Training Log Archive: GraceE

6.30am flight back to Canberra, joy!

Ran up to Hackett Hill and along to Mt Ainslie from Campbell Park offices.

Australian Relay Championships, Littlechild Creek.
In a Tassie team with Brea and Leida. Unfortunately Brea hurt her ankle on first leg so had to pull out. Leida and I still headed out for our runs, and it was a lot of fun, though much more challenging than I was expecting as full use had been made of a particularly rocky set of hillsides, with not much easy running in between. I lost time on three controls, the biggest loss being 1.5mins on the way to c17 when I couldn't find a creek crossing so went my own way which wasn't a good way :s Then missed a bit at the end of that leg too. Felt a bit tired physically, but in general a lovely day and fun course to finish off the week! Much thanks to all the organisers for some brilliant events :D

Australian Long Champs, The Golden Fleece.
Fantastic terrain and course... again. A few controls in the detail, then a section with two long legs and some rocky hillsides, then back in the detailed moonscape area for some tough little loops across the hardest stuff. I started well and was pretty clean to c15, most of the way through the course, but then disappointed myself by failing to maintain the concentration needed in the last section with subtle features, losing time on what felt like 5 controls in a row but looking at the splits was really only three controls - about 3 - 3.5mins lost. Was worried I'd thrown it away at the end but everyone struggled so I got the title which was really pleasing :)

Australian Sprint Distance Champs, Bicheno.
What a wet and windy morning! Warming up was a bit difficult and I didn't bother trying to do much of one. Such a shame as Bicheno is so beautiful in the sunshine! Anyway, set off and it soon became apparent that I should have gone with the metal studs - the rocks were so slippery! I took care after an early slip to c2, but ran hard when not on the rock. Great area and course, with 13 of the controls on the coastal section of rock making it an unusual sprint. I had been fairly clean and hadn't looked over my shoulder but coming out of c13 I went back on myself and while doing that I caught sight of Lizzie coming down the hill maybe 20secs or less behind me. That reminded me to keep fighting in the last bit... I didn't expect to make up the difference but I wanted to beat Lizzie to the finish and make sure I secured at least 2nd. Had a good last few controls and was very surprised to end up with the win. Great run by Rune who had only got off a plane from Europe hours earlier!

Drove to Scamander with stops at Beaconsfield, George Town, Low Head, Bridport, Pyengana Cheese Factory and St Helens. Went for a walk out at the point past St Helens and saw an echidna.

Morning run from the tent at Stanley caravan park, along the beach. 26mins on the beach (out and back) with the last 10 on a track inland. Very easy pace.

A lot of today was spent in Rocky Cape NP, not far from Stanley. We walked on a path up a ridge to the highest point (Tindles Lookout?). It was nice though pretty overcast. In the afternoon we drove to Narawntapu NP, across the estuary from Port Sorell. We had been PROMISED wombats here so expectations were high. It didn't disappoint. We saw about 15 on our drive in and after setting up camp went for a walk on dusk. So many wombats (which some were happy to let us get up close to) and twice as many potteroos, plus wallabies. We even saw a baby wombat. I would totally recommend a visit (late afternoon/dusk) if you want to see these lovely animals in their natural habitat.

Explored the town of murals in the morning, then took a scenic drive through back roads and farming country, picnicking at Gunns Plains before heading out to the coast at Penguin. Made our way west to Stanley and had an afternoon walk on The Nut.

Drove from St Helens to Launceston, then to Gowrie Park via Mole Creek. Ran up to the western saddle of Mt Van Dyke, over the top and down from the eastern saddle. Matt also bagged the top of the adjacent peak, Mt Roland. I love the Triple-tops run (21km along the same ridge) so it was fun to be up there again, although it was a bit wet underfoot and even tougher than I remembered! It lightly snowed on me most of the time while up top :)
Later we ate dinner in Sheffield and stayed at Gowrie Park, where I thrashed Matt at table tennis.

Tasmanian Long Distance Championships, The Argonaut.
Same finish arena (kind of) but getting further out into the rocky hills this time. On a 1:15000 you had to read the rock really carefully to get it right. The first two-thirds of the course gave some good opportunities for hard/fast running so I tried to run strongly the whole time. I got through the detailed ones near the end ok but then proceeded to make a little mess of the last control on a thicket, again! That was my biggest mistake (<1min) so I got the win. Great fun, loved it!

Back up at Royal George in the afternoon where I put out some SI boxes (was out for about an hour). Then back to St Helens.

Event: Australian Championships 2012
 

Australian Middle Distance Championships, Jason's Task.
Awesome tin-mining terrain and a fantastic course, which was pretty tricky from start to finish. Kept the concentration up and slowed when I needed to, so got around with about 5 little misses/hesitations of under a minute each. Felt like it was a good run when I finished considering the difficulty so was pleased to find the result reflected this.

Our flight which was meant to be direct from Canberra to Hobart and arrive at 9.15pm didn't arrive in Hobart until 2am!! They made some strange excuses and turned us around while over Bass Straight and went to Melbourne instead. Then we had a long wait there until boarding a second flight at 12.30am.

Friday morning we drove up to Royal George in the relentless drizzle and Matt and I ran the Schools senior boys and girls courses (set by my parents). I was going to run it steady but then decided to do it medium-hard as my parents were interested in times and I didn't want any schools kids beating me ;)

Putting out some controls after my little race around. I was out for about an hour but couldn't really run with the control stands as I'm piss-weak. It was cold and wet so we called it a day with some control stands still left to put out. Luckily the landowner who passed by on his tractor said there was no need for us to camp in this weather - we could have the keys to his holiday shack in St Helens, which we gratefully accepted. Legend!!