Xmas 5-Days Orienteering

This year's 5-Day orienteering carnival was in the Jindabyne region, using the same maps as the Easter Carnival.

Left home on Boxing Day feeling sore and out-of-sorts. Sore knees from the trail run the day before; sore neck from sleeping badly (I think); dehydration(?) headache; and tired and generally below par. Got about halfway along the Murray Valley Hwy before calling it a day. Veged out under a tree before pitching the tent to escape the flies.


Gang-gang cookatoos crunching seeds at the rest area

Next morning, drove through to Cooma for the first event. Big group of us staying in a lodge at Jindabyne.



All courses Red 3, Women's B (W35).

Day 1: Mt Gladstone

Start time: 16:19
Course distance: 4.9 km
Actual distance: 5.9 km
Time: 1:35

Very hot. No water left at the first water stop - I was wearing the fuel belt with 500ml water, but I was hoping for a top-up. Walked because of the heat, and had a straightforward run. Sore, hot feet in my orienteering spikes with hot-spots across the top of the smaller toes.

Day 2: Glenbrook

Start time: 08:54
Course distance: 5.2 km
Actual distance: 7.1 km
Time: 1:49

Crap run - just couldn't read the map detail. Very rocky terrain, and the contours just looked like a bunch of squiggles which I couldn't make sense of. Debrief with John afterwards, which helped. Wearing Trail shoes instead of spikes, and feet were a lot happier. Shoes covered in screw grass seeds. Hot.

Day 3: Cootralantra Creek

Start time: 09:00
Course distance: 5.0 km
Actual distance: 5.9 km
Time: 1:30

Same map as yesterday, but course looped in the opposite direction and went further out. Had a much cleaner run, and it all made more sense. Still very hot, even at 9 o'clock. Still walking. Terrain included a lot of open farmland, covered in grass which was going to seed, and millions of flies and grasshoppers. So we all ended up with our shoes (and socks for those who didn't cover them up) covered in grass seeds.


like at any sporting event, there's a loo queue

Day 4: Buckenderra

Start time: 09:16
Course distance: 5.1 km
Actual distance: 6.5 km
Time: 2:04

DNF'd. Hard, technical map. Hot, windy and dry. Millions of flies; and too many controls hidden out of sight amongst the rocks. After control 11 (out of 19), I'd had enough. I was getting stressed (heat and frustration), my head was tensing up, and I wanted out. Headed back to the finish by the shortest route I could find, and it still took half an hour to get back. As I clambered over the last fence into the finish area, another orienteer came up to me with a cup of water. I must have looked pretty bad at that point, and started to feel a bit weepy.

Had a swim in the lake and lunch under a tree, and felt much better afterwards.

Day 5: Wainui Bay

DNS. Same location as yesterday, but further north around the west side of the lake. I'd decided that I'd had enough of battling heat and flies, but went down anyway to be part of the action and pick up my map. Tried to look sympathetic as everyone came in hot and bothered and covered in scratches. No regrets that I didn't go out.


Lake Eucumbene at Buckenderra

Christmas Run

The plan was an out-and-back run along the trail from Monbulk toward Emerald, following the creek, with the turnaround point wherever. The DRNP Walking Tracks brochure calls this the Tourist Trail, so I was expecting something 6 feet wide, groomed, with a metal surface. Hah.

It's singletrack (my favourite), ranging from slightly overgrown (okay) to majorly overgrown with stickyweed and blackberry grabbing onto my running tights, and scratching my face, neck, and arms (not so okay). Sweat into blackberry scratches really hurts!

The bonus of an out-and-back run is that I avoided the worst of it on the return trip by running on the road.

Oh, and Mr Melway could do with some instruction in the difference between left and right. The track isn't marked at many of the road crossings, and the Melways has it incorrectly marked in several locations - causing me to spend a bit of time searching for the trail. I mean, how hard can it be to get the track on the correct side of the creek, and in an approximate location (not 50m further up the road). Grrr.

My turnaround point was Avard Picnic Ground where I had a 10 minute break and ate a whole Energy Gel and a cup of water.

I was happy with the way I ran - and I probably ran 80-90% of it, at what I call "Trotting pace". Because it was reasonably flat, I could keep my heartrate relatively level too - average 150bpm. Which had the added benefit of not tiring me out. It took 2 1/2 hours to tire my legs out - usually my energy levels give out way before that. Nice and cool - maybe 15 degrees.

16.2 kms in 2:46. (MB says 17.0 kms, elevation gain 914m - it didn't seem that hilly)

The scales were back to 73.4kg last night, and 71.7kg after this morning's run. Probably slightly dehydrated, so won't read too much into it.

