Training Log Archive: MCrone

8 x 320 m (50-52) with 60 seconds rest

5 x 200 m (30-31) with 1:40 rest (had to walk back to the 200m mark)

Warm up/down

10 x 320m (90 seconds rest)

52-54

Warm up/down

Again running in the dark with my headlamp. Definitely adds a new element to my training... although it is quite a bit colder than training at 3 or 4 o clock. I enjoy it because it fits into my polyphasic sleeping pattern :).

8km (1st km at 3:50, last km at 3:13, all others at 4:10-4:15)

Warm up/down

20 minutes warm up/down

650m x 6

1:53-1:55

Bit slower than last week but was definitely struggling. Could really feel sunday in my legs on monday and tuesday...

Event: Gauteng Short Course 5 - Wits Main Campus
 

1: Stopped too early (just after the first flower bed). ~5 seconds
3: Went to the entrance to the south (instead of straight across) and then saw the flag lower down so had to work out how to get down :P. Had the guy at the Wits Club telling me not to slip (apparently 5 people had slipped there already). ~ 5 seconds
4: Went east and then around that way and cut across the parking lot. Disconcerting because I beat Brad by 10 seconds even though I probably took the wrong route. ~10 seconds
5: Went north option, seems like it is the best. Just hesitated a little here. Also started feeling the hill in my legs. ~3 seconds
6: Saw the trap coming so I made sure that I approached it from the top.
7: Only one route choice here... Tried to go as fast as I could but this being the top of the hill I felt it.
8: Could have hesitated less here.
9: Seems that some people (Brad and Tim) may have found the paths going straight toward number 9 right through the flower bed on the map. I ran south and then went around it. :P (lost 5 seconds to them here)
10: Pretty much only one route choice here. Hesitated a little and could have optimised my route around the post graduate club.
13: Probably would have been faster to go down the stairs. I went east and then down the road to avoid the stairs, but then you are forced to go down a long set of stairs anyway right before the control. I hesitated before the control as well so probably 5-10 seconds faster to go the other way.
14: Should have gone west and then down the stairs...5-10 seconds...
17: The map is a little interesting exiting 16. I went east of the building instead of west. There is a lot more going on there that is kind of mapped, but just not exactly representative of what is on the ground. Slow through the ramp. May have been faster to avoid the ramp but still go east of the building.
21: Should have read my control description here. Was a lot faster to go all the way down to the road and hit the control from there. I cut onto the path and approached from above which was silly. ~10 seconds.


Very interesting course. Interesting that knowing the area really didn't help in some places because you still had to read the map to work out the best way to go. Speed felt good, but the nature of the course meant that pushing earlier on was rewarded because the majority of the second half was downhill. Definitely felt it on the way up. I could have definitely pushed harder in the second half through the technical sections on east campus. Would be interesting to actually test some of the different route choices. At least I have a little bit of my confidence back, even if Brad says that he didn't push it :P.

The Mulka analysis is very interesting:
Ideal time without mistakes: 18:58 (1:18 of mistakes)
That certainly would have been a more reasonable time for me...

C • #9 6

Men - Splits

8 x 20 seconds up (40 seconds rest)

5 x 650m

1:51
1:51
1:51
1:52
1:52

5 x 1000m (around the bottom wec field in the dark, kind of like a flat cross country course.) I'm getting quite good at running fast with a headlamp ;).

3:06
3:11
3:13
3:15
3:13

Warm up/down

C • big 5 3

4 x 960 m (new painted track on bottom fields at WEC [3 x 320m])

Ended up running a lot faster than I meant to which led to me feeling a little bit broken on the last one (and second last one for that matter). Was almost considering skipping the last one. At least I haven't lost that much speed. Having a track with a completely unknown distance (no marks around it) also doesn't help with pacing which means that I push harder than I mean to.

2:51
2:55
3:01
3:03

2 minutes rest in between.