Training Log Archive: Mark3

Bought a Suunto Ambit 3 Peak.

Liking it. Counts swimming distance :)

2 sprints around Paris's Canary Wharf - La Defense

Great area for urban, probably best I've ever been to. Totally pedestrianised and mostly complex - not as hard as barbican, but lots more of it. Really good.

Made one big mistake where thought a tunnel was accessed down some stairs but it was actually from the level I was already on - stairs descended to unmapped level which was a bit confusing; otherwise good

About 20th on the first race and 27th on the one with the mistake; on M21 abroad that's pretty good I think.

The hardness was hard on the achilles

Good format - sprint #1, a->b, then sprint #2 b->a starts 15 mins after sprint #1 has finished. Good way to use a big urban area for 2 sprints rather than a long urban, or good way to get the most out of a long thin area.

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/60201006...
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/60201008...

Won't put details since no-one who did the race will look at this - suffice to say; did okay.

Some mistakes in the multi level bits and some time lost due to bad decisions.

Achilles on the mend but still not running with great finesse.

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/60010944...

Jog with Alan. He complained it was a bit fast, but it was probably the correct speed for a recovery run for me; around 5 min ks. Didn't really have anything to recover from though!

70 lengths

Think I might have stolen swimming though, the woman at reception was leaving and she was like "just take a wristband from the box, that's how works in the evening" and didn't mention any money.if this is true, I'm arriving at 9.05 rather than 9 every week!

Seriously; some quality dot-action going on here:
http://www.slow.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#131

Just a quick blast to get the HR up a bit...

Enjoyed this, thought I was doing pretty well but turns out lost quite a lot of time to rcro in the last few controls thanks to some sub optimal route choices, the time we spent revising the map on the coach paid off more for him than for me!

It will be a very good routegadget to watch the dots running round since we were dead level at about 7 and then I was winning for ages before losing spectacularly on the penultimate control.

Don't think I lost significant time to other people, rcro just has very good map memory. A deserved victory-and he got a plaque and everything, whereas I just got a voucher...

Achilles not really affecting speed too much,but definitely feeling the 27+k yesterday at around the 7k Mark.

Actual distance 27.53km

First mountain marathon...really glad it was only one day!

Found running with a bag fine; admittedly not a lot in it, but still.

Really struggled with the 1:40,000 scale. Features the size of houses often weren't mapped at all. Nightmare.

Didn't appreciate the 6k leg to #1 before I'd got into the map, so stuck to the path for the first half - even this not as easy as it sounds since on the ground there were far more paths than on the map. Went via #7 and hit that pretty well, which gave me some confidence.

Too far S on #2, lots of unmapped limestone pavement kind of stuff - some bits the size of cars with massive crevices in between. #3 was fine.

Stopped to consume an energy gel which promptly exploded, leaving 80% on me and 20% on the floor. Need more practice at those.

Fine to #4, Pete Ward caught up with me just after; he'd started 13 mins behind and I'd stayed ahead for 2 hours, which I was pleased with seeing as he's done the OMM and stuff before and is used to the crazy scale.

Saying that - we did #5 together and messed it up, thought we were on mapped path but actually on unmapped path (literally no way of telling on this map) and came out too low.

Slight mistake on #6 as well but relocated ok (amazingly). #7 easy since had already found on way to #1. ]

#8 was my undoing- garmin tells me I was way too low, then after I'd missed it, went way to far South. Probably never closer than 400m or so - bit disappointing given how the rest of the course had gone really.

Didn't know where I was and couldn't relocate so decided to give up; had run 25k by this point and was pretty tired; only option would have been to go right to the summit, which would have been ok orienteering but it was over 1000m away uphill, so decided against it. Probably should have gone to the summit on the way as the safer option; maybe got too confident...or delirious.

It was pretty warm, and 500ml liquid wasn't enough.

Vastly underestimated how long this would take, how hard it would be to read the 1:40k map and how little path running there would be.

