Tuesday Jul 31 |
 | Running (Hills) 50:00 [3] 8.12 km (6:09 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast |
| Two sets of hills on Durston Rd. Ran them half-heartedly as my toes are still sore. Found my legs felt good, just body-weary. Sand nice and firm with all the recent rain. |
Sunday Jul 29 |
| Rogaining 11:50:00 [1] | |
| shoes: Asics Trabuco |
| Perfect weather, if a bit hot on the first afternoon. Hot enough that Wil and I chose not to jog a single step and save it for later. Terrain very rocky underfoot and I struggled with uncomfortable feet for the entire event - the neuromas I have don't like being trigger-pointed by pointy rocks! The event was well-set to avoid constant hills and only 4 controls were in the wrong place (that we noticed!). We got every control we had planned bar one, but had a lot of trouble between midnight and 3am making a couple of significant parallel errors - so many knolls and extra creek beds around! The second error which actually caused us to be 'lost' and embark on a southwards walk until we hit a road. And then an eastern walk until we could begin to work out where we were. Down to one map when Wil lost his at some point we adopted the technique of Wil navving the leg with constant questioning from me and then as we got close to the control I'd have a better look at the map. We ended up 10th which was good to be in the top 10 given the errors we made, but bad as we both had felt energised and good for the whole event and could so easily have got a lot more points without having to run. Biggest achievement was getting back into good nav after making two consecutive mistakes, then missing a control up the mountain, then making another big error two controls later. Oh, and the awful spinifex really wasn't any big deal once we'd got used to it. For some reason got bad blisters on my little toes and on the ball of one foot, figure just due to the constant rocky ground. Doubt I'll be running much this week. |
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| C • interesting 2 |
Saturday Jul 28 |
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| Event: Australian Rogaining Championships
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| Rogaining 12:00:00 [1] | |
| shoes: Asics Trabuco |
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Wednesday Jul 25 |
| Running 44:17 [3] 7.8 km (5:41 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast |
| 7 people running tonight, was just light enough to be able to do the first 20mins off-road on the limestone single trails which was fun. These brooks shoes don't feel at all like the last pair, annoying to waste $$ on crap shoes. Damn the manufacturers for changing them every year. |
Tuesday Jul 24 |
| Running (Reabold) 40:00 [3] 7 km (5:43 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast |
| Took the dog to training with the others and did a few easy hill reps in which the dog was far more enthusiastic than I was. After 3 weeks off my legs didn't enjoy (a) running and (b) running up hill! Was a nice evening though and the 3 guys worked well together at the front. |
Monday Jul 23 |
| Note | |
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| Pretty washed-out today - we drove back in one go from Newman which took about 14hrs with a few fuel stops and food stops. South of Payne's Find it pissed-down and the rain got bad enough that I had to pull over a couple of times. Upper back is very sore today and I'm certain it's from the stress of hanging onto the vehicle on the crap twisty bit of Great Northern Highway in the rain with 50m+ road trains thundering the otherway. Got pretty scary at times. Fortunately the rain eased off around New Norcia and the last 2hrs were pretty cruisy. Nice to get a good night's sleep in a bed and a "spare" day to unpack, then re-pack for the trip to Alice on Thurs. |
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| C • Yellow Controls 1 |
Sunday Jul 22 |
| Hiking (Mt Newman) 2:00:00 [1] | |
| shoes: Asics Trabuco |
| Short steep walk to start with from where the 4WD track got too steep and lumpy to continue driving. No track to speak of so was a matter of weaving trhough the spinifex and going roughly upwards. Windy, but a nice mid-20s temperature. Had a great view over Mt Whaleback mining stuff and everywhere really. |
Wednesday Jul 18 |
| Hiking 2:00:00 [1] | |
| shoes: Asics Trabuco |
| A few more walks in the eastern part of the gorge system. |
Tuesday Jul 17 |
| Hiking (Karijini) 2:00:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Asics Trabuco |
| Various wanders down into the gorges and back up again. Lots of people here, especially compared to the drive from Mt Augustus northwards through Ashburton Station where we saw 4 vehicles in roughly 6hrs of slow gravel roads! |
Friday Jul 13 |
| Hiking (Mt Augustus) 5:30:00 [1] | |
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| It's a long walk up the world's largest monolith... we went up the 'gully' track which was mainly boulder scrambling for a couple of hours and then it joins onto the main walk track to the top. Very windy and a bit drizzly today, we were on the top for about 2mins then came back down an hour or so to find a sunny sheltered bit for lunch. There's an awful lot of horizon visible from the top of this isolated lump! |
Wednesday Jul 11 |
| Running 20:00 [1] | |
| shoes: Barefoot |
| Jog with the dog on the beach. Feet went numb by the end. My legs, particularly my hammies feel better than they have in about 9 months... no pain while running at all. Maybe I have to do more AR events to fix the legs... |
| Core Stability/Stretching 20:00 [1] | |
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| Stretching on the beach and a bit of plank action. |
Tuesday Jul 10 |
| Running 35:00 [3] 6.7 km (5:13 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast |
| 2.5ks of warming up and cooling down and 4 x 520m hill reps of Kalinda St at about 2/3 to 3/4 pace. Legs felt fine but body was working wayy hard for the pace.
