Yesterday was the Constantia Valley Grape Run, one of my favourite races on the year's calendar. It's 21km through the Constantia Valley wine farms and Tokai Forest. Even though it's not officially summer yet, this race always seems to have fair weather. I actually ended up with a mild sunburn after yesterday's event!
The route is very scenic (i.e. hilly), but always fun. The atmosphere is festive, the views are stunning, and there are some great lucky-draw prizes up for grabs after the race. Always a popular event, I make a point of running this one every year. This year we ran right through a small troop of baboons who had congregated on either side of the road in the middle of Tokai Forest. They looked a little confused at seeing 2000 runners making their way through the forest, must've been wondering what on earth we were up to!!
This race is a must for next year!! By today the sunburn is nearly gone, and the legs are still just a little stiff, but I'm feeling surprisingly good!!!
For results and photos from past events (this year's official photo's should be up soon) have a look at the race's official home page:
http://www.vob.co.za/_race_graperun.asp
Monday, 26 October 2009
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Workaholic...?
Wow, these last 2 weeks have been pretty hectic. My average day has been 7am-7pm. Sometimes including a lunch break of anything between 5 and 45 minutes... I think I may need a holiday. When's the next public holiday again...???
At least it's been productive work - I've managed to get a lot done and finish off the project work I've been busy with. Just got out of a meeting in which a few more requirements were identified, but thankfully most of them are non-critical and don't have to be done before I go home today. Which means I may actually get home before dark for the first time in 2 weeks!! Yipee!!!!! I wonder what I'm gonna do with all that 'extra' time on my hands?? I know - sleep!!!!
Tomorrow morning is going to be another early morning. I've been organising a running group in the mornings, twice a week, starting from work and just generally sightseeing Newlands and Bishops Court areas. Mostly the 'members' are some runner-colleagues of mine, but I've convinced a few friends to join in as well. The more the merrier - if you live/work in/around Newlands and are an avid runner (i.e. not afraid of pitching up at 06:00 am to start a run!), maybe you want to join our little running group? As the group grows, it's actually nicer, 'cause we can now split into smaller groups for faster and slower runners (I fall under the 'slower' category, although I do manage to keep the 'faster' guys in my sights if I go for a flat-out sprint. But that does kind of tire me out just a little... ;P
On the bright side, I'm getting in plenty of speed work!!!! Oh, and hills. If you're afraid of hills then rather stick to your current training schedule - Newlands and Bishops Court is extremely scenic (read: hilly)!!! When I started out a few years ago, I hated hill work. It would leave me out of breath, jelly-legged and questioning my sanity. But a couple of weeks of trying desperately to keep up with the stronger hill-runners who I happen to work with, and I suddenly realised that the hills were becoming ever so slightly easier. Eventually I started agreeing with my one friend's favourite mantra: "The hills are your friends!". I now actually enjoy running hilly races and training runs. They really are much more scenic. And the effort of slogging up the hills makes you feel so much better when you reach the top. Oh, and don't forget the inevitable downhill cruise that follows every climb!!! "What goes up must come down" after all. Eventually....!
At least it's been productive work - I've managed to get a lot done and finish off the project work I've been busy with. Just got out of a meeting in which a few more requirements were identified, but thankfully most of them are non-critical and don't have to be done before I go home today. Which means I may actually get home before dark for the first time in 2 weeks!! Yipee!!!!! I wonder what I'm gonna do with all that 'extra' time on my hands?? I know - sleep!!!!
