Training Log Archive: fletch

Event: NavDash 5 - Mandurah (Australian Sprint Championships)
 

Good warm-up. Got nice and loose, felt better than expecteds after not initially feeling flash after last nights little trundle. Had a little chat to an old bloke to tell him what was happening, then my plannede casual saunter and mental prep went out the window a bit as I realise how close to my start it had gotten. Got to the pre-start with about 90 seconds to spare.

I'm sure Simmo said something about the length of the descriptions. After destroying my long description holder with about 3 controls to go at Easter, I too kmy old short one for this race. It wasn't long enough, and I lost the descriptions for the last 4 or 5 controls. Didn;t end up costing me too much though...

No cool down. Pretty stupid in terms of tomorrow's race, but didn't really care.

Probably the only person in the field who didn't have someone to chase, with Andy on commentary rather than running. Started hard and aimed left of the control. Surprised to hit it dead on, even more surprised when I read the code and realised that mine was the control 30m further along the bank. Lost a touch more time at #2 when I assumed we weren't allowed in the garden and ran to the end of the wall to find a surprising lack of control. Probably a good thing that I didn't know how far off the pace I already was. Apparently was a bit slow on the short direction change to 3 as well, but smooth through 4,5,6. Surprised to see the long leg to 7, but saw a route that looked alright straight up and just decided to hammer it. NW, across the bridge and the middle island etc. 8 and 9 OK also.
Intended to angle across the big vacant block to 10, but it looked sandy and there was a fence on the far side and I couldn't handle disrupting my running rhythm, so went around.
Went NE out of 10 and around to 11. 12 and 13 straight forward. Was a little hesitant checking the placement of 14 and getting down to it, then picked a poor route to 15. Went up, then straight over the bridge and then SE. Thought I had picked a shortcut up a staircasse and through the hotel, but couldn't see it as I approached, so bailed rather than risking it and went around the foreshore. 16-19 were clean. A bit hesitant to 20. Didn't see the gap in the veg and went zig zag, then left. 21, 22 OK. Very hesitant through 23 and 24, but ended up in the right place without any major errors. Left 24 in the wrong direction for a few steps before correcting. 25-26 probably not a great route. Smooth into the last one, but I wasn't convinced it was mine, and my description holder was too short to display all the descriptions, so unfolded my map to double check before bolting up the shoot.

Splits would suggest that if absolutely perfect I could have run in the low 18's. Best legs are the long ones, where reading detail in the circle is less important, so I guess there's still room for improvement, but I'm pretty happy with that effort.

Would have been equal 9th in juniors, but they don't count, so nabbed a 7th place. Best result in an individual Oz Champs race ever, even as a junior...

C • Well done 2

Course 1 - Splits

Wanted to do a gentle loosener of a jog today, but given how much it has hurt (left achilles) trying to walk all day, I gave it a miss. Kind of like the first couple of steps in the morning, but didn't improve all day :(

After 6 nurofen a day since Tuesday last week, finally went without them today. Back is still sore, but not affecting running (or sleeping too much) and I'm not convinced that the nurofen are making much difference anyway.

Both achilles are sore. Left worse than right for the first time in ages. Stiff and a little sore when I wake up, take 5-10 minutes of warm-up to loosen up. Are then OK while I race, but sore again within 10-15 minutes of finishing. So... what can I do to get them to slowly improve rather than slowly worsen without taking an extended break from running?

C • eccentric loading. 3

Post-Easter thoughts...

I have done enough navigation and map reading work recently to start to feel in control on courses for the first time in ages. There were large portions of every day where I was running confidently and expecting controls to be exactly where I was headed rather than just running and hoping.
The downside is that I seem to need to slow down too much relative to other people to maintain this level of control.
Prologue I started TOO conservatively, but was happy to make it through without destroying my entire weekend.
Day 1 Felt really good except for #14. Looking at the map since I must hav eeither lost focus because I saw how close to the finish I was, or because I was starting to fatigue, because it was a really silly error.
Day 2 I was generally happy with. Annoyed with my vagueness at the critical time on the way to 13 and not quite as clean as Day 1. Disappointed that my improved running training this year doesn't seem to have translated as well as I hoped to terrain fitness. Struggled much more than I was expecting to in the second half of the course. Could well have been my longest O race in 8 years, which may have had something to do with it. That's gonna be a hard one to fix without investing a lot more time into terrain or at least steep hill training. Not sure I have the extra time available to do this. If I decide I don't, then I suspect my elite comeback will end next Sunday. Prior to this year I have run less than 40 hours of orienteering (including a chunk of metrO in 4 years. And probably less in the 3 years preceding that). Funny how that's not enough :(
Day 3 - Didn't read the warning signs into 7. Had been pushing hard and had an uphill paddock run into the fallen rubbish. Wasn't careful enough / didn't adjust technique enough. Silly.
Probably marginally better than my Easter effort in 1998 (the terrain there was much more to my liking - navigating in rock detail is not my forte) and a vast improvement on 2003. Also much better than any of my attempts as a junior, so overall a positive weekend.
Very soon it will be decision time as to whether I wasnt to put the time and effort in to get up with the rest of the elit 'pack' or whether I decide that was enough nad pull the pin...

