Training Log Archive: PrueD

I enjoyed a very nice farewell dinner party for Jane H who is leaving us to return to Wales. Jane was an enthusiastic BKV member and will be missed in orienteering in Australia.

I contributed feijoa crumble (a bit dry due to a shortage of feijoas) and jerusalem artichoke soup. I can hear you questioning whether I have any imagination and whether I have eaten any thing else for the past few weeks.

C • exotic 2

A bit of a walk/jog around Reef Hills this morning. Knee feels a better but not up to a full run on uneven ground yet.

I made my favourite soup for lunch - jerusalem artichoke - named, I believe, in a politically incorrect manner - as they were originally called 'jew's artichoke' with the implication that they were a 'cheat's artichoke' (being more related to a potato than an artichoke). I wonder how long that name will last. Regardless, they have a divine flavour.

Feeling a lot better now. I drove back to Benalla last night and had the biggest sleep ever (that's what you do when there's no TV) and swam in the Benalla pool this morning with all my friends (again) i.e just yours truly, then started on the autumn gardening. Maybe a run tomorrow.

I'm out in the gardening wearing my King G green pants. The last time I wore these was when I visited Government House to meet Princess Anne. (I can see you all going 'Huh?') .

That was also the (only) time that I wished I paid more attention to my mother's etiquette lessons - 'How to introduce people to royalty'. Of course that would never happen. So there I was at Government House in my green splendor with K and Princess Anne's minder said to me "Could you please introduce your friend to the Princess'......oops!

Got that cold back again. I didn't go to street-O last night because it was my mother's and sister's birthday party. We all squashed into my little flat for the occasion. I don't mind having a bit of a rest at the moment.

Walk around Blackburn tonight followed by some yoga to try and stretch my knee. It was very cold tonight and I have been wearing my Bayside plastic jacket - very unattractive but very,very warm.

Another swim and stretch in the Benalla pool.

My neighbourhood has had a bit of a scare - a 1m brown snake ran over my neighbour's foot while she was talking to another neighbour. It was most likely washed down by the recent floods. I don't think I will leave my front door open any more.

Back to Benalla this weekend. It was a glorious sunny day and I swam in the pool (and was the only patron in the main pool again) followed by some stretching. Back and knee are progressing well.

In the absence of exercise I have been perfecting the feijoa crumble, having made 3 big ones this week. My mother now adores them as does Peter (who tried one for the first time tonight). Feijoas grow really well in Benalla. They are drought proof, don't succumb to fruit fly, don't get eaten by the birds and the trees are extremely productive. I have had hundreds of them fall in my driveway and up to now have been throwing them away, similarly to many other Benallarites. But, thanks to Louise (with her NZ recipes), this year I am the 'fiejoa crumble queen'!

It has been a painful couple of days at work as my back/knee problem has been giving me trouble. I had a couple of anti-inflammatories today and that helped. I would have liked to have had a hot bath instead of street-O tonight, but really think that exercise helps loosen things up a bit and aids in stretching - so went to the event at Doncaster East tonight. I jogged/walked around but finished early. I felt better by the end.

My thoughts today were about the planets lined up and the full moon (of which I am rather fond). What an amazing time. Is this the time for wishes to come true?

I've still got a sore knee and am contemplating visiting someone about it. I normally try everything else first (do-it-yourself chiropractic) prior to going elsewhere - but I'm running out of ideas for a fix.

Oh and by the way, I wont have to do 'plank' in yoga anymore as the police have warned that it is dangerous and, as recent events have shown, can even be fatal.

C • Who would have thought? 1

Long Distance event at Glenluce. The first bit of excitement was a repeat performance of yesterday's parking saga. This time I was parked on a bare hillside and the little bubble was again directed back and forth, back and forth, to the left, to the right, until I got it right. I was laughing so much I forgot to engage park or the brake and I nearly solved the whole problem for everyone else by rolling back and running over the offending parking attendant.

My next bit of entertainment came from working on the start. Name slips to be collected, questions to be answered on the purpose of the beeping clock (answer - there was none really - as you could start anytime you liked and the start was marked with an SI punch). But rules are rules and I dutifully enforced them - taking officiousness to the next level.

Well, onto my course. After an anti-inflammatory last night, and another this morning (they're not banned, are they?) Ms Pitman had again entered W35A but was not up to it. This became very evident on the first downhill slope and gully. Uphill was no better. There was a little bit of jogging, some hurdling, and then she was reduced to a walk. The pace got slow and the mind went into rogaine mode....

Well, half way round, I looked at the other half of the course and it was full of hills and rough going, so I ambled back to the start along the road. DNF or MP as we politely refer to it.

For those who did much better on their respective courses - the weekend had a very large trophy repectively for the best male and female elite cumulative score over the 3 events, presented by the very charming Mr Wymer. It was indeed fortunate that Ms JennyCas, who came from SA especially for the event, came third and not first in the women's event, as she would have had to book another seat on the plane to get the trophy home. And then book another 2 return seats in a year's time to bring it back, as it is a perpetual trophy.

C • W35A 7

C • Parking 2

BKV Middle Distance event at Deadman's Flat, one of the more technically challenging maps in Victoria. I have been very very lost in the green in the north of this map several times before am certainly a lot more comfortable in this terrain now. I did Course 2 and didn't have too much trouble navigationally - apart from 4-5 where the compass pointed one way and my head told me another - so I followed my head and it was wrong, and 6-7 where I would get my head around the contours at all. I was very slow due to my sore knee, which was quite unstable, but lasted the distance. I no longer felt sick but was lacking in energy. The weather cleared for the day which was good. Despite all this I was relatively pleased with my time.

