Training Log Archive: jennycas

G & I left home @7am to separately pick up parents and each put out our share of controls with them, a task which was achieved so efficiently that we actually had time to all meet up for breakfast at Christies Beach before getting to the Wilfred Taylor Reserve HH venue @11. The afternoon went by quickly with lots of little setup tasks, and before I knew it I had to do the briefing for the 4pm mass start, straight after which I raced down to the creek to watch the hordes of people dressed in green (bonus points for getting into the St Patrick's Day theme) punch the closest control under the model railway bridge.

After that I went in search of a democracy sausage, I mean a polling booth, and then decided that I did want to go for a bike ride after all, despite the horrible twinge which my knee had manifested as I was getting off the stepladder from the briefing. Massaged the heck out of my ITB, scoffed some magnesium, and set off on the gentle downhill all the way to the Onkaparinga River along the old railway line. This meant of course a gentle uphill all the way back again, but while tender, my knee didn't whinge about either this or doing the presentations. Not as many people stayed around for pizza as we'd hoped, possibly because of the rain showers which kept coming through (at least the wind had died down, not that we had anywhere near the sort of winds which Darwin did).

I'm a bit embarrassed that the course ended up being significantly larger than the winning team's score (had anticipated 80-85% clearance rather than only 2/3 of the controls), but admittedly a few of the hotly-anticipated gun teams didn't enter or didn't start. Great effort by Steve & Zara to come 2nd and even greater effort by my parents & Chris F in spending the past year on planning the rogaine!

C • Congratulations 4

C • Christies Beach 2

Short trot up behind the uni and around the nose of Bellevue Heights before heading home to sort rogaine controls/Navlights in advance of their placement tomorrow morning.

Exhausted today after hosting rogaine map-bagging night last night (all good except for the fact that the spare maps were sent away before I had the opportunity to claim some with which to put out controls...) and I could either talk or run, but not both simultaneously, so Zara & Callum were very patient. Now to draw a rainbow to go with the "pot of gold" which will be the winners' prize for the St Patrick's Day Southern Suburbs Saunter!

Pretty good apart from the water buffalo going in the opposite direction whose wake I kept having to avoid drowning in at approx. stroke 20 on each lap.

C • thanks 1

I drove all the way across town to go running, and no one else turned up, so I ran by myself on a perfect autumn evening. Despite being pretty stuffed, think I was a bit better up Deep View than earlier in the summer. Didn't go all the way into 3rd Falls though because of a plan to introduce our Spanish house guest to $12 steak night at the local pub.

Was hungrumpy by the time we made it down to Blairgowrie last night but amazing fettucine marinara (seriously, half a crab perched on top and the utensils with which to dismantle it) for dinner meant that I felt like going exploring this morning and I crossed the Mornington Peninsula twice, much more efficiently than one does when running Two Bays :) (on a windy almost wintry morning, so the ocean beach was just lovely in its wildness).

So, I had pulled together a veterans' Arrows team for the mixed sprint relay, originally consisting of Zara, Ben, Ruhi and myself, although due to Ben's sprained ankle David George had to be subbed in. I had kind of figured that as 4th & last runner, I'd probably be running by myself, but since juniors were on the same course, I kept seeing Remi through the middle part of the course although it turned out that he'd already done a loop which I still had to do. This race was enjoyable - fun to be part of a team and good to be able to watch the top placings unfold before I went out myself!

After visiting Hania & family for lunch, I wasn't desperate to do another race, and my hip hurt in the warmup but I reminded myself how I always enjoy it when I get out there - and I did, although think I was running a bit too reactively rather than proactively so although it seems like my time was ok (generally about 3 min behind Bridget for most races, although no NOL points because there are too many junior girls) it hides quite a lot of inefficiencies. Definitely a great weekend of races which I really enjoyed although can see I have a lot of work to do before WMOC, especially because the final around Christianshavn will be quite macro, I think, so the speed I don't have becomes more important.