Training Log Archive: Craig

Warm up plus 3 sets of doubles with Damien, Rachel and Liam. First two sets with Damien lost to Rachel and Liam 1-6, 2-6 then one set with Rachel losing to Damien and Liam 4-6. Was I the weak link or is it just that Liam is way better than the rest of us?

C • Weak link 7

Warm up jog/walk in the hope that this would loosen me up enough to be able to run continuously for the race.

Leeming Metro Series.
I'd seen 115 on my warm up and knew it would have to be close to the edge of the map. From a quick glance at the map it seemed a reasonable option to start which would give me a few minutes of straight running to do some planning. Sten started the same way so I was following him until 101 where I had to make a decision. I wasn't sure if you could get through to 122 and the way Sten was heading along the fence didn't look great so I thought I would try cutting the corner to the path but that looked even worse so I backed out and headed out the road to 104. I thought this had really cost me when I saw Sten heading into 104 as I ran out but it actually worked in my favour as it gave me time to work out there were close controls at the West end so I could afford to skip an extra control early. I kept looking behind expecting Sten to catch me but 105-111 was slow for him so I didn't see him until I came into 123 5 seconds behind him.
I was fairly sure we would have the same route to the finish so I needed to outrun him to beat him. I was staying close enough that I thought it might be possible to catch him if I put in a really hard surge but I really didn't want to hurt any more and I knew that if I used my sprint to catch him then I wouldn't have anything left to go again so it would all be for nothing anyway. In hindsight a hard surge as soon as I saw him, when the gap was only 5 seconds, might have been the best option. As it was he edged away and finished 20 seconds clear of me but tRicky came in 30 seconds further ahead after going the opposite direction.

Walk/jog to work. Sort of trying to do 1:30 jog/2:30 walk but not really.

1:30 jog, 2:30 walk. Started with a jog this time since I had just walked home from work. Felt much worse today, mostly due to tightness from pump yesterday I think. Finding 1:30 jogs much harder to cope with than 1min so I think I might go back to 1min and shorten the walks instead.

Pump with CC.

1:15/2:45 run/walk this time. Already starting to treat it too much like an interval session rather than a rehab session.

3min walk, 1min jog again. Used the walk/run alerts on the garmin this time but that starts with a run which I didn't want to do so I just walked the first 4 minutes. Jogged a couple of extra bits where the downhill was too steep or the sand too soft to walk comfortably. Didn't feel as good as yesterday but still really enjoyed some runs in the middle and would have been happy to keep going. Hip stiff again but didn't seem to get progressively worse like yesterday.

15 x 3min walk, 1min jog.
This was much more enjoyable than my other recent attempts at running. By about the third jog I was starting to feel quite comfortable and actually looked forward to the rest of the running sections. A little pain under the left heel and around the right achilles early on but both improved. Right hip felt a little stiff early on and just kept getting worse. Noticed the hip more while walking than running.