Tag Archives: Trails

Wellington Round the Bays Training Hotspots

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If you are a runner in Wellington (New Zealand) here are some great options for running trails – check out the “Runners Guide to Wellington” it’s a great book. And for those of you in the UK (In London) there is also a “Runners Guide to London” e-book version!

Hayden Shearman's avatarA Runner's Guide

So you’re one of the 13,000 entrants in this year’s AMI Round the Bays. By now, two weeks out from the event, you should have a nice base of running mileage behind you. So the next week or so, before you begin your taper, is about sharpening up with some quality workouts.

Even top runners can’t run a personal best without workouts or build up races. It’s important to inject some speed into your legs, remind your lungs what it’s like to run fast, and get some of that eye-of-the-tiger factor back into your running.

So today (Friday 1 February) is just over two weeks out from the big race. Over this time it’s a good idea to set aside two to four days for quality (faster) running, with one of these sessions being quite intense. These workouts might include:

  • a session of 1k reps (3-6 reps at your 5k…

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Trail Running in Wellington – Part 1 – Polhill Track

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One of the great things about being in a place like Wellington is that you are not too far away from a trail and can easily escape from just pounding the pavement. As a runner it’s important to add some variety to your runs and trail running is definitely one of the best options available.

Running on trails is actually highly recommended for all runners because of a number of reasons:

  • It allows different parts of your leg muscles to be activated
  • Slows you down and is easy on the legs (going up anyways)
  • Builds leg power and strength
  • Potentially leads to lower injury risk
  • Gives variety and gets you to explore new places and enjoy your run more!

Read this article from Runners World on why Trail running is good for every runner.

Anyways I’m pretty hooked on trails and about 60% of my runs I try and incorporate a trail run when I can.

So one of my favorite trail loop is the Polhill track. The track starts in Aro Valley and goes up to Brooklyn and is a gradual climb over about 4-5ks from the trail start. The loop I do starts at Ferg’s kayaks on the waterfront and follows the waterfront towards Taranaki street and then cross over to Aro street and run up to the start of the track (There is a big sign on your left going up Aro saying “Polhill Reserve”.

From the start you gradually go up (it’s a gentle incline so don’t think it’s a big hill) towards Ashton Fichett drive in Brooklyn or towards Karepa Street. I usually go towards Highbury Road then continue onto Kelburn and then back down via the Botanic gardens to Fergs. Total distance about 12ks and it takes about 60-70mins to complete the loop depending on your ‘easy’ pace. The total elevation gain is about 262meters.

Halfway through you get this awesome view of Wellington!

Polhill Track View

Polhill Track View over Wellington

Polhill Loop

Polhill Track Loop 12kms

Elevation Profile

Polhill Track Elevation

Polhill Track Elevation

There you have it – I usually run this loop on one of my easy days Wednesday or Thursday – so if anyone wants to come along get in touch via @74running

Happy Trails until the next trail!

Barefoot Running for the masses?

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If you have read Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run (great book and a good read for any runner) – you may already know of the arguments for and against running without shoes. Personally I think not everyone should ditch their cool running shoes and get a pair of Vibram five fingers or just run in bare feet. Even long term runners agree that it takes time to transition and even then you are not suddenly going to turn into a super human runner. In any case I found these articles interesting. “Barefoot running is catching on” (from Stuff.co.nz) “How to start Running and Walking barefoot and stay injury-free” (Garymoller.com)

Sometimes after I finish  my core run I jog a few laps around a park (usually grassy) to warm down on bare feet and finish with stretches . As far as running completely bare feet that’s not for me.

Happy trails!

Running the Rakiura Track

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The Rakiura Track is located on Stewart Island which is an Island on the bottom of South Island of New Zealand. For most of you who live in NZ you can get to Stewart Island via a 20min flight from Invercargill or catching the daily ferry from Bluff which takes about 1hr to cross the Ferneux strait.

The Rakiura Track is about 32km in length and is classed as one of the Great Walks. The official DoC (Department of Conservation) literature outlines the track as a 3 day tramp (walk) with 2 huts available for overnight stay. After looking at the track profile & having a chat with the DoC official in Oban township of Stewart Island I decided that I’ll give it a crack to complete the full circuit in a day by running it.

For this run I decided to carry about 1litre of water in my Camelbak & a bottle of electrolytes, 2 mars bars (prefer these over gels on long runs) and some nuts for the trail.
I set off on Friday 28th December from Oban Township at 8:30am heading to the track starting point. You have to run about 5km on road to get to Lee Bay where the track officially starts. It was a great morning and already it was a bit warm.

From Lee bay you go through an arch (which represents an anchor) and its pretty undulating track for about another 4-5kms until you come to Maori beach (camp site) which you can run along in low tide. Then there is a bit of slight climb (nothing hard) and the track undulates through bush with the beach below. After another 3kms or so you come to the turn off to Port William hut. I continued on since I wasn’t planning on staying overnight.

Rakiura Track

Rakiura Track

The next bit of the track is a bit tricky to run with uneven surface and tree roots and a bit of mud. I could see that if it rained that progress will get slow as it was a bit slippery underfoot even with no rain and the mud sticks to your shoes.

Around the 15km mark there is a steady climb before descending to the North Arm Hut. From the turn off to the North Arm hut the track is quite undulating and crosses a few bridges and creeks. All in all I was feeling very good and have been running/walking about two and a half hours. I surprised a few trampers on their way of course and got the all too familiar “you must be mad” response to me running the track in a day.

The last part of the track is known as the Kaipipi saw mill road which apparently was built for transporting logs to Oban for transporting back to main land.

All in all it was a great run and I managed to get back to Oban in 5hrs 12mins & 36seconds with an average pace of about 9 min per Km including breaks!

Here is my Garmin data for the run.

Rakiura Track Summary

Rakiura Track Summary

Rakiura Track

Rakiura Track Lap Times

Rakiura Track Lap Times

Rakiura Track Elevation Profile

Rakiura Track Elevation Profile

So if you are in Stewart Island I highly recommend the Rakiura Track for a great day of running or walking!