Training Log Archive: jennycas

Event: Australian Orienteering Championships 2016
 

We got to NthTamborine about 11pm last night and I was tired and grumpy (hoping a week away from work will help with this) but this morning I was just tired and feeling rather middle-aged, so figured a warm-up jog around the mountain couldn't hurt. I made it as far up the hill as Gallery Walk, where the kitschness of the shops is astounding.

Griffith University, on the Gold Coast. Fairly detailed campus with micro route choices, and I'm sure I often went the long way around when I could have been more efficient with my execution, but I never really got confused by the map except in the NE section where an overhead building which should have been mapped as undercover area was shown as normal pavement open to the sky. Felt very stiff & painful warming up but didn't notice this when focusing on the map, and the race was over too soon. Suspect I may have lost as much as a couple of min on sub-optimal routes; a sprint course is fairly unforgiving! I wanted the fun to last for longer. Tempted to go back out again and test some alternate route choices...maybe when I'm up here for a conference in November.

Have been really struggling for motivation & energy this week, and couldn't even muster enthusiasm for packing, but did go for a swim on a fine spring morning.

C • Sounds like 1

Weir loop with the Junior Arrows, incorporating 11 stair reps by the Festival Centre. Had expected to find these hard on the lungs, but my knees weren't letting me go fast enough for that to be a problem.

You know what? I'm choosing not to go to work next week! Queensland, here we come...

Was feeling rather flat after a funeral for a colleague/friend today (another reason why I've been somewhat grumpy for the last couple of weeks; 53 is too young to be overtaken by cancer) but did want to see what AK's courses from Edition 1 of Flinders Sprint Training - which I missed due to the rogaine - were like. Warmed up with the 2 short loops from the anchor courtyard (7:18, 4:45) then did the 2.6km course (25:45) right around the southern campus, which surprisingly managed not to double back on itself. Of course it helps that I am fairly familiar with the area; only one bad route where I went around a building thinking a wall was impassable when in fact I could have got through the gap. Towards the end it was getting hard to read the map when in undercover passageways but my legs had finally warmed up and were happy to be running.

I'm impressed with the efficiency of the last-minute rerouting due to storm damage which has been done for the Yurrebilla Trail Ultra next Sunday: https://www.strava.com/routes/6555633
Only a *little* different from previous years but still 56km!

"Many Rivers To Cross"
I didn't come to Chapel Flat for last year's Aust Champs - in fact I didn't come to Vic for the Aust Champs at all - but it had been so long since I've actually run in an event that I thought I'd better get some practice for this year's Aust Champs, even though Qld won't be gold mining terrain. I prefer granite visually, but gold mining is still good navigational fun, except that I am terribly slow and unco at getting in and out of erosion gullies. And creeks, especially when they are flowing fast, although on a rogaine I'd just plough through them. The deepest one I poked with a stick first, to determine that it was only thigh deep and I would be able to manage it ok. Was running by myself all the way, since Anne had kindly arranged me an earlier start than midday (with a 4:30pm plane to catch) and some of the time I wasn't running much, because I only have one pace and it is rogaine-plod. Came last of course and suspect I made some sub-optimal route choices in my approach to controls, but never had any trouble in the control circle and enjoyed myself quite a lot. Wonder if this will have been my last long W21E race?

C • Sorry I missed you! 3