Training Log Archive: Bomb

been thinking about easter and trying to figure out what went so badly wrong. being injured for the first 3 months of the year certainly didn't help, and after that it was certainly hard to balance the training I needed to do with enough recovery.
the orienteering training probably hasn't been that great either. because of the amount of grass on all our maps we've just had a lot of really slow running - probably great for terrain strength later in the season, but not great for racing now. the races at maryborough were a fairly extreme example of this, and I think I just ended up doing too much the last weekend before easter and hadn't recovered in time.

C • Bad luck 4

Easter day 3. A bit of a crazy easter schedule (arriving at midnight on thursday night, then getting lifts everywhere and having to go to meetings on sat afternoon) meant that I hadn't managed to get to shops all weekend. finally managed to sort that out on sunday afternoon, and at least got part of my normal post/pre race schedule sorted out before the final race. in this case specifically a post race beer on sunday night, and pre race coffee monday morning.
ta-da! legs were back! yay! unfortunately it took a little while to re-synch legs and brain to race pace and things went massively astray in the really vague area to #2 and I totally lost the plot - had everything lined up nicely, but the control I found was the wrong number. oops. then everything I tried to relocate off wasn't on the map. turns out I wasn't too far away, but nothing I could identify was on the map. ended up bailing to the fence and came in from that fine, but in the mean time had blown 9mins. got a bit pissed off after that and stormed though the next few controls. generally happy with the rest of the course. probably lost another 2mins in bad route choices, and the legs faded over the last part of the course.

really disappointed with the result - that mistake was the difference between a respectable easter and a disastrous one. the only consolation is that my legs did turn up eventually, and that with better preparation I can still run ok in May.

C2 Day 4 - Splits

Easter long distance. a little cooler today, which I hoped my help my running, although I already felt like I'd run a classic before I started. navigated reasonably well - just a few wobbles in control circles, but never had the speed I needed for a race like this. really great area, and would have been really fun with speedy legs!

C2 Day 3 - Splits

Easter middle distance. another hot day, and felt pretty crappy after yesterday in the heat. felt like I was cooking before I even warmed up.
started the course ok, but felt like I was getting really pushed around in the fallen trees - most time lost due to getting pushed off line or stuck rather than mistakes, but still managed a few wobbles in control circles. saw vanessa about 1/2 way around, and she caught me a few controls later. ran a few good legs together, but managed to stuff each other up a fair bit as well, particularly the second last.
pretty unimpressed with the run in general, really shouldn't be struggling that much physically.

C2 Day 2 - Splits

hot day, not enough sleep and legs felt pretty ordinary warming up. I was also a bit concerned about adjusting to the scale as our attempts at training on granite sprint maps had been thwarted by maps that were so bad they were useless. The first control proved be exactly what I had feared, and I only just figured out the scale before I ran over it. that sorted out the scale issue though, and I was mostly ok from then on. I saw kathryn and sarah around number 4, and ran a fair bit with kathryn from then on - she was a fair bit faster running, but wasn't finding the controls too cleanly.
really fun area, and happy to get around without any stuffups.

Day 1 (Prologue) Medium - Splits

plod around anzac park.

OY at hidden glen. last run on for the aus champs in maryb. a little excess rain since then has mean the grass has gone from ankle height to armpit height, and running is not really a happening thing. not much fun in the end, and I ended up running for much longer than I'd planned. just hope I've got enough recovery time before next weekend.

warm up event at aramara. green and long grass, and didn't really understand the map in a couple of places. also got really bored on a couple of the long legs and drifted a long way. tired brain and legs and fell over a lot, including a couple of good stretches of the ankles.

slow, hard, tired. still really stuffed from yesterdays run, and pretty tired generally. was late getting to the run, so ran in the dark with a headlamp.

the cesspit of filth (muddy gully at the start) has ripened in both stickiness and smell in the last week.

night run on coottha from gordon rd, with Mikko and Mark. good pace this week, and felt like I was keeping up ok (rather than being dropped from the start like last week). the usual loop, with a trip back over the hill at the end rather than running down through the simpsons falls car park. saw a little brown frog, which we showed Mikko to prove that we don't just have yucky cane toads.
gave the left ankle a couple of good stretches and my right knee is still a bit crusty after the weekend.

putting out the last few controls. sweated out a little bit of hangover.

collecting controls

Long run from Clives house. Time includes run to clives. Ran with Clare, Tamsin and Richie, and Katelyn for the first part. Felt pretty tired, but not enough to drop off, so hurt pretty much the whole way.
clare hit the wall a bit over an hour in. it was a pretty humid morning and I think she got a bit too dehydrated. had a stop at the dog park and met up with Mat, who was in similarly poor shape, so they ended up walking the last bit back.
swim in the pool was nice - possibly one of the last runs where getting all in the pool after is going to be an option.
breakfast was great - french toast with bacon - yum!

C • french toast 1

putting out controls at brightview

with Dan, Mat and Mark. (although actually running by myself). felt better than last week, and a fraz faster, but thought I would do better than this. oh well.

Dan and I both seem to have gotten shin-itis this week. he made it about 2/3 of the way around the run before he gave up and walked home. I've had sore calves/shins/ankles most of this week - feels like a case of chronic cankle. I blame Connie for telling us about her shin splints on tuesday - must have been contageous.

short loop through anzac park in 5fingers. decided that its time to start running in them again - just a bit slower this time.

night run from Wendy's, with Dan, Connie, Trev and Tim. ran the other way tonight - around the bottom of coottha then up toilet block, down the little track to simpsons falls then back out over the hill to gordon rd. a run around the gordon rd loop to finish off. v hard in that direction - some killer climbs and the descent back to the dam is very rough.
had looked like being a nice clear night when we started, but we still managed to get rained on.

treking - visit to ikea. looking for a shelf thing to go in the gimp cage, and some draw things for my cupboard. came rather close to an ikea induced tantrum (Dan), but had a win in the end and went home with a car load of versatile solutions to modern living.

C • why the tantrum? Did you no... 5

run at stockyard creek with Wendy, Rachel, Katelyn and Merideth before the womens coaching day. had a bit of a mix up and lost Wendy for a while. got hungry, so left her in the forest.
yummy breakfast at the rochedale deli cafe (usual haunt post daisy hill mtb rides), but ate far too much given that we were running again soon!

sent out my group on their map memory exercise, then went for a run around wendy's corridor exercise. bit of a nana, but got going eventually. some tricky bits on the vague ridges where there wasn't anything in the corridor to work with.
saw evidence of a platypus.

run around at brightview with Emily checking control sites for next week's event. lots of grass, but hardly any grass seeds... yet. speargrass looks like its going to get nasty soon.