Training Log Archive: jennycas

The start book is finally finished!!!! I don't have to put together another start book for hopefully 4 1/2 years....

I was pleased to get a message from Robin suggesting that Simon could help me with the formatting and so I spent the morning at the Uppills and then I went to Zara's and we sat in the orchard with our NZ maps and Lonely Planet guides, fending off Callum the kelpie and Digby the duck at regular intervals until we had planned our pre/post rogaine holiday. And I walked Meatloaf and I pulled weeds in my garden (sadly, this was the tip of the iceberg) and I didn't go running at all and it was great because I have finished the start book :)

Bad day at the office, or more to the point, because I didn't quite make it back to my office. I got attacked by evil monthly cramps and despite taking all the painkillers I normally would, they didn't kick in quickly enough and so I kind of collapsed in the hospital corridor and then concerned nurses of my acquaintance carted me off to our (maybe not the world's smallest, but one of the quietest) emergency department, where I had to explain to a concerned doctor of my acquaintance that I am definitely not pregnant (she wanted a urine sample to exclude this but I said something along the lines of "you won't get that from me; the last time anyone tried they had to wait 7 hours") and then I got free blood tests taken (yay) the results of which satisfy me that I am not anaemic but imply that my sodium level is a bit low (no surprise there). So that was a waste of a perfectly good working afternoon, and then I put in a few hours on the start book....

Attack of the Killer Physio

Kath says I may have a small tear in my hamstring. I'd say it's located at approximately the point of impact where I slide-landed on the ramp on Saturday. She also suggested that I may have been overtraining (and I thought I wasn't doing enough...)! I promised to do less running - after the 32km on Sunday is completed.

Sedate, non-painful run (maybe Kath's anti-inflammatory gel hadn't worn off yet) up past the lake to the train line and back down the creek with Bridget and Fern. Simon & Zara went a bit further and while we waited for them to come back Bridget kindly let me climb into her car boot with her and eat lollies from her showbags :)

Despite extra stretching last night and getting a reluctant George to tread on my ITB, I was still really stiff this morning, and if I had done the first hill any slower than 3.10, then I was going to give up and just jog home. Sadly I was 4 seconds too fast, so then I had to persevere, and a weird thing happened; the hills actually got faster. I could feel that my hamstrings were loosening incrementally with each repetition, but I'll credit the tailwind which sprang up, for most of the improvement on the last one!
3.06
3.05
3.04
3.02
2.55

warm up 21.20
warmdown 19.47
downhill recoveries on singletrack 10.16

Met the others at North Adelaide but there was no way I was up for intervals so I convinced Fern & Tyson to come for a look at the River Torrens with me (I'd conveniently brought a torch). Simon accompanied us to the suspension bridge, then we went up to Lower Portrush Rd and back. There is more water than I've seen before - apart from immediately after the November 2005 rains - in the river, and you can tell that it's been at least twice as high over the weekend. Hamstrings were better than last night but knees worse. Not feeling real excited about Sea to Summit this Sunday, but I'm sure I'll be fine.

New type of orienteering nightmare - it was the nationals, possibly the Aust sprint champs, but anyway I was controller. Halfway through the event people finishing were saying that the scrub was on fire because of unscheduled burning off, and so they couldn't get to the controls...I think this particular dream was triggered by my showing grandfather photos/maps of Darwin yesterday and explaining how the bush is burnt seasonally even in the suburbs!

C • O nightmares 1

Colonel Light Gardens jog before Wallaringa meeting and around the edges of startbooking (is that like scrapbooking - just throw stuff together, and glue it where it fits?). The main reason for doing this was so that I could properly stretch horribly tight hamstrings and semi-tight knees, but I wanted preferably to just go to bed.

The dirt road into the planned assembly area at Moon Rocks was washed out and the paddock no good for parking (and it must have been completely horrible yesterday putting out those controls that Peter and Andrew did manage to get out) so the salvage plan for Wallaringa's OY event was to start from the lookout parking bay on the main road to Palmer and people could do as much of their original course as they felt like, starting with a big downhill to the creek and a guarantee of wet feet with a bonus slog back up the hill. After I'd marked up a revised moderate course for a few people I tackled what would have been the 10km course, minus the westernmost 3km and plus about 1 extra km. There are some massive rocks out there, and no trees whatsoever, and it was fairly easy to pick a line and follow it (easier if I put my map away and just paid attention to my bearing). One control I could see from across a valley 1km away!

I ran out to get a couple of dozen pink tags in the west of the map which were control sites that it hadn't been necessary to put controls at once the event was hastily revised. I had a fairly low threshold for any tags I couldn't find - circumnavigate that rock twice, the rocks either side just for luck, then move on. Nearly could have caught a family of baby rabbits just as they darted under a rock, and later startled a fox and a rabbit who ran off in different directions. I wonder if one had been about to lunch on the other?