Training Log Archive: Mess Engineer

Still feeling rubbish so skipped gym.
Didn't change into my work clothes all day either ... stayed at my desk and did computer work all day and never left the office to go onsite.

No run with pocket rocket today.
Feel bareable but like if I tried to push it would let sickness take hold.
Still at work but.

Update from yesterday ... came 27th of 102 so a bit better than 2009.

I have got the start of a sore throat, sniffly nose and slimy tongue.
Probably from being stuck in a plane with recycled air full of other peoples sickness!
And body was therefore protesting heavily throughout run. Intensity 5 as sick ... otherwise would have been 4.

Last ran this Map 18th November 2009 which was 'pre Attackpoint'.
Route Gadget for this event http://garingal.com.au/cgi-bin/gadget3/reitti.cgi?...
Scored 37 pts - 1 = 36 pts as 12 seconds late. Distance was not recorded.
Best was 49 so 73.5%. Came 29th of 106.

In this 2009 event there was 1 x 15 (15 pts), 2 x 9 (18 pts) and 3 x 6 (18 pts) so 51 points total available.
On the south flat half of the map was 1 x 4 (4 pts), 2 x 3 (6 pts), 3 x 3 (9 pts) so a total of 19 pts (38 % of all available).
So there was an incentive to get around the top half as there were more points available.
In fact some people didn't go out on the flat at all.

In todays event there was 1 x 18 (18 pts), 2 x 9 (18 pts) and 3 x 6 (18 pts) so 54 points total available.
However on the south flat half of the map was 1 x 10 (10 pts), 2 x 5 (10 pts), 3 x 4 (12 pts) so a total of 32 pts (59% of all available).
So todays focus was get out to the flat (covering more distance here than 2009 version) and see how many hills I could cope with in remaining time.
The problem with this was had to cross main road in peak hour traffic 4 times!
Body was struggling on the flat ... so the hills were going to be worse.

(Routegadget Link)
Route
Cross Road 3D 2E 1K Cross Road 1L 3B Cross Road 1M 2F 1S 2H 3A 2J 1R 3C 1H South side done ... now for hills 3E 1U 2C 1E 2B 1D 1C Should of dropped this 2D

South half 1 x 6, 2 x 4, 3 x 4 so 26 pts in 5.1 km over approx 28 mins so rate 5:36 min/km.
Slow and hadn't even got to the hills yet.

North half 1 x 4, 2 x 3, 3 x 1 so 13 pts in 3.4 km over approx 20 mins.

At 2D was already late at 45:00 after 8 km so rate had plummeted to 5:53 min/km.
0.5 km to finish which took 2:39 losing all the points from 1C and 2D!

Lost time crossing roads, at 3A as I confused the brown of the carpark with a building so was looking in the wrong spot, at 1H as I was looking in the creek for the 'barrier' rather than at the handrail at the top of the creek. Otherwise clues OK apart from multiple differences of opinion from competitors over how concrete drives are made.

Today scored 39 pts - 3 = 36 pts as 2:39 late.
As I was feeling sick and weak didn't hang around to see best score.

UPDATE : From maceys log best was 49 so exactly the same score and relative percentage of 73.5% as 2009! Will have to wait until tomorrow to see place ranking.
Despite my training regime, going abysmal this year with average from first 7 events of 74.9% vs last years 79%. Been sick at 3 events.

C • nice read 3

Back in Australia!

Spent 5 hours sitting in Airport / Hotel lobby programming on work laptop rather than trying to get multiple taxi's and race around trying to fit in some tourism prior to reutrn flight.

Of the 4 flights I was on since Sunday I got swab tested for bomb making materials on 3 of them .... and frisked at Sydney Airport. So I must look like a nutter.

Speaking of nutters .... there was plenty dressed as elves, goblins, wizards etc in NZ Airport. Even the flight attendents had pointy elf ears. NZ going Hobbit crazy leading up to movie premiere in next few days.

The work site visit surprisingly took only 1.5 hrs so afternoon unexpectedly free.

So like a month or so back work trip to Grafton more than 6 - 8 hrs of travel time, overnight stay then short site visit, then reverse trip back.

Got dropped off in centre of Auckland and found a map and wandered around without any real plan.

Time uncertain as can't exactly remember whether I started at 1:30 pm or 1:45 pm (NZ time) but walked to 6:15 pm.
Distance approximate from geodistance.

For those bored enough to look with a google map.

Started at Western Viaduct.
Down Quay St.
Up Queen St past Myers Park.
Across Grafton Bridge.
Through Auckland Domain and greenhouses and fernery.
Across to Newmarket Park.
Down St Stephens Avenue to Dove Myer Robinson Park Rose Gardens.
To water and pool area.
Back to Quay Street.
Return to Queen St up to Albert Park.
Across to SkyCity.

