Training Log Archive: GM

ACT Metrogaine. I finally convinced Mary to come on a rogaine, even if the Metrogaine is a pseudo rogaine. We went surprisingly well considering how my achilles has been, and how Mary thought she would go. I think the last hour was a struggle for her. Whereas my struggle was about 5 minutes after the start when I became entangled in the barbed-wire of the first fence we crossed. After a bit swearing we got ourselves into a nice groove and really enjoyed it. The day was perfect which also helped.

The Hash House was at the Tuggeranong Homestead, which is in the middle of the Tuggeranong Valley so there were options in all directions from the start. After the first 5 minutes we only saw six teams in two hours.

We ended up with 2nd place in the Mixed Veterans category, and 8th overall. The winners in MV were Martin Fryer, Kerrie Bremner, and Jackie Fairweather, with about 2120 points to our 1730.

Heather convinced Josh and Conan to form a team with her and they had a good time. Luckily we beat them by about 250 points so Mary has bragging rights for a while.

C • Metrogaine 2

Putting out markers for BL training at Mulligans Flat.

BL training. I went around the course I had set up with Shea-Cara and Katherine. Both are fairly new so it was a great opportunity to spend some time with them.

For training I created a map of Mulligans by removing the fences (except those on the boundary), the roads and tracks, the power lines, and all the clearings. This left the contours, point features, the watercourses, and the green.

My aime was to set up a Micro-Orienteering style course. I set a 2.5km course, but around every correct control were two or three dummy controls on similar features close by (50 - 100m) and often on the way to the correct control. The map had control descriptions but no control codes. My original intention was to use control flags, but with the Saturday Event courses all over the place I didn't want to cause any problems. So I used cones instead. Under the cone at the correct location there was a smiley face sticker :) , and under the cones at the dummy locations there was a sad face sticker :( . The object was to navigate to the correct spot, cross checking to make sure it is correct, then turning the cone over to check.

Ben and Georgia set off together and only had one sad face which was good. I took Shea-Cara and Katherine. They were very retiscent to turn over the first one, but then they got the hang of it. On the second control, which was on the northern end of an earth wall, there was also one on the southern end. As soon as I reminded them that they had control descriptions they were set. No sad faces in our group.

I think it is a good training exercise as it really teaches you to look at the details inside the circle and not just run and hope to see a flag.

My original intention was to ride out to Mulligans Flat this morning, but I was still putting my stuff together for the BL training when the departure time rolled by, so I drove out with Mary instead.

Jumped on the bike for a ride over to Camping World. Took a longer route there and back by going the long way around Florey. Home just in time to see the All Blacks give the Wallabies a shelacking. Very disappointing.

Bike commute from home to work and back. It's only 20 minutes each way so going home I took a detour along Ginninderra Creek for a couple of km then rode to the top of Mt Rogers. A nice steady climb the whole way took about 15 minutes.

The best part of the ride home was it seemed to help my achilles. Definitely a lot less discomfort between getting on the bike and getting off.

BL training run with ole, el lukeo, nomiii, georg, big d, geoff, ian, belinda, ben, shea-cara, george. Except that el lukeo forgot to bring his running shoes so he was on the bike. We started from Valerie's place and warmed up by jogging across to Black Mt (with an interminable wait to cross the slow moving line of traffic trying to enter the GDE).

Once into Black Mt reserve we set off on the 'green trail' which is a bit over 5km and winds it's way across to Little Black Mt for a loop then back. There are some nice undulations along the way - not too steep but not too flat.

Finished up back at Valerie's for the our ACT Schools Team meeting, trying on uniform, etc. Only 8 weeks and ASOC will be over. How many sleeps Naomiii?

New runners, plus feeling good for the first 5 minutes, then my achilles started to hurt. So back on the bike, and swimming for a while till the strengthening/stretching has a real effect.

Another after dinner swim at the AIS. There was an aqua-robic class finishing off when I started so I had a bit of 'groovy' music to listen to. I did five Joshwa 250m sets in the 25m pool, with about 2/3 freestyle and 1/3 breaststroke. The swimming felt better tonight, even if it wasn't faster.

I also did a bit of stretching in the pool between sets.