Training Log Archive: fletch

Little sand and stair loop for a fitness class. One of the kids actually beat me. Not that I was trying hard, but I was still surprised. Welcome to the interschool team, buddy.

Event: John Forrest NP Tavern
 

Turns out I wasn't running that quick today after all. Lost significant time on others on #2 (wide wasn't faster after all) 6 ?? thought was OK and 9 - got stuck in the green. Pretty good and almost up to speed from 9-12. MAybe that's why I stuffed it at #13??

Time to start preparing properly, warming up etc and trying to race again.

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. I'm now fit enough to once more outrun my brain.

Had a lovely day out - picnic lunch, play and walk with the kids and wife. Didn't take the racing too seriously and paid the price.

No real warm-up (had previously been enough to encourage me to start slow and build into it, but no longer.) Struggled to read what the paths did going to the first control. Ended up getting annoyed with myself and just giving up and running hard figuring I knew where the control was anyway.

Avoided a pack of slower runners pussy footing across under the weir on the way to 2 by going eide right (and also avoided the thick scrub). In hindsight, I DQ'd myself here by corssing an uncrossable water feature. Oops.

Dropped to the track to 3, fairly quick and clean over the rock surfaces through 3-4-5. FAirly random line to 6, belting past a double-file line of bushwalkers in the bush as they were taking up the track. Hopefully didn't alarm them too much.

Bit of a slog up to 8 and got stuck a bit in the green patch on the way to 9. Straight to 10, track to 11, driveway to 12 and I was looking at my cleanest sprint run in ages.

Then back down the driveway to 13, put my finger right over the control circle (poor thumbing huh) and navigated cleanly over the bridge to 16. Realised as I punched that something was really wrong, but when I realised I'd skipped a few controls, I just couldn't be bothered going back to get 13-14-15, even though it may only have been a 1 minute error if I had. Jogged through 17 to the finish. Splits for 1-12 will make an interesting comparison to see if I'm getting any closer to Henry as the year progresses.

Oops. Fun course (thanks Rob) and a great little area to have a sprint with the mix of high speed path running and some thicker bush, as well as the natural features making a nice change from campus sprints. Fantastic for schools I would have thought. I wonder if there is anything a little further east so the map could fill a pacge landscape rather than portait as the south end looks a little dull (though I forgot to go there, so what would I know?)

Lots of newcomers out. Best sprint turnout for a while. Hope they had as much fun as me.

Paying the pentalty for lack of WU and CD now with calves feeling tight and sore again. Stretch them out tonight and have a gentle stroll tomorrow.

C • Some... 7

Slow pootle into work. Bit leg weary, but much less sore this morning.

Even more sedate ride home. Legs felt much better today in terms of soreness, but glad there was no need for effort. Legs were pretty empty.

Trusty steed ticked over 500 hours today. Shows how little I ride given that it's over 5 years old :(

Did really want to do this, but other staff being out of action didn't leave much choice. Took it super easy. Calves have been feeling a lot better today, but still a fair way to go.

Probably not the ideal prep for a first running coaching session this evening. Will cruise round on a bike next week methinks.

About 1.5km WU and run thrus, short cooldown.

the session part. 5km TT was out of the question for me given how tight my calves and one spot in my left hammy felt, but I thought I could run hrad and get away with it, so decided to run with Shanel.

Brian went off scratch, predicting closer to 30 than 25, Mat off 2 minutes later predicting a 23, and Shanel 2 after than predicting a 21. Andre just did some drills and went home. Something about a silly rogaine. Pffft. Forgot to print the PBs before I left work, but it would have been pretty meanignless anyway.

Caught Brian just at the start of Durston, having started to pull away from Shanel at about halfway (I'm sure he slowed down rather than me speeding up). Never saw Mat and he finished well clear.

Shanel and Mat both ended up running 20:20 and Brian 25something.

