Training Log Archive: Craig

Event: Foot-O - Two Day Classic
 

Middle distance race on a sprint scale map from the Easter prologue in 2011. Got through the first short legs ok without feeling completely in control. Starting to feel more confident and push a bit harder on the long leg out to the pivot control but came unstuck on 7-8. Crossed the spur and expected to see the control straight in front of me but nothing looked remotely like what I was expecting and because I had been rushing a bit I assumed I had crossed the spur too high and ran back and downhill a bit. When I actually looked at the map and thought about it a bit I realised I couldn't be too high so ran back where I had been and from this direction could see someone punching well above where I had been. Lost about 45 seconds here. Pushed on and ran ok for the rest. Caught sight of Rachel leaving the pivot the second time and passed her approaching 14. I was a little disturbed to hear someone gaining on me near 20 until I realised it was tRicky who had started before Rachel. Crossed the fence to run around the spur to 21 mostly to go a different way from tRicky but got pushed wider than I wanted to go by fallen branches and lost a little ground. Followed tRicky to 22 but he stopped at 5 so I told him where he was as I ran past. Pushed the last few pretty hard trying to keep up with tRicky but tried not to push too hard up the hill to the finish as I hadn't been feeling great.

Expert 1 - Splits

Rosalie Run. Felt terrible and took it easy for most of the run but still got to the war memorial first for the first time ever. Pushed some of it really hard racing Daniel back down the hill despite still not feeling great. Legs were stiff and tired from gym on Monday I think.

Event: OAWA Relay Championships
 

First leg of relays at Russell's Gully. Still got a bit of a cold so tried to take it nice and easy out of the start. Took a while to get into the map and had a bit of a pack around me for the first few controls but nobody getting away. Feeling a bit more confident heading down to the Western end of the map and then after almost making a mistake climbing the hill after crossing the gully I suddenly seemed to be alone. Kept expecting somebody to catch me as I plodded back up the hill but came in with about a 3 minute lead.

3rd leg of the relays. Ricky lost a bit of time early allowing Henry to catch up so they came in together and I headed out with Andre. Andre had already told me he wasn't going to make the mistake of not following me this time and after a few controls it seemed likely we had the same course. I just concentrated on my own course for the first half but Andre was clipping my heels the whole time and it was clear I was not going to shake him so after 10 I walked for a while to force him to the front. There were only a couple of controls that looked a little tricky (11 and 15 I think) so I tried to let him get far enough ahead on those for me to sneak through if he missed but stay close enough to catch up if he didn't. No mistakes from Andre so I had to put in a bit of a surge up the hill to 15 to catch up and then smash it down the hill to the last to come in a couple of seconds ahead. A little frustrating to have the same course but kind of fun messing around with tactics to try to get clear.
Knew that Ricky and Henry must have the same or very similar course to finish so didn't hold much hope for Ricky holding off Henry in a sprint finish.
Ricky put up a good fight stretching Henry on the uphill section but Henry got a decisive break on the last couple of downhill bushy legs to win by a second.