Training Log Archive: slow-twitch

Failed base builder. Started with low hopes but was kind of getting into it (or at least feeling no less energetic than when I started) but stopped by a sudden soreness in the underside of the foot - a real pain in the arch. Thankfully was about as close to home as I could be on an attempted 90-100 minute route (apart from the beginning and end, obviously).

Craigieburn with ex and dog. Castle Hill end - up the river then up to the Lightning Tree, then down the MTB track. Cinta was most upset that other people were using 'our' track, but only attacked one MTBer. About 2.5 hours equivalent but with much stoppage for nature. Highlight was meeting a falcon at the top of the hill.

Sugarloaf to (I think) The Tors/Castle Rock and return. Appropriately for a hill run it was somewhat up and down: Wasn't feeling hugely up to it but had something to pick up on that side of town (actually a Mt Vernon effort would have made more sense but no way I was starting at the bottom of the hills today); Felt really good when I got started; Hit a bit of a wall on the 2nd uphill pinch and was trying to think of logical ways to cut the usual there and back short without being too short; Then the flow got good enough it just felt right to carry on past where I've always turned before. As soon as I sighted the road crest at (I think) The Tors, the mission became running to there - had to use the road to do it, but mission achieved. It looked like the next stretch to the Bridle Path and Cattlestop could be fun running, but that can wait for another day. Return leg started to be a bit of a struggle at times, but that was probably expected.

Sadly the bakery I had popped into on the way there to ensure I would have a post-run treat to earn only had plain croissants by the time I got there...

From home to the Mickle Gates by an indirect enough route to count as a warm up.

One lap of the CHCH Marathon course, with the deal to myself that if I could knock it out in less than an hour then I ought to do the Half in April. Have been meaning to do this for a while and decided Christmas morning would be the best chance for it to not be a stop-start affair (good assumption, I think I can only remember two stops for traffic). Unfortunately the route map at the far end doesn't bear much relation to reality so I added easily a couple of hundred metres which I think makes my deal null and void. Struggling by the end anyway - had to take a few walking breaks in the final Hagley circuit which should really have been the nicest bit.

From the Mickle Gates to home by a more direct route but a much slower pace

Pegasus - main walking track to Waikuku, then into the forest which was a lot more fun - off track except where the nicest lines coincided with informal trails or occasionally the main horse track. Had an idea of carrying south to Woodend then back again, until I got stuck for well over 5 minutes in a big rough open patch that I must have entered through the only edge with no blackberry. Escaped from that to find I was only at the main Pegasus carpark (and my hour of allowed play time was running out) so took an indirect route back to where I was parked (possibly more indirect than intended....)

Weirdly everything went well for having been knocked back for a week (but was hard) except on the pull-ups where I couldn't even make the current stall point

WARNING: PHILOSOPHICAL MUSING AHEAD

While I had been staying at home (mostly just precautionary) with illness since Tuesday night, I had time to reflect a bit on the sprint weekend, especially as the mistakes I was making weren't really typical for me - more about race management than navigation or whatever:

* missing an entire loop of one of the head-to-head races
* missing a control in the 'standard' sprint
* starting on the wrong part of the course after the map flip in the 'standard' sprint, then almost reading the wrong leg several more times

I still think course/map presentation contributed to the first and last of those but I think another element was inexperience running with SIAC (only other time was with the Lonely Mountain and STB sprints way back just Before Covid Epidemic [as we know, any date BCE is back in the murky distant past]). I suspect even in a sprint race, with normal punching I'm probably making more use of the micropauses while punching than I consciously realise, to take in little bits of information. Even if it's only enough to reinforce what control number I'm up to that might have prevented these process errors. More consciously I was aware at the time that I certainly wasn't using the control descriptions as much as I normally would. Maybe a bullshit theory, but something to be aware of if I ever decide that yes I do deserve a SIAC of my own. And maybe also something to consider when thinking about the high MP rate of some of our younger top runners who may have pretty much only run with 'touch free'. How to make sure they have an ingrained process of tracking where they are in the control sequence, expected control code etc?

I'm pretty happy with how everything else went - even running speed (when I'm sensible about who to compare myself against)

C • Interesting - my feeling is... 1

WU/WD

NSL Sprint Hillmorton HS. Annoyed by this. Lost close to a minute overall basically standing next to the first 2 controls which were in locations pretty much invisible on the map, and was flustered a bit after that. Thought I had my head back in the game by 5, but apparently not as I missed out 6, so a MP that I've only just discovered several hours later. Good, smooth and (for me) quick from there until the map flip - the 2nd map was a complete tangle of legs so the ones I had planned ahead were the wrong ones. Thankfully had only just left 17 on the way to 16 before realising this. Nearly made similar errors once or twice working through the tangle, caught myself each time but hard to keep the speed up in that situation. Found the last bit of gas over the last couple of legs to just hold Liam off to the finish, so only got passed by 5.

