Training Log Archive: Mess Engineer

Free of any physical restrictions (with the exception of fitness and muscle loss from the last 2 weeks)

C • Same? 3

Started slightly late.

7:40 am - 8:25 am Lap around back block and bush including marking out and measuring up where I intend to put PVC stormpipes in the trench to create cross-over points for future ride-on lawn mower. After looking at concrete alternatives which are way too heavy and overkill probably put 2 x 225 mm diameter PVC pipes but still sourcing where I can buy these.

2:45 pm - 3:10 pm Lap around back block and bush again to give the dogs a leg stretch.

Although right foot not restricting me its not fully healed and now inside my right ear appears to have an infection so putting drops in it to fix this. Be nice when back to complete full health again.

8:45 am - 10:25 am Not sure what jobs to do so went back to stump removal. Previously started to dig this monster out and have chainsawed through only 2 side roots. Spent more time digging down about 40 - 50 cm and exposed more roots which will cut through next time I have a chainsaw. Not sure whether removing this one will be possible with manpower alone .... have another 10 or more stumps this size left but this is the only one exposed out in the open.

From Wallalong Gardening - Part 2

Spent 2 hours 45 minutes unblocking the kitchen drain this morning. Horrible smelly task but would rather get it done myself than pay a plumber ... especially at weekend callout rates. Had to strip all the u-bend out, then the shelves and the kitchen doors to maximise access. Pipes half lined with accumulated stinking grease so used boiling water and old toothbrush to clean out. Finally got flow restored to go outside and find it was then all coming out on the concrete slab outside. Found the kitchen connected to this drain ... which was even more severly blocked .... so lay on stomach and reached arm down pipe to feel there was a u-bend with at least 500 g handfuls of accumulated horrible mess. Used a flexible conduit, fencing wire, and garden hose to break up and finally restored a clean pipe. It may have been like this since we bought the house as water has come up here before ... but I thought it was storm water. Anyway this shows the advantages of the previous pole frame house where I could get underneath the entire floor area and access every pipe. At least Partner will be happy to be able to use the sink again.

For any plumbers out there here is some ammunition against DIYers
http://www.reece.com.au/diydisasters/currentdisast...

9:05 am - 11:05 am Finished off widening trench to 500 mm wide in the final 10 m to join downhill Neighbours fence and then continued widening a further approx 8 m into their property. About 5 wheelbarrows of dirt but just dumped in nearby and leveled it out.

Wearing steel caps for this task and my right foot survived fine even when pushing down on the shovel to cut through the dirt. Therefore removed the "injured" flag.

From Wallalong Drainage

From Wallalong Drainage

12:40 pm - 1:40 pm Several laps of the back with the two dogs. They sniffed out their third dead rabbit / hare in as many weeks. The little female grabbed a putrid piece of mummified dead wallaby as well and ran off with her prize keeping her distance ahead so I couldn't take it. She lost eventually as it went in the bin. What is it with well fed dogs and offal ?

Drizzled for most of afternoon so went out to Hardware shop and watched video.

Absolute seething mass of frustration so deperately need the exercise stress defuser to kick in. Foot much less of an issue today on the bike anyway.

Had to modify nearly every exercise to compensate for foot (and also for the lack of fitness - seem to have lost an awful lot in just 2 weeks of restrictions!). A lot of skipping which I did on my right heel (and without rope as too unco). Managed to jog around room for first time. Day improved later as some issues resolved but need some Mega Gardening therapy for weekend.

6:30 am - 7:10 am No gym today as back on shift work for an undefined period. Working 1 afternoon shift today ... the rest dayshift which means a "quick turnaround" tomorrow. Tried walking in steelcaps with just socks and no padding / bandage but right foot told me it was still too early for this! Laps of back boundary and bush. After all the rain ..... the many many wheelbarrows of trench diggings that I dumped behind the shed as fill .... have now settled and compacted down quite nicely.

