Training Log Archive: TheInvisibleLog

C • Cheering up 8

Not a good day for those hoping for rain in the upper catchments. But great day for a run. Its been a while since the last still, cloudless day for a long run on Sunday. It has also been a long while since I have been willing to chance the achilles tendon on a long run. Recent indications were this was the day to try it out. Pain only arrived at the 90 minute mark. That's a great advance on 45 minutes of a few weeks ago. The exercise regime must be paying off. Or the endorphine rush was better than usual.

Event: Bendigo Ironman
 

Ironman day meant no time for running. It has been a bit frantic getting ready for this event. Last minute work committments ate up a substantial part of what I thought would be free evening time.
I had been concentrating on finishing the map and this meant the actual event logistics received less attention than it merited. As a result:
1 Stuffed up the handicaps something shocking.
2 Had two runners head out with the wrong maps. Sorry Bryan and Don.
Could only pull it off because of help from Creaky and Matthew Brownes dad. Thanks. Also thanks to Jymbo, Clara, Dave and Jools who collected the 48 control stands. Large numbers of controls are a feature of this format. They got them in much quicker than the 2.5 hours it took me to get them out.
The other minor disappointment was the small numbers. It clashed with WOC, so we were missing a couple of last years runners. The location in Maldon meant many Bendigo members stayed in town. Sad as we had four people from Ballarat, one from Werribee and three from Melbourne. With twenty minutes ot start time it wasn't looking all that good, with myself, Jools, Creaky, John and Schwepps. And two of them were injured.
But the high points outweighed the numbers. In no particular order my highlights were:
1 Matthew Browne completing the hard course solo (and I mean HARD).
2 General happiness with the orientshow format
3 Map being generally up to useable standard
4 Complements to the terrain, in particular from Oxoman who correctly perceived that the potential of the area was bound to appeal to my worst instincts (or something along that line). See his log. Liked the description of clay sand dune terrain.
5 Penalising Liggo's handicap a couple of times for poor acting. In retrospect, this was probably the no. 1 highlight.

There is a collection of photos on the club website. Link from there to Picasaweb. The routes are up on the club route gadget site at the request of Bruce.

Thoughts for next year.
1. On a Sunday.
2. Same map, with some upgrading.
3. Orientshow style courses again.
4. Sportident.
5. That means some form of pre-entry unfortunately (course variations)
6. Vastly simplified handicaps. Sending runners of in blocks of 6-12

Crucial is getting a sensible date. This event attracts a niche market, and you know hwo you are. So what would be a suitable date. I have indicated August-September again.

Afterthought. Todays terrain looks more fun than the WOC sprint terrain. And given Troy's result, he might have had more fun being at the ironman this year.

An am run. Late morning start which meant I could listen to AM. Aimed to be late to work as a late work day was looming. The last item was about the persistent poverty of the Mississippi delta. Seems the town of Clarkville is playing on an old legend to build tourism. I think the legend is that one Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at their main crossroads to become a better blues man. Ever since blues singers have sung crossroads and other similar songs to hop on the bandwagon. Can't for the life of me see why someone would sell their soul for the blues. Boring. What price a soul anyway?
Perhaps I have been selling my fitness for the fiddle though. This winter the evening lake runs have been less common because of fiddle and bouzouki playing. Mind you, this week the Ironman has played its part.
Speaking of deals with the devil, I had my first experience of that audience classic clanger. Someone asked me to play 'Devil went down to Georgia'. I think he was trying to pretend he knew something about fiddle music, but that was the only thing he could remember. Its not even a fiddle tune. Its a show-off piece of cuntry smaltz. That 'o' is missing on purpose. I suppose I should get used to it, just like I had to get used to requests for 'Duelling Banjos' or 'Zorba's Dance'.

C • Malta, OH ??? 2

Left a work seminar at Lancemore Hill early with a fellow conspirator. Had just heard a presentation by Sue Brumby about healthy lifestyles for farm communities. So we decided to run the talk. Out the back, through a bush block, noting quite a few small orienteering kites hanging around. Then up Split Staff Gully Road, on the basis that he name was interesting. Turned out to be a pretty decent climb. Went for a run with the same conspirator at another work seminar last week. I remembered that he tried to push me on the hills that time, so I pushed up the long hill pretty hard. He lasted till the last 100 metres or so. Age triumphs over youth.

C • orienteering kites hanging around 3

C • Were you driving up Ilka's str... 2

Fiddle. 1 hour with an accordionist and guitar player mainly doing waltzes. Much more fun on fiddle than on banjo, but I think thats pretty obvious.

Fiddle: 1.5 hours with banjo player and guitarist,mainly playing modal Appalachian tunes and some Scots standards. It was this or a run.