Comrades Training Run-60km

Ran with a few fellow Striders, Mister G and Paul Every this morning. Hornsby to Mt White return via the Pacific Hwy. Couldn't ask for a better morning weather wise, it was cool at the start and stayed that way all morning, perfect running conditions. We set off bang on 6am and headed north on Jersey St to the Pacific Hwy. Rob was our crew/driver for the day, stopping every 5km or so. I had my Camebak with me but ended up dumping it in the back of his car, unnecessary weight.

When we crossed the Hawkesbury River and started climbing I felt fine so pushed it up Mt White. We weren't slouching about today either, hitting the half way point (30km) and turn around in 2:37:48. It was shortly afterwards, heading down the mountain that Paul stubbed his toe whilst chatting and did a full body plant on a shitty gravel shoulder. He ended up knocking himself around quite a bit, whacked his knee and lost some skin on his chest, hands and knees. Ouch! I was chatting to him one minute, the next he was body surfing down the road, nasty.
So that was the end of Paul's day, as he packed ice around his knee and ankle and hobbled into the crew car.

We made good progress down the mountain and across the Hawkesbury, catching a glimse of the speedboat race below. The climb up the hill on the other side to the Pie in the Sky is a 4km long gradual uphill. Again I felt great on the ascents, so just went with it and pushed hard.
All I could think about was a veggie pie all the way up there. Unfortunately they didn't have any left when I got to the Pie in the Sky! Bummer.

A quick drink from the back of the car and a packet of chips later we were on our way again. I reached the marathon mark shortly after in 3:42:29 which was about what I did the marathon in Canberra in? Not bad considering there are a few more hills on this route.
The 50km point in 4:23:10, which was about a minute faster than Canberra, so holding a good pace.

More hills to come, but with the bad ones out of the way, we were flying home.We actually increased our pace in the second half, finally arriving back at Hornsby in 5:12:43. These times are minus pit stops BTW.
The last 18km was covered in 90mins so 5min kms and the split between first 30km and second 30km was negative 3 mins.

A very pleasing and encouraging run. I felt superb the whole way and still had lots in the legs.
Back to my car, whacked on a CD (u2's How to dismantle an atomic bomb) throttled up the volume and enjoyed the endorphin rush that is ultra running all the way home ;-)

So ended up with 122.5kms for the week. I will back off next week as I have been doing high mileage for the past 4 weeks since Canberra. Looking forward to a swim and getting back on the bike next week.