Had grave doubts about my ability to handle this course when the warm-up felt awfully hard slowly jogging up a slight incline. Felt a bit better after run-thrus and had nothing to lose being about 3 minutes behind a pack, so decided to be a little more aggressive today anyway and see what happened.
The first 2 controls were really rough, with fallen timber everywhere. I picked a nice line wide left on the second, but missed the control and had to run back up the hill to it. Pretty clean through to 6 and tried to push the pace a little in the paddock legs today. Picked up Graham as we left 6 (4 minutes), but as we crossed into the fallen crappy bush heading in to 7, Grant came flying past with Bruce and Evan in tow. Not surprisingly, he was well over 2 minutes ahead of me... and was about to go much further so.
I struggled to hold a line in all the fallen timber, and drifted left. Mis-identified a small knoll as the more significant one further south, and ran vaguely from the wrong spot to a wrong spot further away where I hit a group of massive rocks, checked a couple, then figured I had better work out where I was as Wil helpfully told me I was between 8 and 9. Crap. Still not clean getting back to the control from there. Lost a couple more minutes getting pushed way left on the way to 8 and correcting poorly. By the time I had crawled my way through the fallen timber to 9 and 10 just a little sketchily and made it out to the fenceline for a long paddock run, I was pretty much over it.
Amazingly caught sight of Graham again in the second half of the fence run, but lost 30 seconds or so at 11 when I didn't check my direction properly on top of the knoll. Felt like I did most of the course fairly well from there, but the damage was done.
I suspect that the splits will confirm that I wouldn't have gotten very far even with a clean run today. Legs just didn't have it.

C1 Day 4 - Splits

Long day. Had a bit of a bobble in the circle at 3, but it didn't matter, because the control wasn't there anyway - just Tooms and Uncle Jim doing their best impersonation of a control flag. Thanks guys. Saw Glenn chasing me down heading through some early controls. Turns out he could see me for a fair chunk of the course but only caught me at 22 or 23, before fading worse than I did. Relatively clean through to 12, but as I headed into the paddocks, Big Ev came through. Ran the bottom of the hill, then up through the lines of rock slabs, but had picked up the pace a bit, and despite feeling totally in control for most of the leg, I lost it where it mattered most, and was slow and vague until I hit the creek line way to high and had to relocate. First sighting of tRicky for the day, but we went our separate ways again after 15. Knew I was starting to fade, and my race was pretty much over heading up and over the hill to 18 and the map change. Had a little more time loss at 20, then fell over and my hammy cramped as I was leaving the control. Robbie came through just before we hit the paddocks again, and I was stuffed when we hit the next hill. Minor misses in the circle at a couple and general crap tired walking got me to the finish.
There seems to be a major fitness difference in doing long easy runs of the flat compared to classic length orienteering races...

a token 5 minute shuffle afterwards was all I could muster. Most of a proper warm-up. Was running a touch late for the start.

C1 Day 3 - Splits

I would have been stoked with this run a month ago. Hard to keep perspective when the leaderboard is heckling you.
Clean through to 12 where I went to the right rock, but didn't look far enough around it, then ran off and had a look at every other rock in the circle before returning. Don;t know what happened on the way to 14. Must have mis-identified a feature mid-leg, as when I got close I turned right instead of left and confidently ran to the wrong spot. Faffed around for a bit with the map not making sense till I sorted myself out and went and got the control. Really disappointing way to finish, as 15-17 were pretty much all out in open paddock, so stuffed of the last 3 controls that I really had to focus for.
Would have been in the bunch in the lower half of the top ten if not for those errors... (I think - will confirm after checking splits)

Now about 3 minutes out of top 10. Tomorrow is going to be hard.

