Training Log Archive: Craig

Last day of Easter. Heart was good, navigation was good, legs not great but as good as could be expected. 7th on the day and 10th overall so a pretty good result given my lack of fitness and heart issues on the first 2 days.

C1 Day 4 - Splits

Long day of Easter. Was feeling confident that my heart was going to be good today and it was. Happy with 1 but made a right mess of 2. Ran straight over some rock surfaces without recognising them, only realised I was off course when I jumped down a cliff and thought "that really should be mapped". Knew where I must be straight away but then overshot badly when trying to correct and took a bit longer to work it out the second time. I think my brain might have still been in 1:15,000 mode despite having actually checked the scale on the map as I picked it up.

Decided to take the direct approach to 3 going between the cliffs, below the big boulders, over the rock surface with a cliff and across to the rock surface on the next spur. Noticed a control on the first rock surface and thought it was a bit close to mine so I checked the number and was surprised to find it was mine. Pretty sure it was wrong but after my effort on 2 I didn't want to jump to conclusions. Graham confirmed my suspicions when I passed him a bit later.

No problems with the rest of the course. Could see Bruce up ahead on the way to 4 and could tell he had pulled away from me a bit. Didn't see him again until 23 where I saw him leaving as I approached. I thought the gap was about the 2 minutes he started ahead of me and it turns out I punched 23 one second ahead of him. Tried to push hard on the next couple of legs but I was starting to tire a bit and really struggled on the last longer leg after the fence crossing losing 35 seconds to Bruce.

Happy with the run overall and would have been 6th on the day but it all meant nothing in the end as the course was cancelled due to 3 being wrong so instead of moving up to 7th overall I stay in 15th.

C1 Day 3 - Splits

Easter middle distance. Started pretty slowly and hit the first couple ok. Slight hesitation on 3 set my heart off and it was a struggle from there. Passed by Grant (2min) just after 4 and the rest of the course was mostly a mix of walking and slow jogging. Caught tRicky (8min) at 7 and led him to 8 but he passed me on the way to 9 and stayed in front the rest of the way just making enough mistakes for me to stay in touch.
Seemed like a nice area but I was going too slowly to really enjoy it.

C1 Day 2 - Splits

Event: Frazzle Rock Easter 2011
 

Easter prologue. Heart started playing up as soon as I got to the start area. Not a big problem for the first few controls but struggled once I started going up some hills. Lost about 30 seconds on the cliff before the spectator control. Wasn't certain of where I was coming down the hill but did stop and look at the right cliff. Didn't see the control so headed down towards the fence to relocate then saw it on the way back up after finally checking the description and seeing it was at the western foot just out of sight from where I first stopped.

Day 1 (Prologue) Long - Splits

Thought I should remind myself how to run. Just to Moola Rd and back with a few drills and strides. Felt pretty good.

C • Left right 1

Wasting away. Down 5.1kg since I stopped training. Didn't think I had that much muscle to lose.

C • I have 4

Event: Hill Park Dale
 

Aborted attempt at running the H3 at Hill Park Dale.
Not feeling very interested at the start but went ok up to 4 but when it wasn't there I kind of lost interest. Spent 10 minutes finding the control and trying to decide what to do about it. Ended up leaving the control where it was and putting a drinking cup on a stick where it should have been. Carried on to 7 but wasn't really into it so headed back from there to tell the organisers about number 4.

Prologue training course. Pretty good through the easy stuff up to 8 then a poor approach to 9 put me a bit behind with the navigation and I was very scrappy through 10 and 11 before finishing off ok. Heart getting a bit unsettled towards the end but not a major problem.

Sprint - Splits

Calves a bit tight still but not really sore anymore. Pushed a bit harder in the second half and felt ok.

Easy run out powerline to Martin Rd, past back of transfer station and home by rehab return route. Calves a bit sore but otherwise not feeling too bad .

Event: Bridges Fun Run
 

Warm up for Bridges Fun Run. Heart started playing up when I coughed crossing Victoria Ave after about 9 minutes.

