Training Log Archive: O-ing

Physio: finally got the knee looked at. Some serious issues here - Right knee 8 degrees less extension than the left, and R glute is much weaker than left. The former is probably what is causing calf tightness and generally the hamstring is overworked. Has to be fixed if I am to keep running.

Exercises:
* clams (with theraband)
* leg swing sideways with theraband
* leg swing backwards with theraband
* extend knee on towel while engaging VMO
* later, extend knee while engaging VMO (towel under ankle)

Shoulder is much improved, 90% recovered. Need to do some:
* straight pull backs (shoulder down)

St Leonards. Mostly on grass, using the 2 ovals. Thursday last week seems to have been an aberration, felt good today. Still a long way to go to get properly fit though.

C • 8

Event: Sydney Series #1 and Junior League #4
 

Stanford Scrubs, Kurri. Red 2. 5.5 Okm. 1st by 8 minutes, but no Newcastle Oers on the course. Ran and navigated quite well. A few minor muddles on a nice, difficult and challenging flat area (nice underfoot).

Didn't leave my AP in the right direction to 3 and lucky to get it on the way back to the nearest track (-1:30). Missed 6 (again poor direction from AP) - 30 secs. A bit lucky on no. 13, was about to go back to the track when I spotted it. Got tired at the end.
Red2 (12) 5.5 km 70 m 15 C
1 Eoin R*thery (VM) BF N 41:55
2 Graeme Dawson (VM) GO N 50:09
3 Paul Prudhoe (SVM) CC N 51:04
4 Nick Dent (SVM) CC N 51:50
5 Mark Shingler (VM) BF N 55:40
6 Jim Merchant (LM) GO N 56:46
7 Larry Weiss (VM) GO N 58:35
8 Ron Junghans (LM) GO N 1:08:44
9 Chippy Le Carpentier (LM)GO N 1:10:43
10 Jim Forbes (SVM) GO N 1:11:35
11 Dmitry Stukov NO NE 1:12:27
12 Lisa Lampe (VW) UR N 1:27:34

Maitland Park. Test run, breathing still dodgy but legs OK - hamstrings a little tight but a lot better than Thu.

Wow. RUDD and FRANCE GONE in the space of a couple of days. What a wonderful world!!!!!!!!

C • Justice 4

To Work. Horrible run, started slow and couldn't lift the pace. Hamstrings, glutes, lower back and right calf all sore and tight.

Got some new exercises for the rotator cuff injury:
Towel under arm, robot arm out and turn outwards
Elbow to shoulder
shoulder blade squeeze
push ups off knees or fit ball
start the lawnmower with stretch cord

From Work. Need to get this comeback kick started. Took a few wrong turns in the back streets of Chatswood - it had gotten dark by then, so needed to find quiet streets where I could run on the road not the footpath.

C • Quicker than driving? 2

Fantastik! Great to see a team in green bury and humiliate the French at the World Cup. Karma Plus.

Usual work out. Rotator Cuff still progressing. Cold improving.

Waiting on Routegadget (Otrack) and splits to analyse last weekend QBIII.

C • Did you Orienteer at Dubbo or .. 2

Sappa Bulga. QBIII Day 3, Middle. 13th on the course. Totally flummoxed on no. 1 when I came across a control I couldn't place on the map (but was on the straight line to mine). It was on "bare rock", where I thought it was in a gully. Had made the vital mistake earlier when I deviated from my original route choice which was to go around the back. I saw a little path that I thought was on the straight line to the control (it was) and took it. But the reason I hadn't chosen to go that way inb the first place was because it looked difficult to interpret the map. And how.

After that got navigating all right, running still restricted and ran out of energy. Must have also lost my ability to follow va rough bearing (east) by no 16, because I hit no. 17 first. At least that gave me my only fastest split of the day.

Don't ask me what happened at no. 14, I don't know.

M50A (15) 4.5 km 160 m 18 C
1 184 Ian Prosser 60 AO A 45:25
2 105 Russell Blatchford 59 NC N 50:35
3 70 Grant McDonald 57 AO A 52:56
4 55 Phil Walker 58 PO A 55:58
5 197 Malcolm Roberts 58 NC N 56:28
6 284 David Poland 59 BS A 56:54
7 124 Alex Davey 57 WR N 60:34
8 172 Eoin R*thery 56 BF N 60:55
9 26 James Lithgow 55 GO N 62:47

Sappa Bulga. QBIII Day 2. Butchered no. 1 - the theme for the weekend. Another mental failing to fix! I've had a good run in recent years of fast starts, usually with the fastest split. This seems to have deserted me temporarily. This time the mistake was not looking at the compass. Contoured round the first hill to the saddle - but was too high, missed the saddle and kept going till I was heading south instead of northwest.

