Run around the head
I woke up on Sunday morning to pouring rain, and it took me less than a millisecond to decide to “postpone” the run, and “hope” it clears up later. Why I can’t remember how much I enjoy running when lying under a duvet cover, I’ll never know. I get half an hour later, and amble down to my parents to watch the Formula 1 with my dad, and by this time it’s cleared up. After some breakfast, I drove home, notice that it’s going to be a fine day, and I’m starting to feel guilty for not running, and it’s 10:30 already. So I lace up my shoes and headed out, with half a plan in my head.
This is what I ended up running:
My thoughts exactly. Was an amazing run, up there with the “best ever” category of runs, which pretty much categorises all my runs… but here’s the route I did:
- From Tamboerskloof, ran to down Buitengracht, onto Somerset Rd then past Greenpoint stadium and onto Sea Point Boulevard.
- Ran the whole boulevard, then turned up into Bantry bay.
- Kept going through Clifton and Camps bay, and stopped at my parents house in Bakoven for a glass of water.
- Ran back through Camps Bay, but turned up onto high level road.
- Huffed my way up Kloof Rd and over the “Nek.”
- Down Kloof Nek and back to my flat in Tamboerskloof.
Amazingly, Mr Polar Foot Pod said it was 21km and I backed this up using Google Earth. And surprisingly, I ran it in 1:45, perhaps a little fast for a LSR. (Long slow run) The route is amazing, and goes through some of Cape Towns best parts, going up Kloof Rd wasn’t that bad, even though it was a solid climb for just over 3.5km. Check out the graphs:
Brown is the altitude, blue is my speed, and the erratic red line there is my heart rate. The pinkish curve is the temperature, although the watch takes it right next to my sweating wrist, so it’s a bit high.
What is encouraging for me, is how my heart rate dropped quickly after turning down onto Kloof Nek, and that I manage to run up the entire hill without stopping.
I shall be running this route more often in future.
