Training Log Archive: jennycas

Rode via Shepherds Hill Rd and Jubilee Drive up to the top gate of Belair NP on Sheoak Rd (BTW, the fire water tap there seems to have been turned off) and got George to pick me up on the way to the farm for Grandfather's 95th birthday afternoon tea. I had intended to ride to Stirling which would only have been another 20 min but I was completely wrecked and couldn't face the last steep hill up Sheoak Rd - had been looking forward to this ride all weekend so ignored the fact that I was exhausted even before leaving home. Went to the Organic Market Cafe, which was exceedingly busy, for caffeine to aid muscle recovery, and we got the last table ("last table" being a revolving concept, because there will always be another one if you wait long enough, unlike "last prune-and-custard-slice" which I was very lucky to get because it's a finite quantity, and always delicious).

Yup, long first leg to the other side of the hill, as predicted. There was no pack-splitting; all the girls went left (apart from Shannon, apparently, who was disadvantaged by her mountain-goat route choice). And so there was a long chain of us slogging along the powerline track in the sun for the most part of 4km, with me nearly at the tail end thinking "If I get heatstroke it is going to seem a long way back". But getting into the shade of the forest was a relief, except that I was disproportionately slow off-track (already I was regretting having worn spikes because they make me unsure of my footing and which way ankles are going to roll) and lost sight of Anna/Bridget straight away. Then, despite having perfect bearings into 1 and 2, I didn't trust them, thinking that I should have aimed off, and my wombling in the control circle meant that Erin and Kellie went past me so I was chasing them back along the same track to 3 (which I think Erin overshot by going too far along the track). Up the hill to 4 (singletrack) across the hillside to 5, around below the lookout (nice view) to 6 just behind Bridget/Lucy/Kellie who all disappeared down the hill way faster than I could. I started out trying to take the singletrack down to 7 but that was a stupid idea, it was so rough that at about halfway I took the terrain option and, trying to read the green, came out nearly but not quite at the control and then wasn't sure if it was left or right...I may actually have been at a boulder which was hidden under the line, but anyway, 3-4 min down on others for that leg.

Butterfly loops were okay (but I bet they contributed nothing to splitting of the pack for the girls because I doubt there was a pack by that stage of the course) and going down into the suburbs again I was feeling not too bad because I knew that the second loop could only be 2km at most. Passed Bridget just before map change and the little loop was no hassles.

Finished strongly but what's the point of being able to run well across an oval if I am so crap at terrain running that I am 15 min down on people who do 50% of the volume that I do in training and/or don't have any serious hills to train on? I am giving full credit to the achiever(s) of those results, but wondering what I should be doing differently. I thought I'd had a reasonable, or at least reasonably strong run, so being that far down was a surprise.

Aiming off could have salvaged me about 3 min, I will concede, and maybe I should have run in the Inov8s for greater stability but again that's only another 3 min...and if I were a bit less sleep-deprived that could have been beneficial also. What stands out most to me, though, is that terrain running is always my weak point because I can't lift my legs over crap on the ground and I am so tentative about where I put my feet. But I will put some effort into terrain over the next 6 weeks and possibly go play in the Snake Pit because then I won't need to tape my ankles.

C • Finished Strongly 9

C • Shannon 1

Event: Capital Orienteering Festival
 

Started out okay though I had a bit of trouble identifying the right erosion at the end of the long first leg, was fine up and over the ridge, went down into 5 knowing I had deliberately hit the track to the east of the control so ran west - and straight past the control on my left on a track bend because I was looking to the right at the time. Rachel behind me did the same thing. I was sure I had gone too far, then we ran into Cath coming the other way so I turned back the way I had come and from this direction the control was bleeding obvious and I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before. 60-90 sec here?

Then going up the hill to 7 I made the classic/common mistake which every second girl seems to have performed some variation on: crossed the track and continued up the watercourse looking for a termite mound on the right, the only problem being that this was not the mapped watercourse, but a gully at a 30 degree angle which also had evidence of water flow in it. I figured out reasonably soon that I was in the wrong gully, and that the control had to be nearby because I had heard someone punch it, but when I tried to go over to the next watercourse only 100m away I couldn't make the tracks add up and so it took me nearly 3 min to sort myself out, by which time Cath & Rachel had gone and Bridget had entered the Bermuda triangle. I heard afterwards that some people had gone so far up the wrong gully that they found our number 4 (again)!

Also going uphill to 10 I hit a wrong track junction and then went the wrong way so maybe that's another minute lost. Perhaps lost 5 min all up for this course, which is not to say that I didn't enjoy it but I definitely lacked precision (the CIT section at 1:5000 was fine) and was therefore 18th.

Decided at the last possible second that left on the first leg was the only way to go (that had been my instinctive direction but then I couldn't believe so many girls were still heading right). Thought I was running strongly despite feeling very hot in the sun & having sweat dripping into my eyes but handed over to John in 16th...

Second leg seemed easier because the sun was behind a cloud and the route was very familiar (this course had almost the same shape as the first one). John & I ended up 20th but running a minute faster as a team across the 4 legs would have had us in 15th.

I've pulled something in my shoulder but don't know that I did anything apart from sit at my desk yesterday. Just generally tense I guess. Certainly my knee/ITB is unpleasant - running 3+ hrs on pavement last weekend was a bad idea - but the morning and pool were pleasant. Another bad idea seems to have been making stirfry last night; I had soy sauce induced nightmares as usual (for some reason these involved a loop race up a mountain, up which I was unable to run).

Snails can go orienteering too, but they feel naked without a compass, and are therefore more of a slug...this was fun, actually. Adrian set us a middle distance style course starting through the old quarry and then going across above the waterfall (where we used to run a terrain loop, and should do so again) in Belair. Steve Sullivan, John N, John Soden (good to see) and I participated. Was so sure I had grabbed my compass as I left home but couldn't find it anywhere in the car (afterwards found it under my seat) and was pleasantly surprised by my ability to manage compassless bearings (very cautiously). Wasn't moving real fast in the rough stuff, even less so when I got tangled in a serious patch of green near the end and had to back out and around after it tried to eat my glasses. Enjoyed this quite a lot, but hamstrings had tightened up horribly already by the time I got home & cooked dinner (sigh).

10 min warmup downhill along the fence line to the start, 8 min warmdown dam loop with John.

Short jog before pharmacists' dinner meeting. I'm not a girl, I'm a snail...but even snails need to make room for dinner.

It had rained in the night - maybe more than I realised, because there were some good puddles which I enjoyed riding through until I got mud in my eye...mist was hanging over the far end of the valley and the yellow-tailed black cockatoos were calling to each other.

C • Lots of rain 15

The plan was to simulate a 2-person relay where each person runs twice, but if we had run sequentially then it would have been dark before everyone finished. So the condensed version had a mass start for 8 of us with half running course A and half running B, then when everyone finished we swapped maps and went again.

Of course, I knew where the controls were, but it was good to test out some route choices (and also map memory). Struggled with tight hamstrings going up stairs; and going down them was slippery.

Course B, 1.9km straight line, 13:54
Course A, 1.8km straight line, 14:53 (had more stairs, and more distance running around buildings, and I was buggered)

Collected some soggy control flags. Must stretch now...