Training Log Archive: jennycas

I was initially keen on going to Morialta but the closer I got, the more my enthusiasm waned. Did the 3 falls loop with Bridget, Simon & John, and struggled on the hills. Couldn't really admire the scenery because I was too busy watching my feet, but it's nice that there is still some water going over the falls. Shin/calf was very tight on the way up and knee twinged coming down - ITB (plural) has been pretty tight since the rogaine.

The plan for Monday night run in two weeks' time (i.e. Dec 13th) is that it will happen from my place and be followed by Spud-night and then by an Arrows meeting - so if you're an Arrow, resident in Adelaide, please put that date in your diary, even though you will also get an email about it...

From Grange Rd along Brownhill Creek to the end of the caravan park and back with Fern, Eric, Simon, Bridget, John. Knees were very tight despite riding over as a warmup. Ankle hadn't bothered me even a little bit over the last week but expressed an opinion tonight. Could it be that the shoes I wear to work aren't good for me? Am definitely edging closer to pulling out of Cradle for a number of reasons.

Also slightly resenting the fact that I already have to start thinking about next year's O season and the organisation thereof. Response to my request for volunteers to control next year's SA events was a deafening silence (sigh).

Started out under the railway line and freeway, through Mt George, with Robin, Bridget and Simon. First Bridget-the-Coldy went back, then Simon peeled off at the top of Carey Gully Rd to run home, then I did a few doublings back for Robin on the way back, down Old Mt Barker Rd. Lovely to see water flowing strongly in Cox's Creek, and blue wrens flitting everywhere after rain.

Very tired today and thinking that a summer of super-long runs may not be the best thing for me, even though my ankle is much better than it was. Also thinking that I could get some serious house-and-garden stuff done in the name of spending quality time with Geoffrey-the-Broken, and then I wouldn't be as far behind the 8-ball on domestic duties when the O-season starts again as I was last summer. So, out of the Aust champs rogaine, Two Bays trail run and Cradle Mtn run, I should maybe only pick two to do properly, and I know which would be simplest to drop...

Not so fond of the trains in Picton after the shunting woke me up about 5am, but I figured I would have time to go and run the Snout (peninsula to the north of town, rises about 200m then tapers down to a narrow snout, with views of Queen Charlotte Sound along the way) before packing etc. Took a while to find my ankle tape and finally headed out 5.45ish. After half an hour I had reached the Queen Charlotte View lookout about 2/3 of the way along the snout, which I decided I wouldn't have quite enough time to get to - also that would have meant dropping to the point only to climb back up - so I admired as much of the Sound as I could see through the low cloud which came halfway down the hills and was therefore just lifting at about my current altitude, then headed back via the side track to Bob's Bay. Saw the Interislander leaving Picton, gliding gracefully through water which was so still that even the boat had a reflection. Not exactly a rare sighting, I know, given how often the boats run, but I wished I had my camera.

The 5hr drive back to Christchurch was a bit of a drag even though we stopped to look at seals on the beach. Not sure which was more crap, the road or the hire car's ability to corner on it. The flight home via Brisbane was ok - seemed counterintuitive to spend only 2 hours in Brisbane instead of going there for a holiday - and I finally got to bed about 2am NZ time after debriefing to Geoff (and vice versa). Mobility is not his strong point so I had a captive audience. I also have a hell of a lot of housework to do because although my parents have kindly been staying over to keep an eye on him (which may not have been strictly necessary but they obviously wanted to do so), housework is not their strong point!

None of us was in a hurry to leave Lochmara (mmm french toast for breakfast, after I had found 11-armed starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and hermit crabs in the rock pools, and seen the sow & her 6 piglets being fed) and first we had to climb to the ridge. Our deadline was the 4pm boat at Anakiwa, probably about 18km distant, but we all ended up independently doing so many side trips (up to the lookout, down through the beech forest into Mistletoe bay, back up the track to where I had left my pack, down into Te Mahia to buy a cold drink because I was getting hot), that we had to hurry the last 11km and didn't have time to stop and swim at the beautiful bluegreen Davies Bay campsite. We got to the end of the Queen Charlotte Track at Anakiwa and posed for photos at 3:35pm, then I turned around to see the boat coming already! Luckily the wharf was only 200m away...

