Werewolf run

The combination of work and the full moon must have been getting to me as last night I went for a run in the mountains from Glenfalloch Station at the head of the Rakaia River, to Lake Heron.

Moon rise was 7.36 pm to the East

Arrowsmith range to the west

A full moon accompanied me for most of this run/walk. It became a bit cloudy around Midnight, but it cleared again from there. Every tussock looked like some unidentified animal so it is easy to see where the  imagination can run riot to conjure up all sorts of beasts and monsters. 

The run finished at 4 a.m. 50 km over 8 hours so this will help put some miles in the tank. Total of 121km past 7 days. Being too sleepy to drive back immediately, I had a snooze for a couple of hours to be woken by the sunrise shining on the Rakaia River.

 

Ka Kite

What doesn't kill you, chocolate will make you stronger

Mt Herbert - "North face"

The weekend has consisted of 3 runs around the flats of Ashburton. Today I took advantage of a board meeting in Diamond Harbour to go for a run up Mt Herbert. This is the highest point on Banks Peninsula, east of Christchurch, at 920 metres. Mt Herbert was named after Sir Sidney Herbert, the British secretary of war who was responsible for sending Florence Nightingale to the Crimea War. Thus, indirectly he was responsible for the birth of the nursing profession.

View of Southern Alps - stretches across an area 3x the size of Switzerland

The day started with benign spring warmth which progressively disappeared. The area is quite spectacular with its views but the hillsides are quite bleak having been denuded from fires and land clearances in the distant past. I ran past an area of skeletal dead trees which gave a graveyard eeriness to the run.

What trees there were certainly gave no doubt as to where the prevailing wind came from, as this stunted mountain totara , below, shows.

Fortunately as this was an "out and back" run/walk/stagger,  and the wind direction did not change,  I did not end up bald on one side of my head.

Running back up Mt Herbert after going partway along the peninsula summit track, I hit the wall.

Internal question : Why am I feeling so terrible?

Internal answer   : Because you nearly fifty, running up a stupid hill , it is  cold  and you are hungry

Internal Solution : Eat CHOCOLATE

Result                 : Yum. Caramello never tasted so good. Feel Better

Fortunately from thereon the run was all down hill so the 4 hr 17  min run saw me cover the grand total of 24 km with 1238 metres of ascent. This was one of the toughest outings I have done for a long time, so hopefully this will improve my endurance. Total of 94 km in the last 7 days. Managed to snooze through the board meeting without snoring.

Kia Kaha

Post Match review

Last weekend took a different  direction with "master's" soccer involving 5 games of 40 minutes resulting in 1 draw , 2 losses  one win and one team which did not turn up. Intriguing that 2 hours or so of football over a weekend leaves you much more sore then 2 hours of running. Falling over hurts more after age 40.  However aside from bruises the legs are intact if not the pride.

After the southerly blast ( last game on Sunday was played in a howling gale at 2 degrees Celsius) , spring has returned. I went for a slow achy 4 hour run today around the  roads of Geraldine.

Four Peaks Range, Geraldine. Spot the native tree ( answer=0)

 Today's run ended in one of the only stands of Totara in Canterbury, in the Talbot Forest.

A Mighty Totara unfortunately with extensive  possum damage.

It is just over 6 week to the Molesworth run now so the longer runs will be occurring over the next 3 weeks. 

Ka kite.

Rowing on Lake Hood

The last 10 days have been splendid with sunny dry days. The soil is starting to show small cracks, so people will be complaining soon of lack of water despite the rainiest winter for many years. This is a picture of some rowers on Lake Hood yesterday morning at the end of my 10 km run. The lake has been well used as the Christchurch rowers have been in Ashburton a lot since the earthquake  disrupted their usual rowing stretch ( Kerr's Reach ) because of disturbance to the river bed there and uncertainty about sewage contamination of the River Avon.

There was a decent tremor of 5.0 last night which was quite reminiscent of the big quake last month. Happily it did not last long although a few seconds seems like minutes when it happens.

Today I managed a 30 km run which felt quite challenging although I was pleased that it was my fastest long run ( >26km) with the exception of the Abel Tasman Coastal Classic, in the past 3 months. Overall 50 km since Sunday. Tomorrow will be cross training on the bike.

Ka kite.

Change of scene

A steady amount of k's this week with 21km/10km/15km runs this week. On Thursday I was stalked by an escaped farm deer for about 6kms. This was a little unnerving as she would canter after me for about 100 metres then stop, sniff the air, snatch some grass , allow me the get ahead for a further100metres then catch up with me snorting and drumming her hooves on the ground. Then repeat. As I figured that there have been no reported cases of deer maulings outside of handling pens , I presumed its intentions were friendly.

This weekend saw me visiting North Canterbury for my daughter's soccer tournament.  I ran along New Brighton Beach both mornings so this provided a beautiful change of scene.

A washed up snapper marked my turnaround point on Saturday. Reminded me of the snapper and chips at the Kaiapoi WMC from the night before. 

This weeks plan is for most of my runs to be during the week as I am involved in a Masters Soccer tournament in Timaru next weekend.

All the best.