Training Log Archive: fletch

Bit of a team skills session with Tooms, Saz and Boltboi. Launched from Floreat, paddled up to Brighton, then did some ins and outs. Only came out once on the way out, plus one time getting back off to avoid the incoming Boltboi ski that was aimed right at Tooms. Managed to take a couple of waves in the chest and the face and still stay up, so I must be improving. The way in was not quite so special, never quite made it all the way in, though got into shallow water near shore just about every time.

Got caught out by one large wave that I wasn't expecting, just after I turned to come back in. Didn't have time to get up to speed and knew i was going to end up at the top of the wave, so started trying to back-paddle my way out of it. Knew I was still in a bit of trouble as the wave went under me, so I bailed to improve the chances of not snapping Jen's ski. Somwehow the ski went over the wave and down the back, and I swam over to it and got back on. Better outcome than expected.

No issues at all heading up or back from Brighton. 2 layers of thermals kept me just warm enough given the fairly regular soaking I was getting trying to get back to the beach.

More boat time on the ocean. First half didn't feel too bad, the 10 minutes after I turned around felt a bit dicey before I decided to zig zag a bit more to change the directions that hte swells were coming from. Added a bit on at hte end, but then saw the rain closing in and bailed for the marina. Started raining on the way home.

Note to self: The key to surviving an ocean paddle of any length is going to be taking it easy and staying relaxed, as if I'm working hard enough that the arms and hands start to get fatigued with much of the paddle left I'm going to be screwed. No such issues today, but right wrist was getting pretty sore by the end. Don't know why. Isn;t bothering me at the moment, so will see how tomorrow morning goes.

I ignored my alarm this morning and went back to sleep. Much needed. Was determined to run in the arvo instead, but in the end, the lack of lunch won and I went and got Macca's at about 4pm and drove home. Maybe tomorrow morning... or maybe not.

First windtrainer for the month, and legs pretty shattered from yesterday. Arches really sore. Think it was my first barefoot beach run since about April. Sand has been too cold for barefoot runs in the morning through winter.

So... nothing new or exciting. 7 x (5:2). Hard work. Legs now stuffed. Wanted to ride to work tomorrow, but my front light is in pieces, so will probably run tomorrow and try to scavenge some lighs or batteries later.

Warm-up from City Beach shops down to the beach, run throughs, then
1km, 2 min recovery 500m, 30 sec recovery 500m, 2 min recovery
3 times through

Really tough session, particularly as I started the first one way too hard.

3:58, 1:55, 1:53
4:05, 1:57, 1:55
4:08, 1:57, 1:54

Right calf felt a bit twingey by the end of the lat rep. Better look after it.

Bugger. Really wanted to do a windtrainer session, but got stuck at work, then spent most of the evening digging up the front yard, looking for a plumbing access point. Found lots of rubble, a brick etc etc, but no access point. Annoying. If the next plumber doesn't find it (given that we have already got 2 different diagrams of where it is meant to be) then the water corp can come and find the stupid thing.

Event: Hill Park Dale
 

Banks REserve to Ascot Kayak Club and return. Pretty lacklustre start. Right shoulder was sore early and stayed sore through to a little after the half-hour mark before strangely getting better. A bit disappointed by the lack of speed on the outward journey, so lifted stroke rate and moved hand position a bit wider and felt like I got going a fair bit better on the way back.
Strange feeling to know I wasn't far off my limits in terms of muscle endurance, but wasn't even breathing hard... lots more work to do, methinks.

Almost went back to sleep, but have been getting frustrated at my lack of consistency running the last few months and knew the 2hr run was well overdue, especially with no other running/racing commitments this weekend.
Set off deliberately easy, content to just treat the run as a chance to get some time into my legs without killing myself and still feeling a little coldy.
Had a glance at the watch at the 6km mark and was a little surprised to see I was moving along at just a little over 5min km's.
Headed up around Carine OPen Space, then wandered northwest to the coast and up to Soorento SLSC before turning back down the coast to Nth Scarborough. Misjudged the run home a touch and had to add on a lap of the oval and an extra loop around the block to make sure I got over the 2 hour mark.
Right knee (medial side) was a little sore when I started, and slightly more so when I finished, and right hip flexor a little tight after about 75-80 minutes, but generally much less sore at hte end than I was expecting. Also a little surprised that I had slightly picked up the pace as I went. Had expected to do the whole run at about 5:30's.