Then Taxi back to Hotel at International Airport.

Will try and upload photos otherwise it will have to wait until return.

They were filming a Cadbury Chocolote commercial near the Aotea Centre.
So three actors dressed up in purple clothes with a large chocolote dog and dinosaur. Plus strange looking car.

They were also filming something at Dove Myer Robinson Park.

So the NZ film industry was out in force today.

A selection from the 21 uploaded. Remainder on picasa site.

From New Zealand

Never been to one of those floriades in Canberra but was fairly amazed at all the flowers just in these two greenhouses.

From New Zealand

From New Zealand

From New Zealand

A particularly knarled old tree with all the branches leaning on the ground.

From New Zealand

Last night whilst Partner and I walked dogs around boundary both dogs raced off 5 metres into the bush and started sniffing around a tree.
Within 20 seconds they started attacking something on the other side of the tree, out of our direct sight, so I could hear squealing from the creature and yelping from my male dog getting bitten in return (this dog is very very wimpy and whines even if stepping on a bindy ... so why not stop attacking if something is attacking you back ?).

Raced over to find a possum in a 'tug of war' between our two 'kill every thing in sight' fox terrier dogs.
Got in between briefly enough for possum to run up tree.

From Wallalong Wildlife

Found a very shallow hollow in the ground at the base of the tree with a small baby possum left behind.

From Wallalong Wildlife

From Wallalong Wildlife

Checked this morning and mother possum no longer up tree and baby possum no longer in hollow so hope they reunited in the night.

C • Very cute 2

Travelling from 3 pm onwards.
Newcastle -> Sydney -> Auckland.

Very hot and muggy and made the mistake of wearing jeans on the little plane from Newcastle to Sydney (as I thought it might be cold in New Zealand when arrived). Like a sauna in the plane cabin. First thing I did when I got my bag back was to change into shorts in the toilets at Sydney Airport!

If it counts as "Horse Riding" when you are sitting on a horse, which is just following the other horse in front of you as per its zillion previous treks, and you don't really give it any commands for the entire period.
Another activity I had not done since teenage school camps.

Near Cooranbong. Group of about 12 people. Mostly young girls.
In fact at the start I thought that both the combined ages ... and combined body weights ... of the 5 girls in front of me was almost less than mine.
Terrain on the 114 acre property near the Watagans was nice.

My horse "JD" kept turning its head around ... and I didn't know what it was doing ... and on about the fifth head turn it nipped my leg. Was a lot more wary after that. So glad I chose to wear jeans. So 'she' didn't like me very much.

Partner, on "Milly", finally crossed this request off her 10 year old list.

From Miscellaneous

We stopped for lunch prior at Cooronbong and there was a red belly black snake right next to the track.
Partner spotted it first for once but didn't freak out which was good.

From Miscellaneous

Legs returned to normal within about 10 minutes. Summary was that I much preferred last weeks Canoeing.

We haven't come up with next weekends challenge yet. Open to ideas.

Tired and couldn't really be bothered.

Tired and couldn't really be bothered.

Got told at 10 am at work today to go to Auckland NZ by Monday.
So flights and accomodation now sorted.
Arranged it to be back on Tuesday night so will be able to run Street-O Wednesday night.
So no running or gym for me on Monday or Tuesday.

So yet another country I add to my "visited list" where all I get to see is the airport, a hotel, the 2 hr drive to a factory, and then return.
Maybe get 1/2 a day siteseeing prior to return flight leaving 1 pm on Tuesday!

Another walking lap of the back block with the dogs and coming across an echidna. Becoming almost commonplace now. It was busy digging up an antnest before burrowing in to get away from me.

From Wallalong Wildlife

I saw it from a distance so picked the dogs up so they wouldn't bother it.

Once I went back to lock the dogs up, and returned, it had moved on elsewhere.

C • digging? 2

Distance from geodistance.
With pocketrocket.
Something different to the normal Throsby Creek Loop.
Gym->Mayfield Side streets->Maud Street->University->Footbridge->Warabrook->Warabrook side streets->Mayfield Side Streets->Gym

Pocketrocket doesn't like running on main roads and the stops when having to cross but whilst I agree I don't just want to do Throsby Creek every week. I would happily start somewhere else but she needs the gym to change/shower prior to going to work.

So this week it was back to "me cruising and her lagging" compared to last week where I struggled.

Lots of hills to contend with today and it was not "35 C hot" but hot and muggy enough to be unpleasant.

