Training Log Archive: fletch

Little trundle down to the foreshore for dinner. I didn't go the shortest way. Perhaps my navigation just isn't what it used to be.

Back not 100% but significantly improved on two days ago. Doing some high jump at school probably didn't help the healing process :)

Almost looking forward to Sunday now. Still not motivated enough to get up and run in the morning though.

Run along the foreshore while the girls were dancing.

Legs felt OK. Knee felt totally fine.

Lower back / hamstring shooting nerve pain every step of the way, but that's par for the course on the first few runs back if I get a bit over-zealous stretching in-between.

Have entered the 10km for Runfest on the weekend. Was tempted by the half-marathon so I wouldn't be tempted to 'race,' but without enough chances to run before the weekend, I was worried about my knee complaining with more than 10km to go. Now, the only concern is that I have to beat a Year 10 student who is significantly fitter than me at the moment.

Operation get-fit-in-7-weeks-and-win-a-state-champs has begun.

Didn't feel terribly special, but given my recent training consistency, that is hardly surprising.

Of course, there's a fair chance I won't be in Perth in seven weeks, as my kids are due back from Canberra the day before WA Champs, so it may well become 'get-fit-in-7-weeks-then-wait-another-month-before-racing-in-the-bush-with-no-nav-practice,' but I'm fine with that possibility.

C • Training program 39

Hard Course on the Jorgensen Park permanent course while a bunch of kids were out having a bash. Stopped for 5 sec at each control rather than writing the code down. Stopped a couple of times to help out confused kids too, as well as taking a couple of sub-optimal route choices to avoid helping the same kids out twice inside 3 minutes. Also not entirely convinced that one of the markers is next to the correct rock.

Nice to stretch the legs after a long bus drive. The 20 minute head start I gave the students wasn't enough, but 30 would have made it a close contest.

They had far more success at Lake Lesch the following day at the Schools O Champs.

Finally got the drubbing I deserve in a Harriers Race. Second championship race of the year around an undulating course that is about 60% paddock and 40% road. Not sure I have actually trained since the last champs run, other than racing on weekends.
Knew I would be outside of 40 minutes, probably over 41 and figured Ben should be quicker than that, but also figured if we went out hard enough, he might explode before I did. No such luck. He went past inside the first km, and I couldn't lift to go with him. Spent the rest of the run watching him slowly pull away. The only consolation was that when I blew up about half way round, the rate that the gap was growing didn't seem to get any bigger, so maybe with a month of half training, I might be back in with a chance for the next one.

Not helping today that my calves started to seize up during the warm-up and only got worse (not recovered from last weekend, and need to get regular about stretching them again) and breathing was a bit off - cold air and haven't been controlling allergies well either, but I don't think either really had much effect on my speed or the outcome.

9 weeks till State Sprint Champs. Yesterday that seemed like enough motivation to get me training. Will see if it still feels that way over the next few days.

Repeat of yesterday in front of a heater, wearing a tracksuit, raincoat, beanie.
HR drifted up to 165 and was getting a little unpleasant by the end.

Heat lab Session 1 - Cool conditions

16 minute bike ride for Year 12 PE Studies Class.
As expected HR sat at about 140

Calves starting to recover from the weekend's beach run with light shoes and no orthotics. Knee was totally awesome with this set-up...

Bit different to January 2015! My super taper was reduced in effectiveness by not really sleeping the night before, due to bad live music at the local pub, rain on the camper roof and a slowly deflating mattress.
Rained solidly from waking up at 4:45 till race start at 7:15am. I managed to stay warm prr-race by keeping my raincoat on and refusing to head down to the start line at the bottom of Pot Alley (quite a nice little river flowing) until the RD arrived to start us.
9km run first. First hill got the heart and lungs going nicely and settled into a good rhythm after that. Solid, but not pushing too hard. Hit the front inside the first km and was alone after that. The first beach section was good, but as the beach face got steeper, with tide high, it was pretty much impossible to find a good line

Into the ski for an 8km river paddle. Tried to push a bit, wondering when the good paddlers in faster boats would come past. Still had a narrow lead at the turn, and wasn't passed until less than 1km from the end, which gave me a relaxing little wash ride home.

There was another guy on my tail by the end of the paddle and I was already back to 3rd out of transition. One guy pulled away pretty quickly and adter the other guy missed a turn and I followed him, we never saw him again. I was within 50-100m of the other bloke all the way along the river, up to the road, along the road and grinding up Meanarra hill (back realky sore on that climb :(. ), but never caught him till he stopped on a musdy section of track on the way back down. Turns out his wheel was jammed with mud. I thought that was pretty funny until it happened to me 50m later. And again shortly after that... And again. Ended up with my bike on my shoulder until I got to a bit that wasn't so muddy but by then the other bloke was out of sight.
Pushed pretth hard through the better tracks and road to the end. Glad it wasn't much longer.

EDIT: Turns out I came second, so chances are the guy that overtook me in transition was in a team (which would explain the faster transition). So getting stuck in the mud may actually have been decisive in who won the race. Good times. Will update with leg splits etc if they are ever published.
Edit again: 2nd in my age class and third overall. Splits don't make any sense though, as there were definitely three of us left transition together and nobody came past on the bike, I dunno how a guy came from about 5 min back and beat me yo yhr finish by about 5. Confusing.

C • Good outing 6

Exam marking, lack of sleep and dodgy sinuses have combined to keep me from exercising so far this week. I won't be home till about 9:30pm tomorrow and leave for Kalbarri straight after work on Friday, so it looks like my taper will be PERFECT :)