Training Log Archive: Craig

Event: Evedon
 

Just looping around the assembly area until I felt as ready as I was going to get to tackle the hills.

H3 at Evedon Ridge, 5.2km straight line.
Happy with my start hitting the first cleanly. Not quite sure if I passed him before or after 1 but Nick Dale overtook me up the hill to 2 and punched just ahead of me but I was quicker leaving and was ahead going out towards 3. I didn't really want to lead Nick all the way around and 3 looked pretty tricky so I tried to make sure I was clean in and out to try to get a gap which I mostly succeeded at. He said he could still see me until 6 but I got enough of a gap to not be aware of him from 3. Went through Andrew Martin at 5 I think and got to 7 just behind Oliver. I went fairly wide crossing the spur to 8 but not quite as wide as I thought so I overshot slightly coming back but I suspected I might be so was quick enough recovering to still get it well ahead of Oliver.
Happy with 9 but lost about a minute at 10 which seemed to be a boulder or two North of where it should have been. Oliver caught up here but I found it first and he didn't stay with me leaving. 11 was good, 12 was a slog. I probably could have contoured a bit more here or forced myself to run all of the hill and saved a few seconds (5 maybe). Made sure I contoured out of 12 was happy with my route over the dam wall into 13. Ran right past a control on a similar boulder about 70m before mine and wondered if they had got it wrong so tried to check the code but could only read the first letter which was the same. Only had to go a couple more steps to see there was a control in the right spot as well but I really don't understand why they didn't just use one of them. Easy run down to the last which I had seen on the way past then forced myself to keep running up to the finish pulling all sorts of faces for the camera man.
Found out later that fenry had beaten me by 4 seconds. Probably a good thing as it would have been a bit of a let down to achieve my goal for the season in the first race. Not too many more chances though with fenry heading overseas in June.

Warm down jog out past the start. I thought it was pretty flat heading out but it certainly didn't feel like it coming back.

Event: NavDash – Australind
 

Warm up run in the rain with fenry.

NavDash Long course at Australind high school. Thought 4km was going to be a bit long but being a country high school I thought it probably also meant it was going to be a bit simple and fast but that was not the case at all. Really tricky start with the first 4 or 5 controls having lots of buildings at funny angles and narrow passages. I didn't feel smooth at all and think I still missed the best routes despite taking quite a bit of time over my decisions.
Didn't feel as though I ever got much speed up through the first map but I was still exhausted and feeling really sluggish when we hit the ovals and swamps in the second half. Really exhausted and not looking forward to another loop coming into the map change which I think contributed to me running to the finish instead of the map change to begin with. The second map was all in the buildings again which made me slow down enough to actually enjoy it and feel a bit fresher by the finish. Great new map and course, well worth the trip.
Finished second about 3:30 behind fenry.

Jogged around the short course as a warm down. Not really concentrating and all a bit familiar but at least it made me do a decent warm down.

Long - Splits

Usual loop by the river but taking it easy this week because I expect to run pretty hard on Saturday and Sunday. Legs feeling a bit wrecked from weights last night (despite using lighter weights than normal) but breathing was very comfortable. Saw Craig Berg near the rugby fields both going out and coming back.

C • After OY points? 1

Tried to take it a bit easier this week, sitting at the back of the group around the river and letting them go on the hills. After the restart I got talking to Kate and she started to lift the pace as usual so we ended up running pretty fast for the last 3km.

Short sweaty loop in KP on a mix of sand and grass. Planned to go further but was too tired to get out early enough.