Training Log Archive: Zed

Run with both 'boys'. Bear is getting a bit more reliable on a run now. Still pretty windy. Front came in later.

Now in Brisbane for a course so hope to have a little exploring run tomorrow.

Up to volunteer centre, back past railway dam then over road and up Nookoo.

In Marion pool after work. 50 m. Pushed a bit for first km focussing on long smooth strokes. Did 1 km in 18.45 . Felt pretty good.
Then arms were a bit tired so cruised next 500 m and did some breast stroke.

Started out just planning a medium run but with my new app ' pandora radio' playing inspiring music I kept going. Similar to last Sunday although pretty warm and very windy . East up park boundary, past cottages, up and over to redwoods, up over railway. Past dam - stopped for Callum to drink and to take photos , over to QJD . Decided ridge was a bit scary in the high winds so down Ballast pit track ( more wildflower photos on way down). Left at railway to find fire track back to bitumen. Back past vol centre then dam track for another drink for hot Callum. Then back home.

Overdue for this and it showed, very stiff! Gradually got a bit better.

Dropped at cross rd at unley rd intersection, road to friends at Glenelg, leisurely saunter from there to Henley for lunch and back, harder push backlp to Goodwood train station. (Too lazy in unaccustomed heat to cycle all the way home, the plan was for soccer at home and wanted some legs left but this didn't eventuate, also my butt was sore! )

Note : To escape noisy party in next street (which luckily finished by 1030pm ) J, L dogs and I went for walk around golf course. Warm night. Quite a few possums out.

Morning run with Lauren who patiently dodged both dogs. Up valley, up steps, across to water tank, over railway line, past echo tunnel track, back along pines oval road, valley road and cut though golf course for last bit.

As always, lovely in the bush. I expect it will be a little while before I get to run with Lauren again.

Rowing machine. Took a while for my muscles to remember how to join in!

At gym. Tired easily, I guess to be expected.

For various reasons it was just me and Callum at Belair tonight. Conversation a bit light on but we had a nice time still. Past lake towards Belair station, then east along track next to railway, then south at track junction near rail crossing, back down pines oval road, left along valley road then cut across the golf course. Still night so lots of possums out.

Run in two parts with Lauren. First up stairs, back along. QJD, then back home to check L off to school ok and walk part way with him, then up Suffolk track, back down park boundary track. Morning quite humid. Took both dogs.

Using core a lot.

Up valley to Kaloola track, up to upper sturt rd, back along boundary track.

Planned after work swim didn't happen as I stayed home to look after L, home with a cold.

I came home to an empty house so decided I could join the Monday night run. Thought I was brave taking both dogs along but as Simon took one for the whole time , and Bridget took Callum for some time, it was quite manageable ( thanks guys). As 'the boys' have a bit of a competitive thing happening and were trying to race each other my legs took a bit of a beating!. Feeling pleasantly sore now.
Route was Turners, loop of Smithy's , through forest, back along Talarook.
Both dogs very quiet this evening . Turns out it was their second run for the day. Peace.

A cycle commute! Yay! These have become as rare as hens teeth, but a day based at Marion and Fmc helped, as does longer days and being warmer weather ( less layers to carry.)

I didn't have the energy or enthusiasm to enter the City to bay so I did this run instead with the faithful Callum. Up valley, Melville track, over to redwoods, up single track, collecting shoots for Boof as I went. Past dam, down QJD , right to upper waterfall ( mere trickle of water remaining ) down fire track to water tower, left through kangaroo valley, back via QJD and adventure playground.

Calling it a jog rather than a run as I was pretty slow.

To and from a friends house. Most of day spent watching Leith's soccer carnival at Strathalbyn. Contemplated training as a ref just to be able to move more at soccer. And to stop the unchecked shirt pulling, pushing, elbowing etc . And because it is painful to watch very unfit refs struggle to keep up with the game, which was nearly all of them today ( with the exception of a certain orienteer/rogainer turned ref). Sure it's not quite a simple as that but it helped appease myself to contemplate this idea!

Up Suffolk track, park boundary east to bitumen back down valley. With Callum and Bear so not that fast, plus I was a bit tired.

