Training Log Archive: Wally80

Event: NavDash 8 - Scotch College
 

Event: Urban Max Perth
 

Urban max teamed up with Boltboi for the running and Danger for the thinking.

A miserable morning saw us registering in our jumpers and jackets whilst hiding for the rain. we got their fairly early to allow time for map markup. A bit pointless that since we had no info to actually mark on the map. Boltboi was talking up a podium finish in the lead up to this event however the raft of familiar (and fast looking) faces in the registration line was making us a bit nervous.

We ditched all our warm gear just before the start and shivered up to the gun. I thought we were fairly close to the front of the pack but once the gun went it was mayhem getting everyone through that tiiny little chute, 150 teams is actually quite a lot in a very small space. A sprint across the grass to teh clue sheet hand out came to a grinding halt once we lute at the sheet.

What the f*** is this? we could only answer two of the clues of the tops of our heads so out came the phones. My lovely darling wife refused to answer her phone which caused a great deal of swearing on my behalf*. We remembered Dangers generous offer of assistance so he was next on the list. I woke him up and he was very speedy firing up the computer and feeding us some answers whilst Dalto Iphoned the rest. got some info from him and started off on our route.

Headed off to Jacobs ladder first before getting some more info off Danger about the flour mill on the south side fo the narrows so a quick detour into their led to our movie and music knowledge being tested. only just managed to get 6 of the 12 songs but my poor handwriting came to our benifit ("is that squiggle Saturday night fever" "why yes of course it is")

Back over the narrows and a quick rep of Jacobs ladder followed by an additional rep up as we thought we wanted to go to Subi. Back on the phone to Danger to get some more clues sorted led to us doubling back to parliment house....... and then seing where he meant on the other side of the freeway. Of course i knew there was a historic arch there......... Which also made the extra up on Jacobs ladder a bit pointless.

Saw two team leaving the arch and heading up into kings park, couldn't understand it at the time but they may have already got their copy of the big issue. We took off down Hay st for a jog to Subi. considered catching a bus but since none came past in the whole jog it was a good call not to. Stopped at Office works where the camera Dalto bought along came in handy. A very pretty picture of us (15 cents tRicky) later and off we went. Realised as I ran out that I hadn't actually looked that the envelope the guy gave us was actually a photo of us and not someone elses holiday snap but I was confident.... ish.

Got to Nando's just in time to see the camera get a full memory card so no photo of us with the chook. What a shame. Left Nandos and detoured into Subi to try to get a big Issue, no such luck but onto the train to have a rest. very wierd waiting on the train station but did get to have a yarn with some guys that are looking for an extra for caffeinated, they looked fast too.

Off the train in a bunch re-start and up the hill to Beatty Pool. We had already decided I was going in so a quick run through, off the board and we were out of there again. the people who had stripped down to go in looked a lot colder getting re-dressed than I felt running along afterwards wet so it was a good call I think. got a lead back on the sub-sea guys as well. though they overtook us again on teh way to dancing, Dalto is a very passably lady on the salsa circuit and we were released pretty quickly and off to the Rock face, wher the sub sea guys ran past again. Dalto monkeyed up the wall in fine form and we were out..... then the sub sea guys passed us again (spotting a trend here?)

Finally on the way to teh art gallery I got another team to give us there copy of the Big Issue, Dalto did teh art gallery quiz whilst I read teh issue looking for the clue. A nice picture of the DNA tower was in there. I only said one word whe I found it but it was probably not an appropriate one to shout in an art gallery. joined Dalto again in pestering the guards for the answers then back onto the train to east perth. A short jog down to the next control at the gas works then as we were leaving it guess who, sub sea again.

Took the long flat way to the causeway since it is really easy on the bike. I am not sure it was the right call since we were starting to feel the distance we had run by this stage and weren't moving that fast. ny old knee injury was starting to flare up as well. Had a wait at the bike hire which was annoying, especially since we passed a team in a cart wayyyyyyy of the map on the way in so we knew they were going to be a while. The pedal in the carts was great fun though, lots of teams we knew were all out at once so a bit of heckling was involved.

Hopped off the carts to a case of jelly legs and a route choice, run down the river to Kings park or try to bus down St Georges, Dalto called Nav rights and we went down St Georges. A bus came past as soon as we got onto the street, a harsh sprint to catch it then once we got our breath back we asked which bus we were on. "Kings Park, stops at Fraser" GOLD! that stroke of luck really gave us our finish reasult since without it we would have been much further back.

As short run from Frasers to the tower, a painful climb of the tower then a looonnnggg run back to the finish, thankfully we had a pretty strong tailwind at this stage and just let it blow us in. Got congratulated by the organiser on our 2nd mens place but he seemed a little suprised when I started abusing the dirty stinking ring ins that took out first.

A quick bite of Nandos the off to the dash.

Note: this is really a 3 or 4 person race as getting all the information of Danger at the start really helped us, some teams had no-one they could call and they were stuffed. If I did it again I would look to have two people sitting at computers at 9am waiting for the calls.

