Training Log Archive: Craig

Was feeling slightly optimistic before getting up as nothing was really hurting while lying in bed but when I got up both achilles felt a bit stiff and sore. Right achilles was particularly sore early on and also feeling a hint of plantar fasciitis in the right foot.

After about 10 minutes of stiff sore hobbling up the hill I was just about ready to give up and walk home when a couple of runners overtook me. Of course I lifted the pace as they went past and within a few seconds I had gone from everything hurting and 7:15/km feeling like a struggle to nothing hurting and 5:30/km up the same slope feeling easy.

After a couple of km stalking them I thought I'd better talk to them or I might seem a bit creepy. They had only been here for a couple of days of a one month visit from NSW and didn't have a clue where they were going so were grateful to have a tour guide to get them back to Monash Ave in 10km and give directions to nearby 50m swimming pools.

Amazing how good the rest of that run felt considering how bad it felt for the first 10 minutes where I was on my own. Need to remember that the next time I try to talk myself out of joining the Rosalie group.

Stiff and sore to begin with again but got rolling ok a bit earlier than usual. Right ankle a bit sore most of the way but wasn't noticing it at the end.

Through UWA and around the river for a bit to see who was running in the Christchurch 12k. Pretty stiff and sore early on and didn't really get going until the last 10 minutes when it suddenly started to feel really easy.

Event: Gosnells - NavDash
 

Easy run in KP with Rachel during Amy's tennis lesson.

Easy run around KP. Achilles felt better today. Still a bit sore around outside of right ankle and maybe a bit stiff around tib-fib joint.

Around KP on a mix of hard and soft surfaces finishing at the tennis club to take Liam home from his lesson. Felt much harder than I would have liked for the pace I was going. Pain in right achilles early gradually moved around to outside of ankle.

Over to the tennis courts to check on the kids while Rachel played her club champs doubles. They weren't particularly happy so I ended up running home with Amy to get my tennis racquet and her bike. Had a bit of an unavoidable delay at home so by the time we got back to the tennis club Rachel and Liam had already gone. Continued on for a lap of Rosalie Park with Amy on her bike and me carrying a tennis racquet. Just got over my arbitrary 20 minute minimum.

Still trying to build a habit. Not feeling like a particularly habit forming activity yet.

Just trying to keep building the habit.

Pennants Grand Final.
Didn't get off to a good start with Brad and I losing our first set 0-4 and Rhett losing his 1-4. We both fought back to take it into a third with Brad and I winning and Rhett going down so 1-1 after the first round.

Second round I sat off while Brad played singles and Rhett & Dan doubles. Rhett & Dan followed our lead losing the first set 0-4 before coming back to win in 3. Brad mixed it up by winning the first set and then losing the second 0-4. His third set came down to a sudden death point at 4-4 in the tie-breaker to decide the match (and potentially the title) which he won to give us a 3-1 lead.

Going into the final round we were still behind on games so we needed to win one of the final two matches or we would lose on countback. Brad sat out this round while Rhett & I played doubles and Dan singles. Rhett & I played a great match and seemed to have all the luck go our way as well to win 4-0 4-2 while Dan ground out a really hard fought 4-3 4-2 win to give us a deceptively comfortable looking 5-1 victory in the end.

Great night of tennis to finish a great season. Really even competition all played in a really good spirit. We ended up winning our last 11 matches in a row without ever feeling as though we were favourites.

Feeling really stiff and sore last night, particularly around left knee/ITB so I wasn't sure I would be able to run at all today. Still stiff and sore in the morning but once I started running I never felt the left knee at all and the achilles were not too bad. Left achilles a bit sore at the start then switched to the right after 15 minutes but all fairly mild. Felt a bit better generally than I have been so ran a bit faster too.

Club champs. Lost singles 0-6 0-6 against the defending champ. I didn't really play that badly and most games went to 30 or deuce but I just kept throwing in a couple of loose points every single game.
Lost mixed doubles 2-6 4-6 with Rachel against Betsy & Jaimes.

Lesson with Shaun.
Brad was having a lesson with Matt at the same time so I had a few minutes warm up with him first.
Things to remember; keep racquet head up on volleys, get back and set earlier for overheads, stop and hit the approach shot when coming in rather than running through it.

Short loop in KP after work although it didn't really feel that short to me. A bit sore around right achilles again but seemed to be just the achilles not the ankle this time. Not sure if that is a positive or negative development.

Hobble around KP with a sore right achilles/ankle.

Rosalie run but did the short loop with (sort of) Helen and Susan because my right ankle was feeling a bit dodgy. Ended up about 100m ahead of Helen and Susan by the war memorial because it wasn't comfortable to run as slowly as them but on the way back I was about 100m behind instead.

Easy run around KP after work. Feeling pretty stiff and tired. Might try to start training a bit more regularly again to see if that helps.

Pennants semi final against Mt Lawley.
Played the first doubles with Brad and last with Rhett and sat out of the singles so all 4 of us could have a game. Didn't play badly with Brad but lost all the deciding points to go down 4-1 4-2. Rhett and Daniel were doing really well by throwing up lots of lobs so I tried to learn from that in the final doubles with Rhett and went for the lob any time I was under pressure. We had a little lapse in the second set but mostly felt in control winning 4-0 3-4 4-1.
Overall we got up 5-1 and go on to play the other Mt Lawley team in the final next week.

