Training Log Archive: jennycas

Rode up to Belair with the intention of blackberrying without paying the park entry fee. Am so out of practice on hills that I had to stop a couple of times going up Shepherds Hill Rd but had warmed up (although the day wasn't too hot yet) by the time I got to the park and so went up Queen Jubilee Drive after a muesli bar stop - during which time half a dozen middle aged men passed me. I passed 3 of them again on the way up (24 min) then while the rest waited for their mates at the top I went wheee down Saddle Hill Rd (6 min, although I was riding my back brake A LOT) and by the time they passed me again I was deep in a blackberry thicket at the far end of Long Gully.

An hour and 3 litres of berries later I rode back through the park and up to Belair station where George met me for lunch at the Sheoak cafe and then we went to see grandfather (you can fit 3 people, a bike, and a walking frame in my car).

Jogged around John's sprint course at Magill campus (UniSA), impressed at how he'd got the distance out of an area 500m x 400m (with a map turnover). It was warm and I was weary and didn't have the best shoes for creekstone gripping. The security guards came and had a long chat with Tyson & Simon who convinced them that Arrows had definitely asked for permission to hold the event, even if the permission-granting never actually appears to have happened!

Redwoods plod with Zara/Callum, Fern, Simon, Aiden. I was shattered and wouldn't have gone that far by myself. But felt better than this morning when after passing out on the bathroom floor with cramps (hasn't happened for a couple of years...) I called it on not going to work. Surfaced midafternoon with enough energy to sketch out (literally; I traced the roads from the CFS map book then Google-earthed the coordinates of the boundaries) the area north of Burra where we want to set the rogaine, so the day wasn't wasted.

Shepherds Hill, Eden Hills, Blackwood, Belair, down Gloucester. Haven't done this since last June and was only 10 sec slower, so that's good. Drink and stretch at Blackwood just as the sun peeped over the horizon but after that my knee got quite bad with the ups and downs on pavement through to Belair triangle and I had to stop and stretch/massage knee/ITB partway down Gloucester. A bit sad that I used to think "home free" once I was at the top of Gloucester - and now it's painful with every step of the descent. Finished off strongly once it flattened out at the bottom, but I am spooked that a long run can go from fine halfway through to barely being able to walk after a few downhills. I realise that my rogaining days are over; not really sure that I should be attempting even the 4-hour rogaine next month, as it's at Black Hill.

C • :( 2

A meeting at FMC in the afternoon meant it was logical to run around the uni again, but I was very tired and had a headache despite coffee and was excited to find $2 lurking in my bag and raid the vending machine for some chips, then disappointed to find that their sodium content was only equivalent to 1/3 of one salt tablet! Anyway, am fairly happy with the men's course now as I did a similar time for a similar distance to the Adelaide uni course on Friday night, which took Simon 16 min. Still need to shave 5% off the women's course though. Given how much time I've spent there lately, it's a good thing I like Flinders Uni (not only because I snuck up there on Thursday afternoons in first year to spend time with a nice boy; don't think my mum ever realised that I wasn't still safely at UniSA in the city then!). Definitely my favourite campus map out of everywhere I've run sprints, and the NOL experience will be enhanced by the ocean views from the assembly courtyard.

My mind wandered all over the place and so did my arms, so it wasn't very efficient. I was tired and the water was soft & pillowy...

Run with Fern, up Olave Hill and back Long Gully. Nice morning and company but I was glad not to be running any more big hills than the first one.