Feeling a little more normal...

After a couple of quieter weeks since racing the Tarawera Ultra I am finally starting to feel a little more fresh on my runs. Legs don't get as sore anymore and I seam to be recovering much better again! Rather than feeling heavy for days after doing a tempo run.

So this week I decided to do a little more and see how it went, I started off my week as normal now with a speed session with Gem, Emily and Lar. A nice solid hour after work on a Sunday is just right, we started off with hill reps followed by some grass track work! With the clocks changing last week you can really see the difference as your running around the track in the pitch black with no head torch.. I think everyone said the same things at some point in the session "Where's the track gone?" All good fun to say the least!

Gem taking a moment at the top of a long climb..

Through out the week I have been doing more but shorter runs to get the legs ticking over and they seam to be coping well! (For a change) And the usual to and from work either walking or running what clocks up a few more miles.

Stunning views around..

Yesterday I had said to Gem about running up the Remarkables and along to Lake Alta for a longer run. We set out around 10am as the forecast was hot followed by rain in the evening, it wasn't wrong! Along the way up the heat was just raising and rising step by step which made it even more fun.. if a 13.5km hill climb in one go wasn't tough enough as we neared to the summit of the climb there was workers in the road stating we couldn't go any further due to works being done at the ski resort unless we went off track and found a way around. As most of you know me, I did just that! After the next corner I had decided to just take a hard right turn and start to run/walk/scramble up to the ridge line to see how we was going to get around, after about an hour of waist deep grass, scrambling over rocks and trying not to fall down the side of the mountain we finally reached the ridge line of the Remarkables Mountains at just over 6,000ft in height we made our way towards to ski resorts area and ultimately Lake Alta. The best feeling ever after being roasted by the sun most of the way up was to just through my arms and face into the glacier made lake and cool down! Didn't take long before I was freezing of course, can't win!

Enjoying the cold waters of Lake Alta..

The decent was much easier and we were down back into town in half the time which was great as I was starting to starve :-) just under 50km and 12,000ft of elevation change we had finally around back home and had enjoyed an awesome day in the mountains.. My kit choice for the days was Nathan Vapor vest (Awesome all around pack what doesn't bounce around in the mountains, fits perfectly and enough pockets to carry everything along with 2L of water.) A pair of Hoka One Ones and Salomon twin skin shorts and top!

Picking routes out along the mountain side.. 

Easter weekend next weekend and I am hoping to do a little shorter racing locally as it's Easter there is a 10km trail race on the Friday followed by a 26km trail race on the Sunday. All being well hopefully I will get to race in both and gain some race fitness for the TNF100 in Aus coming up in May!

Thanks again to all who takes time to read/follow my blogs..
Paul