Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

A bit behind on the plan for the day so just time for a short one, but planning on either orienteering tomorrow or a long run (depending on whether I'm up in time for a drive to Huriwai! Over to Porritt, 2.5 laps of the park specifically putting in a bit of effort on the 'hills', then back home again.

Waiwhakareke. Legs were a little heavy (however did that happen?) and I seemed to want to plunge into the green at every available opportunity at least in the western part of the map (sensible track running as much as possible for the middle half of the course though). So was never going to be quick, and not exactly helped by a high risk route choice to #1 which backfired for about 3 or 4 minutes.

C • leg 1 2

Eastside, Handicap this week. I stuck with the idea of aiming for 24 mins even if events of the weekend suggest I should have been more ambitious. Apparently I was the only one aiming for 24, so started alone (which makes that opening climb feel SO much harder) and spent far too much of the course just behind or just ahead of others rather than actually with them. But it all came together, and given how close I was to making a bit of a mess of their fancy timing mat, I definitely should NOT have been more ambitious.

tough before and after!

I couldn't convince the few team members who'd stayed on for a 2nd night that a recovery run would be a good idea, especially not myself, but we went for a lovely walk around Rotopounamu. Still undecided whether this is something I can log as a session, but if I do it will certainly bump the slow twitch score up a bit - Project Tongariro are obviously doing fine work up there.

Warm-up, while trying to get the bundle of nerves out of my system (the downside of being part of a team performing well above expectations to this stage) and out of 'captain' mode and into 'just another runner' mode. Then just as much warm down as I could manage, which wasn't much!

Length Of The Lake relay; Leg 4, Mission Bay to Hatepe Reserve.
I... well, really I'm still a bit speechless. Don't know where I pulled that one out from....

C • Nice pace ! 8

Length Of The Lake Relay (Pukawa to Taupo). Fantastic day, great experience, and an awesome team that I'm so proud to be part of. We managed to get together a full crew of 8 (so no double legs required), mostly from the office but a couple of ring-ins who are now well and truly honorary DOC. Official results won't be posted til Monday, but according to our support crew Vic's cellphone stopwatch we covered the 67km in about 5 hours 36. (I'm still not convinced that she didn't accidentally turn it off for a bit during my leg though!) That's about half an hour ahead of the total of our most optimistic targets for each leg and if I remember right, about 12 minutes off a place on the podium.

Event: Great Lake Relay
 

The other 'half' of Karioi trap line. Very hot especially in the open bits which there is much more of than I expected. One or two sections I would not have wanted to do by myself first time, and even now that I have done them, I could still well imagine freezing up on the descent. Sometimes I wonder if I'm in the right line of work for someone with major heights/confidence issues...! Anyway, even though this is definitely the shorter 'half' of the line, I think i've done enough for the day - as much as I enjoy running around the university, orienteering later doesn't really feel like an option...

Eastside: Had planned to take it fairly easy this week, with another day up Karioi tomorrow, the relay in the weekend and calf base feeling a little twingy beforehand. But failed a bit on that count, which I'll blame on not getting my stopwatch started in time to be useful (as if I know anything about pacing to targeted split times anyway) and getting into a bit of a fast bunch for the first km (yeah, I could have dropped back, but sometimes you find yourself tucked in behind someone that you're quite happy to stay tucked in behind for a while...) Not a bad time in the end, but was suffering immediately after. Seem ok now.

They're talking about doing a handicap next week. Wondering if I should aim for 24 min, haven't cracked that one yet this summer - probably won't if it's as hot again as today.

Struggled to keep the legs ticking over in the warm-up, struggled to keep on my feet in the warm-down (but at least it wasn't me who left the pub in an ambulance during the prize-draw)

Something must be going right if I can accidentally but comfortably turn what was going to be a shorter session into an hour+ (and distance very roughly measured to be at least 13 and a half km) run (though I may have to put knees back on the body parts to monitor/look after list). If I could ever revisit this (which I'm not sure I could as I wasn't always sure where I was going) I guess I'd call it the 'Long Parks Loop', as from home I connected up Raymond, Porritt, Bankwood (and one or two other anonymous little green spaces along the Fairfield/Chartwell frontier), Donny (just), Days, the riverbank between Dio and Fairfield bridge, Ranfurly and Claudelands Parks, with the longest continuous road bit probably being the 15 minute haul back from Claudelands Bush to home. Some good little ups and downs of various intensity in there too.

I think I saw a bellbird fly across the road in front of me at one point. Not completely convinced but it would be cause for excitement if it was. (45, after some thought put into eliminating the only possible alternatives, definitely not a greenfinch, and almost definitely not a silvereye)

Visit to relay venue, and getting quite a few more control sites than I'd expected to narrowed down to 'the spot'. Boy-o-boy. Boy-o-boy-o-boy-o-boy....

Fieldwork again - rat traps at Te Tapui, a place I probably would be barely aware of otherwise but turns out to be one of the loveliest bits of lowland tawa forest around. A bit hillier than Pehitawa but definitely not Karioi, so I kinda feel like I'd be cheating to log the hours - especially as with the 50m rat trap spacing you can be out for a good chunk of the day but hardly cover any distance. Although Briar wins the prize for first member of our field crew to realise that an extra person means another back to carry some of the camera batteries around on, so pack was a little bit heavier today.