Core.

Before work with Bear ( who is getting the hang of jogging) and Callum ( who is looking lardy ). Same as yesterday, down Rankeys, up Suffolk to upper sturt rd, down boundary track. Nice fresh morning.

Usual Thursday night run. Felt quite good. Rather a scenic run to show B and S's friend Esther the wildlife and views. Up steps, across to lower waterfall , echo tunnel and back.

Down Rankeys up Suffolk track to Upper sturt rd, back down boundary track. With Bear and Callum. Followed by a very sedentary desky, meetingish, driving day. Definitely prefer more activity than a day like today, don't feel quite myself.

Up valley up Kaloola track to boundary track and home.

Met a friend after work to swim at Marion. Lost track of lap numbers but know I at least did this far in the half hour. First 500 m felt smooth and fairly strong but lost some focus after that.

Little loop in Belair . In at CP out above Golf course.

SA long champs.
Better than yesterday. Noticing I stop and check map a lot and not flowing. Evelyn had caught me up 4 mins just before control 2 and I hadn't made any errors, just cautious . Lacking terrain running practice. Coming into 4, a straightforward leg, I stopped completely confused by a 4 way creek junction which for some reason suddenly didn't make sense, although it was what I was expecting. Think for a moment I thought I should be looking for a 3 way junction. Who knows why? Finally reoriented my map a little better and saw it did of course all make sense. Evelyn then caught me again saying , ' and I thought I was zig zagging! ' I pulled away on the next uphill leg and didn't see her to the end where she still beat me by 2 minutes!

It was fun overall. Nice to see other people out there. Enjoyed the part open part scrub nature of the course. Controls were easy to see if you were at the feature, not hidden, which I always appreciate.

Sat next to the very cute Patrick on the way home. :)

C • Paddy 3

SA middle distance champs at Merridee. I'm guessing the time. On way to very vague first control noticed my fairly new compass was swinging wildly about. Needle on a tilt and red pointing south. It was almost impossible to keep up a bearing and I felt like a ship without a rudder. Almost bailed out then, but thought we've come all this way I might as well see if I can find anything and have a bit of time in the bush. Found 2 before 1, still had trouble finding 1 had to go back near to start and use the few contours to approach as a bearing into the vague nothing wasn't working. Finally after 9 minutes found number 1! Ok through next few as there were contours to help. Then mispunched number 9. Knew it wasn't really mine ( similar feature, similar number and also a water control) but as I had drifted off my rough bearing and compass still swinging wildly I couldn't really make out where I was and decided I couldn't be bothered trying, which is unlike me. Think I was plane tired. Wobbled to the next control the scenic route, not really sure where I exactly was for a while. Then the last control was easy.

At least John had a good run and was happy and Leith got round what was the hardest course he had done so far. Leith said he thought about the story about the boy who was lost at the flinders whose skeleton was found many months later. In hindsight I would've been better off perhaps shadowing him but didn't realise it was going to be a bit harder than usual.

Nice to go back to Burra and have a nice dinner in pleasant company.

Through park to Crafers West and return.

The striking thing about this prework run was my company - none other than Tarn! She has appointment me as her running coach as of today. Nice run up the valley . I did an extra 4 mins faster while she had a breather, then we ran back down and walked up Nookoo, and ran down the track.

Didn't get out tonight as needed to look after Leith.

C • coach mum 3

At lunch at Marion. Had to really concentrate to get effective arm strokes and couldn't keep up the whole time. Feeling very pleasantly achey in the shoulders now.

This is a composite time after adding various bits of running done today. Changed plan for running after drop off when I bumped into a good friend I hadn't seen for a while and I joined her walk. Then I ran from there to meet Tarn on her walk in Belair . I talked Tarn into running a little (my heart leapt at the sight!). I'm also counting jogging while lunging Alphie and then running Bear to dog training this evening.

Up to volunteers centre past railway dam, back down valley then up Nookook.

Anyone else watching Anzac girls on Sunday nights? I'm hooked! I'm convinced the lake and the muddy path they walk up are the Railway dam and the path up to volunteer centre.

I saw film crews there last year.