Tomorrow morning is going to be another early morning. I've been organising a running group in the mornings, twice a week, starting from work and just generally sightseeing Newlands and Bishops Court areas. Mostly the 'members' are some runner-colleagues of mine, but I've convinced a few friends to join in as well. The more the merrier - if you live/work in/around Newlands and are an avid runner (i.e. not afraid of pitching up at 06:00 am to start a run!), maybe you want to join our little running group? As the group grows, it's actually nicer, 'cause we can now split into smaller groups for faster and slower runners (I fall under the 'slower' category, although I do manage to keep the 'faster' guys in my sights if I go for a flat-out sprint. But that does kind of tire me out just a little... ;P
On the bright side, I'm getting in plenty of speed work!!!! Oh, and hills. If you're afraid of hills then rather stick to your current training schedule - Newlands and Bishops Court is extremely scenic (read: hilly)!!! When I started out a few years ago, I hated hill work. It would leave me out of breath, jelly-legged and questioning my sanity. But a couple of weeks of trying desperately to keep up with the stronger hill-runners who I happen to work with, and I suddenly realised that the hills were becoming ever so slightly easier. Eventually I started agreeing with my one friend's favourite mantra: "The hills are your friends!". I now actually enjoy running hilly races and training runs. They really are much more scenic. And the effort of slogging up the hills makes you feel so much better when you reach the top. Oh, and don't forget the inevitable downhill cruise that follows every climb!!! "What goes up must come down" after all. Eventually....!
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Oh what a beautiful morning...!
Wow, what an amazing day!!! I went out for a 10km run this morning with 2 friends - starting at 6:15 from work, we ran for around 1h10. The weather was perfect - warm but not hot. The skies were blue and clear. Fresh air, birds signing in the trees. Just perfect for a run!!!
We started out on the usual hill, taking it slow and enjoying the clean fresh air. We picked up the pace pretty quickly and soon we were flying along!! The guys were having 'easy' runs, I was having a bit more of a 'tempo' workout, but I felt great and still managed to keep up the conversation, so it wasn't too fast. We meandered along our usual route through Newlands and up to Stone Church for water, then decided to be brave and face 'the hill' that is Glastonbury Road, Bishops Court. We made it to the top completely spent but feeling fantastic!!! Then came the downhill cruise all the way back.
A quick shower and steaming mug of coffee later, and I'm feeling absolutely amazing!!
It's a little hard to sit still concentrate on work now, with all those endorphins still flowing through my veins!!!
Here's hoping that the weather will play along on Thursday for another run!!!
We started out on the usual hill, taking it slow and enjoying the clean fresh air. We picked up the pace pretty quickly and soon we were flying along!! The guys were having 'easy' runs, I was having a bit more of a 'tempo' workout, but I felt great and still managed to keep up the conversation, so it wasn't too fast. We meandered along our usual route through Newlands and up to Stone Church for water, then decided to be brave and face 'the hill' that is Glastonbury Road, Bishops Court. We made it to the top completely spent but feeling fantastic!!! Then came the downhill cruise all the way back.
A quick shower and steaming mug of coffee later, and I'm feeling absolutely amazing!!
It's a little hard to sit still concentrate on work now, with all those endorphins still flowing through my veins!!!
Here's hoping that the weather will play along on Thursday for another run!!!
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Allergies...?
Well, this has been an 'interesting' week indeed. And it's only half-way through.
The weekend was spent outdoors, enjoying the fresh air and beautiful spring weather. Sunday we went hiking up to the blockhouse above Rhodes Memorial and had a ball. But then things started falling apart...
Now this hasn't been the first time I've been up to the Blockhouse, but the first time I've actually come off second best. Sunday afternoon I started itching - I thought it was just the bugs that had been biting me, and it wasn't too bad so I ignored it.
Monday, no better but no worse either, fine, get one with my day.
Well, early hours of Tuesday morning arrive and I scratch myself awake. No amount of wriggling or scratching makes any difference, save for making things worse. So I take a drive to the pharmacy for some anti-histamines and lotion to stop the itching - they send me straight to hospital! But this time it's going on 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, and I'm going out of my mind from the itching.
Okay, so I'm admitted to hospital, and get jabbed with needles left, right and centre. Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration - it was only left and right... Once in each bum-cheek and once in my left arm. That was to put the medicine in. Then they drew blood from my right arm to run tests to try to determine what had caused the allergic reaction.
Thankfully the medication kicked in fairly quickly, and my skin stopped crawling. It also practically knocked me out, right there in the emergency ward!!!
I was discharged a little after 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, with a doctor's note for work and a prescription for anti-histamines to take for the next few days. Needless to say I decided to take the doctor's advice and stay home that day (Tuesday) - it was nearly time to get up for work, and having had just about no sleep so far, I was completely and utterly exhausted! I set my alarm for a reasonable time to sms my boss to let him know that I would not be in that day, then off to dreamland at last...
