Training Log Archive: jennycas

Went down to Goolwa to ride Kay's really fun score event which started on the lakeside south of town and took in most of the suburbs - plus Hindmarsh Island if you were feeling brave or foolish, which I wasn't. Actually, I take that back - I was very foolish because I didn't realise there were control descriptions; had folded them under on my map board. And so when I got to where the mystery control 'K' was, I knew that it was at Kay's dad's house, but couldn't see a control in the front garden and didn't realise that I had to go around the back :( So I didn't get the points for that one.

But I got all the others on the 1:10 000 map fairly easily - even rode some (very gentle) singletrack for the first time ever - and then turned over to the larger area of the town tourist map, and without descriptions, struggled quite a lot in the control circles. I rode into the horse yards and did a puzzled lap of the stables and then a guy there said "I think you're looking for the wetlands next door".Apparently I wasn't the only one! And I did 2 laps of the BMX track looking for the control which was exactly on the opposite side of the tree which I rode within 5m of, twice...so I lost about 10 min all up and ran out of time to get a couple more controls on the north side of Goolwa and headed back along the lakefront. The one at the houseboat marina really stumped me, and in turning over my map from the large area to the 1:10 000 area for the last couple of controls, I finally discovered the descriptions - and that the control was actually on a houseboat!

Had less than 10 min to spare from there but hurried along the lakefront into a headwind and got in with 2 min up my sleeve. Kay laughed at me for not finding her beautifully detailed descriptions (I should have realised that this was more like a rogaine than an MTBO event) and then told me where I had to pick up the controls that I was about to put out in Victor Harbor. Yep, from her dad's house! I put out a dozen controls (by car, thinking I was glad not to be riding up some of those hills) in the Encounter Bay/Bluff side of Victor and when I got home after 10pm, having had dinner with Kay before driving home, George looked at the map and showed me the site where he had broken his leg a couple of years ago.

C • Sounds lots if fun 1

Pretty tired 'cos I finished working on my sprint courses after 1am. But I'm happy with them now.

Swimming carnival happening today so by the time I finished there were lots of marquees up and I was the only one in the pool. Also schoolgirls in the changerooms spraypainting their hair green. I assume they were spectators not competitors!

Went for a run around the long course (courtesy of Tyson & Fern) after the frenzy on the start had died down. Couldn't get anywhere near Steve 'local knowledge' Cooper's time of 20 min but did feel that I'm running a little faster than I have done since at least August. Nothing hurt but that could be because the Panadol I had taken for my evil jaw (stiff neck/wisdom tooth) had kicked in. Lost about 1 min on overrunning an alleyway which looked impassable to me but apparently it zigzagged. Karma for complaining came in the form of having to pick up and lug back two 3kg blocks of wood (control stands) when control collecting!

Thought I did well to make it across town from a meeting at TQEH @Woodville to Belair in 45 minutes. And it was a run worth going up the hill for - nice evening to do the lake-trainline-steps loop with B&S, F&T, Steve & Aiden, Greg, Zara/Callum. Felt a bit more energetic than usual, maybe because I'm slowly ticking off all the things I need to do for work and orienteering, although I'll need the weekend of not going to Bendigo to do some reports and lecture writing.

Also very proud of myself yesterday; when I had been worrying about a meeting in the city and where to park/how much it would cost, I had the brainwave realisation that I could get there and back on the same 2-hour bus ticket. Don't know when I last caught a bus in Adelaide...it's hardly got the same novelty value as a Melbourne tram or Auckland ferry :) Glad I don't work in the city though, there are smokers everywhere!

Ran around 2 different versions of my women's course. The one which is 100m longer on paper (straight line) is 2 min shorter in time because it has a lesser proportion of controls which involve going around 3 sides of a square (or something similar). So now I need to apportion the short-but-complex legs more evenly between courses.

I do think that all this running around buildings and up & down stairs is making my legs a wee bit stronger and less slow, so that's a bonus. Especially as I accidentally missed the (already rescheduled) surgeon's appointment on Monday - had expected them to send a reminder as my physio & hairdresser do.

Felt a bit better than on Sat but that might be because once I finally got back to sleep after George left for Keith at 4am I somehow managed to sleep until 8 this morning - oops.

Hawthorndene & Glenalta with B&S & Fern. It was such a golden evening that I went down through the pine forest and came back up Turners, by which time the blisters under my arches from yesterday were making their presence felt. Starting to think (as are we all) that the BendiGo ToDay weekend may have to go in the too hard basket because there's too much to be done for events at home.

Ran around a combination of the 'best bits' of my men's and women's courses. Would make a great course in terms of route choice but take rather too long. A bit more tweaking to do yet...it's getting a bit ridiculous simultaneously trying to coordinate setting two sprints and work out when I will get to Burra to set the rogaine and Broken Hill to control the state champs. No wonder I have been having very weird dreams lately and waking up with a 'hangover' although last night it was from not rehydrating enough after running yesterday.

C • rd trip 3

Trotted across to Mitcham to meet the others (B&S, F&T, James, Mel, Liv, Will) and then we went up Randell's (playing Simon says - turns out you can get up the hill from the private road off Weemala), into the park a bit, down Pony Ridge (my knee was quite unhappy by the bottom of the switchbacks) and along the creekside singletracks of course. A few doublings back for the junior girls who hadn't run that far before. Stretched at the park then I ran home. Kept expecting my legs to die and they didn't; the process of finishing breakfast precisely one minute before running out the door may be anathema to some people but it works for me.

A good solid run (admittedly plenty of stops), my longest non-rogaining run since Two Bays Jan 2012 although it wasn't even 20% of Cradle Mtn. Would like to know what time Rob Walter won that in yesterday!

C • 7.56 is your answer 11