Stats: Tuesday, 7 September 2010, 06:00

What a way to start my day - running up Rhodes Memorial with great friends and stunning views of Cape Town!!! Amazing!

You can see our stats here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/47963311

Well done to the Hillbillies tackling Rhodes Mem for the first time. Dy seems to like this route even more than Kirstenbosch!!
And welcome back Allen! We had a record turn-out this morning (of late) with 5 Hillbillies arriving, ready and [not so] eager to tackle Rhodes Mem. Some of us knew what we were in for, others were running this route for the first time. But in all, I think everyone enjoyed it (at least after we'd caught our breath again!), and we were treated to an awesome sunrise view of Cape Town from the top. And cleverly spotted by Linelle - no more Cooling Towers!

Thanks to the Hillbillies for the great company this morning. See you guys on Thursday, 6am, for a flat 8km recovery run.

Next week Tuesday sees the first of our earlier Tuesday starts - the mornings are getting light enough for us to start at 5:45am on a Tuesday now. Which means an extra 2km, give or take, that we can add into our morning routes. Thursdays remain at 6am year-round. In another 6 - 8 weeks we'll be able to nudge Tuesday morning times up to 5:30am, but you'll have plenty of advance notice of this time change.
 

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Dean Street Hillbillies

 

Tuesday Morning Run: 7th September

Hi Hillbillies,

I hope you're ready to earn our name during tomorrow's run - HILLy!! :)

We're heading up to Rhodes Memorial tomorrow again (the idea is to run Rhodes Mem once a month)
The pace will be very easy (and walking IS allowed up that little hill!), and we'll stop for a water break and to enjoy the view (and catch our breath) at the top before cruising back down for a flat finish.

Meet: 6am in front of Great Westerford.
Distance: +-10km
Run time: +-65 minutes

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Dean Street Hillbillies

 

Stats: Thursday 2 September 2010, 06:00

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/47216622

Thanks to Dy and Chris for your great company on the road this morning!
With the sky threatening to fall down on our heads once again, the 3 of us set out up Dean Street at a nice slow pace, aiming for a recovery run from Tuesday's speedy hill session.

Yeah right - before we realised what we were doing we were once again flying along at high speed. We managed to sprint up Boshoff Avenue and Kirstenbosch Drive somewhat faster than Tuesday even! But it felt great!!! Flying along in the fresh morning air, feet pounding the road, heart pumping, the best way to start the day!!!

Tuesday morning we're going to earn our name all over again, with some more hillwork - Rhodes Memorial!!!
We'll take it slow up the hill, regroup and have some water at the top. If you haven't joined the Hillbillies for a Rhodes Mem run yet, please come along tomorrow for a real treat of a run. The views from the top at Rhodes Mem are breath-taking!!!! Well worth the effort of running up there. Then the downhill cruise that follows is extra reward for the hard work behind us.

Meet 6am on Tuesday in front of Great Westerford. Run is around 10km, run time a little over an hour. Here are the stats of our last Rhodes Mem run - see, not so scary :)

 

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Dean Street Hillbillies

 

Stats: Tuesday, 31 August 2010, 06:00

Thank you Dy for a challenging but fantastic run this morning!
It was just the 2 of us today, and the weather played along beautifully! The clouds threatened to fall down on our heads, but it turns out they were just teasing - what a stunning morning!

We took the scenic route to Kirstenbosch Gardens, along Klaasens Road. And for a change it was light enough to see where we were going! We were even treated to stunning views from the higher parts of our route!! You can check out our route and stats here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46943665

The route was hilly but scenic, and Dy and I took turns pulling each other along all the way - resulting in a quite a 'refreshing' pace! Loads of fun! And I STILL feel that I had a good run this morning. Tuesday will definitely be shorter though - recovery :)

Thursday we'll keep up the hill training but cut down on the pace and distance a little - easy 8km recovery run from Dean Street to Stone Church (water point) and back. Meet 6am in front of Great Westerford.

