Training Log Archive: SusC

Fly Hobart - Melb, Melb - Darwin. Home 6pm.

From Seven Mile Bch CP, out onto the beach for 10 mins and back. Overcast and quite a warm morning I think by Hobart standards.

C • BTW 2

Apricots & cherries, Duck feeding at Richmond, Battery Point bakery, Salamanca Markets, Berries, Car Wash, Botanic Gardens. Camped Seven Mile Bch near airport. Packed stuff.

Hiking, Reg Wadley Hut to Mersey River Rd, via Lees Paddocks and Lees Paddock Track. 3hrs 45 walking. After a windy night weather was very fine with loads of blue sky and sunshine. Views while walking along Lees Paddocks were stunning, with the mountains towering up from the valley above forested slopes in every direction. I especially loved the clearings, complete with tiny flowers in the grass. Stopped briefly at Lees Hut and then got back into the forest on Lees Track. Beautiful ferns and myrtle trees for much of this. Track fairly distinct as gets used by horses, cattle and people. Lunch in a spot of sunshine and a quick stop in to Lewis falls, then on the Pine Hut Plains and over the suspension bridge to climb up to the Mersey Forest Road and back along it to the car.

A cracker of a walk! Middle day a bit long (I wouldn't allow people much stopped time for poking around/exploring) but no other camping options really so couldn't have stopped anywhere else unless had turned it into 4 days and stayed at Kia Ora Hut. Approx 40km all up. Great hiking buddies, Trevor and Lachlan both fantastic. Reg Wadley Hut a must-return-to spot, and a relatively gentle walk suitable for the not so hard core. Absolutely loved it.

Camped at Pumphouse Bay.

Hiking, Junction Lake to Overland track via Never Never, then Overland Track north to right near Kia Ora Hut then downhill unmarked route along Mersey River to Reg Wadley Hut at south end of Lees Paddocks. 8hrs walking. A long day but also quite an adventure and very spectacular. Never Never going was not too physical or navigationally difficult as small unmarked tracks were present the whole way. Steep drop next to Clarkes Falls before entereing the Beech Forest section, then crossed the river on logs before the next small falls.

Lunch at top of Hartnett Falls with lots of OT people coming and going while we were eating. Enjoyed sitting in the sun on some dryish ground which looked quite leach free. OT track wet and rooty but barely saw anyone as too late in the day for people to be on that section. Quick stop at DuCaine Hut but really wanted to keep going as was mid afternoon and weather drizzly. Had a little trouble picking the right spot to leave the track near Kia Ora so I made us go nearly as far as the hut and then pace the 400m back to find the pad heading down the spur. Once on the steep spur soon lost the pad but used the compass through the forest, luckily hitting a small pad marked by cairns, leading to a suitable (though awkward) crossing on Kia Ora Creek. Followed small sometimes cairn-marked pads for a couple of hours gradually dropping until along side the Mersey River again. Notes from the hiking book were no use in this section at all, as we didn't seem to be doing anything that the notes were describing.

Was very relieved to pop out into the southern end of a grassy field not far from the hut at about 6pm. Awesome, beautiful views. Still grey and threatening drizzle so opted to stay in the pocket sized hut nestled up against the myrtle trees at the west side of the clearing. Rainbow appeared as we unpacked for the day.....was truly a glorious moment in life.

Hiking, Lake Myrtle track to Meston Lake and Junction Lake. Steep climb up from Mersey Forest Rd, then gentler walking through button grass, forest, a small tarn area with rock and then a descent to Lake Meston Hut. Lots of white-flowering Leptospernum everywhere, looking like snowy Christmas trees. From Lake Meston Hut followed track along lake side and over saddle to get into Mersey River head. Fine weather and pleasant walking but lost track a bit coming into Junction Lake and picked up the tail end of the Moses Creek track instead. 6hr 15 walking.

One other guy at camp site, he was a bit strange and also seemed under prepared as he was planning to go out through Walls of Jerusalem to Higgs Track but didn't actually have any information about it.

C • Higgs Track 2

Lachlan navigated Trevor into the one road in/out community valley at Lorinna where we tracked down Leaanna's property and visited for a couple of hrs. Very interesting, thought provoking. Community currently operates with about 50 people but they feel 200 would be the most operative number.

Camped at start of Lake Myrtle Track on Mersey Forest Rd.