Walking	21.4 kms
Running	32.0 kms

Detox Day

After tipping the scales at 74.8kg this morning, I realised that the last few days have caught up with me: 2 x BBQ on Wednesday, BBQ on Thursday, takeaways and general overeating on Friday. So today was a detox day: grapefruit juice (freshly juiced) for breakfast; regular muesli and banana for brunch; watermelon, green vege juice, and another small bowl of muesli during the afternoon; and rice and lentils for dinner. Followed by a walk to the shops and an icecream for dessert. :-)

Mowed the lawns (by handmower - hard work cutting those stalky things), and washed the car for my exercise during the day.

Speed Session #3

Well, these aren't getting any easier! Completely exhausted at the end of the second lap (actually, about 100m into it, and sooo wanting to stop!) - still breathing hard after my allotted recovery time, and a 4WD drove up with a couple of large dogs, so I called it a day. Sunny but cold (foggy breath).

lap	distance (m)	time (min)	pace (/km)
1: medium jog	488.7	2:27	5:02
2: fast jog	491.0	2:05	4:16

Total: 3.5 kms

Came home to a riot of Rainbow Lorikeets. About 50 of them all over my deck squarking at each other. Noisy creatures...

And my good deed for the day: I saw a wallet lying on the side of the road, so took it home. No Driver's Licence or business card, so no way of contacting the owner (does your wallet have a contact phone number in it?). Eventually thought to try the local phone book, and sure enough, Mr D lives just down the road. He was very pleased to get it back.

Street-O @ Templestowe Valley

Powerwalking. 5.3 kms. Stayed within Westerfolds Park, and did a bit of cross-country navigation. Nice walk - not too strenuous. Came in early: 55 mins.

BBQ dinner afterwards. I think I'm all sausaged out...

Street-O @ Canterbury Trails

Well, the cool change came and went, leaving it still pretty warm at 7pm. Bit of a struggle to start, but warmed up and was running well towards the end. 6.7 kms. Average pace 6:45, average heartrate 158 bpm, although I noticed it had dropped out at one stage.

We had the DROC Xmas BBQ in Canterbury Gardens afterwards, with probably 50 people staying back for a BBQ dinner.

I want to get my pace down to 6:00 - which works out at around 5:30 running pace, with the extra 30 seconds allowed for stopping at controls and reading the map. I think my running pace at the moment is okay - although I've been ignoring the Gizmo while I'm actually out there (I have it on the HR display). But I'm spending too much time walking - to rest, and to read the map. I really don't want to cut down on my map-reading efforts (that way leads to disaster!), so I guess I need to work on the resting part. Perhaps slow to a basic trot rather than drop back to walking.

Hah. This getting back to fitness lark is a lot harder than it looks.

I won't go for a walk tomorrow morning - it's nearly midnight already, and I need my beauty sleep. :-) But will walk the Street-O tomorrow night, and get another BBQ in before Xmas!

Morning walks

MON: jumped out of bed early, and headed out on a long loop along the road marked "steep". 5.8 kms

TUE: rolled out of bed after listening to the radio for 20 minutes, and followed my nose until I woke up a bit. 5.2 kms

WED: hot, hot, hot. 22 degrees at 6:30am, and 25.5° when I got back. 5.1 kms. Just hope the expected cool change comes through before Street-O tonight.

Street-O @ Dingley Village

Dead flat course, mild night (but still sweaty running weather). Did a quick warm up first, to try and shake the aches out of my feet (didn't work). Felt like hard work running around, but it was all over in just over 37 minutes. 5.6 kms. Average pace 6:41.

Heartrate monitor doing funny things all night. When I first switched to the HR menu, I was doing 240bpm (I don't think so). Every second time I looked down, it had dropped out. I'm pretty sure my heart was still beating. So I don't think tonight's stats are valid. The graph is way too spiky to get any meaningful information out of it.

LSR @ Olinda

Headed out to somewhere different this morning - to the Dandenong Ranges National Park at Olinda. I started at from the Woolrich Lookout, which is reached via a fairly hairy gravel road. It was cold and windy at the lookout, but cool and calm once in the forest.

large pond behind a wire fence

Lookout Rock

The plan was to be on my feet for 2 hours, and I didn't much care whether I ran or walked. I stopped to take a few photos on my way through R.J.Hammer Forest Arboretum, before navigating through the complex track network. I had a copy of the Melways page(s), but Mr Melway doesn't differentiate between wide open track, and overgrown tumbledown track. As a result, I spent about 1/2 hour fighting my way along Rifle Range Gully Trk. Note to self: don't do this again. If I wasn't climbing over fallen trees, I was crawling under them, or pushing through soaking wet ferns, or avoiding blackberry traps. I like singletrack, but this was a bit too much. Completely unrunnable.

