Mount Lofty, Sunday

Distance 7km [total minimalist 11km: Barefoot 4km]

A beautiful day today, bright and sunny and going up to 20C, very inspiring for a run.
A bit of a spur of the moment decision was that I should head out to Waterfall Gully to walk (or run) up the trail to Mount Lofty that looks out over Adelaide.

It's about a 30 minute drive from where I live and Sunday morning at just after 9am the roads were still fairly quiet.

Waterfall Gully is a popular destination for the Sunday walkers. The climb to the top is about 3.5km long and goes from a start height of 275m (916ft) up to 700m (2333ft)so it is quite a climb.

Managed to secure a car park close to the start.
The closer I got the more I felt like I wanted to try to run it up as much as I could manage. I put on the VFF's and walked up to the cafe at the bottom.
I started running up the steps into the park above the waterfall. The shoes felt great, so light.
The route starts steep then gives you some breathing space of about 100m before starting up steeply again for 200m.
Taking short steps helps when climbing the steep sections, the shoes have fantastic grip, you never feel that you will turn an ankle on rough ground.
Once over the second steep part there is relief when it flattens out and drops away into a small valley before climbing out and up the hill.

You get only one more short distance to recover from the climb before you start on the hardest part which would be about 1km of steep climbing.
As it was about 5 years ago since I last ran around here my fitness is way off so I was reduced to a walk by halfway up.
The shoes got plenty of attention from the stream of people walking up and down the mountain, I think they were pretty unique that day.

I reached the top in about 40 minutes about 8 minutes slower than my better climbs.
The view from the top is well worth it.
I replenished some lost energy with a drink of GlucEvol then headed back down along an alternate quieter trail.
You feel far more connected to the ground with the Vff's, they are much quieter than running shoes as well. I felt almost like I was floating along the trail as it skirted around the edge of the mountain.

I got down to the bottom with no aches or pains. The feet held up well, I didn't think they would at first, I thought maybe I was pushing the changeover too fast.
I'll rest up at the start of the new week.

Neil