Longest run in a long time

For the last 6 years, I have done very few long runs. 

When I first moved to George, five years ago, I had a right-knee niggle that I was rehabilitating. I did not know the cause and more than 8 months at the biokineticist resulted in small improvements. A visit to a chiropractor did the trick - my knee pain related to locked SI joint and lower back muscle tension.

I got back to running but stuck with shorter distances (max 8 to 9km) and avoided steep descents.

My knee niggle swapped sides with the left tweaking. Again the problem came from tight lower back, glutes, quads and ITB, which all tugged at my knee making it feel sore. But not all the time. 

I've done odd events (orienteering - max 8km distances), an adventure race (no niggle), an 18km run from Knysna and a handful of runs in the 14/15km distance.

I've learned how to prevent and manage lower back tension (less stress, stretching, mobilisation) and these work well for me.

In the last two months I've had more distance with a few 10km, and three 14-15km runs, and a dash of hiking to cut alien vegetation. I'm consistently stronger and also none worse for wear after each one. 

So, I decided to do the 21km course of the 'For The Trails' run, one of the Garden route Trail Running December events - this one a fundraiser towards the massive amount of trail maintenance done by GTR and Hillbillies.

At the 7am start, it was already warm, but not hot. The course started with a whopper climb up to Tonnelbos and from there on the steep trail up to Van Daalens Peak. I've only ever been down the trail that we went up. 

My strategy for the first 7km - to get over Van Daalens - was to take it 'easy' without spiking my heart rate or breathing so that I would be able to run and enjoy the next 14km of mostly runnable terrain. This worked really well for me and the kilometers ticked off almost too quickly. 

Highlight for me today was the fynbos and the abundance of flowers (Watsonia and others) on the path up to Van Daalens and across the top. And the views of the mountains on the other side.

I felt great throughout the run, paced it well and finished strong. After Van Daalens, I didn't see any people until I caught runners further back on the short course on the Lookout trail. I enjoyed being out there on my own with no distractions.

The run took me around 3h30. It must have been two hours to get to 9km with all that ascent. 

I'm looking forward to enjoying more long runs out there. 

My JHB friends Tania and Paul and their daughters are down here for Xmas. We went to the Bon Game Reserve parkrun on Saturday morning, which is a bit out of Mossel Bay on the Cape town side. Small parkrun, really nice route, some steep short climbs and pleasant running. 

with Paul, Tania and Sarah.