'Long' run

21.5km @4:30 HR 154 Ca83 11°C 90% NW17/28. Was joined by SG on a cool and showery morning for a nice hilly run in the Darling ranges (map). It was a slightly different run from last week, with different challenges - and it was good to have company. That first climb up to the GE highway is a bugger, but once you get into the park, you get the reward - a nice flat stretch with beautiful scenery. Only one or two roos today and no wallabies. Once thru the park we hit the second challenging hill up Oxley Rd to Hedges Rd - then along Hedges with a bit of a bush bash for ~200m and then continuing up to Brooking Rd, and the third big hill. It's all bitumen up to the Shiraz tap, and my shoes were a little slippery going up Brooking - not nice. Also not nice is the fact that all the water taps on the heritage trail seem to have disappeared... the shiraz tap is no more!

We trotted down the trail, enjoying the 6km+ of downhill after the fairly hilly start. As SG said though, you don't go and run in the hills if you want to run flat... when we hit Glen Forrest to find that tap gone too, I think SG snapped and started to hare down the hill... it took less than 12minutes to cover the last 3k, with the pace increasing as we went !

My legs felt good but a little tired after the non-stop 18k that had gone before. All in all a good run and an improvement on last weeks hills effort. I have found that the body adjusts quite quickly to hills running - a fact that doesn't make the first few less painful, but encouraging to know things improve rapidly...

Going down south next week so blog updates may not be forthcoming... I'll have to work in some intervals 3x((4x400 on 2:00) + 2:00) on Tues, but will probably have a relatively easy week otherwise.