Training Log Archive: jennycas

We escaped Penrith, after a day doing family stuff, with enough time to drop in to Glebe so that George could buy books. I've suggested that if we need to curtail spending with a new house, we could not buy books for a while, and re-read the thousands we already have, but this seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Admittedly one reason for buying this house was so that we'd have more space for our books! Anyway, I set a virtuously good example and did not cross the threshold of a bookstore, but instead went for a run. It was good to get some fresh air and I saw some impressive mansions, but geez, this was painfully slow. Can't believe how stuffed I am!

Nearly didn't make it to this one. After back was unpleasant in the night, presumably due to the hotel bed, I managed to sleep through until 8am - at which time it was still raining - and thought very hard about not going orienteering given my 9:38am start. A look at the radar and the rain appeared to be clearing so I had no real excuse, except that even a quick hotel breakfast takes time and so we didn't leave until 8:45, with me navigating for George while taping my ankles in the car. We pulled up at the event; I hopped out of the car and ran the 500m to the start casting longing glances at the toilet queue as I bypassed it, and arrived with just enough time to sign the indemnity (is this really necessary if we've already clicked the waiver button when entering?) before I was called up!

Yeah, so I've definitely never cut it this fine before :) Good thing I'm not someone who finds it difficult to settle in and focus on the map - in fact, one of the reasons I like orienteering is because it forces me to switch off all the other things which are on my mind (there seem to have been a lot of these lately).

Anyway, the bush was good and soggy, with tiny watercourses branching off a main one and a network of tiny tracks, in an area less than 1.5 sq km. The print resolution/colour was a wee bit funny and so I struggled to read ditches and watercourses when they were overlaid with solid or hatched green, but my bearings were pretty direct and I toddled along ok, if very slowly and feeling rather like I had been carved out of a solid block of wood. About halfway through we came out into the 'open' with tall grass nearly my height in places and a slalom of motorbike tracks which went in random directions. I really found it hard to lift my legs through this bit, which we came back through towards the end, but I liked the forested parts which reminded me, strangely enough, of the NOL races at Newcastle a couple of years ago.

Time was pretty woeful but logic tells me that there must be some possibility of improvement in the terrain between now and nationals. I dare say I could sharpen up my navigation a little also; will get a new compass before Kooyoora. Anyway, it was still a rewarding weekend of races and I talked George into detouring to Brooklyn, on the water by the Mooney Mooney bridge, on our way back to Penrith and we found a quaint little café/gallery for lunch, so that was nice.

C • clarification 2

C • Lake Mac Games 6

SL13 HARD 2 - Splits

Event: 2014 State League #12/#13 - Newcastle
 

So, we flew into Sydney last night and after a quick breakfast in Glebe headed up the freeway towards Newcastle. The event was at a high school on the shores of Lake Macquarie and I had a great view of yachts and rowers while taping my ankles. The race was good - a well set course with plenty of changes of direction and some long legs with the multiple gates about which we had been warned to carefully check whether or not they had been mapped as open. My ability to race was suboptimal, being pretty tentative on my knee and also apparently unable to lift my legs up any sort of an incline. I hesitated a bit choosing a route choice to 5 (there was only one viable option but it took me a while to convince myself of this), and misread where I thought an open gate would be on the way to 6 so doubled back when I could just have gone a bit further to another gate. And I can now see at least 3 better routes to 12 than the one I took. But oh well, it was definitely fun, although I'm slightly startled that some of the guys took 13 min for this course.

This afternoon's course had more climb and trickier split levels with ramps and stairs, being on a hillside. I didn't go the best way to 1 so approached it from the top of the stairs, which I then ran straight back up because I started navigating to 3 not 2. Correcting this effort involved a few otherwise unnecessary flights of stairs, then it seemed like I dropped quite a bit of height on the long leg to 4 and had to climb through an excessive number of courtyards, but I think everybody had to. Uphill's when I just seem to have no pushoff whatsoever, and so I was quite a bit slower on this course, except when running away from the swooping plover. Good fun though, and an area I'd like to run on again.

We headed into Newcastle afterwards and used the last of the daylight to drive around the foreshore admiring the view through the rain, before correctly identifying the restaurant strip. Within 200m there are 3 Thai and 3 Vietnamese restaurants, plus enough other options to make you think you're on Lygon St.

W21A - Race 2 - Splits

W21A Race1 - Splits

I don't think Kath can be completely right, because I am not getting any sort of sciatica, and the twinging knee is pretty similar to when I had tendonopathy on the other side. I will concede though that my back has been very tight ever since we started lugging laptops around with us at work. I don't have to go to work this Monday, and that makes me very happy!

Attack of the Killer Physio

Kath's convinced it's all coming from my back - L5/S1, she reckons. I don't care as long as it can be fixed so I don't have to wince when I get in & out of the car.

Every night I wake up some time pre-dawn, cannot get back to sleep for what seems like an hour or two (brain kicks in to work mode?), then generally manage to sleep through the alarm. This has got to stop; first step was to make myself go running this morning. But seriously, I think I should have stayed in bed. Legs just couldn't go up hills; I kept stopping to stretch but was beset by a complete lack of energy & flexibility. Maybe Kath can fix some of this tomorrow. Anyway, it was worth it for the view out over the ocean of the rising sun shining on the high-rise* buildings at Glenelg.

*hardly Gold-Coast-level elevation or density, though, which is a good thing.

C • Attackpoint 5

Had grand (ok, small & petty) plans of making it to run with the others @North Adelaide - when will I ever learn that 5:15 is not a valid work-departure-time goal? Anyway, a couple of hours later I headed over to Mitcham by myself. A bit suspicious that my hip & knee may not have approved of this idea, but I tried to run a bit harder, and didn't trip over any cracks in the pavement in the dark.