Training Log Archive: jennycas

Lovely weather for it - a sunny 25-degree day - to be out in the gently rolling hills and mallee scrub (and sometimes scratchy spiky native hop bush) east of Peterborough. Zara & I stayed at Burra Friday night and arrived at the Hash House with plenty of time for setting up tents and planning before an 11am start. Rumour had it that the course might be cleanuppable but word from the horse's, I mean setter's mouth was that this would take 65 km. And the most we've previously done together in a 12hr is 58km, so we deliberately left out 2 controls for certain and 2 for maybe, and from the fairly-central campsite started out towards the NW with the intention of getting the flat vague controls (e.g 2km without crossing a 10m contour line) over the west side before dark. We jogged any flat open bits, and obviously picked a route different from everyone else, because it was nearly 3 hours before we started seeing other teams and also before my groin/hip started becoming annoying, by which time we had covered 18km. We seemed occasionally to bear a bit too far to the right, but in general my bearings have become a lot better since orienteering in Europe.

Enjoyed the controls through the mallee strip in the SW corner, and also the sighting of a wedgetailed eagle's nest with 2 chicks in it although we didn't get too close. Through the middle hillier section south of the HH there was some slower scrub-bashing but we were one control ahead of where we'd expected to be by the time the sun set, and got a vague 90 in the SE corner before the end of civil twilight and the need for torches. First control after dark was fine. Next one was meant to be just west of the southern wall of a dam but there were plenty of teams milling around below the dam wall, finding nothing, so after about 10 minutes we headed north up the creek above the dam, and there it was!

We had no trouble with a 1.6km bearing straight north to a one-contour hill, but the equivalent bearing to the east back to a pair of parallel creeks in the mallee didn't work out quite so well and I panicked and went south even though I knew we'd aimed off deliberately to be south of the control, but the creeks were braided all over the place and confused me. Zara thought we should be further east because we hadn't come far enough from the road (her pace counting could rival Steve Cooper's) while I said I was sure there wasn't another creek further east. We were both sort of right except that of course I needed to first go further north and then we'd be the correct distance from the road - nearly, but in what appeared then to be the correct channel were lots of people looking all over the place and no control; Zara finally got me to stop headless chickening and go a bit further east, and there it was!

Memo to self: I need to add GETTING LOST to my mental list of Things About Which I Am Not Allowed To Panic/Worry/Catastrophise. I'm testing a theory that if I write these down somewhere, then when I start to get anxious about anything, I'll have to check whether the subject matter is on the banned list, and if it is, then I won't be allowed to panic about it. Sounds simple, right...?

It was already after 8pm by now and we still had a few controls to get in the hills north of the hash house but weren't sure how scrubby they would be, so after our earlier time losses we were a bit conservative, dropping a 50 & 60 but then made fairly good time across the hills, some of which we blew on a parallel gully error heading to our last control (again, the flat vague creek bottom caught me out; I don't navigate so well when there are no contours to read) and the winning team of Bruce Greenhalgh, Andrew Slattery & Steve Sullivan snuck past us. Turned out they were on a mission to clean up the entire course and with 25 minutes to spare needed to get only a 20-pointer 1km down the road from the hash house, but they couldn't find it and dashed back into camp with less than a minute to spare. To my surprise (and shame at how much less fit than them I must be) the Colwells, a team of supervets who did the WRC in Finland only 3 weeks ago, dropped us into 3rd place; like us they'd left out 4 controls but they'd found a route which was a few km less and managed to leave out a 20, 2x30, 40, while we left out a 20, 30, 50, 60 and so they were 40 points ahead of us.

Another memo to self: must get better at working out points per km and opportunity cost of exchanging any 2 controls. Unfortunately I am not mathematically inclined and because I enjoy navigating to them, think of all controls as equally enticing. Don't enjoy it so much when the navigating goes pear-shaped though, so I'd like to minimise that in the ARC.

The doctors I work with have come into possession of an ancient set of Trivial Pursuit cards (bought cheaply from the pre-loved treasures shop at the hospital). Now, whenever anyone is so impertinent as to come into their office to ask a question, the enquirer gets asked a question in return! I am considered a near-genius because although my strike rate is not high, it's significantly higher than anyone else's, and I know the answer to some fairly obscure questions, such as: what is the capital of East Germany?

C • East Berlin 13

First half hour with Fern, in the daylight, down to Frank Smith Park & back, which was lovely. Then through the national park with Zara/Callum in the darklight; by the end my legs were rather tired. But brain nicely oxygenated.

A bit stiff through groin & midsection, but must not be quite as slow as I used to be, because I had to go around the block at the end in order to crack over half an hour. The tugging feeling in my undercarriage, for want of a better descriptor, is fairly similar to that which was bothersome in 2011 and scans then implied tendinopathy and a sort of 'pulling' at the point where adductors join to bone. The cure at that time was to go on an overseas holiday but I suspect that too much sitting in car & on plane towards the end of this last trip was partly a contributor, as is my unergonomic work desk.

I just don't seem to get time to run in the mornings, because of taking Meatloaf for a walk. And don't always remember to take dog food back to the old house along with the dog, so this morning I had to give him some of the bread which I had intended for my own lunch! Happy puppy...he is seeming much more cheerful and energetic lately. (We do keep dried cat at Perry Ave for Smudgecat, but giving catfud to dogs really makes them fart :( Also I read an article which says that cats demonstrate no real attachment to the people they live with, so I feel a bit better about having lost Tiger.)

Anyway, this was pretty much the same suburban loop I ran when I got home from Europe 3 weeks ago except that this time it was dark and I was full of pizza. Passed the showgrounds where the lights were blazing and music blaring but the rides seemed fairly deserted, as did the fancy new Keswick train station which basically gets used for only this week of each year. Wonder if Z & I can be back from the rogaine on Sun in time for me & G to go to the Show in the afternoon. Might be a bit buggered though because this weekend looks like being a bit warmer, especially up north, than we have been accustomed to lately. Still, at least it's only a 12 hour.

C • Cannibalistic tendencies 4

Attack of the Killer Physio
Kath suggested that the groin discomfort might in fact be referred pain from a small labral tear somewhere in my hip cartilage (not that this could be determined without an MRI). Hmm...certainly there was a lot of torsion through that hip every time I hoisted my pack, and there was definitely groin pain, while travelling through Europe.

On another note, why did Yoplait discontinue Le Rice? I'm rather sad about that :(

C • get the MRI 2

Event: Merridee North Badge Event
 

We bailed from the wedding as soon as the dancing started (bride & groom originally met at dance class, so they are seriously good, and I was far too sober to try to emulate them) but there didn't seem to be much sleeping time between 11pm and 5am, at which time it was necessary to get up in order to walk the dog and take him to Perry Ave for the day (briefly left alone at Ave Rd yesterday, he escaped again). Nice of G to come with me to Merridee - the event was at Bri Glen campground and the course mostly on the south side of Wonna Creek apart from a few short legs at the end in Palmers' Pastures. I barely managed to get above a jog for the whole course and often found myself stopping to walk for no good reason other than weariness/hunger.

Did quite a bit more walking afterwards as we collected the controls in the southern half of the map, from Scrub Rd (with a little bit of 4WDing, but I still covered about 6km on foot), and I made exactly the same mistake (bearing too far to the right) on the pit in the vague stuff as I had done on course. Good effort by Tyson to have the results up before we got home. Now, after a hot bath, I'm seriously contemplating bed at 8pm!

C • thanks! 12

Course 2 - Splits