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Dean Street Hillbillies

New and Improved!

No, the Hillbillies haven't stopped running, I've just be a bit lax with the blogging. But we are now back online and better than ever (or so I hope!)

We have created a calendar to publish our upcoming Hillbilly runs. Feel free to join us in the mornings. Or if you want to find out a little more about us, email us at Dean.Street.Hillbillies@gmail.com. We can add you to our mailing list, as well as our calendar (if you are using Google Calendars)

For now, rest assured that we are still running, and have even grown by a few new members! Sadly we have lost 2 of our members - one has returned home to the highveld, while another has decided to seek greener pastures overseas. Best of luck to the both of you, and keep in touch!! We hope to see you again when next you visit Cape Town!

With that I'll bid you farewell - for now!

Just a parting reminder: tomorrow morning we run 5km, nice and easy, and Thursday we have  an easy flat 8km planned through Claremont.

Happy running!!

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Dean Street Hillbillies

15km Training Run: Saturday 3rd July

Hi all,

With this weekend's Spookhill 15K race postponed till next weekend, I'd still like to get a training run in before Knysna next weekend. Anyone who wants to join me is more than welcome - I'll be running from the Rondebosch Common at 7:00 am on Saturday morning (corner of Park and Campground, starting by the memorial stone), running around 15km. The route is flat, pace easy. There are a couple of water points along the way, but maybe bring a small water bottle just in case.

This is the rough route map that I'll be running: Rondebosch Training Run

Route description:

We start at the Rondebosch Common and run over Belmont Road onto Main, turning left. At Klipper Road we go right, up a slight hill towards Newlands Avenue. Follow Newlands Avenue in the direction of Kirstenbosch till we reach the M3. Follow the M3 past the Shell garage (water point) towards the Protea Road Circle. Follow Protea Road towards Main Road (water point at Engen) and across past Newalands cricket grounds. From here we go right into Palmyra and left into Queen Victoria. We now follow the Don Lock route for a while, running down Queen Victoria until we reach Cook Road. Cook takes us to Keurboom Road, where we head right, and left into Belvedere. Left again at Ave De Mist. At the circle at Ave De Mist and Coniston, veer left onto Coniston, which becomes Oakhurst Avenue when the road turns right. At the end of Oakhurst we'll turn right onto Campground (water point at Shell), and up towards the Common. Once around the Common makes 15km.

If you know of anyone else looking for a 15km run this weekend to take the place of Spookhill (minus those scary hills/mountains), bring them along - the more the merrier! Saturday is predicted to be cool but clear, if a tad windy (hence the slightly more sheltered Rondebosch route choice).

See you guys at 7a.m. on Saturday morning at the Rondebosch Common!

Regards,

Angela

Stats: Thursday, 3 June 2010, 06:00

Another stunner of a day for running, if a little nippy to start with, and a group of Hillbillies eager to hit the road, made for a great hour of speedwork! It had been raining on-and-off through the night and early hours of the morning, so we had to decided whether to run and risk getting wet, or sleep in and risk regretting a perfect running morning. Being Hillbillies, we decided that a little water wouldn't melt us, and tackled the great outdoors, keeping an eye on the sky the whole way. Maybe that accounted for our speed this fine morning???

 

Either way, we did the short-fast-and-flat Claremont route again, flying past through Claremont and past the cricket grounds. We sped along Campground, stopping briefly for water at the Shell garage near the Common, before motoring over Belmont and racing down Main. We somehow managed a sub-5m00 pace for the last km, but throughout the run didn't get a single drop of water on our heads! At least not from the sky - the 'joggers tap' at the Shell has 2 settings: "off" and "gusher", and anyone brave enough to use it gets pretty well soaked in the process. But water is water and usually by this point along the run no one minds getting a little wet.

All in all a fun morning :)

Route Profile:

Route Map: