Running 38:41 [3] 4.85 km (7:59 / km) +290m 6:08 / km
shoes: Nike Trail
This was to be the start of the long Sunday morning run season. OK, there was a three hour at Creswick Diggings. Why not do that instead. Well, th eplan had been to miss all orienteering this weekend and go for an overnight hike in the Grampians. Mt William Plateau actually. What happened....
1. Weather forecast was for rain saturday. The grass (noone has lawns these days in bendigo) was real high, and you know the neighbours are looking and thinking.. bush fire risk if they don't do anything. So, we decided to mow before the rain and delay the Grampians trip for a day (Monday was booked as leave). Finished that so decided to go to Mt Alexander after all. The rain didn't come, but wind speeds measured at 110kph on Mt William indicated delaying the walk was a good idea.
2. The family dog (I didn't buy it) took down with idiopathic geriatric vestibular syndrome. We didn't find that out till the vet gave us a name. But when a dog is walking crooked, falling over and looking like death slightly warmed, the friendly thing to do is a trip to the vet. Well, vet says maybe put him down, or maybe tranquilize and leave him here to see if symptoms abate. Ring at 10 tomorrow morning. So no Saturday night drive to the Grampians. Ring 10 next morning (as the maxi is starting I assume) to be told 10 on Monday morning. There goes the weekend hike.
So, long run instead. There was only one place Jools could think of where I hadn't run and she had, so it was off to the Coliban Race. Really pleasant run once we found the channel. Took the wrong track initially and ended up in some lovely open granite country. Rock everywhere. Tuck that one away for another map idea. After 10 metres climb we saw where we were meant to be. Followed the channel track until Jools tripped on a root, and did a spectacular face plan and gravel slide, prefaced by one of those moments of unplanned ballet when the legs can't quite keep up with the torso, but the brain says to keep trying because the alternative doesn't look that pleasant. The alternative turned out to be two well grazed knees, one grazed elbow, gravel rash on the chest and a bruised rib cage. Plus gravel in the mouth and a good winding.
It was clear she wasn't up to the planned 20 k run, being only 2.5 k into the route. Being her always helpful self, Jool's suggestion was I keep going and she would wait at the car. I wasn't going to fall for that one, so it was a slow jog and walk back to the car together, with stops at various water engineering structures that we would not have examined on a normal run. So some good comes from the accident. The plan is to head back and do the channel next week.
Running 1:03:00 [3] 9.36 km (6:44 / km) +170m 6:10 / km
ahr:119 max:153 shoes: Nike Trail
A truncated Marne run with all the climb and much less of the gradual downhill run along the channel. The aim was to get the ks up to near 20 for the day after Jools had been deposited at home. There she could finish a samarai soduko (no brain damage from the fall obviously) and watch her first creation in the newly purchased slow cooker. My run was not nearly as successful. I bailed after reaching the top of the range. I think its a bad idea to have a break in the middle of a long run. Legs never seem to leave the jelly stage.