Training Log Archive: fletch

Easy trundle around the river loop, with a bit of an explore on the way back to check out river crossings that are now flowing, and the best way to change up an MTB loop for class as well as how they are going to ride into Moresby at the start of camp in about 7 weeks.
Much nicer than running on roads. Not moving particularly efficiently over rocky and rough bits.

Oh Wow.
Made the decision that it was time to stop obsessing over seconds in 10km fun runs and start doing something to actually get ready for some orienteering. So i headed to one of my old hills runs - Columbus boulevard.

Settled on 6 reps, just trying to run solidly on each, as I didn't think I would survive a S-M-H progression, and that was a good idea.

From half way through the first rep, my breathing was saying "10km effort" and my legs were screaming "Lactic Acid - where have you been all my life"
Each one hurt progressively more. Glad there was no 7th rep.

Realised when I was nearly home that I could probably run a fairly similar session starting from my front door.

Morning plod to try to loosen up a little from yesterday. Includes a 40 seconds stop to pick up someone's wheelie bin and put their rubbish back in it.

After a week of feeling a bit flat and unmotivated and very tired (I suspect too many late night TdF viewings...) I was at least heading into the third Harriers championship run with fresh legs. This week was all on bitumen and flatter than the last few, so I had high hopes of a decent time. Chris was also running for the first time in a few weeks, but he was getting over a cold and taking it easy, so it was always going to be me against the clock.
Things started to go wrong about 3 seconds before the start, when I bumped my watch and realised that I hadn't locked the bezel and was left with some weird things on the screen. That meant I was going to have to run to feel without the benefit of getting to check my pace and put the brakes on after a few hundred metres.
Sure enough, the first km was uphill - and my first km split was 3:32. Way too fast when targeting 37. Backed it off there, but felt like I was working hard for the next two km, but not running fast enough. In hindsight, it was just the nature of the course. It wa slightly uphill for the first half of the 5km loop, and slightly down for the second half, as the pace improved through km 4 and 5 and I hit halfway feeling a little more puffed than ideal, but reasonably happy with my split.
Then things went really wrong. The little kids course was an out and back, which meant I was heading towards the tail end of them as I started the second lap. There were a couple of adults walking with them, and I veered out towards the middle of the road to pass, but a small girl stepped out from behind on woman, unaware that I was there, freaked and went the same way as me when I tried to dodge. I collected her head on, knocked her flat on her back and fell on top of her. I helped her up and tried to comfort her while her mum ran up the road to grab her. Much apologising, then got going again, as having 3 adults sorting the girl out wasn't going to help.
Took a chunk out of my knee and my hand as the bitumen was quite rough and lost all rhythm and motivation, with that km and the one after blowing out over 4 min/km. Got it together a bit after that, but any chance of a decent run was long gone. Course ended up being marginally short, which makes the run look a little better than it was.

Not the plan for today, but at least I got out the door, before settling in for a night of TdF watching.

Had planned on a good warm up to try to get the legs moving after yesterday afternoon, but it started raining when I was warming up, so I did a couple of km, but instead of finishing it off, went and huddled out of the wind and listened to the race briefing etc for about 10 minutes before the race started.

Did about a km afterwards before hopping in the car and disappearing.

Really annoyed to forget the Garmin, as the course distances are never quite right and I was expecting this one to be a flat 10km on pavement. Didn't end up mattering so much. It was wet, windy, not flat and half on soggy gravel roads, and a quick google measure suggests the course was the closest to distance of anything I've run this year.
So... I had been hoping to knock out something around 37 minutes, just to confirm to myself that I could, but the weather was not kind, and despite trying to start solidly, a strong, gusty headwind, rain stinging my face and an early hill added together to see my through 1km in 4:02. A bit shattering, and the legs weren't exactly feeling fresh. Concentrated on trying to get into a rhythm at a pace that would actually work for 10km, but which wasn't taking the slack option. The rain stopped after a couple of km, but the wind was gusty and the road surface not quite ideal for fast running for the second half of the outward 5km.
Checked my watch at the turn and saw 19:15. Poo. At least my legs were feeling pretty good by this point.
Didn't check the watch at all after that, but again tried to hold a rhythm and did my best to avoid my standard 6-7km slack off / fade-out. Seemed to run well through that and really tried to push home once I headed through 8km and back over the hill. Admittedly the wind was far more favourable on the way back, but was still pretty surprised to see I had come home 49 seconds faster than I went out.
Now, after checking the distance I'm pretty happy with the effort. Feels like a bit of a breakthrough in that I was able to push harder, or at least push hard more consistently through the whole race. Got into a good 2:2 breathing pattern and was able to hold the intensity the whole way rather than constantly bouncing between 3:2 and 2:2 as I struggled to hold the slightly lower pace that I had been needing to get me to the finish line of a 10km.

C • Congrats 1

Jog home from watching the family eat arvo tea in the Chapman valley.

Solid rain for the first hour. Glad I had arm warmers, wish I also had a hat so the rain didn't sting my face and eyes so much.

