Training Log Archive: fletch

Got a bit of a shock doing fitness testing with year 8's this morning. Turned up in trackies and my non-running shoes figuring it wouldn't take much to jog through a couple of beep tests with the little'uns.
First half a guy made 12.3, second half 10.1 - by far the best class I've had in my 2 and a bit years at the school. Got a bit hot and a bit more of a run than I wanted on my non-running day...

C • Not bad for a year 8... 7

9ish min of warm-up from school down to the beach, then 10 x 2:2 fartlek. Legs felt pretty stiff and sorry after not stretching enough in the aftermath of my first proper intervals session in a while. Got a bit better as I went, but probably not at the intensity they should have been. Better use the HR monitor for the fartlek sessions to keep myself honest if I'm going to run them on sand...
Cooldown back up the hill to school. Half way there when I got a phone call saying that 4 kids (biggest turnout so far) were waiting for xcountry training. Pity they turned up on the wrong day... I took them out anyway coz I wanted to be encouraging.

Obviously I wasn't barefoot running on the footpath, but can;t select 2 pairs of shoes for the one session...

C • Hard Man.... 2

2 x through the beep test with some pathetic year 9's, similar to yesterday (which i didn't bother logging). Knee a bit grumpy about all the turns (hence bothering to record this...

Up Down
1:59.1 2:43.8
1:59.0 2:37.6
1:55.7 2:34.9 (+2)
1:52.4 2:46.3
1:53.3 2:39.8
1:51.9 2:36.1 (+2)
1:45.3 3:00.0
1:47.1

Last years times (June) for the same session. Feel a bit less crap about the effort now.

Time/distance approx. CAn't be bothered working it out.

8 reps of Kalinda in sets of 3,3,2. First set jog back, 2nd and 3rd jog back +30sec, 3 min between sets.

Still not feeling 100% so started pretty conservatively, and given the massive rest (about 3 min to jog down) was only just hitting the intensity I should have been aiming at by the end
1:54, 1:55, 1:54
1:49, 1:49, 1:49
1:43, 1:41

Chris was off in front of me at the start (he started with a 1:49) then we ran the second 2 sets together. Won't be long before he is leaving me behind.

Feel a little happier about Yesterday's run now. More than 15 minutes of the 20 I was behind Ben was on the 2 controls I totally stuffed. I missed my planned route on 9, but corrected well, 10 was terrible and major wobbles on the way to 11. 16 makes sense now I've seen it - didn't go where I intended on the first half of the leg, so does 6, where I thought I had run much further down the watercourse than I had approaching the control, hence didn't leave from my intended attackpoint, which explains why it didn't quite make sense at the time.

So, lots of errors, but the other legs I ran almost completely to plan and wasn't relying on stumbling blindly on to them, which is a big positive for me at this stage.
Given how conservative I was trying to be, happy to be close to Ben's pace through to 9. Faded pretty badly at the end, but not unexpected.

Managed to leave my watch at home, so ran with Penny's. She had autostop on, which I hadn't realised. Came up with at time of 9534, so five minutes stopped time!! Got some work to do...

C • tRicky 9

Hoped that I was healthy enough to cope with the long course, but it was fairly apparent by the time I was half way through using the down hill first leg that I was using as my warm-up that I was in for a big struggle today. Found my way fairly cleanly through the first 4, a little sloppy getting in to 5, planned the long leg to 6 well, but failed to execute in the last 150m, punching a wrong control before quickly correcting. Clean through to 9, but I was dead going back over the ridge and somehow managed to do a 180 out of 9 and ran 3-400m in the wrong direction, before figuring things out again and slowly correcting.
Something was confusing in the mapping in the circle at 11. Had a couple of mid-leg directional wobbles too, but nothing too serious. Then strung a few together again to get to 15. Happy with the plan for 16, but never made my attackpoint, got vagued out and went on a wander a few hundred metres further down the hill than I should have been. Wheels had well and truly fallen off by here. Briefly contemplated pulling out at 17, but stuck it out, and crawled my way cleanly through to the end.
Shame not to feel healthier and be able to run harder. Happy with most legs, but two errors were monumental.
Feet not quite as comfy today. Both ankle braces broke by number 2 and were digging in pretty bad for the rest of the course. Also same rubbing spot from the top of the heel of the shoe, despite using tape. Will try vaseline instead next time and see what happens. Need to order some carbon fibre braces :)

C • Rehband Malleoform 22

H1 - Splits

Event: Umuna Autumn Classic
 

Getting a bit better. Certainly slept better last night. Had a bit of a kick of the footy today and only felt half dead. Still some chance of running on Sunday, but I doubt I'll be 100%

Almost hopped on the windtrainer for an easy spin, but went and bought some stuff for the weights room instead. Tomorrow?

