Training Log Archive: Craig

Hoped that today would be my chance to move up a bit but my heart started playing up on the way to the start. I was still fairly determined to finish so just tried to relax and take it really easy walking most of the hills. I hoped I'd be able to read ahead going up the hills and then push the downhills a bit but the heart rate alarm seemed to go off every time I started running (which was always downhill). Started to see Dave Colls from 16 and enjoyed trying to race him to the finish but had to keep backing off a bit and never quite got in front. Felt as though I had been out for hours by half way so I was surprised to get under two hours, felt a lot longer. My main goal for the day was to get ahead of Blair overall. Fell a couple of minutes short but did at least beat him on the day.

Day 2 M21E - Splits

Heart was crap. Navigation was ok but it seemed pretty easy, lots of short legs with big features nearby. Lost a bit of time trying to go around green that wasn't really green. Passed Andre about halfway around and was surprised that he didn't come back past or at least stay with me. Felt pretty bad at the last control so the finish split was very slow.

Day 1 Course 1 - Splits

Event: Easter 2013
 

Heart crap, over 180 a minute before the start. Took it pretty easy and wimped out in the bush sections trying to avoid getting scratched. Didn't feel that bad until after I finished but it was a bit disturbing seeing Robbie passed out while having dizzy spells myself. Still quite enjoyed my run. A bit of a surprise to dead heat with tRicky (again) and beat Andre.

Prologue Course 1 - Splits

Felt a bit tired for the first 20 minutes but got going pretty well after that.

Nice easy run around KP. Perfect conditions.

Lake Jualbup time trial. A bit short of time so warm up was just the 4 minute run to the lake. I knew the first lap would be slow because I wasn't really warmed up but I was hoping it would be close to 5:30 (5:30.1). Next lap was feeling a bit stronger so I hoped it would be down near 5:15 (5:15.8). Felt I was starting to tire a bit and my heart rate alarm went off briefly so I thought the next lap would be more like 5:20 (5:20.6). Pushed a little harder on the last lap so thought it should be back under 5:20 but didn't feel as fast as 5:15 (5:17.8). Forced myself to keep jogging at the end and jog all the way home as my heart doesn't seem to like sudden stops. No issues at all with the heart during or after the run.


5:30.1 1.24km 4:26/km 144/154
5:15.8 1.24km 4:15/km 157/160
5:20.6 1.25km 4:16/km 158/161
5:17.8 1.25km 4:14/km 159/161

21:24.2 4.98km 4:17/km

Nice to get through a hard run without any heart issues to get a proper indication of my current fitness. Really felt like a proper all out time trial this time. Maybe could have knocked off 10 or 15 seconds by doing a better warm up but that is about all.

Easy run in KP. Heart was twitchy the whole way but no sustained arrhythmia. As usual as soon as I stopped the heart rate started jumping up over 170 on and off for the next half an hour with associated headaches, dizziness and chest pain.
The run itself was actually quite nice.

H3 at Yetar Spring. No warm up and rushed through the start jumping the queue because I wanted to get back in time for Rachel to do a longer warm up. Didn't start the gps until half way to number 1. Feeling rushed and an uphill start made the heart twitchy and it started spiking on the way to 2 hitting 201 at one point. Rate dropped down again and stayed reasonable for the rest of the course but I still felt a bit unwell all the way and it was back up over 180 again fairly soon after I finished. Ran straight past 3 thinking about my rudeness at the start instead of where I was on the track losing maybe 45 seconds. Rest of the course was pretty clean apart from being very hesitant going into the last.
Felt very slow and spent much of the course thinking I should give up orienteering completely as I don't think it is very good for my health at the moment. Disappointed with the time at the finish as I thought it should have been a sub 35 minute course. My mind clearly hasn't adjusted to what my body is capable of at the moment.

E course with Liam and Amy. Only logged to get a record of what my heart was doing. Not happy up the first hill, settled down through the middle of the course then protested again when I carried Amy up the last hill.

