Training Log Archive: jennycas

On this official day of random consumption of less-conventional fruits, I have managed to eat: a pear, a mango, a plum, a punnet of blueberries and a custard apple!

From Zara's at the bottom of Pole Rd, up to Ironbank, Cherry Gardens, down & up Mundoo Lane, down Ilunga Drive, up Nicholls Rd behind Scott Creek cemetery, down Brown Rd, up through Loftia Park to Evans Drive and down Coat Rd to the Murphys'.

I hadn't intended to do a long run, but the idea was that Zara and I would take Andrew Murphy on a training run to gauge his fitness since he is going to do the SA champs rogaine with us in a month (he may not have known he was being gauged). This sort of fell through because Andrew got stomach cramps and went back home after about half an hour, but the upside was that he had made rock buns by the time we got back to his place to discuss rogaine tactics!

A nice cloudy morning not nearly as warm as the forecast, plenty of stops and easy talking pace meant I wasn't as tired as I had expected - hamstrings have recovered from intervals, I think. One of the stops was at the cemetery to visit Dexter and Irena Palmer's grave - six years ago tomorrow.

Sprintervals set by Tyson at Tangari, which is basically Reynella East in terms of locality, but is also, I've now figured out, the old Field River map. We started from the same place where the Casanova family did its first ever orienteering event in March 1985. All I remember is that it was hot and prickly and I hated it.

'Twas a bit hot and prickly this time round too but Tyson had warned us and so at the last minute I put on O pants over my running shorts and then I couldn't exactly sprint while I was trying to hold them up with one hand (urgently need new elastic). The scrub is prickly acacia but there's a well-mapped network of tracks and creeks and I reckon we could easily use it for the schools' champs; it's no worse than Wadmore Park.

Did the first 2 halves of Tyson's approx 3km course (there were variations and we regrouped in the middle, we being: me, John, Fern, Tyson, Robin, Greg, Bridget and Simon) then couldn't be bothered going to the bottom of the map again so on the next course just did everything north of the OOB, in one loop.

11:48
11:36
16:43

Almost dark by the time I picked up tapes, resulting in an altercation with a prickly acacia bush - came back feeling like I'd done proper orienteering and had the scratches to prove it!

Up past the lake and the railway line to the tank above Lower Waterfall (my hamstrings were rather ham-strung and I really struggled on the hills) where we debated whether it was possible to get to the tap at the top of the park and back down while we could still see where we were putting our feet. Only one way to find out, so we trooped up to the tap, down the Besser blocks (can't believe John rode his bike down them the other week!) to the redwoods and made it to Long Gully kiosk in twilight, then plunged into the enchanted forest along the creek with the occasional glimmer of moonlight through the trees and the occasional surprise when the track wasn't cambered quite the way I expected it to be.

BBQ afterwards at the Uppills' was good fun (Adrian's idea to celebrate the last daylight Belair run) and when I got home I coaxed George out of bed to tread on my legs again! When Belair resumes in 3 weeks' time we will all be wearing headlamps. For some strange reason I am looking forward to this.

12 x 225m on Mortlock Oval (rougher than a real track, and did I mention it's slightly uphill?)
47, 49, 48, 50, 51, 52, 52, 52, 52, 52, 53, 53

Having done A LOT of stretching last night (I got George to tread gently on my hamstrings, and I worked out that inner thigh tightness was pulling on my groin) I didn't feel too bad this morning and it was nice to run on soft green grass. Fairly fatigued, though, and by the last couple my hamstrings had tightened up again and I felt like I was running through treacle with a lead weight attached to my behind. But it's those last couple which will make me stronger for next time, right? Anyway, if running is mostly mental, at least my head felt good!

Includes recoveries which were the same distance as the intervals and took about 90 sec.

Pre-emptive ice, Panadol and lots of painful kneecap stretching meant that my knee, which was consistently horrible all of yesterday and some of today, didn't actually bother me on the run. Instead, somewhere in the vicinity of my groinal socket (if you don't watch Red Dwarf, I'll explain later) something tried to go twang, probably as a result of my bike riding! I was feeling pretty stuffed and the endorphins never really kicked in tonight, but I did put in an effort when running back down (nobody was actually racing) and am slightly surprised to have done my fastest loop of the summer. Possibly I'm not going to get absolutely slaughtered by everyone else at Easter, but I remain pessimistic because I can.

C • ... 2

A nice morning for this and my legs were doing better than my lungs until my dodgy shin decided it was in oxygen debt. Quite a weird sensation to notice it getting progressively tighter, and then becoming a bit of a dead weight as the circulation decreased. I am not a fan of compartment syndrome. Think there's more than a little knee/ITB tightness also. So I raided the freezer full of ice packs when I got to work.

From home to Belair National Park via Shepherds Hill Rd, just in time for the OASA AGM. This took an hour, and I learnt about gears along the way. I think I passed that lesson...

I was only rostered to help Wallaringa by collecting controls, so I had decided not to run a course. And after an hour spent strolling the slippery hillsides with an armful of controls, I was satisfied with that decision.

Then I rode through the park via Long Gully and the very steep hill to Upper Sturt Rd (25 min) and got George to meet me at the Upper Sturt shop because I was too chicken to ride down Pole Rd to Zara's, even though she came to the top of the hill with her bike to provide moral support. So George rode down the hill, on my bike, with Zara, while I drove down! He did mutter something afterwards about it being a bit small :)