Parent & child doubles. First round was against Liam's singles quarter final opponent and his dad so fairly even but we won comfortably 4-1 4-1 I think. Next round was against the 3rd seeds Deb & Emily Singleton. Deb is much better than me and Emily was top seed in the under 16 girls so I thought we would struggle to win a game. They won their first round 4-1 4-0 against Gunesh & Lavinia who I thought would be better than us so we celebrate a bit when I held serve to get on the board in the 3rd game. We went on to break back and win the first set in a tie breaker which maybe got Liam's hopes up a bit too much as he started getting upset with me after all my mistakes after that. They lifted their game to win the second set 4-0 and go up 2-0 in the third. We broke back and had our chances to level it but ended up going down 4-1. I think we probably pushed them a lot harder than they expected and they certainly seemed impressed with Liam's ability to hold his own considering he usually plays orange ball.

Event: Whiteman Park Village - NavDash
 

NavDash at Whiteman Park.
Made a mess of the middle part of the course and never felt good running.

Went for a bit of a run after work before picking Liam up from tennis. Wasn't feeling up to much so just jogged around the ovals, stretched a bit and did a little loop in KP with a few short hill sprints near the end.

Most of the Rosalie run. Struggled getting out of bed and needed a few stops to stretch on the walk over to the school so I was only at the corner of the school oval when the group came past.

Ran with Richard for the first few minutes discussing sleeping problems then a group of 4 girls broke clear on the run down to UWA. I surged up the little hill to bring the boys back up but stopped at the back of the group while Dan and Simon kept going and took Kate with them.

I then ran with Stewie for a while talking about my sore achilles and contemplating cutting the run short. We were approaching the split and I had just decided I would follow Nina when she stopped to tie her shoelaces so I had no choice but to keep going with Stewie on the longer loop.

We were now about 100m behind Kate, Dan and Simon so I tried to lift the pace a little to start clawing them back but they just seemed to keep edging away. When we got to the river Nic and James? had caught up and started discussing which of the 3 leaders was forcing the pace. Kate seemed to be on the front but I suspect Daniel was surging to encourage her.

I can never resist a challenge so by the time we crossed the road I was starting to pull away from the chase group a bit and once I started up the steps into KP it was on for real. Kate doesn't like to push the hills because of her heart issues so I caught her on the first climb but the boys were already well clear. I saw Simon on the next hill and he seemed to be struggling a little so I went hard to catch him on the climb but probably overcooked it a bit trying to get him before the top.

I was really suffering through the flattish section and needed to recover on the descent but I could see Daniel now and I knew he would go hard up the steep hill so I wanted to close up before the bottom. I was suffering enough to be doing deals with myself to take it easy from the top of the climb but I knew it was just mind games and when Daniel slowed at the top of the climb there was no way I was going to let the opportunity slip. Once you make the pass pride compels you to keep it going so I had to keep pushing all the way through to the war memorial.

As usual I told myself I would stay at the back of the group and jog it home and as usual I found myself surging up the hill after Hale oval to take the lead. When I got to the top I could hear heavy breathing coming up behind me and knew it had to be Daniel. Nobody else in the group is as stupidly competitive as us. I hadn't been going really hard so as he got close I tortured him by slowly increasing the pace to stay a couple of steps ahead until he finally cracked just before Saw Ave.

I took it easy for a while to let Daniel catch up but Nic came through just before the regroup and I went ahead again with him. He started asking about my recent 5k efforts and when I said I hadn't done one in a while he said he thought I could probably run about 17:30! I like to think I could go close to 18:30 on a good day but no way in the world would I be going under 18.

C • 17:30 3

Took Liam over to Maylands tennis club for a Tennis Australia 8 & under talent development camp. There was a talk for parents on flow state which I was quite looking forward to but I found it pretty disappointing. Seemed to be more about selling the benefits of it without much practical advice on learning to achieve it.

Pennants vs Bull Creek
Played crap. Lessons obviously a waste of time.
We still managed to win and remain top of the table somehow despite my best efforts to sabotage us.

A lap of KP then around the river to Dalkeith tennis club where Liam was playing pennants. Right achilles a bit sore all the way. I think it might be starting from the hip area which was feeling a bit tingly at times.

With Liam on the grass courts to give him a chance to get used to playing with yellow balls on a full court in preparation for the parent and child doubles at the club champs. It took him a little while to find his range on his serve but I think he will be fine. I was more impressed with Liam's play here than in his orange ball pennants in the morning, where he won all 4 of his matches 10-1 or 10-2 to finish the regular season undefeated in singles. He hits the ball better than me a lot of the time.

Ran from home to City Beach then hit the surf with the family. Steady pace to Perry Lakes then pretty hard over the hill on Oceanic. Legs moving easily enough but rather lacking in bounce.

Botanic gardens hills x 15.

Lesson with Shaun. Focus on cross court forehand.

Easy lap of KP with Ivan after work. Ran past someone in a top end orienteers shirt on the sand track.

Lesson with Shaun. All backhand today. Still needs a lot more work.

Easy ride around Nedlands and Dalkeith by myself. Quite nice but by halfway through I was wishing I had put cycling shorts on.

Darlington loop with Rachel from Lois & Rob's house and finishing up Glen Forrest Drive.