Training Log Archive: Mess Engineer

Used drop saw to cut up some of the scrap treated timber from cubby house to put in this weeks bin collection.

6:00 am - 8:00 am

Demolition round 2.

With wreckers bar and hammer to knock out nails I ripped up all flooring and joists.
Used mattock to break up the concrete around the supporting stumps and pulled them out of the ground.
All non treated timber disposed of in the Fire Pit.

Remaining timber I will cut into short length and dispose of in the bin progressively.
Remaining steel can get dropped off free at scrap metal merchant.

From Demolition

From Demolition

From Demolition

From Demolition

Good reasons NOT to used stumps to support a pine wooden structure

From Demolition

From Demolition

From Demolition

Took scrap steel to dump.

All timber wheelbarrowed to shed to be cut up progressively and put in bin.

Used crowbar to smash up concrete around the 5 treated pine poles for the previous elevated bridge (for the flying fox which went more than 3 years ago).

Getting tired after this weekend and still have Orienteering yet in the afternoon!

C • Tired? 1

St Josephs School.
19 Controls.
1:4000 Map.

I had been here before as this is where my twin brother got married.

I wasn't pushing hard and was first starter.
Control 8 was missing. Wasted 10 minutes looking for it.
Ran back to start to get Course Planner.
Control was about 75 metres away on a totally different tree.
After some discussion relocated it to the correct position.

I think only 3 competitors got affected by it.
But my 10 minute split made up 1/3 of my total time.

Talked to GP again and seeing specialist about hip Tuesday week

C • Glad 1

It was "The Beaches" parkrun 1st Birthday and a group of Wooters was going so I braved this for a second time despite the tide being almost a metre higher than last time.

Drizzle and pounding waves made it a lot more challenging.
Ran in bare feet again. Hip bearable.

Chatted with a range of new people afterwards and had a cooked breakfast at the Merewether Surf House.

C • Argh! 3

Time approximate and probably longer.

Normal yearly ritual of high pressure blasting pool walls to get off algae and black spot.
Run filter and chlorinator for 12 hours.
Removed filters and hosed out at least 3 separate times.

Dosed with acid and copper based algaecide.
Will get water tested on Sunday.

Hopefully this will last, with ongoing chlorination, through summer.

2:05 pm - 4:35 pm
6:00 pm - 6:30 pm

Now that I have made the very hard decision to simplify my life by giving away my dog of 9 years (to a good home with a family with 2 teenage boys and 3 other dogs, 2 cats and chickens so he will be better than solo with me) .... I decided to demolish the kids cubby house left by the previous owner.

Two reasons :

1. That way I will stop looking out the window thinking of my dog.

2. It has had white ants in it for over 5 years and comes up in every annual pest inspection. Two of the main beams holding up the floor joists have broken in half so it was on a constant lean.


The previous owner made about 60% of it from untreated pine, then placed it on tree stumps concreted into the ground. No steel posts. No white ant caps. Might as well have painted an arrow on it with a sign saying "come and eat this".

Demolished it in the reverse construction order.
Roof, Wall Cladding, Wall Noggins, Wall Joists.
Then pushed roof over.

No injuries.

From Demolition

From Demolition

From Demolition

From Demolition

From Demolition

From Demolition

Bailed out of abs again as did not want to work hip

Route 1A 2A 2B 3G 1D 2D 3D 1E 2E 1H 3C 1L 3B 2H 2M 2N 3E
for 17 Controls / 34 Points (1 point x 5, 2 point x 7, 3 point x 5) in 44:15.

Happy enough with my score and route.
Run this map 2 or 3 times before.
"Hip and heat" meant less distance covered than I should have - ideally closer to 8 km.

Turn around point was 3B at 26:47 so bailed on adding on 1M.
Going downhill to 2E, and then across the road barrier, uphill to 1H was just cruel.
By 2M I was spent and any ideas of adding on 2C or 1J after 2N-3E evaporated.
Especially after climbing the hill out of 3E.


Came straight from physio session 3:30 pm - 4:15 pm, giving hip a massive hammering, who had instructed me not to run.
Ignored it as usual but end result not as painful as last week.

Lots of chat afterwards with range of people including Sam, macey, rockman, Viola and others.

When arrived at the roundabout outside my house I saw my new downhill neighbours had started moving in so I drove up their drive and spent 25 minutes introducing myself. They have never owned an acreage before so I offered assistance as required. Their property slightly larger than mine and divided in half by a creek so they have additional challenges to mine. We may end up putting a gate through our fenceline so they can use my cleared track to get a car and trailer down into their rear bush block so they can tidy up all the trails like mine.

Tried this "new" class which is what I started doing a lifetime ago when I first joined a gym in Whyalla.

The answer is with right ankle, and left hip, and about 15 years later ... I struggle :-(

Attended Wooters training and within 100 m left hip told me "don't be so stupid" so I gave up and went home. I will save the self inflicted pain for Street-O on Wednesday otherwise will rest.

Walked past macey and company about to start their run.

I was walking along the Memorial Bridge by the beach today and one particular section of the elevated walk was "singing" with a high pitched whistle in the wind.

I am sure others have noticed it but I was quite struck by it.

The number of hang gliders, and the manoeuvres they were performing, were very impressive. As was the radio controller model gliders doing aerobatics.

7:05 am - 8:25 am
Skipped parkrun due to hip.
Last did October 25th so looking very overgrown.
Almost entire yard - both front areas, around house, down to shed, valley by downhill neighbour. Only skipped next to shed as not long enough to bother.

8:30 am - 9:05 am
Fallen stick harvest exposed from mowing.

