Stats: Tuesday, 23 February 2010, 06:00

And once again, there was just one. One lone Hillbilly exploring the streets of Claremont on Tuesday morning.

All runners know that you have good runs and not-so-good runs. We all wish that every run could be good, and I have been lucky to have had a great many fantastic runs this year so far! This one was not to be, unfortunately. But I still ran, which is what counts. I managed a respectable  6km in the end, which works nicely into my taper for this weekend's big race.


I tried a slight variation of the 8km Rondebosch route - instead of heading past Cavendish and Newlands cricket grounds, I turned back towards Great Westerford just before I reached Cavendish. Up (and up and up and up) Kildare towards Newlands Avenue, followed by an easy descent of Dean Street. Something different but still a very enjoyable route.


Route Profile:

  




Route Map:

I will not be running tomorrow, but I should rejoin the Hillbillies next week Tuesday for a short, slow recovery run. Once again, those wanting to run tomorrow, please let the others know, and the same to those wanting to do the regular longer Tuesday run. Otherwise you're more than welcome to join me in a short, slow, scenic run on Tuesday.

Stats: Thursday, 18 February 2010, 06:00

This morning it was just me and Linelle on the road. We had an easy 8km run to Stone Church and back, with lots of good conversation along the way. We ran the usual route along Newlands Avenue, up Boshoff, stopping for water at Stone Church. Hilly, but not too extreme. Then took it nice and easy all the way back (down) to Great Westerford.


Route profile:

Route map:

Next week I'm going to be taking it very easy, well into my Cango-taper. I will be running on Tuesday, but slow and short, probably the same route as today, so I'll start at 6:00. If anyone wants to run longer, earlier, or a different route, please don't let me hold you back. Maybe post your ideas here, or mail the group, and you may have some company!


Thursday next week I won't be running at all (2 days ahead of the big race I'm going to be resting!), but once again the rest of the Hillbillies must go for it and enjoy a good run

I should be back on the road the following week (beginning March), if all goes well. I'll give a full race report, and hopefully have a few pics to post too. It's beautiful out in Oudtshoorn (that's where the race is), if a little hot... Definitely worth the trip!

Stats: Tuesday, 16 February 2010, 06:00

Today was a later, shorter 'long run'. Brett and Shaun finally met (yes, another witness that Shaun is indeed a real person, and not a figment of our collective imaginations!!)
:)

We took it easy this morning, flat route, easy pace. Well done to Brett on his longest run! Pretty soon you're going to be keeping Shaun and Josh company at the front of the pack!!

We started up Klipper Road, to fill out the distance a little, and did pretty much the same route as last week Thursday, only today we tacked on an extra little loop. Instead of heading left up Landsdowne Road, we ran straight across to Keurboom and down to Milner Road on the other side. From there we hit the Common from the opposite side before running back to Landsdowne/Liesbeek and the usual route home.


It rained for most of the first half of the run this morning. Starting out with fine 'did you feel that?' misty rain, followed by a bried but very definite rainfall. The rain water wasn't too cold, just enough to cool us down. It was actually a lot of fun running in the rain! Reminds me of childhood :) By the time we'd reached the Common we realised that the rain had pretty much dried up, although the clouds still looked very promising for more.


All in all, another great run! Thanks Hillbillies!

Route profile:

Route map:

Thursday we'll do 8-10km along the more scenic areas. Probably head up to Stone Church water point (8km) or up to the top of Glastonbury (10km) before turning around and retracing our footsteps back home. Unless someone has any suggestions/requests for a new/different route? I'm all ears!


Meet on Thursday, 18th Feb, in front of Great Westerford at 06:00.


See you guys there!

Stats: Thursday, 11 February 2010, 06:00

This morning saw 3 Hillbillies hit the road - Josh, Brett and myself - for what was supposed to be a short and easy (recovery!) run around Rondebosch. Short it was, but easy??? I think that after Tuesday's hill start, our legs were expecting to work hard today again, but with no hills to climb, that translated to a slightly faster pace instead. I'm sure we all felt like we'd worked hard by the end of the run, but every hillbilly finished strong and in good spirits, so we didn't over-do it at least. Josh set the pace, with Brett and I following hot on his heels. I got quite a shock when I looked at my watch just after we turned onto Campground Road, and saw that we were clocking nearly 5m30/km!! I'd say that qualifies this morning as a very definite 'tempo' run! It also proved that we're all getting fitter than ever.


