A rant, a run and a review...

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FIRSTLY A RANT...

Mining on conservation land, or the short-sighted perception of economic value being more important than natural value, has reared its ugly head again with the government last week disappointingly giving the go ahead for Australian mining company Bathurst Resources to conduct open cast mining for coal on 200 hectares of the West Coast’s Denniston Plateau. 

Supporters of the plan see the economic opportunity as being too big to be ignored, with the jobs created and economic wealth extracted being an ‘acceptable’ trade-off for the environmental impact. But what is the wisdom of sacrificing an area recognised for its intrinsic value and biodiversity for the sake of a few dollars extracted from non-renewable fossil fuel? The Environment Court itself found that the Denniston Plateau ecosystem will be "less fit, rich and diverse" after the mining, and planning commissioners believed that while jobs would be created, mining would result in the loss or rare native species.... yet the Court ultimately granted consent regardless. 

There are guarantees that Bathurst will restore the natural environment after 5 years. But there are unanswered questions about just how that can happen. We aren't talking a small hole in the ground here but a 200 hectare open cast mining operation that won't just disappear after it's economic viability fades. 

photo credit: Forest and Bird.

What will the biodiversity loss be whilst the mining is carried out and how much of this will be irreversable? The impact on surrounding waterways will extend far beyond the marked boundaries and scope of what Bathurst are obliged to restore. Is all that worth a destroying the natural character of an area, an are that we once deemed worthy of conservation protection? And these questions ignore the climate change implications of burning coal as an energy source... another big argument against this idea in its own right.  Potentially a dangerous precedent has been set that places that could open up other areas of our precious conservation estate for similar devastating exploitation.

Yay... let's rape a beautiful part of this country for a few dollars, some short term employment and a paltry $22 million bribe to fund "other" conservation projects. Fuck you "Conservation" Minister Nick Smith for encouraging this folly... fuck you very much.

SOME RUNNING...

I’ve now been running for a bit over two months and I’m still enjoying it. It’s pretty hard to describe just how surprised that statement still makes me. How could anyone enjoy running… let alone me, someone who declared running to be abhorrent and only done when required to prove to others that I could move at something other than a slow amble? But it’s true, I am enjoying it and I think that the mixing in of a good dose of trail running has helped stave off the boredom that comes with monotonous pounding of the streets.

Saturday just been saw the running of round three of this year’s Xterra Wellington trail run series, a night-time jaunt around the bush of the fantastic Wainuiomata Mountain Bike Park. In typical Wellington fashion there was a bitterly cold breeze, which made the waiting around for the race start just a tad uncomfortable. 

Awaiting the start of Xterra round three in Wainuiomata.

I toyed with the idea of the long option – about 12km but the prospect of running for a couple of hours and then not getting home till about 10pm saw me pussy out somewhat and choose the more conservative 6.2km short option. 

 

Runners doing the long course head off into the darkness.

Turns out it was a pretty good choice. I’d had a nagging thought that I had been pushing the training a bit hard over the last couple of weeks and the body had pretty much had enough. In fact after Thursday’s lunch time run around the streets of Johnsonville and Khandallah my calves were screaming at me enough to have the compression socks put back on and not removed until the next morning!! Sure enough, tonight I struggled on the steady climb over the first three kilometres with my body not wanting to settle into a rhythm and my heart rate noticeably elevated (I was really surprised to see a total vertical ascent of only 215m – it certainly felt a lot more).  I stuck it out though and the reward for what goes up was the going down again with the last two kilometres a great section of downhill twists and turns with just the round circle of white light from my headlamp illuminating the way. Great fun!!

The team at Xterra do a fantastic job of not only organising these runs but also in rewarding finishers with tasty treats. In Wainuiomata it was slices of Domino’s Pizza and the Orongorongos – raspberry and coconut rolls. My fave so far though was being welcomed at the Makara finish line in round one by yummy chocolate coated donuts! I wonder what they’ll have for us at round 4 out at West Wind Recreation Area in a couple of weeks’ time.

After Xterra finishes in a couple of weeks, my focus moves to half marathons. First up is the Harbour Capital half marathon here in Wellington. The one and only time I’ve done this before, 4 years ago, I did on virtually no training (although I probably had some lingering bike fitness still back then). So I reckon I should be able to at least knock out a much better time this year. Then two weeks after that it’s a road trip to Taupo and the Tauhara Trail Run. This is the first leg in Taupo’s 63.3 – three halves in three months challenge. If I can get through this series, I should be in pretty good shape to head over to Europe a week later for a nice rewarding holiday! At the moment I’m tracking pretty well towards my goal of losing 25 kg before then. Three months in and with three and a half to go I’ve already gone past 21kg so hopefully I can knock that 25kg target for six!!

 

Xterra Round 3 – Wainuiomata MTB Park.

Total distance: 6.2km

VAM: 215m

Speaking of holidays… A friend of mine is heading off in a couple of weeks on not so much of a holiday as an adventure. His ambitious plan is to complete his own Tour de France solo and self-supported. He’s thoroughly researched and created a course that recreates some of the great stages of years gone by, plus adds in a few detours along the way to ensure he notches up as many of the Tour’s legendary climbs as possible. All up it’s looking like well in excess of 4,000km in the saddle over about 5 weeks You can read all about it on his blog here. This is the kind of adventure that most people just dream about. John is taking those dreams and making it a reality. Awesome stuff! 

FINALLY A REVIEW...

Ok, I know my first, and only (so far) gear review was shoes but I’m not making any excuses for my second being more shoes! This time it’s Salomon’s XA Pro 3D Ultra 2 adventure trail shoes. 

Summed up by Salomon as “light, durable and stable on the most demanding trails”, I don’t disagree. As a race oriented shoe they are noticeably lighter than my door-to-trail training shoes (XR Crossmax 2) even with the obvious additional ruggedisation features befitting a dedicated “adventure trail” shoe. 

They are quite possibly the most comfortable, out of the box shoe that I’ve ever worn with superb cushioning and stability. The stability and grip was much appreciated given that their first outing was a night trail run, giving added confidence to push a little harder on singletrack lit only by headlamp and still slippery in places from the week’s rain.

The abundance of grip was a little surprising. The Contagrip sole isn’t particularly aggressive but held still gripped well on the muddy switchbacks of the downhill sections. This was great, as I could hear the runner behind me lamented on more than one occasion not having dedicated trail running shoes whereas only one slippery tree root that I’d missed seeing in the dark did anything to disrupt my stride. I’m not going to fault the shoes for that. I’d never intentionally seek out a wet tree root for a grip test in any shoe!

The real test will be the Tauhara TrailRun, a half marathon that’s predominantly on forestry roads and farm tracks, but I think these will be my go to shoe for most off road courses with the aggressively cleated soles of the Speedcross 3s kept in reserve for particularly demanding or wet and muddy courses.

I’ll try and review a couple of other gear items before turning my attention to the Speedcrosses though!!

Price wise, the XA Pro 3 have an RRP of NZD$279. But at the moment are going for a bargain $139.50 at Bivouac.  This is not too far off online giants Wiggle who currently have them for $121.50.

Footnote... my little helper as I was doing the shoe photos also wanted her own photo taken so I have to include it here!

Pepper - poser, photographer's assistant and stealer of socks.