Training Log Archive: Craig

Ride around KP. Was going to just do a lap around the outside but after rolling down the hill near the river I felt compelled to turn around and ride back up it for some reason.

Short run in KP after work. Achilles ok at the start but got pretty sore over a fairly short period after around 3-4 minutes. Gradually eased off or got used to it for the rest of the run and stopped hurting as soon as I stopped running. Felt reasonably good apart from the pain.

Little jog around the grass courts to keep warm while waiting for Liam's club champs doubles match to start. Getting quite sore towards the end.

Easter Day 3 Foxlow Flats.

Heel was very sore overnight. Got a calf and foot massage from Rachel and rubbed some voltaren gel on it before going to bed but it was sore enough to be keeping me awake any time I brushed it gently during the night. Still very sore on waking so I tried taking a couple of ibuprofen tablets with breakfast.

Walked most of the way to the start hoping that would warm it up enough to be able to jog a bit once I started. Once I did start running I pretty quickly realised that I was actually feeling a lot better than the day before.

Hit one pretty well, helped a little by being able to see Matt Doyle ahead. Dithered a little about route choice to 2 then decided to go left because I could see it was open to begin with, it looked pretty flat and I didn't want to risk the green going straight. Happy with the route until I left the fence corner, then drifted left of where I intended until I could see the open paddocks and corrected. Feeling reasonably good here, even running with a little bit of urgency which I maintained through to 3. Aimed a bit left, past the ruin to 4 and was confident on approach but still had trouble spotting it at the end. Fine through 5 and 6 but lost it a bit on 7. Couldn't quite make sense of the map and lost contact mid leg so took a bit of time to convince myself I needed to follow the main creek further South. 8 was fine but lost confidence again on 9 when the vegetation seemed almost completely opposite to how it was mapped. Found it fine when I just got into the creek and followed it South again but really felt I lost momentum through this section.

I saw Steve Todkill behind as I was leaving 5. He passed me at 7 and got a bit clear by 9. I caught him again at 10 and started to get some confidence back once we were out of the erosion detail. I tried to push on for home but I was feeling much more tired this stage and any hill was a real struggle. Took the track to the left on 14 but skirted the hill past 1 which seemed to work well. Had nothing in the legs for the gentle climb to 15, it was all I could do to keep running, but managed to muster a final little burst to get home from 16.

21st on the day but did just enough to hold off those close to me and end up 15th overall. Pretty happy with that given my preparation and particularly considering how bad my heel felt after the long day.

Heel was feeling good enough at the end of my race that I felt happy enough to go straight out to shadow Amy around her course. I was scared that it would stiffen up if I stopped moving but it wasn't a problem and in fact it still felt pretty good even after the flight home.

Amy didn't seem to be in any hurry for the first half but got a bit more urgency when she could see another boy ahead in the second half. Course seemed way harder than I was expecting and quite confusing. Twice Amy was going to do the controls out of order because of the way the numbers were positioned.