Training Log Archive: jennycas

UWS Macarthur, Campbelltown. We flew into Sydney this morning and it was raining heavily (although thankfully, not actually stormy) when we landed. It was raining heavily when we caught the shuttle bus to the hire car place, when we breakfasted in Rockdale, and driving down the M5, so why would it not be raining at the event? I enjoyed the unfamiliar uni campus although took a while to work out how things were mapped (even at 1: 3 000) and made poor route choices on the first 3 controls in the buildings, then went a bit too wide on the legs around the lakes (although they were of course wider than mapped) and after that got a bit better at reading ahead and smoother at running through the little walkways although still fairly tentative with my footing. Glad I read my control descriptions diligently - not sure why they kept deciding to put controls at the top of stairs.

Managed to end up faster than anyone else who was entered in W40 or W45 but that's not saying much, as for some reason everyone from W20-W45 and M40-M65 was on this course. After this, it rained when driving to Penrith, when visiting in-laws in the nursing home and when having dinner with sister-in-law's family at the pub. Now G & I are sitting in bed at the hotel, both Googling footage of Warragamba dam overflowing and wishing we could go and see it but of course the dam wall is closed to stickybeaks. Photos of the ferry wharf at Parramatta being flowed over are impressive too.

Hard 2 - Splits

This morning's atmospheric fragrance led me to infer that the nearby Buttercup bakery was baking vanilla-chocolate hot cross buns. Not sure that I'd actually want to eat one if such a thing exists, but I was salivating underwater anyway!

Decided to do some orienteering training because it's NSW sprint champs this weekend, although in truth I should probably have practiced running with a snorkel and gumboots - can't even compute the forecast 120mm of rain for Sydney for Sat.

C • 120mm 4

Having been for a haircut at Mitcham, parked at McElligott's Quarry (Carrick Hill) and ran up Yurrebilla Trail through Waite then back down the ridgeline over Brown Hill, noting trail signage which implies that you can now officially get down the south side to Brownhill Creek through private land, so I must check that out some time. Not feeling great because the smell of hairdressing products always makes me queasy, and also kept having to stop & stretch out a groin cramp/stomach stitch which I first noticed when going down Randell's Reserve switchbacks on Sat. But the timing was perfect for watching a giant peach set over the ocean on an Indian Summer's evening.

Don't think anyone was feeling particularly bouncy tonight after the weekend's exploits, so we jogged upriver to the St Peters Billabong oval and did laps sprinting the straights and jogging the curves, although Lucy & Gemma really just wanted to interact with the many dogs which were being exercised/socialised there, and I would have liked to pat the wheel-corgi (who looked surprisingly cheerful despite its contraption; maybe we could get one of those for Meatloaf now that his back legs don't work?). Anyway, I managed 7 laps of the oval and then some of us took Kate back via the Hackney suspension bridge, over which she had never been.

Dug out some old sprint courses utilising the Karinya bushland and also Blackwood schools. Picked the one which wouldn't go into the primary school where there's now a massive fence around, did the bushland trails section first, slogged through the streets over to the high school and found that there's a bit of construction going on, also that there was an open evening (presumably for this year's year sixes who will now be in high school from year 7 onwards, not year 8 as previously). Anyway, I aborted that course due to people everywhere even though I'd just been planning my route choices through the buildings, and went back to do the bushland section of the other, which was still fun but my foot didn't like the rough ground much.

Very tired in legs and brain today, especially after spending the day in Robin's L2 controllers' workshop, but figured some fresh air couldn't hurt as long as I remained alert enough for the bike to stay upright. And it was a nice sunny afternoon for the old tramline bikepath to Glenelg East & new tramline bikepath back again.