Day 1. Happy New Year!

What better way to start the new year than with a big ol' run (or two)?

Jack and I took the opportunity to head out to Sherbrooke Forest (the one in Victoria, not the Robin Hood one) for a run to kick start the year. Two runs, a big plate of bacon and eggs and a few litres of sweat later, and it was a great way to get cracking on my goal of running everyday in 2010.

My plan is to run at least 1km every day this year. I figure if I am going to get out for at least 1km each day, I'll probably end up going for longer, since by the time I've been going for a few minutes I start to get into the groove and by then the cobwebs have usually been shaken off.

I will be tracking every run on my Garmin watch if possible. I also run in the Vibram Five Fingers, which for those who aren't aware of them, are basically a "shoe" that gets you as close as possible to running barefoot, but with some protection from undesirables such as glass & sharp rocks. The benefits are numerous and the downsides virtually none. In future posts I may provide more info if I have the time.

But I digress. Here are the first 2 runs:

Run 1

Distance : 6.74km

Time : 43:17

Elevation : +262.6m, -263.1m

Click here to view run profile

We started from the Grants Reserve car park, and quickly settled into a good rhythm. Thinking it would be a relatively flat run (relative to the hilly location), I was given a rude awakening when we started heading down a steep track not long into the run. Of course what goes down must come up (or something like that), and not long after we hit the mother of all hills, bringing Jack and I to a walk pretty soon into the climb.

It was a beautiful run however, and with the early morning mist still hanging around the dense forest, it was like being in a scene straight out of a movie. A big thumbs up to this track.

Run 2

Distance : 8.86km

Time : 1:04:58

Elevation : +369.9m, -367.6m

Click here to view run profile

After a good break which included some of the best eggs bene I've ever had (maybe it was the hunger but they were magic), we let our brekky settle and then headed off on another track from the other side of the road.

There was no time for an easy warm up as the track quickly started climbing, and by the time we got to the top we definitely needed a breather. It was spot on 1km and a tough 10 minutes to reach the top which came out onto a gravel road. This track is going to become a personal favourite. Already I want to get that time down to 8 minutes, which doesn't sound particularly fast for 1km, but it will do me just fine. It's a tricky and winding narrow track over lots of tree roots that keeps teasing you into thinking you've reached the peak, before punching you in the guts as you round another corner to see the trail pointing upwards yet again.

After a quick breather we set off again, not really knowing where we were going since checking the map was not something we bothered to put much time into. Somehow we ended up in Belgrave, which was not quite the intention. Still, we found our way back and this was one seriously tough trail. Very steep but also very beautiful, as with the first run.

Well that's it for my first post. I will probably not be so verbose from here on in but will just stick to shorter descriptions instead. Happy reading and happy running.