Street-O @ Smith's Dell

I decided to wear a long-sleeve thermal top under my club t-shirt tonight, because I have trouble with the internal temperature control. I'm okay while I'm running, but I cool off so fast afterwards and end up shivering all the way home.

The experiment worked well. I was warm during the run, but not excessively; I didn't turn into an iceberg 2 seconds after stopping; and there was an unexpected bonus in that I was warm from the start. Normally it takes me 10-15 minutes to warm up and start running comfortably - tonight it took 5 minutes. Felt like I was running strongly too.

I paid for it during the last 5 minutes though - I ran out of steam during the last long slow hill up to the last control. Made it home with a comfortable 40 seconds to spare.

Distance	Avg pace	Avg HR
7.7 km	6:06 /km	161 bpm (84%)

This was the second-to-last event in the Autumn Series, and up until tonight I'm sitting 4 points behind Jacqui in our division. So I have to find 2 extra points for each of the next two weeks. We're pretty sure that I beat her tonight, but the number of points will depend on who else placed in between us. Oh, the tension!!

Jack Frost

MON: rest day. The doona wouldn't let me out.

TUE: 6.1 km. Bloody cold! 0.9 - 1.5 degrees during the hour that I was out.

WED: held captive by the doona again. -1.4 degrees at 7am (that's minus 1.4). Okay, I'm kinda over this - can we have some warmer weather please...

MyoMagic

Monday Massage with Matthew the Myotherapist. This guy is brilliant! Remember that inguinal hernia-that-wasn't that bit me last year (that no one could figure out)? Matthew put his finger (literally) on it last night, and wriggled and jiggled, and explained that the hip bone was connected to the thigh bone was connected to the ... well, you know how it goes.

Apparently all my problems are caused by the fact that my pelvis is slightly twisted (bad genetics), which causes the sciatic nerve to become pinched, which causes everything from inguinal pain to ITB tingles.

So he dug his fingers into my stomach, and his elbow into my butt, applied further elbow torture to my ITB (which is still sore this morning), and stuck the suction cups on my lower back. And it works, ha ha!

Eppalock South

Bush orienteering out near Lake Eppalock. Lovely open runnable forest, and I did lots of lovely open running. Only problem was that a fair chunk of it was in the wrong direction. *rolls eyes*

The courses were longer than usual but they had fewer controls than normal. My course was 7.7 km and had 8 controls (usually 12-16). With an average of a km between controls, and not a lot of map detail, that makes for a lot of opportunities to veer off course.

My first stuff-up was control #3. Take a bearing, and the general idea was to "run in that direction until I hit a road." Off and running - only to come across a large erosion gully that wasn't meant to be there. And no sign of a road. WTF? I relocate with the help of Ilse (also off-course, although not as badly), find the road about a km away, then up a hill and down the saddle. Only I screw it up again and have to relocate off another track. Urgh! 30 minutes to that control.

Then I do it again with control #4. Spur, track, gully, knoll, and follow the tops. How hard could it be?? No joy - down to the track to relocate, only I'm on a different track to the one that I think I'm on, and the compass and the gullies don't add up. I eventually surrender and walk down to a really, really large road and relocate off that. Grrr, another 33 minutes gone.

Fumbled my way around the rest of the course without too many dramas, but never really "got into" the map. Finished second to last, but there were 3 people who "mispunched" (or gave up).

Nice run though. Nice clear, sunny day out west - Melbourne city looked pretty miserable in comparison.

Course: 4 (W35A)
Course Distance: 7.7 km
Actual Distance: 12.6 km
Time Taken: 2:13


The week that was

Weight	72.5 kgs
Walking	22.9 kms
Running	34.2 kms

Street-O @ Merri Parklands

Nice, sunny afternoon. Everyone was saying how cold it was - I don't know what they were complaining about. If you want "cold", then head out to my place!

Nice run through the streets of Brunswick East, with lots of twisty turns through the cobbled laneways.

Running Course A (60 minutes), but came in 4 minutes early.

9.2 km in 6:00/km pace.

You know you're a runner when...

CR Thread: You know you're a runner when...

....When you drop your car off for a service and they ask you if you need a lift anywhere and you reply no thanks, I'm running to where I need to go.

Then later in the day, when you run back to pick the car up again and you arrive in the service reception and talk to the service team all sweaty and can barely hold the pen to sign the documents! And you don't worry that people going about their everyday lives are looking at you strangely!

