Training Log Archive: jennycas

Up Hillrise, tunnel X over, secret trainline crossing, down through the cemetery. Tired legs got up the hill a bit faster than I had anticipated so rewarded myself with enchanted forest MTB loop - a black run which is signposted Bikes Only and on which I have never encountered any riders.

C • Riders 2

Formed an uneasy truce with new goggles by wearing them upside down and so tightly that my nostrils flared.

Redwoods return with Leith, Zara, Callum. I struggled to keep up although felt a bit better after seeing the cherry blossom. Picked up my staff ID (and parking permit) for Flinders Medical Centre today and realised that in 4 weeks' time I will be working there...for ever more :(

3-falls loop on a pleasant evening - didn't feel too bad going up the hill, so hopefully this is the start of some decent training, but the way down is really rough underfoot these days. Still managed to sneak some glimpses of lovely wildflowers while mostly watching my feet.

Last of the races at Hill End, covering some of the same terrain as yesterday, and running in a W21E team with Bridget then Liv then me. Was a bit nervous about the possibility of being up against Krystal & Tash on 3rd leg, but Tash was sick & didn't run, and Krystal passed me and was gone before the 2nd control, then I saw a couple of junior boys (from the mass start) around me for the next few controls and ran the rest of the course on my own, taking the erosion detail fairly cautiously and with small hesitations but feeling physically quite good, and buoyed by Bridget's excitement when I went through the spectator control. Perhaps I could have been a couple min more efficient all up, but the really nice thing was that we finished in 3rd, same as last year :)

Can't believe how much I've enjoyed this carnival, partly because of nearly-clean runs (maybe 5 min lost all up across the week's races) and also because my knees handled the goldmining terrain much better than I had anticipated - so this weekend's results have kind of made up for the disappointment of NZ.

Now to think about summer training in advance of next year's WMOC in Denmark...

C • Awesome Jen! 5

Boot-camp paid off :)
Somehow I managed 2nd in W40; 5 minutes behind Tracy but just ahead of Allison who'd had some trouble. I really enjoyed this course, and although I would have liked to be about 1 min/km faster, managed to keep running up all but one of the hills, and achieved my goal of finishing before Johnnnn who had started 6 min behind me (M21AS had the same course, and I saw him in the distance behind me about 4 controls from the end). Also managed not to stuff up the first control - it was straight into the goldmining - or lose more than a couple min all up on small faffings-about in the control circles. Happy with my decision to go straight on the long leg, too.

Aus Long Course 7 - Splits