Mt Karioi from the south side up to the summit and most of the way along the summit ridge (then returning). Stopping every 100 'flexible' metres to check a trap on the way up, but continuous on the way down. Was worried it would be a mission keeping up with Luke, but he let me lead (as the idea was to test that someone else would be able to pick up the trapline if he ever needed a 'fill-in'). Fantastic views, nice forest. A tomtit pood on my hand and there were little house mice running around the boulders at the summit (44)

Putting out controls at Resthills Reserve... and Resthills Park - apparently the name depends on which end you approach it from... Starting out at a nice relaxed '1', probably up to a 3 or 4 by the time it was all done, but once the last control was out there was magically plenty of time again. Seems like everyone had fun, and nobody noticed all the mistakes I'd made with the map so I wouldn't get asked to make another one, dammit. ;-) Next time I'm setting, especially if I'm likely again to end up on the start again all evening, I might just check for potential mosquito swarms first...

Didn't have to collect a single control afterwards - a truly successful event then!

C • Mistakes 4

Eastside - I think my best time this summer, or close to, when I was expecting a tough slow one. (Still a minute-ish off the pb zone though)

As far as I can recall... (and with maths trhough the exertion-filter, maybe I'll get a decent stopwatch one day)
1st km c 4:50
2nd km c 4:50
3rd km a little over 5:00 (a mixture of intentional easing off and ..less intentional)
the kilometre of truth 5:00 spot on (dropped by the bunch I'd been with, which may have been a good thing!)
last km c 4:40

C • *2nd best time for summer 1

C • 5k 1

Warm-down only, I got there a bit late to do a proper warm-up and the heat was punishing just before the start anyway. Given the outcome, maybe I should accept that until it starts to cool down a bit I loose more than I gain with a warm-up run!

About 4 or so hours in the field today, but given it was Pehitawa which is flat and mostly easy going, not really loggable. Karioi on Thursday will be a different story. I thought the time in the sun and slightly steamy conditions would hit hard in the evening's run, but apparently not.

Secret Training
The secret's out. Couldn't have Bozzy and Jas advantaged over all the non Attackpointers in the club by knowing what the time to beat on Wednesday would be! Legs feeling it from yesterday's effort.

C • What is secret training? 2

Test run of the long course at Resthills. Thought about doing it totally memory but did take a map, and referred to it maybe a half dozen times (one or two of them towards the end may have been more an excuse to slow and catch breath for a moment!). Not perfect, I must have been just about on 9 when I convinced myself I'd cut too much corner off the park and started doubling back to where it wasn't, and 10-11 I took the road and was convinced by the end it was indeed a lure to catch the fast runners rather than a genuine route choice option.

Jogged around most of the easy course for a warm-down (<1.85 km, I couldn't be bothered climbing up to the transformer box again, but did go to the corner of the park below it).

a couple of Australian magpie families around the softball park (42)

Long bridge loop. Complete opposite to last week's effort - went out for something shorter, but feeling good enough at each decision point to just keep going. All but 100% running, including 50 minutes continuous. Did start to get a bit hard in the home stretch from Pines Beach but that was maybe more psychological than anything. If I'm alternating between good weekends and bad weekends, then Taupo relay should go well.

Still can't get under Cobham bridge without flinching though!

Hamilton Lake. Was feeling sluggish but pushed through as much as I could - and looking at some of my split times was maybe actually going a bit faster than I thought. Not as fast as new official club dark-horse Scott Chaplow, who went under 20 and could have been even quicker with some better route choice options. Spike-rate shows that the brain side of the game was also not going too hot for me. Either I was struggling to run in a straight line or parts of this map are badly out of alignment (I'll accept a combination). But while I can pin the worst time loss (#14) on that, I don't think I can blame anything but brain failure for things like going to the west side of a hedge when control descriptions (barely referred to) and map (well I thought I was reading it) clearly indicate the east side.

I'll take that time in the context of where I'm at at the moment, but I really should only feel like I did afterwards when I've run close to a p.b. An even better final km than last week, as I was about 20:05 at the 4km mark, so slower to there but a faster time at the finish.

Had been having trouble getting out the door this weekend, but in the hope it would be one of those days that the only hard part was getting started, persisted. Didn't exactly feel flash at the start, but did have that feeling of being able to keep going indefinitely, so thought I would give the long bridge loop (starting at Piranha park, crossing at Cobham and Fairfield, somewhere over 10km) a go. Unfortunately I didn't have it in me today, and even more unfortunately it was only after committing to the furthest bridge that it became apparent how far from having it in me I was. By the time I'd crossed Fairfield and started heading back there was probably more walking than running happening and I was feeling a little ill - so pulled the pin.

There were chaffinches and NZ fantails in the part of the run that I could focus on such things (42)

A mixture of jogging and walking from the point where I finally admitted defeat (Pines Beach), back to the car. Hopefully just the combination of a hot week and getting out a bit longer after I'd last eaten than I had intended.