Training Log Archive: Craig

Event: WA Long Distance Championships - Marginata
 

WA Long Champs at Marginata.
Had a bit of trouble getting motivated for this, probably a combination of having set the middle distance yesterday and feeling I was unlikely to be seriously challenged. A bit of a warm up and waiting in the starting grid did help to feel a bit more ready by the time I started.

First thing I noticed at the start was how much faster Sten was running towards the start triangle and I wasted a bit of time thinking about that instead of where I was going. Still hit the first pretty well, helped a bit by seeing Wayne coming down the hill out of it a little earlier than I expected. Caught up to Wayne at 2 and first saw Simon ahead at 4, which I was a little slow into. Didn't see Simon again on the way to 5 but could see him ahead again on the way to 6 and got into 6 just ahead.

Simon stuck with me to 7 and 8 I wasn't feeling as though I would be able to run away from him so tried to make sure I was quick in and out of 8 to get a bit of a gap. I'm not really sure what Simon did but I wasn't aware of him after 8 so I guess it worked. Considered going around the left on 8-9 but I thought that running the ridge line was the safer option so stuck with that. Saw Steve coming up onto the ridge from my left near the top which I thought was a strange route choice so I tried to point out the top of the hill to him thinking he might be unsure where he was on the ridge. I expected him to follow me down the hill and actually looked behind at one point but couldn't see him. Coming into 9 I thought I had seen the big boulder on the knoll next to the control from a distance but in fact it was the boulder cluster beyond which I had never even noticed on the map so I was a little confused for a while there and lost maybe 30-40 seconds. I don't think I was alone in making that mistake. As I left towards 10 I saw Simon coming in looking as though he was making the same mistake but he seems to have lost more time.

Struggled up the hill to 11 but happy with my routes through to 13, then saw Liam walking slowly up the hill to my right as I ran to 14. The way he was walking gave me the impression that he was lost and I didn't really expect him to be over that side of the hill so I wondered if I should check if he was ok but he was heading back over the hill and didn't look upset so I decided not to risk distracting him or myself. It turns out he was not supposed to be on that side of the hill and he took 58 minutes for that leg but he wasn't feeling concerned and did get there in the end so I'm glad I just let him work it out himself.

Found a pretty good line on the contour around to 15 which I was pretty happy about as I was struggling to climb. Coming out of 15 I was conscious of the fact that I was using the vegetation as an excuse to walk bit rather than pushing up the hill and as I came over the top I was having second thoughts about aiming to run elites at nationals next year.

Tried to take it safely into 16 as I really just wanted to get around the rest of the course without screwing up at this stage but as I came into it I saw Rhys leaving. I had forgotten about Rhys and, having passed everyone else earlier, I was keen to catch Rhys to be first finisher after being second last starter. I could see Rhys ahead most of the way to 17 and was right behind him by the time we punched but couldn't stay with him up the hill to 18 so had to repeat the process across to 19 and 20. Managed to get past him when we turned downhill again to punch 21 just ahead and edged a bit further ahead in the sprint to the finish. Still a pretty impressive run from Rhys given that it was only his third run after a 6 year break and great to hear that he is interested in doing more if his work moves closer to Perth as he expects it will soon.

I think that is win number 17 for me from 27 attempts (1991-2017). I was satisfied with my run but did feel I was a bit down on pace. I didn't really think I did much yesterday but my garmin had me doing almost 20,000 steps (18km), which is the most I have done since getting it and that did include two trips up the 90m climb to the start carrying 15L of water each time.

C • 17 from 27 20

Went to the tennis courts for a while with Liam before it got dark. Tried to keep it pretty easy for both of us so mostly just serving practice for Liam, sometimes with me hitting a short return and Liam hitting one more shot.

1 - Splits

Event: WA Middle Distance Championships - Jumbuck Hill
 

Easy run in KP. Feeling quite good apart from the usual tightness around the hips from pump. Finished with a few laps of drills and strides.

Pump with CC.

GA's 5/8 surges. Felt quite good from the start today, much better than last time I ran this course. Form got a bit ragged on the last couple of efforts as I tired a bit and this is where I lost most time compared to my fastest efforts a couple of years ago. Still started to feel good again quite early on the warm down so that is encouraging. 40:10 for the surge course, which is nearly 3 minutes faster than my last effort.

Wanted to use this run for relaxation but never really felt able to relax. Feeling a bit tight in the quads but not tired so kept having to make an effort to slow down.