I had half a gel once I made it out (at the 1 hour mark), and made a point of sticking to tracks called "Road", until I looped back to Georges Trk which I knew was more road-like than track-like. Had the rest of the gel 40 minutes later at the start of the long uphill trek back to the car.

I'd given up running at this point, but my heartrate was staying within Zone 3, so I figured I was still giving myself a decent workout.

12.1 kms, in 2:15. Average heartrate: 141 bpm.

Elevation profile


EDIT: MotionBased has me at 13.4 kms. Elevation gain +1403m. Strewth! Perhaps that's where the extra kilometre comes from, in which case, I'll take it. That 1.4 km climb was hard work!




Weekly Stats:

Weight	73.1 kgs ▲
Walking	18.9 kms
Running	27.7 kms

Speedy Friday

Even though I ran hills last night, I thought I'd try and stick to my Friday speed session. Even though it was raining this morning - pissing down, in fact. Wearing full body armour (both ankle braces), I trotted down to the footy field to warm up. About 2 minutes after I left home, I knew this was going to hurt!

Measured a slightly longer route around the paddock, avoiding grass, puddles, and anything ankle-biting. The Gizmo measured it as 477m and 519m, so I can either split the difference, or come down in the weekend with the bike/computer to measure it out. So take the distance and pace with a grain of salt. The times should be accurate though.

lap	distance (m)	time (min)	pace (/km)
1: medium jog	477.8	2:31	5:18
2: fast jog	519.0	2:07	4:06

After 2 laps, I'd had enough. The second lap was hard work on tired legs!! Trotted back home through the rain, to the amusement of two council workers taking shelter in the park.

Total: 3.4 kms.

Street-O @ Bundoora Parade

Did a Northern Series event tonight because I'd missed my run yesterday. Northern maps are always hilly, and this one was no exception - not as bad as Mooroolbark last night though. :-)

6.0 kms, average pace 6:48, average heartrate 159 (max 176). Hot and sweaty.

I've been experimenting with what to eat and drink after a hot run like that, and the combination that seems to work (ie, no dehydration headache or sugar shakes) is a 600ml bottle of Gatorade straight after the run, and a whey powder protein shake when I get home - sometimes an hour later. Oh, and tonight I'm having Rotary Club Whisky Cake for dessert, because Barry was selling them last night. Mmmm.

Street-O post-mortem

It's always fun setting a course, and getting the reaction from the suckers, um, participants afterwards. But boy, it's hard work! I crawled into bed last night feeling pretty knackered, and had problems getting out of it again 8 hours later.

So, no womble this morning.

But everyone seemed to enjoy the course, and yep - everyone complained about the hills. *grin*

Morning Perambulations

TUE: 5.0 kms. Sunny, not too hot.

WED: 5.1 kms. Overcast, cool.

No run tonight, as I'm setting the Street-O course. It's in Mooroolbark, and it's very hilly, heh heh heh...


thought for the day, from the orienteering email bulletin:

********************************************** There ought to be a better way of starting the day than by getting up in the morning. **********************************************

Street-O @ Valley Reserve

AM: actually got out of bed with the alarm, and headed off for a 5.8 km womble. Starting to heat up already...

PM: Street-O. Very Hot and Hilly. 6.2 kms. Plodded around fairly slowly with lots of walking breaks. Average pace 7:10, average heartrate 157 bpm. Ankle is fine... but the foot was sore across the top when I worked it in any way.

Weekend Wrap

SATURDAY: pottered, potted, and planted in the garden. Rested foot.

SUNDAY: run through Sherbrooke Forest before breakfast. String measurement of 8.4 kms. Average heartrate 146. Slow.

Foot was okay, but I took it easy. It got a bit sore, though, in the late afternoon - it would hurt when I flexed it suddenly, but not when I stretched it out. Damn thing.

Saw my first lyrebird! It's times like this that I wish my eyes were better (I don't wear glasses while running, and contact lenses are too uncomfortable for all but special occasions). I saw the bird at the side of the track forraging through some leaves, but couldn't see much detail until I crept closer. At which point it took off into the undergrowth.