C • Pace 1

Seemed like a nice day, only light wind, so headed out on the ocean in the XT. Launched in the marina for the ease of it, but was surprised by the size of the swell and felt pretty nervous as I headed northwards with a light tailwind (I think...). Survived with only a few moments, but never really felt comfortable. Was a bit better on the way back, but the last 5-10 minutes on the ocean was weird. Wind was coming from one direction and there was a strangle swell that seemed determined to come from 2 different directions at once. Gerenally, at least, it was smaller than it had been, so wasn;t too hard to deal with.

So, I didn't fall in for 40 minutes on the ocean, and the conditions were certainly rougher than 2 weeks ago, but I still don't really have a feel for how the stability compares to the PRS. Might have to take both down to the beach and paddle them one after the other to get a better feel for it.

C • Could it be... 3

Pretty chilly morning for beach intervals. In the normal runnig shoes, as my O shoes are still caked in too much mud to touch. Will need to give them a good wash pretty soon.

Same as Tooms' session from Tuesday that I missed.
11 min W/U, 750m hard (thersholdish) 30 sec recovery, 250m hard, 2 min recovery. Repeat x 5. Did the Cooldown along the bitumen path back to the car.

Will get the time and distacne details right later.

Intended to do a windtrainer this evening, forgetting that we had people coming over. Oh well.

Much later than desired commute home from work. Only the one way today, as I had to return the bus to school this morning. Really needed the lights, particularly in the second half. Pity they have a broken connection and are very hard to get to turn on. Also a pity that they often turn off when you go over a little bump. Still, made it home with only a few stops to make myself visible again. Shame to miss running, but I'm about a week behind at work, so no chance. Better take the lights to Dad and see if he can solder the right bits back together. Hooray for people with jewellery making stuff.
Legs a little sore from the weekend, but not as bad as I had expected. Backside much better... appreciated the different seat on the different bike, and riding in nix rather than the long hours of MTB just in tri shorts.

Event: KillaFergus 2010
 

Well, this one didn't go quite to plan. First activity was on an aerial photo of Evedon. Collect at least 6 CPs, Aussies in the Tour de France worth a 5 minute time bonus. Knew who the Aussies were, planned a route that got 5 of them in the minimum 6 controls and barreled down the hill. Nailed Wiggins (my token non-Aussie), then had a total scale fail runnig up the hill on the other side of the creekline and never got anywhere near my next control. Wandered around clueless for quite a while, with the mini-pack that had followed me gradually giving up and heading off elsewhere as I was clearly clueless. Had a few people go past in the opposite direction, clearly on their way back, while I still only had the 1 CP. Relocated when I saw a stream of 3 people bolting downhill. I went up and found a CP, and stopped for long enough to figure out it was McEwen. #6, when I had been looking for #8. Another minor miss a couple later, but fairly clean through the rest of my heavily modified route to return from the 'split-em up' activity with 4 Aussies, in 46 minutes and change, having covered well in excess of 7km. Bugger. Took me about 23 minutes to get to McEwen, so probably about 15 minutes down the toilet.
Had gotten pretty hot and sweaty by this stage and regretted not taking any water on the first leg, and also wearing the long tights. Tried to take them off in transition, but couldn't get them over my ankle braces and shoes, so gave up sitting in the mud, pulled them back up and hopped on the bike.

Clean to MB1. To MB2, tried to follow my highlighted route that stood out so well on the lightly printed map. unfortunately, the map had 2 tracks, and I only saw the highlighted one, so added a little distance here as well. Went the north and east option out of MB3 to avoid a climb, then struggled to find MB4, which was clearly not SSE of the junction, as WAlly squealed with glee finding it and disappearing while I was looking in the right spot. Should really open my eyes though, it was clearly visible from the track junction. Blindness apparently struck me a few times during the course of the race... such as again when I didn't see a track junction and misjudged distance and flew straight past the turnoff to TA2, straight out to the bitumen (and past a returning Dolf + Co. who were nice enough not to point out hte error of my ways) before turning around myself and finally hitting TA2.