Back in Picton I spent some time watching the Interislander and Bluebridge ferries loading and unloading and was delighted to see that the Interislander even has train trucks on it. This explains why the little shunting engine keeps going back & forth past our hostel which is right on the trainline - it keeps unloading about 6 train trucks at a time, then joining them all up to make a train!

Verdict on the track: It was pretty special and made even more so by being able to stay in nice hotels each night and not having to carry all our gear (thanks heaps to Zara for organising), but I kind of missed being entirely self-sufficient and so I am thinking I'd like to hike the Overland track again some time. Might have to wait till next summer, though. In the meantime, I reckon I will run it in Feb, if nurturing Geoffrey the Broken doesn't take up too much of my time. (I will be quite pleased to see him and Meatloaf the Buckethead - it's okay, only a grass seed in his paw -tomorrow night but by the time we get into Adelaide it will be the equivalent of 1am NZ time so I won't be real communicative at that time!)

Lots of good things about this day! Walking for a maximum of 2 hours (unless you count all the exploring we did at Lochmara) was only the first of them. From Portage we climbed 400m to the ridge then dropped into Lochmara bay over the other side. The first sign that we were nearing Lochmara Lodge was a gate with dozens of shoes nailed to it. As we followed the fish signs down the zigzagging terraces many more quirky things appeared. The place calls itself an Arts and Wildlife Recovery Centre, has sculptures everywhere, posh motel rooms, a very nice restaurant (where, I must confess, I ate lunch, dinner and breakfast) and free kayaks.

So in the afternoon Kay & Zara & I went kayaking, which I had never done before, but Kay was a very patient teacher and I knew she wouldn't let me drown. I was nervous when we headed down the bay towards the sound and it got a bit choppy but then we went up towards the head of the bay and explored the private jetties and boats at their moorings, and I began to enjoy myself. Woke up with such a sore stomach the next day, though. Didn't realise I had used those muscles so much.

After dinner at the restaurant we all went to see the glow worms in their grotto, and then the waitress told us we had to see the phosphorescence off the jetty by splashing or throwing things in the water. This was just amazing, I've never seen it before. Dropping a rock in created a glowing ring in the water as it sank, and splashing created a shower of 'sparks'. In the end I just lay on my stomach on the jetty and made circles with my hands in the water - the effect was like fireworks. It was truly beautiful.

So, normal people walk 12km to Camp Bay on the second day and 25km to Torrea Saddle/Portage Bay on the 3rd day. But we wanted to get to Lochmara on the 3rd night, which is a little further on, and there is nowhere to stay (that the boat can bring your gear to - there are campsites) between Camp Bay and Torrea. So it turned out to be one really long day and one really short (which was great - more on that tomorrow) and at the last minute before leaving Picton Zara hired a bike for this day also. So I decided to run it!

The first 12km was around Endeavour Inlet, close to the coast but with undulations. Then from Camp Bay the track climbs to and along the ridgeline, which it follows for about 20km, winding either side of the ridge, similarly to the road from Aberfeldy to Matlock, and sometimes not a great deal narrower than that road...on the north side I was in the sun, but the south side was shady among huge beech trees, pretty nice. Not a fast run with a pack but I was pretty steady and felt okay. Happy to begin the descent into Torrea and happier that the last 1km on roads down to Portage Bay was followed by a cool drink at the hotel shop.

I borrowed Kay's MTB and went for a ride up the sealed road along Kennepuru Sound from Portage Bay. Lots of stops for photos and in 90min I saw only 4 cars. The road appeared to hug the coast according to my 1:100 000 map but seemed to have many more ups and downs in real life. Afterwards I realised that the map has 80m contours!

Zara and Kay and I will be spending the next few days walking the Queen Charlotte track in the Marlborough Sounds area. We only need daypacks as the boat transports all our gear between lodges. Z has decided to hire a bike now too but just for the 30km day! Have heard lots of people say good things about this walk, so it should be fun. The drive back to Christchurch on Saturday to return a hire car and be at the airport by 3pm may not be so fun.

