Eat, Drink, and be Merry...

...for the New Year is full of hope-filled resolutions. I'm having a technology-free three weeks away from the computer, so no posts until I get back from NZ in mid-January.

Reality strikes back

Don't you hate it when expectations don't quite measure up to reality. The run last night was a timed ("score") event - for a B course, you get 50 minutes to run around and visit as many controls as you can. You lose points if you're late back, so it pays to watch the time.

I started off fairly strongly (why do the first 5-10 minutes hurt so much?!), and apart from a few dodgy route choices which don't affect mileage much, I was doing okay - making an effort to run hard between controls, and walk a few minutes on the way to the next one. I DIED at 45 minutes. I'd just punched my last control, put my foot down for the homeward run... and no gas in the tank. The last 3 minutes to home was AGONY! If I didn't have a deadline, I would have walked for sure. And once I'd finished, I had to walk around the park for another 5 minutes or so until my body was back under control.

On reflection though, I had a good run - even though the numbers don't stack up that well: 7.5km in 48 minutes. The area is moderately hilly, and about 1/4 of the distance was through park trails.

And we had our club BBQ afterwards, with probably 50 people staying for food (apologies to any other groups at Blackburn Lake last night!). Two hamburger patties, one sausage, 2 pieces of Xmas cake, some biscuits and a cherry. Sure beats the usual milkshake after a run. :-)

About those intervals

Yes, I know I said I wasn't going to post again until after the OOC, but there you go. It's a lady's right to change her mind. :-)

Everyone always talks about Intervals. How long, how many, etc. I've always thought that yeah, they'd be great to try, but where and how do I fit them in. Well, d'oh. They're right there under my nose, and have been all along.

I'm doing an ~8km Street-O run tonight out at Blackburn Lake. Probably 16 controls - so that's one control roughly every 500m. Gee, looks to me like 16 reps of 500m. Will try it tonight and see how I go...

Where to from here

Well, I'd like to be able to run more consistently. My form is okay, my speed is okay, but I can't maintain it over an hour. It seems to take me forever to warm up, and I find I'm not running smoothly and comfortably often until 30 minutes have passed.

My gym workouts - mostly Pump classes - have given me nice strong legs and glutes (yes - a big arse :-) with which to climb hills. Hill running is something I *can* do.

Confession time: I'm 37 years old, 170 cm (5'7") tall, and weigh 73.2kg - I'm no lightweight, as you can see.

Oh yeah, and lose 5kg.

My next big adventure is the Oceania Orienteering Carnival in NZ next month. Six days of events over a 10-day period. I've entered the "AS" class again, but after my experience at the Oz Champs, I just hope I can survive until the end.

So stay tuned, dear reader, and I shall post again next month after I get back.

A Bush-O we will go

The main reason that "real" orienteers do Street-O is to keep themselves fit for the bush season. My goal over last summer was to "get fit enough to do bush orienteering."

My introduction to bush orienteering was a 6-hour rogaine in March. Nice... I thought... a gentle stroll through some pretty Australian bush. I might get to see a snake, or a koala, or something. Hah! No snakes, no lunch break, no stopping, waist-high bush, prickles... 12km later we stagger back to the Hash House for a well-deserved rest and feed. Strewth! Not sure I'm into this kind of torture.

Soon after that, the real bush season started. I entered the "B" grade for my age group - moderate navigation. My times went from 1:45 down to 44 minutes. At that point, I went up a grade to "AS" - hard navigation/short course, where my times have hovered around the 1 hour mark.

In amongst that, I dared another 6-hour rogaine - covering 19kms in much nicer terrain; and a Blodslitet - a bizarre form of Norwegian torture in which you attempt to visit an obscene number of controls over the better part of an afternoon. After 14kms in 2:48, I admitted defeat with about 4 controls still to go. Next year perhaps...

The 2004 bush season pretty much ended with the Australian Champs in NSW. Seven days of orienteering... I started well (NSW champs, I placed 8/20 in my age group), and progressively got worse as the week progressed. By the final day I was absolutely shattered. Man, I am NOT fit enough for this.

Fun Runs I have done

The only funrun I did in Wellington was just before I left. My partner had gone away somewhere for a few weeks, so I entered into the Round The Vines run - through the vineyards around Martinborough - in January 2000. It was ~11 kms, and I think I reached the 10km mark in an hour. But the best part was the free t-shirt. I used to wear it often in the years afterwards "to remind myself that I used to be a runner." Bittersweet really - to (have to) give up something that gives you such freedom.

