Training Log Archive: fletch

Why is it that my achilles is fine for an intervals session and two races, then I have a day off and go for an easy jog and it gets really sore again? Could doing rehab for a few days to get it roght make that much difference? and then have it reversed by about 4 days of not bothering?

Think I'll be back doing the eccentrics just in case.

Event: Foot-O - State Orienteering League Marginata
 

Was really looking forward to this until I was driving the road in, and the memories of DNFing the national Middle Champs here in 2011, then wasting the arvo away waiting to pee in a bottle came flooding back.

Scrappy start. I deliberately went high across to the creek line, but then misread the rock detail on the way down and left the creek too soon, cutting across high and straight onto 2 before 1. Not surprisingly won the split back up the hill to 2.

Changed my mind on how to attack 3 when I got distracted by other runners and ballsed it up, getting confused in some 'clearings' that weren't mapped as I drifted low. Wasn't at all confident, so bashed out to the creek and followed it up to a definite feature before cutting back into the control cleanly. 2.5 min binned :(

From there I had a pretty good stretch as I finally settled into things. Took a few unnecessarily wide route choices, but was safe and in control, bar a brain snap where I did a 180 out of control 7.

Lost confidence approaching 13 and zig zagged a bit, before having another glance at my map and starting to navigate confidently straight to 14. Realised about half way between 13 and 14 and bolted back, then followed it up by misreading the edge of the clearing at 14 and looking around confused for a bit before returning to the control. Also a little hesitant heading into the finish as I wasn't expecting it to be tight next to the caravan.

Probably 5-6 minutes lost all up and I finished 6 minutes behind Craig. So still not good, but larger portions of each race are beginning to feel under control and it was a vast improvement on my last visit here.

C • Finish 7

Expert 1 - Splits

Event: Christmas Tree Creek Pechey Rd (Sprint)
 

Did a properish warm-up and tried to get in the zone before I started but felt physically terrible through the first half dozen controls. Wish that being healthy and achilles being in one piece would happen at the same time as I have been coughing and back on asthma meds for the last few days and I was feeling it early.

Felt better physically the longer I went and kept things pretty clean through to the middle of the course, where it all fell apart a bit. Didn't correct direction mid-leg from 12-13 even though I was running a deliberate route choice. Must have gotten distracted heading in, but I can't remember by what. Anyways, I mispunched there, then followed it up by being slow through to 16 and stopping a little early, then going really wide at the start of the leg to 17 to avoid a dodgy looking creek crossing. Anyways, never straightened up, added a lot of distance and climb and thick vegetation and wasted a good 2 minutes before correcting and getting pretty close to the control. Another little miss on 18, then settled down again and ran smoothly through to the end. Would have been way down on Tomas and about a minute behind Craig had I not mispunched.

About 10 minutes later, I went out on the short course. The intention was to slow it down a bit and make sure I navigated cleanly, but most of the controls were the same as the long course, which defeated the point somewhat. Only one little miss in the circle for that course.

Then headed out for a little loop to collect a few controls for Simmo coz I felt sorry for him ;) Beat one group of competitors to one of the controls... Oops.

Long - Splits

Warm up before training to see how the achilles was going. Totally pain free and feeling good. Yay.

Something different for orienteering training today.

Did laps of a 550 ish metre loop, with a bit of map fun in between.

We had a blank map of Malmalling S and I had cut out 12 circles about an inch diameter from another copy of the map. After each loop, you had to grab one circle of map, find where it fitted on the full map and glue it in place. So struggling to find where the map piece went at least had the benefit of giving you a longer recovery ;)

Good fun. Didn't run the efforts very hard, but legs felt less heavy as I went and achilles was pain free throughout, so I'd call that a win.

BNeed to start doing something pretty serious regularly, or the last 8 months of training are all going to go down the toilet. May even have to crack out the bike...

C • I have a crazy idea... 5

Short tester run from school down to Mindarie marina and return.

Knee was pretty sore, which is frustrating given recent stretching efforts.

Calf was sore at start, improved as I went, but still 'there' throughout the run. It's at that level where I could just run with it, probably for quite a bit longer, but don't know whether it would stay feeling the same way longer term or start the slippery slope to chronic injury.

Achilles/calf is annoying. Soreness comes and goes, even when walking. It feels more like tightness across the base of the calf sometimes, and other times feels more like typical achilles tendon. Have been stretching a fair bit, but this hasn't been a magic cure. Straight leg calf stretch feels 100% normal, bent leg feels sore across the entire base of the calf muscle some times and pretty much OK other times.

Event: [MTBO] Dryandra, State Champs
 

Bit of a warm-up and jogging a few 500's at o training to see if my achilles/calf is any good.

Felt sore when I started, but gradually improved and didn't pull up sore afterwards.

