Training Log Archive: jennycas

Left home at 6am, picked up Mark, procured essentials (caffeine & bakery goods) in Burra and made it to the appointed meeting place by 10am so that Craig could drop us off halfway down the west side of the map to vet about 10 controls on our way back to the car, which took most of the day. Light rain drifting in became heavier icy rain blowing sideways and on the bare windy hills it seemed a bit bleak at times but the multitudes of goats didn't appear to mind. Pleased to see that since there's been more rain this year than the previous two autumns (not hard) they hadn't eaten off the Iron-Grass (Lomandra effusa) tussocks - at the base of which, clusters of tiny star-shaped flowers gave off a sweet honey smell. We're still not sure whether the goats had in fact eaten some of our control tags though, because what else would explain the vanishment of tin lids tied high in a tree...?

Something I've been meaning to do for a while is to head up into O'Halloran Hill reserve, and since Perth finally sent us a nice day, headed off straight after work (but of course the sun had already set), parked on Mostyn Rd, ran along the trail up to the top of Morphett Rd, down Gilbertson Gully (which would be lovely in daylight but a bit dark & creepy by torchlight), back across the suburbs by map memory, which led to a slight parallel error and more climb than anticipated, but oh well. This little loop would have earned me approx. 270 points on the March 2008 Darlington - Dash or Dawdle twilight rogaine which mum & I set (and which was conveniently held on the last day below 30 degrees, for the next 2 weeks).

C • Perth 4

Didn't feel that I needed much of a run tonight, and the novelty of not being warm is definitely wearing off.

After collecting my car from being serviced, parked at Somerton beach and ran north into the setting sun (beautiful golden staircase on the ocean and many people taking photos) to Glenelg jetty, then south as far as Minda dunes and the new boardwalk atop them. All of me was very tired today but running on the actual beach for a bit had novelty. As did going out to dinner with Geoff afterwards, for the first time in 3 months, which we celebrated by our annual pilgrimage to Stamps :)

200, 400, 600, 600, 400, 200, 200 with the group around the uni loop. Mostly standing recoveries. plus warmup/down - runthroughs not included in time. Because I'm super tough (I mean, because all my tights were in the wash) I wore short pants, but I will confess to wearing gloves in the car on the way home (also on the way to work this morning!) even though Blair will probably call me wussy.

C • Good excuse 6

This morning there was frost on our back lawn and four layers of clothing were required for walking the verrrry sloooow dog. Thankfully I was able to find a café open on a public holiday in order to procure nice hot coffee on my way to the dispensary and thankfully also we finished sort-of on time despite a busy day and skeleton staffing so I was able to go check out some of the MTB tracks on the northern ridgeline in Sheps, up as far as Gloucester Ave, before it got too cold again.

With Steve, and Lexidog, from his place across to/around Woorabinda lake & back, before Geoff came up for brunch which Maya had prepared for us all. My legs were less sprightly than Steve's, presumably due to yesterday's hills (also I didn't have CanineAssistTM).

C • Maya 2

Chilly ride along the creek - strangely enough, not many people out walking on a frigid winter's afternoon - after an ARC map/course meeting which resulted in a decision to go bush next weekend. I'm not convinced it's essential to do vetting for next May right now, but it's not as though I had anything more exciting planned.