Sam set a good course and for the first time this season had trifecta
(a) enough points to make it fun and linkable with multiple options
(b) clear and accurate clues with no issues!!!
(c) multiple controls at the start to be left for the return leg

Made the most of my 2 minutes planning time coming up with outward leg 2C-2K and inward leg 2F-2D and leaving the bottom half to link up when out there. Admittedly I had spent a lot of time the day prior to the event looking at the old map, and previous runs routegadget considering options on how to get around the top half, through the centre, and the bottom half since this map is such an unusual dumbell shape.

(Routegadget Link)
Route
2C 1D 3A Running up here I was sure this was the same clue answer as last time ... just the 2nd sign further in rather than the 1st sign 1E 2E 3C 1G 1K 2.9 km in 15:00 1L Unmapped vacant block shortcut to main road - bonus! 3D 2K 3.9 km in 20:30 1M 2G 3E Struggling now! 2H 2F 5.7 km in 32:18 .. slowing up 1H 2D 6 minutes left Decision time - conservative 1 km option 1C 2B
for 20 Controls / 36 Points in 44:16 and winner got 47 points so 76.6%.

At 2D had to decide between 1C-2B (3 points) and 3B-2A-1B (6 points). Came back 44 seconds early. According to Geodistance did 7.7 km and extra would have made it 8.1 km. So 0.4 km = At least 2 minutes so would have lost probably 2 out of the 3 points. So correct decision ... but still annoyed I couldn't squeeze out more earlier so I could have got 39.

Run this map before 27th Jan 2010 covering 7.8 km scoring 35 with Max 48 for 72.9%. So today 1 more point, with max 1 less, and 0.1 km less distance. So pretty much a result/run repeat of last time.

No gym or run this morning.

Demolishing white ant eaten fence.
Knocked out 4 railings and pulled 3 posts out of ground.
Had to break up concrete around base of posts but white ants had eaten approximately 1/3 of the outer diameter so they were already very loose.
Dumped in Fire Pit and will cut up later.

From Wallalong Gardening - Part 3

From Wallalong Gardening - Part 3

Day trip taking step grandson to Richmond Vale Railway.
It was "Santa" day. So lots of kids under 10.

Drop dead boring for me but was saved somewhat by a reptile display where I got to relive my teenage reptile keeping days by touching a bluetongue, shingleback, but also a turtle, young crocodile and python.

And found a monument dedicated to yesterdays Kookaburra and my "stump pulling" efforts.
Yesterdays Kookaburra was slightly smaller but the stump is life size scale!

From Miscellaneous

Distance a complete guess.
We have contemplated buying one, for paddling around Morpeth and elsewhere, so deciding to try at Hunter Valley Wetland for something different.
Neither of us had been in a canoe for at least 25 years.
Life jackets and safety instructions all provided.

Technique was absymal, with canoe being turned 180 degrees around (upright not turning over in the water) several times, fishtailing back and forth from bank to bank rather than straight, multiple collisions with the river bank and head ducking of trees .... but we didn't care as was something totally different and was pleasant as we both stayed mostly dry.

From Miscellaneous

Three man canoe with Partner in the front and me in the back.
I was doing most of the steering for the first 1 1/2 hrs until Partner figured it out.

We got out of the canoe briefly at the canoe ramp at "Rainforest Area" at the other end of the wetlands and found a very sad looking Kookaburra who couldn't fly more than 10 cm. If you approached him he would squawk and flap about and land in the water. We left him for a while ... and he was still there 40 minutes later when we paddled back .... and his story will continue later.

Once we returned the canoe spoke to the Wetlands people about the Kookaburra and they said they had some Wildlife Rescue people at a course there so they would go and get him ... and hand him over.

C • Big adventure weekend! 1

Distance a guess.
Around the Hunter Valley Wetlands with Park-O Map from March 2010.
Hadn't been around here since this event.

Walked about 2 km back to the "Rainforest Area" to see if the Kookaburra was still there or whether they had picked him up. He was still there and was even more soaked and sad looking.

But out timing was incredible as one of the canoe shed guys turned up in a John Deer vehicle with a dog cage and when we pointed out the Kookaburra he waded out in the ankle deep water, threw his jacket over the Kookaburra and poked him in the dog cage. He then drove back and we confirmed later he had handed it over to the wildlife people.

A few changes in the 2 years since the map was done with additional buildings etc but also found a few "permanent Orienteering Markers" with white / orange triangle and two letter codes plus bird names. As we didn't bother chasing a map we only found 4 of these whilst aimlessly walking around.

Next weekends "we haven't done that for years so lets go try that again" activity will most probably be horse riding.

