Training Log Archive: DrJ

Post rogaine recovery, felt generally very good. The right knee which was a bit angry over the last 4 hours has totally settled now. Should be good to ride in tomorrow.

Mooterdine Moonlight Meander upside down rogaine with Neil T. Had not managed to do a competitive event last year so was keen to have a crack at the first one of 2012. Am only a month into a year where I have determined to get fully fit again, but have felt some gains already and hoping that was going to translate into more miles on a rogaine. The USD has been an event that I have sucked at in the past, so hoping to lay some demons to rest on this event.
Thought that 55km would be doable in summer farmland, so set a course that would have got us an even 3000 had we succeeded. Unfortunately we decided to go north first, a decision we would regret greatly as the vast majority of the bush turned out to be there.
Awaiting the start started feeling very cold (in early Feb!!) so put on the thermals I only packed “just in case” - don't know how I would have gone without these.
At the start headed SE to 96 via 20, punched this at the same time as Juffy and Dolf, who then headed south – if only we had done the same. Instead crossed to the north side and after spiking 53 hit the bush- and much of it was the crappy parrot-bushy/dead branches type. Almost all the bush had rocky ground underfoot which made walking fast, let alone running, very hard. A mild nav stuff up at 105 and worse at 63, but got them and were still on schedule. A good run through some welcome farmland after, but then really messed up 70 - only 500m from a good attack point, and were miles out, and ended up missing it. Turns out it was right down the bottom of a parrot bushy spur, but fortunately the miss didn't cost us any places.
Neil's foot started giving him a lot of grief after tripping on one of the zillion rocks, but to his great credit he pushed on, and picked up the pace again after the nurofens kicked in.
Slow through some unpleasant bush in the NW corner, messed up the nav to 100 but luckily ended up stumbling on it. Faster pace and better nav after this around the top and down to the water drop getting everything on the way.
Pleasant stop at the water drop, there at the same time as Jeff and Jill - tried to get some secrets about the autumn 12 hour from Jeff, he assures me it will be flat(ish) and fast!
Nav really went pear shaped after this, took 15min to get 60 and then somehow managed to completely overshoot 101 and ended up having to go south to avoid straying into OOB. By some stroke of luck found the right fence and were able to backtrack to 101, passed tRicky and co on their all-conquering trek here. Finally got our act together here and headed south back to the road via 35,64,34 and 71, the fencelines letting us pick up the pace.
Much more pleasant country over the road, went through 44,104,55 and 65 before being forced to cut out any further southwesterly progress due to time - why didn't we do this bit first?? Looped around through 93,49, 81, 46 in the morning light.
Managed to get the pace back up to 10- ish for the last 2 hrs and cleaned up the last part of our original plan in the south to get back to hash at 7:35.
Felt very fresh at the end, though the sleepiness kicked in after sitting in the camp chair with the mandatory bacon and egg burger or 3. Knew we had a decent shot at top 10 but was still a long wait as the scoring was high as per usual for an USD. Very happy with 8th given my current fitness and the quality of the field, first ever top 10 in the USD.
The power nap which was so good at Koji served me well again, drove home wide awake.
POSITIVES
-Fitness has noticeably improved after only a month of regular training – had a lot of gas left in the tank at the end, and could have run a lot more given the chance. Determined to train seriously in the lead up to the autumn 12.
-Getting much faster through the bush.
-Fence jumping practice paying off, no dramas with this at all in this event.
-Food: Shotz gels were a real winner, no stomach upset at all. The caffeinated ones kept me awake at 3am.
-Shoes: Salomons were great, not a single blister and great for running in.
-Clothes: finally found some thermals that keep you warm without drowning in sweat when running.
NEGATIVES:
-Nav was shocking at times, just could not follow a bearing or pace count accurately, things that are normally my strong suit. Need to practice more when going at a decent pace. Lost way too much time looking for bushy spurs in the dark.
-Although the rocky ground in the bush was hard going, it didnt seem to slow the gun teams down much looking at their tracings. Need to incorporate a lot more singletrack running into the training.
-Need to listen to the setters more, in hindsight they did say something about the bush being in the north.

All in all, a very encouraging event, this has really inspired me to lift the training game to take things up a level in the 12hr. Congrats to all teams above us on their great efforts, especially tRicky/Nicki/Steve in cleaning up the course - awesomeness.

Event: WARA Upside-Down Rogaine
 

A brutal headwind this morning made the going unpleasant the whole way. Had a bit of extra time so tried a different way at the start to try to get a crosswind rather than a headwind on the initial climb. Shouldn't have bothered, wasn't worth the extra time and distance. Had an uncomfortably close shave too with yet another unrestrained canine on the Woodvale path (can't people read the signs?). Legs felt like jelly for the trip, hopefully this is just because of the wind - need to feel much better on Saturday.

Fortunately the wind was still coming from east of centre, so took advantage of a rare tailwind to hammer it home.