C1 Day 2 - Splits

Event: Frazzle Rock Easter 2011
 

Started pretty conservatively. Left 7 in the wrong direction and had to stop mid-leg to work out what on earth I was doing. Apparently running slowly and vaguely and not in straight lines costs you time. Lost about 35 sec to about the whole field here and Steve Todkill got on my tail. Caught Graham and Will through 9-10 and picked up the intensity. A little bobble leaving 17 in the wrong direction, but pretty smooth and quick to the end.

Group of 5 Nomads propping up the tail of the field within 7 seconds of each other. I am number 4 :(

Day 1 (Prologue) Long - Splits

Things starting to look up - jogging may have been possible today. I can vacuum the house with only minor discomfort! Will see what the physio says this arvo...

Well, my final week taper plan has gone out the window. I woke up on Monday with a slightly uncomfortable back and thought I must have slept funny. It got progressively worse during the day, and I thought about what may have casued it and all I can come up with was face planting in the finish chute on Sunday. Had a little massage and nurofen which helped a little. Then I slept rather uncomfortably, but htought things were heading in the right direction - till I reached in the morning to turn off my alarm and felt like I had been stabbed in the back.
Have now been to the physio who reckonds there's some inflammation in joints in my back and where a rib sits in there too. Ibuprofen and codeine are doing stuff all. Hurts to move a lot of the time, to breathe deeply, and seizes up worse if I sit still of lie still for too long.
Bugger.
May be investigating emergency pain relief measures after Thursday physio. Any suggestions for non-drowsy total numbing?

C • Non-drowsy numbing 7

Event: Hill Park Dale
 

Good preparation for the week to come. Nowhere near perfect, but technically the best I've run for a long time. Felt the lack of run-thrus in the warm-up on the first leg, which was quite physical. Clean but very cautious through the next 2. Cautious again down the slope to 4. Correctly identified the cliff lined gully that I thought the control was in, but no flag. Dropped out the bottom of it, then back up the next one across before finding it. Turns out I was right and the flag was in the wrong spot. Cautious again on the short leg to 5, but came down just wide of it and ran straight past the correct rock without identifying it. Thought I'd cut my losses and bombed out to the fence to relocate and found it on the way back, frustratingly close to where I'd just come from.
Stayed in control well through to the 2nd last control. Really annoying to have a brain fade on such a short leg. Careful with direction out of the control, then thought I had seen the feature so just went straight at it, but was wrong. Not very methodical in the relocation till I had already been fluffing around for a minute or 2. Bugger.
Was a really physically tough course compared to what I was expecting. If the Easter courses were all set before the storm came through and the trees all fell over, we could be in for some pretty long days out there. 14.5 seemed pretty short for how I remembered this stuff, but it was really hard to get moving anywhere there was tree cover today.
No thoughts of retirement today :)

Enough of a warm-up to get the achilles lose. Didn't feel any ill effects drom last night until I tried to run uphill to the start triangle :(. Ran a lap of the paddock, then picked up an old Umuna map from the car to get my eye into map reading before I started, but Craig joined me and gave me a lap full of good advice, so I only looked at about 4 legs. Still think I'm pretty likely to warm up with a map next weekend. Just helps get the right routines to the forefront of my easily-distracted brain.

Switched up shoes for this little sprint course. I reckon I'll do all but the long day in the x-talons - for some reason I seem to get better grip without the metal dobs.
Never really switched back on for this loop and made a complete hash of a couple of early legs, then rolled my ankle very slightly near 10 and decided to walk it straight home rather than risk doing anything serious.

H3 - Splits

After a week of lethargy I finally got out to loosen the legs this evening. Not quite the session I had planned for Thursday morning, but thought I'd be better off not toasting myself before tomorrow's solid hit out.
2 x 2km @ 10km pace around Carine OPen Space. 2 min jog recovery. First one felt comfortable, second one felt disturbingly hard and significantly slower.
6:58, 6:56. Hmmm. Seeing as I was aiming at 7:12's and running in the dark, which usually seems marginally slower, maybe there was a reason the scond wasn't comfortable.
Recovered pretty quickly, so can't have been too extreme.

