Training Log Archive: jennycas

G&I spent a few hours on a sunny winter's day doing maintenance at Perry Ave so then I ran from there up through Shepherds Hill (bypassing the Eden Field Archers who were actively shooting at targets) & down through Flinders Uni, ending up at Avenue Rd. The evening was cooling down by the end and the ground becoming hard underfoot, which it wouldn't have been if I were orienteering in sand dunes in NZ - sooo envious of everyone who's currently doing so. I hear Estonia has sand dunes, too, but I'm not going to them either :(

C • sand dunes 9

C • Eden Field Archers 1

Sniffles & sciatica. Random stabbing pains all down right side - must be getting old. But am also kind of sad that, due to my line of work, many of the people I deal with never get to become old.

Redwoods return with Zara, Lauren, Angus. Wouldn't have bothered with this on my own but it was nice to get out.

Saw Froat probably explains the sheer exhaustion. Group travel is never good for me - shouldn't have hung around with coldy people on weekend!

C • But you love me! Cough co... 5

Foot improved a bit after calf massage last night but still took a while to loosen up today so I just jogged laps of the uni loop although the middle lap turned into 200 on/200 off, trying to work out how best to place my feet so as to neither heel-strike, nor put all my weight through my knees, nor land flat-footed as my orthotics are wont to make me do...

Early morning, cold morning. We were the first to arrive at the event (same assembly area as World Cup Jan 2015, and for some reason again I thought west was east and vice versa) and my toes were still numb after the 1.3km climb to the start, so I was very unco down the first hill (Nicola had caught me 3 min just on running speed by the end of a 350m leg) and never really got much better even when I'd warmed up. Could only jog at best, and only when I wasn't bum-sliding over huge logs, skirting rockfaces and trawling through bracken. Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy the course; there were no really long legs but the shorter ones still had route choice, especially up the whacking great hill where Jo passed me going at about 3 times my pace. The control sites did often seem quite simple though but that may have been because I was going so slowly, and couldn't even muster a jog by the end. Did the rogaine really take that much out of me?

Anyway, the worst part of the course was the taped marsh-crossing, where at the main channel point I sank to both knees in the mud so backed up and tried again, this time having put my map/compass/SI stick in pocket and clinging to the ti-tree which promptly took a piece out of my hand and flicked my map into the stream. As I retrieved it I saw my SI stick floating so I picked that up too, felt my pocket for my compass which wasn't there and then hunted in the water - thankfully it wasn't fast-flowing and compasses don't sink!

We made it back to the airport in plenty of time for a 5:20pm flight - thanks to Anna & Blair for the weekend's driving - and I was so tired that I didn't even really mind getting only another 2 x snacks for dinner from Qantas. Did mind hobbling my way through 3 different airports; foot wasn't great :( Still not sure whether my participation in this weekend's races was truly worth it to the Arrows, but from a personal point of view I quite enjoyed them, catching up with some Tas people I don't normally see - and hope the organisers felt that their efforts were worthwhile.