Sore throat, coughing lots. Hmm. Cold has well and truly won the battle. Absolutely knackered at school.

Event: Ngangaguringguring Standard Event
 

Despite a few glitches trying to get an early copy of the map for today's course, I headed out anyway to run an old M18 badge event from 1994. First bush nav in ages, and it showed. Was absolutely hopeless and made slower by the fact there were no flags in the locations I had to get to, so combined with my lack of confidence made for a lot of double and triple checking once I was in approximately the right area.
Much trouble reading the map. Not helped by starting with a 1:15 000, which I've hardly used for 7 or 8 years. Also real trouble to get my map reading sorted and routine in place, even when moving slowly. Kept catching myself just running in the right general direction instead of planning the leg properly first.
Much improvement needed. I wonder how much differences 7 races in a week and a half over east would have made.
Oh well. Gotta start somewhere, and it was really good fun, except for running east at 7am trying to shield my eyes, look at the map and see where I was going at the same time. Looking forward to Umuna next weekend. Must sort out the routine there, whether needed in farmland or not.

Oh yeah - was so slow that I hard to give up 2/3 of the way around to get home in time for church (and I may never have made it to the right locatrion for at least one of the controls. Will see where I went with a bit of creativity and routegadget :) )

C • RouteGadget 2

C • X-Talons? 15

Event: Nav Dash - Aquinas College
 

Very cautious to a tricky first control, left 2 in the wrong direction then had to choose between correcting to original plan or going the long way round. Chose to correct, but may not have been worth it - the splits will tell the tale. Then not too bad for a while. Didn't see 12 when standing right next to it, and left 27 in the wrong direction. Felt slow and scrappy through 19-22. Just had trouble keeping up with where I was as the legs were so short and had some trouble in general following where I was on the map, as it was so totally covered in lines between little circles...

Oscar got me by 30 seconds, I beat Ben by about 12. Will be interesting to see the splits.

Course 1 - Splits

Ride to and from the folks' house to go cheer on the Wiggles. Kept my 100% record for the season intact. Got a much better route on the way home. Plus no crowds, plus no traffic, plus no headwind. Legs still sore from last night though

Ye olde 7 reps of 5:2 plus WU, CD. Felt like I was going to die at the start. Been feeling pretty flat as the day has worn on today. Lunch tried to squeeze back past dinner at one point (at least that's what it tasted like), but settled into an alright rhythm after that.

Long run from work. Was a bit warmer and sunnier than expected. Probably should have drunk more of the water I took with me :(

Decided to try something different and headed from school, down Hester Ave, past Ridgewood oval along to Neerabup National Park, turned north along the eastern boundary of the park and followed it up to Romeo Rd. Turned west, then shortly after saw the end of the Y??? walk track which I had seen the other end of down on Hester, so figured that would be a good way to get back. Was a bit softer in places and quite twisty and turny, so it added a bit of distance and climb. Which wasn't appreciated considering how badly I faded after the 45 minute mark. Where did my fitness go? Also killed my plans for a 90 minute run, but I survived. Had an icy-pole at school then headed to Subway for a late lunch. Yum.

Pity things like this don't fit into ordinary work days :(

C • Yaberoo-Budjara trail 4

Hmmmm.... Longest (almost) continuous ride since Januray 20th...

Urrggghhh - there's a yucky yellow colour that hasn't been in my log for ages. Thought I'd continue the training re-start with my first non-windtrainer ride since some time in Feb. Was meant to be a gentle roll Sth to Mt Henry brisge and back home along the freeway bike path, and started that way, then about half an hour in, I had a puncture... and where was my pump - where it has been for hte last 6 weeks - sitting at work. Still had all the other bits, so changed the tube and waited for a friendly soul to stop and lend me a pump. Didn't want to cut the ride short, but had a deadline, so hopped in behind a roadie thru to Mt Henry, and repeated the dose for a fair chunk back to the narrows.