No pretending now. Pulled up so sore from yesterday morning that it is significantly uncomfortable to walk. Even bailed out of walking back from dropping the car off for a service.

Will see if a few days of ice and nurofen do anything, then go and see someone :( Don't want to end up like I was through 2011 (although that wasn't sudden onset). Just wish I could think off what might have caused it. I can't remember tweaking anything other than a slight ankle roll last Thursday, but I can't imagine that being related.

Easy recovery trundle with a few strides and drills tacked on at the end. Drills were good to start trying to loosen up my adductors. The downside is I'm currently in denial about how sore my right achilles was after yesterday's run (it was fine while I was running but pulled up sore after) and it was pretty bad today. Hopefully it will settle quickly with some ice and nurofen. Not being able to run again after finally getting healthy would be a pain in the backside.

C • Achilles 2

After yesterday, I thought I might just be able to get out for a run over an hour. Beautiful weather for it and felt really comfortable. Tight hip flexor through the middle sections, but it seemed to ease off again in the last 5km, which was nice, and right knee was a bit sore in the second half. Will need to get more regular with the stretching as I get more regular with running again.

Took a while to get out the door, but it was nice to do most of the run in daylight. Will make motivation during the coming school term easier.

Event: Guildford Grammar NavDash
 

Totally insufficient warm up. Decided to start anyway.

Not my finest effort. Took ages to get into the map, so was very slow to 1, totally stuffed 3 by not seeing the olive green that I had to go around (at least I bothered. I thought once you got there, the rope and the out of bounds sign would stop people going straight through the garden and jumping the fence, but apparently not)
Had a brain fade between 5 and 6, turning too soon and looking in totally the wrong spot, ran past 9 without seeing it, then had a cleaner stretch through to 20, where I just didn't see the sea container until I was next to it, so ended up looking on the wrong side of it first, despite knowing where it was. Add to that totally messing up the last control, and it wasn't my finest effort.

but I felt healthy, so I don't really care.

Pretty much straight from the finish of the long over to re start on the short course.
Understandably much cleaner second time through most of the controls. Still felt pretty good physically. Don't know if this just means I wasn't pushing hard enough, but it was nice to get through half an hour of hard running and still feel good.

Long - Splits

Nearly ran today. Does that count. Did lots of digging and garden stuff instead. Feeling the healthiest I have in over a month.

Running the training with tRicky and collecting some of the remaining tapes at the end (3 of 9 were stolen during the day :( ).

Ran the first option hard to try to compare to tRicky, but happily it turned out he was going to take it easy, so I slowed down after that. Did have a GPS of the start, but stopped it instead of splitting at the first control. Oops.

Morning cruise around hanging tapes for the afternoon training. Had a little wander at times trying to figure out how the map got so wrong.

Was only very gentle, but didn't seem too hard, so may actually be able to start training soon.

Chilly morning jog to try to re-establish some sort of training routine. Still feeling pretty phlegmy and my hip flexor lasted 3-4 km before it started to whinge. If I'm gonna do a rogaine in 5 weeks, I'd better figure out a way to get on top of it. Hope I have a really good description of how it was taped in 2007 somewhere...

Event: Foot-O State Orienteering League Frazzle Rock
 

Had periodically been feeling guilty about not training, but today proved that I was still well short of 100% physically. Better than last week, both in terms of cold and also that my hip flexor lasted till about 2/3 of the way around before getting grumpy.

Orienteering wise, the result today was similarly disappointing to last week, but much happier with the processes. I drew a line on the first half of the course to try to make myself look for more definite features mid-leg. I managed to do this well for much of the course, but the line was just a distraction, and almost certainly contributed to me navigating beautifully from #3 to #5.

#11 was the first major disaster. I took a wide route and executed most of it well, before getting a bit vague heading into the last point where I needed to be definite. It turns out I was where I thought, but there was unmapped rock over the creek, so I stopped, second guessed myself and ran off in the wrong direction. When I figured it out and came back to the same point, I was hopelessly careless and missed the control significantly again, binning 6 minutes all up.

Small miss on 12 and another doosy on 15, when I was getting really fatigued and misread a rock surface and dropped out the bottom well early and took a while to correct.

But the controls that went well were much better, and I was far more in control and definite about where I was for the majority of the course, so pretty happy with that.

And I couldn't beat Craig on his birthday anyway ;)

Expert 1 - Splits

Cruise up and down the coast bike path after work. Nearly over cold now, felt OK running and nose didn't start running till after 30 min or so.
Calves were good (no heel raises), quads were a little achey. Could be marathon, could be orienteering on the weekend, could be either the touch rugby or volleyball I've played at school in the last couple of days. Knee was a little sore. That was definitely volleyball related.