Time to test whether the slightly funny feeling in my chest really does affect anything at higher intensity. Nope. Maybe Saturday was just me being crap after all.
Really focused on keeping the leg turnover fast, which for me seems to depend on a bit of heel lift and getting up on my toes a bit more. Started pretty hard, but with the confidence that I could be just about dead at the top of every little incline and recover on the downs whilst maintaining a good pace rather than having to back off. Nice to see the point of the intervals work of the last month or so :)
Was a little worried when the arms were burning at the BOTTOM of the Durston hill, but kept the pace under control and only faded a little near the top, then managed to get going chasing Juffy down the hill.
After so many runs in the low 17's it was fantastic timing to pull out the all time PB. (for the course and for any 5km I've done anywhere)
Suddenly feeling more confident about Easter again - can forget about the running part and just focus on the navigation.

C • nice work! 3

About 13 minutes warm-up on my own before the group warm up to make sure the achilles were loose, group warm up and run throughs, short cool down.

Tooms' Golf Course 5k TT - Splits

Didn't have anything to 'recover' from, but still feeling a bit tight in the chest. Felt fine jogging, but some of the run-thrus in the drills felt more draining than I expected. Hmmmm... Bugger
WU (13:09, 2.75km), Map run with M18 course from Evan's Crown 1995 (17:52, 3.25km ), Drills (11:40, 1.57km), Cooldown (3:16, 658m. Not surprised I butchered that course. Didn't really seem to be any plan to what I was doing on most legs, altrhough the offset printing was pretty terrible nad it was hard to identify the control feature at times.
Still walking lots to read detail... CAn I make myself do it in a race?? Bit surprising that I only slowed to 5:30 pace on the map reading bit considering the amount of walking...

C • M16, 1993? 21

Event: Bridges Fun Run
 

Event: NavDash 4 - ECU Joondalup
 

Haven't been feeling too flash for the last couple of days, so decided to start conservatively and make sure I got things right. Hmmm. Should have been better prepared and followed through on my idea of earming up with a map in hand.
At the start, I just couldn't find the first control on the map, even after I found the start triangle, so the splits show a 30 second mistake at the first... After redaing my way carefully to the circle, I got distracted by about 3 people I'd already caught and went onto the ramp where we went last year instead of to the control which I had already been 3 metres away from. I reckon about 20 seconds of the loss was standing still just out of the start triangle trying to find where I was on the map. Clean but conservative through 2 and 3, then got running on the way to 4.
Hesitation on the way to 5 where I turned to go up a staircase, then changed my mind. Original plan would have been shorter too...
Thought I ran 6 well, reading the detail into the control well, but had nissed the shortcut around the back of the building. Good and controlled through 7 and 8, long way round the tennis courts to 9, then read inside corner of wall as being at the top for 10, so had to run around to the bottom (and went the long way to do it).
11-15 was good, then swung wider than intended on the way to 16, passing 17 in the process, then stopping in alarm, going back and punching it, then remembering that I wasn't going for it yet. Didn't look right to go through the bush, so ran out into the carp ark, then had to turn 90 degrees and go bush-bashing to get to 16 anyway. Wide line again out to 17. Clean through to 19, then 20 was good, except that I changed my mind on route choice part way and miscounted stairs, running straight past the control. Clean to finish.
Pretty rough effort. Felt like I pushed hard on hte longer legs, but I hope that not feeling 100% was having an effect as I was moving pretty slow, or so it seems from the splits. Felt pretty wheezy afterwards and feels like it is finally becoming a proper cold. Better hurry up, so I'm well and truly healthy again by Easter...

C • I would 1

C • At least 2

Long - Splits

Little jog after school of several parts. A slow warm-up jog to return a key, followed by a lap of the local park to check out how many laps my cross country runners will have to run, return to school, grabbed a map and ran laps of the aths track trying to read it on the run, then remember what I had looke at. I really suck at this. Need to walk frequently to read rock detail even on a flat oval. Must be prepared to do this more in the bush...
After about 20-25 minutes of running in circles (ovals), did some drills and run thrus.
Felt like a much more worthwhile session than a simple slow plod. Will have to repeat on Friday.

