Training Log Archive: jennycas

Utterly wrecked last night at the end of a long week, but I had planned all sorts of orienteering training for today, which plans were thwarted by being woken in the middle of the night by the worst cramp in my calf that I have ever experienced - as though the muscle was being torn apart, and I could actually feel it rippling as it tried to tie itself in knots. Some frantic massage got the knot to untie, much to my relief - but it was pretty painful to walk on this morning and I didn't think running on it was likely to improve that.

Attack of the Killer Physio

This was pretty uncomfortable despite my having antiinflammatories on board, but not as uncomfortable as the last few (weeks of) nights have been at around 5am. Afterwards Kath taped my back to keep it upright because she could see that it is becoming permanently hunched over. I dislike the word kyphosis, but think it is in my genetic destiny. All the same, there's been way too much desk-sitting lately in EPAS land, and it would be a lot better if my desk was about 4 inches higher!

EPAS is going fine at work but it's all a little overwhelming and today was particularly busy in the day chemo unit; I seemed to be answering a million questions from other people, so I was pretty grumpy by the end of the day and not sure how I felt about a run. Anyway, it turned out nice enough; up the southern boundary fence singletrack and back down Long Gully, with B&S, Zara/Callum, Liv & Will. Lots of huge roos about.

A bit unco today - legs pretty tired and also arms stiff from orienteering Sun (dunno why). Thought that someone ahead in my lane was using a snorkel, but in hindsight it seems likely that through the haze of my goggles I was actually seeing a duck.

C • understandable! 8

I really did think I would have enough time to run around an old sprint course (set by Robin for training) of Sturt campus and the student accommodation, but it got too dark to read the map properly by the time I was halfway round, which was frustrating - I could easily have started 10 minutes earlier had I realised, but as it was had to abandon the last 2 controls :( Still warm out, and very smoky, presumably from the prescribed burn near Horsnell Gully.

The strange thing was that I kept coming across lockable plate controls all over the campus. Presumably in use by the outdoor education or PE teaching students?

C • Controls 1

When Tyson said yesterday that he wanted to run Suffolk Rd tonight I thought "what's so special about running down past the primary school?". He didn't mean that at all, he meant up to Upper Sturt Rd. Good thing I had warmed up around Flinders beforehand! Nice night for a run with Tyson, Troy & Bridget; it even smelled different to daylight runs and the city lights were lovely when viewed coming down Olave Hill. But I do hate the way my headlamp bounces around and won't stay where I adjust it on my head.

The course was never going to be short and sweet, being Pewsey Vale, but I thought Stephen Dose had set good legs which required navigation (25 of them) without making the control sites too complicated; in fact some of the flags were visible from quite some distance off. The only ones which I had trouble with were where the control site was wrong/weird (12 and 21) and on 8 - where I was following the fenceline north, looking for a fence junction just past the dam before turning off into the bush, but the fence junction turned out to be mapped 100m too far north and I then ended up well beyond the saddle I wanted to be on and lost about 3 min. This may explain the apparent distance anomaly which is always present in the SE native scrub section of the original map - possibly it's been stretched or shrunk when the extra farmland was mapped for 2002?

Legs felt fairly good for the first half and were even lifting me okay over junk on the ground, but I started to fade when I got to the far end of the map and it didn't help that I put my foot in a hole, jarring my hamstring, so was pretty slow on hills afterwards, and not particularly enthused by the final southern loop, but at least controls 22 and 23 hadn't been brought in yet (unlike in the men's race at the World Cup in Spain...)