Training Log Archive: Craig

Planning to have a week off before easing back into training. Must try to remember to still do all the stretching, massage and strengthening exercises so my calves/ankles get better. I want to be feeling a lot better next Easter than I did last week.

Australian Relays. Last leg in team with juniors Cody and Rhys. The boys did well but we were still a little off the pace so I set out with just the NZ/Swiss team and the SA 2nd team within reach. Passed the swiss at 4 and the SA at 7 and left them behind pretty quickly. Good clean run, felt pretty relaxed and in control all the way. Felt a lot stronger on the hills than yesterday and probably felt my best towards the end.

Australian Long Championships. Not one of my better efforts in fact probably my worst run at an Australian Champs since my first run in M21E back in 1994. Started cautiously on first 2 and was starting to gain a little confidence on the 3rd but lost contact approaching the control and lost 3-4 minutes. Tried to put it behind me and push on strongly but did the same thing on 4 and that was pretty much the end of my race. Bruce had punched 4 before me (starting 6 min afater me) but was behind me again at 5 . I made some effort to go with him for a while but I was struggling to keep up and my heart really wasn't in it. I lost sight of Bruce just before the map change after a couple of small errors. My left heel started to hurt quite a lot early on the second loop and I contemplated pulling out but it eased when I dropped the pace a bit. Blair passed me at 21 and then I broke a branch off in my shin half way to 22. Lachlan Hallett passed me again as I walked and limped to 22 before the throbbing eased. The long leg to 23 went past the finish and Rachel was about due to start so I stopped in at the finish to see if she had found someone to look after Liam hoping for an excuse to pull out. I couldn't find Liam but was assured someone was looking after him so I had to push on, probably only wasted a minute or so. I was surprised to see Lachlan come into 23 just behind me and I pretty much trailed around behind him for the rest of the course. Had the slowest splits in the field to the last control and finish which shows how interested I was by the end.

Walked until the first downhill (6 minutes) then jogged to O'Connor Rd and back. Still sore around the left achilles. Improved a bit on the way back but not much.

Watching and filming sprint champs. Left lower leg too sore to risk racing. Still felt knackered by the end of the day.

Easy lap of KP with Ben. Wally started with us and kept up for about 15 minutes. Left calf/achilles a bit sore all the way but not too bad, felt best in the middle stages. Quads feeling a bit stiff and sore also. I don't think I will risk running the sprint tomorrow. Ben is still coughing a bit but didn't struggle too badly so he is pretty certain to start on Saturday but won't run tomorrow.

NOL race at Peterdine. Pretty happy with my run. Hit all the controls cleanly just a bit of indecision on route choice from 5 to 6 (so went pretty straight) and felt I lost focus after catching Lachlan Hallet (caught him at 5 but didn't actually get past until he screwed up 16). Achilles not sore at all while running but left heel a bit sore after getting home. Rolled left ankle in the finish but it doesn't hurt now.

Warm up and very short warm down.

Spent the morning shifting old pavers and digging up reticulation then in the afternoon walked a few laps while taking Liam for his first visit to the pool.

Much better run than yesterday. Always felt in control, just a slight miss on 3, poor execution of route choice on 2 and hesitant through southern section where half the features seemed to be missing from the map. Left achilles was good but right achilles was very sore by the end. I think the Sarvas I was wearing to protect my left achilles ended up rubbing my right achilles and made it sore. I hope it was the shoes rubbing anyway because that should recover faster. Felt pathetically slow on the downhills again particularly later in the course where both ankles were hurting every time my feet hit the ground on steeper descents. Julian made me feel like a W60 when he went past.

C • W60 pace 3

Warm up run to start plus a bit. Too sore for warm down.

Event: AUS National Championship Carnival
 

WA Champs Day 1. Very scared of hurting my ankle early on, felt pathetically slow and still not reading the map well. Lost a little time on 2, approaching the control I saw a gully to the left and a gully next to the knoll/rock surface, thought the gully to the left was more what I was expecting but I thought it should be the gully closest to the knoll so I tried there first since it looked more open. Not there so I tried the other one, 15 seconds maybe. Leaving 2 I thought I saw Grant coming in, not surprised because I felt very slow. Dropped out to the track because I was pathetic in the bush and Grant was ahead of me before 3. Tried to ignore Grant but saw him off to my right a few times and he seemed much closer than I expected which really distracted me. Wanted to hit the creek low and go up to 4 and was fairly confident I had but after running up the hill for a while without seeing the control I lost confidence and turned around. Very quickly thought it must be further up but felt I had to go down past where I first hit the creek to justify turning around. Feeling pretty stupid by the time I left the control and feeling very unfit heading up the next hill. About this time I started thinking about retiring from elite orienteering. It seemed to get much easier after this and by the time I got to the next control I was starting to recognise things much further ahead and it was feeling like a normal orienteering run in typical WA terrain. Achilles was feeling pretty good until I got to the long track leg where I got a few sharp pains on the downhill section and then it started to get a bit sore around the heel after the uphill. Heel was feeling pretty sore after I cooled down.

Jog to start very slowly plus a couple of harder efforts up the hill just before the start. No warm down.

Easy run to O'Connor Rd via gravel pits to try to make it 30 minutes (failed). Achilles sore, felt like I was limping all the way, lungs burning as soon as I dipped under about 5 min/km. Looking good for the weekend.