Training Log Archive: jennycas

This was Andrew's fault - he didn't exactly dare me to get all 20 scatter controls, but did suggest it - and since 10 of them were inside the perimeter of the Thorndon Park reservoir reserve (constituting the 2km course around which even a lady with artificial legs managed to walk), 15 seemed as though it would have been a bit short, and I thought about 17, but even that wouldn't have got me down to the River Torrens which is the nicest part, so in the end I did the lot, but couldn't manage a pace much above a crawl. Made it longer than necessary by overshooting a couple among the artificial lakes at the beginning, and did a daft off-the-map (under the control descriptions) route where I expected to find a park leading along the creek to my control but in fact that park didn't come all the way through to Gorge Rd and I got quite confused. Also my feet were overheating in the sun/on the hot pavement over towards Athelstone primary in the west. But I made myself keep running because I wanted to beat my parents who were walking the 3.2km course.

C • Sorry! 2

Trainline-steps loop with Simon, Liv, John, Zara/Callum, before Arrows meeting and kitten-dodging (Scout & Gambit stole my pen). Nice evening and leisurely pace with plenty of stretching stops. The big hill is still there, but I think I could get better at it if I could only work out how to make my legs lift properly from the hips.

Gotta get back to the habit of running in the mornings. There was a nice cool breeze on the way up Randells and this would have been perfect if my hamstring didn't tighten up on the Gloucester Ave descent (and I didn't have to go to work afterwards). Also if I were a bit faster - there's a lot of room for improvement. Tried dropping my shoulders to gain a bit more fluency of stride but my hands kept catching on my hips. Might have to institute a personal 'Eat Less Crap' policy and get G to police it, haha.

C • I don't need a personal tra... 16

I was home and had finished dinner by the time I'm usually leaving work, so decided afterwards to go for a ride around the suburbs in search of some geocaches. Many of them I had to ride on by because there were too many muggles about, and I nearly got busted by the Mormons on their bikes at one point. Interested to discover that the location of my now-archived cache A Bridge to Nowhere has been resurrected as Strange Park!

Didn't make it to Morialta and by the time I thought about running from home I was already full of pizza. This seems to happen all too often lately...need to work out what my goals are for this year. World Rogaining Champs, obviously, but also I think I still want to run elites because last year I embraced being 40 a little *too* much! Can't complain though because it meant getting to run in Gothenburg granite at WMOC, which was probably my favourite terrain of the year. Might have to go back there after WMOC 2018 in Copenhagen :)

Didn't sleep that well 'cos back was rather tight & achy during the night, but it was ok in the water.

A few weeks ago Bridget said she'd like to run to Mt Lofty and we convinced her to wait for a cooler day. This weekend and with Blair in town seemed like the logical occasion to do so - and actually there was a larger turnout than for any other Bridgewater run so far this summer. Started out through Mt George with B&S, Robin, Zara/Callum, John, AK, Bobby the South African nurse, Steve & Ethan, Dante, Liv plus Blair & myself of course. At the bottom of Spring Gully Road John had thoughtfully placed water and it was here that Dante & Ethan peeled off back to Old Mt Barker Rd. Just below the gruelling Mt Lofty ascent Steve & Bobby turned back on Sprigg Rd, but Robin came all the way to the top to be met by Adrian, and at the summit Lauren also appeared out of the mist. The botanic gardens are still closed at 9am so we decided not to make any unauthorised sorties through them (unlike on the post-wedding run in 2012) and went downhill via Crafers & Piccadilly and thence along Old Mt Barker Rd. A bit sorry to be so slow on hills these days, and by the end my groin was uncomfortably tight but that may partly have been due to breaking in new shoes. Anyway, glad we did it as a group and everyone was back in plenty of time for brunch at the Bridgewater Inn.

Lucky Hit annual pilgrimage/30th anniversary edition. I seriously think that if the Arrows got organised and put some of our funds towards a remap of this area in time for the club relays in August, that would be money well spent. Problem is, you'd lose some of the earth features because they have pretty much faded into the background by now - but if we could get access to the quarry area we'd definitely have enough control sites still.

Anyway, I unearthed the courses which Susanne & Arrin & I had set in 2004; the longest with 3 distinct loops totalling 8.8km. By the time I'd taped my ankles and squeezed my feet into O shoes which still had mud caked on them from the Ultralong 4 months ago, Blair had already gone around the first loop so in the end I just did the latter two, but at least they were at a pace not vastly slower than 3 summers ago before NZ. I was in a hurry because I needed to spend the afternoon doing housework before friends came for a dinner party, but still found time to demonstrate to my Subarally navigator the truth of the statement that from a certain point "all roads lead to Harrogate, but not all of them actually go there".