Miscellaneous fallen stick harvest plus cutting down yet another dead "flagpole" tree found down the back bush block. Also continued disposing of a dead shrub out the front and will begin pulling down the rustic 'white ant infested' fence left by the previous owner.

Since it was less than leg thick "cheated" by not pulling the stump out and instead dug down around it with the mattock, chainsawed it off 10 cm underground, and the levelled all the dirt back over the hole.

From Wallalong Gardening - Part 3

Got a massive "get out of bed screaming" cramp in lower left leg last night so still hobbling around today.

End of week tiredness well and truly kicked in now so didn't push hard but sweated heaps regardless.

Got an email from my boss yesterday reminding me that my "20 years of service" was coming up in January 2012.

I can still remember my first day.

Reflecting on this driving home last night in those 20 years I have :
- moved through 8 different jobs
- been in a company that has changed its name at least 3 times
- travelled around the world for work (Japan, Mexico, US, Russia, Italy, India, Netherlands, China and probably others I have forgotten)
- lived in two states
- lived in 4 houses (2 rented, 2 owned)
- owned 3 cars
- lost a lot of hair but at least I can still easily fit into the same clothes

Run with pocketrocket repeating slight variation of
Gym->Islington->Throsby Creek->Carrington Loop
last did on 25th October in 1:02:50.

Role reversal today.
She did her "go very slow for first 5 minutes and then take off" routine.
I was in "struggle street" the entire way and she lead with me following ... and even stopped a few times for me to catch up.

Mind you I had done 8.2 km last night and 6.5 km on Monday to her zero km for week to date (but lots of gym classes in her case).

Followup Doctors appointment.
Blood test and ECG in the clear.
Still more followup tests in December.
White blood cell count down so my body is still fighting off whatever last weeks issue was.
But "in the clear" to run.

Feeling much improved over last week so pushed harder.
Bit disappointed with total km from geodistance but there was a range of hills in todays event. Was really struggling on the last 2E-1N-Finish leg.

Shane had me stumped with his control layout.
Seemed impossible to efficiently line up.

Used entire 2 minutes pre-planning and still didn't know which way to go.
Couldn't work out how to join up the middle of the map so decided to get everything North first and figure it out on the run.

Ultimately decided to solve the issue of backtracking through the '2 pointer cross' of 2D, 2E, 2G, 2H by dividing it diagonally on the way out ... and then the other diagonal on the way back.
Wrote off 3C as been up this hill in 2008 and it was a long way for only 3 points.

Didn't even really consider the far south-western corner of the map in the preplanning so by going North missed the opportunity to get out here where the points were easier to line up.

(Routegadget Link)
Route
2C 1E 1P Clue wrong 3E 1C 2B 3B 2A 1D 3A 2G 2H 1M 1Q 3G 1A OK getting too greedy now ... less than 12 minutes to get back 1S 1L 2E Clue wrong 1N
for 20 Controls / 34 Points in 43:58 and winners got 46 points so 73.9%.

Others dreamed up much more efficient (and less efficient) options.
Some one who got 33 points said they did it in 7 km!

Run this Map 3 times before. Twice officially and once walking with Partner after an event.
So have explored every part of the map previously.

19th Nov 2008 47:00 (so 2 minutes later) 61.2% coming 33rd of 87
14th Oct 2009 29:40 (only a warm-up event) 71.4%

So better performance than both of those times but I still could have done better.

Gym has now swapped over to Les Mills Classes so slightly different.
Some parts slower .. making it harder .... some parts faster making unco people like me not keep up.

First non Street-O run in nearly 2 weeks since been 'sick'.
As per last run 29th October just in reverse.
Lost 20-30 sec trying to cross Hannell Street on both outward and return legs.

Inslington -> North Side of Throsby Creek -> -> Through Boardwalk -> East Side of Carrington -> Across Bridge -> West Side of Carrington North Side of Throsby Creek -> Islington.

Last did this 20th October.
Forgot to clean them again after last high pressure cleaning the algae from pool bottom.
So lots of filtered heavy slime but not much embedded fines.
So for both filters only needed to be hosed out twice to get acceptable.

Distance a guess. With Partner.

Around Columbey National Park prior to Clarence Town.
Neither of us had been there before and was failry nice with a rocky river and mossy logs/ paperbark similar to our backyard.
Some good detail for Orienteering too.

Only explored less than 1/4 of the total tracks.

After that we walked along the Williams River bank at Clarence Town which we had not checked out previously either.

Whippersnipped the ONLY grass that is growing on our block.
Lack of rain means no mowing .... but also trees and shrubs dying.

