Training Log Archive: Craig

Event: John Forrest Cross Country
 

John Forrest Cross Country. Planned to run with Rachel but didn't actually spend much time together. Rachel was not feeling too good and was a bit slow out of the start then just as she caught up my heart popped so I dropped back for a while. I hammered the downhill to get back in front and get a bit of a gap so I could take it easy up the hills but because she wasn't feeling good she didn't catch up until I walked a bit at the final drink station. Heart wasn't too bad in the second half and it ended up feeling pretty comfortable for me, certainly well below normal race effort.

Nasal 5k loop (6:37, 9:11, 7:03, 4:22). Might have to give up on the nasal breathing, it was supposed to be a trick to force me to relax and take it easy but it seems to be developing into a challenge to see how fast I can go while maintaining it.

Rehab loop extension past the rock quarry. Found the nasal breathing a lot more comfortable today. Seemed to get a lot easier after about 15 minutes and I was even able to push the pace a bit after that. Just one little hiccup from heart. Enjoyable run.

Found my motivation at 5:30 this morning so set out to do an hour or so but when I got to O'Connor Rd I thought "this feels like enough" so I turned and just did the 5k loop (7:32, 11:01, 8:13, 4:56). Trying to do nasal breathing the whole way to force me to take it easy. Legs felt really relaxed and comfortable and the breathing was ok except when my heart played up but it did get a bit annoying after a while, probably a big part of deciding to turn at O'Connor.

Couldn't find my motivation again but decided to head out without it this time. Walked about 10 minutes, jogged to O'Connor Rd where I decided to stop and play around on the hill for a while then jogged home with a couple of short walks.

Put my running shorts on but couldn't find my motivation so had to have a rest day.

I thought I was probably overstating things a bit when I was telling people I felt like I was going to die 3 or 4 times during my run yesterday so I've been trying to think of a better way of describing it. The best I could come up with is that it was a bit like when you dive down to the bottom of the diving pool and start feeling like you really need to take a breath when you are only half way back to the surface.