Guestimated combined WU/WD for the day. Wasn't easy to manage this even without being called in to give a hand straight after each run

NSL Knock-out simulation qual round. UC Main Campus. Meant to take it not at full tilt as I figured I was always going to land in one of the lower groups. Not sure I succeeded at that as it was a fast course. Can really only recall time lost at 9 with a bit of hesitation as I really hadn't interpreted the location. Probably bits of hesitation elsewhere but mostly felt pretty smooth. Joe 7:31, so I was about midway between the 1.5 x winning time I used to aim for in elite sprints, and the 2 x that I was worried I'd be battling for. Also beat a 2x Junior World Sprint Champion and World Champs medalist ;-) Nothing like a spot of knee surgery to level the playing field...

Head to head round 1 UC Dovedale. Butterfly loops. Me, Katie Symons and various teenage girls. Caught out by the pace at the start but by the first pivot (2 controls in) I think I was sitting in the critical 3rd place for promotion, but Katie right behind me. Unfortunately I had troubles with the pivot exits, starting my first loop by starting down the wrong side of the right building, and my second by initially heading towards 9 rather than 7 (didn't get far before realising, but perhaps far enough I may have been better using a 'revised' route to 7 rather than the clear one). I thought this had taken me out of the race but when I finished alone people were trying to congratulate me for the clear win... and that's when I noticed I'd outdone my previous pivot exits by missing the 3rd loop completely (it was tangled up with my first loop - I think ideally there would have been a map change so that nobody would have had what was my 3-4-5 and my 11-12 on the same map). It looks like 2:10-2:30 would have been my expected time for the missing loop so at 10+ minutes I would have been well out of the promotion zone anyway.

Head to head round 2, Ilam Gardens & UC Halls. Runners Choice. Relegation meant that Katie and I were probably clear favourites in a group that was otherwise little kids and walking injured elites. So we could have eased back a notch comfortable we'd both be promoted back up but there was still first place at stake! She somehow put 9 seconds on me to the first control, despite going wide (I guess she got some of that by sticking to the paving as long as possible while I was on grass, but also she was going bloody fast!) and while the rubber band was stretching and contracting, overall that gap stayed right to the end. I was hoping to get something back through the runners choice but we picked the same one! And while we took different routes on the one long leg that had been our reason for choosing it, hers must have been better than mine (even though I didn't think much of her exit direction). If only she'd mucked up the last control a bit more than she did!

C • always good to beat up on i... 2

Head to head final, UC Main Campus. No splitting! Clerical error meant that I ended up in a super group of basically the same teenage girls as the first round, plus Brianna, various young Symons and Jones, and my old mate Katie. Struggled to keep with the pace over the first two controls, then thought I pulled a clever route choice trick to 3, only it wasn't because I hadn't factored in a long finger of garden I had to go round, only it wasn't as bad as I'd thought because I still saw the leaders going through 3 when I was almost there. By 5-6 I had pretty much lost contact with the girls and no hope of getting back up to them, had pretty much burnt off the kids with them having no hope of getting back up to me, and most importantly Katie was somewhere behind me. I must have got an idea of how far behind she wasn't on the in and out to 6, because I was second guessing route choices through 8-9-10, half expecting her to come flying around an opposite corner and get me right at the end (meanwhile she was probably taking the same routes and getting as sick of the sight of my back as I was of hers in the previous round). I would rate this, especially those last legs, as intensity 6 if Attackpoint would let me, as that was the deepest I've been in the red zone for a long time.

All in all a fun day (I'm well over the frustration of what happened in the Dovedale race). It's a shame the local 'elite dads' either didn't rock up, or only ran the qualification round, I think there's a few I could have had some fun battles with.

Usual Thursday lunchtime jaunt withthe usual Geoff and Richard. I do not feel like I have very much speed in the legs right now. Therefore I think I am in for some punishment over the weekend

I think I accidentally cranked 2 or 3 stops on the circuit up a notch. Amazing how much of a difference it can make. Survived though, so was probably ready for it.

1 hr score event, Diamond Harbour. Could have cleared the map if I'd seen control 100 before running away from the obvious route to it, and when I did see it soon after, hindsight tells me I could have doubled back to it and still been undertime (but felt too risky in the moment) - same if I'd seen the other track to it when I was at 44, but I think that would have put me over. A fun run, even though the legs were feeling pretty heavy with any uphill.

Intention for a hill run today but so so tired, to the point of feeling a bit off colour.