Training Log Archive: blairtrewinIn the 1 days ending Oct 24, 2015:
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Saturday Oct 24, 2015 #
12 PM
Rogaine 5:53:00 [3] *** 23.5 km (15:01 / km) +1260m 11:51 / km
spiked:21/23c
The Otway Coast 6-hour with Jenny, the first proper rogaine I've done for about 15 years (there are a couple since which I've used as the basis for 3-hour-ish training runs with the likes of Bruce and Liggo, but with no intention of going the full distance).
The Otways are not noted for their runnable forest so I had no expectations as to being able to get through the bush quickly; we initially plotted a route of around 32km but expected we would probably have to cut it off (a job made easier when the northeast part of the course was declared OOB at short notice because of access issues associated with some emergency water pipeline works). As it turned out, we ran the tracks (except up the steeper hills) but barely ran in the terrain at all - there were a few sections where I could have, but that might have led to blowing up earlier.
The steepest bit was right at the start, dropping into 61, our second control - definitely as steep as some of the hairier stuff I've had in Swiss O. It got better from there - the forest almost invariably had a thick understory, but because there was little fallen timber you could usually push through it. Did a section out to the west around 83, then a faster bit, mostly on tracks, through 63, 62 and 81, before taking on a northern loop up to 60, 65 and 90. We decided not to be more ambitious at this stage; I think Jenny would have liked to try for one more control in this area, but I was worried about the 91-74 leg - given that it involved an unavoidable creek crossing downstream of something called Melaleuca Swamp - and wanted to have enough time in reserve to get home if we needed 40 minutes for that 1km leg.
91-74 did indeed have some nastiness - the creek crossing was indeed dark green, and it probably took us 10 minutes to go 100 metres there, throwing ourselves at the vegetation and progressing a metre or two at a time. (No rogaine would be complete without at least a bit of gnarliness). Got through, though (29 minutes for the leg), which set us up OK for the rest. The next control, 54, wasn't in quite the right place (no rogaine's complete without at least one dodgy control site, either), but we only dropped a couple of minutes there, came through 70 (where I cut my knee without noticing it, and almost brought a small tree down on myself for good measure), and got to 66 with 35 minutes to go. We thought we could get two more controls from there, and did; finished with 7 minutes to spare but I don't think we could have done anything productive with them.
The relatively limited amount of running meant I felt better than I expected to, although I was threatening to cramp at various times in the second half (and did, in some style, while driving through Torquay on the way home, leaving me with little option but to coast to a stop while sorting it out).
I thought our planning and execution was pretty good and that anyone who was going to beat us was going to have to cover more distance than us, and that proved to be the case - in fact we won easily, by something like 240 points.
And if you're heading to the Surf Coast this summer, make sure your fire plan is in order. The forest is already bone dry and even the larger creeks are also dry (we saw a few pools in one creek and no water anywhere else), astonishing for October in one of the wettest parts of Victoria.
The Otways are not noted for their runnable forest so I had no expectations as to being able to get through the bush quickly; we initially plotted a route of around 32km but expected we would probably have to cut it off (a job made easier when the northeast part of the course was declared OOB at short notice because of access issues associated with some emergency water pipeline works). As it turned out, we ran the tracks (except up the steeper hills) but barely ran in the terrain at all - there were a few sections where I could have, but that might have led to blowing up earlier.
The steepest bit was right at the start, dropping into 61, our second control - definitely as steep as some of the hairier stuff I've had in Swiss O. It got better from there - the forest almost invariably had a thick understory, but because there was little fallen timber you could usually push through it. Did a section out to the west around 83, then a faster bit, mostly on tracks, through 63, 62 and 81, before taking on a northern loop up to 60, 65 and 90. We decided not to be more ambitious at this stage; I think Jenny would have liked to try for one more control in this area, but I was worried about the 91-74 leg - given that it involved an unavoidable creek crossing downstream of something called Melaleuca Swamp - and wanted to have enough time in reserve to get home if we needed 40 minutes for that 1km leg.
91-74 did indeed have some nastiness - the creek crossing was indeed dark green, and it probably took us 10 minutes to go 100 metres there, throwing ourselves at the vegetation and progressing a metre or two at a time. (No rogaine would be complete without at least a bit of gnarliness). Got through, though (29 minutes for the leg), which set us up OK for the rest. The next control, 54, wasn't in quite the right place (no rogaine's complete without at least one dodgy control site, either), but we only dropped a couple of minutes there, came through 70 (where I cut my knee without noticing it, and almost brought a small tree down on myself for good measure), and got to 66 with 35 minutes to go. We thought we could get two more controls from there, and did; finished with 7 minutes to spare but I don't think we could have done anything productive with them.
The relatively limited amount of running meant I felt better than I expected to, although I was threatening to cramp at various times in the second half (and did, in some style, while driving through Torquay on the way home, leaving me with little option but to coast to a stop while sorting it out).
I thought our planning and execution was pretty good and that anyone who was going to beat us was going to have to cover more distance than us, and that proved to be the case - in fact we won easily, by something like 240 points.
And if you're heading to the Surf Coast this summer, make sure your fire plan is in order. The forest is already bone dry and even the larger creeks are also dry (we saw a few pools in one creek and no water anywhere else), astonishing for October in one of the wettest parts of Victoria.