Training Log Archive: markg

ACT Long Distance Champs, 2nd. Enjoyed this race and was happy with my run although can't help but feel a bit of the what-ifs. The main story of this run was a near 7min lead at #4, only to lose most of it on the next leg and then slowly drop behind Marty to finish up about 1min down. I started nice and clean through the first, relatively easy, three controls. Took the opportunity to have a thorough look at the long #4. Picked a good right-hand route; in retrospect I could have run a little straighter without gaining any extra height. Hit #4 cleanly, catching Paul de Jongh 2min but he threw me a bit by going quickly through the control and out the wrong direction so I spent 10s double- and triple-checking the control code before leaving in a bit of a flap. #5 was another long one, probably with only one real route choice wide to the right with a technically easy but long climb. Some care was needed in the first part of the leg to avoid extra climb but not having my head on straight at that point I went up and down a fair bit, then also had a 15s miss attacking the control. With the long uphill this leg suited Marty and he was about 5min quicker over the 1.9km leg! I lost another 45s at #6 (bad contouring) so by the end of the 3km(!) #7 Marty was only 30s back - I was pleased to drop only 1:20 over 3km including a 75m climb out of the control and a gel while stopped at #6. More or less held my own from there to the end although I had one more big time loss on #9 where there was an unmapped fence. Everybody would have encountered it but they all seem to have coped with it better - my GPS says I took 45s to get my bearings and confirm that I hadn't done something really stupid.

Control pick-up.

Run with Marty's group. As usual it was a bit faster than I should be going for an easy run - it felt comfortable but my HR tells the story. Finished with hill bounding.

Lunchtime run doing Crooked Straight map reading again. Was feeling fairly flat later on. Hit the gym for calves - trying hard to not let the rehab slide.

Seated calves 3 x 8 @ 15kg
Straight leg calves 1 x 8 @ 70kg, 2 x 8 @ 65kg

A couple of easy laps of the XC track at Stromlo to keep the km's coming. The last one uphill back to home felt hard.

Back to the gym.

Squats 4 x 5 @ 70kg ↑
Deadlift 4 x 5 @ 65kg ↑
Reverse lunge 4 x 5 @ 18kg
Single leg RDL 4 x 5 @ 18kg
Low row 3 x 8 @ 40kg
Chin-ups 4 x 5
Push-ups 3 x 12
Seated calf isometrics 4 x 40s @ 15kg

Borrowed a session from mountain running rep Sam Burridge, although I shortened it, 5 x 3min hills with 90s jog down. Overcooked the first couple of hundred metres of rep #1 but managed to find a good pace for the remainder. Was well and truly cooked by the end of the last one: legs were fading and was feeling nauseous for the last 30s. Not so much fun running up the main road though, it has no verge in a lot of places and most of the cars seemed to be fanging it.

Cool-down back down via the main road and then the ALJ memorial track, and then into the ANBG for hill bounding. That was a struggle after the session.

Easy run on Stromlo while reading a copy of the old Crooked Straight map and planning routes on a course I'd set on it. Did part in terrain and on the single track to provide some challenge to continuous map reading.