Training Log Archive: jennycas

Can anyone tell me how I ended up in an Australian team for which I didn't nominate...? Admittedly, looking at the Oceania entry lists, I believe I can see how it came about. Would still be nice to have been consulted first!

C • O theory 5

Unley pool doesn't open until 9am on Sundays, by which time lots of people had had the same idea as me. Possibly because Burnside is closed for redevelopment?

To/from pool. Warm out. I just couldn't face the effort required in being at Lucky Hit by 8am.

Attack of the Killer Masseuse
I was pretty stuffed after this. Instead of doing all the work & OA things I need to do this weekend, read a book and had a nap.

It clouded over this afternoon so I convinced Zara to go for her second run of the day, up Olave Hill Rd. Slow but scenic and companionable, and we jumped in the pool afterwards :)

Yeah, definitely a bit rusty at this. At least 10% slower/shorter than previously.

The first thing I saw when dog & I walked out the door this morning was a fox running out of the driveway. The last thing I saw when driving home tonight was that same fox!

In between I did an awful lot of organising and setting up for tonight's Summer Series event at Colonel Light Gardens which I think went pretty well - numbers were good as evidenced by the takings although I ended up over-catering on the maps due to over-optimism. We definitely needed the extra helpers though; Meredith & family on the start plus my parents were of invaluable assistance on registration (and I kept having to call on various people for assistance with SI on the sprint course...) Got all the controls in and was home by 9:30pm.

C • Congratulations 3

Could have been worse - slow but mostly steady although I ran out of energy about half an hour in. Long Gully Kiosk, up to the train line at the site of the original Long Gully station (I asked Simon if he remembered the sit-in-carriage protests when the Bridgewater line was closed. He didn't, because the last trains ran 2 days before he was born!), up Ballast Pit track, down past the waterfall and I did a bit extra at the end because it was a nice evening and I was procrastinating on going to various people's houses to collect all the gear needed for tomorrow night's event.

Don't know which is more out of condition - me or the bike. But it was a lovely morning for a ride. And gave me the opportunity to confirm that yes, Friday night's intended assembly area is in the process of being dug up for drainage works.

C • Don't you just love that? 3

Mental exercise - spending the evening writing a talk on chemotherapy prescribing in EPAS. Lots of screenshots; yay for the snip tool, it's my new best friend! Would have gone for a run in the morning except that I was still sending orienteering emails after last midnight, so didn't get up in time.

Hawthorndene run with 3 couples, 2 prams, and 2 contented babies. I did a bit extra because once having dragged myself away from my desk I figured I should make the most of it. Knees thought otherwise though. It was nice to see and interact with people; I think I have been trapped in my cage of busy-ness a bit too much lately (and then when the weekend comes around it seems like too much effort to be sociable).

Got back from down south with parents just in time for OA board meeting last night and since I was pretty wrecked thereafter decided not to go to Bridgewater because I am too old & slow for the group anyway. Headed across to CLG in the evening to determine where SI units can be locked to something for the sprint course, but couldn't even bring myself to jog there & back.

I took my parents down to stay at Normanville last night for dad's birthday and so this morning I ran up to Carrickalinga along the road and back along the beach. We then spent the day meandering the hills & valleys between there & Cape Jervis, watching the KI ferry come in and getting up close to wind turbines. There's still some water in Ingalala falls, too. Nice to have a day off from all the other stuff I've been so busy with and the only bad note was when my rearview mirror, shaken loose by dirt roads, dropbeared onto my phone and broke the screen.

C • why? 1

Very stiff back today (grumpy pants seem extra heavy, and were weighing me down). Tantalised by the baking smells from Tip Top (good thing Simon keeps their machinery running smoothly) and it's nice to see some water in the creek after yesterday's rain.

Not really sure why I bother going to Belair any more. From Long Gully decided that for a change I'd go up the hill at the end and come back down the boundary track, but everyone was too far ahead for me to tell them this. Nice along the Upper Sturt ridgeline with the mist hanging in the valley, a lot like Morialta.

C • I couldn't find you! 3

Going by my incredibly slow time for the 55-min loop, you might think that this had been a horrible run - but in fact knees felt better than the last couple of days and it's always nice in the park on a cool morning.

Attack of the Killer Masseuse
I am tending to find this more effective than physio, lately.

Fairly overwhelmed lately by OA conference stuff but I did get out for a run through CLG to check some control sites, ending up at the new house to do some pruning. Knees did not enjoy this. It's impressive how purple the jacaranda-lined streets are, though.

Knee didn't like me today, possibly because I landed on it on Sat.

C • Poor knee :( How did u hur... 2

Down the hill from Bridgewater to Verdun, right at the Onkaparinga river into Taminga Grove, up & down to Cox's Creek which is still flowing nicely, up to the conservation park and down into Mylor. After a drink at the school I really started to struggle - tight knees from the hard ground and generally no energy - so it was a slog back via Wilson Rd and the Heysen trail even though the boys patiently waited for me.

After it had (mostly) stopped raining I went over to the school to test out the sprint course which we've set as a bonus activity for the 28th. Took it very carefully on pavement but still managed to stack it on a patch of clay over near the BMX track. Fun little course though.

To/from Mortlock Park.