The route, briefly went like this:
Starting at our usual spot in front of Great Westerford, we hit Newlands Avenue from Dean Street, then turned down the M3 for a short downhill. Protea Road took us over Main and past Newlands Cricket, after which we turned up Campground (aka Landsdowne, aka Liesbeek) and headed for a brief water break at the Shell. Having learnt our lesson on Tuesday about crossing Liesbeek in the traffic, we opted for the subway instead this morning. From here we hit Belmont Road, over the railway bridge, followed by a short stretch of Main Road taking us back Great Westerford.

Route Profile:

Route Map:

Next week we'll do a slightly shorter long run - pretty much this morning's route, but instead of turning left onto Campground we'll just continue straight over and follow Keurboom through to Milner. From here we head up towards the Common (we can take a vote on Tuesday morning when we reach the Common as to whether we continue around the common for a 14-ish km run, or just cut along the lower edge towards the water point for a 12km run). Water at the Shell, then head back to the same way we went today.

Just a note - this route does not have adequate water (first/only water point is the Shell on Campground Road), so bring along a small botter of water if you feel you need it for a 12-14km run. We should reach the water point at around 10km if we don't go around the Common.

As usual, Tuesday's run starts at 05:30, but I think that we'll have to start pushing it back out to 06:00 again before too long, as the morning's are starting to get darker again.

Stats: Tuesday, 9 February 2010, 05:30

Wow, talk about a tough run!!! But worth every step! This route was all it promised to be, and more!

It was still pretty dark at 5:30 when we started - just 2 little Hillbillies, Josh and me. We had to question our sanity up that first long climb towards UCT. But running along the top of UCT, looking out over the beginnings of a gorgeous sunset, we remembered why we'd made the effort get out of bed and hit the road this morning.

Making our slow way up to Rhodes Memorial was somehow easier this morning than the last couple of times we've tackled this route - a sign that the hard work is paying off and we're getting fitter! Not that Rhodes Mem is easy in any sense of the word!! But isn't that the whole point of a challenge?? To push the boundries and improve yourself through effort and hard work. The rewards make the pain worth it - in this case a drink of cold water and an awesome view over Cape Town at sunrise!!

And coming down that long hill was bliss after the tough climb to the top.

From here the route was fairly flat - we ran a short way down the M3, feeling sorry for the people stuck in traffic. Up Protea Road past Cavendish, over Main and over the next 'hill' - the railway bridge near Newlands cricket grounds! We were setting quite a pace now that 'The Hill' was behind us - everytime I checked it we were clocking around 5m50/km!!

We took a well-deserved break at the Shell on Campground/Liesbeek Road, and a last drink of water before tackling the final 1½km back to base.

I was absolutely finished after that, couldn't have run another step it felt! But feeling great at the same time.

Those who missed out this morning, really missed out!!

Route Profile:

Route Map:

Thursday is going to be very much a recovery run - pretty much the second half of today's route (i.e. the FLAT half). Starting at 6:00 in front of Great Westerford.
This is the route we'll be doing: Stats: Tuesday, 21 January 2010, 06:00

Race Report: Prison to Prison Half Marathon

"Learn something new.Try something different.Convince yourself that you have no limits." ~ Brian Tracy

This was my motive for ditching the 'Lion of Africa' half marathon in Tokai this past Saturday in favour of the 'Prison to Prison' half just outside Worcester. And wow, was I surprised at how beautiful it is out there!! Definitely a good call!!

We started out in Brandvlei near the prison's parole office (sounds scary, but we weren't in the actual prison, more along the lines of the admin/work area of the prison staff. We even ran past a couple of houses - I guess for the people working there and their families, as it is a bit of a drive from Rawsonville and Worcester). 

We started at 7:00 (a little late for the HOT summer days, but I guess it was mainly to cater for people driving long distances to run this instead of the bigger Lion of Africa a little closer to home). We did a 5km loop through a small neighbourhood before passing the start and heading back out in the opposite direction.

The majority of the route ran past the Brandvlei Dam. I was so glad that I'd decided to use this race to try out my new (and compact) camera. I'd brought it with, 'just in case', and driving towards the start, even though still dark, I'd caught a few glimpses of the dam. And decided right then and there that the camera was going to do the 21km with me!

