and it was fantastic. It's a absolute perfect day outside, nice cool shade in the forest, big hills to make you work a little, lovely views and that fresh smell of pine everywhere. To me, it realy is the best thing on earth.

long run

I went for a long(ish) run on Slangkop this morning. It was really hot and dry out there, so was too tired to go really long, but I saw 5 tortoises at various places along the trail.

kleinplaas dam trail run

Ansie dropped me off at the start of the Kleinplaas Dam hiking trail, near Red Hill / Pinehaven, this morning. I jogged from there past the dam, down Manelkloof and over Slangkop to Kommetjie. I'm not very fit at the moment, and wasn't feeling very strong, so I walked quite a bit and enjoyed some of the views, the absolute silence, except for the bird song, and sound of the small streams flowing by.

It took me 90 minutes. I measured it in Google Earth and it looks like it's about 13km.

polaris event at deer park

I enjoyed today's event very much. I wasn't feeling very good yesterday, or this morning, but did manage to get a decent nights sleep last night (been suffering from a small bit of insomnia these last few weeks). The organisers mentioned that the distance for runners would be about 16km, so I wasn't planning on doing the full distance.

Anyway, after I managed to do no 3, and the very big climb to no 1 and 2, in less than a hour, it gave me the confidence to push a little harder and grab the last 3 points on my way back. I got a little soaked towards the end, but managed to finish before the 2 hour cutoff with all 6 the running controls.

The long boring run on Tafelbergweg gave me the opportunity to admire the awesome views. Small streams of sunlight shining through the rainclouds onto the ocean and robben island below. Little waterfalls dropping of the mountain. All truly beautiful.



Photos from the bottom, wasn't going to carry the camera all the way to the top, and unfortunately I got the lens wet...

some mushrooms, at last...

This morning, with clear blue skies (and a chilly wind in the air), we decided to go to Tokai. I needed a long training run, so went out for 2 hours of running in the forest and hills, almost running all the way up to silvermine... And Ansie was hunting for mushrooms, since we've had a lot of rain these last few weeks.

I was lucky that I found a fairly big mushroom patch on one of the smaller / less used trails at the start of my run, so I made a mental note of it, and on the way back from my run I passed by there again, and filled a bag with mushrooms (but there was still lots left when I was done). When I got back to the car, Ansie arrived with a little basket full of mushrooms from her search. So all and all, we had collected more than 25 mushrooms between us...

Back at home, Ansie deep fried some of the mushrooms in a spicy batter for dinner. Absolutely delicious!

scouting in grabouw

I spent the morning with Richard in Grabouw going over routes and options for the orienteering race on the 18th May. There isn't much forest left to use, the open areas are very nice for running, but a little easy on the orienteering. Still, the area is really nice and fun.

running at tokai

I went for a long run at Tokai forest this morning. Nothing beats the fresh cool shade, and the smell, of a pine forest. Combine that with nice views and it becomes difficult to stop running. So I've got a little pain in my right lower calf / achilles at the moment, from running a little too long. I "iced" it by standing in the sea for 15 minutes on Kommetjie beach...

It's sad to see that the senseless slaughter of innocent pine trees continues. The forest is looking a lot thinner in some areas. I honestly still can't understand why they can't share the area with other forest users. Divide the area into segments, leave some pine. And convert some to the same old boring stuff that already covers most of the mountain, smells like nothing, and provides no shade.

trail running constantia greenbelt

I ran the fourth event in the Montrail Summer Trail Series this evening at Constantia Greenbelt. I've been around the area before with some of the Orienteering events, but we covered a little more ground today.

The route was ok, the hills not too steep, the trails mostly forest and not very rocky, which suits me well. My run went ok, I'm still feeling my hamstring in almost every step, so nothing amazing at the moment. Just hoping for a faster recovery, so I can work on my running speed...

trail running silvermine

It was the third event in the Montrail Summer Trail Series this evening, this time held at Silvermine dam. Things did not go well for me at all. I was tired and my hamstring was hurting from all the physio. Apparently the views were very nice. All I saw was the 5 to 10 meters of trail in front of me. I had to walk a fair distance towards the end, and felt a bit light headed after the finish.

No photos unfortunately. Ansie didn't come with to take photos, and I was too tired...

trail running rondevlei nature reserve

I took part in the second event of the Montrail Summer Trail Series, this time held at Rondevlei Nature Reserve. I decided to take it a lot easier today, because I was stiff for 4 days after the last event. The route was nice and flat, with lots of sand. My run went fairly well, I felt pretty good for most of the run, my legs are always tired these days so it was about the same as a fast training session. My right hamstring is still hurting a bit though...

trail running silvermine east

Today I took part in the first non orienteering race in many years. It was the first event of the Montrail Summer Trail Series, held at Silvermine East.

The route was nice, and it wasn't too bad running with lots of people around (unlike orienteering), but my fitness is absolutely terrible. I really suffered towards the end.

I had one advantage though, I noticed that the people running close to my speed, would always slow down quite a bit when the footing gets technical. So I think the orienteering over rough terrain helps quite a bit in that regard.

another porcupine

I saw another porcupine this morning on my early morning (dark) training run. This time it was higher up on the hill (slangkop), also next to the road.

porcupine

Sometimes, especially after a holiday, we forget how lucky we are to live were we do (and no longer in a big city like Johannesburg). And then something happens to remind you of how lucky we are.

This morning, on my training run (in the dark with my headlamp) I saw a porcupine, a few blocks from our house, on the lawn next to the road. It's the first time I've ever seen one, and I didn't get a decent look at it. I wasn't sure how aggressive or dangerous they could be, so I didn't go too close to it. I don't think it's something a lot of people might come across while doing their daily training...

tokai and newlands forest

I spent an hour running with a map and compass in lower Tokai forest, just to try and find a comfortable method for using the new compass. Initially I thought I'd use the longest side of the compass to point in the direction I'm running, but quickly realised that I just don't orienteer that way. So I'm back to using it to determine if I'm pointing my map in the right direction, and then using the map to run straight line.

After Tokai forest I drove out to Newlands forest for the first time, and spent two hours running and walking there. Wow, what a awesome place. There is a maze of paths and very diverse vegetation, with a few small streams too. I wonder if there's an orienteering map for the area?

On another note, while I was playing in Tokai, I came across a lady collecting mushrooms. She was kind enough to give me a quick explanation on how to identify the particular mushroom that she was looking for. A search on the web reveals that they were Lactarius salmonicolor (pictured below), I think / hope...

training at tokai

I ran the blue course at Tokai forest from back to front for some training. Improved my time from 1:18 to 1:09, but it's probably because I knew where all the controls where.

I'm starting to find a method for using this new compass now, but I'll have to do a lot more work on it. It's great for aligning the map, but I'm not sure about running in a straight line based on compass direction, it just doesn't feel right yet.

training on tokai map

This morning I decided to run the blue course from the Tokai event last year october. I finished the course in 1 hour 18 minutes, running at tempo pace (slower than race pace). Looking at the results on WinSplits, I would have finished 11th. The winner finished in 1 hour 4 minutes.

For me, running on a orienteering course is much easier than just running for fitness. The map and terrain takes my mind of the fatigue. I hardly ever notice that I'm tired until afterwards. Here's the map...



PS. I've drawn in some of the other paths on the northern part of the map.

zandvlei

I went for a short paddle at Zandvlei in Muizenberg this morning. I felt very unstable in the K1 even though there was no wind and the water was dead calm.

tokai

I went for a 1.5 hour run / walk at upper tokai forest today. It was a very hot day with no wind to cool the air. Here's a photo taken after 30 minutes of "climbing".