Training Log Archive: fletch

For the first time ever, I headed south along the coast from the Greenough River mouth, exploring some sandy 4WD tracks and bits of beach that I've not seen before, with a few random excursions up hills on 4WD tracks which did nothing but turn around and come back down on a parallel path.

Very relaxed pace, but nice to have running for this long feeling comfortable.

And from the run, straight into a river paddle, a la Adventurethon.

Felt OK. Not very strong, not very exciting, but OK, as river paddling often does (often being as a proportion of my infrequent paddles).

GPS went flat with about 600m to go so I have fudged some numbers.

School has started and training has stopped. Getting up in the dark to run on footpaths has got me mentally licked at the moment.

At least today I finally found a spot in my day to squeeze in a boring little footpath run in the dark. On the bright side, it felt pretty comfortable - something which didn't apply to running at all a couple of weeks ago.

Bit warm, bit humid, no breeze. Absolutely gorgeous morning for anything other than trying to run fast.
Had the watch this week, and think I managed to pace the start OK. Faded a touch towards the end, but generally kept it together a bit better than last week. Legs felt OK, but not fresh. Could feel the fact that I have actually ridden a bike this week.

The winner from last week was apparently still in hospital four days later (and maybe longer), so he wasn't there. Was in the lead from the start, other than the little tackers sprinting from the start line, and tried to just sit on 4 min km the whole way, without checking the watch too often. Pretty happy with how it went (other than going the wrong way (cutting a corner) on the way out out of habit and doing a double lap around two different corners when it was pointed out to me (I couldn't remember which bit I had gotten wrong).

Little dip in the water afterwards to cool off. Aaaah.

Cruisey Warm up of sorts, before the minute's silence, bagpipes and the start.

Got my bike back with new brakes, so thought I'd take it out for a gentle lap of the river track.

Long time off the bike apparently - couldn't ride anything approaching a hill or a rock. Fell off lots, walked lots and broke a spoke in my rear wheel.

Good thing the Adventurethon course isn't even slightly technival.

Flat run along the Bluff point foreshore after picking up my MTB from the shop. This time round (as expected) my brakes were beyond repair, so I now have shiny new brakes in which both sides of the calipers actually move (like every other brake made ever, except for a tiny window of crapness during which my bike was manufactured). Bike shop guys seemed worried that these would be so different to what I was used to that I would go straight over the handlebars first time I ride it.

Now confident I will make it to the finish of the run leg at Adventurethon. Right medial knee probably the worst it has been though, and both calves got really tight and sore.

Hot, sweaty, urrrggghhh.

Just a steady ride at a slightly uncomfortable pace to try to a) re-familiarise self with the concept of bike riding b) fast track fitness so I don't die in 4 weeks.

Don't understand readings giving 1hr 16min. Approx 4 -5 min warm-up, 40 minutes steady, 5 min cooldown. Strange.

Pre-dinner clockwise loop around the bike trails. Left home just after 6pm and the second half got pretty dicey, as it got way too dark to be on uneven ground. Good fun though.

Can't believe how good my achilleses have been for the last two weeks. Wish I could know for sure what exactly it was that made the difference this time, after getting to what I thought was the same point a few times before, only to have some irritation remaining. I'm kinda hoping that it wasn't down to the shoes I had been wearing for all attempted running since late last year. They were pretty new and were comfortable (and would have been the most expensive pair of shoes that I have ever bought, if I had to pay for them).

I've nearly committed to the Enduro race at Adventurethon, in which case I'd be best off doing just a little bit of biking and paddling to get ready for it (not that I bothered cycling before doing the duathlon last time).

Up to Drummonds and back with a few random meanderings, One day I will be smart enough to start a ride into the wind, so I don't hate the entire second half.

Slightly extended run along the river track. Felt really good other than a slightly tight right groin.

Judging by the two mountain bikers I nearly ran into, even days are anti-clockwise days. Must make an effort to remember that so I'm not killed.

Fun times.

C • Even days 2

First Harriers Race of the season for me. 3:30pm start meant it was nearly 30 degrees and fairly humid too. An undulating course along the Greenough River walk trail that I really enjoy when I'm fit, but more hilly than I would have chosen for a first hard effort.