8 am - 10 am Our push mower basically has been used to death. Log tells me have been trying to resurrect it since 20th May. Log also tells me last mowed 14th March so lawn getting very long after 5 months despite winter slow growth. Partner wanting the lawn done ... and I am holding off on buying another mower. Compromise solution was to use my brush cutter to level off all the long patches throughout the yard (with foot patched and padded again). Used three tanks of fuel over 2 hours to do parts of front and back yards. Hopefully this will continue to delay the purchase until December.

10:25 am - 10:55 am Looking for chores and decided to use crowbar to bash more mud off the root balls of the two fallen tree stumps from a few months back. Rain has washed some of the mud off ... allowing me to bash more out. Will again let rain do its work on the exposed dirt. Eventually will borrow chainsaw again and cut stump into smaller pieces until I can lift it to take to fire pit and burn. But past experience has shown exposing chainsaw to dirt = instant bluntness.

Return to weights class. Managed to do everything except lunges on right foot which would have involved putting body weight on tips of right toes which I thought might stretch my sole too much. But also felt the week off especially in shrinking chest muscle mass.

C • FYI 3

Malcolm tells me that all the Street-O course setting places for this year are filled so I get relieved of duty this year.
Means one more event I can compete in and hopefully drop off the low score!

Extra layer of padding on right foot .... plus being really careful in making the transition from pedalling sitting to standing meant I could manage to return to gym. Still reminding me that its not healed as yet though. Then got a longer workout at work disassembling construction fencing and moving the heavy concrete blocks at the bottom used to hold the panels up!

C • So...? 4

Didn't make it to Bush-O at Wallaroo today as it was raining most of the morning, Partner didn't want to go in the slushy mud, and right foot increasingly sensitive. Looking at others logs desribing the day may have been the right physical choice ... but needed the mental distraction.

Although the hole in foot now 90% filled in the remaining attempted healing top layer seems to splitting open, or something, as I walk so I am having to put more padding on it than I did when it was a gaping hole.

Still want to attempt to return to the gym from tomorrow as losing fitness fast.
First time my weeks log graph has been totally empty in memory.

We instead did a day trip to "town" .... which included a detour to work to provide her tour of the project that has totally consumed my waking hours for the last 4 to 6 months or more.

C • Good move 3

Distance a guess. Amalgamation of walks throughout the day.

6:35 am - 7:05 am Solo tour of back boundary and trench to check out all the flow of accumulated water from overnight downpours.

Later in the morning did a drive out to Rutherford and elsewhere to check out suppliers of concrete pipes and culverts to plan how I will finish this project off (to allow car / rideon lawn mower to drive over selected regions of the trench spanning entire width of property) once money more available towards end of this year.

12:35 pm - 12:55 pm Partner returned from work so another lap with her and the dogs.

4:25 pm - 4:45 pm One more lap with Partner and dogs before calling it a day.

Not very physically adventurous Mega Gardening as foot still healing.
Hope to resume more vigourous log next week.
Want to do some more digging.

7:05 am - 8:35 am Weeding the drive!

8:35 am - 8:45 am Walking up to the end of our street trying to find our two dogs who decided quietly sitting and watching me weed for more than 1 hour (with occassional pats in between) was too boring so went walkabout. I tended to agree with them regarding the boredom so went out looking for concrete pipes.

12:55 pm - 1:25 pm Repeat of weeding but with Partner assisting.

I see the draft calendar to the upcoming Street-O season is now out on the Club Website. I contacted Malcolm to volunteer to set either of two of the remaining areas - Telarah or Metford. Will have to wait and see if they have been claimed as yet.

Hope to at least walk the Green course with Partner at Wallaroo tomorrow.
If its going to rain probably won't bother though.
Preferably I will run a Red course but this would be the first test in 10 days for my still healing right foot.

