Good Weekend

Spent Easter weekend up at Lake Macquarie, so whilst there took advantage of location and hit some Great North Walk trails.

Saturday: Brick session-Hard intervals bike spin session for 60 minutes followed by a run off the bike. With the BRW Corporate Triathlon coming up this weekend I figured I’d better get some running off the bike in the legs. Good session was smashed afterwards.

Sunday- Great North Walk- Wakefield to Heaton State Forest return.





I decided to do an out and back run of part of the first section of the GNW100s course figuring the up and down would make for great Western States training. It rained pretty heavily throughout the night so when I hit the trailhead at Wakefield Road I knew I was in for a muddy ride almost immediately. The trail climbs pretty much from the get go, then drops under the F3 before climbing proper up to the Sugerloaf Range. It was hard work getting a good foothold in parts and I was reminded of GH100 miler last Sept where sections of the trail were quite brutal to climb because of the slippery conditions.

Climb up to the communications tower.



Once up the top the conditions improved and good running was had along the razorback ridgeline of the Sugerloaf with wonderful views in both directions over the Hunter and Lake Macquarie. The trail undulates and then drops steeply at Heaton Gap where I crossed the road for the climb to Heaton communications tower, a tough climb of 262m in 1.3km. I recalled how good I felt back in November whilst running the GNW100 miler. This time around the legs were heavy from a tough weeks training, I passed a couple of bush walkers making their way down to the gap. Once at the tower I broke into a run again and made good progress to the lookout before dropping down the side trail and into the rainforest.

View from Heatons Lookout over Lake Macquarie.



Trailhead to the drop into the rainforest.



Almost immediately the lights were turned out as the canopy blocked the early morning light. It was very damp underfoot and the leaf littered trail was treacherous, however the 2120 trail shoes held up very well through here. I ran down to the creek and back out crossing Barniers Rd. The trail was difficult to pick up through here as it was so wet and the leaf litter covered the singletrack. Luckily someone graciously marked some trees so I followed them for the most part. Another drop to Wallis creek bed and this time I had to stop. There was no way through because a huge tree had fallen across the creek bed. I stopped and considered a few options. I went up the sides but there was no way through apart from a good bush bash. I looked at the other side same story. Just then I looked down at my feet only to discover literally dozens of leeches trying to get through the mesh of my shoes. I proceeded to pick them off one by one only to see more climbing up from the undergrowth. Shit there was fucking heaps of the bastards, tiger leeches too. With that I decided to turn around and backtrack up and out of the rainforest. As soon as I emerged from the trail at Heatons lookout I made straight for the picnic tables, sat down and pulled my shoes off to reveal a shitload of the bloodsuckers had made their way into my socks. Just then I felt something on the inside of my high just under my shorts, right enough another leech. That was it, a full strip down and I mean everything, I was freaked. A good body check and I was off down the trail once more, exciting times hey!

The return trip was fantastic, mostly downhill of course but I was still quite surprised at just how much of a climb it is from the Wakefield trailhead. I guess you don’t notice it so much when fresh. Bumped into a number of horse riders along the Sugerloaf Range and a few more bushwalkers. The descent back to the trailhead was just running paradise. Long soft (semi dried now) trail where you had to watch your running line but could still open up and fang it, great stuff indeed.
I arrived back at the car in 4.20, with about 35kms under the belt feeling well worked with 1944m combined up and down but not totally smashed. The quads ached which was the whole purpose of the run, so good training effect I guess.

Later on I took the kids to the pool and swam a few lengths of the 25m indoor pool, a nice way to recover.
Got a reduced mileage week this week so looking to give the body a bit of recovery and then get back into it with a big one next week finishing with Hellgate Gorge, giddyup!

Monday- Recovery run to through Toronto and Fassifern, a 13.3km loop in just over 5 min pace.