Training Log Archive: jennycas

After a minor meltdown (thankfully unwitnessed) yesterday at work I came to the conclusion that going rogaining this weekend would be bad for my sanity (apologies to Zara for standing her up) so I stayed home and pulled weeds in the garden.

My reward was to do something I've been waiting for since the end of May...Unley pool has finally reopened, so I went for a swim! It was magnificent, a perfect afternoon; there were rainbows on the bottom of the pool from refracted sunlight, and sunburnt-panda rings around my eyes from new goggles which are too tight :) I bought a book of 30 tickets and afterwards I realised the attendant had forgotten to pull the first one out, so this was actually a free swim.

C • Rewards 2

Since my parents had borrowed my car to get to the rogaine, and George had gone to Robe with a delivery (I was so tempted to take a map and get him to drop me off at Cantara), I ran to & from the pool. The only flaw in this plan was the unpleasantness of putting on pre-sweated running gear to come home again. Not sure if the pavement was good for my shins either.

Okay, so I love my job. And I really like specialising in oncology and geriatrics and palliative care. But sometimes I can't help wishing I worked in a hospital where there are actually some success stories from the cancer patients, rather than the inevitable progression from an elderly patient who's given chemotherapy which might buy them some time, to being one of my hospice patients a few months later.

(clap your hands if you believe in fairies, children)

The usual loop with Zara and John N (and Callum who was all over the place). We finished before torches were necessary, and obviously can run a bit faster when we can see where we're going. Legs were pretty tired up hills but I think that's just a reflection of my general tiredness.

I almost found myself fantasising about staying home and sleeping in and doing housework rather than going rogaining this weekend, but that's just crazy talk!

The full length of Brownhill Creek from home to the bottom of Pony Ridge and back again. It was a beautiful day, the sort that makes you glad to be alive. In places the grass is taller than my head but I tried not to think about its future flammability. The middle section was deja vu from last night, and so cold I couldn't feel my hands. I saw a girl out running - I never meet any runners along here - and I wondered if she was the same girl we saw last night? Tall, slim, brown ponytail. (Is this the girl Tyson was chasing on Sunday?)
50.57 up
46.20 back
Probably doesn't mean I'll be real fast for the half in 10 days time but I should be okay with the distance.

C • Hmm 4

4 months until the Cradle Mountain Run. Does anyone want to join me? I already have all the compulsory gear - apart from the emergency chocolate - do you think I should do some training as well? And submit an acceptable entry! (That was the main purpose of running Pichi Richi, to get a qualifying time. The fact that I really enjoyed it was an unexpected bonus.)

Attack of the Killer Physio

No needles were used in the fixing of the Jen, for which I was grateful as I wasn't in the mood for being stabbed. The tradeoff was having Kath's elbow pinning me down first by one gluteus maximus and then the other. My hip is definitely not as bad after driving less than 3 hrs back to Melbourne this weekend, as when compared to 6 1/2 hours from Castlemaine to Adelaide the week before.

Very gentle run along Brownhill Creek to the end of the caravan park and back with Fern and Tyson. I didn't have any good gossip to tell them from the weekend, but it could be that I just don't know the gossip....

Well, since everyone seems to be reflecting on their year, maybe I'll go one better and recap 15 seasons of running 21s (elites on and off, but more on than off - I think.) I am deeply thankful that the requirement to qualify for elites by getting 3 gold credits in a year has been scrapped. Basically, I would achieve this, but then be too far down the elite results to get enough credits to stay in elites, but then drop back to 21A for the next year, then scrape into E for the year after, and so on. Actually, I think that since this no longer happens, all the elite girls are running faster and stronger, and there are so many more of us - which means that my results are no better, but they feel like more of an achievement because of the effort required. (Don't know if it plays out this way in the men, somehow. They get to do a lot more pack running than we do, by the sound of it.)

Oh yeah, and 15 years ago the Southern Arrows didn't exist. It's fair to say we've had peaks and troughs (and sometimes I've been part of the trough) but I can't imagine belonging to any other NOL team, that's for sure! Reuben and Ben and Tyson before me have built it up with a lot of determination, and produced the best uniform in the country. Right now I think it's a team that people are proud to be part of, and that's great. We just need to do a little (a lot?) of work on getting together a decent junior team. That's why I think I'll try coaching instead of managing for a change :)

Sad day all the same. George tells me that our favourite Fudge-cat got skittled on the weekend and he had to bury her yesterday :( Smudge and Tiger are a bit confused about what has happened to their mother. Still, I guess it was tempting fate to have 3 cats - managing to keep 3 of them out from under the wheels of passing cars for 5 years is probably equivalent to having one cat for 15 years. And now we are no longer in breach of the local council's proposed 2-cat maximum.

Event: Australian Relay Champs (SILVA NOL)
 

Same area as yesterday but at 1:10 000

Vanessa went out first and came back only 2 sec down on Tracy so I went out chasing Fel. That lasted all of 500m and then I got stuck trying to get up a bare rock slab to my first control which was a rockface halfway up it. Laurina overtook me going over the hill to 3, I did the rest on my own though I could see her in the distance leaving 9 as I came into it. Was terribly slow up hills with no power in my hip which had really stiffened up since yesterday. Never saw Kathryn but she finished in front of me, obviously, so apparently I came back in 4th (thought it was 6th). I'd lost too much time for Susanne to be able to catch, so we stayed 4th. Originally I thought we were only a couple of min down on 3rd (fine runs by Tracy, Fel & Briohny) but now I look at the results and see it was actually 4 min I feel better. Even on my best day I couldn't have been 4 minutes faster than I was today.

Presentations were just a little awkward when for some reason the Vic girls' results weren't official, so they weren't called out even though everyone knew they had won. Thankfully natural order restored itself on the podium and we South Aussies lay real low despite having been called out as 3rd....