Training Log Archive: Bomb

Got a good feed of curry (excellent) and spag bol (ordinary, and kept repeating), and a big cup of tea and decided to tear ourselves away from the fire and keep going. Back out at 3am. We'd cut our morning plan back to ~25km straight line. There was ice on everything by then so the puffy jackets stayed on!

Got the first few at the bottom of the hills ok, but then got very confused in a complex creek system (which I don't think is mapped quite right looking at the sat imagery), but found it eventually. it had been so slow getting there it seemed like a waste to give up without having a proper look around. A bit of a mystery tour crossing some creeks then which were all massive but hard to know which ones were mapped or not, but picked up the controls ok. Kate was a bit of a zombie for a while then, but I fed her some no doze and she perked up. I'd had a black ice coffee and some no doze and was buzzing through the early hours.

It got light about 7 and we ditched the lights and puffys. the morning section was in the area where the third day of easter had been. getting in and out of the creeks was a bit harder than I'd remembered. made anther dumb parallel error here too, but it was on the way to the control so not a massive time loss. Then got on the wrong little spur, so another few minutes. from there we were heading back, and despite the mistakes we were going pretty well, so added an extra loop of controls to our plan.

The controls on the way back were mostly pretty clean. Lost a bit in some braided creek channels on 93. We were just very tired and slowing down a lot. Kate's knee was sore and my feet were stuffed. I really faded in the last hour and was just following Kate around. Realised we might be cutting it fine so tried to get going for the last bit in along the track. even tried to jog a bit but then another blister popped which hurt too much. Fine in the end and got in with a few minutes to spare.

I figured we'd given it a decent crack, but I didn't know how many points we'd got, so it was a nice surprise to find we'd won the open womens.

Very glad we made the effort to go to SA to do it. The terrain and course definitely lived up to expectations. Best bits were the moon rise, walking along tracks in the moonlight, a couple of stumpy tail skinks, and when we nailed the nav on some very tricky controls in the dark. Also very excellent first rogaine with Kate - very evenly paced and she did a good job of backup navigator and we went the whole way with no grumping!

The cold was challenging but we took enough gear and it was mostly ok. I think overall I'd take that over hot days, but it would have sucked if you'd not had enough warm clothes.

I was pretty happy with my gear. I got some new salomons for the race that had a bit wider for more toe box space. I didn't get my usual squish toe blisters, but I got a lot around where I'd taped under my heal, and on the edge of the tape under the ball of my foot. still a work in progress.
I got very foot-sore which I think is just because I haven't spent much time on my feet recently. been a long time since I've run more than a couple of times per week. No other muscle pain or joint issues, and no cramping. I was expecting to have calf issues but taped them and wore compression socks and they were fine.

DOMS has been less than expected, but maybe that's just relative to how much my feet hurt. Still haven't been brave enough to pop the mega blister on my heel, but its going to have to happen so I can put proper shoes on.

C • Nice one! Sounds like it wa... 7

Aus rogaine champs near Burra, with Kate. thought this might be fun because I really like the o terrain, and somehow that thought bubble turned into reality. The last 24hr rogaine I did was 19 years ago, and I've never done all night before.

Our route plan was about 80km, +/- 10 depending on how we were going. We had been talking about coming back for dinner and a snooze, but that changed to definitely dinner, but try and keep going if we were feeling ok.
The hash house was in the middle of the map so that worked quite well.

Our route plan ended up being a 50km southern loop with steeper mallee hills to start with, and then more open country for the first part of the dark, which we figured would be particularly important before the moon came up. The second part of that loop also had a fair number of track route choices.

The northern loop was in steeper stuff early on, then out onto the flat stuff for to get back. We'd worked out plenty of options for shorter or longer versions depending on how we were travelling.

HH was where the assembly area had been for the first day of easter, and we started by crossing that dry river. Took a bit of zig-zagging on the way to the first control to get used to the scale, but fine after that. The first part until dark went really well, and we were well up on schedule by dark. stopped to put on lights and warm gear once the twilight faded and got really cold even in the few minutes we'd stopped. debated whether to stop again, but decided to try walking harder. spent the next few hours alternating between a bit too warm and a bit too cold as we went up and down the hills. Had a bit of a compass wobble on the first control back out in the flat but didn't lose too much time. in hindsight my bearings were trending a bit to the left. not sure whether it was my old compass or user error.

The moon rose about 9pm, and it was amazing.
Got caught out a bit on a control on a ruin on the flat where we got thrown off by an unmarked track. It got very cold down on the flats so it was good to be on the tracks a lot where we could keep the pace up. We added another layer of thermals which was ok for me, but Kate was getting very cold.

The rest of the part back into the HH was good, except for one control near the big creek around 1am. I'd drifted quite a bit to the left on the way in, which dumped us into a parallel error nearly a km out from where we should have been. fortunately picked up that the veg and contours on the other side of the creek weren't matching up and relocated. skull dragged ourselves back to the HH from there.

booked my covid vaccine. not till august because of timing of the doses around my leave in July.

C • Booking 5

no pilates as instructor is sick. might be for best given how much stuff I need to organise tonight.

Physio. another monster needling session on my calves. quite sore now.

C • Know the feeling 2

not much zip in the legs this morning.
did manage to fix the flat tyre from 2 weeks ago, so back on my commuting bike.