Training Log Archive: jennycas

After the rainstorm had passed I drove down to Brighton to leave my car there for tomorrow, hopped on the bike and headed north. Half an hour later I was riding past the dunes at West Beach. The smell of wet sand, seaweed and marram grass made me feel like I was somewhere far more remote. Thought I'd better head home from there, so took Military Rd, the footbridge across the Patawalonga, then tried to follow the bike route alongside the (well-flowing) Sturt drain but it kept pointing me in funny directions. At one point I was heading due west past the Old Gum Tree, then I came to a crossroads which had bike symbols in all 4 directions!

Creek channel access appeared to end at Anzac Highway, so I took the old tramway path through Novar Gardens, then across Anzac on Stonehouse, along the current tramline except that at South Rd I must have been on the wrong side of the line to find access to the new overpass, and so had to walk my bike across Main South Rd! From near the pool I just came home East/Winston, satisfied with my exploits.

C • bike bug 2

I was already wet and muddy so I went for a run. It was lovely in the warmish rain and deepening twilight. Hamstring seems to have settled; may have been a strain caused by lugging around too many watering cans last weekend.

More pleasant than I expected this to be. Got home and the man of the house (who is still on holidays) was frying up bacon & eggs in front of an expectant dog, but I had to go to work :(

Zoe suggested a mass start and although we were both getting 15 controls we went very different ways about it; I headed north and she headed south. As usual, the start was in the very east of the map and the route involved crossing a number of ridges. I first saw Zoe at 40, the 6th control for each of us, but then I lost a couple of minutes on 43 which was on a creek bend, in the wrong place and out of sight from the top of the bank, and when I crossed paths with her again she had already got 2 extra controls but I was dubious that her presumed planned route back along Sturt Creek was going to work for her. My planned route to the last couple of controls didn't work either, as from the school through to 31 I headed NE where 2 blocks of open land were shown touching on the diagonal - but I should have read the impassable fence more closely. Going into and backing out of that dead end (with a token effort at climbing the fence) cost at least 3 min and then my revised route collected the last two in an inefficient order, but Zoe's route must have been even less successful than mine.

Stood around chatting to friends instead of warming down and paid for it later, but it's not easy to weigh up the mental health benefits of socialising against the physical benefits of going home and stretching and eating dinner earlier than 10pm!

Attack of the Killer Physio
Hopefully legs will feel better in a couple of days but they don't yet.

Made it as far as the train line with Zara, Tyson & Steve, then headed back. Curious as to why the new hamstring problem is exacerbated by downhills.

C • hamstrings 7

Set out with the intention of hill intervals but hamstrings (why is the left one sore for a change?) frowned unfavourably on the concept so I did a lap of the park and came home. Almost too tired to concentrate on where I was putting my feet, anyway, so would have been sure to roll an ankle if running harder.

Bike-knees (ITB) were uncomfortable in the night (sleeping on the floor under the airconditioner probably didn't help) and so I went for a swim. Had to hurry to keep out of the way of other people in the lane. Rather dizzy and over-chlorinated after.

Knees were tight after riding yesterday so had intended a run last night but by 9pm it was still rather warm and I was more than a little grumpy. Got up at 5 for a short suburban stagger since I was meeting Fern at 7 to go riding.

After a couple of hiccups, Fern met me at the bottom of the Southern Expresway and I gave her a quick tour of the wetlands then we toiled up O'Halloran Hill, coasted down to Reynella interchange and meandered across to Hallett Cove on the rail trail, then along the foreshore through Seacliff & Brighton and back Oaklands/Daws Rd to where George was making us Woddles :)

Tyson joined us for breakfast and took the sweaty cyclists to the beach afterwards. Took me a while to recollect where/when I'd last been swimming in the ocean; Croatia being the answer. The water there/then was a lot warmer than this morning (but I didn't miss the pebbles masquerading as beach sand)!

In hindsight, I should have just gone for a run when I got up at 6. But my plan was for a swim when the pool opened at 9 as it does on a Sunday. So I rode there only to find that George was right, Jan 1st is a public holiday*, and therefore the pool opened at 10. Figured it would be too sunny to swim out in the open by then, so I went for a ride instead around Mitcham and beyond, searching for a cafe which might actually be open on this public holiday, and drawing a blank.

*What is the point of Jan 2nd being a public holiday also then?