Training Log Archive: jennycas

Good options from Ethan for 15 controls on the scatter, and I enjoyed the scenery & conditions, bit not the sore knees or tired brain or hair in eyes, so it was a fairly gumby jog. "Rewarded" myself anyway by procurement of Fancy Burger, causing great canine snorkage when I brought this home and consumed it in front of himself.

C • Canine snorkage 3

Last night's dinner table conversation:
Me (hoeing into a plate of pasta) "I don't understand how people can give up carbohydrates"
G: "If you go to hell when you die, they'll surely put you on a low-carb diet"
He's clearly been watching too much of The Good Place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, Fern had spotted a notification that the Kathmandu Run Club were doing a 'rogaine' in Belair tonight, and since the organiser is a rogaining friend of ours, we figured there was no harm in gatecrashing, and Zara joined us with Roo. There were 10 controls possible (the most remote being above the Lower Waterfall), and we figured we could get them all within the 75 min time limit - which was done comfortably despite a brief stop to "be ladies" and also for me to answer the work phone.

Probably about 40 people out tonight, so we were seeing teams all over the place, which was really fun. Also the Run Club must normally be split into groups of different speeds, and so tonight's scoring system included a doubling factor for the slowest groups, which is a nice idea.

C • Doubling factor 5

Test-jogging my courses for the Snap Sprint Series season opener in 2 weeks' time. I was fairly uninspired when putting these courses together last night (because I know the uni too well) but actually I think there are some decently technical legs in the mix - need to make the long shorter and the short longer, though.

Angus decided that we were going to do loops up the hill & down again near the toilet block (I still persist in thinking of this as the site of the old kiosk which burned down 20+ years ago) and they took about 5 min each and after 4 of them at reasonable effort I was getting a bit lactic so jogged to the base of First Falls, which was nice & peaceful with the blue wrens flitting about although there is currently no water. Saw a couple of dropbears on the way back: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-13/uk-journali...

C • drop bears.. 1

Started out pleasantly but the lane was getting rather full by the end (I was 10 min later than usual) and although I thought I was managing to keep out of everyone's way, the coast looked clear when I turned at the end of a lap but 2 seconds later I had a near-birth experience when somebody's head popped up from right underneath me and headed off into the distance followed by the rest of their body - I can only presume they had "undertaken"?

C • Near-birth experience 1

Fairly directly to Mylor, then back via Bandicoot trail, which is a lovely route but always feels fairly tough, and there's a few sections of singletrack, so with quite a big group today, people did get rather strung out, not that we were in any hurry. Started out a bit stiff from so long in the car yesterday, and flagged on the major hills, but handled the rough stuff and little pinches better than I'd thought I might.

I'd talked G into a day trip to the ARC area, mainly to confirm placement of water drops but also I had a number of control sites I wanted to shift/clarify, and we'd arranged to drop in on the Thomases (landowners) at Mt Bryan about 10am for a cuppa, which is never a quick affair, but then it turned out that their daughter is thinking of selling her bush block on the Twigham O map to fund med school studies - and I've always jokingly said that we'd be interested in buying it, so she took us out there. The house is on a hilltop with amazing views to the north, has solar panels and rainwater tanks plus a bore down in the creek, and the hot water currently comes from pipes running behind the wood-fired stove, but they are putting gas in. So it's fully self-sufficient (although she has to climb on the shed roof to get even one bar of mobile reception, there is a landline) - but to have a place like that as a weekender would basically mean having to give up orienteering/rogaining…

Anyway, we all chatted for so long that G & I finally left at about 4pm after even more cups of tea, so there wasn't time to do much on the map but I did solve a couple of control site mysteries to my satisfaction, and we got home about 9pm after a 14-hour day!

C • Souonds wonderful 7