Training Log Archive: grilla

With Paula and Tracy on what is becoming our Saturday afternoon special.

Event: Sydney Summer Series #9 - Epping North
 

OK area and OK run at Epping North. It was quite hot running and I got pretty tired by the end, my hip was hurting too, so I skipped the final 20 points and walked back, still arriving early. Wimpy but hopefully sensible, still recovering from sinus/cold thing... Didn;t see any other results so not sure how I compared, but I think my benchmark had better get fitter.

Took Finn out on a bit of an exploratory run around the bush area of Beacon Hill. More exploring required to make a nice run, but it's promising. Amazing out running the scarp in the thunder. Followed it with a quick swim in the ocean pool at South Curl Curl with the surf thundering outside and splashing in now and then, the beach was closed.

Soggy Lane Cove Park loop with Paula. Slower than when we did this in August, but the conditions were not great. Knee deep water a couple of times and some nice cold waterfalls to run through on the north side of the river too.

C • Lane Cove NP 2

Ice skating with Aoife. Lots of core and leg strength work to stay upright with 30kg hanging off one arm. I managed to stay on my feet, Aoife fell a few time but had fun. Can't remember when I last went ice skating, maybe when I was 10... I think the Monday night roller blade disco action from a few years ago helped enormously.

Athletics was cancelled today so Aoife and I went up to UTS to do some of our own. We did discus, 2 x 50m (or half the soccer pitch), 100m (bit of a fail), 100m hurdles (with pretend hurdles), 100m bunny hopping, skipping, bum kicks and high knees. Final session was a skipping (rope) competition. I can only skip forwards and she can only skip backwards so we had quite a good laugh at each other.

The new field is pretty OK, sad to lose the grass but great to have a nice dry astro pitch to muck around on on a wet day.

Saturday afternoon catch-up with Paula and Tracy. Ran up the river and back the road, fair bit faster and more comfortable than a couple of weeks ago.

Event: Sydney Summer Series #7 - Beacon Hill
 

Summer Series at Beacon Hill. If it hadn't been a location with a good reputation I would have been tempted to skip this one. Very pleased I went to keep up the training momentum, I am making progress (I hope) and ut was worth the visit. Finished 5 seconds inside the time limit. A few time losses but that seemed quite typical. I could have gotten 10 extra points if I'd read the map properly but would have been a bit late.

Overcommitted myself with this one, but had a fantastic day out. Great to ride most of the way with Nat, we seemed fairly well matched for pace; I was a bit more confident going down (and needed the advantage there), she was strong going up. I ran out of steam, she didn't. Completely spent after 50km and could only soft-pedal from there to the finish. Pretty pleased all the same as this was definitely the most exercise I've done for a long time. The bike was great, a seat that stayed up would have been nice, there were a few times that rear suspension would have been nice too, but I did think the new bike rode a lot better than the old, much better weight distribution going up hill. I might even do something like this again, hopefully a bit fitter and stronger. Quads completely locked up at the end, it might have been due to the cold as well as the effort, misty rain and 10 degrees most of the way.

NOT tempted to do the whole thing, ever.

C • Quoted 5

Event: Sydney Summer Series #6 - Greenwich
 

Summer series, another tough hilly day out with lots of late people. I could have finished on time if I didn't keep running past controls or make a deviation to pick up 40 points near the end (didn't pay off). I also had a dud patch near the middle where I changed my plan and couldn't get much right for quite a few controls. Brooke went the way I planned and ended up about the same points overall and similar time. Good exercise and another nice place to run.

Last minute training!
Did a lap of the Manly Dam circuit for the second time ever. Quite hopeless and rode like a real girl, tried to remember the time Tracy and I followed Katrin around to remind myself that you can actually ride over everything on the course. I got off quite a few times and fell off once. The good news is that my hip was great and even getting on/off the bike which has been very painful and problematic was easy. I am woefully weak and unfit though.

With Aoife cycling, at Buffalo Creek and Field of Mars, took a while to get going, but once we'd had some stern words I was under pressure keeping up.