Still nothing apart from problem solving walking back at forth at work (and yesterday).
Hole in foot depth probably filled by two thirds so healing slowly.
Pain probably increasing slightly as sensitive regrowth layer getter closer and closer to outside and starting to bear more body weight.
Need some exercise for frustration and stress management.

Still nothing apart from problem solving walking back at forth at work (and yesterday).
Hole in foot depth probably halved so healing slowly.

8:10 am - 9:10 am Going stir crazy inside so one more wheelbarrow of sticks from down the back. At the point that its not worth continuing as so few sticks left. Will check again in a few months.
9:10 am - 9:30 am Burning sticks off in Fire Pit.

Foot varied all day from not painful at all to highly tender. Can walk slowly but thats all.
Filled in time with miscellaneous boring inside activities such as reading and DVD. Also took lawn mower apart and cleaned it all out and changed the oil ... trying to resurrect it again as haven't been able to use in months .... but still running really noisy, vibrating and very smoky. Maybe one of the cylinders inside dead.

All in all a very dull boring weekend but thats the price I pay hopefully to say goodbye to my annoying foot lump.

7 am - 8:30 am Wanted to get outside after got up early and spent time bored sorting financial papers etc. So 2 wheelbarrows of sticks from down the back bush. Wore steel caps which seem to be my most comfortable option. Right foot was OK as long as I didnt step on uneven ground or logs .... for those it complained bitterly.

8:30 am - 9 am Burnt sticks in Fire Pit. Took 15 minutes to start then was all over in 15 minutes !

Now that the rest of New South Wales up and about decided to spent today resting. So drove to Thornton library and got two DVDs and a book.

Foot improved during day and by 5 pm could now walk around the house (with it bandaged under a thick sock) almost normally as long as I take it slowly and distribute the load across entire area of foot. If accidentally put local load on the cut it still screams however.

Managed to put steel caps on and drive to and from work today.
Hobbled around and only got to spend about 3 hours "foot rest" at a computer with the rest of the time problem solving on the plant.
Nothing more adventurous than that however.

C • My mistake 2

Learnt a few things at Doctors today :

1. Local anaesthetic in the foot absolutely hurts like hell. Doctor said "sorry but this will hurt .... a lot" and he wasn't kidding. Most painful needle I have had in memory. And then he gave me two.

2. What "Mess Engineer Barbeque" smells like when he was using the medical equivalent of a soldering iron burning the sole of my foot. Thankfully the prior needle was doing its job.

After he finished cutting I had a look and the hole appeared "so deep" I was expecting to see daylight through from the other side. Looks like about 10 mm across and 6 mm deep. Stops just before the muscle. Doctor kept saying the equivalent of "its huge and I have to go deeper". Rather that than risk having the little bastard grow back for the fourth time (first 3 attempts only cut off the surface).

So spent the rest of the day hobbling. Expect this will continue for at least the weekend so not sure how I will fill in my time. Don't expect to be in running condition for Bush-O in Wallaroo Sunday week either.

Hopefully will have 2 weeks of healing and then the past annoyance of the last few months will be a distant memory.

C • now for our tale 4

And to make it even better have to return to shift work from Monday week.
But I get to choose mix and match shift pattern with a colleague so we can share the burden rather than working straight afternoon shifts.

1 day to go until minor foot surgery.
This also means I will be taking time in lieu off work dependent on my ability to wear steel cap boots.

6:35 am - 6:50 am With newly recharged batteries (for me and the drill as well I guess) finished drilling the last 4 posts. Therefore both North and South sides ready for another wire if I choose later.
Time to get ready for todays Bush-O and its starting to drizzle so may be a challenging day.

Medium Red. 14 Controls. Nominal 4.7 km.
Last time I ran in this area got very lost and took 1 hour, 17 minues and 56 seconds to cover 16 Controls over a nominal 4.6 km.

Extract from that log :

A "no navgiation day'. Found Control 6 before I found Control 5. Found Control 9 before I found Control 8. Found Control 13 before I found Control 12. Didn't attempt a repeat performance with my normal 2nd run. Add more later.

