Training Log Archive: SarahD

Big 5 O day 5 - Nelspruit. Sprint race round the botanic gardens. Ace fun with lots of careful navigation required on the complex network of paths. A few little hesitations but overall pleased with race. Legs very tired but brain was more important. Enough to get me 5th overall for the week in W21E - realistically as good as I could expect, and only beaten by 1 SA runner.

Big 5 O day 4 - Klipkraal. Another long classic. Only 8.7km today but on much hillier rocky terrain. Started better but had a major problem with a bingo pit hidden in rough open at no 4 and lost ~10' again. After that with people for most of the race, making lots of smaller errors. Great area but courses badly planned / controlled with descriptions not adequately defining locations - hence lots of bingo again. Tough going but enjoyed a bit of head to head with folk towards the end. Lovely assembly area with fab tree ferns and weaver bird nests over the lake. Splash in the Mac Mac pools after.

Big 5 O day 3 - Lakenvlei. WRE and 10.4km for W21E. Had a nightmare on no 1 losing 10' and all confidence in my borrowed compass. After that, largely ignored the compass and did ok, but it was a long long way. Lost a bit of time from tiredness towards the end. Forest similar to day 1 but a bit hillier and rogher underfoot in places. Would still have been a long way down w]=even without my error on no 1.

Drove over to Sabie after race and had a splash in the holiday park pool with E. Legs very tired but felt better for the swim.

Big 5 O day 2 - Dullstroom. Middle distance around the town and adjacent woodland. Early morning start but still very hot. Ran pretty well despite feeling rubbish (1800m altitude probably not helping), but unfortunately mp'd on a control 15m from mine in dark green - teach me to check my codes. E was most amused after me going on at him all the time! Nothing special about the area, but a fun race.

Big 5 O day 1 - Middeldam. 5th W21E. Reasonable run after being very scrappy on the first 4 controls. Borrowed compass has an old slow settling needle and it wasn't working well for me. Terrain fast and flat but a bit bingoy in places with controls buried in pits etc. Monstrous thunderstorm erupted part way round - thunder crashing, lightning flashing all around and humungous hail stones the size of finger nails. Very very scary, but didn't half focus the mind on finding the controls quickly. Exciting start.

Another splash around the lake. Also took and early moring walk / jog out to beyond the bird hide and knocked a few balls about on the tennis court - too hot though.

Training on Belfast Ruins. Storm was brewing up again and I had the interesting experience of lightning striking a tree ~20m from me, adjacent to one of the controls. Deafening crash of thunder and bits of bark / twigs flying off the tree. Ran a bit faster back after that! Terrain pleasant enough. Did it without my compass as I realised on the way to the start that we'd forgotten our S hemisphere compasses - bugger.

Headed out as the afternoon storm seemed to be dying down. Round to the N side of the lake and back the same way. Much cooler from the storm and felt much better. Still lots of flashes of lightning in the distance.

Paddling on the lake. Interesting, with moving reed beds that are blown around the lake and can completely block passages / change the routes. Managed not to get ourselves stranded in the middle!