Training Log Archive: Mess Engineer

Never played with RouteGadget splitalyzer before.
Could have hours of obsessive review comparing to others!

C • analysing splits 5

9 Controls. Nominal 5.1 km. Distance a guess. Probably more.

Had Shane Jenkins start 4 minutes before me and Sam Howe 1 minute after me.
Caught Shane at Controls 2, 3 and midway to 8. Ultimately finished about 2 minutes faster than him.
Never saw Sam for entire run and she blitzed me by about 4 minutes.

Overshot Control 1 and got to the main track before coming south again.
For Control 2, I was too high to lose by going down again, so went up the south hill track and then west and came down to the control unlike the majority who came up the hill.

Both Shane and I screwed up Control 3 and must of been within 2 metres of seeing it.
We thought we were too far north on a track crossing the creek so separately both looked south. I ran down to the southern track crossing and came back and lost 5 minutes (overall to Control 3 my split was 8 1/2 minutes compared to Sams 3 1/2).
This was ultimately the major time loss that at the finish put me 2 - 4 minutes behind Sam Howe, Geoff Peel and Tim Tew.

For Control 4 about 15 seconds time loss as slightly high.

No issues with Controls 5, 6 and 7.

Played alternating tag with Stephen Roberts to Controls 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
I managed to get ahead on the way to 6, and 7, but he kept overtaking and I then would catch up.

Both Stephen and I screwed up Control 8 and probably came out 5 m too south and then went further south into the next clearing looking for it before both deciding we must be wrong.

So two times today I was only just away from the control and then selected the wrong direction to go. However ultimately happy with my run.

C • So it didn't happen! 2

Walking boundary track with wheelbarrow cutting off all low branches to all good clear width to walk around. Filled wheelbarrow and dumped at Fire Pit.

Body told me that I was too exhausted to even manage this (and I felt yesterdays stump pulling in the run this morning!) so with another 2 more 5 km plus XMas-O runs to go decided I better make the remainder of the day into a rest day.

Yes 3 dogs not 2. And not mine.
These were the Neighbours 2 houses downhill whose ZOO of animals (chickens, ducks, rabbits, mice, fish, bugs, dogs) my Partner is looking after twice daily whilst they are on Christmas Holidays.

Used the opportunity for their dogs to have a romp whilst I explored their back 3 1/2 acres (all four blocks in this corner of the estate are the largest at 6 1/2 acres - all the others are 2 1/2 or less I think).

I have now been through all four (mine included) at various times.

This one covered 80% in lantana, with no tracks for access, and divided in half by creek running through it. Partner bailed on the walk due to the lantana and creek. Creek has no crossing points although a running jump allowed me to clear it.

So mine, with a full length boundary track, ZERO lantana, and no swampy creek is my favourite!
None of my 3 neighbours even go down the back of their blocks or utilise the space.
I go down there several times a week.

Hard 3 Day3 - Splits

18 Controls. Nominal 4.0 km. Distance a guess from others Garmins.
Only run here before once at my first ever State League event / first ever SI event which had 14 controls for 3.9 km. On that occassion totally botched it up and spent 15:26 finding the 1st control after coming back to the start about 2 or 3 times. Came absolutely last. Total time was 1:16:00.
After event returned to start and walked to 1st control in less than 1 minute without a compass.
So VERY apprehensive today and took conservative track options.

But today ended up in lower 1/3 of leaderboard only 1 minute behind Sam Howe and Shane Jenkins so was not a total disaster this time. 27 minutes faster than last time!

Got a big metre long stick stuck through my shoelace at Control 13 which I couldn't break (due to a cut on palm of my left hand) so had to spend time unravelling.
Yesterday at Control 22 a stick flung up off the ground and hit me below the bottom lip drawing blood for a few minutes.
So I expect a tree branch to fall on top of me tomorrow.

C • falling tree branch 2

When we first moved in southern boundary track originally did not loop around entire side. So could get 90% of the way around the north, east and south sides and then it stopped. So I hand mowed a strip to get access.
However several large paperbarks within close proximity to fence stop a ride-on > 38 inches wide fitting through this area. So in track maintenance session yesterday decided to cut these down (these would be the first live trees deliberately removed in the 18 months been here).

Periods of Intensity 5 and was working a lot harder than this mornings run.
All hand cut up into 1.5 metre lengths and wheelbarrowed to beside Fire Pit to dry out for a month or so.

11:05 am - 12:10 pm (1:05)
Cut down small (arm thick) paperbark and pulled out by swinging body weight on remaining stump.
Cut down large (leg thick) paperbark and spent a long sweaty time with mattock cutting through lots of roots before it got weak enough for body weight to break off the main root underneath I couldn't get to.

From Wallalong Gardening - Part 2

Break for drink and snack.

12:35 pm - 1:25 pm (0:50)
Cut down second large paperbark. Had to cut overhung branch over fence first (whilst up on a ladder) to ensure no damage. Then more sweat and mattock work to remove.

Break for drink and recovery.

2:10 pm - 3:25 pm (1:15)
Cut down the third large paperbark. This was the hardest as overhung fence and had large vines growing through it. Had to tie a rope around branch and slowly crack the branch with body weight to get it to come down in a controlled manner. Three very large roots which I cut with handsaw rather than smash through.

Break as otherwise won't have any energy left for tomorrows Day 3.

Hard 3 Day 2 - Splits

Event: Xmas 5 Days
 

Time fill prior to the drive to Ourimbah (the drive which ended up taking only 1 hr 10 minutes so I had a few hours to fill in there as well).

9:45 am - 10:15 am.
Backfilled dirt in the two stump holes. May need to add more dirt later after rain when soil has compacted down a bit.

10:15 am - 11:40 am
Using tractor ride-on for track maintenance around back boundary. Ran out of fuel and it died - couldn't restart even with more fuel so had to put in neutral and push back to shed. Will work out problem later. Also a lot of whippersnipping under fence line. Whippersnipping easier option compared to tractor around boundary.

Christmas 5 Days Event 1. Nominal 4.5 km. 30 Controls.
Around Ourimbah TAFE.
Never ran on this map before - lots of path and building detail.
Overshot on the 1:4000 scale and found Control 3 before Control 1.
After this calmed down and started actually navigating.
Only other major time waste was 10 where I ran around the lake to the south rather than seeing the track option to the north.

Hard 3 Day 1 - Splits

Back in Newcastle from Kempsey.
Very happy to be travelling South rather than North.
The North travelling backlog through Bulladelah stretched for km and km and km!

40 minutes
Handsawing off multiple roots off two stumps recently pulled out (with new Christmas handsaw ... very sharp). My chain saw needs sharpening. Very very humid and sweating heavily.

40 minutes
Breaking all clay and mud off root ball with crowbar to allow cutting off remaining roots. Also loading roots into wheelbarrow and taking to Fire Pit. Sweating continued.

From Wallalong Gardening - Part 2

Also icepack on left elbow which is the 3rd day in a row and will probably become part of daily routine.

Merry Christmas to all!

Distance a guess.
Bored stupid in Kempsey so walked randomly to Bunnings on other side of town and then back.
Traffic banked up for about 1 km travelling south and I outraced all the cars and trucks by about 20 car lengths even though I was walking slow.

Todays Kempsey boredom activities included looking at Husqvarna and John Deere ride-on lawnmowers.