Short Cataract Gorge walk, then dropped Zara to airport, returned to city to go supermarket & buy hiking maps, lunch at Cataract Gorge, then to Gowrie Pk area where camped.

Rogaine comments:

Partner - Zara was a real workhorse. Never complained either, and certainly not about me being so slow on the hills or when I wasn't feeling great. Couldn't have got a better partner I reckon.

Nav light - cute and fun, except when you somehow have failed to register a control (84!!!!) and so you don't get the points. I just about cried when Christine told us that and I think Zara felt the same. I guess we wouldn't have minded so much if it had been a lower pointer...

Rogaine food - hardly ate any of it as it ran out......

Map, course, terrain - superficially not difficult looking but a very hard route to plan. Not many of the teams in front of us included the top NW corner of the map....in favour of doing more in the SW.....but does this mean that we got the route right or wrong? We stuck very much to our planned route right to the last section, which had always been the idea. Other people told us that the bottom SE corner sucked, so we were lucky that we got that right.

Planning time - used it really, really well. I must remember how well we did this for the future. Lots of measuring, lots of lines of numbers written in Zara's notebook.

Result - At about 11am when I had us bolting down a rocky steep hillside 5km out I felt that we probably had earned a win, even if we didn't get one. But we did, even without our 80 points. 15th was reasonable, 13th (incl the 80 points) would have been better of course. And I note that no women's team has done better than 15th since 2002, with the exception of Emmay Murray and Julie Quinn achieving their amazing 5th place in 2004. 15th has been equalled many times....interesting. Maybe next year!

Various runnable bits.

Various runnable bits.

Aus Champs Rogaine, Avoca, Tas. Team 73, with Zara. First rogaine I've done as a women's team since Aus Champs 2003 (Ross, Tas, with Jenny). Put heaps & heaps of effort into the 3 hr planning window, wrote down lots of strings of checkpoints & kms. Eventually chose a route that covered all of the 40 points/km sections (maximum on offer) and a direction that allowed a mulititute of different finishing options without any being particularly points poor (all in the 35-37 points/km range). Unexpected high river levels on the Sth Esk meant only two crossing points (bridges) were permitted which meant having to create one big loop and staying out all night.

Got off to a slow start in a hilly and thickish area to the N of the HH. Nav felt a bit rusty, esp scale & height interpretation. Soon realised 4km/hr was ambitious, reality being more like 3. Were doubly glad we had reversed our route in the final throws of planning, to allow for more flexibility for finishing. By mid afternoon had dealt with the worst of the thick/steep and found our feet after a 10min miss-estimational glitch on 77 (thick, downhill approach, hadn't dropped enough). Didn't seem to be all that many teams going in our direction. Opted to drop packs at the water drop/creek crossing at 51 and did a 2 hr running loop of 5 controls in the top NE corner before heading across the top of the map from East to West.

Really enjoyed this evening section, forest a bit more open and contours gentler but points quite high. Managed to hit the 104 and potentially difficult 90 (smallish gully on big broad hillside) before dark, and had no trouble after dark until getting sucked down the wrong spur/gully at 100. Corrected ourselves quite quickly, but then proceeded to walk straight past it once we did reach the correct spur. (Possibly after being distracted by a team standing in front of it while at the same time asking us if we had found it yet.) All up no more than 20mins wasted, so not terrible. Dropped down to run around the road and then climb back up to the following control, 84, (which apparently wasn't registered properly by one of our Nav lights - so we didn't get the points) and then on through a steepish section before the track haul up to the hut with water above 78.

Had planned a rest at this hut (approx 2am) and so were delighted to not only good shelter out of the wind but also beds, foam mattresses and a quilt! Got ourselves cuddled up and comfortable (after rejecting the bed with the enormous spider) for 40mins of warmth (Zara snoozed a little but my feet kept me awake) before heading on to 78. Stomach didn't feel so good and wasn't overly happy from this point on. I struggled a bit from here and things felt slow for the rest of the dark although the nav went ok and Zara stayed focussed and took care of most of the thinking when I couldn't concentrate.

