New Beginings

It's been a while since I last posted. On the 12th of December, Rachel and I welcomed Luke Andrew John Ingham into our family. He's great! Although he's still struggling to let us get enough sleep overnight, Lukey is a delight to look after! He's already showing signs of having some very strong legs. and is very restless, so it looks as though he may well be on his way to becoming a runner... I have the mountain buggy all ready for when he's old enough to get out in it to hit the trails :-)

One thing has made itself more obvious over the past two and a half weeks though: I was never under any illusions that either training for a 100km race or caring for a newborn child were going to be easy. Trying to combine the two has proven to be even worse, predictably. I have been getting out for a few runs, though at a much lower frequency than I would have liked. The first time I ran over an hour after Luke's birth was an unbearable hot and humid day, I almost killed myself from overexertion! Things are getting a little better, and I remain on track for Tarawera at the moment. I have been toying with the idea of switching to the 60km race, but will continue training for 100km at the moment and make the decision closer to the time.

One place I have enjoyed running recently is the Manawatu Gorge. It has long been my opinion that this is some of the finest native forest in the lower North Island, and if it were any bigger, would probably be a much more popular destination! The western side of the gorge, which is also the steeper end, is a tall, old forest of natives, with a quite spectacular undergrowth comprising of tree ferns and nikau palms. On a warm day, with high humidity, it is very easy to imagine yourself in more tropical climes, rather than 20 minutes drive from one of New Zealand's most maligned cities! Around 18 months ago a large slip closed off the road through the Maawatu Gorge for well over a year, and to try clearing it, contractors had to make a new dirt road in to the top of the slip through the forest reserve. At the time I felt this was a great shame, as it took away some of the natural betuyy and feelings of isolation in that area. However, now the Department of Conservation have taken advantage of this to create a new track, looping up to the slip. I first ran this track on Boxing Day, and it's a beauty! At first, a gentle climb  gradually steepening with a few staircases  before plateauing into a more meandering, undulating, winding path at the top. Underfoot it is soft, easy to wear my Vibrams on, which is a huge positive for me as there aren't too many tracks in the area on which I can. And on the way down, the meandering downhill single track is a delight! I'll be headed back there soon! Its a short loop track ( I estimate a couple of kilometres to the top of the slip), but combined with other tracks you can get a run up to 20km or so if you want/

There are mutterings that the local mountain bike club are wanting to put another track over the gorge, more suitable for biking, but open to runners as well... if this happens I think the gorge is going to become much much more popular as a trail running destination.

Running in the Family

Today is the due date for our new arrival in the family. Obviously, I'm writing tonight, so the little one has not yet arrived. Any day now I'll be trying to fit runs around our firstborn as well as work, and although we have bought a pram which should allow for my impending son to come with me on runs, we're still likely a few months away from being able to use it for such a purpose.

So this weekend, I've had a bit of waiting time to fill up. My little sister, and New Zealand's top ranked orienteerer, Lizzie was visiting for the weekend, which gave opportunity to go running with company. Here's a picture of Lizzie trying to teach a swan to orienteer.

We started the weekend with a quick mountain bike ride along the Turitea-Green Road track. Having not biked for a long time, a few of the steeper and longer hills took a bit of getting used to. On Saturday afternoon we went for a run up to Harding's Park, which I wrote about a few weeks ago. This time, we started at a brisk pace along the Kahutarewa Stream, before tackling the steep climb up The Elevation. THis is where Lizzie's superior training paid off: about half way up she let me known that she's been training with a guy who recently ran a 5:45 Kepler Challenge: not too shabby. The run left me a little dispirited in a way, as she ran away from me a few times, but Lizzie does estimate she's at the fittest she's been in a long time, which can only bode well for her Orienteering World Cup races in January, where she hopes to use her 'game face' like she is doing here:


Today Lizzie went off orienteering up the coast, whilst I stayed around near a phone, waiting for baby to pop out. He didn't of course, so I took my phone and went running in a pine plantation up the Pahiatua Track form our home. It was a very warm day, my legs were sore from yesterday, and the hills were steep, but again I had a great time, and even found some mud and an old bulldozer.

One thing has become apparent this weekend, and that is that I should try running some longer distances prior to Tarawera in March. I'm giving some serious thought to running the Hutt River Ultramarthon next month, 60km from the Wairarapa, over the Rimutaka Incline, and down to Petone. It's mostly on 4WD tracks, with some on road, and with minimal climb, but should be good for some training miles. Maybe even pushing a mountainbuggy for a while!

The Post Night-Shift Malaise

I've done a reasonable amount of running this weekend after a week off due to work: last weekend I was working two 14 hour shifts, and then four overnight shifts during the week. I never get much quality running time in when I'm working nights, despite best intentions: the pattern usually goes work overnight, come home, sleep, get up, sit on the couch, eat tea, go to work, and repeat. This means by the time of the weekend I'm chomping at the bit to get out, usually with, at least initially, some disappointing results.

Yesterday I headed back out to Kahutarewa Recreational Hub, to run up the Back Track. This starts with a thirty minute climb up an old road through mature native forest, curving in and out of a big valley as it makes its way up the hillside. The track is also open to mountain bikes, and is one of the more popular rides in the Palmerston North area. Unfortunately, having just emerged from a nocturnal existance for the previous five days I struggled a little with the climb to start off with, but managed to keep going, despite two mountain bikers parking right behind me for fifteen minutes, and not overtaking me until we reached a slight downhill! Up towards the top of the track, the forest turns into predominantly tree ferns, before opening out into felled pine plantation.

After yesterday feeling a bit lethargic through 90 minutes, I was hoping for a decent blow out today. Unfortunately it was two hours through the town paths around Palmerston North of misery. The weather was muggy, wind was up, and I couldn't really fet into a decent stride.

Despite my problems this weekend, it could have been worse... Last week I was bemoaning being unable to enter the Goat Alpine Adventure Race. This took place yesterday, however given the risk of eruption on Mt Ruapehu, and more s[specifically I assume of lahars down the western slopes, the course unfortunately had to be changed to 19km up the Ohakune Mountain Road. Having had to run the last kilometre of last year's race up this road, I could not think of a worse way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday morning! The Kepler Challenge was also this weekend, however, and the pictures on TV3 news of helicopters soaring along behing runners along the main ridge were simply spectacular!  Definitely a race for the years to come.

Back to normal work hours tomorrow, and hopefully this will allow for some more reasonable running behaviour during the week. Of course, I imagine my whole training schedule will go out the window at some point in the next couple of weeks, when the new arrival/support crew member arrives!