The weather lately reminds me of being in NZ before the 2010 WRC (specifically, that I borrowed Zara's or Kay's goggles and bathers to go for a swim in Christchurch).

On another note, you never know who you'll bump into at the pool!

Plan was for a short group run before Arrows meeting, but in the end after coming from the railway line to the playground I decided to go up to Long Gully & back - which was nice, because I kind of needed a break from people (the disorganisation skills of my new batch of doctors are driving me nuts). Along the creek track it was almost possible to believe I was in Europe.

Pootled around CLG on the MTB checking out the last of the SS control sites for the 28th. Not sure that my knees like this bike.

Now I could tell that I had been beaten up by my physio.

3rd Falls loop. Legs pretty hammered and I struggled on the way up the hill. By the time I was coming back down the endorphins had kicked in though.

Attack of the Killer Physio
Coulda been much worse.

Around CLG in the last of the daylight checking out control sites. Does a plate control's cable reach far enough to lock around a normal-sized Stobie pole okay?

Bridge to bridge river loop in Penrith, which was quite pleasant. Lots of people out running and walking this morning. Even though it wasn't as scenic as Glebe, the jacarandas were flowering - and the bellbirds bingbonging just as they would have been in the national park at Glenbrook. Only problem is that it's about 20 min each way to get to the river and my hamstrings really didn't enjoy that much pavement.

C • Glebe 4

From parents' in law at Emu Plains to sister in law's at Jamisontown. Primary goal was to work up an appetite for the all you can eat buffet at the RSL. Nice along the river but a bit hot & thirsty getting to/from. Got hissed at by a mother duck with 9 ducklings.

Really felt like I ought to have stayed at work to finish off stuff but glad G talked me into going running instead. From the redwoods we went up the singletrack to the top of the park and back down Jubilee Drive. Fingers crossed my knees won't regret this tomorrow - felt ok at the time.

Funny conversation at home afterwards; we have recently received the title deeds to Perry Ave in the post because the mortgage is now paid off, and I had complained to George that he bought apples when they weren't on the shopping list because I already had enough. His response: "Now that you are a woman of property you deserve an extra apple ration!"

C • such a thoughtful man 4

Started out on a morning run but legs & body were exhausted so went for a swim instead.

Spent a couple of hours with Meredith satisfactorily planning courses for Colonel Light Gardens (with advice from her sister Erica about which parks are nice). The long course may not look pretty in terms of configuration but it has some good route choices, and the scatter will require weighing up opportunity costs :)

Had hoped to go to Morialta but this was the only time window I could find to tackle collating and formatting all the amendments to the NOL guidelines. (Somehow I ended up still doing this at work after 10pm and security rang the on-call pharmacist because the alarm hadn't been set - oops.) Really need to get back to running in the mornings.

Meant to go running from F&T's before Easter meeting but got caught up in catching up with orienteering emails and was late for the meeting anyway.

Around West Lakes, Semaphore and Port Adelaide with AK, who's been pretty crook for a couple of weeks and was still coughing up a lung today, for which reason we had democratically agreed to just walk around for 3 hours in our bad-taste fancy-dress clothing and therefore hadn't measured any distances or really planned a route. Of course, about 30 seconds after the start, Andrew decided that we should at least jog. My cobalt-blue frilly miniskirt and fuchsia-pink stockings were of course perfect attire for spending the next 3 hours running around and for wading out to the breakwater control in thigh-deep water :)

Started out through Delfin Island, then across to the coast and north for a bit then after an hour I decided we'd not have time to get the one on Semaphore jetty if we were going to do all the controls through Port Adelaide and come back down the east side of West Lakes. Pretty smooth for about the first 90 min then a couple of the controls (Q&A, of course) in the Port weren't so obvious and I could tell that Andrew was starting to run out of legs although his lungs were mostly surviving ok. We couldn't decide on the best route to zigzag down the east side of the lake - and are still trying to decide - because whatever we did, we were still going to have to come back across the bottom of Delfin Island which we'd already done at the very start, and we'd probably not have time for much extra at that point except perhaps one of three 20s, because we'd already done the 50 on the way out. In the end we weren't confident of making it to any of the 20s so did none of them, and came in with about 5 min to spare and then spent much of that in the queue to have our control card time-stamped; they really needed a second clock and table. They also needed to have more pizza available, because I never saw any of it.

And maybe to have a better way of dealing with the results for 140 teams who have written down the answers to multiple choice questions, because the results are still being processed (although I think that may have been a computer networking issue). It's also getting a little too complex to sort out all the eligibility for the bonus points on offer, I venture to suggest; should a family with baby in pram really be eligible for the bonus points for the pram AND the child under 9 AND for having a novice in their team???

C • Bonus points 14

Went up to Bri Glen with Simon - he's setting the Saturday of next Easter and I'm controlling - and as well as checking out start/finish/assembly areas we each ran a course. Great course, but my knees didn't enjoy getting in and out of all the creeks and erosions. I pretty much knew that Simon would be finished by the time I came through the specta(tor)ctular leg, and so it proved. If this had been a race today I definitely would have been at least 25 min behind Lizzie. But at least the temperature was only about half (ok, not when relative to absolute zero) of what it would have been yesterday. Found a great new little café in Burra on the way back :)