Training Log Archive: jennycas

Event: Saturday Orienteering Series - Lane Cove National Park
 

G & I flew out of Adelaide @6am and I'd figured that the low-key event in Lane Cove NP was sort of on our way out to Penrith, so we headed directly to orienteering, which ended up costing me $25 if you include $7 for the Eastern Distributor toll and $8 for parking in the national park, and was on a map which I considered substandard; although I accept that it wasn't possible to make brilliant courses with a river running through the middle with only one crossing point, I would have liked the rocks and tracks to be drawn a bit better (and distinguishable from each other) and not to have lost about 5 min as a result...finished feeling decidedly grumpy (plus muddy and bloody) which was partly rectified by second breakfast & coffee at the shops in North Ryde.

Just a short one 'cos I'm tired today (and also my back has been tight ever since we got the new mattress which is a touch too soft for me). Think my night peripheral vision must be going; twice I saw a large brown 'snake' by the side of the path - which when it moved, turned out to be attached to the body of a kangaroo!

A small but select group turned up tonight for the training which John had set for B&S' last before they flee the country. The roughness of the washed-out tracks justified taping my ankles but I was still pretty slow because by torchlight it was hard to distinguish between purple lines, contour lines and tiny tracks on the map. Good fun though!

C • compass question 7

After a meeting at FMC: up through the Uni & Bellevue Heights then down through Eden Hills & Sheps. Guess I'll get used to this sort of route in future, just as I did when I lived on Sturt Rd 20 years ago. Was a bit startled to realise this afternoon that while Repat hospital may be closing in December, many units/wards will be moving offsite as early as October - which is only 4 months away...guess I'd better make a start on decluttering my office (and saving 15 years' worth of orienteering documents from my computer to an external hard drive).

We started up above the uni on a hill covered with rocks and native pines and I got through the hilltop controls pretty cleanly then was very slow on the steep descent down the hillside into the uni (made slower by the fact that at my moment of hesitation trying to work out if the marked fence crossing point was actually a gate, I had a moment of bodily contact with Bruce whose trajectory was at right angles to mine - oops!).

I'd expected my legs to be tired after yesterday but in fact they weren't too bad although obviously I've lost fitness since NZ, so I was able to run hard through the uni section and didn't mind that the course was a bit too long. Only mistakes were in not correctly reading the trap controls on the bridge and on the broad stairs.

On the way back to Melbourne we drove past The Rock, scene of the first Aust Schools' Champs I ever attended - in 1987 - and later stopped to walk to the top of the granite boulders at Mad Dan Morgan's Lookout. He sounds like a really nasty piece of work even as 1800s bushrangers go, but the smallish patch of granite outcrops could make a nice little microsprint: http://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/country-nsw/t...

C • Broad stairs 3

Day 3 2 - Splits

I had been a bit worried about how a longer race would go with not having run anything much over an hour lately, but at least this was not going to be particularly tough terrain (not when compared to St Helens granite), and in fact it turned out to be quite pleasant with really only 2 big hills. Also 2 really long legs, on the first of which I was proud of myself for seeing the wide left track option, but then I ballsed up the control circle just after Bridget hooned past me. Bun passed me on the track on the other long leg, having put her foot down on the accelerator...! Although I would have been happy with more legs in the vague flat stuff the last loop up & down the hill wasn't too bad either, and it was an absolutely glorious day to be out in the winter sunshine.

Day 2 Course 3 - Splits