Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

Now safely ensconced in the middle of nowhere. Sounds like the next week or so will be pretty full on getting the rat trapping done, so there probably won't be much activity here for a while - unless work gets tough enough to log! In the mean time plenty of time to think about how best to make use of this lovely terrain park I'm suddenly living in the middle of. Nearly went for a run after a not so hard day today, but motivation was just reaching tipping point when the weather took a sudden turn to the worse.

Seems attackpoint doesn't recognise Benneydale as a location - hopeless! Thought Te Kuiti would make it but apparently not...

60 minute score event around parks, streets and riverbank in a very wet Palmerston North. Collected 67 points from a possible 81. What I think was the most efficient way to get the lot would have been about 10km straight line so could have been done by a good runner, but a well set score. For once I think I pretty much optimised my route - other than unecessarily omitting one short diversion for a low pointer (in which case I would have had 69) only way things could have been improved would to have been fitter, faster etc! On that front a pretty good run after a slow start getting used to the weather, and had to work hard to keep up the speed from about 40ish minutes on.

Fairly gentle recovery run after yesterday's effort, on the riverbank again, up as far as the landfill turnoff. Felt pretty good this morning, like I hadn't had a workout at all... until taking the first few paces once I was out of the house, and the thighs suddenly said "hey, actually..."

6 x 4 mins. Thought it was time to push the envelope a bit. Possibly I was wrong...

Run from home to the riverbank (sucking in a few hundred litres of near freezing air), 2-3 minute recoveries during interval session, then a slightly painful haul back home.

Kinda wish I had believed the Nick Willis hype and stayed/got up for his race, but doubt I would then have been able to do this session or anything like it. Imagine there'll be plenty of chances to see it in the next 24 hours anyway.

C • Olympics 2

Lovely day... if I was to redo yesterday's run there's a fair chance I'd get snowed on!

Mooching round Stokes Valley this week. After waiting ages to see what the weather was going to do finally got out there. Out to SV entrance then climb up to Pylon Road, round to Tawhai Track and back home. Starting to feel like I've got back into shape though there was a bit of uphill walking happening still - and 10 minutes downhill, I'd forgotten how steep the upper parts of the Tawhai are, and even without 3 months of rain-induced slipperiness you'd have to be pretty mad to try and run down from where it starts to drop to below the secret waterfall. The very bottom is very nice running though. The logging around the SV/Blue Mountains junction has rearranged the maze of tracks round there, but also created good enough views to save me an unscheduled trip to Upper Hutt (no Gruver I didn't have the trail map and pencils with me!)

Approximately 376th orienteering visit to Mt Vic, but to keep things interesting had a loop race, sticking to the NW corner of the map. Climb quoted is unofficially worked out by me but there was quite a bit! Long course was 3 loops. 1st loop 1.4 km, 90 m: c 18 mins, 2nd 1.8 km, 100 m: c 26 mins (included a control that was -shall we say - creating a spot of discussion afterwards!) and 3rd 1.3 km, 55 m c 16 mins. Felt surprisingly good despite coming off 2 3am ish bedtimes in a row (blame Kimberly and Valerie) and on the legs where route choice was an issue I reckon I nailed most of them. No idea of what top times were, but was just seconds apart from one usual close rival and 10 mins ahead of another.

Also had the opportunity to log an hour of premier 2 hockey - went to watch a mate's last game of the season and discovered they'd only scraped 10 players together. However as I had no stick, protective gear, understanding of the rules or hand/eye co-ordination with me, felt I had to decline the offer to join in.

Probably last run in the city for quite some time. Lovely day except slightly freezing in places, so to mark that should have really gone up to the turbine or something silly like that. No way that was gonna happen though so just the easy loop at an easy pace. Reasonable time to get round despite feeling a bit grot at times. Possibly will have to accept that this is yet another cold that's lurking around, but I'd rather it wasn't.

Round the waterfront to c Weka Bay and back on a VERY WINDY day. Not sure how this can happen on a there and back run but seemed to always have headwinds or sidewinds and never a tailwind. Almost running backwards trying to come back round Jerningham towards the city. 4x4 with 2 minute recoveries, 1st rep was good, the rest got a bit ugly but the session as a whole went better than I thought it would. Not good enough to make it red-bar though.

Not very good at sticking to plans at the mo'. Was going to do one of my 1 hour routes at a fairly easy pace, possibly getting up into the mid-sized hills. But about 1 minute after popping out of the office, got hit by a surprisingly cold shower, so by the time I'd made it up Everton had decided to go for "quality" over quantity. Did something based on my easy loop, only picking the pace up quite a bit and throwing in a bit more distance and a couple more climbs in the gardens. Even had the sense to ease off a bit on the home stretch, though by the 30 minute mark there might not have been too much choice in the matter.

Bit of an adventure of a course with two big brutal climbs and a spot of jungle combat training, but still quite fun. Three lost time incidents - #3 the control placement might have been a bit dodge, but not by much and I should have known to look downhill rather than waste time (2-3 mins) looking up. #10 at least 7 minutes lost (thankfully John finally spiked it so the rest of us could work out how much time we'd lost) with the map definitely dodge with regards to where a veg boundary was relative to a re-entrant that we all went up&down. But I might have saved myself one pass of the area and a few minutes if I'd read the description in the first place and realised I was looking for the boundary not the reentrant. #17 maybe up to 3 minutes fluffing around leaving 16, not cottoning on to the best route starting with a back track. Cunning trick that I can only blame myself for getting caught by!

Might have been just fun and games but I did work up a sweat so dammit, it's gonna get logged =) An impromptu appearance by the unofficial NZ men's table tennis team (4 colleagues with about 2 hours planning and a visit to the $2 shop) saved the work "Olympics themed" friday drinks from being a total flop. How could anyone plan an Olympics theme night without including any sport, I ask you?

Before the dirty rumour that I'm crap at table tennis gets any further, I must point out the wierd coincidence of being let down by 2 different partners in both games...

Didn't really feel like any hill work today so started off along O Bay. That got boring though so rediscovered a route I used a few times last year - climbing up to the start of the Southern Walkway then skirting round NW side of Mt Vic. Had a bit of a play in the town belt before heading back to town. A bit too much uphill walking again but otherwise ok.

Sky had turned a weird blue colour and some mountains had magically appeared north of the Hutt Valley, so had to get out there really. Did a kind of circumnavigation of the city centre - waterfront, Mt Vic (for the 1st time since the fall to get that monkey off my back), round the back of the hospital, Mt Cook, Central Park then back to the office. Walked at least some of almost every uphill dammit, but I suppose I did choose mostly steeeep ones. Haven't been annoying the entire floor with a constant cough this afternoon so the lungs must be nearly clear now.

C • blue sky 2

A bit of a random route round the gardens then down to the waterfront to finish off. Legs starting to feel pretty tired by the time I got down to the water, but made myself push hard through it. Definitely back to square 2 fitnesswise, but confident that if I can stay healthy for more than 5 minutes should start to get some back fairly quickly.

A bit on the slow side for an easy course, even taking out 5 mins fluffing round deciding whether or not to cross a flooded stream, then more time for taking the long way round. Still, good to have a nice workout especially one with map in hand. Highlight was playing Jesus crossing a pond on an underwater bridge. Yep, there's been a bit of rain round these parts lately.

3 more weeks to try to get some good habits back before hitting the field again, so I'll take my gear into town tomorrow and hope the forecast southerly holds off til after lunch (the chest still not quite clear yet)