2.40
2.50
2.20
2.10
Fletch came along and similarly has pulled-up well from the weekend. |
| Note | |
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| I'm off for a couple of weeks holiday up at Mt Augustus and Millstream-Chichester... I think it's the first holiday I've ever planned that doesn't have a race in it. Although the day after I get back I'll fly to Alice for the rogaine. So my AP log will fade away for a few weeks. |
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| C • Mt Augustus 1 |
Sunday Jul 8 |
| Adventure Race 13:54:00 [2] | |
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| We'd picked our main competition out before the event - we'd figured Ricky's team would win (all male) and Karen's team would be very close to us, possibly 2nd and maybe 3rd. We'd pretty much discounted the other teams as they didn't have any recognisable navigators. It turns out Ricky's team avoided the rogaine and just did the 9k straight to the next transition - so they were ahead of us 'on the course' whereas Karen's team aimed and got 5 of the rogaine controls and we assumed were behind us on the course but ahead of us on elapsed time (due to bonuses). One control we did find was hanging 3.5m off the ground and 5m off the track in the scrub - shame that these first-time organisers didn't quite "get" the whole idea of putting controls in (a) fair places that could be navigated to and (b) hanging the controls clearly as described.
After the first MTB and its numerous 20m contours we treated the planned route with scant regard and instead entertained much wider route choices that looked more rideable. This was a much better ride although Fletch and Jen had a couple of falls on the wet branches. No nav troubles until we turned down an unmapped track that was within 70m of the one that we wanted. After about 30mins of not having a clue where we were we ended up walking up a long steep westerly hill and T-junctioned with a north-south track on a spur. Amazingly there was only one spot that these features matched and we took a punt and located the control without too much trouble. Then Fletch's crank worked itself loose.... fortunately we'd on a whim packed a Leatherman and this had a pair of pliers on it and Fletch was able to tighten it up a few times. Our team recomendation was to purchase a decent bike for the next event....
The next trek only had 3 CPs to find, the first of which was 50m off the Bib track on a creek junction. Unfortunately on the ground the creek was 200m or so from the track and every step of the way a tangle of thick vegetation and fallen logs. We spent 50mins searching and then left. Apparently a few teams found it by chance. Not impressed. By this time the organisers were getting the gist that their 16-18hr anticipated winning time might be a bit out ie. it was 730am and we still had 50ks of MTB, 17km of paddling and 8km or trekking to go! They only let 10 teams start the dodgy trek and sent the rest onto the mtb (which they also cancelled the need to find CPs on). As we started the ride the heavens opened properly as we were motoring along the bitumen. Jen was in good shape now and we overhauled 3 teams on the way and were back in the lead for line honours. Somehow we'd caught and passed Ricky's team on the Bib track without seeing them?? Some awesome fast downhills to the paddling CP here, the rush made us all smile again!
Onto the final paddle, 3 or 4k or so to a portage which cut off 11km. It looked almost undoable due to the height of the ridge and weight of the boats but it only took about 10mins to get over - the 4m drop to the water was interesting on the other side and took some careful manoeuvering between Evo and I to control the lowering! Then we had a few km to the edge of the map and the TA "just off the map". An hour later we realised that the TA was just off the edge of the NEXT map!! By now Fletch was exhausted and our boat was lagging a long way behind Evo and Jen's. We couldn't alter the combination though as the river had a lot of obstacles and we needed those two in the same boat to complement each other's strength and steering abilities.
Amazingly we weren't caught and we headed into the final pissy little trek still 'virtually' in the lead. No troubles with the two CPs and by halfway through the leg Fletch warmed up enough to undo his rain jacket hood. Evo was awesomely strong here, towing Fletch up a massive hill by himself as I just didn't have the strength to assist. Jen kept up with us well and we jogged down the powerlines from the last control to the finish in 26 hours apparently 'looking fresh'. Appearances are deceptive though! No results out yet but we think although crossing the line first we will be beaten by Karen's team who should have enough time bonus to overhaul us and we may be second.
Definitely the best well-knit team I've done an AR race with and no-one was a passenger or had any bad moments of significance. We pushed well running and MTBing and finished strongly. Top effort by Jen and Fletch for whom it was their first adventure race. We didn't have any trouble with the wet weather thanks to our gear from Paddy Pallin Perth and Carboshotz kept us fueled-up awesomely, HUGE thanks to both.