Day 1 - Ship Cove (where Captain Cook landed in 1770, and 4 other times) to Furneaux Lodge via Resolution Bay. 15km, an easy afternoon. We caught the 10am boat to Ship Cove, each walked/rode up and over the ridge at our own pace doing our own thing, and all took lots of photos of beautiful bays and boats. Furneaux has wide grassy lawns and little cabins and was very pleasant to stay at, and the weka came into the camp kitchen to see what we were cooking. One also made off with Kay's banana when we were at Ship Cove!

If anyone who's home in Adelaide wants to check up on George, that would be appreciated. He may be able to tell you in detail what happens when you swing 1 1/4 tonne of timber into your shin with a crane. He nearly wasn't going to tell me, the little rotter - when I spoke to him last night he mentioned a visit to hospital and I asked how many stitches; he said 6ish. He was more worried about taking Meatloaf to the vet with a sore foot. When dad said that he will be picking me up from the airport Sat night because George won't be walking for a while, alarm bells rang.

So I rang George back this morning, having realised that he's at home not work (have spent $40 on phone calls now) and finally got him to tell me that both his tibia and fibula are broken (and now pinned) in two places, his ankle is also fractured twice, and he won't be weight bearing until after New Year. It happened Thursday night down at Victor Harbor and he was in hospital until Sunday afternoon...I can't believe he wasn't going to tell me until I got home, because he didn't want me to worry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

C • Poor interrogation technique 10

Kay, Zara and I overnighted in Kaikoura and washed out our truly feral rogaining gear etc. I woke up in the night to hear it raining, worrried for the rest of the night about the washing getting wet (and about George, but that's another story) and woke up at 6.30 to brilliant sunshine, about 6 degrees, and snow on the Kaikouras which rise 2600m straight west of the town. Imagine it snowing in November!

So then I went for a run through the town and out along the foreshore to the far end of the peninsula, up over the headland through farmland along the top of the cliffs, and back via South Beach on the other side of the peninsula. Took longer than I expected and I was pretty stiff but I got some amazing photos :)

At about midnight we decided that we would head back to the hash house, via an 80, 90, 50 so it wasn't a total waste, and we got in about 2.30am. Hot soup never tasted so good. A short nap (it took so long to get my wet clothes off first) somehow turned into leaving again well after daylight. It's possible that we had already written off this event and were now out to not wreck ourselves before walking the Queen Charlotte Track, We went into the farmland this time and the points weren't all that high, including the compulsory under-the-highway-through-a-culvert-gets-you-15-pts. Ran the roads and jogged the paddocks, got in wit 8 min to spare, 1800pts. Got beaten by plenty of women's teams, even the women's vets placings, but ah well. Lots of reasons why we didn't live up to our potential, but ankle held up okay. Top women's score was 2600, Kathryn and Kirsten had about 2300. The mixed teams from eastern Europe were impressive and the overall winners had 4300pts, no surprise that it was Chris Forne's team from NZ. (I did hear that the NZ rogaine champs were in the same area 2 yrs ago.)

C • Well done anyway... 2

Event: World Rogaine Championships
 

Where to start? We were a pretty unenthused carload driving up from ChCh yesterday (Steve, Kay, Zara and myself) and when Z & I picked up the map it became a choice between the flatter farmland to the west of Cheviot (LOTS of fences) and the steeper coastal hills in the east. The course notes implied that the NE section of the map was slower going, so of course that's where we went. The plan was to do this first in daylight then head south along the coast with lots of farmland options for the morning but it didn't quite pan out that way. Within a couple of hours I had dropped one of my water bottles from a side pocket and Z had broken her compass. We had also been up and down a lot of contours which weren't obvious on the map (you can hide a lot of detail in 20m, and there were some pretty steep creeks and gullies).

Still, in the daylight hours we were pretty steady and saw some amazing views of the Waiau river mouth. At about 7pm we finally put on our raincoats, it having been raining all afternoon but only now getting cold on the coast. Also, the sea fog was starting to blow in, and we spent 90 min on a 40 point control, by which time it was dark. We then proceeded down into and up out of 70 from the southeast, which direction wasn't recommended in the course notes because of the scrub being truly horrible, the sort which involved crawling on hands & knees under prickle bushes. Also, it was really slippery and the rain was getting heavier.

I was starting to worry about making it as far down the coast as we had planned and Z was starting to worry about hypothermia because she was wearing my old Goretex which turned out to be 100% non-waterproof, more like a sponge, and on the ridgelines with rain blowing sideways into our faces through the fog, it was seriously cold. We were overshooting controls because of missing fences in the fog and I was reading the map pretty poorly without my glasses.