Bridges Fun Run. Started towards the back of A group as I knew I was going to struggle to break 40 with my heart already playing up. Wasn't feeling particularly comfortable sitting on 4min/km but I recognised Rachel's breathing and foot strike over my left shoulder so I tried to go around people as they slowed to encourage Rachel not to drop off the pace. I don't think she took any notice. Struggled into the wind over the causeway just trying not to lose too much time before the downwind leg.

Tried to lift the pace as I turned off the bridge to go with the wind and I definitely started to move past people again here. Picked up a bit of time and hit 5k in spot on 20 minutes but I was starting to struggle to hold sub 4 while still being pushed along by the howling tailwind so sub 40 was looking out of reach. Still felt tight in my chest going with the wind but it was just staying the same so I started to wonder if it was just because I was running at the limits of my current fitness.

Reached 8k in 31:57 but when I hit the climb onto the narrows it hit back hard and almost knocked me out. A couple of groups went past like I was standing still and I thought about giving up and walking in but it felt better when I crested the hill so I pushed on. This is typical of my heart problem, I can run reasonably well if there is little resistance but as soon as I have to work hard I'm screwed. Looked for Rachel going on and off the Narrows and was disappointed to see how far back she was, I expected her to be passing me.

A guy passing me told me I had to do the last km in 3:55 to break 40 but there was no way I could do that into the wind and he was wrong anyway because my 9k split was 36:20. Couldn't even manage a sprint finish doing 4:30/km down the finish chute. Felt quite ill as I crossed the line and decided I shouldn't enter any more races like this.

Checked my pulse just after finishing and confirmed it was irregular but it was about another 20 minutes before I started having significant dizzy spells.

I feel strangely inclined to start training harder now.

Had the GPS doing auto 1k splits but they were a bit dodgy around the narrows. Real splits would have been something like...

3:59 3:59
8:06 4:07
12:15 4:09
16:10 3:55
20:00 3:50
23:54 3:54
27:51 3:57
31:57 4:06
36:20 4:23
40:33 4:13

Not sure my official result will be correct as my race number was 228 but the RFID tag on the back was number 229.

C • Not bad Craig 2

Trying to jog my heart back into rhythm. Didn't work but my legs felt pretty good anyway.

Down to the oval for 2k in 8:40 + 6x200 in 46 with 1min recoveries. Only did a couple of 200s on the oval then a few more similar efforts on the way home.
4:20 felt like about 10k pace but then so did the 200s so maybe I can go a bit faster. A dog stepped on my heel and pulled my shoe off about 600m into the 2k which was a bit annoying as I was just starting to get into a rhythm.
Raining as I set out but only lasted a few seconds. I think it rained a bit more but so light you hardly noticed.

Tried to go for a run but just wasn't up to it today. Heart was fine but I was tired and unmotivated so I cut it short and walked lots.

Followed Oscar around course 1. Thought I might get to just run the course on my own when I had lost sight of him by the top of the first hill about 400m in but then he popped up next to me about a minute later. Nice long recovery through 1 and 2 then got dropped again on the way to 3 but had a long rest at 3 while I waited for Oscar to find it. Rest of the course was not too hard as it was pretty flat and I don't think Oscar was ever very sure about where he was going. Mostly resisted the urge to tell him.

C • Done 1

Following Oscar again. Much easier run with much wandering in circles. Couldn't resist giving a bit of advice this time, possibly should have given more.

Putting out tapes at Malmalling SW. Nice terrain, seemed like they would be fun courses to run. Took a fair bit of time cross checking a few of them just to make sure I was getting it right. Heart quite bad at times but usually just short bursts.

Ran around most of course 2 to show Ben and Shane how I would do it. Cut out the loop through 6-7-8 going straight from 5-9. Distance is straight line and time approximate.
Ran pretty solidly and heart was good so I really enjoyed this. I'm always worried about making a fool of myself doing this sort of thing but fortunately everything I said I was going to do seemed to work out this time and I made them work hard to keep up.

Finally got a little bit of sleep, although Amy still made me get up at 1:45am, so I dragged myself out to do the 5k loop (6:17, 8:23, 6:30, 3:23).
Felt quite good so I decided to see how fast I could do the last km. Made it home ok but heart wasn't too pleased about it when I stopped. Felt like a 3:00 effort but only managed 3:23.
Huge dead roo on Moola Rd.