Training Log Archive: jennycas

Figured I'd do the longest course today, so that 11km next Sun doesn't seem quite so daunting. I'm well aware that the native scrub sections here are very slow going (only one person on the 2.8km hard course broke the hour) and also that most of the pines have been felled & replanted since first we ran there over 30 years ago, but I really hadn't expected to faff around so much on a navigational level - just too much else to keep in my head lately, I guess, including mum's escalating memory loss. Mind you, even Simon had trouble with the first control, because the area mapped as light yellow open is now 5m-high young pines with an uncrossable windrow of old felled pines guarding the control knoll, so people got pushed all the way downhill to the track to get around that and then if they were lucky, found a MTB trail (of which there were lots & lots, all post-dating the map) to get back up the hill. I found the control feature before Simon did :)

Not really sure what I did on the next leg...seemed to go up & down the appropriate number of hills & gullies without ever being quite certain of where I was because the white vs yellow boundaries were fairly nebulous, and when I finally hit the track, thought I was too far NE of the red line so ran SW down the hill, came to an unexpected crossroads and eventually identified it as the mapped T-junction 300m further downhill than I needed to be for the control! After that I paid more attention to my surroundings but still managed to overshoot features more than once. Route choice 7-8 was definitely back through the finish, so I startled G at the car by grabbing a drink & muesli bar (probably should have taken my hat, because it was getting warm in the sun - although I would have continually lost it to the vegetation).

Took track routes more in the southern part, although not as often as I probably should have because I actually did come here to orienteer rather than just run. Grateful that the last part was in the more open paddocks, which did not stop me from getting confused about which paddock I was in. Overshot the 3rd-last control and as I was leaving it, saw Greg M & Ben C coming into it, so then I tried a bit harder all the way up the hill to the finish and they did not catch me! Managed to break 2 hours also, so I was pleased, although feel that there was at least 15 min of errors/poor routes in there. And my parents were happy that they'd managed to get around the surprisingly-physical easy course.

I informed the course planner that it had been "wonderfully challenging", and I left him to determine, upon which word I had placed the greater emphasis...

C • map 3

Since G was kind enough to drop parents home, I took advantage of the summery evening to go for a ride, as apparently I hadn't run hard enough earlier in the day.

Someone else started simultaneously at the opposite end of the pool from me and my incentive was to catch up to him one length by the end of 1km, which I achieved in advance of spending the day in the dispensary - the incentive for which is being paid for doing so. But I sometimes struggle to identify what the incentive is for undertaking my unpaid job...?

Up the inside park boundary, back along Long Gully, with Zara & yayCallum! Perfect clear evening for a night run but headlamp's deteriorating elastic was somewhat problematic. Home in time for a shower before online OA Board meeting - which wasn't too bad although I am seriously disconcerted by the HPMG's proposal to delete Aust Champs week from the 2020 NOL season.

C • Why? 7

On my way home from a meeting in the city, went for what was intended to have been a sunset jog along the creek (legs hammered from AOTKM this morning so I didn't go up the hill) but in fact the sun had set before I started and it was a good thing I'd taken a headlamp. Crescent moon hanging above the looming outline of Brown Hill was lovely though. Also I startled a fox at the stepping-stones by the 'spring'.

Angus was doing multiples of 5 min, so the rest of us gave it a go. Think I may have crept over 1100m in one of the five intervals?

These Nimbuses (Nimbii?) seem to be better on my hamstrings than the previous pair. Even sitting in OSA council meeting afterwards, they weren't too bad.