I borrowed Zara's goggles, improvised swimwear from running gear, and went to the pool in Jellie Park while Kay was at her accupuncture appointment immediately across the road...was pretty unco but hey, I coulnd't have drowned if I tried, the deep end was only 1.4m!
Spent the morning at ChCh museum with Steve Cooper (he works at the museum in Adelaide), we looked at the Antarctic exhibits which tied in really well with the exhibition of Ponting's photographs of Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole, and Hurley's photographs of Shackleton's expedition which ended with a rowboat from Elephant Island to South Georgia.

I have nearly stopped sulking that my jar of Vegemite was taken from me at Melbourne airport. Apparently it counts as greater than 100mL of 'liquid'! Who knew? Later in the duty-free area I bought a replacement tube of Vegemite and was told that you can't take it into the US because it counts as a 'solid' which could be melted down - go figure.

It's a yeast extract, people! The only way you can harm someone with it is by extracting all the goodness from beer and putting it into Vegemite so that chronic alcoholics eventually manifest thiamine deficiency (this is a serious problem in Australia, but less so in countries where they don't extract all the B vitamins from their beer to make Vegemite). Oh, and I guess you could hit someone over the head with the glass jar?

C • Vegemite 6

From Catherine & Yossi's at the bottom of the foothills above the estuary (Mt Pleasant) just along the foreshore a bit. Very leaden today probably from walking around the city yesterday (there are lots of craft and gift shops in the Arts Centre, and I did most of my Christmas shopping there, but it seriously took 4 hours to get Zara out of that place! So today we are going to each do our own thing. I'll start by doing the walk to the cave in the park which was my turnaround point this morning).

Downriver through the CBD and along the river into the suburbs a bit. Lots of roads to cross but not too much traffic yet. Took me a while to work out why there are a lot of roadworks going on! Found a nice historic cemetery which could be worth exploring later. Everything is lush/verdant here, rather pretty. Not sure whether this run fully justified the huge breakfast at the Windsor Hotel afterwards, but I can see why Zara likes staying here :)

C • Any random bumps? 2

Okay, so it's extremely unlikely, but not impossible, that Zara finally turned up at my place at 12.30 am, having finally finished her packing, and I was still frantically packing myself! Eventually I went to bed at 2.30am just as George was getting up, so at least I managed to say goodbye to him...

Was 27 degrees when we arrived in Christchurch which felt warm to us in our sleep deprived state, but after a nap we went out to run around Hagley Park and the botanic gardens and then to find a supermarket - and we walked home with our groceries while eyeing off the restaurants, and eventually ate Thai at 10.30pm!

To the far end of the creek, past the Loyes to pick up something for Catherine in Christchurch, then to/from the pool. It was a lovely day for an enjoyable ride but I am still satisfied with my decision not to ride a bike along the Queen Charlotte track next week (sorry Kay).

Managed not to be late for physio afterwards...

Attack of the Killer Physio

Kath got stuck into my ankle and showed me how to tape it the full length and breadth of my foot for stability. It's going to tickle removing that much tape after 24 hours...

Sportsmed doctor agrees that there are no functional ligaments left, that ankle rehab exercises will be useless and so now I am to get xrays/ultrasound and wave them under an orthopaedic surgeon's nose, at my leisure.

In the meantime I am free to go rogaining, well-fed with anti-inflammatories. When I get back from NZ on the 27th then I will have to make a final decision about running Cradle Mtn.

From my place, accompanied by Tyson, Fern, Bridget, Simon, Troy, Eric, Lauren. We passed by Lauren's old house in Colonel Light Gardens and then by 19 Grange Rd so Eric could pick up his wallet in advance of communal pizza consumption. Grange Rd is to be sold shortly so I raided the loquat tree and also retrieved the corrugated iron echidna which I had previously given Susanne; it was still in the garden. Over pizza Tyson showed us his muppet and John "I'm not infectious!" turned up with a map and showed us how you get to Everest base camp.

And now it's nearly 10pm and I still haven't packed yet...finally, though, I am actually excited about going to NZ!

