Training Log Archive: Lizzie

Thought I'd go for a moonlit run up Majura. But after 200m, as I went to turn onto the single track I discovered my headlamp was dead. So turned into a real moonlit run, sticking to the fire trails. Loop over HH. Turns out roos just can't figure out what's going on when you don't have a bright light on your head.


Spent most of the day at Tidbinbilla with my brother and his wife and son. Achievement of the day was teaching 21month old Luke to point and say 'big rock' every time he saw a nice bit of granite. He seemed a bit lost when I tried to teach him the difference between a boulder and a boulder cluster though.

Event: ACT League #11 Sandhills
 

Oh dear. Big mistakes today. Talk about going from the sublime (the gib 2 weeks ago) to ridiculous!

First blow out was on #2 when i was right on track and was 200m from the control when I suddenly thought the slope I was on was nowhere near as steep as the one on the map...so convinced myself I'd overshot to the flatter bit beyond the control. So turned 90 degrees, made stuff fit, went way off course, relocated and returned to where I'd been. Oops.
On looking at the map later, it turns out half of what I read as contours were actually (in my biased opinion, unnecessary) form-lines, I just couldnt distinguish them on the run while picking my way through the gazillion little rocks that were attempting to sabotage my ankles.

Luckily I caught Tara coming into #3 or I could have spent a lot of time there too, or not found it as Craney and Hoggster. I dunno if it was in the right place or not, but from my approach the flag was completely hidden, and actually sat half inside, a tree trunk. I swung the flag out as I left it to make sure it was visible, then kicked myself as i realised it was probably only the likes of Jase and RobW that would go through it after me! ;)

And then #5, well firstly I got distracted by what looked like a roaming herd of wild alpacas...but which I'll assume were small, slightly fluffy deer? All excited by said sighting, I then bailed over a fallen tree and reopened the cut on my hand from last week. And then I got completely lost on the super vague featureless bit near the control. Relocating off a termie for the 2nd time today. Far out.

From there it was all g. And there was another good long downhill finish, which I'm all for. The old sand diggings at the end even made me feel a little bit at home, like the open dunes at Waitarere.
Actually a really cool area, just maybe needs a bit of a remap. And for me not to be an idiot, concentrate on the map a bit more, and not get distracted by deer in bad alpaca costumes. Or Alpacas in bad deer costumes. It's open to debate.

C • I saw an alpaca today and I... 4

Began the mass start with the juniors. Then stopped and regrouped the faster ones for a 2nd mass start. Then jogged the rest.

circuitous run around the single tracks to collect the tapes. Should have gone a bit longer, or run the actual event. But couldn't find the motivation and my back was grumpy.

lab - BR - lab

putting tapes out in the dark for BL training tomorrow morning. Struggled with a couple of the sites, where the tracks and veg had changed and there were bonus termies.

One of those runs where getting out of the door was the main achievement.