Training Log Archive: jennycas

Had the lane to myself for 80 % of this vague uncoordinated crawl - not surprising since the lifeguards were still wearing gloves & beanies. Turned into a glorious spring day though.

To see how much slower Juliet the MTB really is than the old hybrid; she definitely seems to have more inertia (or maybe that's just me these days). One advantage is that she's nice and stable when the malevolent caravan park magpie swoops - twice on the way up and no less than six times on the return trip. I swear he was surfing off the draught from my helmet!

Cheated and drove to Shepherds Hill after work (hey, it was sort of on the way to the supermarket) to avoid pavement, then went for a lovely sunset run in the park - full length of the valley (stepping stones at the creek crossings), along the railway line avoiding trains, down past the waterfalls on the side creek (pretty, but not the spectacle they would have been last week), up to the ridgeline, down to the creek again through head high flowering turnip-weed, and up one last hill to come back down the road and into the park by the horse paddock. At least I was feeling a bit better on the hills than yesterday!

Warm evening for a daylight run in the park with Zara/Callum & Simon to see the waterfalls. I really struggled for energy and flexibility (work was fairly infuriating/frustrating today) and had to walk up the steps after Echo Tunnel. Wildflowers up the top were nice though.

Desultory suburban plod, where I kept having to stop and walk even though it was a beautiful spring evening...am feeling exhausted this week and I don't really know why, except perhaps because although it was a great holiday and I really enjoyed the orienteering & socialising, maybe I didn't get enough down time - much as I like people, I do need a break from interacting with humans at times.

The working week didn't get off to a good start when I realised on the way to work that it was already 9:30 not 8:30 - oops! Somehow, even though I'd put my watch forward on Sunday it went back an hour again, and the rainy morning was so gloomy that I didn't realise it was after 9am :(

Does explain why I was so hungry, though. Doesn't explain the weird dream I had where Amber & I were rogaining together but she thought that meant we could just split up and go to half the controls each.

C • half the controls each 1

Spent the very-wintry public holiday taking my parents for a drive to see a friend of theirs at Strathalbyn and then around the countryside in search of flowing waterways, including the impressive Hindmarsh Falls. So much water just lying around all over the roadsides and paddocks.

Was feeling jittery today and wished I could have started a bit earlier - partly because of having to get back to Brisbane afterward for a 6pm flight, and partly because the water had run out at the start and it was getting quite warm. Also the control description mishap was a little disconcerting but at least we could tear the ones off the map.

Stopped about 30m short of the first control and just couldn't make things fit because the rock knoll in front of me was the one I believed to be just south of the control rather than just north as it in fact was. Didn't want to compound the error by moving further away in the wrong direction so stood there for a minute and a half until Andrew Lumsden went past heading straight for it - oops. There went the time I'd have needed in order to be in the placings. Managed the longer legs ok although was getting really hot in the sun on the bare rock slabs and could feel my concentration lapsing as I overheated. Splashed water over my face from a couple of creeks, but still made small 20-30 sec errors on 7 (didn't get a clear line below the rocks), 8 (veered left of north on a really short leg), 10 (veered left of north across a green gully), 12 (which seemed further up the hillside than I'd expected).

So it was a run which only deserved 4th among the W40s, but that's ok, although I had rather liked the idea of a badge with the Boronia granitica on it. I never saw any out on course...