Tuesday I spend pretty much most of the day sleeping off the medication, which still had me pretty drowsy. But by Tuesday night I was feeling pretty much myself again.
Today (Wednesday) I phoned the hospital to get the blood-test results, to find out what had caused such a severe allergic reaction. Strangely, everything came out 100% 'normal'! So that's one mystery still unsolved. I suspect it may be something to do with the spring-time fynbos out near Rhodes Mem - the last time I was in that area the fynbos had not started flowering yet, which is about the only 'unusual' thing I can figure that I've done since this weekend... I guess I'll just have to keep a close eye if I start itching again and try to figure out if any circumstances coincide with last weekend... Until them, I appear to be 100% cured!
But with tons of work to catch up on....
The weekend was spent outdoors, enjoying the fresh air and beautiful spring weather. Sunday we went hiking up to the blockhouse above Rhodes Memorial and had a ball. But then things started falling apart...
Now this hasn't been the first time I've been up to the Blockhouse, but the first time I've actually come off second best. Sunday afternoon I started itching - I thought it was just the bugs that had been biting me, and it wasn't too bad so I ignored it.
Monday, no better but no worse either, fine, get one with my day.
Well, early hours of Tuesday morning arrive and I scratch myself awake. No amount of wriggling or scratching makes any difference, save for making things worse. So I take a drive to the pharmacy for some anti-histamines and lotion to stop the itching - they send me straight to hospital! But this time it's going on 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, and I'm going out of my mind from the itching.
Okay, so I'm admitted to hospital, and get jabbed with needles left, right and centre. Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration - it was only left and right... Once in each bum-cheek and once in my left arm. That was to put the medicine in. Then they drew blood from my right arm to run tests to try to determine what had caused the allergic reaction.
Thankfully the medication kicked in fairly quickly, and my skin stopped crawling. It also practically knocked me out, right there in the emergency ward!!!
I was discharged a little after 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, with a doctor's note for work and a prescription for anti-histamines to take for the next few days. Needless to say I decided to take the doctor's advice and stay home that day (Tuesday) - it was nearly time to get up for work, and having had just about no sleep so far, I was completely and utterly exhausted! I set my alarm for a reasonable time to sms my boss to let him know that I would not be in that day, then off to dreamland at last...
Tuesday I spend pretty much most of the day sleeping off the medication, which still had me pretty drowsy. But by Tuesday night I was feeling pretty much myself again.
Today (Wednesday) I phoned the hospital to get the blood-test results, to find out what had caused such a severe allergic reaction. Strangely, everything came out 100% 'normal'! So that's one mystery still unsolved. I suspect it may be something to do with the spring-time fynbos out near Rhodes Mem - the last time I was in that area the fynbos had not started flowering yet, which is about the only 'unusual' thing I can figure that I've done since this weekend... I guess I'll just have to keep a close eye if I start itching again and try to figure out if any circumstances coincide with last weekend... Until them, I appear to be 100% cured!
But with tons of work to catch up on....
Monday, 5 October 2009
The Great Outdoors
Down here in Cape Town we have been blessed with a couple of lovely weekends - all in a row! Looks like winter is finally moving out and summer is on it's way in. Needless to say, I've been taking full advantage of the beautiful weather, spending time in the great outdoors. Hiking, running, even doing loads of washing!
First it was Newlands Forest up towards Skeleton Gorge:
Then we went up (and up and up and up and up...) to Elephant's Eye Cave out in Tokai:
Then it was back to Newlands for a nice relaxing stroll into Kirstenbosch and back:
And most recently up to King's Blockhouse above Rhodes Memorial:
I've loaded the full albums on Facebook.
First it was Newlands Forest up towards Skeleton Gorge:
Then we went up (and up and up and up and up...) to Elephant's Eye Cave out in Tokai:
Then it was back to Newlands for a nice relaxing stroll into Kirstenbosch and back:
And most recently up to King's Blockhouse above Rhodes Memorial:
I've loaded the full albums on Facebook.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)