The next activity was a cracker. 13 CPs. Had to get 7 on the bike and then return to TA2, followed by the option of getting any of the 6 remaining on foot for 10 minutes bonus each. I decided to do a loop through 11, 2, 13, 1, 3, 5, 7, leaving 6,4,12, 8, 10, 9 to get on foot. Looking at it now, this was a stupid plan. It would probably have been heaps better to go8,10,7,5,3,1,2, and dumped 13, then got 9,12,4,6,11 on foot...
As it was, I did 11 first, riding straight past it, as I hadn't read my descriptions and assumed we were MTB orienteering and the controls would be on the tracks. Rode pretty much up onto the spur before turning around. Even more annoyed than I already had been. Turned around and headed south west. Don't know what happened here. Missed a turn maybe? Ended up popping out of the denser part of the scrub into an area criss corssed with sigle track and I just couldn't make it fit with anything. Eventually gave up and headed south until I could see the road and figured that the single track I had found there must be the bit on the map. Followed it east, and after a while crossed a Nth Sth track, which i really should have taken, but I just wasn't confident that it was the one on the map, or in fact that I was on the map, so I followed the singletrack (slowly) all the way back to transition.
Headed out again and after a little trouble finding the (very) overgrown track down to 13 I got on that and got through 13, 2, 1, 3 and 5 with minimal hassles. Starting to feel a bit better and looking forward to running. Rode the overgrown track to 7, checked my descriptions, and was too busy trying not to fall off my bike at the critical time and missed the control, riding on to the next junction before turning around and seeing the control on the way back, in full view from this direction, but very hard to see coming from the west. Oh well. Bolted back to transition on the bike, ready to run hard to make the most of my time bonuses.
Arrived at transition to be told very politely that I would be heading straight onto the singletrack ride. I hadn't planned on that at all, but I was informed that it was 12:05 and I had missed the cut-off to be allowed to to do any controls on foot. I couldn't believe it. I could have just done the closest 7 on the bike and been miles quicker, but had cost myself ages, figuring I would make it all back on the run, which I now couldn't do. And I had a little sook, (sorry Karen and Michelle and Boltboi) knowing I could get all 6 and get back to transition before some of the people that were already out on foot. Rightly, the transition marshalls did their job, and after sitting down to have some food and drink and regather myself a bit. Knew that the race was well and truly over as a competition, but pressed on. Passing poor Michael who was running the singletrack with a broken derailleur put things in perspective a little. Got the first 2 Cps on the singletrack fine, but lost the trail a bit towards the end and missed the last one somewhere. 15 minute penalty to add to my woes :(
At the Wild Bull Activity, I heard someone saying that the eagle-eye option was easy, so headed off on that minus pen and paper, figuring the 6 clues would all be beer related and hence easy to remember. Got to the end and wasn't sure from memory which beer it was, as from the clues I had been expecting Amber Ale or Stout and I knew the alcohol percentage was wrong. Ran to my backpack, pulled out my cheat sheet and knew it was Irish Ale, so off I went.

I was a little confused about how to get to Wovenfield, as we hadn't been given any new maps, and I had hidden and forgotten the main map, which ad the whole course on it, but knew which way down the road to start and was smart enough to read the road sign to Wovenfield, passing someoene who was stopped right under the sign and looking confused in the process.

The Wovenfield activity involved finding 3 controls by observation / pot luck in the vineyard. I could see one from the start, near the middle, so headed across the top, finding one in the process, headed around the back, then into the middle, then saw the one down the bottom, and I was off in pretty reasonable time. After checking again that there were no new maps to be handed out, I finally remembered the map I already had and headed off. Mb5 was easy, thanks to the Tooms map alternations, and MB6 was easy as there was a big crowd of photographers awaiting my much anticipated (not really) and very overdue arrival. It had been a real struggle up the hill towards MB6, not helped by the longer than expected cycling in running shoes and without the wonders of clippy pedals. It only got harder, and I walked the vast majority of the leg from MB6 to final transition.