I was happy to go under 20, but dunno if there would have been another minute there going flat out (had been thinking I might be about 18:30ish a couple of weeks ago).

More running than I had been planning for trhe day, but pretty happy with how things went. Real training next week ;)

C • Andre 1

Didn't have the legs or the desire to run with the speedier kids, so agreed to run tail-end charlie. Realised it was a bad claa when kids were walking after the first (downhill) kilometre. T'was a less than productive 'jog'. Hurt more walking than jogging and did too much of the former.

East ride from the car service place in Wangara into work to find out that for the first time in ages (and without any warning) we actually did have a staff meeting on the first day of term. And my teaching timeable has changed (also without warning). Good thing I didn't do as much planning for the term as I had intended. Still a bit of work down the drain.

Slightly less easy (read not very fast but painful) ride back to the service place after school. Ocean Reef road bike paths are horrific and everywhere I thought I could short cut just made things longer and slower, but they hadn't locked the door by the time I got there.

Turns out it was just a battery problem, but nobody would come and fix it unless the car had totally stopped working. Bit annoying and more expensive than it should have been, but at least we won't be getting stranded anywhere.

Calf muscles pretty much stuffed. Sore to walk. Felt marginally better jogging, but were totally fine on the bike. Still can't see a time trial happening Thursday, but still happy to have 'raced'.

Event: Pile Rd (MTBO)
 

This was a fair leap into the unknown given my recent running history, but it was a smaller field than other races in the series with a fair few missing from the pointy end. I hoped that this would make it easier to not race too seriously and I made a concerted effort to start easy.
But unlike any road race I've ever been to, nobody wanted to be on the front row at the start line and when I jogged to the base of the first climb I was already in the lead. The first 5km were pretty brutal, so I was conservative, but it still hurt coz it was a lot of climb. Had Mike for company early, and a group caught us a few km in, but then disappeared again on the descent and the road run in and out of the dam. The first major descents were steep and rocky and I felt a bit like a pinball, but it seemed I handled it better than most. Made for less recovery on the downs than I hoped.
Had a nice road stretch from about 7km to 11km, but then another big climb and I deliberately slowed, but Mike stopped to grab some food and disappeared and there was nobody else with us there. From there to 15km I ran through the rest of the field of "slow runners" who started 15 minutes early.
Got into a good rhythm on the more gentle slopes from about 12-16km, but the hill at 17km was a killer. I took one look and decided to walk the steep part. About this time my stomach started complaining loudly about the second gel and drink I'd had 5 minutes earlier and it was pretty uncomfortable from there to the end.
Kept grinding away without totally toasting myself, but conscious that it wasn't quite the long slow run I signed up for (well duh!). The last few km were really twisty and turny and hard footing, so it was impossible to get back in a good rhythm, but the course twisted enough for me to be confident in the lead I had built up, so I wasn't too worried.

A load of people took a wrong turn at about 18km. Dunno how, it was a well marked course.

Great day, no achilles trouble (though I may not be able to walk tomorrow) and I picked up a free pair of x-talon 190's for the effort, so a win all round.

C • Great result 32

Event: Evedon Ridge
 

I didn't train today. Or do anything much useful. I did go to the zoo.

I also planned running sessions through to Mainpeak Multi. Guess that means I want to enter if I survive this weekend.

Should have washed the dishes instead. We have no spoons left. Or cups. Or forks. Or bowls. If only I didn't have to do it in the bathroom sink :(

C • Mainpeak Multi 6

C • At least 8

After catching up with a Gold Coast-bound (eventually) Tooms I finally fitted in the run I'd been intending to do since Tuesday morning. Not quite as long as I'd planned earlier in the week, but with a short run in the other shoes on Friday some time, assuming I finish the run on the weekend it will still be my biggest running week of the year.

Run felt pretty cruisy after the first few minutes warming up. Felt like I got in a really good rhythm. No real issues, though could feel some slight tightness in medial quads and right hip flexor. Still need to stretch and ice before bed, but really happy with this one.