Strangely, riding feels a bit harder after not doing it for so long. Need to do this a bit more often if my commute to work is ever to re-establish itself as the recovery ride that it is supposed to be.

Event: Nav Dash - Hale School
 

Tricksy sort of course set by Simmo at Hale School. Very careful on the first, looked at the bottom of the stairs, top of the stairs, wring garden bed, then back down the stairs to the other garden bed to get no. 2. 3 and 4 were OK, 5 was slow. Much harder to spot the controls this week as they were on stands, and usually hidden behind waist height walls until you were standing right next to them. 6 was easy, but I don't know if I went the fastest route, ditto 7. 8 and 9 were smooth, but somehow got disorientated going to 10 and dropped about 5 sec, 11-13 were the stretch out the legs and hammer controls, which I did, then started to run to 15, before I saw 14 on the map. 14 was clean, but had to stop and unfold the map to check the code, as I wasn't confident I was on the right mound. 15 and 16 OK, 17 slow in the circle as I didn't know what the control was hidden behind. 18 was a disaster, Bolted about half way there, but totally lost where I was and ended up at my no. 6. Stopped, totally confused, punched 6 again, figured out where I was, left in the wrong direction, then rather than changing route, deviated back the other way to come into the control as planned, dropping more time. Last couple OK, but lost time at 20 when the unit didn't beep and I had to go back a few steps and re-punch, then turned around and ran to where I remembered (wrongly) the finish being instead of down the chute.

very scrappy. No major losses, but not good enough.
Lessons learnt - have to bring description holder (on the wrist is far more useful than on the map - will actually check on hte way into controls) and... there is still that distinct speed at which I CAN run, but CAN'T navigate cleanly. I am much faster if I back off a touch and get it right.

See if I can put any of that into practice at Aquinas

C • Setting 2

About half and hour warm-up. Needed this to get moving and give the Nurofen time to work on my lower back. Tokenish cooldown after Wally offered me a lift home to drop off my ski. Seemed a better option that running home again

Course 1 - Splits

Meant to be a nice easy way to ease back into running to check if I am more or leass healthy again and so see if my new shoes are OK. Shoes may be half a size too big, but feel good enough. If anyone wants to go to a shop where they'll stick you on a treadmill, check out your running before they recommend any shoes and wasnts $10 off, I've got a stack of vouchers to The Running Centre (Hay St, West Perth) I found out a couple of little assymetries, but nothing major with an obvious root cause (they ain't sports physicians). The surprising one was that my foot lift at the back of the cycle was lower on the right side. Having run today, I'll put that down to ridiculous quad tightness on the R due to not exercising or stretching much over the last 12 days or so.

Anyways, the run - was a bit warmer than I expected. Felt Ok at the start, knee not 100% but not really bothersome. Any sense of spring and enjoyment disappeared at about 7km, and felt progressively worse after that. Guts didn't really want to play either and it's probably a good thing the front door wasn't locked when I got home. Also a bit faster than intended. Oh well.

After deciding that a full week off might be a god idea, thanks largely to the damage I did to my knee at school, today I was keen to get back on the bike, but the cold I have been fighting with since before the Beidges has finally gained the upper hand. I was knackered just trying to kick a ball with my daughters this arvo

C • I know the feeling 2

Wanted to run Tuesday, but sick family and hurt my knee playing touch rugby with Yr 11's in he morning, then was stoopid and played again in the arvo. Ended up rolling around on the ground with a quad cramp after getting stepped by a yr 9 girl.

Followed this up by finishing the last lesson of the term on Weds by playing netball (was falling asleep umpiring so I joined in) and really stuffed my knee there... Instead of the usual dull ache, I now have a sharp pain in a slightly different spot on my patellar tendon. Will have to get it checked if it doesn't settle with an inactive easter weekend.

Entertained myself this morning by sending our praccy don to the primary school to get the spcial valve to pump up the flat tennis balls (we've got a bucket full of half-court balls). Funny.