Training Log Archive: jennycas

Staying in Fairfield so decided it was more important to get coffee from Mr Wednesday this morning as it should be possible to run after the ISOPP workshop at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre was over. Well, the sessions ran a bit late (soo much for people to talk about) and the sun was already setting by the time I got out for a run around Royal Park and up past the zoo, plus lower back and hip flexor had become unhappy after a day of sitting (didn't help that last week's Killer Massage was cancelled on me) so this was just enough exercise to pre-emptively work up an appetite for dessert pizza when B & I went for dinner down Station St.

So, it’s four years since I was last down this way and I was looking forward to a run through the dunes as long as I could keep up with Blair. A perfect rain-washed morning to watch the breakers rolling in along the back beach, and our return route was meandering streets past rather fancy houses tucked away in the scrub, so this was an enjoyable exploration although by the end my knees said they’d had enough.

They were ok for wandering around @Point Nepean later on though, and I was fascinated to read the history of the quarantine station there. Rather different from orienteering races’ quarantine, haha. I do wonder how the (presumably for) smallpox vaccine which the potentially-infectious ship’s arrivals were administered, came to be made - and presumably transported all the way from England - back in the 1800s?

Flew into Melbourne not long after 9am but it was nearly 11 by the time I eventually got my hire car from East Coast Rentals in Tullamarine and with a 1pm lunch date and being hopeful of a run around the lake beforehand, I had to drive directly to Lysterfield Lake Park via freeways and tollways and traffic, oh my!

This all worked out ok and the bushland trail circuit was pleasant enough although the only time I really saw the lake was when crossing the dam wall causeway while trying not to get overtaken by the under-10s from a local primary school which was holding cross-country races there. Lunch at Stella’s Kitchen at Montague Orchards right next door, with my mum’s cousin and her daughters, was very nice indeed and by the time I left there it was 4pm and starting to rain so the drive down to Blairgowrie as the sky darkened, was somewhat tedious. The Trewins’ hospitality when I arrived, was superlative, however :)

Down into the peaceful Sturt River gorge (where I wanted to stay, it was so serene with the water just trickling by) and then up a couple of big hills.

If anyone is currently contemplating organising a joint 50th wedding anniversary party for their parents and dovetailing it with their mother's 80th, my advice to you is: Don't do it. Go and organise an Australian 3-Days instead; that will be infinitely less stressful than sorting out the guest list to both parties' satisfaction.

C • Families! 1

Not for the first time I found myself wondering why, despite the entire staff-and-student population of a university campus juxtaposed with a major teaching hospital, I hardly ever see anyone else running around here. Perhaps they're all in the gym?

Jack's intricate course, on Jack's excellent new map (or was it the other way around - excellent course and intricate map?) of Gawler, where I've only once run around the town itself and that was with Zara on a twilight rogaine about 15 years ago.

Enjoyed this today although didn't exactly push myself and lost a bit of time when I ended up along the wrong side of the main road where there wasn't a walkway across the bridge, and had to double back so thought M14 Eric would catch up to me, but he never quite did, even later when I stopped completely, squinting at my map because the control description was 'thicket' but there was no green dot whatsoever (that I could see, and now even with my glasses on, I'm sure that there isn't any) and so I didn't know which side of the fence next to the service station I should be looking. The young servo employee on his way back from a break saw me looking puzzled, pointed down the alleyway at the control on a bush and said "I never told you this!"

Parents eventually made it around the short course, which is not to say the same as its being an easy course, and by the end mum had abdicated all responsibility for navigation and was just following dad; sadly she can't really interpret maps at all these days, but it was a lovely day to be out for a stroll anyway. She claimed though that she hadn't wanted to give away her copy of the map to a local lady who asked about orienteering, because she felt the O-map would be too difficult for a non-orienteer to understand...

Accidentally bought a double strength latte (seriously, who puts two shots in a small coffee as the default?) this morning on the way to pick up parents but it turned out to have been necessary fortification since it was 3pm by the time I eventually got home after dropping them back to theirs - and because I hadn't taken lunch with me, not anticipating being out so long, last night's leftover pizza never tasted so good :)

Anyway, tackled some gardening and by the time I'd finished filling the green bin it was a bit late in terms of daylight for the planned bike ride so went on a suburban scavenging run instead. Having hopefully a teammate and therefore a rogaine to train for in 6 weeks' time, makes up for there not being any proper orienteering available between now and the state champs on the June long weekend.