Training Log Archive: Craney

Gracie and I were keen to defend our mixed-open trophy from last year (although not much chance of retaining the overall one with the Australian 'dream team' of Rob and Marty running). Unfortunately Grace's knee's been pretty bad so she decided she wasn't going to run on the Saturday - then it turned out Olle had a bit of a cold, so Grace decided she'd give it a go. Fortunately she just about got round and, touch wood, didn't aggravate it too much...

The rogaine itself was fun though. Great terrain for running through the bush, and nice cool conditions. We picked a route which would get us most of the controls but thought all of them might be a bit out of scope. First 2hrs flew by, mainly running at a nice steady pace. Then it got a bit thicker on the other side of the main valley and Grace's knee was a little sore, so we got slowed up and were forced to walk quite a bit. I heroically/gallantly carried Gracie over a couple of rivers. The last hour was nice again though and we decided we'd better get moving a bit to pick up the final loop of controls in time. Ended up only missing 4 controls and only Rob and Marty beating us (having cleared the course in only 5:09, and apparently spending most of the free 51mins scoffing all the cakes).

Cracking catering, as ever, afterwards (minus cakes)

Some of the map:

Nice run from top of Flinders, under Hindmarsh, up Sheaffe, through Mugga (east of summit, over Little Mugga and down to detention centre) and back over Rocky Knob.

C • good name that 2

Went and did some birdwatching after work instead :o)

8x3mins through Deakin and Yarralumla. Pushed quite hard, felt ok.

Fairly eventful longish run from home. Headed through Redders and under Hindmarsh into Mugga, then alongside Isaacs and up towards Sheaffe Trig. Near the top spotted a roo in a tangle with a fence. He was pretty well stuck and making some big huffy noises, so I approached with soothing words and grabbed his leg to try and free him, but alas to no avail. It was getting dark and I was quite far from a road so unlikely to meet any walkers, so I ran down to Isaacs Shops and headed into the convenience store. Old Asian couple in there didn't know what I was banging on about, but pointed to the takeaway 2 doors down because they were 'locals' and would know what to do. They were very friendly and helpful too - phoned up Parks and Wildlife and put me through to someone who assured me a ranger would be straight onto it. Lucky I was able to give pretty precise directions. Not much else I could do, so hotfooted it home to find 4 missed calls on my mobile. Eventually ranger got through to me - he hadn't found the roo but wasn't quite in the right place, so I redirected him back. Haven't heard owt since, so I guess he either found it or the roo freed itself in the intervening hour or two - either way a happy ending.

Another 5km, another low/mid 16s. Guess I'm just treading water at the moment: training ok, staying fit, but not especially applying myself either. The first bit was funny - the bloke who coaches the track runners thought he'd have a go seeing how long he could keep up with the leaders (me), but I didn't know that so, seeing some old dude haring it alongside me, pushed the pace on. He jacked after 800m and I ended up doing about 2:50-2:55 for the first km. Got quite tired and lonely after that, so would've done a big positive split.

Not a great deal of warming up/down - good to catch up with Devil afterwards though.

Street-o at Yarralumla - picked an ok route I think. Not feeling too bad, but quite a warm/muggy evening.

Jog home afterwards.