9:05 am - 9:35 am
Whippernsnipping missed areas.

First time at gym in over 2 weeks.
Struggled big time on just about every exercise.
Both arms shaking with strain in push-ups.

Left class 5 to 10 mins early as doing ab work and cycling legs in air whilst lying on back not a good idea at the moment with ongoing issue.

Weight down another 1.4 kg but abs looking good as a result ;-P

Injured so shouldn't have turned up but I wanted to see what had been done with the map I created last year.
Doctor has found no issues but physio said I have badly misaligned my pelvis (partially due to my running style being lopsided now with damaged ankle) so the muscle running from my spine around left hip to groin is very very unhappy.
She realigned in at 2 pm and I did a light jog in the work car park and it seemed a lot better.
Toyed with idea of buying map and walking the entire course on the weekend but couldn't help myself.
I ran out of energy, overheated in the 34 degrees, and pain kicked back in after about 20 minutes.
Double ice pack required front and back when I lay down at night.

Route 3G 2G 3K 2D 2C 1J 3B 1C 3C 3J 1H 1D 3D 2H 3E 2E 1K 2J
for 18 Controls / 38 Points (1 point x 5, 2 point x 6, 3 point x 7) in 48:33 so -4.

My turn around point was 3C at the 20 minute mark.
I thought this clue was very well set as you had to go down under the bridge to read it from every direction so had to commit to the full distance.
Getting "caught" too long on the north side of the New England Highway was my constant thought.
Maitland is a complicated map and I didn't have any mental clarity today which worsened in 2nd half so made a number of major mistakes wasting time finding the location at 3J, 1D, 2H and elsewhere.
Then at 2E I made the mistake of running south thinking I could shortcut through a highlighter trail obscuring the detail on the map (which I should have had insider knowledge of) so I added at least 200-300 metres which just destroyed my remaining motivation.

I haven't seen the results so no idea how I ended up on the leaderboard and how many people ran overtime.

Thanks to the setters and rockman for extending the map!

C • PM 4

7:15 am - 10:15 am
Too wet to mow.
Whipper snipping dog yard, spoon drains, swampy area by downhill neighbour fence, and around house.
Cutting back hedges over septic tank.
Levelling off hedges in front of house.
Pains continuing even doing this.

Raking up sticks and leaves from dog yard and dumping in Fire Pit.
Raking and bending hurts slightly so stopped.

Attended the second unofficial test run of Raymond Terrace park run.
Struggled big time .... going to Doctors on Monday to sort out whatever is physically wrong with me.
If this continues to chance of me being able to compete in the upcoming 6 hour rogaine will be close to zero.
Even Street-O may be a problem.

Course has a wide range of compromises and includes a lot of running on grass which is essentially going to be muddy slush after rain. Launches January 23rd. Even though this will be my closest parkrun alternative I think I will only attend once to get it "crossed off the list" as I prefer others.

KC in attendance.

In Melbourne on way back to Newcastle

Back in Newcastle.
Long week!

No Street-O for me today.
Still in Naracoorte.
Photos later.

In Naracoorte for next 5 days

Lochiel Parkrun in South Australia.
My 4th in South Australia (my 15th location overall).
Still have Murray Bridge and Victor Harbor to go in South Australia but these are an hour drive out of Adelaide.
Only the 10th event held so it wasn't available last time I was here.
Following the Torrens River but further up than the other run. On concrete with wider paths through linear park with trees and birds.

On the return lap I knew my time was going well and I got overtaken by a younger girl so I decided to use her as my personal pace setter.
She crossed the line in 23:00 so I am awaiting the final official result to confirm I have set a new personal best for 5 km beating my prior mark of 23:16 at Fingal Bay! Came 16th.
UPDATE : Time 23:15 so I will count that 1 second as a WIN!

Splits
1 km 4:17
2 km 4:50
3 km 4:43
4 km 4:43
5 km 4:34

KC in Cairns and she got up at 6 am to get there to do their Parkrun at 7 am solo in time of 35:57 so I am very impressed!

Sitting in Newcastle Airport.

In Adelaide for next 2 days

Event: Newcastle Street Orienteering Summer Series #4 - Kahibah
 

I was meant to already be in South Australia today but constant rain meant work had ceased on the Silo installation so there would be nothing to see.
So swapped around order of trip so still get this weekend in Adelaide, but then all next week in Naracoorte. So miss NEXT weeks Street-O instead :-(

Todays constant drizzle meant lots of delays opening plastic bag to mark off answers. Totally wrecks my normal method. Kilometres covered down as a result.

Route 2K 2S 3E 2H 3D 1C 2J 2A 1P 2D 2C 3G 1A 1G 2L 3B 1E 2P 2M 2B 1M NOT!
for 20 Controls / 39 Points (1 point x 5, 2 point x 11, 3 point x 4) in 45:33 so -1. Last ran here in December 2012 as was late then too!

Disappointed myself in running up from 2B with the intention of picking up 1M on the way back. Overshot one street south, adding in an totally unnecessary hill climb, and then running past 2K again. So didn't get the point and late. So effectively -2 and I could have got 40!

Best was 55 so less than 70%.

Cannot remember changing my mind so many times on the run.
Originally intended to go 2G-1H-2E-1S-3C-1B after 3E but I was 10 minutes in and decided it was a long way around leaving lots of points near the start so I elected to do a U turn.

Feeling terrible and worst time at this event for a while.
Didn't stay for Wooters training and instead went home to crash into bed :-(

Time approximate.
Another round of fallen stick and branch collection from the back bush block.