C • Great show! 4

Up valley to volunteer centre and return. Pretty slow jog. Callum needed an outing.

At Marion in small window after work before picking up Leith. This felt divine. Pool was open to full length. I love Marion aquatic centre pool. Hope to get a longer swim later in week.

Mt Crawford forest 12 hour with Lauren on a beautiful spring day and evening. Optimistically over planned and then had the not enjoyable experience of dropping controls on the hop, really not good for morale. Note to self, plan and then reduce by 15%. Very hard to judge km per hour, as it varied a lot. We did waste a bit of time at 64 and 77 , and other smaller little bits at other spots . Controls in order were 30, 67, 64, 75, 84, 55, 43, 92, 42, 33, 44, 56, 61, 41, 20, 34, 66, 46, 50, 68, 71, 77 ( dropping 85, 60) , 58, 100, 81, 70, 74, 57, 80, 65, ( dropping 91, 73, 76) 72, ( I lost my reading glasses here, as my focus was on being careful with control card and pen, and Lauren hurt her back - for a while looked like quite badly as she stood up too early from under a low bush), somehow overshot W4 - without my reading glasses I didn't see circle was set more to north side of tracks, not centred. I really need them now at night on a rogaine, it's amazing to see all the contours when I wear them! Then we even had a bit of trouble with 32. At this point my confidence plummeted, and I said ' I'm actually pretty lousy at this, ' and meant it; time seemed to be slipping away and I wondered if the time I'd allowed for remaining controls was sufficient. Reluctantly ( and unnecesarily ) we dropped 90 and did an out a back to 54. Craig and Ev were at 32 30 mins ahead of us and still went to 90. Then we saw they were 20 mins ahead at 54 ( after getting 90 on route, we went straight there after refilling at water , nearly being out, which we did after 32) so we'd only gained 10 mins effectively. Then without further mishap 62, 83 , 63, 52, 82, 40, 21, 53, 51 HH. We were just plain lucky to go to 51 last not first up and so miss the waste of time many had. By then we had no working pen left so I had to draw my triangle with my pink zinc on the control card. It was nice to be back at the HH and get into warm clothes, get some food and chat to others about their rogaines, but underneath I felt quite flat that planning and execution had not been tighter. I predicted to Lauren that the winners would've got about 300 plus more than us. Quite the ray of sunshine at that point! Saw where Sarah and Kate had gone and saw they'd got the high points in the SW and NW that we hadn't, and of course 90- nearly everyone got 90 it seemed ! They had done well and I assumed they were higher than us. They also had stuck to their original plan apart from adding one - suffered planning envy when I heard that. When the results were read it took a while to rearrange myself, really was surprised to win. Pretty close - only 40 pts. I do not remember ever before being In a rogaine where the top 2 positions were filled by women. Half the top 6 teams were women's team! Impressive.
Thanks to Lauren for coming out again after not being keen on night time rogaining, and deciding that this time night wasn't too bad at all. Very well organised event with 133 teams all up over both events, with Jenny and AK wining the 6 hr.

C • That's a little understated... 7

Core.

Redwoods via valley and Melville track. With Jenny and Lauren for first bit. Pace more a jog than run, didn't seem to be able to go harder. Itb started hurting towards end. Planned to walk Bear after but was too cold and tired.

Took Leith and 2 friends to school relays at Athelstone this morning. Fun morning, they all did good solid runs but a bit off the leaders pace - had to leave shortly after so don't know results yet.

Out and back along boundary track with Callum.

Feeling tired today, busy week plus this seems to be standard for me leading into a rogaine, I get tired at the idea of it beforehand. Already planning to have a bit of a lazy start on Sunday.

Nookoo track, then part way up valley not as far as vol centre, back along railway dam track. Bush shining in early morning sunshine after the overnight rain. Hip/ itb still stiff and sore, but not worse.

Met a friend after work to swim laps at Marion pool. 25 m tonight unfortunately. Always amazed how tired I feel before I get in and how that rush of cool water is so effective in getting me moving!

Short run, Nookoo loop. Stiff and slow at the moment . Callum enjoyed it.

After work with Tarn.