Training Log Archive: jennycas

Think my ankle is finally allowing me to kick marginally better. Not a fan of inhaling so much water, though.

To the pool, across to Unley Rd to meet Julie & George for brunch, then home in time to pack for the rogaine. Getting more used to playing in Saturday-morning-shoppers type 'traffic'.

I'd had difficulty mustering enthusiasm for an overnight 12 hour rogaine, especially one out Saunders Gorge way (for anyone who drove to the Aust Relays via Mt Pleasant, when you come down the escarpment and hit the plains, the gorge goes back up into the hills north of there). Hash House was in the very southeastern corner of the map, the Marne Gorge in the northern end, and lots of rolling (read:steep) hills in between, with looong grass cleverly hiding all the rocks which are underfoot just waiting to be tripped over.

Only 16 teams did the 12 hour, starting at 7pm; lots more did the 6hr starting at 5pm, and so we enviously watched them all starting off while there were still 3 full hours of daylight left. Zara and I planned a 40km straight-line loop which seemed conservative (having covered nearly 60km in previous 12 hour rogaines), and we left out the Marne Gorge, but included most of the controls between the HH and the top end of the map, so there was a fair bit of zigzagging, and in hindsight we didn't think enough about the opportunity cost of some of the low pointers we were going to.

We started with the SW corner, which probably had the longest grass :( First 3 controls were running on the road but by the time we'd got the next couple up in the hills it was nearly dark and just as I was thinking about getting my torch out, I tripped, on a rock so small I never saw it, and nearly rolled forward down the hill but my landing was cushioned by larger rocks strategically placed under my knee, shoulder and elbow! I had a brief "I want my mummy" moment but there was no blood, just good bruises still coming.

About 10pm we started seeing teams from the 6-hour heading back towards the hash house and doubted they'd make it in time. (We also saw Steve & Dave and they were motoring along.) Then at about 11pm, which was 6-hour cutoff, going along a ridgeline, a team asked us where they were and we tried to direct them to the safety loop track figuring that since they were already going to be disqualified for lateness they may as well at least get a lift back. A couple of hours later, crossing the same ridgeline again, we saw vehicle lights coming and figured we'd better stop to talk to the safety vehicle, which was indeed looking for that team, but had just heard that they had made it back safely.

Some days you just feel like crap -and this was one of them. I guess due to a salt/water/sleep deficit, but it's the least productive work day I've had for a while. Felt really stressed about something, but no idea what (the rogaine? Surely not!). Was going to swim after picking up Summer Series programmes from Snap Printing but since I was practically falling asleep while driving, gave it a miss.

Started from Wilpena St, with Fern, and took 21 min to get to the park, by which time I was completely stuffed. I talked the others (Zara/Callum, Bridget/Simon) into going via the redwoods then up the singletrack to the tap at the top of the park; sadly the cherry blossom was underwhelming, but the forget-me-nots were lovely. We came back via the singletrack above the waterfalls and then along the creek. Wildflowers were worth looking at but the rough stuff was hard on my ankle which swelled a bit afterwards. The park loop was 66 min with quite a few stops, then 21min back to Fern's.

I had to drop past my parents' afterwards so somehow it was 10:30pm by the time I had made and eaten dinner. I have done a very poor job of banking sleep this week in advance of Saturday night when I won't get any (whose bright idea was a 12-hour overnight rogaine anyway?) and I woke up next morning with a horrible hangover feeling probably attributable to not drinking enough after running - felt better after salt tablets with my breakfast!

10x210m on the rough grass at Mortlock Oval. I had to dodge the lawnmowing tractor and also a man with one leg, who was on crutches, walking across the oval with his dog. I felt bad because in the time it took him to make his way across I had gone up and back twice. So I can't really complain about feeling slow.
50, 50, 49, 48, 48, 49, 50, 50, 50, 50

12 min warmup, 12 min warmdown, 12 min recoveries (approx 78-84 sec, which got slightly slower towards the end).

I have missed running at Morialta so thought I'd do the short loop, taking it easy, before OASA meeting. Going up was fine, but the downtrack is rougher and more washed out than ever and there are trees down across the track in a number of places, meaning that this really isn't a useful loop for practicing belting downhill any more. Then again, I'm starting to think that with this ankle my downhill-belting days are over (but at some future time I will probably forget I said that).

From the Uppills', through Hawthorndene, down the creek to Blackwood Forest and back through the school with Simon, Bridget, Fern & Eric. Hamstring not too bad and shins, which were a bit cranky last night, seemed to have settled down. I was happy with a short run, though, because I wanted to get back and enter for Cradle Mtn (entries opened at 8pm, and to quote Chris Brown, will probably fill up by 9pm. But 8pm in the east is only 7:30 around here - mission now accomplished :)

A quota of 60 runners fills very quickly - apparently it was only half an hour before people were already on the waiting list!

C • Good on ya! 5

Not exactly sure of the distance - last year this was advertised as 10km and turned out to be a bit longer; this year it had been advertised as 9.6km on the website and then suddenly in the last week a new 10km course appeared, and (this was the funny thing) it went the opposite direction around the river, but most people didn't realise this, so, having lined up on the start line, were then informed "you're facing the wrong way"!

Elder Park - new zoo footbridge (apparently this cost $1 million to build) - Torrens weir - Bonython Park - Port Rd - back along the south side of the river to Elder Park. I've Google-Earth measured it and it's definitely more than 9.6, but less than 10, I think. Anyway it doesn't really matter because they didn't appear to be recording times and I wasn't ever treating this as a full-on race since I was still eating breakfast when I hopped in the car at 7.30 to drive in to town for an 8am start, and my hamstrings were pretty tight from yesterday. There are no km markers either so I decided it was all about a steady tempo run and I achieved this but can see that I've lost speed from doing no intervals since I did my ankle.

Nicole Butterfield did just over 40 for this; she agreed that it was a bit less than 10km. I asked about her experience of running Yurrebilla, and then, suddenly, I heard myself saying "you should run Cradle Mtn, entries open (and close) tomorrow!"

As I was warming down along the river some guy running caught up to me and asked "what was all that back there?" The run was a breast cancer fundraiser so everyone was wearing pink and some, even the guys, were wearing fairy wings, and a lot of people had placards on their backs saying who they were running for (I can't do that, I don't wear my heart on my sleeve and anyway the names are too numerous to mention in my line of work) and so this guy reckoned he had thought it was mardi gras or something! Talked to him a bit about running City-Bay (he claimed to have done 42 but from a later start group because of not having run it previously) and when I said I did 51 he said "that's not bad, for a girl - I don't mean to be sexist or anything" and I said "yeah, but some of my friends did 47" (meaning Lauren & Nicole) and he said "you mean they are girls too?".

So, it was kind of weird, being simultaneously chatted up and patronised...I bet he's never been off-road in his life!

I rode from home to Steve & Maya's at Stirling East and George met me there in time for lunch. This felt like a bit of an epic; the worst bits were the bottom of Shepherds Hill Rd and the top of Sheoak Rd. The best bit was trundling up Jubilee Drive (which is dirt, with washouts) in the park, admiring the wildflowers and thinking that I'm glad to have a hybrid :) I got swooped again by the bird in the backstreets at the bottom of Shepherds Hill; since it had no less than 6 passes at me I was able to determine that it's a wattlebird, not a miner!

C • Tough ride 1