Trio hills (yeah - that loop with 4 hills) x 3.
Legs felt dreadful on the first rep and didn't get much better
Hill 1: 2"52-2:57
Hill 2: 16-20
Hill 3: 1:25, 1:21, 1:26
Hill 4: 25-27

This was always going to be a bit of a struggle after last night. Didn't get much sleep as P has been sick and snoring loudly, and early start. Decided to use the first leg as a warm-up rather than doiong a proper one. Could barely get out of a walk for most of the leg as my achilles didn't want to play but after drifting around aimlessly for a while, they came good and I tried to refocus (with limited success). Very poor run (25:09 from 1 to Finish). Some scratchy in the circle, some far worse. Was trying to take it easy and stay in control and look around more, but really struggled with the sun glare on a lot of legs and had trouble seeing anything useful.

Ran a bit harder from the start for this one, as I was at least warmed up, but if anything I was worse this time. I briefly retired at number 8 when I decided I am so crap at this sport there is no point competing at Easter, but started jogging again after slowly walking about half the leg.
Start -1: A bit wider left than intended, then didn't see the control till after I ran into the creek junction after the control.
2 - Ran to track junction, then up track to end of clearing, a bit vague through the rocky ground, but not too bad.
3 - what the hell was I thinking. Went across the top of the hill with a vague plan that I didn't execute and didn't stop to work it out, so jogged around in frustrated circles for a while, not making sense of any features on the map till my second proper attempt at relocating, by which time I was about 150m away from hte control.
4- Not too bad. Probably should have picked something closer than the clearing on the spur to attack from.
5 - OK to circle. Misjudged distance from end of clearings to control and farted around a bit
6. Way too vague on the way down the side of the spur, then spotted what I thought was the right clearing down the hill. Ran confidently down to it, somehow failed to see the two massive rocks that the control was at, decided I was way off and ran away in a big loop before returning to the same spot to find the tape
7-OK
8 - Assumed I would see the massive lone boulder running from the edge of the big rock surface, but didn't, and bounced back from the clearing behind it.
9- Slow, but safe route choice over the top of the hill thne down the creek. Still hesitant when I got near it. Could have gone much straighter and much less climb
10 - Saw that the cliff I was after was the 'bottom' of the rock detail and prompty ran to the boulder field in the NE of the circle instead before doubling back to control
11 - Through pines, around end of pines after creek, up right side of line of rocky ground, straight past the control, which I looked at and decided was still rocky ground, not a distinct boulder, and ran to the rocks beyond. Had a little look around, then ran back to the right spot.
Finish - slow jog in feeling quite depressed. Not quite suicidal.

C • Good-o 5

So much for cranking out a solid training week in the run-up to Easter. Wednesday off was no great surprise. Full on day, and too knackered either side of work to get a run in.
Thursday still feeling tired (a disturbing pattern here). Thought at lunchtime that I'd run after work, but felt drained and dehydrated after finishing.
Friday I nearly got out of bed for Thursday's intervals session, but not quite. Was still keen at lunch time, then trod on a bee at the beach during the afternoon, which made things less comfortable, then remembered that I was meant to be mowing the lawn and cleaning the house for a Saturday home open. Raced home and did the housework, but wasn't quick enough to get it done and get to McGillivray. Finished up about 6pm, pretty knackered and couldn't face not eating dinner to run at 7:30pm, so another day gone. To top things off the home viewing was cancelled.
Had another good night's sleep, but woke up feeling wheezy and blocked up. Hopefully just a hayfevery reaction to lwan mowing. Seems to have improved a bit as the day has gone on. But got hung up doing housey things, so any run tonight is gonna be after dinner.
Anyone up for a 7:30ish run this evening??

C • I wish 1

Well, it took another puff of the ventolin to convince me that runnig would be OK, but glad I made it out the door. Running felt really easy for the first 5km and legs felt great (funny what a few days off will do). Unfortunately, my guts got unsettled about this point and got progressively worse. As I headed for the coast I was starting to desperately think through which public toilet would be closest and wondering if I had any chance of getting there. Never been so happy to see a building site portaloo in my life. That was about the 10km mark, and felt much better again after that. Ran steadily through to 80 minutes and then put in a 10 minute surge along the coast at '10km pace'. Didn't quite hit the pace, but felt OK, although the pounding on hard ground in oldish shoes was beginning to take its toll. Held 3:41's for the 10 minutes without looking at my watch, so that will do.
Right achilles was pretty sore after that, so shuffled slowly home from there.
Data to come when I am reunited with download cable.