Event: Calophylla
 

300m was never going to be enough warm-up, so I started fairly gently, but struggled through the first 8 or so controls physically as it wasn't as open as I'd been hoping.
No biggies today, but a couple of direction fails mid-leg added a bit of zig-zagging and a few brain fails between attack point and control led to some 30second-ish time losses.
Achilles good. Comfortably my best race this year. Just need to start concentrating a bit better near controls (and training).

Thanks Graham. Fun course.

H2 - Splits

Event: Hale School
 

Little morning jog to try out some new shoes. Slightly different tack to the Kayanos and Salvations that haven't agreed with the orthotics and my achilles. Will need to ease into these ones as the heel is a fair bit lower than the other shoes I've been in recently, but I figure with the heel lift on my orthotics it just puts me back to where everyone else is (insert angry rant from Jacko here)

Easy morning jog. Left achilles a little niggly for much of the run unfortunately, and the right one joined in in the last few km without ever really developing into anything. Ice now, nurofen later and maybe take it easy until the weekend.
Legs felt a little weary after yesterday's strange activity.

Only real thought for today's effort was to see how long I could go without being dropped. Helped slightly by an absence of Boltboi, meaning I only had to keep up with Karl, Chris and Shanel.
Felt OK for most of it, though never really contemplated going to the front and got dropped on the Leighton sprint.
OK up the first climb, but then something strange happened to my bike and any time I tried to freewheel, I dropped the chain completely. After a bit of faffing around and when I was about to give up and roll gently home, it seemed to come good again just in time for the next climb.
Did my token stint on the front as a leadout for the UWA sprint. Might have just about held on if I knew where the finish line was, but that cooked me so bad that I could barely get to the top of a hill between there and the end of the ride. Quads are trashed now, and I feel like going back to bed.

C • Freewheel 3

Cruise around my trail runners course for Jorgenson. Just couldn't get it to 8km and keep it at an E standard. Course is more like 6.6km if you stick to the trails and a little shorter if you cut corners, but there;s a couple of savage climbs and one evil descent.

Ran past one tape about 5 times before I saw it, then never found 2 others, including one long wander. I assume they've just been souveneired by dog walkers. Should be pretty obvious once there's a control flag there.

Just need to encourage a couple of orienteers to run the mass start course with any trail runners that come so that they don't get too lost ;)

C • Time? 20

Gentle stroll early in the morning.

Back has been pretty sore this week, achilles a little niggly at times but not bad, so had a couple of days off, which only seemed to make my back worse. Nurofen yesterday seemed to set it back on he right track, so out for the effort today.
Felt really comfortable the whole way (except for the steep uphills in Trigg bushland).
Achilles totally fine during. Little sore aftewards, but settled quickly with a bit of ice. Just need to keep being a little careful with them (and find some new shoes).

Using the term long very loosely. A comfortable jog along the beach to Jindalee and back to work. Longest road run for nearly a year, but still pretty short.

Achilles much better than last week. Only one very slight niggle that quickly vanished. Stopped to help look for a dog out near the far end.

Into the wind on the way out, not intentionally faster on the way back (except for coming up the hill, where I was chasing down a slow-moving cyclist.

Event: Yetar Springs
 

Not a particularly fine effort. First control was a sitter, thought I had a good plan heading to 2, but missed the control, then ran around like a headless chook for 5 minutes. Had a good plan to 3, but careless approaching the control, got off line in the thick stuff near 4 and overshot. From there fairly clean through to 12 except for a major drift on the long leg to 8. Finished it off by getting lost half way to the last? (might have been second last) and then failing to see the finish banner from 5m away and doing a bit extra before I found it.

Feeling stronger than expected physically and felt like I was planning things quite well, just failing to maintain concentration, particularly in the last 150m of each leg (which I guess is kind of important)

Still had lots of fun.

H2 - Splits