Training Log Archive: jennycas

The median-aged lady was running 2nd, in a W21E team with Liv & Bridget for the 3rd year in a row. Well-set course by Simon on an amazing area with open basins and deeply-incised creeks (and the vegetation was quite helpful to read, although in some places there wasn't any). Right from the start I didn't have many people around although a few M21s came through me from time to time. Probably running a bit better than I was navigating today - but had to either watch my feet or look at the map; couldn't manage both, and it was getting quite warm out there so was at the limits of my concentration. Small hesitation on 5, lost up to a minute on 9 by being too far right/downstream, then after the spectator control picked a poor route to 12 and ballsed up 13 in the erosion gullies which I couldn't read at all, nor could I physically find my way out of afterwards. So again I would like to have been 4-5 min faster, but the nice thing is that as a team we managed 3rd - obviously achieving this depends somewhat on who turns up from the other states, but we've done it for the 3rd year in a row now :)

C • :-)) 7

Event: AOC2018
 

Probably wasn't the best preparation, standing in the sun for a couple of hours directing cars into parking spaces, I mean gaps in the saltbush/mallee (somehow they all fit!) and on course it seemed surprisingly warm in the sun on the cliffs above the river. Amazing views so I focused on the map as much as possible and on not making mistakes, 'cos there were some tricky short little legs. Oh, and lots of sand. Nobody told me it would be sandy! A bit disappointed in how slowly I was running uphill, and I didn't do a great job of rocky downhills either, although I really enjoyed the navigational challenge. Would have been happier with 3-4 min faster, but at least my friend Ham held up ok rather than stringing me along.

Pretty lactic at first, but it got better. Still haven't finished packing for driving to Renmark tonight with parents.

Last headlamp run of the winter, and first Oliver run of the summer. We promised him native Australian wildlife, but nature took a while to cooperate. Don't know what he thought of me & Zara & Bridget sharing our respective childhood reminiscences of the adventure playground, but politely agreed it could make a fun micro-sprint.

Found the map from Stefano's mass start night O a couple of summers ago, and went for a sunset run around a course which was rougher underfoot than I expected, especially on the old dump, where the grass ranged from knee-to-head high so I had to walk much of it. Hamstring hadn't been great after sitting on my donkey all day at work, and then I tripped on nothing in particular and properly tweaked it :( So yeah, this wasn't nearly as much fun as running around like a headless chicken with 20 other people's headlamps going in all directions, but at least it was approx. 10 min faster.

In other news, who knew that reusable toaster bags are a thing? www.planitproducts.co.uk/toastabags

Had been tired & headachy all day (something to do with giving an 8 am presentation, and preparing for it last night) so was glad that the Nth Adl loop was at fairly social pace. Technically I did do the intervals but, in deference to my hamstring, wasn't even running them fast enough to get out of breath.

Dug out my old faithful 3-loop course from 2004 and went for a run around my favourite bit of pine forest. Took a while to warm up so first loop was slow, and by the final one I was stuffed, but middle loop felt good. Each was about a minute slower than when I last did all 3 before Oceania 2013, though. Also I found a random control in the forest - just like being in Sweden :) Presuming it was left over from TT's midweek training, I texted John N who turned up & collected it from me 10 min later on his way to the Aust schools' relays map! (Pity we couldn't have used Lucky Hit for the relays but it would have needed a remap and lost half the control features in the process...)

Squeezed this in between massage/haircut and going to a wedding/reception at Aldinga, because it was such a gloriously sunny day that I couldn't bear to miss out on a ride. And I made one CPM very happy by providing the opportunity for swoopsurfing no less than 5 times from the one passing helmet.

Neck & shoulders which have been horribly tight for the past 2-3 weeks have finally loosened somewhat, so I went for a swim. If I were aged 100, I could have done so for free! (Unley council has implemented a stepwise pool price reduction based on age - over 70, with corroborative ID.)

Figured out at lunchtime that, rather than just doing terrain running, I could print off the shortest course from the Belair event which I set earlier in the year but was overseas for, and squeeze this in before dark if I wasn't too thorough with taping my ankles. Worked out ok apart from the fact that I didn't have a compass with me and so lost time on the only controls which required significant cross-country navigation.

Casual conversational nocturnal run with Zara. Callum probably didn't understand why we kept stopping to look at wildflowers, but we showed him some excellent specimens of donkey orchids :)

Came into possession of a course from the Sept 2nd event (because Robin had printed Renmark controls on the back of it) so thought I'd go for a run, but the long grass was very wet after rain, pavement slippery and I couldn't read where I was going because it was getting dark. Still more fun than running without a map but I learned 2 main things:
1) I am painfully unfit;
2) the map definitely needs some updates.

6 x the hill (I tried not to put weight on the bad hamstring side; hoping the other knee didn't end up overcompensating) plus jogging to/from and a couple of 200m intervals on the loop to finish. Ginormous group out tonight (and apparently I am a proxy parent when it comes to junior transportation)!

Uninspired suburban jog while waiting for dinner to cook. So tired that I nearly didn't remember what oven mitts are for...

C • Basic instinct! 6

Long day trip to Renmark with Robin & Adrian & meeting up with the Cuttens to check that control sites and arena layout are all still ok for the Aust sprint. I think people are really going to enjoy Robin's courses. And they'll enjoy being in Renmark*, where I consumed the best bacon-&-egg burger I've ever eaten, at the little coffee shop arrostocoffee.com.au which is in the old fire station on 18th St near the school and will even be open on the public holiday Monday. Also the bakery will give orienteers 10% off :)

*although I'm usually fussy about public toilets, the new ones in the main street are excellent.

