The Dragon Runner

2020 Resurgence

25 Feb 2020

As the year progresses towards the end of February I am very conscious of my resolution to train this year, and so far I have been doing as much as I could manage. My body seems to be in a perpetual state of pain as a result of the increased activity, but I am still fighting and making some progress.

I was honoured recently when my son Aaron decided to join me on a road tript to Wamboin in rural NSW for the 12km Kowen Trail Run. This was a wonderful event held on an awesome course just across the border from ACT. The area was heavily impacted by drought, and we were lucky to have favourable weather conditions as the bushfire crisis raged on in other parts of the State.

Since we both started with a serious lack of training for such a tough, hilly trail event we made the decision while standing on the start line looking at the first 4km uphill section that we would walk the event. We knew there was a generous time limit to allow such a strategy & so as a result we were both able to finish in a little under 2.5 hours.

Despite being tired & sore from this event we have both committed to making a return to the 11km Great Volcanic Mountain Challenge to be held in Orange on March 29. GVMC has more climbing than Kowen, with 3 big climbs strung together by undulating fire trails rather than the constant steep up/down hills of Kowen. As a bonus, we have both finished GVMC twice previously so we have some idea of the course ahead of the race.

On the parkrun front, I have set myself a goal of not missing any runs this year. That makes for a target of 55 events in 2020.

My times have taken a bit of a hit this year with plenty of walking at the weekly events. I just need to keep pushing myself to keep moving on exhausted legs so that the longer events I am looking at later in the year can be achieved.

1 Jan 20	Shellharbour parkrun	5km	47m 29s
1 Jan 20	Sandon Point parkrun	5km	45m 48s
4 Jan 20	Cronulla parkrun	5km	49m 10s
11 Jan 20	Sandon Point parkrun	5km	47m 21s
18 Jan 20	Huskisson parkrun	5km	41m 04s
19 Jan 20	Kowen Trail Run	12km	2h 26m 10s
25 Jan 20	Shellharbour parkrun	5km	58m 34s
1 Feb 20	Shellharbour parkrun	5km	1h 02m 23s
8 Feb 20	Shellharbour parkrun	5km	48m 49s
15 Feb 20	Werrington Lakes Reserve parkrun	5km	44m 40s
22 Feb 20	Shellharbour parkrun	5km	48m 13s

As the Coronavirus exploded around the world I have had my own headcold to contend with, which when coupled with my training exhaustion has resulted in a reduced workload in the last two weeks. I have been taking shorter walks in an effort to keep a bit active, but have not been recording the on Strava. My stats show a decrease this month, which is true but not the total picture. Regardless I do need to get everything back on track very soon!

Month	Hours	Kilometres	PR's	Activities
Avg 2017	19	134	17	32
Avg 2018	6	39	2	10
Avg 2019	8	56	8	9
Jan 2020	21	114	1	33
Feb 2020	6	36	0	11