Training Log Archive: Craig

Event: Oceania 2019
 

Oceania Sprint Champs.
A scrappy run with lots of little time losses but nothing major. Lost a bit more than I thought on a couple of legs. Would have had to be a really good run to place any higher.

Course 4 - Splits

Short easy run in KP after work. Legs feeling slightly more lively than yesterday but still a little sore at times.

Easy lap of KP after work. Ivan ran yesterday and didn't bring his gear so I rode home and ran from there. Kept it very slow and didn't feel too bad. Right Achilles did get a bit sore at times.

Event: WA Long Championships Bush 13 Abercorn Road
 

Warm up.

WA Long Champs at Abercorn Road.
Took it slowly and carefully to 1 but struggled with the tough terrain going out of it and never really made a plan for 2. Felt out of control until I saw the fence corner and collected myself a bit on the way down the tracks along the fence and through the clearings and navigated quite nicely into 5. Had no idea I was at 5 until I saw the code was wrong when I went to punch. Fortunately it wasn't a bad route towards 2 but It got me a little flustered and I didn't really feel back in control until after the climb up to 4 which I thought I did fine but it shows up as a mistake and I was slowest on the course although not by much. I had realised by now that it was going to be a long tough grind so I was looking to conserve energy by avoiding climb and green as much as possible and stay comfortable rather than forcing the pace.
Caught sight of Andries ahead at 7 and passed him heading out of 9. I expected him to stay with me but he dropped off a bit pretty early on the way to 10. I maybe pushed it a bit hard along the tracks trying to make sure I got clear as I had times when I wasn't at all sure I had taken the right path but I ended up where I wanted to be and saw Sten leaving 10 as I approached.
Caught up to Sten at 12 and followed him down the hill before getting past by cutting a few corners. Thought I might have got away from Sten by 13 but I had a little trouble spotting the boulder that was right in front of me and saw Sten heading for it as I was leaving. I thought he might catch me on the way up to 14 but he had more trouble spotting 13 than me even though it looked to me as though he was watching me punch it.
Saw John heading away from 14 which motivated me to run a bit more of the hill just because I thought I had seen him running those bits. I didn't know it at the time but our next 3 controls were the same and I had almost caught him by 17 where we split but without actually seeing him much in between. Last couple were pretty easy. Tried to push the finish a bit and got the fastest on my course but it was lucky Liam had a different last control as I'm sure he would have flogged me.
I was conscious that I hadn't seen tRicky and had wondered if he was still in front or I had passed him without seeing him. I thought there was a lot of the course where he would be faster than me but also plenty of opportunities for him to lose time so really wasn't sure. When I finished he was waiting there but hadn't been waiting for long enough so I got the win by 4.5 minutes.

C • Liam (again) 4

Collecting controls. I rejected the offer of the furthest West controls because I thought my Achilles wouldn't be able to handle it and went for 11 close controls in the tough section South of the start. While I was out there Rachel ran past heading for some further out controls including a big drinks control. I was feeling a bit guilty about that so tried to head out to help her carry the water back. I thought she would leave the water to last and then come back up the way I saw her going down so I ran down that way but didn't see her and the water was gone. I did eventually find her but it wasn't far from home so a lot of effort without being much help.
Actually got through this without much pain at all which surprised me a lot. Probably would have been fine getting the further out controls.

Course 1 - Splits