A couple of likely looking types on the start line that I didn't know. Was really looking forward to this, but at the same time kinda knew I didn't have a hard 5km in me, let alone 7.

Wanted to start sensibly, knowing that I would be slowing down in the second half, it was just a matter of how much. Didn't help myself out by completely forgetting to take a watch. Managed to start at a pace that was a lower intensity (based on breathing at least) than my 10km when I am fit, but figured out by 1.5km in that it was still going to be too quick.

The two serious looking blokes from the start were both sitting on my shoulder and the first went past just before 2km. He gradually pulled away and had about 100m by the half way turnaround. I assume it got bigger in the second half. The second bloke came past too, but never got more than about 15m in front, and despite stretching the gap on the first hill on the return journey, he then started to fade really badly and I went past at 5km and pulled away.

Turns out the winner all but passed out at the finish line (for the second week in a row). He still wasn't coherent or capable of standing after 10 minutes, so they bundled him into a car and took him to the hospital for a check over.

Reckon I'm about 3-3.5 minutes down on where I was this time last year, or about 30 sec / km. Reckon I can get most of that back in 5-6 weeks if I train fairly consistently.

Calves bound to be sore tomorrow. Tight already after first hard run, in the x-talons too (with heel raises in). Achilles pretty good though, and could feel medial quad again, but only a little soreness in the muscle, not along the patella.

Forced myself to do a warm up and a cool down. May not have achieved much today other than making me more tired, but good to get back into the routine a bit. Nothing as silly as run-throughs - just a gentle 750m out, then return to the start line.

Similar loop to last week, but in reverse, and checked out a few random paths that didn't go anywhere, plus the reinstated playground near home.

Achilles was good, right medial quad was feeling it a bit, but at least it was a muscle fatigue feeling rather than a sharp pain on the edge of the patella.

So far so good.

Haven't quite turned this holiday into a training camp. Does 4 leisurely km in a bathtub canoe or a swim across the river and back while the kids paddled count as training? Nope. Didn't think so. Good fun nevertheless.

Little trundle along the river in Kalbarri. Should have used my puffer before I started. Otherwise felt pretty good.

The week didn't quite go to plan training wise. My second run got put off and off to Friday morning. Then there was the mother of all thunderstorms and my only running on Friday became re-taping my cross country course.

I've been a bit more regular the last couple of weeks doing my achilles strengthening, and have 10kg back in the pack. Not yet prepared to add the eccentrics as I've been pulling up a tiny bit sore too, but usually only feeling it for the first couple of minutes in the morning (doesn't help with morning training motivation though).

Made it out around the bike track round the river today. Right knee a tiny bit niggly in places but achilles totally fine. Actually really enjoyed myself and felt fitter than I expected. If I pull up well, I might just get back into this running caper.

And so it begins. Cross country training with school. Running with the kids now officially counts as hard work, not that little jog I have in the afternoon after proper training in the morning...

Token warmup, 200,400,600,800,600,400,200 with 200m walk recoveries

Not killing myself, but working uncomfortably hard for much of it.
??, 1:28, 2:17, 3:07, 2:17, 1:26, 42. Recoveries approx 2 min, so it should have been a pretty easy session (but it wasn't).

GPS watch is still being dicky. It charges fine, and appears ready to work, but then either nothing happens when you press the buttons, or in the case of today, it still said the same time this arvo as when I took it off the charger this morning (and the buttons didn't work). If I can string together something approximating training over the next few weeks, I might consider getting a new one.

Still haven't found the motivation to run, but I did re-join the running club today. I now have six weeks till I get my arse handed to me on a plate at the first club championship race.

Might have to pull the running shoes out of retirement before then.

So, after deciding that marking an athletics track from scratch has knobs on it, when I was done with my school athletics track last year, I knocked 4 plastic tent pegs into the ground at key points to save myself time. I then measured distances and directions from the corner of a couple of immovable objects and wrote these down.

About one month ago, I seem to have thrown out the vital piece of paper on which I wrote this information.

So, today I had two classes of kids out looking for the tops of yellow tent pegs on the school oval, with the offer of icy-poles as a reward for finding them.

I might have had a little more cooperation if I had remembered that it was April 1st and tried on a different day...

C • Line marking 19