5 days to go...

Since the Megalong Mega I’ve had a couple of good solid runs. The week after it was a bit of a recovery week due to work and being a groomsman at a friend’s wedding the following weekend. I felt pretty good after the MM, but thought it best to keep my long run to 2 hours on the day of the wedding.

Two weeks ago I parked off Bago Road and made my way up to Bago Bluff/The Rollover and Bago Lookout. That was a three and a half hour run, and I chose that area as the hills were bigger than around the usual area I’ve been running. A lot of it was just the standard rolling hills before the first climb starting from an altitude of about 50 metres up to 400 metres at The Rollover (in about 3-4km), then back down to 70 metres before climbing back up to 350 metres at Bago Lookout. The views were pretty spectacular at the top, and I took a few photos on the phone but they’re a bit average as it was an overcast day. There was some light rain along the way but nothing too serious. It was almost back at the car a bit earlier than expected so I did a few hill reps up from Blue Creek which wasn’t quite as blue as advertised, but was a good strong effort to finish.

Last weekend was back out to Queens Lake State Forest for two and a half hours around Jolly Nose Hill. It was another pleasant run, and I’m really enjoying running in that area. I noticed that there was much more wildlife to see and hear in the area that there was the previous week out Bago way. I went up to the top of the hill again, and found some interesting stats for the climb (to me!).

For 2km it rises from 30m to 100m (mix of falling, level and mostly rising terrain), which took me 13 minutes up and 10 minutes down. The final 750m section rises from 100m to 250m (1 in 5) and took 12 minutes up and 5 minutes down.

The weekend just past I had an easy 15km run down Queens Lake way again. Was a cool, clear morning and I felt good throughout.

I’m in the middle of a couple of week’s holiday at the moment. I’m looking after the kids full time as Jodie has a 3 week block of intensive lectures for uni and also has casual work at the hospital in the gaps. She’s actually worked 5 shifts in the last 7 days, and after a 2 hour lecture last Thursday went straight to a double shift from 5pm to 7am. Amusing and looking after the kids and house chores are keeping me busy enough during the taper.

All that’s left for me to do before the weekend is a couple of easy 40 minute runs, a massage and to get myself to the mountains on Friday.

I'm in wave 4 on Saturday, so get to watch the earlier waves take off before it's my turn. I probably haven't put as much training in as I should have, but I guess that's reflected in my rough goal time of +/- 6 hours. Being otherwise occupied over the last week or so has kept my mind off the race, but by the middle of the week I need to think about what's ahead and start mentally preparing myself for Saturday. At least for now I'm really looking forward to it.