H3 - Splits

Nav Dash at Ascot. Zero warm up and totally unprepared at the start so naturally went out a bit hard. Henry passed me (just under a minute as I was late starting) at the start of the short legs which was nice as it put him under a bit of pressure and allowed me to keep up with him for about 5 controls instead of 0. Heart was bad early but I didn't have the heart rate monitor on (one of the many things I forgot in the rush at the start) so I just kept going as fast as I could which got slower and slower as I went. Probably went too hard trying to stay with Henry so really struggled after that. Took the wide options to avoid anything remotely like a hill but still struggled to keep running. I was gaining on Ceri for a while around the track on the last long leg but then she started running again and regained all her lead although I did get past her by cutting the corner at the end. Fun course but the usual frustration at being unable to enjoy running hard.

Long - Splits

Steady run up to Hale Oval and back on the sand tracks. Calves a little tight and a little tired but mostly felt as though I was flowing pretty well. Nice to get through a whole run without heart issues. Actually 4min to 12min doesn't look so good. I didn't feel much so it might have just been bad readings but I did start to feel better and speed up after 12min.

Rosalie run. Started out with Alyson again and tried a bit harder to stay near her on the hills this time (without much success). Heart started to play up on the way down to UWA but it never felt that bad so I just ignored it. Heart rate jumped up to 172 during the regroup at the war memorial and didn't settle again until half an hour after getting home but again it didn't feel too bad so I pretty much ignored it. Felt really good for a while having to prop to stay behind Ben and Jeff and then letting go to catch back up to Nic and Alyson.

I am an idiot!!

tRicky tried to kill me but I survived.

Mass start hagaby at Belair.
Hit the first couple ok, a bit hesitant on 3, still in touch with the field at 4 but they had all run out of sight by the top of the small climb to 5. Got 6 and 7 ok on my own but made a mess of 8 dropping a couple of minutes. Got within 50m of it and heading straight for it but I hadn't executed my plan at all so I doubted myself and ended up running back to a small termite I had seen earlier to confirm it was the one I thought it was. Silly really. Found a few more stragglers towards the end of the first loop and came through in 19:50 about 7 minutes down in about 40th place.

First 7 controls of the second loop were the alternate options from the first loop which I did ok apart from 7. I think I was a bit casual on this one because I had been to it before but I was a bit off line and didn't recognise anything. A bit slow there but didn't lose too much time.

Found Steve at 8 and took a very bad line out of there looking over my shoulder and waiting for him to catch up to see which way he was going to go on the long leg to 9. We got out to the track together but I went right and Steve went left at the first junction and didn't see each other again for more than 30 minutes so it was more silliness really. Had a good look at the rest of the course on both maps while running along the tracks out to 9 and 10. Tempting to cross the railway line rather than do the final climb over the tunnel but I resisted.

Started to see a few more people through the short legs in the rock before and after the final map change. Not with anyone for long through here but seemed to be moving past people. Saw Steve and Graham at the second last control in the rock but neither came with me to the last. Turns out Steve should have but he had lost track of which control he was up to.

On my own again through 6-10 on the final loop, keeping the pace pretty slow but feeling ok. Saw Brodie and Lachlan running back past 9 on the long leg from 12-13 which made it a little easier for me to commit to going that way too. I had been waiting to see what it was like through 8 and 9 before deciding and it was pretty easy running through there.

Went right on 9-10 and found the little track down the hill ok which was a bit of a relief. Came into 10 just ahead of Jemery Day who looked to be moving a lot faster than me. I then contoured around to 11 and saw him climbing up to it as I left. Saw Blair and Ricky heading out down the road as I came into 12 so I was interested to see if I could close the gap by going around to the right.

First part of the long leg cutting across to the track was a lot slower than I expected due to the steepness of the slope, maybe should have gone up the road a bit first, not really sure. The rest of the route seemed pretty good. I think I would have really struggled with the steep climb at the end going left but the little track winding up the hill going right was a runnable gradient and I still felt quite good at the top so I was able to run the long downhill from there pretty well. Passed a couple of people coming into 13 and then saw Blair just getting to the top of the climb as I started down to go through the tunnel but no sign of Ricky.

Tried to push the pace down to 14 but felt awful after running bent over through the tunnel. Planned to be safe and go the track behind the control and back in but decided to cut across when it looked open. I got it a bit wrong and ended up on the track anyway but I was a bit disoriented and took a while to work it out losing maybe 30-40 seconds. Finally worked it out and found tRicky punching just ahead of me.

