Cass - Lagoon Video

Partly piss take, but mostly for fun- here is a little video of me running up to Lagoon Saddle, part of the Cass - Lagoon Track which I ran last week.

Helicopter Hill Test

Did another "test" run up Helicopter Hill yesterday, my last one being on the 14th. The last time I did this it took me 21min21sec to run the 450 vertical meter, 2.7 km trail.

After the Crater Rim race and the Cass Lagoon track in the last 9 days I wasn't sure how this "test" would go, but that's the reason it's a test, right?

After a 20min warm up on the BR rd I cranked into my workout. Feeling strong, I ate into the 1st flatter part of the run and I was thinking that I might even be able to go sub 20mins, but hit the wall somewhat on the final climb towards Lyndon Saddle. I was able to regather a little once I got out of the trees and made it in 20mins23sec.

I was pretty happy with this time as after a big week of training I have been able to recover well and make this workout really count. I'll taper a little this week with the Flag Pole Run Up on this Saturday. I placed 5th in a time of 1hr40 in this race last year and am aiming for a time in the low 1hr30s and a spot a little closer to the front of the pack. Last year I had done more or less no running at this time, as opposed to this year where I have around 6 weeks of solid running under my belt. This has been made up of very little speed work, the closest I have come to speed training is the above workout, which is more of a tempo workout. The plan is to up the speed training during November, before heading to Europe, but I might find myself doing the Molesworth yet?

KILIAN'S QUEST EP.09

KILIAN'S QUEST EP.09- HYMN TO THE RIM

EP 09 in Kilian's Quest is now available at Salomon.com, its well

worth a look (as are all the episodes). Its nice to see it isn't a total walk

in the park for him- he might actually be mortal...........

Some pretty good quotes in this episode-

"More kilometers, more fun" is pretty good, but my favorite is

"If you think you have already achieved something in this world you are a fool"

Cass - Lagoon

Got out and did the Cass - Lagoon track yesterday, running from the Bealey end after leaving the car at Cass and hitching to Coral Lynn.

The sign at the start of the track, complete with times and map

Me with the Bealey (flowing from Arthur's Pass) and Waimakarir rivers

I am not 100% on the distance, but Mike Steel has it at 34km. Going off map my run I was thinking 32km and 1000m climbing............

On Cass Saddle after 3hr35min of running and 1500m climbing!

I was thinking it would take in around 4hrs to run this loop, but there was around a extra 500m climbing that I first expected (1532m ascended according to my T6C), and the going was pretty slow on the rivers beds and I also made the short side trip to Mirror Tarn. In the end it turned into a 4hr45min epic. I probably didn't eat or drink enough early in the run, as I was feeling good, but once over 2 3/4 hrs I started to go down hill a little and the last 45mins down the Cass River bed wasn't pretty.......

I had left a feast- pasta, miso soup and smoothie- in my car so was pretty pumped once I final finished.

Chowing down - my post run picnic!

Moa Hunting

"One of the most recent alleged sightings of a large moa took place on January 20, 1993, in the Craigieburn Range. Three individuals sighted and one of them photographed what they insisted was a six-foot-tall bird. They swore it was a moa, not an emu, ostrich, red deer, or any of the other expert-proposed or media-suggested animal candidates.

Paddy Freaney, current hotel owner and former instructor with the British Army’s elite Special Air Service, and his companions Sam Waby and Rochelle Rafferly were tramping — a New Zealand term for hiking in rugged terrain — in the Canterbury high country when they came upon a large bird. “The minute I saw it, I knew what it was,” Freaney said soon afterwards. “I believe it was a moa.” "

-www.cryptomundo.com

I am planning a mini Moa hunting expedition tomorrow, so have been researching up a storm today. I believe that the last Moa spotting was in the Cass-Lagoon Saddles area. I only have the day to do the 32km long, 1000m vertical Cass-Lagoon track, which is normally a 2 day tramp, so I will park at the Cass end, hitch to Coral Lynn and run the track with camera in hand. Hopfully I can snap a better shot of a Moa than the crap photo (see below) that Paddy Freaney took back in '93!

Paddy's Moa photo, taken in 1993

My planned route for tomorrows Moa Hunt (mapmyrun.com- choose "Satellite" for map type)