On relatively short notice, I joined my uncle, a friend of my uncle’s, and two cousins on a run in Cape Town. They were aiming to do Three-Peaks: Devil’s Peak, McClear’s Beacon and Lion’s Head. I only did the first. Starting at Kloofnek (250m), we headed up the mountain to the fire lookout (501m). From there, all along the Upper Contour Path to the saddle between Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak. From there a climb up Devil’s Peak (from 640m to 1001m), which is decent enough that it can be run on the way back down.

At that point I was falling behind already. Blame the thesis. After taking some pictures, I headed back to the car with no haste, for a total trip of about 15km, spread over 3 hours. The others headed up Platteklip Gorge, east to McClear’s Beacon (1087m), returning either back via Platteklip Gorge, or down Kasteelpoort and back to the cars via the Pipe Track, with the intention of then tackling Lion’s Head (669m). I have yet to speak to them to find out how it went or how long it took them. (No answer when I last phoned.)

To state the obvious, contour paths make really good trail runs. We need to do more contour paths. And maybe Swartboskloof. (Jonkershoek. Stellenbosch. Home.) The path from the top of Swartboskloof to the top of Kurktrekkernek is a really nice run. Just a couple of places where vegetation becomes a little thick. “Ending” with a swim at the Second Waterfall is a beautiful reward, and the run from there back to the car is nice and fast. (A couple of climbs, steps, but a gradual descent most of the time.)

The first thing on my sporting calendar is the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour. I don’t know what to expect, being in rather bad shape. If I didn’t have a thesis gut, I’d feel quite confident about aiming for a sub 3:10, achieved by dreaming about a sub 3:00. (What a dream.) As it is, I’d ideally like to drop 5kg in the next 5 weeks. Not quite realistic, but the point is I’ve got to do a lot of cycling. I’m trying to train six times a week. Once I get work and thesis defence out of the way, I could even do more than one session per day.

This post is an invitation to any sports-people that might be reading this. If you are interested in joining me for a road cycle or a mountain bike outing, let me know. I’m living somewhere between Somerset West and Stellenbosch. In between I’m doing some running as well. We have an informal little Stellenbosch Trail Runners group, currently organising via Facebook. We’re currently doing a weekly run. (Thanks to Pieter for organising!) Again, let me know if you’re interested.

Well, yesterday morning, I took the opportunity to go and prove to myself I am alive, in the reality sense: getting out there in the “real world” and doing something absurdly physical. I joined family and friends of family on a handicapped race up Jonaskop, near Worcester. The Big Ascent. A 15km trip with a total altitude gain 1180m. But the pain of going up was simply not enough for me.

I had the honour of taking the longest time of all 22 people taking part. It took me nearly two hours and three minutes. I managed to beat my professional-sportsman cousin thanks to a good 58 minute head-start. Yea, 58 minute head-start. He did it in 1h08. Maybe if I do more than two practice rides of 10km and drop some 15kg of my thesis-gut, I could get away with only a 30 minute head-start.

I will upload my altitude profile later, plotted over time rather than distance because I couldn’t find cable-ties at 3 am, but in the mean time, here is my cousin’s speed/elevation/heart-rate plot against distance:

Notice a downhill just after the 13km mark. Now take a look at this photo illustrating the low-visibility conditions:

Now add to that the knowledge that that downhill shortly after the 13km mark was quite steep, quite slippery (though tar), that I have some reckless genes I inherited from somewhere, that I recently reached a point where I have a dangerous lack of fear, and that the tar road makes a sharp turn at the bottom, to avoid a steep downhill through the fynbos, and the stage is set for feeling truly alive.

Oh, and here’s me, keeping going, by visualising triangles and tetrahedrons in my mind, and tracing the edges around and around in varying sequences:

I cannot be certain whether throwing anchor with my body was a conscious choice, an unconscious choice, or merely a loss of control. When I noticed I’m going way too fast to stay on the tar, I turned sideways (sliding back wheel out) and gently went and laid down on the tar. At speed. Instinct? Reflex? Lack of experience to know how to best deal with such hairy situations? (For example, if I didn’t go for the slip/slide route, would I have been able to stay on the road? Not sliding gives you more traction, but if it wasn’t enough, I’d maybe have ended up doing gymnastics, cartwheels, through the fynbos.) Who knows.