FRI: 5.6 km

Dropped the car off at Lilydale for a service, and ran over the hill to Chirnside (work). Nice enough run through Lilydale, but Maroondah Hwy wasn't much fun - the only safe place to run was on the wide grass verge, although "grass" is a bit of an exaggeration. My shoes and socks were soaked through, and I had to watch my footing as the ground is pretty rough in places. The GPS kept dropping out too, which surprised me. 2.3 degrees - glove weather to start with, although I got warm on the hill.

Didn't run back in the afternoon: my socks were still soaking wet, and I didn't feel like having another shower at 4pm - and it was a bit too early to leave work for the day.

I enjoyed the run in though.

Street-O @ Koolunga

Bit of a low-scoring run tonight - too much dithering over route choice. Didn't run a particularly efficient route either, and came in 4 minutes early.

6.8 km in 6:26 average pace; 157 bpm average HR, 172 max. Pretty lazy effort really.

Back to Work

Bit of a shock to the system, with the radio/alarm going off well before daylight and having to venture outside in the pre-dawn light.

MON: 5.9 km

TUE: 6.0 km

Must dig out a pair of gloves too - my hands were still frozen after an hour's walking. 1.4 degrees when I got back home, and not much better now.



WED: 6.1 km

Gloves not required this morning - a balmy 10 degrees.

Later...
Catching up on some other blogs this arvo, RoyalKangas's "Garmy" has just turned One. My Giz is about the same age, so off to TC to check - my first run with it was on May 20 2005, and I've since done 1484.31 km over 248:44:06 (hours). I have burned 117041 calories and climbed 48242 m. Phew!

THU: 5.0 km

definitely Glove Weather today - 0.6 degrees at 7am. (Old Weasel - don't read that! It's fine and sunny outside, haha)

Turkey Traverse

A Metro orienteering event covering the parklands starting from Darebin, working back through Alphington, Yarra Bend, and finishing at Fairfield Parklands. Fun, enjoyable, and bloody hard work. It took me a long time to get going - plodding away slowly uphill at the start, and not really getting my breath until halfway through the first section.

The course was spread across three A4 maps at 1:5000 scale (very detailed), showing good contour detail in the parks so you could navigate using the gullys as well as the paths. No need for a compass with the sun out and blazing nicely at north.

I did Course A - the longest - which was a "line course", meaning that you had to collect all the controls in order (1, 2, then 3, etc, up to 26). I was one of only a couple of women doing A, and easily the oldest. I staggered in close to last, but still managed to beat a handfull of B runners doing a shorter course.

11.6 km.

Oh, and the "Turkey" reference in the course name? Oh yeah... that would be us.




Weekly stats:
My weight has been up and down all week, but this morning it was "up" so I guess I have to admit to it.

Weight	72.5 kgs ▲
Walking	46.5 kms
Running	18.7 kms

One Tree Hill (Dandenong Ranges)

Not sure why it's called "One" Tree Hill, as there are thousands of trees on it! I realised this week that I enjoy walking through the bush as much as I enjoy running through it - and walking is far easier on the body (although maybe not so much on the knees) - so I plan to do a lot more walks through the national parks.

Today's effort was a shortish walk from the top of One Tree Hill, down the 1000 Steps and the Kokoda Track, and back up via the track network to the west. Next time, I'll start earlier in the day (ie, before mid-afternoon!) and walk through to the northern section as well.

Very steep - yet another reason to walk, not run. :-)

7.7 km

I hate painting ceilings

But it's done, thank god. Now just the walls and trim to go. And being a hallway, with 9 doorways, that's a lot of trim! Spent about 5 hours yesterday undercoating everything, and a couple more hours today doing a second layer on the walls, and the top coat on the ceiling.

Long walk around Seville in the afternoon, just to get outside for some air. 8.5 km.

Street-O @ Belmore Parklands

No rest for the wicked - Wednesday night is Street-O night. I wasn't at all sure whether I'd be able to run across the road, let alone keep it up for 50 minutes. I started off very slowly and stiffly and EVERONE was passing me - hordes of people streaming past like I was standing still. Sheesh! But, as usually happens, I warmed up and was running okay - slower than normal, but smoothly and steadily. Running doesn't stress the behind-the-knee ligaments, and the rest of me had recovered.

Came in a few minutes early, for 7.1 km with an average pace of 6:29.

I was hobbling again as I walked back to the car. So running is okay - I just can't walk straight.

Lake Mountain

I was a very sore little bunny yesterday after Monday's huge effort - the ligaments behind my knees were very sore as I walked, and rather wobbly when I locked out the knee standing still. I went for a couple of very short walks to try and ease them out a bit.

