Training Log Archive: Bruce

Austalian Championships - Long Distance.
6th place in quite a good field. Probably my second best ever performance at an Australian Championships Long Distance race in my elite career.
With the advice of coach Key, I went out hard to give myself a chance of a good result. The plan worked quite well. I had caught and passed Hallett (3mins), Dufty (6mins) and Glenn Meyer (9mins) in the first half hour. Unfortunately, none were much help to me and I dropped them pretty quickly. I was then first in the forest for the rest of the race.
I was very happy with my time to the map change. I think I was in the top 3 or 4 at this stage. After the hard start, I really needed some support in the second half to keep my pace up, but got none and made 2 or 3 one minute errors as I got tired. Unfortunately this dropped me down to 6th place, but overall this exceeded my own expectations and was a pleasing reward for a tough "day in the office".
Again, I think I got the most out of my ability today, so that was pleasing.

I must have shown some unexpected form: The race officials selected me as one of 4 athletes for a blood and urine drug test after the race.
Did you know that after 112 minutes running, it takes about 3L of water and 2 cans of coke to produce 120mL in a beaker!

C • good week 6

Early morning jog and stretching.

Warm up - felt good.
Warm down - very slow, including lots of drinking, as I had to do a drug test (both blood and urine). First time in competition, so I guess I was due.

No running - complete rest except for stretching quite a lot at various time during the day.
There was no point going to the model event as I had run there before and it was nothing unusual - actually quite similar to Tuesday.

Australian Championships Sprint Distance - York, WA. 6th place.
A beauty. Ran hard and was as close to 100% clean as I could expect in an orienteering race.
Again went out hard, trying to catch 1minute on Blair as soon as possible. Got throught the early stages quite cleanly and started to get in touch with Blair at 14 on the other side of the river. Sat on him for a couple of controls through the thickets, and then accelerated away for the last 4 or 5 controls. I was surprised not to have Grant Bluett catch me a minute, or even get close.
Another 10 seconds would have got me 4th place, but I can't really see where I could have made that up. Possibly 5 seconds could have been saved by jumping the end of the footbridge, but I read it as unpassable, so I didn't want to risk it.
A good reward for some speed training over the past few months. I think I got the most out of my ability today, which is all that I could ask for.

warm up/down for Sprint race.

Early morning jog around Shenton Park lake and stretching.

Australian Sprint Champs - Splits

Easy run from Hale oval playgorund, through King's Park botanic gardens and back to Shenton Park. A magnificent route for a run.

National Orienteering League - Peterdene Hill
Same course as Australian Schools Champs.
6th place, only a few seconds behind Kerrin, Grant and Gareth.
A very good run in wet and windy conditions. I felt good after Sunday's long race and ran well right from the start. Only lost 10 seconds at a couple of early controls and caught Blair 3 minutes by #5. Led him for the rest of the course, pulling away slightly on each leg, but then having to slow down a little in the circle to pinpoint the boulders/cliffs in the complex open areas.
Beat the schoolies by 5 or 6 minutes, and was only 3 or 4 minutes down on Julian.
One of my best NOL races for the year in a high quality field.

Stretching and early morning jog around Shenton Park lake.

Recovery session at Cottesloe running on the beach with Mason and wading in the water.

WA Championships - Day 2 - Long
NOL round. 4th place - best of "division B" after Julian, Rob W and Grant took the placings.
This was always going to be a tough day, but I wanted to do well after a dissappointing start to the carnival. I felt good on the warm up ( after doing all the right recovery activities from yesterday).
Going out hard I caught Jim (4mins) and Scotty (2mins) by number 3. Jim and I were together for most of the day and helped each other get through bad spots at various stages of the course. I almost caught Craig (6mins) before the long leg, but he chose a better route, and got about 4 or 5 minutes of the time back on the rest of the course. Jim, Scotty and I all took different routes on the last long hilly leg, and Jim and I came out almost together. I was relieved as I was very tired by this stage. I navigated well at the end and finished a minute or two ahead of those guys.
This was my 3rd best ever NOL place in my elite career.