The entertainment of the day was provided by Henry P (who has featured in another blog recently), the car parker. None of us could get it right and I had to manouvre my litlle bubble car back and forth, back and forth, to the left, to the right, about four times until he was satisfied it was correctly parked - then to watch a repeat performance with the car after, and the car after that. Plus a small accident some time afterwards.

Due to seizing-up knee I gave the afternoon's sprint a miss but went out for an hour or so collecting controls afterwards. My club then hosted a dinner which was attended by about 40 people.

For some ridiculous reason I agreed to go up to Castlemaine straight from work to book into the caravan park before it shut at 6.30pm and to attend the Castlemaine night street-O. I really didn't want to go. It was raining and miserable when I left Mlebourne however the clouds cleared in time for the event which was attended by about 30 hardy Melbourne enthusiasts. The map and course were uninspiring, but the historic aspects of the scenery rather nice. I walked around with Ian and we got into coversation, overshooting a few controls. I saw bits of Castlemaine I have never seen before and would quite like to go back and walk around there in the daylight (there is never time after an O event). We all went to Capones for dinner afterwards.

(NB - I did spend a night in a cell in the Castlemaine Gaol once....)

Now I have caught a cold. So I didn't go to Street-O as it was cold and raining - even though it started in my street. Some hardy souls went. I stayed nice and warm inside, hoping to get better before the weekend.

C • (injured)(sick) 6

Yoga after work today. I haven't been for ages and found it quite hard - "I am not a plank" being my theme for the session - as I really cannot hold this move. Today it hurt my back (although was probably doing it good). I also stretched out my knee a bit but it is still hurts.

I seem to be perpetually late these days. I was late down from Benalla last night, late getting up, late to work, late to finish, late home, a late dinner - you are getting my drift......

C • late 5

Another swim in the Benalla pool - this time with a couple of people for company. I'm not sure what's happening with my times yesterday and today - I suspect a miscounting of laps on one or the other as I lost concentration mid-swim on both days.

Benalla pool is now seeking comment on the future of the outdoor pool. I suspect that lack of patronage is making it financially unviable - which is a shame as it is a lovely place to swim (and get very sunburnt) on a hot summer's day, especially now that you are not supposed to swim in the lake.

My back feels a bot better. I'm taking it easy leading up to next weekend, which promises a full weekend of orienteering (4 events).

Swim in the Benalla pool this morning. I had to laugh at the new flags across the pool that said 'never swim alone', cos for the first half of my swim I was the only one there. I had mentioned to the attendant (on my way in) how nice it was to have the pool to myself and she said 'Oh no, there was another person here.....but I think they might have gone!'

Anyway I was joined half way through by a man who seemed to be doing the same stretches as me at the end. It turned out that he had a sore back too and this was the only way he could fix it. Mine has been giving me a lot of trouble this week (and DSE has ordered me a new chair) but the swim improved it significantly. I think it is a compression injury and swimming stretches it out.

I haven't been home to Benalla for about a month. SInce then a family (with 3 children under the age of 5) has been staying here and a lot of autumn leaves have fallen down. Analogue TV has also been turned off in that time and I haven't got around to getting a new TV - so there is no TV at the moment (which might not be a bad thing).

I slept in this morning and overall feel a lot better. I've been very tired this week (jet lag?) - waking up in the middle of the night and staying awake for 4 hours plus hours. But I slept soundly last night (as I always do in Benalla). The funny thing is that, when I wake up in the morning the first thing I think is 'where am I?', shortly followed by 'where is everyone else?' There's clearly been too many different locations in the past couple of weeks and I seem to have grown accustomed to having company.

A walk around Blackburn tonight. Knee getting better. Back getting worse. As winter approaches, the world seems very dark and gloomy over here compared with the sun and fun of WA!

Street O at Forest Hills tonight. This was very close to home so despite the sore knee and rain I decided to walk (amble) the PW course. As usual the rain stopped for the event. Knee held up OK.

After getting to bed around 2am on Sunday night, I slept in and didn't go to work. I have a very sore knee/foot/leg - probably coming from my back.

I should have retired yesterday at the pinnacle of my career. Today was the Aus Middlle Distance Champs on Middle Marginata near York. The area was spur-gully with lots of clumps of rocks that all looked the same and lots of pile of logs that looked like piles of rocks. There were blackboys everywhere :) hiding the rocks. I was a later starter and rumour had it that the course was very hard. This was information that I wish I hadn't had as I was perhaps a lot more cautious than I might have been otherwise - going very slowly for the first few controls. I picked a slightly bad route after the spectator control (5-6) and got confused in the rocks - I should have gone beyond the rocks to the gully and then back. I then saw Blake Gordon and travelled with him for several controls. I was messy on 7 (thought it was a gully not a spur) and 9. I ended up 5th which was OK but no podium.

Afterwards Blake and I compared times (I thought my course was the same as the M65s). I had well and truly beaten him which caused him considerable consternation all afternoon. It was only later at the airport that I realised that I was on a shorter course (same as M70) - much to Blake's relief!

My course was 3km, only slightly longer than the sprint distance yesterday - but then again - they must have taken pity on us poor old things and given us a short course. It is so nice to know that they think we are the physical equals of the M70s.

This marked the end of a great holiday and we flew home later that night. I loved WA and could easily have just kept going up the coast.....maybe next time.

C • Nibble Nibble 6