Weight	72.9 kgs ▼
Walking	21.7 kms
Running	23.3 kms

Aborted Speedwork

In an attempt to bring a bit more structure to my "training", I've earmarked Friday mornings as a speedwork session (reps, TT, etc). So this morning, I trotted down to the local footy field, set the lap counter and jogged around the gravel drive to check distance (478m) and set a benchmark time (2:27; 5:08 pace). Nicely warmed up, I set the lap counter again and ran off. Stepped across a rabbit(?) hole and wrenched THE ANKLE. FUCK! Hobbled to the edge and sat down to contemplate what I'd just done to myself (not good), holding the ankle tight to prevent any swelling (not good). The pain stopped after a few minutes (good) and I walked home slowly with relatively little pain (good), just feeling a little delicate on my pins. Plunged it into a bucket of cold water, and dug out the compression stocking. Grrrrr.... not happy. 2.9 km in total.

Happy Birthday To Me

I don't usually do birthdays, but work has been frustrating recently, so any excuse to take a day off.

Headed down to Mornington Peninsula. First stop was a quick blast of sea air at Rye Ocean Beach. I've always lived close to the coast, and these last two years in Melbourne is the first time that I haven't been easily able to go for beach walks. I do miss them.

Then on to a spa and massage at Peninsula Hot Springs. Very nice. Haven't had a natural spa since leaving NZ, and the massage was a hundred times nicer than the one at the gym a few weeks ago. Bit pricy though, but nice to do for a special occasion.

Late lunch of Greek Fruit Salad (off the breakfast menu) at the Spa Cafe.

Then drove to Arthurs Seat State Park, and went for a two-hour walk around Arthurs Seat Circuit Walk, TC McKellar Circuit Walk, and the Seawinds Gardens. With camera, and wearing my new Fuel Belt for the first time (bought while I was injured). 6.8 kms.



Early dinner at Arthurs Hotel, before the 90-minute drive back home.

Street-O @ Mont Albert

AM: womble, 4.4 kms. The world was very fresh after the huge downpour we had last night. Took the camera and got a few interesting shots.



PM: Street-O, 6.1 kms. Made several bad route choices trying to get across the railway line, and took a long walking break while I tried to figure out how to get out of the mess I'd got myself into. Running okay though. Average pace 7:06 m/km, average HR 158 bpm (same as last time), max HR 180 bpm.

Tuesday

Morning womble 5.8 kms.

Have been reading our orienteering club's latest newsletter, full of newsy items about events that I missed for various reasons, including my ankle - the club champs, the club relays, the Oz champs, the season-ending novelty events... and regretting that I didn't do them.

I'm used to seeing my name in print all over the results pages, and I only got a single mention this time - apparently I got third in W35A for the State Series Bush Competition. Must check that on the VOA website.

Next year I will be a lot more involved in the club.

Street-O @ Cathies Corner

Fairly hot, fairly hilly, and definitely better than last time. I even think I was the first C course female home, but that doesn't necessarily mean much.

5.9 kms, average pace 6:59 m/km (under 7:00, wahoo!)
Average heartrate 158 bpm, max 175.




Morning womble for 4.8 kms.

Sunday Sleep in

Woke up this morning in a couldn't-be-bothered mood, so stayed in bed. Missed the CR Xmas Wobble (sorry guys). Couldn't-be-bothered doing anything more energetic than walking up the road to get the Sunday paper. Read, pottered in the garden, and went for another (unmeasured) walk.

Was tallying my mileage for November - 160 kms! I double-checked. Twice. That's huge. Most of it is walking - and the 5km morning walks are really adding to the total. I'd only just started doing them before I trashed my ankle, so this is the first month where they've been noticable.

Weight	73.1 kgs ▼
Walking	19 kms
Running	23.6 kms

Physio Visit #5 and Sherbrooke Forest

Physio Andrew says I'm cleared to run. Just as well really! He didn't ask if I'd started running again... and I didn't tell him. I passed the balance test, and he had me jumping and hopping down the corridor. All good.

Went for a run through Sherbrooke Forest in the late afternoon. Another long slow run for 8.3 kms. So not particularly "long", but the light was fading and I opted out of a second loop. Overcast and cool. Knee was taped and well behaved, and the ankles wore their braces. Kept my heartrate out of Zone 5, with an average of 148 bpm.

Friday

Yes, the knee was upset. I gave it the day off yesterday, and took it for a gentle walk this morning - mind you, it was too HOT at 7am already to do anything more than "gentle". It appears to have forgiven me for Wednesday's punishment. I'll tape it next time. 4.3 kms.

Results from Wednesday night: I wasn't last, and there were 3 DNFs. There were also a number of DNFs in the As and Bs, so I think a few of us found it hard-going.