All the pics (except of course the pre- and post-race ones) were snapped while running. I got the expected blurs, but the majority of the pics were surprisingly clear!

Okay, back to the race: km's 5-13 were out along the dam, while 13-21 were back along the same route. The route can best be described as 'mildly undulating'. The up's enought to shorten your breath, the downs just 'down' enough to recover and make up some time. It was a fairly lonely route, with very little by way of traffic, and small 'busses' of runners ahead and behind me. The field was so small because most runners would have opted for the better known and closer-to-home 'Lion of Africa' in Tokai. Which was fine by me - no congestion, and very little litter along the side of the road (some runners are quite inconsiderate and just throw their empty water sachets/coke cups wherever, giving the rest of us a bad name!!

By far the biggest bus was the group from Brackenfell AC. I was just behind them all the way, and they were quite amusing in their antics! It was obvious from the start that they were using this race as a club training run - they were taking it easy and having a ball! Everytime one of their faster club-mates would pass them on an out-and-back portion of the route, they'd all stop and wave and cheer for them! It's a pity they didn't give any advance warning of this, as I'd have loved to snap a pic or two, but by the time I'd gotten my camera out of its pouch and switched on, they were off again... At least they kept me smiling the whole way, and made the kms just fly by!

By 15km it was pretty hot out, and I'd poured a fair amount of water over my head and down my back to cool off. Heading out there was a nasty little head-wind to contend with, but sadly, as it always seems to happen, after we'd turned around the wind died off. We had a few gusts of tail-wind, but nothing close to what we'd had heading out. Usually I'm not a fan of windy running conditions, but any breeze was most welcome here to cool off a little! Surprisingly, even though I'd forgotten to take my sunblock with (I was way to fast asleep that early in the morning to think of little things like that!) I didn't get sunburnt. I've managed to regain my sock-and-shorts tan though!!

Near the start/finish, there were a couple of these motivational signs - I finally thought to snap a pic of the last one, just before the 19km mark (and last water table, seen just ahead at the top of the biggest hill in the race, at the entrance to the Brandvlei secure area. Kind of like they do at the Two Oceans. Mostly I think these are for the amusement of the runners, to help them take their minds off the heat, and the pain in their legs!

Finally, after 2h21 on the road, the finish line was in sight!! Always a welcome sight, no matter how enjoyable the race/route. It offers the promise of an ice-cold glass of coke, a good stretch, and some clean water to wash your face!

Apparently this is a new route, run for the very first time this year. Previous events were point-to-point, where you boarded a bus, got dropped off at the Worcester Prison, and were told to 'run along back to Brandvlei'. Hence the name 'Prison to Prison'. This year was an out-and-back route, so I guess it was more like 'Prison-and-back-to-Prison'

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable race! Worth the long drive and early morning.

Here are the usual stats:

Route Profile

Route Map

Stats: Thursday, 4 February 2010, 06:00

Another day, another run!
Thanks to the Hillbillies for the great company on yet another scenic route!! And a warm welcome to Brett who joined us for the first time today. First of many hopefully! Starting out with just 2 runners, the Dean Street Hillbillies is really growing this year! Hopefully this growth trend will continue - invite your friends, family, colleagues, anyone you know who'd enjoy running with us in the mornings!!!

Here are the stats from this morning:

Route Profile:

Route Map:

 A hilly route, but much tamer than Tuesday's 15km. Today we stayed well below Kirstenbosch Top Gate level. As I normally do in this neighbourhood (and these particular roads), I took a wrong turn and missed a section that I was hoping to introduce as a new regular shorter route. Turned one road early and basically did an aboutface instead of scenic loop... Oh well, I know where I went wrong this morning, next time I'll keep us on track for the planned route! But there is no such thing as a 'wrong route' on a training run, merely 'interesting detours'! So it turned out a very nice run (with a few hills that I'd forgotten about since I last ventured this way - selective amnesia I guess!). 


Good run, good company, great start to the day!!!


Hopefully I'll see most of the hillbillies on Tuesday morning next week, bright and early (well maybe not so bright at 5:30 just yet) and raring to tackle Rhodes Memorial! This route is long overdue, and I'm sure we are all fitter and stronger than last year November when we last conquered Rhodes Mem. See you guys there!