So did better than that but was still coming last of 4 people (to date) when I left. Spent more time map reading, thinking and experimenting with pace counting today, than I did running. Although pace counting kept coming up short it gave me a useful guide and I probably will repeat using this again. Main mistakes on 1, 5 and 8.

Control 1.
Started with Mick Kavur (Long Orange) and we both had the same first control. Ran down track to where it split slightly and headed S. This split was about 30 m too far E and I didn't backtrack sufficiently. Pace counting told me I was heading too far S so backtracked and realised I was too far E so corrected and got to Control. Not a good start.

Control 2
Ran SE along track to join up with main track. Then S down muddy 4WD trail to veer off straight to Control.

Control 3
Continued SE along 4WD track and through scrub to edge of lake. Then S around lake straight to Control.

Control 4.
S through scrub to track then E along track. Stopped at intersection to confirm I was at right track. Then S along track to veer off to the W straight to Control.

Control 5.
E along track looking for the third minor track heading south. Didn't find any minor tracks so overshot coming to the T intersection at the end. Paced counted back and then S 100 m straight to control.

Control 6.
N back to track. E to main track. NW to next track. N up track. NW to where track split into 4 parallel tracks. Then N and pace count straight to Control.

Control 7.
N and pace count straight to control.

Control 8.
Tried heading NE (never finding the "track" thats not there as it wasn't there last year either .... its more of a clearing in the trees than a track) and found the rough contour of the creek but not sure so headed back west to washed out ditch and then confirmed where I was. Lost more than 5 minutes. Then headed E and found the creek and followed it straight to control.

Control 9.
Back W to creek then N to spiral tracks and straight to Control.

Control 10.
N through scrub and after a slight search to Control.

Control 11.
W until could see motorbike track fence. Then followed fence straight to Control.

Control 12.
South skirting edge of motorbike track fence then along track to Control (which wasn't mine) before heading 30 m E to my Control.

Control 13.
W to track. NW to main track. Then short distance W up track to gully and straight to Control.

Control 14.
W along track to embankment. Then wasted about 3 minutes misreading the map until saw others at the Control.

Long Orange course shared 7 of the 11 Controls with the Medium Red.
Short Red course shared 8 of the 12 Controls with the Medium Red.
Therefore with the large overlap, and my right foot causing lots of pain despite extra padding, I didn't bother with my normal second run. Can't wait to be able to run normally again.

12:25 pm - 1:50 pm
Since I got home early threaded up the other 2 wires, 1 in each the North and South Boundary fences.
Then, since finished, wheelbarrowed the wire spinner and tensioner back to the garage to return to work. Finished off by hosing out wheelbarrow and brushing off all the accumulated mud from the last couple of weeks to return it to pristine condition so it won't rust in the shed.

Couple of laps of the back boundary with the dogs to wind down.
Tiredness now starting to kick in so may take the rest of the afternoon off.

6:50 am - 9:25 am
Modifying back bush South boundary fence (approx 150 m long) to run 2 extra wires along the bottom as sick of our small dogs walking under the lowest wire (like it wasn't even there) and wandering off into the Neighbours when we take them for a walk off the lead.

Our fence consists of 16 of 125 mm treated pine poles each with intermediate star dropper spaced at about 10 m intervals. It has 3 wires at 390 mm, 750 mm and 1080 mm off the ground. 390 mm clearance is above head height of both dogs.

Drilled 2 new holes through each of the poles (to match spacing of holes in the star droppers) at about 90 mm and 240 mm off ground level.
Had to mix and match workload as kept running battery drill 2 batteries flat so did other fence related activities whilst waiting to charge.
Then strung up 2 extra wires. Didn't tension too heavily as didn't want to pull the fence stay over.
Had to use a wire spinner to feed the wire out which proved to be a total pain as wire had tangles throughout so I had to keep walking back and forth to untangle.
Proved to be fairly hard work pulling the wire out by the time it passes through 16 x 2 = 32 holes of back drag !