Knee was hurting in the night so it wasn't hard to talk myself out of a 10km I was going to do crap at. Anyway, the whole day was pretty much taken up with housework and preparation for dad's birthday dinner. Dinner went well, although I must remember not to comfort eat...and I haven't started packing yet, and 4.30am Tuesday will come round very quickly!

Run through Hawthorndene with Fern. Started out stiff but ended up okay - something pulling tightly inside my knee though (and I did stop to stretch on the drive home yesterday).

Halfway through they merged the lanes to make an extra wide lane for the aquaerobics ladies and then I was mixed in with people out of whose way I had to try to keep, so I tried a bit harder.

Minigaining with parents at Salisbury East (non-scenic scenery). Q&A because the scouts organised it (I much prefer real controls). We didn't go into the hills up Golden Grove way which would have been more interesting, but we did cross Main North Rd 4 times. I hadn't realised that the pace at which we started off would become slower after an hour or so, but apparently they were still walking faster than usual for them - because I was carrying all their gear. Got a little worried in the last hour that we might not make it back in time but had 6 min to spare in the end. I've measured 15.4km and we got 510pts, so that's hardly to be sneezed at (odd expression), and it's a particularly good effort for my dad who will be 75 next weekend!

I had to be at a dinner in Hahndorf at 7pm so didn't stay around to hear the results. Was nice to wave briefly at Bruce & Anne though (apparently they got some funny looks running around solo). 3 hours walking on pavement didn't suit my ankle and so I have opted out of the 10km fun run on Sunday. The Hallet Cove stair run, which is the Arrows' group option would be even worse, I think. So maybe I will just mope a little instead (I mean do housework, 'cos absolutely none got done in my absence last week - admittedly there were some mornings when George had to be up at 2am so I'll cut him some slack).

Road trip part 2.

I went and found some proper scenery in the Grampians (to satisfy the purists) on the drive home from Melbourne, never having walked up Mt Zero before, although I have twice done the Mt Stapylton-Hollow Mountain loop which twice required the combined efforts of the boys to get me across the scary gap with the huge drop below it. Mt Zero didn't take long - could it more accurately have been named Null Knob? - but the rocks were cool and views from there were great, including the Mt Zero Olives olive groves, which I then drove past and I stopped in and bought quite a lot of their olive products.

Earlier in the day I detoured via Mt Langhi Ghiran winery which is very scenic, nestled below the cliffs of Mt Langhi Ghiran in the saddle between it and Mt Buangor. I recommend their Cliff Edge shiraz :) Didn't bother visiting the nearby caravan museum though...

C • Small Victorian mountains 2

This was a score event, at which I am not good. B course = 50min, and I got in with a few seconds to spare, 52 pts. Ross powerwalked 55 min & got 49pts and gloated over dinner! I didn't feel fast but ankle hurt only on cobblestoned laneways. Overshot the 2nd control by a whole street and all the old(er) men went past me. Later couldn't find a control on a stop sign. Apparently it was on the wrong side of the street so they gave me the points cos i whinged.

From Ross & Sue's at Thornbury to/from the event at Northcote. Had been feeling kind of flat after conference finished (7.15am breakfast sessions will do that to you) but retail therapy on Brunswick St had a beneficial effect! Found a dress for my work Christmas do & consumed pear flavoured gelati so then I had the energy to go running :)

C • nice dress! 5

Convention centre is a much shorter walk from Southern Cross than Flinders St station, so ankle was happier. After yesterday's perambulations I nearly got frostbite from over-enthusiastic use of ice pack...

C • rest 1

Because walking around the city en route to a conference is so much better for me...?

C • when are you back in adelai... 2

From Blair's at Heidelberg down to & along the Yarra. Was only meant to be very short jog but I found the muddy singletracks on the flats & a billabong with black swans on it. Afterwards I found an icepack in B's freezer, because I didn't tape, and my ankle hurt worse than if I had :(

Bruce's birthday run. Around the golf course on the Yarra & up Merri Ck. Nice to see V & others & eat Anne's tasty baked spuds. Not nice to run on that ankle though. Really bad actually.

C • Ankle 1

From the campground in Walhalla (free, by the creek, quite pleasant) up the road to the north of town. And I mean up! For 21:30 then I turned around, only 15:45 to get back down the hill.