I had already planned out safe route choices for the last few controls to get me home safely while tired so I just tried to stick to those and do them efficiently. Stayed just in front of Ricky most of the time and could see Jim and Jemery up ahead on the road past the tennis courts but thought they were too far ahead. Stuck to plan and had a little gap on Ricky at the second last which I thought might be enough but as I headed out to the last I could see Jim running back towards me which made me hesitate for a while and let Ricky close up.

I knew I shouldn't get involved in a sprint finish as I had talked specifically about the risks with my cardiologist only two days earlier and sprinting to hold off a teammate would be especially stupid but I also knew we were probably racing to be the last counting nomad after Henry and Oscar and my stupid ego would not allow me to concede. I tried to tell Ricky not to make me do it as we punched the last control but he wouldn't listen so I was forced to sprint all the way to the finish. I thought I just held him off but we punched within the same second so it finished as a tie. My heart rate got to 168 at the finish (my limit was supposed to be 160) and then got erratic for quite a while after finishing.

Feeling pretty stupid afterwards for giving in to my competitive instincts with so little to gain and so much to lose. At least I know now that I definitely can't be trusted so I will have to avoid mass start races in the future. I probably can't be trusted in any sort of race but I'll give myself another chance at interval starts.

Apart from the stupid finish I was pretty happy with how it went. Coped with the distance and hills better than I expected and really quite enjoyed it. The problem is what I probably enjoyed most was the sprint at the end.

C • Moral victory 13

Course 1 BBB - Splits

Event: Adelaide NOL
 

Sprint qualifier at Flinders Uni.
Did a reasonable warm up for this, mostly with fletch. Heart came good about half way through the warm up after being twitchy all morning but started to misfire again as soon as I stopped and wasn't great during the race. Heart rate was fairly constant but higher than the effort warranted and I always felt a bit short of breath. Pretty solid run technically, just a couple of little wobbles and happy enough with my routes but I was never going to be fast enough with the steep hills and my heart not cooperating fully. Enjoyed the downhill bits.

Sprint final at Waite campus.
Heart was a bit better for this one but I still took it very slowly on the uphill legs to try to keep it under control. Lots of very narrow passages in the early part of the course before it opened out a bit in the second half. I wasn't prepared to take my eye off the map to read any control descriptions until the 11th control so I can easily understand how Rachel got through most of the course before realising anything was wrong when she was given the men's map. She was beating me very consistently and I think was about a minute ahead when she got to 14 and noticed the code didn't match her descriptions.

Enjoyed this course more as the first part of the course was tricky enough that I didn't really mind taking it slowly up the hills and it was mostly downhill through the easier second half. Nice variation with the bit through the arboretum at the end too. Had a couple of slightly sub-optimal legs but nothing too bad.

1A - Splits

Course 1 - Splits

Did the Rosalie run for the first time in a long while. Heart was bad before getting up so I wasn't sure I should bother trying. Walked over to the start and had a bit of a dizzy spell just before starting but it was mostly fine while running. Not sure how but I found myself at the front with Kate and Alyson so I ran with them through to the hills which I had to take very slowly to keep my heart rate (mostly) under 150.
Heart a bit funny during the break at the war memorial and spiked briefly as I set off again but settled down pretty quickly. Ran with Nic for most of the downhill at the end where my heart rate seemed to want to sit on 151 rather than 150 so the alarm was going off a lot.
Heart started playing up again pretty soon after stopping and hit 180 a couple of times while stretching.

Putting out tapes at Malmalling for three downhill courses. Did the first course on the way up to get it done before the others started then did the other two downhill. Heart rate spiked to 167 as soon as the hill got a bit steeper so I started walking. Heart rate all seemed fairly normal after that but it never felt right for the rest of the run so I kept it pretty slow and did a fair bit of stopping to check I was getting the tapes in the right place.
Lots of ticks again.

NavDash long course at Murdoch Uni. Heart was fine for this one but I was constantly around my limit of 150bpm so I felt as though I was having to hold back a lot which was a bit frustrating. Sprint races really aren't that much fun when you have to hold back.

Handicap starts on short course. Started ok but had to take it very slowly once we turned uphill after number 3 and then my heart started to play up after the leg past the finish so I walked quite a bit near the end. Slower than Simmo and Anthea but luckily it was unofficial.

Long - Splits