Around the spool drain out on the council nature strip and into Neighbours yard leading down to their creek.
Fuel can empty so had to merge the two half contents of whippersnipper and brushcutter into just the brushcutter to get sufficient fuel for the job.
Also used push mower to cut the heads off all the weeds between the house and the dog yard.

Distance a guess.

Spent the morning doing chores and getting blood test / ecg for doctors checkup trying to understand last weeks issue.

Finally got some rain in the last few days.
My back yard hasn't had decent rain in months and looks like this with multiple 4 m long cracks, 25 mm wide and 0.5 m deep. Some are almost wide enough to fit my arm in.

From Wallalong Gardening - Part 3

Today drove along dirt road from Wallalong to Woodville Bridge to cross compare car odometer to what was calculated on geodistance.com. Both said 8 km to within 100 m. So if do a running loop from house, through Wallalong, along Patterson River to Woodville Bridge, and then return on the road it would be 14 km total. Or similar to Fernleigh Track ... just less scenic and in a loop and without the required drive and 'car shuttle' organisation with Partner.

C • Fernleigh alternative 2

Managed OK.

Managed OK but didn't push hard either.

And finally got some rain at home last night ... but would need a week or more at least before the desert reverted back to green.

Legs felt yesterdays efforts all night and still now.

Looking at last nights results I came 19th of 73.
And somehow I scored my first 18 "consistency points" of the season even though recovering from sickness.

And the rain didn't last .... so hopefully more today to revert our desert block back to something resembling life.

No run with pocketrocket today.

Partner said "you aren't going to Street-O tonight based on how sick you have been ?".
And the answer was "I am going even if it kills me".

So less hilly than last week but slightly slower overall. Driven by willpower.

Avoided the start of rain and it wasn't too hot.

(Routegadget Link)
Route
1M
3 different colours of grafitti inside bus shelter?
1G 3E 2E 1F
Knew the answer "Pioneer" at the start
1N 2D
About 2 km and 10 min and struggling already with legs like lead
3D 1E 2C
Waded through waist deep creek as no clearing... other people went inside Out of Bounds and used Golf Course bridge
3C
Missed track through streets so had to backtrack again to get to it
1C 2B
Was honest and went in and out end of street even though Clue Sheet had only one answer!
2A 3B
27 minutes and about about 5 km so going slow
2J 1K 3A 1L
Wrong clue ... found at end there were TWO 1Ls!
Just as well I didn't try for an extra point after 2G!!!!
1J 2G 1H
for 22 Controls / 39 Points in 43:57 and winners got 50 points so 78.0%.
So worth turning up for a percentage to keep in Top 10.

So lots of problems with Controls but everyone suffered equally and I was happy just to get around without collapsing in a heap.

Never officially run this map before as the last Event here was about 6 months prior to starting Street-O in Newcastle. That time it was portrait orientation versus this times landscape.

I have however run the portrait version of the map solo (without a clue sheet) and explored through Boomerang Park for setting a Park-O.

So never been out the eastern end previously.

Worked from home today just in case.
Still get worn out just rolling the bins out to the street.

Started feeling better after about 4 pm yesterday so went to work today but regretting it now.

Gave up and went home

Ditto to yesterday.
Can only watch so much TV and books.

Neighbour still busily digging his dam out heaps.
My one bit of interest is hobbling down the street to have a look.
Spreading the resulting fill in a 30 cm deep layer over vast tracks of his yard.

Headachey, dizzy and weak so vegging out watching DVDs and reading.
Legs wobbly just walking around block so nothing adventurous this weekend.
But no sniffles, sore throat or vomitting so a very selective / unusual sickness. Just feel rubbish with no outwardly visible signs.

C • Get well soon! 3

Still feeling rubbish.
Was contemplating bailing for 2nd half when Instructor said "OK for Cardio out on the treadmills, 60 seconds then 10 burpees, then repeat."
As soon as she mentioned burpees my decision was made ... bail and go to work.

Still resisting ticking the 'sick' box.
But based on plummeting well being over the last 3 hours it may be ticked on Saturday.

Neighbour across the road with the big dam, which I have uploaded videos before of water pouring over the top off in winter, is making the most of the run of really really dry weather. Since the dam is now 3/4 empty (I haven't seen it this low in 2 1/2 years) he has a contractor in with an excavator and digging out the silt and reeds. Not sure whether this is to increase capacity, a general cleanup, or flood mitigation.

sms from pocket rocket that she was bailing on our Thursday morning run.

Still feeling garbage from yesterday so happily didn't run either.

Unfortunately didn't see sms until morning so was already up so didn't get a chance to sleep in .... so went to work (and took time to update log).