Training Log Archive: Craig

Event: Foot O - Hill Park Dale
 

H1 at Hill Park Dale. Great course by ShotRat and Dave made the trip worthwhile. On a tight schedule so after setting Liam off on the VE I got straight into it without any warm up. Couldn't face climbing straight up the hill out of the start so I tried to start contouring but after clambering through the rocks across the first little spur I decided that was stupid and climbed the hill anyway. Wasn't too sure where I had ended up and ended up having to drop more than I expected so I was a bit hesitant coming into the control but got it ok. Not the best of starts but not a disaster.

Settled down a bit over the next few controls and started to feel more confident. Small mistake at 5 where I misread the description as SW foot instead of SE so went above the cliff when I should have come underneath. Slightly unsure coming into 6 but this time I read the description correctly and made sure I approached from the side where I could see the control before I really had to work out the detail.

All good through to 10 and starting to feel a little stronger as I warmed up. A bit indecisive about my approach to 11 and got it a little bit wrong but worked it out at a point where I could see the control once I'd worked out which direction to look so didn't cost too much time.

Rest of the course was fine apart from a slight miss on the last control when I was a little distracted by ShotRat taking photos. I had thought this looked like one of the hardest controls but didn't want to slow down while being photographed. I thought ShotRat would be standing close to the best line to the control so just ran straight past him hoping that would get me close enough to see it. Ended up just right of the pair of boulders above the control which I was expecting to be left of so hesitated for a few seconds before turning the right way. ShotRat later said he expected me to run to his left into the little creek South of the control but I don't think I had seen this on the map as it was a bit obscured by the circle. Didn't lose much time anyway and didn't break my ankle on the run to the finish.

Really enjoyed that course. Always something to think about without ever getting too tough. Looks as though I may even have beaten fenry but I'm not going to believe that until I see official results.

Rosalie parents tennis tournament. A bit disappointing this year. Started with a round robin in groups of 4 but we were put in the only group of 5 so had to sit out one round and play on hard courts instead of grass. Got there too late for any warm up, first opponents were very weak and last round was rained out so only had one reasonable hit of 15 minutes before the knockout round. Drew Dan and Katya in the quarters and were never in the contest. We would have struggled to match them anyway but it felt as though it was over before we had a chance to warm up. Had a bit of a hit with Rachel on the grass afterwards and did feel as though we were starting to play a lot better after a while.

H1 - Splits

Wasn't really in the mood for much by the time the opportunity came around so I just jogged a few laps of Rosalie Park. Would have been even slower except some guy came past me about half way through and kept going around the same loop so I had to speed up a bit.

Almost over my cold I think but still not feeling great running this morning. Knew it was a bad sign when the first time I checked my gps wondering if the pace was under 5min/km it was actually over 6. Planned to do a short easy tempo session, partly to discourage me from pushing the pace of the whole run. I thought about abandoning that idea and just making it an easy run but I find it very hard to back out once I've started.

Plan was to do 2x10min tempo with a 5min jog recovery aiming for 4:05-4:10 pace which I thought should be pretty comfortable (about half marathon pace). On the first effort the pace kept drifting out over 4:10 and I had to work hard to get it back under. Second effort also felt harder than it should have but did manage to stay under 4:10 most of the time despite being very slightly more uphill and into the wind.

First half of the warm down was a struggle but by the end I was feeling the best I had in the whole run. Saw Craig Berg down near the flying squadron and I think I went past Nic near UWA on the warm up but couldn't really say I saw him as it was still pretty dark at that stage.

Still feeling a bit sick so tried to take it easy today. Felt quite good going slowly but couldn't quite get rolling at the pace of the lead group so ended up running by myself all the way. Stretched the legs for 100m or so a couple of times on the way back down the hill. Heart was fine while running but not so good when I stopped at the war memorial and at the end. Kate was running with a halter monitor so of course her heart was fine today.

A bit of warm up plus one set of singles with Rachel on grass after lunch. Nice.

Got the rest of the splinter out of my wrist this afternoon. Only about 3mm long but it was going straight into a bony part of the wrist and deep enough that I couldn't see the end of it yesterday. Hopefully the swelling will go down a bit now.

Was going to play tennis tonight but my right wrist was sore last night so I pulled out of the team this morning. Initially thought I must have bruised it somehow orienteering but now it is hot, red and swollen around where I had a splinter so maybe it got infected. Went down to watch the tennis for a while before heading to the gym.