Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

Not surprisingly, calf was feeling a little tight this morning, but no worse than after any run lately. Thought I'd better get some activity in, but with the blustery weather decided a briskish walk around the lake (including the 'bush' tracks in Lake Domain) would do. Seemed to work, only twinges during the walk were around the upper calf, well away from the worry area.

Well, not sure where that came from, but maybe I've turned a corner. Finding control sites for the first of the OWaikato urban rogaines. So it was slow, stop start running but still a very nice surprise to be out there for over an hour, and several hours later still no messages from the calves that I'll regret this later. Some decent ups and downs too (for Hamilton at least)

Not one of the great ones but at least I got out. Up to Anne St Park, was hoping to push on a bit further but not feeling 100%. Wise move to turn back as I tanked at about 25 minutes and even had to take a shortcut back to the office.

Exercises have been a bit wayward of late, but I have taken a leaf from Casser's log (excuse the mixed botanical metaphors) and started doing about 20 eccentric calf drops morning and night regardless of what else I'm doing with the day.

C • Running 3

Map checking around Deanwell, much needed as the nice big park that was to be the event centre is turning into a subdivision with no way of guessing what it will look like by the end of October...On the plus side Melville College and Intermediate turned out to not be all fenced in like I was expecting so that hopefully creates some nice route choice options for the setter to play with. Time is approximate - when I left home I knew there was something I was missing, turned out to be my stopwatch. Was pleasantly surprised when I got back to the car to find I'd been out somewhere between 40-45 minutes as it didn't feel anywhere near that long or at all a struggle once I'd got through a bit of heavy legs in the first few minutes. Guess it had mostly been a gentle pace and all those little stops to scribble on the map helped.

Working outdoors for once! Checking out a potential study site at ... already forgotten... Hapuakohe? There were trails that came and went, but also plenty of bush bashing (probably less than we expected) and some lovely tangles of supplejack to clamber through so quite the all-round workout. I warned the boss several times on the way up we would need to be careful picking the correct ridges to follow coming back down, and lo and behold there was a bit of a navigational mishap, but once I managed to wrest the GPS off him, it all worked out ok in the end. Lovely mix of forest - kauri, beech, tanekaha, kohekohe.... Not much possum sign, which is normally a good thing but not for us, but a forest like that would normally have high rodent numbers and therefore stoats, so still likely to get some use for the project!

Had a week off as the post-run discomfort after the last run turned into a bit of a flare-up. Maybe tried to do a bit much after a sort of illness break. But seems to have settled down to the usual not-quite-right now. Meant I missed what would have been an awesome weather weekend for ramping things up a bit. Have done the exercises some days but not others in the interim but honestly can't remember when.

Anyway, today - Fairfield and Boundary Bridge circuit, trying to keep an easy pace, not hard given I was feeling tired before starting. Did manage 20 mins continuous running between stretch sessions, but also not twinge free.

C • slow-twitch 1

Not the best choice of day to get the mojo back - COLD! and even COLDER! for the 10 minutes or so of icy feeling shower. Never felt quick but covered about the same distance in about the same time as last effort so something must be working. Calf noticeably sore afterwards for the first time in a while though...

Exercises....

Excercises (now that I've logged them I guess I'd better do them ;-) )

Have been feeling very sluggish last few days - I thought the bad cold that everone else I see on a regular basis has had at some stage over the last cupla months might finally have me in its sights, but still nothing has come of it. Hopefully back on the run in a day or 2, and really no excuse for not doing the calf excercises, so.... calf excercises!

Work to Anne St Park and back. Thought that would stretch my 'longest comeback run' a bit more timewise than it did, so even though it was feeling like hard work by the end, guess I'm doing ok.

Refer to yesterday!

Exercises, 10x2/20x2/20 eccentric. Both legs for the eccentrics but figured out pretty quickly on the lifts that the right ankle was indeed feeling a bit tender after yesterday's turn, so just did those for the left leg. (that's the one in theory needs the more work anyway)

Another mapping on the run mission on a surprisingly sweaty day. While the other day's effort bascially just confirmed what I could have put together from the joint forces of memory and google-earth, today's proved to be absolutely vital, as the large apparently multiple-entranced park in the middle of the map proved to be much more jungley than whatever imagery the map was drawn off implied. Should still give both the course setter and the competitors lots of options to think about but probably not such a good place for an event centre! Had a go at spraining my 'good' ankle - pretty sure I failed. Distance very much an estimate!

Exercises 10x2/20x2/20. Probably the most I want to do as a single session. The physio suggests I could still build the volume by doing a couple of smaller sessions in a day rather than one big one. Will think about it...