C • Plugs 3

After a long day on my feet in the dispensary I needed some fresh air, but hadn't expected this to be quite so fresh - 15 degrees cooler than yesterday evening.

C • Temperature 5

Up the hill to go down the hill, from FMC before meeting parents for dinner at Brighton. Got pretty warm slogging uphill for 15 min with the sun on my back! Sad to notice that access to the university footbridge across the pine forest gorge has now been completely fenced off - and yet there are still security guards sitting in their huts at either end...

Coupla slow painful laps of the pine forest. Prolly not good for my hamstring but how else am I going to get any terrain practice before nationals?

C • Terrain 1

C • Nationals? 1

Up the inside boundary singletrack (broken glass sprinkled everywhere which I can only presume was some nefarious person's attempt to thwart the - perfectly legal - mountain bikers) and back down the valley road with B/S, Z/C. My leg hates me now :(

C • Glass 6

Nice morning for a ride since I had time before heading into the city for a workshop. Breeze was blowing from all directions which may be why the CPM only made one half-hearted pass at me; the conditions weren't right for helmet-surfing.

C • Cute Pesky Magpie? 2

Almost the entire schools' team came out tonight! Happy to get through all the 30-sec intervals on the Nth Adl circuit although didn't go full pelt, in deference to my hamstring which hasn't been 100% happy for a couple of weeks now.

Struggled along the valley because my legs have disenfranchised me post-rogaine and I can go neither up nor down.

I was a bit disappointed when I found out the 6hr was going to be around Cleland (Waterfall Gully to Mt Lofty), because I'm no good on hills these days, particularly going down. And with my neck & shoulders having been so ridiculously tight the past few days that the pain was waking me up in the night, the last thing I felt like doing today was running around up & down hills for 6 hours. But actually this was ok; perfect weather for it and the heath was flowering in all shades of pink & white. I did lag a long way behind Zara on both ascents & descents though.

We headed up to Mt Lofty first, over the back & down into the Botanic Gardens (having a bit of trouble with an unmapped high fence) and grabbed water - despite the Do Not Drink sign - before leaving the gardens because there would be no other place on course where we could do so. A couple of steep out-&-backs (there were a number of these on offer, and they proved decisive in the results) on the way to Crafers and then we headed down alongside the old freeway & Old Bullock Track as far as Mt Osmond, seeing teams going the opposite way but nobody in our direction.

Took a wrong unmapped track on the descent to Waterfall Gully Rd and had to bush-bash,* then did an unfun up&back 100m climb for 50 points, which was at exactly 3 hours - at varying times during this event we thought we might run out of time to do our planned route but then we finished up with time to spare at the end and had to do some inefficiencies, but we weren't the only team in that situation. The north part of the map involved some zigzags until we were paralleling Greenhill Rd, then we went over behind Mt Bonython and overran a control on Sprigg Rd because we miscounted bends, but were still back near Cleland and the HH with over 40 min left so decided to get the controls on the wildlife park perimeter loop (slight navigation fail because the fence around the park wasn't mapped) and had time for a couple of out-&-back 1km legs to controls on flat spurs before finishing with about 6 min to spare even though I was rather dragging the chain by this time.

Surprised/happy to end up 2nd; we just pipped Randall & Emily (although they had run out of controls to get near the HH and came in early) and the winning men's team had been to 3 more 30-point controls than us (but our best case scenario could have only managed 2 of them). So it was a grand day out, thanks Zara!

Also a long day because by the time I'd dropped my parents home, I'd been out for 12 hours - but it's nice that they enjoyed themselves too.

*which was strictly forbidden in the national park but I'm pretty sure we were outside it then.

C • I'm so impressed 2

Headed to Seacliff after work and ran up to Marino lighthouse (circa 1962, so not a patch on Danish lighthouses) on leaden legs. Convenient that there is now useable daylight until about 6:30pm.

Redwoods run with Biddy & Z & Happycallum before a few more hours' secret controller's business at Vincent's and coming home for dinner @10:30pm.

Similar to a couple of weeks ago except that there was no sunset because it was trying to rain, which was pleasantly refreshing, but I am still pretty stuffed.

To/from Nationals meeting; we're definitely at the pointy end of the carnival planning now. Hip a bit better than yesterday (clearly it hadn't liked sitting in a workshop all weekend).

Much less anxious after my talk and the session I was chairing went ok yesterday; still very tired today but managed to fit in some retail therapy after the workshop before catching the train back to Fairfield and finding out what happens when you run due west. As anticipated, I hit Merri Creek where it crosses St Georges Rd, then followed the creek downstream to Dights Falls. Decided I did have enough time/daylight to cross on the suspension bridge @Studley Park Boathouse and follow Yarra Boulevard all the way to Chandler Highway! Nice evening for it, with the bushland smell of golden wattle, but neuroma was truly horrible by the end.

Needed some fresh air before spending all day in a cancer pharmacists' workshop in Melbourne CBD, so took up Blair's offer of a tour of Darebin Creek (where I'd never been before) and the new Yarra footbridge, returning to Fairfield across the old pipe bridge.