Training Log Archive: jennycas

Oh dear - one I possibly shouldn't have got out of bed for, at least not to catch a 6am flight, because that always wrecks me. And it seems I was already wrecked from a wee bit of a cold, plus shortly after starting I realised it was rather a long time since breakfast. So my legs were completely empty, and unfortunately so was my brain. I didn't manage the 1:5000 map very well at all, mainly because at that scale I expected things to be mapped which hadn't been at 1:10 000 which was then enlarged, and also I often couldn't identify the difference between knolls with embankments and those without. And I couldn't run over mullock heaps with dodgy knees. So it was very slow going, far worse than when I came training here in December, and that was pretty slow then. Also, it was scary the few times I got not so much lost as completely disoriented. It was as though I lost both my sense of direction and balance.

By the end I was completely walking 'cos I didn't even have the energy to lift my legs over stuff. But I still decided I deserved ice cream when George & I got to Clunes.

A flat sprint, fairly straightforward although with potential for parallel building errors. Which doesn't explain my around-the-wrong-side-of-the-building-to-the-last-control error, in full view of everyone at the finish which I then had to run straight past. Maybe it was karma for my sneaky "I can kneel from the top of this wall, across the garden bed, and punch this control because the map doesn't say I mayn't"? Something always confuses me about that courtyard, though - I ran the wrong way out of the start last year!

So I lost about half a minute on that control but the rest was pretty smooth. Embarrassed to get thoroughly done by Dante Afnan who's only 11, but then he beat all the girls.

Control collecting. And I went to get the Runners On Road sign but someone had parked with their wheel on it! After we all got takeaway and ate it by the lake (one of the Mawson Lakes?) celebrating Bridget's successful sprint series, I then tried to find the through road to Salisbury Highway and got completely and utterly lost, driving laps of the Mawson Lakes housing development in the dark. In the end I had to ring George as my 2004 street directory wasn't much help in finding the way out. No wonder he hates delivering to that suburb so much!

15 of the short grass intervals near the playground, trying not to trip over bark when going uphill. Range 25-27 sec.

Trotted over to the adventure playground, stretched a bit before intervals in new shoes. Not the newest Asics; I managed to find an older model available on line, hoping they'd pull inwards on my knees less than the 2170s do. But it seems I had forgotten that the 2160s may have been the cause of my hamstring troubles. Also, the promised free socks didn't eventuate :(

Redwoods & back, with a big crowd: F&T, Simon, Greg, John, Andrew, Kate, Zara/Callum (many of whom I had lured out with the promise of going to the Belair hotel for dinner afterwards). Legs pretty stiff after intervals so I took it easy with some doubling back for Kate, on her longest run since before baby Henry!

Company at the pub was good (George even came) but the food a bit hit & miss, especially given the price.

Head cold sounds bad enough now to evoke sympathy and still feels bad enough to actually warrant it. It's rare for the two to coincide.

C • Poor Jenny! 6

Nice damp autumn morning smell. Must be time for a trip to Victoria for the purposes of orienteering :)

No point in pushing it so did a run around to the top of First falls and then the bottom of First falls, with Kate & Fern.

Hawthorndene with F&T, B&S. Tyson was being chased by zombies in his head(phones). I lagged behind but it was good to get out for some fresh air. Sore throat (and sore head where I head-banged the wall when I got so frustrated that I cracked a minor tantrum at work - oops. Definitely good that I can soon move on to a less chaotic/intense ward where I will actually be able to remember what day it is. Not coping with the 1-in-3 on-take very well just now).

Figured that the cloud was going to take a while to lift this morning so it wouldn't be too hot for a long ride.

Up the expressway bike path (sweat dripping off my nose) to Reynella where I decided that the gradual descent of taking the rail trail in the southerly direction would be better than gradually ascending it later. Only took 20 min to get from there to the bottom end where it meets the expressway just before the Onkaparinga River, but took a lot longer to get back to Reynella - there were a few ups and downs on the expressway bike path of course, but it was more the detours because of the duplication works which took the time, especially cruising the back blocks of Christie Downs trying to work out the detour signs. Back at Reynella I knew the bike path towards the coast was closed under the expressway; you have to go up to Lander Rd, down it to the valley under the expressway then UP the hill to the west. This one was a bastard but the last one of the day and I did it in the big ring still.

Drink/snack/sunscreen stop when I had to walk my bike across the station overpass at Hallet Cove. Sun coming out now so I was glad of a frozen-peaches stop at parents' half an hour later before the final boredom of Daws Rd. Might be the longest ride I've done.

C • big ring 1