I probably won't be doing another one any time soon - on my own at least. It was quite unnerving being alone, in the middle of nowhere, with barely any other competitors and with no confidence in the map...

On the plus side, Achilles didn't feel too bad at all. Still a bit tender but not painful to run.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/594822047

C • That's well hardcore 3

72 lengths. Possibly getting a bit better at swimming?

Jog to test achilles. Not better yet, but definitely bettER. Felt ok afterwards and still feels ok the morning after, which is a big step forward.

Cardio fitness has plummeted though; watch tells me I need 25 hours to recover from my 20 minute jog; it used to be an average of 19 after an internal session....

Nothing tonight; nothing on Monday. Should really do double again tomorrow then :) don't know if I can face cycling; might go for a gentle jog and see if achilles ok - been doing massive amounts of stretching/icing/massaging/notrunning etc so fingers crossed...

Cycled to Purdown in the dark, was planning on running up the hill to the monument thing a few times but it was dark so only managed one. Achilles felt ok during it though which was good. Hopefully getting a bit better at cycling so HR is a bit higher.

Hopefully HR getting higher during swimming as well as my arm gain a bit more muscle (ie - some)

Knees a bit sore swimming immediately after cycling...it would be disastrous to acquire another injury while doing activities I'm only doing to be being injured!

Couldn't disregard the advice/admonishment of the M55 champion of, well, everything, and decided to walk round today.

Actually really encouraging; I've always hoped that I'd make fewer mistakes if I were going slower, but never really known, so it was nice to have the confirmed.

Didn't lose more than a few seconds on anything up to 11, then 12 I was in the S ditch which I thought was the N ditch and therefore ended up way too far S. But relocated fairly promptly. Bit of a mistake on 14 as well, failed to make the terrain match the map and was on the spur to the S, but again worked it out pretty fast (it helped that there were no other similar features for a long way).

Good map, good course, nice forest; shame not to be running but good to be out there. Looking forward to getting back to it!

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/58942060...

66 lengths. Bit dull.

Struggling to walk :(

C • Swearing 6

I've done this race twice before and was just over 40 both times; it was admittedly better conditions this time (not windy) but still, a 6 min improvement is pretty good.

Ibuprofen gel on the achilles stopped it hurting (mostly) - at the time, if felt ok running and I thought it was pretty much healed.

Strong start; winning up until about a k (probably because did it in 3:27) then slowed down up the hill, still sub 4 min ks though, then 3:21 for the next k downhill and 3:48 along the flat.

Happy at this point, then got really bad stitch (maybe something about the course? Seems to have affected rcro too, and someone else from Friends mentioned also. It's not a problem I usually get. Air pollution maybe?) which wrecked my pace, a couple of 4 min ks along the flat which isn't good enough.

Then a 4:30 k up the second hill and a 4:10 along the flat at the top; really struggling now, couldn't sprint finish fast enough to gain any places.

Definitely possible to go >30s faster.

Achilles fine at the time but extremely painful after stopping and can barely walk now - hopefully will feel better tomorrow...

No running training again this week, just swimming and cycling again, hopefully the offroad at the weekend will be okay.

Wore HR monitor - cycling doesn't get it past 150 so isn't sufficiently aerobic :(

Found an app called TURF which is like a GPS based king-of-the-hill - its pretty good - you navigate to a zone and "capture" it by being there for 30s -this gives you points and maybe more points depending on how long it is until someone else captures it. Good way to explore new places.

Achilles felt not-too-bad running off road.

Seeded ludicrously high due to ranking position so I hoped to be able to use the good people as they overtook me. This didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped since lost over a minute on 2 (didn't take an accurate enough bearing; distracted by Clive who'd had the same number 1, left the control in the same direction as him and then changed direction too late.

Really really bad 90 degree error on 4; didn't come out of 3 quite where I thought and was running SW rather than NW, on a track not a ride, for ages before realising. Should make some good routegadget. Lost 2 needless minutes on the easiest control on the course.