This morning, I headed out past Marysville (after running out of undercoat for the walls - 2/3 of the first coat went on this morning). After missing the turnoff to where I wanted to go, I ended up at the turnoff to Lake Mountain - and followed it. Went for a quiet walk along the Summit Loop for 4.5 km.



As I drove back towards Marysville, I saw the turnoff that I'd missed (Lady Talbot Dr - for those who know the area), and took it. The road was closed past Keppel Falls, so I parked there and went for a 2 km wander to the falls.

Mt Donna Buang

I'd taken a second week off work to go camping "out west" somewhere, but with the weather looking a bit dodgy, and the renovation requiring an hour's work each day, I've decided to do some day trips instead. First up is a visit to Mt Donna Buang - just up the road, but I've never been there.

I drove up to the summit and walked across the tops to Mt Boobyalla, The Knobs, and down to Acheron Gap. From there I followed the road back to the Ten Mile picnic ground where I picked up the short trail back to the summit. The road walk was the worst - it's where everything started to hurt (hips, knees), and if ONE single car had passed me on the section from Cement Ck to the picnic area, then I would have stuck my hand out and begged for a lift. Nope - not a single car heading uphill, and only 3 or 4 heading down. A very isolated piece of road.

Mostly overcast and misty, although as I climbed back to the car I walked up through the cloud layer and the summit was bathed in sunshine.

23.8 km

No, that's not a misprint! MB has it as 26.4 km with 2212m elevation climb. I think I've had my dose of walking for the week...


in the cloud at the start


further down, sunshine breaking through


map

Bush-O @ Christmas Hills

Club-level orienteering event at Christmas Hills (north-east of the city). Weather was overcast and drizzly, terrain was very hilly, and all the green stuff was heavy with water. I was drenched through to the skin before I'd reached my first control!

The first few controls were in a "green" (heavy vegetation) area with lots of kangaroos. I never actually saw any, but twice I heard a bark and a rustle very close to me. Hope these things don't want to attack! From there it was mostly spur-gully running (trotting/walking), with only one WTFII moment - the clue was a watercourse junction, the map showed an average-looking gully or two, but the reality was anything but average and I wasn't sure that I was in the correct gully (I was) so I went on further and doubled back to approach it from another angle. It wasn't until I saw Barry emerge from a patch of heavy green stuff that I *knew* I was in the right place. From there until the finish, Barry and I kept leapfrogging - I think he took the easier route along tracks, while I tried to keep to a technical level and travel cross-country following contours and counting spurs.

A very wet outing, and while I wasn't cold out on the course, I couldn't get warm afterwards even after changing into dry clothes. I stayed under the shower once I got home until my fingers turned pink again - it took a little while.

Course: 1
Course Length: 6.5 km
Actual Distance: 8.9 km (MB has it at 10.7 km with 1535m elevation gain - and it felt like it too!)
Time Taken: 2:06

Weekly roundup:

Weight	71.6 kgs
Running	25.2 kms

Not much in the way of "formal" exercise this week, but I've been working my body much harder than usual with the amount of renovation work I've done.

Street-O @ Mitcham

Very crisp, clear, cold weather. I hadn't looked at the sample map before starting off, and was a bit shocked to see the hundreds of contour lines. eek! Still managed to run most of them though. Had an awkward choice after punching control #13 with 8 minutes to go - do I head for home and finish probably 6 minutes early, or do I make a dash for #18 which was nearly 1km away (plus the return journey (plus a hill)). Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I made it home with 20 seconds to spare!

7.8 km in 6:07 average pace.

Renovation Rescue

I've taken some time off work to rescue my stalled renovation. My task, should I choose to accept it, is to re-do the hallway and do as much gardening as I can.

MON: upper body workout - pulled up carpet and all the prickly tack boards, pulled down wallpaper, knocked out an internal archway (sledgehammer!), and started patching the plaster. Also spent a few hours outside cleaning pavers - from the destroyed courtyard - knocking off mortar and stacking neatly in a corner.

Hope I can last all week!

TUE: plastering the hole created by the now-defunct archway, and all the fist-holes in the walls created by the previous occupant. Raked the front lawn ready for the lawnmower man (as soon as it stops raining). Only mildly stiff and sore from yesterday. Went for a run, then went shopping - have to let the plaster dry!

Longish run from Monbulk towards Sassafrass along the Sassafrass Creek Trail. Nice track, although I had a few false starts leaving Monbulk trying to find the right trail. At one point I CRAWLED (hands and knees) over a slippery fallen-tree bridge over the creek. The twisting movement of my wrist caused the Garmin to pop its strap pin again, and in the next second the pin fell out onto the mossy tree trunk - so there I am, stranded halfway across the creek with a broken Gizmo, and not nearly enough limbs to cope! I did, of course. And popped the pin back in once I was on solid ground.

