Mr. Cleetus: RunRunRun with a little CX

[Mr. Cleetus]

I knooooow bob, you should come up! Unfortunately I think this may be a quick in and out again. If I am lucky I can add on an extra day or two.

Saturday am, 1hr55min offroad, 680m climbing: very good run with the pup. Steep terrain, but generally took it easy. Enjoyed it.

Sunday off:

Monday am 1hr50 offroad, 690m climbing: completely different location, but similar totals. Wow, I needed that run. Finally a good run. I am still weak, but I enjoyed the entire thing and did not feel beaten up at the end. It's difficult for me to figure out how to describe these runs, but hopefully the videos do that a little bit. As you can see in the vid, I just don't have the strength on the uphills. My descending is ok, but I can't completely let it go cuz I don't have the strength to back it up.

I am off to the States tomorrow for nearly 3 weeks. Hopefully I can keep some of the momentum going. Work is still kicking my $%$.

[veganlisa]

As Bob would say, much of what we run on is pretty gnarly. Think Middle Earth The gnarlier the better, until I feel like I am risking death with a fall!! (ok, sometimes it gets pretty dicey, but I love that). We are blessed with amazing tracks pretty much all around us. I did two excellent runs this long weekend, so I took some pics on Sat and some video on Sunday. Sorry for posting so many, but I couldnt choose Unfortunately they show my complete lack of form and strength (on top of my frightened-6-yr-old running style). I can't believe I'm posting these... both runs were about 2hrs with ~700m climbing and pretty much like the vids the entire way.

What shoes do you run in VL? It can make a huge difference. Also, the stronger you get, the easier it will be. For me my confidence mostly comes from getting my heels high enough to know I will clear anything, and just experience with knowing where to put my foot.

I've got a Suunto Core that has a barometric altimeter in it that I use. My Garmin is pretty useless for elevation and I don't really care about distance in hilly offroad runs.











This is my favourite one, a bit of the downhill. Good fun, I think about a 50m drop in this vid



The run started with a 330m climb, which was all like this or steeper, tough enough when I am fit, but now...:



Here is a good shot through the roots on a rare bit of flat:



This one shows the steepness a bit better, and even a bit of a stumble. I've got no power!!



Here is Jefe showing how it is done on the up. He is one of the best climbers around. Too bad (good for me) that he descends like a complete novice!

Wow! Cool pictures and videos! Yeah, I would definitely be tripping all over those roots and walking those hills. Man, you guys just power up those climbs...very impressed! Yesterday I did the race loop again, wiped out again, opened up an old wound and had blood fast dripping from by hand. The race director, who led our run, recommended that I get some bike gloves to run with until I become stronger and more experienced (i.e., less of a klutz ). Any recommendations? It seems like a lot of them have leather, but I haven't really looked around other than checking one online site. I'm currently running in Mizuno Wave Acends: http://www.onlineshoes.com/womens-mizun ... 9+6&offer=

[IronGirl]

Awesome videos. Blimey that's hardly a trail, makes our tree roots in the woods look pretty insignificant.

Looks like hard work to me, you are stronger than you think.

Saturday am, 1hr55min offroad, 680m climbing: very good run with the pup.

"Pup" is he new?

[Mr. Cleetus]

Sooo, I am back to real life, for a couple of weeks anyway (before being off to the other side of the globe again in less than two weeks). I had some pretty excellent mountain running while in the US including one of my biggest running weeks in years (10hrs). It was sandwiched between two pretty minimal weeks, but maybe that was for the best! All of the running was at altitude including one long at entirely over 3,000m. Whew, it's hot over there right now!! It feels good to be getting some real running fitness again.

Irongirl, Mr. Otis is the pup and he is 6 and we've had him since he was a wee fella. I wish he liked long runs more than he does!

I decided to top myself in my own ugly running shoe collection and purchased a pair of Hoka Mafetes. I have not completely made up my mind on them yet, but they certainly feel amazing in certain aspects. I'm not sure this pic shows how absolutely enormous they are. Your foot sits down in them, so you are not quite as high as they look, but no doubt it is an interesting and comfy "ride".