After that though it was pretty good - deliberately careful and it paid off. Bit confused at 19 by the extra fence; maybe a minute here, but otherwise fairly clean. So could've been 42:30 ish...but given conditions, other people made mistakes too so it's positive that the harder controls well - just need to react better to early mistakes and not make future mistakes because of them.

Achilles still pretty sore but had entered so thought it was worth a go.

Had a pretty solid heat (1.1), a bit hesitant maybe and not running as fast as I'd have liked, but no major mistakes. Small miss on 7 and the E way into 19 would have been faster, but pretty happy with this.

Made the B final comfortably which I was pleased with.

Final was a disaster. Misread map into number 1; thought the canopy was along the edge of a building rather than in between two buildings, so missed entrance and had to go all the way around again. About 40s lost here made the rest of the race depressing - couldn't really concentrate as too busy being annoyed. Overshot 3 and had to go back to identical building, then bad routes to 15 and 16, wrong side of 21; no real mistakes but just slower since heart wasn't in it after the start.

Finally got the internet sorted in new house :)

Unfortunately have had achilles tendonitis since the 23/24 Sept - I've stopped running training and been doing cycling and swimming instead (unfortunately these aren't really cardio for me since I don't have muscles in the right places, so they give up before my lungs do) to try and maintain my fitness a bit. Been icing and stretching lots every day which has definitely been helping. As has the max strength ibuprofen gel I've used for the few bits of o-ing I've done.

Suspect part cause at least is the inov8 road-x 155g shoes...clearly not enough cushioning there (literally zero) - probably too much of a change from adidas adizero adios which I usually run in. So I won't be wearing those again! Shout if you want a pair (I'm sure they don't injure everyone.

So what have I done...
(1) evening jog on 19th since missed training on mon+wed due to moving house
(2) crook peak cake race - really tough at the start but great views, did pretty well and pleased with position/time (21:59; about 15th or something)
(3) parkrun PB at little stoke; 1809. working on cornering technique worked!
(4)Englefield 10k - achilles was hurting a bit before this, but this made it much worse! probably shouldn't have gone. came 3rd but was in quite a lot of pain. not much difference made to time though; just over 40 for all-grass with hills, pretty pleased
(5)didcot urban - definitely shouldn't have done this. actually crying with pain on a few legs. came 2nd with a pretty clean run but losing about 40s/km in speed.
(6) went swimming - 60 * 25m. ached.
(7) prologue from the sprint at bath uni - really good course, lots of short legs kept you concentrating. Made some small mistakes (14 looked at control on wrong building, 17 ran past tree) but otherwise fairly good, still painful though, can't run quite how I usually would since that makes hurt more
(8) bristol urban adventure challenge - unfortunately had to miss final to go to this instead, bit of a let-down since my team lost; hoped it would have o elements but it was more finding places and then answering crytpic questions.at least learnt never to give up o for anything else!
(9) bath urban - again, good course, nice to see the sights. again a bit painful though although the double strength (10%) ibuprofen gel helped numb the pain a bit; still making it a bit hard to concentrate on the navigation. wrong path (too low) on 6, bad route to 8(S first), bad route to 11 (tunnel) and then disastrous 15 (on wrong level) and 16 (came out way came in). 15 was annoying because had read control description and knew it was going to be on top of something, but assumed dotted lines would be tunnel (ie underground) and that the control would be at street level (but above the tunnel). clearly wrong about this! but not sure you can tell just from the map. however coming out the same way was my fault, since map was obvious once you were there. otherwise fine I think.
(10) also done about 20k of cycling, slowly, on 15 year old mountain bike. sore in many places now.

Hope achilles ok for this weekend! Luckily they are both short and the middle distance is off road.

Still struggling to increase my HR because my arm muscles are so rubbish! Hopefully its doing something for my lung capacity though.

C • oh no 1