Training Log Archive: Lizzie

Caught the bus up to Rocca di Papa for a long run. I'd found a map of the regional park on the website of the park, which said i could buy a map for 1 euro from the park headquarters. So I found my way there...and it was closed! at 3pm on a saturday! helpful!

So once again had to follow my google maps memory to find the tracks. 15mins of zigzagging up streets i finally found the friendly little red and white markers and into the forest. By which time my legs were dead already!
Followed some sweet tracks, but had to stop at every junction trying to figure out which way to go. My aim was to run around the ring of the volcanic ridge, and hopefully end up by the lake for a swim. However after 20mins on the forest tracks I rounded a bend and found myself in a beautiful open saddle...which i'd been in 20mins ago! Shows how good i am without a map or compass!

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=rocca+di+pap...
So after a couple more out and backs along unsuccessful tracks, I eventually found my way up onto the ridge and onto an amazing single track. The stuff I dream about running on (geeky much?). Was worried after 1.20 that i was going to have to turn around and still have an hour back to where i started. But in the end just followed my gut and popped back out into Rocca di Papa.

Got a panoramic shot of where i ran, which will be on fb at some point in time.

found last sunday's results:
http://www.o-id.it/o-gar/LZ_2011.asp?b=49
turns out i was first girl :)

such a blah run. legs had nothing in them.
caught the bus down to cafarrela and decided to explore the western side. Not much happening there, a load of dead end tracks into private property so a bit of a fail. Found one dead end track that went up a dirt bank so steep that i couldnt get a grip. Had a comic 20s or so where i just slipped back and everytime i tried to lift a foot to go forwards i just slipped further . Busted a gut to get to the top, just to find it led nowhere. oh well!

took a france map with, but no motivation to read it. Got more weird looks on the way home, probably cos i was covered in dust from trying to get up said track.

while watching the 2nd half of gone with the wind (found the 2nd disc). 4 hours of my life gone, not yet sure if it was worth it (apart from the 40mins spent stretching :)

Also Also: my father managed to find a report on the event I did last sunday, and put it into google translate. The result is hilarious, for some reason it thinks the race was in New York?! No actual results linked unfortunately.
http://translate.google.co.nz/translate?hl=en&sl=i...

under the regional news: "New York..." or "Lazio..." if you're in italian...

Yesterday's hill sprint session. Was already pretty damn hot! lizards were all sunbathing on the tracks

12 hill sprints. pretty consistent around 25-26s each. might have been a 27 in there.
Put my bus ticket and id in the grass as i didnt want it to get soggy with sweat. Then saw a rat hopping through the grass and spent the rest of the session paranoid it was going to nick off with my bus ticket! It didnt. thankfully. Not that anyones ever checked my ticket on the buses yet. They do on the metro though.

warmdown loop and back to the bus stop. Hit the main road at the same time as the bus, so raced it to the stop. I'd say it was a tie, however on seeing noone waiting at the stop, the driver pulled into the outer lane, so i missed it anyway :(
Then had those awkward few moments as the bus got stuck in traffic, right by the stop. So everyone on the bus was looking at me, knowing i'd run to catch it and the driver was blatently ignoring me. haha.

Just caught the bus that came past 1min later...

to the bus stop. warm up. longer warm down than intended. home from the bus stop.
i'm sure interesting stuff happened that I could babble on about, but i'm too tired to remember right now!

10x 30:30

was very tempting to not go out again having already trained this morning. But then I thought of how much food ive eaten the last few days and decided I'd better get out again :) Plus 30:30 didn't seem too hard. Legs felt pretty amazing considering this morning. But so tired after.

C • hardcore 2

while waiting for the washing machine to finish. Seriously, I had it on the eco setting and it took 2.15 hours! I thought it finished, so turned it off, but then couldnt open the door to get my clothes out! So gave up and went to bed.
crazy italian washing machine...atleast the kitchen doesnt flood now.

Just one of those days...
alarm decided not to go off. When i did wake up i stumbled through to the bathroom to find the floor covered in water...(lucky the plumber was coming today anyway to deal with the kitchen's drainage issues)
my hair tie broke (minor detail lol)
waited aaages for bus
flux jumps all day = not home til 7.

But got home to find the plumber had fixed things :) And had dinner with a couple of ANU friends again :) Which meant no time to train as I had to be across town to meet them by 8! (the dinner was ave and very over priced. It looked cheap until the cover charge and 18%(!) service charge was added on...)
Was hopeful to see the lunar eclipse with say the colosseum in the foreground. would have been a mint pic. (my camera totally wouldnt have been up to it). But the light and other pollution of rome meant the moon couldnt be seen. Saw the end of the eclipse on the bus home though


anyway, go and judge me for not training :)

C • hair tie broke 2

Couple of uni friends are in Rome for the night, so good excuse for a rest :) Looking forward to seeing Rome by night!

while watching gone with the wind, thankfully not in italian however subtitles would still have helped!
Can't seem to find the second disk...so could only watch the first 2hours...damn.

recovery run down appia antica with the norwegian middle/long woc trial map. Reading it better than last week but that was prob just the better quality of the map.
Saw my friend with his flock of sheep again. Not much else to report. Ankle is still reminding me of its presence.

Regional event out in vallepietra. I'll try and scan my maps at some point when i track down a scanner.
Managed to find a lift out, although they were 30mins late picking me up, and i was literally about to give up and go home when they turned up! So glad they did, even the drive out into the mountains was worth it. So stunning, reminded me why i love italian orienteering!
About 1.5hrs out of Rome (driving at about 150km/hr...) and felt like the middle of nowhere :) So beautiful, unfortunately i forgot my camera, however unless work gets in the way, i'll be heading to another event in a similar area next week!.

Anyway the forest was beautifully clean and good under foot with patches of rock detail. Very fast running. Ran the mens A course (like all the top girls did) which was 8.5 and 350m or so climb. Took the first control nice and careful as I got used to the map. The only half confusing thing was the use of brown crosses for little plateaus, just as I'd got used to them meaning termite mounds!
Pretty clean run, just tired legs really. Got a little confused at 8 when we came out into the open and there were lots of patches of trees. Didnt quite pick which the control was behind. A little off on my bearing across the open to 9. And stopped at the wrong little brown cross on 11. In my defense, the one i stopped at was completely under the line and circle! So it looked like there was only one on the map, not two...
Winner took 62mins, I was about 5/6th. not sure if i was first girl or not cos i don't recognise the names yet, but will endevour to find out!

Felt a bit left out as everyone was speaking italian and i felt a bit intrusive if it tried to join a conversation, as then you're asking people not to speak their native language. it's funny how much you can understand just from gestures though. Can still compare routes and splits lol.

C • sounds sweet! 1

shortest '10mins to the start' ive ever seen. took me 2.5mins.