Tuesdayitis

Walk this morning: 5.8 km. Nothing special. 6 1/2 degrees at 7am, and foggy in the valleys.

But right now (2pm) I have zero energy and zero motivation to work, and all I want to do is lie down and close my eyes.

Have hauled myself back on the wagon after a couple of weeks of takeaways for lunch (and a corresponding weight gain to match), with a yummy (hah) salad and wholegrain bread.

But Trev had reheated leftover pizza for lunch and the kitchen area smells of pizza and garlic bread, so now I'm craving pizza. And the snack man came today to refill the snack box, and there's a chocolate frog calling me from the end of the office.

Or maybe an apple or a muesli bar.

Hmmm, pizza...

Street-O: Houdini's Handicap

Course setter Ian had ranked everyone who runs the Monday series from top to bottom, and divided us into 15 groups. He had set a Scatter course at Jells Park, with the aim of having everyone finish at the same time in approx 35 minutes.

I landed in group J, with 14 controls, along with some of the people I "compete" with in Course C, and some of those I used to compete with in Course B. We were trying to decide whether Archie Labrador was an asset or a handicap for Jacqui, who usually runs the shorter Course E with him.

Fun event, good setting, and I beat the people I run against in C, and came in behind those I ran against in B.

5.3 km in 6:26 average pace.

Girl's Weekend away

Cunningly disguised as an orienteering Women's Coaching Weekend, this weekend was the perfect excuse for 26 women to escape to Maldon for two days of entertainment, gossip, drinking, and... oh yeah... some orienteering.

Friday night started with a yummy dinner and a questionnaire where we had to rank ourselves on a scale of 1 (suck) to 5 (expert) on such things like "running through broken ground", "terrain interpretation", and "route planning". Fortunately, we didn't have to confess to anything in public, although there was a lot of hilarity at each table as we completed it.

Saturday morning was at a dam just out of Maldon where we did some practical exercises in Attack Points and a Line Course in following compass bearings. After a picnic lunch we had a team's "race" to bring all the controls back in - I was first to my 2 controls to earn my team 18 points. :-)

~9 km

Because of the heat, we abandoned any further plans for an energetic afternoon, and spent it wandering around Maldon, checking out the bottle store, playing on the climbing wall, and basically having a lazy afternoon. Found a Gnome Factory (must-see!) and bought a frog (below)

Cocktails were accompanied by a "what am I" control description game, followed by a 3-course dinner and lots of wine. Hot, stinky night.

what am I?


Sunday, we left Maldon and headed for Chewton forest to do Control Picking and Out-Guessing The Course Setter. Most of us did it at a very sedate pace in near 40-degree heat, and we didn't have to do the final sprint to get the controls either.

~4 km

Fun, enjoyable weekend.

Weight	72.0 kgs ▲
Walking	19.7 kms
Running	28.2 kms
Cycling	37.3 kms

Street-O @ Blackburn Creeklands

Long course, totally self-inflicted. Obviously forgot to switch the brain on this evening. Legs and hills going well, but the navigation and counting ability was definitely off.

8.5 km in 6:40 average pace.

Street-O @ Blind Creek

Sub-optimal route choice saw me heading across a lumpy grass field towards my first control (#12); whereas a better route choice would have been to follow the crowd (d'oh) along the path, picking up #6 on the way to #12. Then I wouldn't have had to go uphill to get #20 to make up the required number of controls. But I was running well on the hills tonight - almost like they weren't there.

The skin on my left heel from the blister acquired 1 1/2 weeks ago finally parted company with my foot, causing a bit of a hot spot on the way back in. I've since pulled it off completely (it was quite a thick layer), and I hope it'll be okay by tomorrow.

6.8 km in 6:20 average pace. A couple of WTFAI ("where the f- am I") moments illustrated on the pace chart by coming to a complete standstill. MB has my moving time at 6:15 pace. Average HR 157 bpm.

It's dark still...

