Trail Ascents and Descents at THE GORGE with some PHAT legends!

Fantastic morning with the PHATties at some trails around the GORGE valley on Sunday 3rd November 2013 A.D.

Clocked up 30km and 928m of ascent in 4hrs 33min (8min.25 per K average doesn't mean much). Walked a lot of the steeper hills and my pace dropped a lot in the last 10km due to saying goodby to my "PHAT" friends and going solo exploring to find some other new trails, and dropping the pace and doing more walk breaks to cope with the soreness from chafing... Not sure what caused it, maybe not enough Body Glide, or different rubbing areas due to the steeper hills, or maybe something else. Overall though a fantastic morning on trails, and was absolutely shattered in the legs afterwards, although DOMS only a big issue for about 48 hours afterwards so pulled up pretty well from it. Having a dilemma at the moment as to whether I have recovered properly from Melbourne, Rottnest and now this one. Not sure what to do with my training return, which needs to be soon with some target races looming up on the horizon in the next few months, but also trying to take it easy before I go back properly, but when I heard the PHATties were going to Wungong I couldn't miss the opportunity. Monarch butterflies were plentiful, saw one kangaroo early on with the early group of PHATties, the thorny blackberry bushes are still there, and they forced a minor route change on the group as we ascended Rode Lijn. (Dutch for REDLINE)

Such a tough hill was ROOD Line that I literally felt like crawling at times on the steep 30% or more ascents on red dirt kangaroo tracks...See this strava segment
...

Thanks to B for the photos. Some of the runners had those Hoka shoes (which I would like to get one day, they might allow my knees to survive for a few years longer), and it was interesting to see the different types of hydration packs everyone was wearing. Some left water caches near the Dam, but mostly we carried our drinks. I went with 2L water in the pack attached to the tube, and 2 Powerades, so carried 3.2L of drinks for this run. Although it was a bit heavy early on, I am used to it, and by the 4 hour mark I had drunk every drop of the 3.2L as the mercury started to rise and the temperature headed towards the 30's... So I had enough drinks, but only just, I think if I had been there more than 5 hours, I would have needed more... Really good group of runners, and I struggled to stay in touch with about 5 of them on the steep hills, but on the flat sections and downhills I was getting to the front of our group of 4 runners in the first hour and 8 runners in the 2nd hour and some of the 3rd hour... Good group that made me work harder then I probably would have if I'd gone solo the whole way... Thats a positive! :-)

Mementos from my fall
... My Strava training notes are as follows; Eastern GORGE trail ascents and descents first 20k with Phatties Hard session. My legs were very heavy after about 2 hours worth, and I was finding the pace strong. Also had some very sore chafing bothering me, and on a downhill, I wasn't paying enough attention and my tired leg allowed my toe to catch on a rock and the next thing I knew I was on the ground with about 7 bleeding wounds on my leg, elbow and hand to help me remember this glorious run.

Washed the dirt off in the creek at the bottom of the valley, and put some antiseptic on them after the run. Interesting run on some trails I have not been on, and a lot I have been on before. Went around my old school at one stage, saw lots of Monarch butterflies, and some utterly SENSATIONAL valley and coastal plain views. This place is just amazing, one of my favourite places to go by a long way. One of the blokes I have seen getting a lot of trails CR's was there, first time I have met him in person I think, and another bloke there did Melbourne in about 3.40, and another well known legend also did Rotto last week with me. Good group. If not for the chafing I might have tried to stay with them a bit longer than 20km. But with the bleeding wounds and the fact I was struggling to stay with them on the hills, and some other trails I wanted to explore, different to the ones they were doing, it became obvious to me the best option was to go solo, so my last 10km had lots more walk breaks, and I kept the pace relaxed for a lot of it... Fantastic location, good hard session. Still feel like I need a few more easy days, maybe an easy week or two to recover properly from recent weeks, but very glad to bank todays session... The photo below is of a section of THE GORGE a few decades ago, but not much has changed now...perhaps not quite as remote as it used to be with the touristy trail on the valley floor (a few decades ago when I went there you just hit the creek at the bottom straight from the bush, there was no valley floor trail in those days...)

Almost stepped on a blue tongue lizard, but didn't see any scorpions or Death Adders or feral pigs there which I know are in that area because I saw them when I went to school there a few decades ago... Its such an amazing place The Gorge, and I think every time I go there I explore a new piece of trail I have not been on before... Really good to get a long run done and consolidate some hills strength (which is a weak point for me because of my weight being over 80kg), but I am now itching to get back into training, but trying to be patient, ease back into it, not rush it... Trails Paradise... Hope to be back here again soon... Thanks PHATties!!!!!!! and Thanks GOD!!!