The doc did a good job of patching me up:

I want to go to Stellenbosch Gemeente tonight, I hear they’re showing a piece from The Matrix, hehe. Now my upper thigh wound is still oozing a little. I’m not sure what to do about it. I’m thinking maybe put a piece of wood between my teeth and spray on some Merthiolate. The doctor offered me some Myprodol. I thought I had some at home, turns out I don’t. I do have some Gen-Payne, probably from the first time I tore my ankle. I wonder if that’d help. On the other hand, there isn’t that much pain when I’m not busy upsetting the gravitational equilibrium, e.g. going from a horizontal position to a vertical one.

Anyway, for the more official take on the race, take a look at Jonaskop, The Big Ascent on my cousin’s blog.

Sometimes people need crutches to avoid hurting themselves further.

For something less typical: I want to do the Table Mountain Challenge again this year. Considering it takes place before my final thesis deadline, I will never have lots of time to train, so a crash-course is a no-no. Which means… I start training now, and will try to do a short run (less than 30 mins, or maybe even a really hard run for less than 20) practically every day. This will be a first, if I pull it off: training with some regularity from three months before a race. Table Mountain Challenge is a very nice trail run, which can be done as a relay by three people, if you don’t feel like doing the whole thing.

Orienteering can be great fun for everyone at any fitness level. There are a number of courses you can choose from: short/long, easy/difficult, you can make it a Sunday afternoon stroll (uh, midday, rather) with a friend or spouse, or you can race as hard as you want. You get a map which shows the checkpoints you must find. While you are allowed a compass, you really shouldn’t need one for the easy courses.

If you are interested in either event and want more info, just ask!

I find post-grad study to be a tricky thing. I work well under pressure. With post-grad study, however, the deadline is too far away, there really doesn’t seem to be that much pressure. That is the problem though, there is so much work to be done, by the time the deadline is close enough to feel pressure, the workload is too high. So now I’m juggling. I must allow myself to stress enough to remain extremely productive, but too much stress is also deadly. (Weekly deadlines help, but it’s really too late to be concerned about weekly deadlines.)

This blog, then, will likely fall rather silent, for a few months. A pity. I discovered a friend that has converted to Islam (or “reverted” as some apparently like to say), and another friend has taken the path of Buddhism. Add that to the other good old friends that are at various places amongst the agnostic, atheistic, pastafarian and humanist perspectives, and the friends that are more conservatively Christian, and then the fundamentalistic and literalistic ones… The scene is set for some rather interesting discussions, don’t you think? But, that will of course all have to wait until, uh, September?

I do hope to build up some basic fitness, and take part in the CapeStorm Extreme-O on 20 May. That’s now all that is left of sporting plans.

Now that’s where the dangers of good health come in… Running along a beach with many stray dogs, led to my leg grazing the teeth of one particular dog that thought “hmm, moving target! Looks tasty!” So now I’m getting rabies shots, just in case. I get people asking me how I feel, i.e. if I’m showing any symptoms? What they typically don’t realize, is if I show any rabies symptoms, I’m as good as a goner. (I’d have 2 to 10 days to say goodbye.) The very few people who survived rabies, typically got rabies because their vaccinations “failed”, so they weren’t completely unvaccinated. And all but one survived it, with severe brain damage. There is one famous case, Jeanna Giese, who did survive without a vaccination, She received a concoction of experimental medication, some of which had the purpose of inducing a coma. Following her ordeal, it was a long road to recovery. (She suffered some nerve damage, but her cognitive abilities remained largely intact, borrowing wording from wikipedia.) Sorry Jeanna, dragging you into this again… (she was forced to deal with sudden, involuntary celebrity status).