Scoffed by back up carboshot before starting the last orienteer, as I had well and truly used all my others before this point, and headed slowly out. It was a real struggle on the steeper uphills, which I walked, but slowly jogged around most of the course and picked off a few people in the process. Absolute slog up the final hill, but ran that one, just to look good for the crowds. First time all day my navigation was spot on for more than a 10 minute section of the course :)
Fortunately, Penny was waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for me at the finish, so I got lots of food almost immediately. Unfortunately, I had to leave before presentations, so I don't know where people finished or how much time bonuses came into play. Pretty sure my GPS distance tells a pretty woeful tale. Compare it to Wally's and then factor in the fact that I did no extra controls in the entire race... not a happy story, but a good one to get under the belt, and it really was a cracker of a course, even if I didn't make the most of it

C • Dolf & Co... 4

Event: The Maidens
 

Followed up my effort shadowing Cameron around a course by having a crack at the hard course. Should have read all the details about control placements and tracks that weren't on the map before I started. Interesting sand dune terrain. Mixed running a few legs really well (sometimes helped by having been to the control before) with 2 absolute disasters. 5 minutes dropped at 3, 11 minutes plus at 6. Then followed it up by running within 2m of 8 and not seeing it.

Hmmm. The main result of this paddle was to make me feel lazy for not training for the last 4 days. Cold has progressed hnow to thick mucus stage, but I felt totally fine out on the water, so probably should have done something the last few days.
Didn't really learn much of what I had hoped to today. First paddle in Jen's XT, so headed to the usual spot at East Perth to launch, figuring it had been pretty wild and windy. It was totally calm, barely a wind ripple on the water, and none to be found of any significance even most of the way down to Barrack St. Shold have started at UWA or Claremont.

So, zero stability issues, but none expected in those conditions. The big question for this comes from the fact that this was comfortably my fastest paddle for the year. I did make an effort to focus on twisting my torso properly for a change, but certainly wasn't going any harder than last time. Will need to get out in some more testing conditions to figure out which ski to racw with...

C • Stability 6

An afternoon building a garden bed and throwing round lots of straw meant I had an antihistamine, ventolin and a vapodrop before I got out the door for this. About 15 minutes warm-up, and didn't feel too bad, but a little tight in the chest. Resolved to run hard, but not totally flat out, as with the handicap start, I knew I would be alone if something went pear-shaped half way around.
Despite trying to be a little conservative, still felt a little flat on the steeper bit of the hill near half way and also the second half of Durston. Didn't destroy myself coming down the hill, so a bit surprised that I cracked 17:30.

17:26 for the 5km. Given the circumstances, pretty happy with that.

Tooms' Golf Course 5k TT - Splits

Still feeling a bit off, and the weather didn't help my motivation. Almost got guilted into rolling out the windtrainer to plonk in front of the telly after reading Jacko's log, but ate lollies instead, then gave in to tiredness and went to bed before 9:30 anyway.

Woke up with a cold and to the sound of a storm coming through. Didn't inspire me to go for a run. Stayed slack all day.

Ride home after dropping off the car in Melville. Good thing the servicing cycle fits in with school holidays, otherwise I'd forget the extended warranty and go elsewhere.
Bit windier, but warmer than the last 2 weeks. Had one eye on the clouds the whole way home, as the radar image when I left home had looked a bit colourful, but nothing has eventuated yet and it looks like most of the fun will be south of Perth.

Good way to test out the roof repairs that were finished on our place yesterday morning...

Hmmm... 26m climb ob a river paddle??

I was a wuss and bailed on the planned ocean paddle, as there was still frost on my windscreen when I left home. Paddled from East Perth down to the Narrow and back, trying to put a little more effort in than my recent pootles in the boat. Had to concentrate a bit to achieve that on the way out, but it became easier heading back into the headwind. If I dodn't put in a bit of effort I would have been going backwards.