Spring comes late to Walhalla; there was still apple blossom. Beautiful rhododendrons there and in other hamlets we passed through on the winding undulating road to Woods Pt & Jamieson (great little cafe). Personal highlight was when I convinced Blair to stop so I could paddle in the icy Goulburn river.

Around (and sometimes almost into) the Yarra with Bruce. I now know where the Fairfield pipe bridge is. Came back across the Studley Park suspension bridge.

Met Kris for brunch at a gluten free cafè which Lauren would like, then headed for the mountains with Blair. We walked up Mt Erica but no snow on the top (there was, when I walked with Hania, after 1998 Christmas)

C • *like* 1

Well, I consider driving to Melbourne quite restful - I only had to focus on doing one thing. Plus, there was scenic scenery and music of my choice, to which nobody could hear me singing along tunelessly :)

C • Scenic scenery 5

Attack of the Killer Physio

Kath doesn't like my ankle. Apparently she has an irrational fear of a tendon rupture because the peroneal tendon is all that's holding it together. Or maybe I have paraphrased. I was too busy bending the needles she was sticking in me (including behind my ears) to pay precise attention. But we both agree that it's inflamed and there aren't any decent ligaments left to keep me upright and therefore I will see PhysioXtra's resident sports doctor next week - and maybe it's a good thing I haven't booked any flights to Tas just yet.

So weird: after today I won't be back at work until Nov 29th (although next week is a conference). Have never been away from work for this long...probably good practice for if I am really going to take a month and go to Europe with Sus next year (have never been to Europe, either).

Short but not sweet. Started up past the lake with Zara/Callum, Steve & Aidan Sullivan, Lauren, Fern, but by the train line had decided that there's no joy in running when my foot hurts with every other step (more so downhill) so Fern kindly accompanied me back along the creek.

Comment of the day from George/Geoff: "Now that Krispy Kremes have gone under we will all be able to fit our guitars* in the overhead lockers again."

*or other musical instrument of your choice

C • George/Geoff 2

Mortlock Oval, 225m, x 12. Rough, as always. Didn't tape but wore stable shoes (which would hurt my shins anyway if I wasn't on grass). Hamstrings got tighter and tighter...but I get points for consistency.
51, 49, 50, 49, 51, 51, 50, 49, 50, 50, 50, 49

warmup 12 min, warmdown 14 min, recoveries 15 min (78-86 sec)

Three Hills Loop. Nice cool morning for it with still some water in the creek from the weekend rain and also water in the long grass which almost hides the singletracks at this time of year, so my socks became entirely sodden. I enjoyed this, despite having to be ridiculously careful where I put my feet on the rough ground - and even then my taped ankle tw(h)inged at nearly every step.

Trying to work out how much fitness I've lost but I think it's more a loss of agility, confidence and therefore speed. Got the confirmation email for Cradle Mtn today and it didn't exactly fill me with enthusiasm for verrry long trail runs over summer. On the other hand, presumably I'll be training anyway for the Aust Champs rogaine which is 2 weeks earlier than Cradle. Am going to have a chat to Kath on Thursday and maybe even actually take her advice...

C • Melbourne 4

Okay, so I'm still slightly embarrassed about this. We didn't mean to ask the guy with the iphone where we were. But now I've learnt some more of Belair's geography.

Started out with Bridget, Simon, Fern & Lauren heading downhill from Fern's and northeast around the gullies on the rim of Shepherds Hill reserve, then when we got to the bottom of Grevillea way/Gum Drive we turned up Gum, and for a while it was familiar, being the way we had run down with Ben & Mace back in January, but then we turned on to Neate, past some amazing houses, some corrugated cubist constructions and some which only a 60s architect could love, and then we weren't quite sure where we were any more. We'd take an uphill street, only for it to descend towards the valley again. On Penno Pde Sth I got confused because we were suddenly much closer to the train line than I had expected and I couldn't work out which would be the street that would get me down to the bottom of Miller Pde - I usually run these streets in the opposite direction, and don't bother with the names.

So there we were at a crossroads, 5 orienteers unsure which road to take! Fern & Bridget figured there was safety in trainlines and while the rest of us were debating alternate routes a guy walking home from the station got out his iphone and in about 5 seconds, showed us where we were! How embarrassment...

C • fern and i were running tow... 5