Anyway, that’s making the story rather long. To summarize, I don’t intend to display any symptoms at all. The dog was probably not rabid, for one. (I hope.) The “bite” was but a little graze. (Hmm, maybe I should have taken a picture? I so love to take pictures of my injuries for record keeping… ) The first thing I did after the “bite”, was run into the sea. Good move, considering the first thing you should do is wash the wound with lots of water (and soap, or something?) Following that, it’s on to Post Exposure Prophylaxis. Five shots over a 28 day period, it is a vaccination against rabies, and it is highly effective. (Rabies takes a while to get going, which is why it’s fine to get your vaccination after exposure.) So yes, it’s possibly unnecessary, but because of the severity of rabies, you just don’t take any chances.

Oh, and rabies normally takes from three to twelve weeks to kick in, but can take as long as 2 years. So if you do want to enquire about my health (i.e. whether I’m alive?), I guess you should do so in two or three months’ time?

The most insane thing I found while researching rabies, was the anti-vaccination groups. There are seriously people out there who claim you shouldn’t bother taking any vaccinations, that it’s all a lie, and, um, I think large quantities of Vitamin C is all you need! Yea. OK. Whatever.

It’s good to be running again, though I’m taking it easy while my arm “hurts”, due to the vaccinations. On Saturday, I will not be taking part in the XTerra in Grabouw (that makes me very sad). On Sunday, I will not be taking part in the Spur Adventure Challenge… unless Francois succeeds in twisting (my already hurting) arm. I have my sights set on an orienteering race on the 29th, and maybe the Safari Half Marathon on 1 May. QUAC #1 is on 5 May, but might be too time consuming for me to take part in. Then there’s the “Extreme Orienteering” on 20 May, also in Grabouw. (Lebanon forest.)

Last Saturday I did go paddling, in the Hermanus-Stanford race, first time back in the boat since the Totalsports Challenge on 6 Jan, so I was unfit. I think I came in around 90th (will know later), instead of last year’s 55th (of about 120), and you’re supposed to improve in your second year of paddling. Oh well. Maybe while my calf is healing, I should focus a bit on paddling? (Yes, yes, or my studies.) After the race was done, I paddled back to the start, like all the “good/hardcore people” seem to do. Good exercise, double race distance. It was a short race though, around 15km? The long portage in the middle was tiring, luckily my calf didn’t bother me much. Souvenirs? Just a little bit of sunburn, bruised shoulders and stiff muscles. I forgot to take a T-shirt or sunscreen. Also forgot the energy bar I wanted to eat before the start.

Sunday (25th) there is an orienteering race at Jonkershoek. For more information, follow the links on the PENOC website. Sorry, silly links, I can’t link directly to the race. I might be there, maybe walking the short route with my sister, to introduce her to the sport. Walking should still be fine… I think…

Well, the Argus was a great experience. Despite perfect weather (I was done by the time the nasty winds picked up, and the temperature and mild cloud cover was great), 3:15 was too optimistic. (That is probably because I effectively trained three times a month since the Totalsports Challenge. Add to that the Argus Mountainbike Challenge, puts it at 10 sessions since 6 Jan, and about 300km. Counting from 1 December, I did nearer 700km.)

Early in the race, I saw my speed was much too low… and expected I might have to work hard just to improve my personal best, which was 3:42:47. Half way through the race, I became more optimistic again, preparing myself mentally for the nice (infamous) climbs, and expecting a time between 3:30 and 3:35.

The absolute best part of the race? I totally whipped Chapman’s Peak! Yea! And then I whipped Suikerbossie too! Whoohoo! (These two are infamous as the “toughest climbs” in the race. Have a look at the race profile, the two “mountains” near the end.) Not a single person passed me on the climbs, most people appeared to be standing still. Hey, allow me my moment of glory, and bear in mind I started in “S”, so I wasn’t competing with the big guns.

The good performance on the climbs was where I placed my hope for making up lost time, and I succeeded beautifully. I came in around 3:21. I love my road bike! (Uh, if my mountain bike is reading this: I love you too, our relationship has just hit a rough patch, and we should work on our trust issues… we can get through this. I really do have enough love for the both of you!) I look forward to the day I actually train properly. If that day ever arrives. For now, I must just work hard at getting the current priorities out of the way (i.e. completed).

Some of my adventure racing friends may label it “The Rat Race”, that doesn’t change the fact that it can really be a truly awesome experience.

