Training Log Archive: jennycas

From Zara's (with Callum, of course) up Pole Rd to Ironbank, Cherry Gardens, Mundoo Lane, Ilunga Drive, Scott Creek Cemetery, Nicholls Drive, Brown Rd, Loftia Park, Evans Drive, Woolybutt Rd and we walked the last bit down through the scrub and lots of wildflowers. It was a lovely run, we got thoroughly rained on, and we got some more of our NZ plans sorted.

Halfway along the ridge on Nicholls Rd we were suddenly joined by a large white full-sized (German) poodle and another smaller brown poodloid. They wanted to play with Callum, even though he wanted to keep running, and we tried many times to send them back but they accompanied us all the way to the bitumen (at least 1km) and there I was able to grab them and read the names on their tags - Jazzi was the dumb blonde and Hudson the ringleader. While we were wondering whether to take them back where they came from, a car drove up and their owner jumped out and hauled them into the car, then proceeded to explain to us that she had only "just gone inside to get their food, and when she came out they weren't there". While she was telling us this, Hudson jumped out of the window and made another break for freedom. It's pretty clear that this isn't the first time these dogs have run away, and it won't be the last!

C • Long dog pursuits 1

I was pretty stiff after running so figured this might help before doing a 10km fun run tomorrow.

It hadn't taken me long to get waaay too comfortable with not having gone running for a couple of days so I figured I really should do this, even after somehow procrastinating until 9pm (by which time it had stopped raining).

C • I know 1

Couldn't face, not so much the putting on of ankle tape as the removal of skin along with it afterwards, so took the dog for a nice long walk with the specific aim of raiding a neighbourhood loquat tree. They have a very short fruiting season; October is it, and they're fairly obscure, rarely seen in shops (I introduced Tracy to loquats when she was in Adelaide).

The evening was taken up with the Aust Champs Carnival "wind-up" dinner at the German Club, to which I took my parents - who spent the entire week helping on the finish despite not being financial members of OASA (they are life members of Wallaringa though). Food at the German Club was truly horrible, as always, but the company was good and it's reassuring to note that the fatigue has faded from people's faces and nobody is saying "never again". Mention was even made, more than once, but very quietly, of "So where are we going to hold Easter 2015?"

C • Loquats 8

Have hit a slight metaphysical brick wall this week; not surprising post-nationals I guess, but I didn't realise how wrecked I was until I accidentally slept in until 8am today (was feeling a bit post-physio too, but that's more like being hit by an actual brick wall). When I came home from work there was still lots of daylight to go outside and exercise in, but I ignored it and made/consumed pizza & drank wine, which was a very good choice, even though it wasn't officially a Healthy Choice (it's either a state government or SA Health directive, that all "junk food" be removed from all departments and cafeterias and replaced with Healthy Choices, so now not even the fundraising chocolates are allowed, and so you should have seen our secretary frothing at the mouth yesterday when she couldn't buy a Freddo frog anywhere in the hospital!).

C • Healthy Choices 1

Zara has been doing all these long runs and I've been a slack tart since Sea to Summit so figured I'd better get my act together. I haven't run Brownhill Creek for ages because it's been my bike route, but today was a lovely morning to do the full length. I took all the singletracks and got to the far end just on 50, feeling good, started to think that maybe my previous best of 93 was achievable but by the time I got back into the suburbs I was flagging, having forgotten that a run of this length requires breakfast beforehand. A couple of scavenged cumquats didn't really fill the hole, and I was getting a bit wobbly by the end but I just managed to crack 93.

Can tell that the ground is drying out already (and soon I will be complaining about my shins again) but the creek is still trickling well upstream (there have to be springs) even though down by the pool there's no water in it at all.

P.S. Who posted Dave & Julie's 80km run route, by the way? It opens straight to the Garmin file - but I can't see the comments behind it. (They are not quite like other people, could probably do Cradle before breakfast!)

C • Jim 4

Attack of the Killer Physio

Kath has her uses - she was able to look up her notes and tell me that this is not the same ankle which I did so badly 2 yrs ago at WOC trials in St Helens (I remember now, that was technically my "good" ankle, while this is the one which has historically been wrenched many times before). She reckons I should always run with it taped because it has no stability.

We then bonded over our dislike of dental hygienists - turns out we have been to the same one, who is very condescending.

Same as last week from Fern's, except with a few more singletrails and a couple of redundancies for poor hayfeverish Bridget, who could hardly see where she was going. Simon, Lauren, Eric were also present. My ankle tape sweated loose in no time.

Zara has heard from Dave Baldwin that he & Julie Quinn did an 80km training run last weekend as part of their lead up to the World Champs rogaine. This makes us feel only slightly inadequate. They have also done every 24hr state champs on offer this year, including the NSW and Vic champs on back-to-back weekends. Somehow I assume that they have every intention of winning outright.

C • 80k run 3

So, this morning when I put my brain in, I tamped it down well, screwed the lid on tightly, then added some air holes. I also wore my runners and used extra extra ankle tape. I was going to remain focused at all costs, except perhaps at the expense of my ankle, which was fairly unhappy running across hillsides early in the course, but didn't mind runing linearly along spurs and gullies. The course wasn't at all steep and there was very little undergrowth, and the purple (Caladenia?) orchids were everywhere and I had to try not to step on them.

Was slightly high on 2, Aislinn had caught me 2 min by 3, I lost 30sec going unnecessarily over a rocky knoll at the end of the leg to 4 then being slightly right of it, but as I punched she came down the bigger hill which she hadn't meant to go up. We were both a bit too far right on 6 and bounced off the fence but I caught on before she did, Clare was punching 6 as we came down, and after that I never really lost sight of Aislinn and the ground was less rough than earlier on so I could run quite strongly, and went pretty direct on the long leg, actually punched 10 before her and then we leapfrogged the last few controls. Kathryn had started 8 min behind me and I was amazed to finish just before she did - had been sure that she'd go through me halfway round.

Yeah, so I think this was a good run - not the most technical course but it gave me some confidence back - and it's nice to know that I'm racing better than I ever have before, even if my navigation is taking a while to catch up. The road trip back was okay too; I wasn't nearly as tired as when coming home from the relays a week ago, and our daisy chain (the one which I had made for Fern at Vaughan Springs yesterday, then hung from the back windscreen wiper as a joke) survived the drive, although it was somewhat tattered by the end, to say the least!

And now it's only 6 weeks until the World Champs rogaine so I'd better build some distance up again, and while I'm at it, entries for the Cradle Mountain Run open in a week (and will probably close the same night).