Gave up on solid food and got through the next 8 hrs on gels (Zara's suggestion, a good one). Wasn't comfortble but at least I didn't die completely or spew! After faffing a bit (10mins) at 81 crunch time arrived (around 8.45am) as had to make decisions about how much to bite off for the last 3 hrs. General area looked open enough to allow a bit of running but couldn't still bank on more than 3.5km/hr. We rejected our original finish route (across the paddock to 93 via a 20 pointer and then bend south to pick up some of the high pointers in steeper country) in favour of sticking on the track to go down to 96 (it looked like a really efficient leg) and then pick up 93 later. But really had to start pushing, running everything we could. Panicked a bit around 33, which was an innocent looking control on the map but horrible to get into and then out of in order to get on to 93. Really started cracking the whip as I thought we would be late and just couldn't judge what I was going to be capable of (hadn't chewed anything in 6 hrs) but it turned out perfectly in the end, we could walk the last 2km and still had 10 mins to spare.

To work. Got a bit wet but not as much as I thought I would as rain was only light. Tail wind was handy.

Ride home. Timed it well! Left just after a heavy shower and didn't get rained on at all.

Walk to work, 114mins.

Walk home from work, the Tiger Brennan way, 111mins. More interesting than the morning walk but also busier with traffic. Only got 2 honks and one car offering me a ride, so could have been worse. Saw 2 police cars as soon as I got on the drive, but I don't think there is a sign anywhere prohibiting pedestrians. Would also be a more interesting way to ride...

C • Rogaine training? 1

To from city. Took Lachy a way that made him get wet.

Run to work as far as Amy Johnson, then walked the rest. Beaut morning, nearly a clear sky.

Several from the everyday workout.

To work, very pleasant with a bit of sun finally, no rain and the wind at my back.

Lovely ride home with no rain:)

Another windy, stormy night with on off sleep. Had a dream about lots of fruit that was ripe but going to waste in the semi-commune I was living in.... Got to work without getting wet:).

C • my dream 3

Short recov loop with Lachlan in the gloom, across to Museum, along to N end of Mindil and home. The sea was noisy.

Mega storm got cranking around 5am and not possible to sleep so did the 'everyday workout' from the 'Surviving Exercise' book. Only supposed to take 5mins!

Bailed on riding to work, so very dark and storms just keep rolling through.

To Botanic Gardens rainforest section (10.15) and then to Mindil Beach and up and back on beach (19.30) after ints. Saw Lachlan's naughty friend riding his mini quad around on the tracks in there....grrrr!

Picked the finest bit of weather all day for this.

2 lots of calf stretches at the steps after warm up and before warm down. Just the R one is sore really.

4 x sets on the shallow gravel steps alongside the waterfall.
1 set = 2x (hop L leg, hop R leg, jump both feet, with walk recov back down)
4.00
4.07
3.35
3.39
Walk recov (up down up down) b/w sets not counted:
2.00
1.44
1.56
1.53

Was hard at first but coordination did improve. Got very red faced and sweaty as no breeze in there!

To and from bus stop to work.

some floor exercises as thunder and lightning kept me awake

Running up and down on the rock banks. Big rocks scarier than little rocks.

Across to the school and then to S end of Mindil Beach & back across to Botanic Gdns. Stretched at school lookout. Sea was rather stirry and tide was in but still some firm sand. Had forgotten about the beach, should run there more!

At lookout over cliff. Calves a bit sore.

Wanted to walk to work but didn't get up early enough so had to run first part to Amy Johnson intersection. Calves started very sore and got a bit better, quads started ok but got sorer. Sky grey but not raining until just at work:)

back to just ouch

Berrimah to home. Finally rescued my bike from work, where it had spent Christmas and New Year. Realy unusual weather, but beaut for riding...dry with sea breeze.

oouuuch!

ouch!

Summit to Sea with Fern and Zara. Was good fun though also a long way for my unaccustomed legs. Very good motivation to have the girls to team up with. Lots of people in the first half, so was a bit slow in places on narrow tracks. After half way barely saw a sole, not sure why, maybe as by then the road runner types were able to speed up or otherwise just went off course somewhere. We got slow in the Flinders Uni/Sturt Rd section but sped up again after Morphett Rd Hill. Enjoyed the last 2 km on beach even and just beat Lachlan home (he was running on the road). Tyson did a splendid job on support.

Organic cafe after to top it off, had soup. Walked over to Liz and Ryan's for tea and legs were not too terrible but weren't great either.

New Years Day run around in Eden Hills with Tyson, Fern and Lach.

Then had pancakes...Mmmm