(fast forward 4 years)

Back to a slow shuffle, not really sure what I'm capable of. After re-subscribing to Runners World, I read about the Portsea Twilight run a few months away in January 2004. 6.75kms - could I run that far? I was a bit nervous actually - I'd never run that far before. Could I do it.

Well, I could, and I did. I didn't break any records that day - 48 minutes - but I found that I could set goals and achieve them. I also found that I run better in the second half of a race - I was passing people along the sand (wahoo!) and up the track to the finish. So, armed with another t-shirt, I started looking for other runs. I didn't want "boring" runs around Albert Park - I wanted something different. The Portsea run fell into that category - running along the top of the peninsular into a stiff breeze and salt air, in an area you usually have to pay to get into. Pretty cool.

Next up was the Puffing Billy race in May 2004. 13.2kms - could I run that far? How long would it take me? I guestimated 90 minutes. Then I read somewhere that relay teams had to finish in 100 minutes, and I thought that if someone was running in a relay, then they must be pretty good, and perhaps I should amend my goal time to 100 minutes (my longest run to date is about 50 minutes, and that with a lot of walking breaks).

So, off we head. I'm near the back, just concentrating on a slow steady rate. I meet the first train at the first crossing - you can just see me in the photo published in Runners World (wahoo!). Up hill... down hill... I'm doing okay. The kilometers tick past at a reasonably steady rate. With about 3 kms to go, I realise that I might actually make the 90 minutes. I try to move up a gear... uh uh... no go. I finish in 91 minutes - pretty pleased with myself, and another t-shirt. Placed 2278 of 2375. :-)

And on to Melbourne

Ahhh, much nicer place. Better job, and not so bloody humid. I started running (again!) - just a few gentle kms around the block. I lived in Croydon, so would run along the railway line from Croydon to Mooroolbark, and back. Gently does it.... very gently. A few minor shin niggles, but nothing a new pair of shoes and gentle running didn't overcome.

After a few months, I came across Street Orienteering during an internet search. I turned up to my first event in October 2003, and was hooked. "Street-O" involves an A4 size map, approximately 1:10,000 scale (10cm = 1km), with no street names, and 20 controls marked on it. Your task... should you choose to accept it... is to run around finding these controls and punching them on your score card.

It's much more enjoyable than simply running around the same block every day, and while you tend to run on your own, there can be up to 150 people doing much the same thing in the same small area.

That very first run, at Abbey Walk, was 4.8km, and took me 40 minutes - 8.3 min/km. My average rate is now around 6 - 6.4 min/km, but that includes stopping to punch the score card, and slowing/walking to read the map. I run either a "B" course of ~8km, or a "C" course of ~6km twice a week.

A bit about Sydney

I lived in Dee Why. I used to run over the headlands from Dee Why beach to Curl Curl, then back along the road. My journal was more concerned about my weight (too much) than my running ability (too little). Only problem with Sydney is that from about August through to May it's uncomfortably hot, and you end up in a puddle on the footpath about 5 minutes after leaving home. So I used to run at night which was pretty cool, until I tripped on some uneven pavement and reinjured an already temperamental ankle.

So, I'm not a runner then.

I got seriously into technical (scuba) diving, and did a fair bit of Ceroc dancing instead.

In the beginning

I've never really been a runner, and yet I've always been a runner. My mother tells me I started running at 9 1/2 months of age (I learned to walk sometime afterwards). I ran in the school athletics competitions, but never trained. My "training" at age 15 was to run around the block before school - a great distance of about 2km. My best 100m sprint time was 12.04sec.

Then life, boys and bikes got in the way; and the next time I "ran" was a painful shuffle up the road and back - my boyfriend at the time was a keen runner, and thought that I should be too. Hah.

Fast forward another few years. Finished uni, got a real job, partner, mortgage, the works - mid-life crisis looming, although I hadn't seen it coming yet. Living in Wellington, NZ (has a few hills), started this running thing again/properly. Can't really remember why - perhaps the bathroom scales were protesting more than they should. Perhaps it was because I'd stopped tramping the hills behind Wellington (BF didn't tramp). I remember one route took me past a Chinese Takeaway, and I would reward myself by stopping in for food. Subscribed to Runner's World, found a podiatrist, orthotics, and bought proper running shoes.

Age 32: mid-life crisis: dumped partner, abandoned job, and ran off to Australia.