Training Log Archive: jennycas

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/77840134/?open...

The closer this event got, the more I was looking forward to it. Starting from the school in Colonel Light Gardens, it had to include much of the area I know and love. And certainly it was useful in the planning stage to be able to say to Zara "a run to there and back again takes me x amount of time". We ruled out the Brownhill/Waite section because we wanted to be able to do all of Shepherds Hill/Blackwood/Belair, allowing us to do however much of the flat suburbs we had time for at the end. Then the question was how best to do Sleeps Hill quarries efficiently with the limitation being train line crossings.

Headed out almost past my house (shortcut through the hospital) on the way to the first control, got the suburban ones through St Marys/Panorama, past Clapham primary, up the Lynton bike path and in-and-out of a couple of side gullies. From 93 on the quarry kept climbing straight up to Mead St, decided to get 55 over the other side of Gloucester, got 74 & 82 off the end of Gloucester then down a steep gully (73) into Shepherds Hill. Passed a lot of people staggering up this gully and Randell Taylor said to me "shouldn't you have a blindfold?"

Went briefly left instead of right when we hit the creek at the bottom of the park by the horse arena, so maybe 3 min lost on 65, then rather more than that on 81 where we were following up the creek on the southern boundary and I foolishly read 82's description (watercourse) instead of 81's (the gully) and completely forgot to look for a side gully so overran it by about 5 min - oops.

Up past Eden Hills Primary, down into an unnamed gully, up to Main Rd, down to the train line, down to Hawthowndene oval, up Minno Creek heading north. Definitely dark by here and I accidentally punched 43 in 63's box 'cos I couldn't see the control card properly. Re-punched in the right box then when we got to the next control which was 63, it turned out to have the same punch pattern anyway! Sheoak Rd, St John's Grammar, then down Randell's reserve very glad of 2 head torches.

Had about half an hour left at the bottom - north to 60 on the Brownhill Ck bridge then west to 34 at the park on Wattlebury, west to 22 by the bowls club (shortcut down an unmapped laneway, with which Colonel Light Gardens is absolutely riddled) and we had 9 min left so went SE to 22. Hmm, isn't that the street where the course setters live? The description: Number 13. Okay, so I know which is their house, put the map away and run. 4 minutes left, 3 blocks to go. I said to Zara "this is part of my fartlek loop, each block takes a minute".

And so we got back with over a minute to spare. I was pretty happy with the race though figured that if we'd made no mistakes we could have had time for an extra 30 points. Very happy with the running intensity which never felt too hard although I did lag behind Zara going up hills. As it turned out, we were over 100 points clear of second place, which was a nice surprise!

C • Congrats! 10

Good, the water had been watered-down so it was easier to get through than last week! Stiffened up after last night though.

Ran Bridget's sprint course from last week and it was fun. Very out of breath, though. Didn't have to punch controls, or run through a downpour, and already had some idea of good-and-bad choices from Routegadget - but did take the time to unfold map and read control descriptions.

The usual lake-trainline-tank-steps loop except that before we got down to the steps there was a freight train stopped on the tracks, blocking our way, so we backed out and came down Jubilee Drive. Kept expecting to feel bad on hills but strangely, didn't. Knees and hamstring pretty tight by the end.

Needed to catch up with myself. Probably should have had a quieter weekend, the way work has been lately...plus standing on ward rounds is not ideal for knees/ITB I'd say.

I struggled to get up the hill this morning, but so did the sun, which didn't appear over Mt Lofty until I was nearly at Nunyara (nice place for a wedding). Coming back down was a bit better, but still very ploddy (only partly the shoes). Need to make sure I have enough energy to run for 4 hours on Sat.

From Eden Hills with F&T, S&B, Troy. Turned out to be even tireder than I thought I was. Heard about Tyson's travails with getting council permission for use of Tangari for the sprint champs.

To parents' for a catch-up, then to O at Flinders Uni via Sturt Creek trail, from there to meet Sheridan at The Pantry (via my home shower) and finally home from there. Seem to have spent most of the day on cycle commuting but it was a perfect autumn day to be out and about (neglecting my garden and Meatloaf).

Only had time for the sprint course before the AGM but can't honestly say I sprinted it - am very slow on stairs in particular. Kept thinking about route choices and mapping from the perspective of hopefully setting a NOL race here next year.