Break for dog walk to test the new fence (see separate record).

9:40 am - 12:00 pm
Repeat same exercise for the back bush North boundary fence.
Must of spent 40 minutes untangling one mess of wire only to find that I had multiple ends! So had to join one wire. Either I had a tangled mess last time and cut it, or these reject freebie coils I got previously had cuts in them.

From Wallalong Gardening - Part 2

Break for lunch.

12:30 pm - 1:15 pm
Finish off the North boundary fence.

Break for dog walk to test the new fence (see separate record).

4:20 pm - 5:00 pm
Decided to drill another series of holes in both North and South boundary fences at about 590 mm height. May string up later or may not. Abandoned due to two flat drill batteries again.

C • Satisfied? 2

9:25 am - 9:40 am
Test walk #1 with dogs along the South Boundary fence with new lower wires to see if it achieved anything. Answer was yes ... and no.
They no longer crossed easily but a few times got down on their bellies and started crawling under.
But yelling at them seemed to make them realise this was not permitted and they retreated.
Can't run another lower wire as the ground level undulates too much so the wire would have to be underground at some points!

From Wallalong Dogs

1:15 pm - 1:40 pm
Test walk #2 with dogs for 2 laps around both boundary fences.
This time they stayed within the fenced area entirely and no crawling.
At one point they started to race off to chase a very large wallaby (if not a red kangaroo) which charged from the uphill Neighbours to the fence ... smashing hard into it but somehow making it through the gap. Looks like it hurt but didn't look permanent as soon hopped away.
Assume the wildlife will work it out and adjust accordingly.
Still saw other wallabies in the back yard later so they were still making it in and out.
Deliberately going to leave the back 75 m boundary relatively open for this reason (plus there are no supporting stays in this part of the fence so if I added another wire would pull the posts over).
Also left a gap at the North west corner for about 20 m.
Wallbies in our front yard have 2 escape routes as fence meshed in... out the front gate and under a gap near a drain. Every wallaby seems to remember this and hops towards one of the two options.

C • stalag hund 3 2

Looking at the "Stanford Scrubs" map for tomorrows Bush-O event (copy from when I last ran 04/07/2010 in Sydney series).
Really struggled last time as very flat, with minimal helpful contours, and lots of twisted tracks, and vague vegetation.
Ended up with 17:37 to find one control !
Not sure what strategy I can apply tomorrow to do better.

Return to Weekly Routine Friday 6 am to 6:30 am. Attempt at return to routine.

Run straight out of Cycle Class for 5 minutes "intermission" on treadmill.

Return to Weekly Routine Friday 6:35 am to 7 am. 1 week "break" from routine and body protesting due to the absence. Foot annoying despite three layers on padding.

2nd rest day but another long day at work.
Borrowed some fencing gear from work for a planned Mega Gardening task which may take most of Saturday.
Trying to schedule getting surgery on my right foot for next Thursday 11th August.
May not be able to walk / drive / work for some days afterwards depending on how painful it is.
May miss Wallaroo Bush O event 10 days after this ... or may have recovered ?

Decided last night to skip gym and let legs recover for a day at least.
Lost most of my interest in Cycle Classes anyway.
Despite not setting alarm woke up automatically 1 minute before the alarm would have gone off anyway at 4:45. Damn body clock.
Lay in bed another 30 minutes before getting up.

RJ
KH bought some light green flannelette sheet set on Tuesday without me.

Partial return to Standard routine. One week off weights and body struggled. Legs still killing me from Sundays run so didn't enjoy squats or lunges. Need a "Wolverine" pill to instantly heal all the miscellaneous cuts I have over my legs and particularly both hands.

C • treatment 2

Partial return to Standard Routine but only did 1/2 the class as legs hurt too much from yesterdays exercise and all the miscellaneous cuts