Training Log Archive: sal.

Demolish Adventurethon weekend - Enduro - Paddle - Clarence River, Upper Copmanhurst.

This was meant to be a 9km paddle, so i am glad that this was the one that was shorter and it wasn't longer like the MTB and run.
The organisers wanted to time it all so that all lengths ended up finishing around the same time. This meant a looong day. We left camp at 7:30am to drop off Steveo's boat at his start; then dropped mine off at my start; then went to the finish to drop the car off where Steveo had about 15min to get ready before his shuttle bus and i had about 75min before my shuttle bus.
My bus was at 10am. By this time it had really heated up. We got to the start by 10:15am and then just had to sit there by the river, with about 2 dozen people perched under 3 trees. Very hot.
We got under way at 11:15am. The paddle started with a 1.5km paddle upstream to some crab traps, before turning around. The front guys in my distance had just reached the crab traps before the front guys in the Ultra length (the one Steveo did) reached us.
When i turned around at the crab traps, the lady that i was sitting behind was fading fast, so i adjusted my stroke to a more efficient and powerful stroke and very quickly overtook her.
I then had a guy sitting in behind me for half the race, using my break. He only got off when i needed to stop paddling to shove the hose from my camelbak in my mouth. I went along drinking for a while until i realised that i actually needed a gel, so stopped paddling to get that in.
Eventually came to some rapids. Got through them fine and then pushed hard realising that the water was moving quite quickly, plus i had just spotted the 1km marker for the kids in front of me so i knew i was almost finished.
Steveo caught me at this point; he asked me how i was going and i truthfully told him of how bored i was. I do find paddling can be quite boring, plus it isn't a very high-heart rate activity for me.
Out of the boat and a run up the sand to the finish. Swim in the river afterwards was magic.
Walked away with silver - this one had 3 girls in the race!

Demolish Adventurethon weekend - Enduro - MTB - Bom Bom State Forest.

This was SO MUCH FUN! The tracks were nice and flowy and smooth and twisty. My only trouble was going into some of the twists through the gullies either too slow or too fast, couldn't get my speed right.
Starting to heat up by the end.
Got a couple hi 5's at the end - there were some guys that had over taken me in the first loop that i caught and overtook in the second loop.
Walked away with a gold medal - only girl in the open female - and a bottle of white wine.

Demolish Adventurethon weekend - Enduro - Run - The Gorge, Clarence River.

So this run was only meant to be 11km... Also, this was not a trail run, it was an adventure run. This meant that the only trails that were there to follow were streamers and the occasional cow track.
By the time we finished preso at Bom Bom, got in the car and drove here, we only had about 15min to get ready. It was about 30 degrees, little shade, no wind and the hour car ride in the air con & ice cream did little to cool me down.
I got to the 3km mark and started getting goose bumps and my vision started to go funny and my ears went funny and i knew that this would end badly if i didn't do something soon. So i started walking, got a gel and some water into me, and just sat behind a few guys that were doing a walk / jog pattern.
At the 7km mark i had a river crossing, and boy was it welcome! So nice and cool. I got to the other side and dunked myself under just to further cool off.
Then it was a scramble across big river rocks for a few minutes before having to straddle some rocks through some waist height fast moving water.
Along a bit more with some more rocking-hopping, and then there was another river crossing. The water here was a bit more fast-flowing than previously. I ended up letting go of the rope too early, couldn't get up the rocks as there wasn't much of a lip and it was all slippery, so had to push back out into the water to grab the rope again and use it to pull myself up.
Once up, i started rock hopping again. These rocks were big though, with some pretty big gaps between the jumps and some pretty treacherous consequences if you fell or slipped. The guys that i had stuck behind before the first river crossing caught back up to me at this point, so that was comforting. In the end it was handy as one of them helped me up a particularly tall section that i would have been stuck at for a bit while i figured out how to get up.
Then we got to another river crossing with very fast-flowing water. So much so that we had to trek up stream for a bit and then breastroke across so that we would eventually hit the opposite bank. Bit of an all body workout at that point. Could definitely feel the fatigue after that.
Once across, there were some more rocks for a while until we hit the paddocks again. Lost the streamers for a bit at the end but soon found them. Apparently quite a few people lost the streamers and so just followed the cow tracks until they cut through the bush, following the music.
I ended up cramping in the last 50m. Steveo was worse off though and cramped very badly n his calves.
Walked away with bronze - this one had 4 girls in the race!

Into work

Walk with Emma. Everything is looking ready for the Supercars (although some structures were still being constructed)...

C • supercars? 2

Home from work.

Into work

No walk today as I had lunch with Bridget and Nicola (:

Home from work

No walk today as dad came into town to have a sticky-beak at the Supercars stuff so we had lunch together.

Warm up from Bar Beach Car Park to Merewether Stairs with Bridget.

12 x Merewether Stairs.
Very tough. Very jelly-making.

Cool down.

Walk with Emma up to the beach and back. Crackin' day (:

Massage tonight. Ended up cramping in my sleep last night and i've been getting a sore lower back lately so it was due!