8.4 km.

WED: very stiff and sore! I think Monday just caught up with me. Threw some more plaster around in the morning, but the thicker stuff was still damp from yesterday so I can't really do anything more until it dries. And it was raining too heavily to do anything outside, so... I went into the city, figuring a long walk would help loosen my back up. Wandered down Smith St into some of the factory shops (why do they never sell anything in a Medium??), and around the CBD. Didn't buy anything, but got in a 2-hour walk.

Oh, and discovered a "bug" in the parking meter software! Feed it $3.50 and hit the black button instead of the green button (by mistake). Money is refunded. Feed it back in, but it rejects every coin - sending it back down the slot. BUT... the amount received keeps going up! So I dialled up $4, got my parking ticket, plus all my coins back. :-))

THU: sanding, plastering, cleaning pavers
bath, Radox, Diclofenac
pizza...

FRI: sanding, plastering, cleaning pavers
not as sore as yesterday, but I think I've temporarily lost the ability to hold a hammer.

SS#2 @ Kookaburra Rises

More hills! Bush orienteering out toward Glenlyon (Dalesford area). Completely feral weather - rain, wind, even a touch of hail. But the sun came out during my run, so I had to find somewhere to stash my raincoat, and my glasses kept steaming up.

Good run - only one misplaced gully, and one gully mistaken for an erosion gully (marked as erosion gully on the map, but the clue said gully). Ran about 75% of the course.

Course: 4 (W35A)
Course Distance: 6.2 km
Actual Distance: 7.5 km
Time Taken: 1:26

Weather was too miserable to have lunch at the event so I headed home straight away, and stopped at Organ Pipes National Park (half way home) to cook up my cuppa and some noodles.

Weekly roundup:

Weight	71.6 kgs
Walking	10.8 kms
Running	30.7 kms

Street-O @ Wheelers Hill

Hilly! I ran Course A (60 minutes), and did well for the first 40 minutes before the hills got the better of me. I needed a few walking breaks on the homeward run.

Very tight course on a small map, and I was running well enough in the first half that I entertained the delusion that I might actually be capable of getting all 20 controls. Alas, it was not to be: I had my map folded in such a way that control #18 (a 5 pointer) was hidden on the fold - a real bummer, as I could easily have got it. And I skipped two 2-pointers on the way home: one which I couldn't add neatly to my route loop, and one near the finish where I didn't think I was capable of a 4 min/km to get back in time.

8.7 km in 6:33 average pace.

Chocolate headaches

Chocolate gives me a headache
Chocolate gives me a headache
Chocolate gives me a headache
Chocolate gives me a headache
Chocolate gives me a headache
Chocolate gives me a headache
Chocolate gives me a headache

You'd think I'd learn by now, wouldn't you. Or at least learn to exhibit some degree of self control and have only a couple of squares (okay, rows) and not try and devour the WHOLE block in one sitting.

"Hi, my name is Louise, and I'm a chocoholic."

Headache.

Run this morning around the outskirts of Seville for 6.6 km. Bit of a struggle to start, but warmed up eventually.

On the up-side, I'm friends with my bathroom scales again. I climbed aboard on Monday(I think) and they said 73.2kg. eek! On Wednesday, they reported a more reasonable 72.0kg, and after the run this morning, they said 70.6kg. So who knows what the hell I am! Happy Hour tonight (mmmm, pizza!) so we'll see what mischief they get up to over the next few days.

Street-O @ Glen Iris Central

Excellent run! Hills? What hills?! No niggles, plenty of legs, one brief stitch which disappeared after stopping to punch a control. Got to all the controls I wanted to, and romped home with 20 seconds to spare. Several people commented afterwards how strongly I was running. *happy*

7.8 km in 5:57 average pace.

Misty mornings

MON: 5.0 km walk. Cloud down to ground level - very wet air.

Massage with Matthew the Myotherapist. This was a regular appointment, but a well timed one as I finished yesterday's 2-hour run with a sore lower back, and a "bruise" spot on my spine. Apparently I've torn a small ligament between T-something and S-something (will look that up later). So Matthew dig his elbow into my glutes (ouch!) and freed up something in my hip area.

TUE: 5.8 km walk. Back feeling a little better, but still have a "bruised" spot. Dehydration headache - I'm having trouble getting enough fluids in, so have brought a couple of bottles of Powerade to work to drink during the day.

WED: Failed to get up with the alarm. Stayed up way too late last night reading book 5 of Harry Potter. Back feels much better, and the bruise spot is almost gone. Run tonight.