MON: 5.0 km. Wore the Frees, and they're definitely a thumbs-down on anything unsealed (grass is okay though). The soles filled up with gravel until it was packed in so tightly there was no movement left, and I needed a very solid twig to empty it out once I got back onto the sealed stuff. Bummer - and back to the Asics tomorrow.

TUE: 5.8 km. Drizzly and overcast - lovely.

WED: 4.5 km.

THU: 37.3 km. Cycle to/from work. I had company for a short stretch of my trip in this morning. Just after I joined the Trail, this guy came alongside and asked if he could ride with me. Turns out he's just moved to Yarra Glen (so how did he get onto the Warburton Trail?!!) and commutes to Lilydale. He kept me company for maybe 5-10 minutes before zooming off into the distance.

FRI: 4.4 km

Frees

Discovered one problem with the Nike Frees on a test-walk down to the shops - they're no good on unsealed roads! The grooves in the sole fill up with gravel with every step, and you can feel that the sole is slightly distorted by the small stones.

They felt good though - I never wear shoes inside (or outside, when I'm at home) so they didn't feel too weird to walk in. Although I was surprised at how built-up the heel was. I thought the idea was to mimic bare feet - my bare feet don't have a 1" rubber heel on them.

Weight	70.9 kgs ▼
Walking	12.7 kms
Running	12.7 kms
Cycling	37.7 kms

Was adding up my February mileage, and realised that I hadn't done *any* long runs in the whole month - none, in fact, since mid-January. Too much mountainbiking!

Discount Saturday

Rebel Sport had a Club Day today, with 20% off everything. So I trundled down with my eye on a pair of Nike Frees. Got the last pair of Ladies Size 9 (pink and grey), already marked down from $169 to $139, less another 20%, makes $112.

Next door, Ray's Outdoor were also having a sale, so I bought a new sleeping bag at 22.5% discount.

Then spent the HOT afternoon pulling my bike apart. The rear wheel axle needs repacking, and I pulled the front one apart too. Now I just hope the bike shop is open tomorrow to get replacement bearings!

I Don't Do Mornings...

MON: 3.9 km. Woke up with a (sinus?) headache. Very groggy, and took half an hour to get out of bed. Short walk. Cool, and foggy in the lower areas.

TUE: 4.8 km. Chilly, foggy morning. 6 degrees at 7am. Headache.

We're getting a mains gas line put through Seville, and there's a dotted yellow line that's creeping around the streets (marking out where they're going to dig). This morning, I noticed that it's marked straight through the middle of a neighbour's colourful front garden (that's gonna hurt), and heading for my place.

PM: when I got home there was a large clay hole in the other-side-next-door neighbour's front lawn - with the yellow line just skimming my trees and plants. Hopefully they can tunnel around the tree roots, rather than having to dig.

WED: woke up with the alarm. Woke up 1/2 hour later, got up, turned on the light, went to the loo, turned off the light, and crawled back into bed. Woke up again at 7:45am. Should really get to bed earlier, I suppose. No headache today though. Yay.

THU: 37.7 km cycle to/from work. 8 degrees at 7am. 32 degrees on the way home at 6pm. Why do I do this again...?

FRI: 4.0 km. Mild, but it's going to be another hot one today.

Street-O @ Heyington Heights + Scotch College

A fun course set by the students of Scotch College. We had a map changeover: map #1 was a normal Street-O map of 20 controls set in the streets around the college. Course C had to get 10 of the 20. Then back to the start area to pick up map #2, which was a map of the college on a micro scale of 1:3125, and we had to get all 10 controls set within the grounds.

map #1:
3.2 km at 6:45 avg pace (best 4:09)
avg HR 166 bpm (max 192)

map #2:
3.0 km at 6:06 avg pace (best 3:42!)
avg HR 173 bpm! (max 240!! I don't think so)

total: 6.2 km

I feel like I'm running really well at the moment, especially when I warm up (after ~15-20 minutes). I was really strong in the second loop, and I think my average pace would have been higher if I didn't have navigation issues within the college grounds (ducking around buildings and up stairwells and a few stalled moments when I figured which way was up).

*happy*