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| C • Not by chance 2 |
Saturday Jul 7 |
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| Event: JWOC 2007
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| Event: Caffeinated Adventure Race
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| Adventure Race race (Caffeinated) 12:00:00 [2]** | |
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| Maps were handed out about 930am and we had to have all 3 gear crates packed and all bike and paddling gear up at HQ by 11am. We immediately split into two pairs for this with Fletch and I doing the map-stuff and Evo and Jen sorting the crate logistics - they knew what crate to have at each transition and sorted the gear appropriately. They did their job well and we never had any trouble with forgotten gear. The hardest part was protecting the 12 maps from the forecast showers and rain - we had that sorted at 1150am, scant moments before the start! In fact, making the briefing was a minor achievement in itself after Fletch's incidental testing of his parent's jeep's skid-pan handling capacities on the clay-surface road on the way into rego on Saturday. We had a good look at a tree on the left, then the road, then the river valley on the other right all the while travelling in the same direction along the road. In the ensuing brief silence as we aligned the front of the car with direction of movement you could pretty much hear the click of 3 bike helmets being fastened...
The race was trek, mtb, paddle, rogaine for time bonuses, mtb, trek, mtb, paddle, trek. The first mtb was really tough, lots of pushing the bike up hills and Evo made himself very useful here in pushing two bikes. We made a nav error which called for walking another monster climb up the same hill (damn!) but even after that saw the lead team a few minutes ahead after their own drama somewhere. We started the canoe about 5mins behind them and it got dark about 40mins into the paddle - negotiated logs and ti-tree in the dark on a flowing river is, shall we say, interesting! Next was the rogaine - 7 or so controls up for grabs with each giving you a time-bonus. ie. your time across the finish line would have this subtracted. We decided to only aim for 4 of them as the map looked flat and the tracks questionable. It was, and they were, and we even missed one after spending a lot of time traipsing around in chest-high swordgrass and thicket.
We held together well as a team, Evo and I were duo-towing Jen in the first run and we were evenly matched in the two inflatable canoes. It started raining after dark and rained on and off pretty much till midnight. After the paddle transition we never saw any other teams until daylight the next day. |
Thursday Jul 5 |
| Note | |
| slept:10.0 (rest day) |
| Lazy morning - slept in, took dog to beach then cleaned my bike. Work till late then will pack all my AR stuff and head down to the event tomorrow late morning with Evo, Fletch and our diesel engine Jen. |
Wednesday Jul 4 |
| Running long (Herdsman) 1:07:00 [2] 12 km (5:35 / km) | |
| ahr:132 max:157 slept:9.5 shoes: Brooks |
| Just a shorty tonight to make sure I am about as rested as sensible for the weekends rainfall-fest down in the Blackwood valley. Wil didn't lose his keys tonight. Saz did 35mins beforehand and then ran strongly with us to give her over 100mins... if she learns to read a map my $250 is looking shakey..... |
Tuesday Jul 3 |
| Running warm up/down 37:03 [1] 5.73 km (6:28 / km) | |
| ahr:131 max:153 slept:8.0 shoes: Brooks |
| Bold Park Pool down to City Beach and return. Wet in short squally bursts and very very blustery westerly straight off the ocean - no sand flying though, all the loose sand has long-gone after a week of this weather! |
| Running (Beach) 18:01 [4] 4.4 km (4:06 / km) | |
| ahr:153 max:163 shoes: Barefoot |
| 3x800 with 3mins rest
3x400 with 2mins rest
4x200 with 30s rest
Beach sand was pretty hard but the wind was squally which made it awkward at times. I ran pretty hard and felt good, but have to admit that I only held Saz off by between 1s and 5s on the 8s and 4s. In the 2s she was as fast to start with but with the short recoveries I had the better of the latter part of each 200. Scary how quick she is running... frustration epitomised for her unfortunately. |
Monday Jul 2 |
| Note | |
| slept:9.0 (rest day) |
| Just a quiet day. Surprised I have pulled-up from Sunday's orienteering fine given my lack of sustained hard running over the last few months but pretty motivating. There's not much locally to look forward to on the local calendar though, I'll get to events on nice maps where I can. |
Sunday Jul 1 |
| Orienteering race (Umuna) 1:18:55 [5]*** 11.5 km (6:52 / km) | |
| spiked:16/16c slept:7.5 shoes: Asics Trabuco |
| Forecast was terrible for today, gale warnings, 125kph wind warnings and sheep weather alert etc etc. Rained the whole drive down to Umuna but stopped as I got ready to head to the start, didn't rain a drop the whole course and was just very windy and slippery and then about 5mins into drive home the heavens opened in a torrential way, very hard to drive safely on the highway for a bit. I managed to feel pretty good running today ( I think the cold I was developing last week had a negative effect on that run) and ran at a faster pace than i have been able to. i was happy with my navigation although was cautious exiting controls and made sure I stayed in contact all course - but it was good to hit all my controls cleanly and actually find them behind the rocks I was expecting them to be behind. Saw Robbie J running hard as I was leaving... won't be long before he learns to love granite too I suspect! Saw Craig out on the course at a cross-over - - - he looked so fresh and springy! |