Training Log Archive: SusC

Armidale St to work. What a lot of night time sounds there are at our new house!

Across to Malak for homework club(18) and home after (40).

To uni. A deliciously cool morning! Rumbling and banging upstairs at about 4am and some light rain. Feels like wet season already, but I'm sure that it's just a glitch in the buildup.

Home from work to Armidale St.

To/from East Pt for Night O.

East Point map, the long course, starting from Lake Alexander. The first third of the course was a bit scary (who in their right mind would want to wander into mangroves in the dark?) but the rest was pretty well in the streets or close to the bike path. Was very tentative getting to #1, listening to every little rustling noise and wondering if JP's comments about crocodiles in low lying areas on land in the dark had any substance (what were all those plopping noises in the channel leading to the control....cane toads...fish...?). Wandered around in the mangroves at 3 for a couple of minutes looking for the watercourse and luckily just 'found' the control in a slightly clear pocket (never distinguished the watercourse whatsoever). Also a couple of minutes at 9 where someone (Annie?) had rather underestimated the height of the coastal cliff in the descriptions and so it wasn't in the 1m high area where I was looking but rather further south where it was taller.

Very very sweaty at the finish!

C • crocodiles 4

To uni.

Home from work.

To work. Nice and cool this morning. A busy bike path today.

Uni to Malak (19) for HWC and then home (40). I spent the two hours working with a girl whose name appeared to be July 00. Good grief, I was thinking, she doesn't have a name, and just refers to herself by her month of birth! At the end I asked Melanie, the co-ordinator, if my student had a name. As it turns out, 'Oo' is apparently not an entirely uncommon Burmese surname. And yes, her first name is actually 'July'.

C • So was she born in July? 1

To work. Very lightly overcast, enough to make the sun a bright rising peach. A bit damp smelling. Very nice riding temp.

C • Mmmm... Peach 3

Home from work via the mail box. Windy and cloudy, like something was about to happen, but it didn't.

Rode out to Knuckey lagoon (54min) for Top End's 2010 event planning meeting. Weather felt rather yuck once I got outdoors, windy and hot and a headwind all of the way heading east along the bottom of the airport. Going home quite a bit quicker (46min) although still a headwind coming into the city....must have swung around a bit. Got a pawpaw from Jack's melons on the way home.

Caught the tail end of the weather on the news in the evening and heard 38c mentioned but thought I must have heard wrong as everyone says that it doesn't get that hot in Darwin. A check of the temps reveals that I heard correctly, and apparently yes, it does. Interestingly enough, the hottest October day on record was also on October 18th (1982) reaching 38.9c.

C • Temperature records 2

To work via Parap for my massage. The girl said my feet were very tight and that it does seem like PF. But my calves were better. Maybe there is a sort of push-pull relationship between feet and calves.

C • O-shoes? 1

Home from work.

To work.

To homework club (23) and home (37). I like primary maths!

To work. Overcast thismorning and it feels like something wants to happen. Northerly breeze gave a bit of headwind when I got up to Nightcliff. Showers in the current forecast for the next few days.

Home from work. A few spots but nothing persistant. Headwind going west.

A 2.5hr bikey rogainey thingy, starting from the esplanade park in the city. The map went up as far as Rapid Creek and I chose the 2.5hr option over the 1.5 as I figured you couldn't get there and back in 90mins, but as it was I didn't end up making it even with 150mins, as the controls were question and answer and took a fair bit of answering. For example, the control in the little cemetary on Gardens Rd: Question: What date did Hunter Lode die? And, yep, there are quite a lot of gravestones...the map had circled it fairly accurately but the writing on the stone was extremely faded and everyone searching had been past it already a few times. I spent 15 mins riding around looking for B.H. Lindgren's nickname out at East Point (worth 50 points) and eventually gave up (along with Paul Sharp) so I would still have enough time to get some 40 pointers over in Winnellie, but I probably should have stayed and watched JP and Mani as they had just got there when I left the area, and JP apparently knew roughly where it was and that it was on a microscopic little plaque on the ground. Ended up a minute late; should have been a bit cleverer with my ending and chosen a smarter combination of the 10 pointers around the wharf end of the city.

Anyway, twas fun. Afterwards Lachlan dropped by at the finish as his computer had crashed at work, so we went to the supermarket so I could get post event food. I must have been having a beta carotene craving as I came out of the supermarket with Twisties, an orange, a carrot, a can of apricot nectar and some some orangey-yellow savoury bread twisty think from the bakery section.

To remember for future: a metal skirt hanger makes an ace map holder! Thanks Lach.

To work. First time in 3 weeks on my bike, man it felt good! Much germ-freer than catching the bus, too! Knees felt a bit stiff but at least my feet have stopped hurting...guess it was PF; intensive calf stretching seems to have solved it for the moment.

Ah, life is sweet...Homework Club was really good last night and work just made me permanent (well, for 6 months, but it's better than nothing!) as of Thursday last week.... Yippee, no more casual pay forms:)

C • What is Homework Club? 2

C • Congrats! 5

Home

Before and after.

3rd leg running after Vanessa and Jenny. Same terrain as Aus Long but 1:10,000 rather than 1:15,000 and v much easier to read. Able to race a bit more than yesterday, still went widish to be safe on the longish leg 2-3 which in hindsight was unnecessary. Happy with most nav but rather struggled on the hills as per expected:). Enjoyed the race.

North Warbys, nice granite terrain, hilly with light green parts. Performed careful map reading, probably a bit too cautious in lots of places. Was worried about leg 1-2 so went very wide, coming in from road but in hindsight straight was not really that risky. Happy with nav on all except 7-8, lost 2-3 mins, should have paused more when crossed spur and really double checked where I was rather than assuming. Ended up a bit high and then mistook a bare rock for a clearing and wandered off into some green (even saw a whole bunch of M50's in the forest nearby who were actually heading for my control but ignored them!). Sucked on the hills and was definately not fluent enough in the light green and rocky areas but on the day couldn't have really have done much different.

On way to start and down the road after.

Benalla: parkland around lakes including showground and oval. V basic nav. Felt like I ran hard but did not have any faster gear for the really dead running stretches in the second half (the long leg into the showgrounds and onwards to finish). Seem to have lost a few seconds in a couple of places including 13-14, looks like one way through the gate in the fence was better than the other by 6-8 secs and I chose the slower way (they had looked equal when I assessed it on course).

A bit drizzly, tracking in the wet grass was significant.

Before and after, laps of the block.