Didn't get my attackpoint at 7, so lost more time there. Breathing severely restricted by cold. 15th (!) on the course.
M50A (15) 6.0 km 230 m 12 C
1 70 Grant McDonald 57 AO A 57:45
2 157 Mark Darvodelsky 59 UR N 59:29
3 184 Ian Prosser 60 AO A 64:36
4 105 Russell Blatchford 59 NC N 65:02
5 124 Alex Davey 57 WR N 70:36
6 26 James Lithgow 55 GO N 73:32
7 295 Geoff Peel NC N 76:11
8 284 David Poland 59 BS A 78:02
9 209 Geoff Todkill 57 NC N 78:04
10 14 Tony Garr 57 PO A 78:32
11 172 Eoin R*thery 56 BF N 81:24
12 197 Malcolm Roberts 58 NC N 86:27
13 55 Phil Walker 58 PO A 89:11
14 214 Rod Eckels 59 GO N 92:21
15 98 Peter Effeney 59 UG Q 100:23

Its been a long time, but I've got the monkey off my back. I mispunched for the first time since 1979. How did it happen? Well I made 4 mistakes in the first minute of the event - First I ran off without locating the start triangle. OK, so there was a large out of bounds to my left and everybody else had run off that way, but the result was that on this complex course I was almost halfway to no. 1 before I found the triangle. So, mistake no. 2, I rushed the analysis of the leg and ran to the wrong building, and mistake no. 3, although I did check the code (I routinely check all codes) I rushed it and got it wrong. Finally, mistake no. 4, I failed to realise something was wrong, when I could see no. 2 directly rather than having to go around a building.

I'm reasonably sure that this won't be the start of a trend. I'd hate to think I was joining the ranks of those that mispunch on a regular basis. Actually, the last time I mispunched was a similar case - no. 1 of a multi day event (JK79), the locations were similar (ride junction v veg boundary at the JK, two NE corners of buildings here), the flags were close (34m here), and the codes were similar (244 v 245 here).

The cold was worst on Thursday, but still restricted me here, so happy to get 14 fastest splits from the first 17 controls. Fastest overall by 35 seconds, but it doesn't count. QBIII Day 1
M50A (13) 3.0 km 0 m 21 C
1 70 Grant McDonald 57 AO A 16:03
2 55 Phil Walker 58 PO A 16:37
3 105 Russell Blatchford 59 NC N 16:49
4 197 Malcolm Roberts 58 NC N 17:00
5 124 Alex Davey 57 WR N 17:08
6 26 James Lithgow 55 GO N 17:09
7 157 Mark Darvodelsky 59 UR N 18:00
8 209 Geoff Todkill 57 NC N 18:31
9 98 Peter Effeney 59 UG Q 19:30
10 14 Tony Garr 57 PO A 20:28
11 284 David Poland 59 BS A 20:34
12 295 Geoff Peel NC N 21:39
172 Eoin R*thery 56 BF N 15:28 mp

Injury of the week - while waiting in the physio's waiting room yesterday, was doing some stretches and felt sharp pain in foot. Have been limping since. Massage with feldene gel and pointy ball has seemed to help.

Meanwhile rotator cuff is much improved and I might be out of the woods, but with some way to go.

C • Does it beat the famous Speed Bump Injury? 2

C • I thought you'd want to be ... 2

C • Stretching 2

Out through Lane Cove and on to the M2 bike path. Was dodging the broken bottles quite well, but after 1.6km a little one got me - back tyre puncture. This bike path is only really approriate for MTB/hybrids with kevlar liners in the tyres or some kind of self sealant. Rang home for a lift, which was lucky because it rained like cats and dogs on the way home.
Cold has returned with a vengeance, or it might be a new one.

C • Do you need one of these! 1

Inc. 6 x 5 minutes on, recovery to 125 bpm. Got to the full arm raise yesterday - 180 degree. The whole right arm is sore and weak though, and the shoulder is making clicking noises, so a while to go yet before fully recovered. The cold too is sticking around - had to get up last night at 2am for a Strepsil.

One of the extraordinary things about Gordon Pirie was that although he liked to run fast he also ran long - he set a Guinness World Record for "Greatest Mileage" of 347,600km over 40 years - approx 580 hours per year or 167km per week. How would he compare to modern Attackpointers? Well, a quick search can't really find anyone doing a similar amount (best single years for the APers):

km/year hrs
12,258 ? Herbert Fred
8,690 579 Gordon Pirie
5,065 499 Murray Strain
4,989 400 blairtrewin
4,400 396 gg
4,297 428 Swisscheese
4,278 413 OJ
? 295 GrantM
3,462 281 phatmax
3,308 269 heyU
Edit: - added new contender GrantM. Further edit - Murray Strain, 5th in British national XC
Further edit: added Herbert Fred (ps Amby Burfoot doesn't believe Piries record)

Re "fast" running, I thought I should put this up before this web page disappears completely like some do. Its about Gordon Pirie NZ orienteer (1978 and 1979 World Championships) and Olympic Silver medallist (5000m, Melbourne 1956). Not for everybody but I liked this quote (thinking of XPD etc) - "Anyone can run a long way if they go slowly enough".

Night session (outside light went off after 10 minutes). Includes 10 x 1 minute on, 1 off.

Arm raise up to 90 degrees, half way there.
Also, started Glucosamine again to finish off the jar I bought before Aus Champos last year (and stopped taking after). Might as well use this time off to hit the knee with every possible remedy.