[fredrikw]

Why do you run on the MTB trail?

[Mr. Cleetus]

Why do you run on the MTB trail?

Come on down with those Ravens, Fredrik, I'll show you some mtb trails!


Monday lunch 30min: flat/fast boring run. j.e.t.l.a.g.

Tuesday lunch: 53 min 360m climbing, 9.4km : muuudddyyyyy. Didn't feel all that great, but the pace was certainly on and I could not keep up on the steep part of the climb. I got away from him on the down though Here's the strava from the guy I ran with. It certainly wasn't very accurate in this case, not sure if that is the fault of his phone or not - and it took more than 1km to start registering.
http://www.strava.com/runs/bull-maranatha-11746676

[fredrikw]

You're the one on Ravens

A bit far away though, but you never know...

[Alistar]

Gosh! Those shoes sure are big. Look very comfy though. Reckon they're hiding big springs in their soles

Must say I'm a bit jealous of all your running though.

[bob_summers]

nice vids MrC, not sure how you avoid spending half the year nursing ankle sprains though

[ninearms]

Nice. Just getting into running trails again myself. I had to clear my Internet history after seeing you'd posted a picture of some Hokas though!

[Mr. Cleetus]

Nice. Just getting into running trails again myself. I had to clear my Internet history after seeing you'd posted a picture of some Hokas though!

Ha! no doubt they are hideous, but I've got uglier shoes I did my first proper muddy rooty steep NZ trail run in them this weekend and was very pleased with their performance. I wasn't feeling so great, so I didn't really go for it on any of the descents, but indications are they will go quite well! ..... I think I had better get some Brooks Pure Grits to balance them out though.

I picked up a nasty cold so I skipped my runs Friday and Saturday. Disappointing, but not surprising given everything.

Sunday am 1hr49 off road run, 670m climbing: This is one of my favourite runs. It starts off with a ~320m climb with some short sections that are as steep as 160% if you believe strava. That seems about right, there are certainly places where you are going more up than forward. Next is a fantastic section along the top that is never flat, but no big climbs, but very technical with disappearing track, jumping over trees, roots, ducking under trees, steep drops, etc. Good times! unfortunately my watch died about 1hr30 in, so I don't have the last climb out, etc. I was definitely feeling the cold, but still a good run.
http://app.strava.com/runs/12233877

[Alistar]

Nice mt running Mr C!

Gosh! Can't tell me you didn't feel that one! Can't believe we both heard and felt it down here and because of the duration knew it was big somewhere. Initially heard it was a 6.5 in Welly and thought the worst! Thank goodness it was as deep as it was and off the coast so hopefully no real damage done.

[bob_summers]

Hmm, now let's see some bike rides up on Strava (earthquake permitting!)

[Mr. Cleetus]

yeahhh that was certainly one of the biggest shakes I've ever felt. First time I have reacted and not just thought, "this is cool!". Some felt reports of damage where I live, but I don't think I believe them.

Yeah Bob.... it is pretty sad, this is my longest time off of the bike in a very very long time. I am off to Paris on Sunday, hopefully when I get back from that I can start to get a few more rides in. Listening to Ollie Whalley on national radio the other day certainly give my motivation a boost (not that it is motivation that I am lacking ).

Tuesday lunch 35min tempo run with 12 min pace effort climb: I thought we were putting in a huge effort on the climb, which we had planned to, but then I looked at it compared to the past 5 or 6 times I have done the climb and all were within 4s of each other! That is crazy, some of those were easy efforts. I need to look at splits up the climb. I am curious if the fact that we nailed it up the first steep pitch did more damage to us later in the climb than the benefit over that part.
http://app.strava.com/runs/12331637

[Mr. Cleetus]

Wednesday lunch run 1hr25min 859m vertical 13.6km: good run, but, man, it was slippery on some of those descents!! I really cannot figure out strava. It shortened the distance from my Garmin and initially after the upload it had 859m vertical and now it has 601m and I made no changes to cause that. I know that ~800m is correct from having done it many times with my altimeter.... anyway, I've still got no power on the climbs!

http://app.strava.com/runs/12419826