Training Log Archive: jennycas

It was great not to have to drive 90 min from Bathurst this morning, and I'd slept ok once I had doubled up the solo blanket and put tomorrow's orienteering socks on (toes nearly froze when I had to take socks off again to tape ankles at the event). Leisurely breakfast in the hotel dining room was punctuated by seeing competitors run past the window; so, not only is the arena less than 1km away again, the courses go through the town! And indeed, later on in the long course my chosen route took me right past the Royal Hotel...

There were some decent route choice legs although the control sites themselves were mostly straightforward, which was a good thing because at 1:15 000 I often had to go by the control description, being completely unable to read the feature on the map. Didn't help that I twice got a bush in my eye and vision was distinctly blurry (is that an oxymoron?). I was right about not seeing any other W21s out there; it's difficult to push as hard when you're on your own :( Didn't slack off too much though - most of my time losses relate to getting in & out of steep erosion gullies, which is definitely not my forte and I was grateful for Friday night's rain making them less shaly.

Sure, I'd like to have been 5-10 min faster, but am reasonably happy with this weekend's runs given that my hamstring took from September to February to properly come good. And I was finding it hard to justify the expense of flying to Sydney when it didn't involve visiting in-laws, but can see now that I really benefited from having the weekend as a mental circuit-breaker without worrying about either work or family.

C • 90 mins 1

NOL/SL2 day 2 Hard 3 - Splits

Event: National Orienteering Leagues 1&2 / NSW State Leagues 1&2
 

I runned orienteering, it was fun :) Also it was the NOL relay. First runned Liv, then runned Bridget. And Bridget brought us back in first place! There was no way I was going to hang on to that but only Tash (I was glad to see her at the 3rd control because I thought I may have overrrun it) and Belinda (although I never saw her, she went through me before the spectator control so at least the time I lost on 8 after the end of the runthrough didn't lose any more places) overtook me, so we ended up 3rd, for the 4th year in a row now. I think we were all pretty happy with that, even if the ACT junior girls did beat us.

Hill End's a lovely town in the autumnal afternoon light but it's kinda frigid here this evening, glad I'm not camping! The Royal Hotel's a very popular place for dinner but the dining room only holds about 20 people so the Arrows shivered outside for a while until our food finally came. And all I had to do afterwards was walk upstairs to the antiquated possibly-haunted bedrooms, instead of driving back to Bathurst (was actually tempted to sneak upstairs and put on my PJs as thermals while waiting for dinner).

NOL relay Womens Relay - Splits

Finally this morning I managed to consume enough salt to alleviate my 3-day headache (although not 3-week neck stiffness) but my brain is just so full of things I need to do, that it literally can't hold any more. Unloaded a few frustrations on to Zara and also told her a bonus anecdote about how last night in the fading light I was following a bearing towards a rather dilapidated termite mound when I realised it had feathers, a long neck, and little beady eyes! Gave that one, and the other unmapped 'termite mound' nearby, rather a wide berth...at least they didn't stand up & chase me.

Pretty sure this course was originally from the Summer Of Stefano (and before he'd remapped any vegetation changes...). Got around ok without aggravating too much the ankle I'd tweaked last Sunday, but think 4 more km this Sunday will be a struggle, especially as I have last start in W21 (and will therefore see no one on my course) which is clearly a punishment for being vain enough to enter 'elites'.

C • Vanity 1

Working off some frustrations, also hopefully working off the junk food that was initially consumed as a band-aid measure.