Training Log Archive: markg

A pinch and a punch for the first rest day of the month.

Everything feels pretty good after the weekend. Didn't get the familiar hungover feeling after a big weekend of races. Bet it was it was the big burrito with Andrew and Jarrah at Bathurst afterwards that got me sorted :)

NOL Long at Hill End. 11th and 24.18 down on Matt Doyle. This was a race with some ups and downs for me! Paced myself pretty conservatively and was able to finish quite strongly but at the same time I rarely felt like I was actually racing. Had a few physical issues. On the way out of #7 I literally ran into the corner of the broken down fence on the edge of the OOB. I managed to hit the end of a rusty old star picket end-on with my shin, slicing it up pretty well. One cut looked sort of bad but not that deep so I decided to keep going, see how it was going when I was closer to the assembly area. It hurt pretty bad for a while but eventually settled and when I checked it later it wasn't bleeding so I just kept on trucking. The other physical problem was I got a plantarfasciitis thing in my left foot around #16. Stretching the foot and calf didn't help so on the way to #17 I had to stop and massage the sole of my foot and thankfully that resolved it. Pushed a bit harder from #17 onwards and was hitting things fairly well but slowed a fair bit in the tricky last section in the mining. Still lost a bit of time on #25 but did better than some people here. Enjoyable race apart from the fence incident, particularly the mixture of terrains, not something I've encountered much in races. I would like to be fit and strong enough to actually race a long distance though. Pretty happy with my nav, although I need more practice in mining to be more aggressive and confident.

Event: National Orienteering Leagues 1&2 / NSW State Leagues 1&2
 

NOL Relay at Hill End, 2nd leg for Cockies 2 and we came 2nd behind Cockies 1! Jarrah ran first leg and brought us in 6th about 4min behind the leading pack. I didn't really have my head into the terrain on the first leg but managed to limit my damages but it allowed a NSW junior team to get on my tail. Cautious but fine through #2 then headed right of the buildings on the long uphill leg. The NSW kid came charging up alongside in the steep section early but I reckon he stayed on the track while I stuck closer to the line and I never saw him again. Went left on the return long leg, which may have been slower but worked well for me and gave me a nice line into the control and I jumped up into 3rd place. Struggled to make any sense of the detail on the one after the spectator, managed just before descending into the mess but lost my cool and deviated from my plan, ran around like the proverbial chicken for a bit before relocating off a taped pit. Was caught by Dante Afnan here and chased him around the last section, thankfully he was running M20, and brought us in in 3rd place. Andrew than had a great run to pull us up into 2nd.

Easy jog with 4 strides. Feeling lethargic.

Bit of running around at Blue Lightning training.

Core + glute stability + achilles