Training Log Archive: Craig

Didn't sleep well last night so it was a bit of a struggle to get going at 5:10am. Started with a loop down to Pelican Point and back to make it as easy as possible until I warmed up. Surprisingly cold setting out given the 36 degree forecast but already starting to warm up a bit coming back past Matilda Bay at 5:30. Continued to struggle a bit climbing up through KP but felt reasonably good for the second half of the run.

Warm up out to the park run turnaround and back with a couple of minutes of tempo effort towards the end. Did a few unrecorded drills and strides afterwards. A bit more wind than I expected but it seemed to be pretty much pure crosswind where exposed so not bad conditions for running fast.

Really wanted to get under 19 by the end of the year. I wasn't feeling confident of achieving that until Wednesday's interval session where 3:50 felt a lot more comfortable than previous sessions. Still wasn't sure I was quite ready for sub 19 yet but hoped to be around 3:50/km and beat my parkrun PB of 19:17.

Started on the front row and went out quite hard then had a stream of people overtake me once we got onto the path. Felt as though I had established a good rhythm but worried that I may have slowed too much after the start. Happy to see a 1k split of 3:48 and felt quite comfortable so tried to start moving back past people to make sure I didn't slow with the rest of the field.

2nd km was 3:50 but that includes a bit of headwind and most of the one hill so I was happy with that. Still feeling good at the turn and starting to move past people more decisively. Tried to use the downhill to increase the pace a bit and managed 3:44 for the third km.

I expected the 4th km to be the hardest as this is where I have struggled previously but this time I felt strong throughout for a 3:47 and knew I could speed up in the last km when we turned with the wind. Legs were still good but the increase in pace started to tax my breathing a bit as I sped up to make sure of the sub 19.

Approaching the final turn onto the bridge at the end of the cove there was a bike coming over the bridge. I was trying to work out how best to avoid a collision when I recognised the cyclist in running shorts and cycling top as Terry Farrell! Quick last second hello and then started the final push back into the wind. My heart was starting to get a little twitchy at this stage and a final sprint up the hill to the finish didn't seem like the smartest thing to do so I tried to just keep it rolling and sacrifice a few seconds.

Really happy with that, particularly with feeling like I was holding a really solid rhythm all the way through.

C • Good stuff 5

Gentle warm down jog out towards the Causeway and back. Feeling reasonably good by the end.

Easy lap of KP with 4 hill sprints up near the back of the tennis club. Took a little while to get going but felt reasonably good once I did.

Recovery jog in KP. Got swooped by a magpie in dark corner.

2k (2') 1.5k (1'30") 1k (1') 500 at McGillivray at something like 10k pace, 5k pace, 3k pace, 1500 pace. Good conditions and pretty happy with the pace.

Moderate run around KP with 4 hill sprints. Went a bit harder than I wanted to up the sand track because I had to surge to get past a couple of schoolgirls who tried to hold me off thinking I was their dad.

Recovery shuffle in KP. Was just behind a couple of walkers heading into the park and then we split going opposite sides around a rectangle. When we came back together they were further in front.

C • Old man! 2

Pennants vs Mt Lawley at Mt Lawley.
Good tight doubles match with Dan against Dan and Pepe. Had our chances, leading 4-1 in the first set tie-breaker, but let them slip going down 3-4 2-4.
Played well with Rhett against Peter and Pepe getting an early lead and holding on against a strong challenge to win 4-1 4-2.
I played really well in the last couple of games of doubles and kept the momentum going into the singles to lead 4-1 2-0 but then had a bit of a low patch to let Pepe back into it and he played really well from there to win 8 games in a row.
I was relieved to find out later that winning the first set was enough to get us over the line by 4 games 3-7-42 to 3-7-38.