CAN I GET A WITNESS?

On top of High West this morning. To quote Marvin: 'Can I get a witness?'

TICKING OVER

These last few weeks have seen some consistently miserable weather in Hong Kong. Its been quite a challenge to keep getting out in 30 degree temperatures and 95% humidity and more often than not in torrential rain. As a result of this it has been good to be able keep things going with a couple of 10hr weeks without loosing the will to live. I have only slipped on my arse once too, though naturally it was in the worse place to do it- on the steps coming down of Lantau peak in a thunder storm. I did sneak a couple of days off which weren't part of the plan when I just couldn't face it any longer but all in all it could have been worse.

The plan is to try and up the base volume a little bit but its not easy given the conditions and my well documented issues getting out of bed in the morning. The aim is to mix it up a bit during the week doing whatever I feel like including maybe one flatter fastish run then on weekends try and get a minimum of 6 hours and 2-3000m+ of climbing in. This means at least one trip further a field than my usual backdoor trails and will most likely mean I will be spending a lot of time on Lantau over the next few months. While HK Island is hilly it lacks the kind of sustained climbs I'm looking to improve on (unless want to do repeats over High West and Victoria Peak that is). So far I'm averaging 6 days running a week, with one 2hr 15min run during the week and then 2ish hours on Saturday and 4ish hours on Sunday forming the main longer outings. The 3 other runs are generally whatever I can fit in, probably a couple of Peak-High West combinations and one flatter easy run. I'll probably start doing 7 days this week going forward and if I can get myself organised might add a easy double on the flat run day.

During these outings I'm starting to think about the summer and the CCC race. I'm hoping to spend the end of July and all of August in Europe, going to Sweden first then likely splitting my time between Scotland and Italy as usual and head to Chamonix for the race before I return to Hong Kong. Could be worse. I might even try and fit in another race or two depending on my schedule, or possibly an attempt at the Tranter round in the Scottish Highlands. Thinking of the race specifically, I have been asking around and its seem that course wise there isn't too much to be concerned about. 100k isn't ever easy and there is a lot of sustained climbing but generally the terrain might even be less technical than what I'm used to racing on. I'll need to start looking into it properly as I really want to give it my best effort and avoid any repeat of the Lavaredo debacle from last year. Being a bit of a geek about these things I'm also starting to think about the huge list of required equipment and how to keep the overall weight down while not spending a fortune on kit I hopefully wont need to use. I will probably write a separate post on this some time soon.

LOOKING FOR A SIGN

WULAI TRAILS- TAIWAN

Taiwan is still a bit of an enigma to me. Its a beautiful, mountainous island, with more than 165 peaks over 3000m with the highest,Yushan, topping out at 3952m. Even Taipei, the most populated centre, is surrounded by high mountains which are easily accessible by public transport. So with this abundance of incredible terrain you would you think there would be an extensive, well maintained (and well documented) network of trails and  mountain routes. To some extent there is, but finding and gaining access to them requires detective work. If it wasn't for a few hiking blogs it would be nigh on impossible to find any quality information in English, though Chinese information seems almost as scarce. I'm not really sure why it is quite so difficult and why getting out in the abundance of mountains appears to be quite such an underground activity. When I mention that I want to run go up mountains and I am looking for interesting routes I'm invariably met with a looks of puzzled disbelief. And maps? From my admittedly limited experience, on the rare occasion that there is a map of some sort so be found it is usually some sort of vague representation of the surrounding geography. If an example be needed I suggest checking out the maps available on the Yushan website which are approximate to the point of being a hazard. I must be missing something, a Taiwanese Ordinance Survey perhaps. I probably am.

As a side note, its really about time that someone started organising some proper mountain races here. I suspect that getting the appropriate permits wouldn't be easy but theoretically there is the terrain to put on some properly world class sky races in the true alpine style here.

Anyway, last weekend I made a last minute trip to Taipei for a few days and was fortunate enough to spend a night at a very pleasant hot spring near Wulai. I have been up there before and as it is surrounded by hills I was keen to explore some more of the trails that must, surely, be there somewhere.

So early on Sunday morning I managed to prise myself off of the tatami and head out for a bit of a sniff about. I was originally planning to do the whole of the "bridal trail' which I found last time (an ancient trail which once used to be used by brides from indigenous groups travelling over the hills to the next townships for weddings). However, I ended up heading up to check out the famous Wulai waterfalls and went exploring from there. I eventually found a trail heading up into the hills form there. It evidently was not in regular use but was perfectly passable and steep enough in places to make it only borderline runnable.After a while it spat me out onto a single track road which lead to a large temple. After a bit of rummaging around here I found a steep technical trail climbing up behind the temple. This this was evidently a much more frequently used trail as it had roped areas on the steepest/trickiest parts and numerous markers left along the way by various hiking groups. Always a positive, if slightly messy, sign. I followed along this trail for a while climbing to the top of the first hill before turning back and slip sliding my way back down to the temple. From there I descended on the road all the way back to to Wulai, getting strange looks from the Rapha clad roadies who were starting to climb up the hill on their Sunday run. 

I am still not exactly sure where the trial goes, and I can't find any info on it,  but I am guessing there the potential for a nice long circuit, potentially linking up with the bridal trail. Definitely one to explore on my next trip.

SEARCHING FOR MOTIVATION

One of the principal access routes to my various routes over Victoria Peak and High West from the Western District of Hong Kong is Hatton Road, aka the Morning trail. This is somewhat ironic as I have only made it up there in the morning a handful of time in the last few years, such is my chronic inability to get myself out of bed and go for a run before work.

I'm not sure what it is that makes me pathologically incapable of getting up in the morning to go running. I seem to do fine when I have to get up for races, but when it comes to the daily grind of running it's a lost cause. Each night I set one, sometimes two, alarms and every morning come alarm o'clock I stay in bed. Sometimes there is a battle of will, most times I just roll over. Its not like I even have to get up particularly early as start times at the studio are flexible to say the least.

I'd like to increase my running volume by 20-25% over the next few months. The problem is that I'm now close to the threshold of the amount of hours I can  put in during the week with my current routine, while still keeping on top of project commitments and maintaining a semi-functional social life. The only way to increase amount of available running time during the week involves one simple solution- get over my laziness and get my ass out of bed. I suppose its a question of how much I want it.

Sounds simple but time will tell.

TOOLS FOR TARMAC

Streak LT2. Light. Flat. Black. White. 

The Holy Grail. It took them long enough.

They don't make road running any less dull but even minor improvements to the experience are welcome.