C • Climb 2

Windtrainer yesterday evening never happened after having visitors for dinner, so headed out on the bike in the late morning instead. Taking it pretty easy, just getting a little bike-time into the legsw, but they were complaining a bit too much for my liking considering howq easy I was trying to take it. At least I never cranked it up on any hills or down the freeway path. Would love to say it was ll due to new found self control, but probably more a reflection of the fact that nobody overtook me for the whole ride.

MHMHMH, First 3 from Perry Lakes Drive. All recover down and go.

4:10, 3:46, 4:08
2:44, 3:08, 2:41

Then went up one more time with Wally to keep him honest on his last rep (3:23)

Just over a km warm up and cooldown. Recoveries slower than reps.
Left calf tightened up on the first rep and stayed tight for the whole session. Right one has joined it in sympathy now. Should make for a fun evening on the foam roller.

Surprisingly little effect from the morning ride. Happy about that.

Event: Mt Dale West
 

H1 - Splits

Bit chilly out. Was 0 degrees in Perth when I started warming up for my run. A day early, but all the flags were out, which was a nice change. And they were all in the right spot. Pretty rugged going in places, which was to be expected. FAr more annoying was being unable to get into any rhythm running in the clearings when I was facing into the very low sun and couldn't see anything. Made some legs significantly harder and slower than they should have been.

Felt very slow, and backed up by splits and HR data... Legs a bit wearly from yesterday, which combined with all the undergrowth made everything a bit of a challenge. Happy to ne clean thru to 9, where I didn't correct after skirting low around some vegetation and spent a couple of minutes getting back to the right place. A few more minutes down the tube when I had a contour-reading fail at 13 and was looking for it on the wrong side of the hill. Then a spectacular screw-up when I totally switched off running to the last one. Turned it into a tricky relocation exercise. Still pretty happy overall, as it was much trickier than any nav I have done in a long time.

Lots of prickles to pull out now, anf a few scratches. Gaiters and long pants strongly recommended for whoever heads out tomorrow.

Pressed stop instead of split at control 1. Realised at no. 3...

Well... the halfway point (ish) of the year... training started well this year, fell away a bit, but feel like I'm back on track now. The main difference this year has been an increased emphasis on running - prioritising getting 3 runs a week ahead of other training. I haven't always got to 3, but have been far more consistent than any time I can remember. (or have kept training diaries for).
Cycling and paddling volume are well down, but are heading in the right direction again June onwards as I am once again adventure racing (retirement was short-lived).
My running hours are already greater than for all of 2008, and should easily surpass 2007 and 2009 also before the year is done. How on earth was I fit enough to Adventure race in 2008 with 50something running hours for the year? No wonder I blew up so bad after the long run on Great Southern. Winning Caffeinated that year now just seems ridiculuous.
Small wonder I'm in lifetime best running form... wish I had attackpoint 10 years ago... makes me appreciate some of what I may have wasted in my younger days if I can run this well off 3 runs a week.

Beach fartlek in the drizzle. 3 on, 1.5 off x 9. Took a long time to start getting the pace and effort up. Felt pretty flat. Hopefully will feel more enthusiastic this afternoon. Was meant to do this session yesterady, but work got in the way again.

Didn't get the promotion I was after, so on the bright side, work shouldn't take up too muc hextra time thru to Easter next year...

Enough of your jibes about ocean paddling Tooms! About 30 minutes after I started holidays officially, I was out on the ocean north of school in my full length wetsuit, as I was worried about getting cold *when* I fell in. Started off paddling more or less into the wind from the carpark, down to Mindarie marina. Went all the way into the marina, stopped in there to take the wetsuit down to pants and to adjust the foot pedlas back to where they normally are (had left them in a changed position after last paddle)
Back out of the marina, heading north past where I started to the northernmost groyne, back past the starting point to the point, then back again. Played around a little with directions to try paddling straight into and with the swell, as well as a range of cross-directions. Nearly came to grief a coupole of times doing the 180s, but stayed dry the whole time, even on the run into the beach.
Was almost having fun by the end, but I was only just warm enough, so will need to wear a thermal or something and possibly little neoprene gloves and booties. Should also get around to buying those leg and paddle leashes.

C • Hooray! 2