Note2: Distance is only the running, GPS said about 30 including public transport.

*Note 3: OK, I may have been dialling her work desk number but hey, she should have known that.

Probably shouldn't have done this since my knee didn't feel flash and it was pretty awkward trying to get a start time that let us get back for pressos at Urban max. Trying to do to much.

Run was OK, head was dialled in from the start but the legs weren't responding, had one of the runts come past early in the race and back and forthed with him for the rest of it. He was much faster but I ran in the right direction. Though I went around the out of bounds areas.

Also had Dalto off 2 mins in front of me, he gave a good target to chase since I knew he was in as much pain as me.

Knee reduced me to a walk in a couple of spots towards the end, don't htink it slowed me down much as I wasn't running that fast anyway. Beat Wil though which was worth the effort.

Thanks Jen et al for a great series, sorry I was a pain on the day.

pain. pain and suffering. Can't belive how much my hammies are hurting and the quads and knee aren't helping. The only reason I am not limping is that both legs hurt the same.

Went to see Adam Hills, great show but wayyy too many stairs for my poor body.

Windy windy windy.

Quite sensibly decided to take the endorfinn out on the inlet today, the back beach was possibly the biggest I had ever seen and even the surfers were avoiding it.

The wind was blowing straight down the inlet so of course I launched from the upwind end, just from curiosity I stopped paddling, 6-6.5km/hr just getting blown along. cruised down, slogged back, cruised down, slogged back. stability was good, I probably would have been fine in the epic I just doubt I could have carried it to the water on my own. stopped paddling on the last leg up, was being pushed backwards at 5km/hr. fun stuff.

Didn't actually work too hard overall as I was saving something for the gusts just to keep moving forward in them. Probably should have worked harder.

bloody hard carrying the boat back to the car, then the beeper didnt' work so in my wisdom I left the boat sitting on the roof and ran round to the other side to unlock with the key. Before I got back the boat had been blown off. Don't think it hurt the boat but it took out the bloody wing mirror on the way down. looks like we aren't bringing the Forester up this weekend. when I did get the boat back on the roof and opened the door to get teh straps out the wind sucked the red flag off the car seat and off down the inlet, boat still not tied on, no way am I falling for that trick again so bye bye flag.

expensive paddle.

C • good thing . . . 7

unplanned rest day, caught up at work too late to go paddling then started to get changed to go riding when the storm front came through.

I am soft.

did my proper streching routine though. it hurt.

Planned rest day to take Rach out to dinner on her celebratory day.

4 x 1km intervals at supposedly 80% 8 x 0.5km at 50%

Clubbies did a TT yesterday and were using resistance bands today and I could only just hold them. did the first interval at about 83% and was in the lead, then I think competitive instinct took over and each interval got harder and harder just to stay in contact with the group. On the second rep when a guy on a spirit plastic overtook me I knew it was time to work harder. I will get around to downloading the data to see how much faster we got but a good 15bpm HR increase.

I didn't really mind and enjoyed the workout. Massive group today, I think everyone wanted to make the most of the last day of good weather.

Event: Paddle Challenge near Bayswater
 

Straight line = 3.4km GPS = 6.02km. says it all really.

Really nice map in an area I hadn't run in before. I must be improving since I could read the map well enough to stay in contact most of the time. Just not get to where I want to.

Started the race the way I intended to continue by running up a hill I could have easily skirted, found the control easily though. Was trying to run on the mapped tracks but they were too vauge so I slightly overshot 2. which was mapped as a depression but was in really a bloody big hole that I almost fell in.

Ran straight to 3 but then had to skirt around some very thick bush to get to the summit. passed SWOT's answer to Lucky Luke at this point. 4 was in a saddle that you could see from 3 so no problems. 5 was on one of the best bits of map I have ever seen, really tricksy sand dune knolls. I ran straight to it and punched then a guy came up and asked if I punched 5 since I overtook him on the way to 6. Damn. Let him chew my ear for way to long about how 5 was missmapped and trying to relocate before he gave up and I took a bearing back to 5. lost lots of time here when I should have just trusted myself and left him. going back to 5 involved following a narrow sandy ridge that if you lost you balance you slid down the dune into thick bush. ouch. a couple of ouch's actually. found 5 fairly easily this time with two other people. It was where it was it was meant to be suprisingly.

Ran back to 6 again just to be a good boy. patted it then tried to find the most impenetrable bit of bush on the way to 7. really need to pay more attention to vegetation mapping. 8 was easy, the short way to 9 involved lots of green then a path but it looked runable and flat so I took a risk. ran the first 100m but then in the last 30 I was reduced to crawling under some branches just to make headway. much easier without an AR backpack on.

10 was another small depression in a flat area, wander around for a while then just as I giving up to go relocate I stumbled onto it.

For and H course I would have said that 3 were easy, 3 were medium and only 4 hard. but considering how much I struggled with those 4 that is probably a good thing.