‘Tis definately good for the psyche, getting out and doing something like this. Maybe it classifies as fitness faking? That’s fine, maybe I need something like that. I’m in absolutely no danger of proving true fitness (we’re talking natural selection here) in the foreseeable future.

(Yea, I used that link in the “E.T.” article as well. I like the article enough to insist on linking more than once, to increase the chance of it actually being read!)

Sunday (4th) is the “Mountain Bike Argus”, and the Sunday after that, is the “real” Argus, apparently the world’s largest timed cycle race. Adventure racers call it “that rat race”. Considering it has now been about three weeks since I cycled at all, things are, as always, going to be interesting. The “Mountain Bike Argus” has a couple of distances to choose from. I entered for the longest one, 55km, since I was supposed to be fit by now. I could change my distance, but I’ve decided to rather see it as a training session. Too long a training session I guess, it will be over-training, then I won’t be able to train for the three days following it, which is about all I have left considering I should “taper”.

Well, I still intend to improve my time from last year. That should be very easy to do, as I explained in a previous post.

I had a good base on 6 January, thanks to the Totalsports Challenge. However, since then, I’ve climbed one mountain, and gone for short 30 minute cycles only three times. Not good. I will cycle every day this week (until Friday), though I don’t really have time for long sessions. Then I’m away for two weeks, with no cycling. I will do other sports though, maybe go running as well. Hopefully I will return relatively fit, as I then have less than a week until the Mountain Bike Argus, and just under two weeks until the rat race itself… And then I was dreaming about a 3h15!

My best Argus was my first, at 3h40, but that was with a mountain bike. I am doing the roadie thing this year. My worst… well, that was last year, and it was bad, because it was the day after a 7 hour adventure race. My body couldn’t really handle that. Took me 4h50! Anything could improve a seeding derived from a 4h50, so I did the Tour d’Winelands, on 3 December 2006, in 70km/h winds (according to the official site) and driving rain, without training for it. (“Over 90% finished…”, isn’t that inspiring.) It took me a good 4h20. Yea, bad, but it still improved my Argus seeding… to S. Haha. S! That’s bad. And I’m hoping for a 3h15? I make me laugh! Then again, I love a good challenge… wish me luck! (I should rather dream of achieving 3h30, that should be tough enough?)

Leon always has his birthday parties on top of some mountain somewhere. This particular party was held on Saturday 20 January, on top of Helderberg. I will probably be uploading a couple more soon, have a look at all my uploaded photos of Leon’s party.

I had a wedding to attend that evening, so I came down on my own, at speed. My legs, quads specifically, were “stiff” (for lack of a better word) until Tuesday. I chickened out of an orienteering race that Sunday. Besides, Sunday was much too hot!

I survived the Totalsports Challenge yesterday. It involved (distances approximate) 12km surfski, 1.5km swim, 50km road bike, 13km run, 13km K1 (paddling, racing kayak), 25km mountain bike, and to finish, a nice 9km run on the beach, in soft sand, with high tide. Argh! Anyway, it was great fun, took me a good 8 and a half hours. Took a power nap in the car and was still able to attend a wedding in the evening.

The wind with the (K1) paddle picked up, and, being on open-water (Botriviervlei), it looked like a ship’s graveyard, with many people floating in the water with the last 1m of their kayak spiking out of the water next to them…

The only real setbacks I had were on the mountain bike: a puncture and some rear derailleur problems. Both probably my fault, I should have used a new tube (or ideally go tubeless!), and I should have cleaned my bike (more often). The tube I had in the back already had a number of punctures, “fixed” by slime, i.e. possibly not adequately or permanently enough. I’ll be doing a post-mortem on the tube to see if I can learn anything about the causes of that puncture. The rain probably got some of the dirt still on my bike, into the joints of the derailleur.

(Totalsports is the sport store chain sponsoring this challenge. Not linking to their site, as it doesn’t seem to work.)

Update: I came in 12th in my category (male individuals). Two of the five females beat me, making me the 14th individual. (A total of 34 individuals took part.) My cousin (who came in first) was about two hours faster than I! *respect!* See the full results, or the TV schedule.