It dried out for the last half hour, and apart from getting pretty hungry, was still going OK at the end. Must have been OK, as I added a short loop to make sure I went past 90 minutes.

Started WU from the foreshore and headed out to the north end of the marathon course. Got a little lost near the far turnaround - will have to look it up on a map if I want to use the half-marathon loop for training.

38:44 for 10km tempo. Feeling a little warm by the end, but was a little chilly at first, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

C • Nice 2

Uuurrrgh.
Yesterday - no motivation but run went OK.
Today - no motivation and run ended in a world of pain :(

Same session as last Wednesday.
Started to struggle pretty badly in the third rep and lasted about 250m of the 4th before I totally blew up and struggled home, trying not to check my watch every 100m.

Oh well. Done. Easy day tomorrow, then try again :)

Had zero motivation for this, but eventually got out the door for an easy loop. Felt OK. Happy to have done something today, need to get a hard session done tomorrow though.

Grabbed my trail shoes for this paddock run, then left them in front of the heater at home :( A bit wet and uneven, but the course (3 laps of a 3km course) was basically flat with 2 little pinch climbs (and I mean little), one steepish downhill and a gentle drop after the first climb.

Beautiful weather for it again. Probably didn't need tights, but wasn't uncomfortable in them.

Knees were sore on Friday (not surprising). Wanted to run yesterday but just couldn't fit it in before driving home and wasn't up for it once I got home. Legs felt really fresh today, so looks like no ill effects from Thursday's stupidity. Longest running week in quite a while. Will have to try to back it up for the next couple of weeks too.

Tired to treat the race as a tempo run and took off a bit more gently than I have been. It certainly would have been hard to go flat out, with a combination of poor choice of footwear and Chris not being there to keep me honest. Still felt like I was working pretty hard at the end.
Course was a touch on the short side for a change.

Afternoon adventure with Wil.
Was originally going to be a night hills run with Wil and Andrew, but Andre couldn't make it, so we rescheduled. Probably a good idea, coz if we'd run this long and hilly, I think I might have died. Longest run for the year by about 15km.
I've got no idea where we were most of the time. (GPS trace will reveal all)
Random moment of the run was having a car sloe down next to us only to find it was Murray Cox. Small world.
Feeling pretty hungry and leg tired after 2 hours. Got to the end OK, but struggled to eat and stay warm afterwards.

C • Knock and run? 3

First proper longer 'intervals' session in who knows how long.
4 x 1500 with 3 min slow jog recovery, around the paths at Carine Open Space.
Just manageable at the target pace (I think - haven't checked times yet), but the last 500m of rep 4 wasn't pretty, so glad there was no 5th rep planned.

Includes recoveries and jog home after.

Warm up to Carine Open Space and a few run thrus.

Cruisy run from in laws' to parents.' Had contemplated a hard session today, particularly after nothing on a travelling day yesterday, but staying up to watch the Tour, then the sprint relay at WOC (only to have the live tv not work on me and have to make do with audio commentary) that was never going to happen.
Felt pretty good for the most part, but could have done with the asthma puffer. Not enough to be a bother at the pace I was going, but might have been a factor if I was pushing.

Target - about 18. Time 18:00. So I didn't really need to run it at all... More later.

I tried really hard to hype myself up for this. I entered the 5km primarily to get a solid race over the distance so I had a goo basis for interval paces over the next few months, rather than relying on my motivation over a solo time trial.

That part of the plan didn't really work. The anticipation was there, I lined up on the start line, not really knowing if any other runners had turned up, but knowing I'd have anyone local covered pretty easily.

Tried not to sprint from the start and managed that pretty well, and after a few hundred metres, the footsteps behind me disappeared. At about 1km, we went around a turning circle at the end of a street before hooking into the marina, at which point I realised that the second placed runner was a looong way back. Didn't look again on the way out and focused on trying to keep a steady, but higher than 10km pace effort into the wind and out to the halfway turn. The km splits said that it was working OK, but not spectacularly.

After making the turn 'around' the sign (It was still sitting next to the path waiting to be put out when I got there) it was home with the breeze. A quick check of the watch as I came back past the next runner telling me I had about 400m up my sleeve, so it really was a solo time trial after all.

Still felt pretty strong, but like I was working hard towards the end. Recovered pretty quickly. Km splits were more even than normal for me. Probably says I didn't go out hard enough to really test what I could have done, but I doubt there was much time left out there.

Won the race by over 4 minutes, took the cash (Not quite as good a pay rate as the V Adventure Race in Freo). Felt a bit guilt taking the money off a 13 year old who finished second, as I would have won the 10km by a solid 5 minutes.

Little cruise around tomorrow's 5km course, just to make sure there's no surprises. Certainly not going to be any hills :) Picked up my rego pack and good to go. Time and distance approx. Had a couple of about 1min surges and felt pretty good. 3:30 pace at the start and see how pear-shaped it goes?

Ended up a bit short on keep after watching the World Sprint Champs on Swedish TV and then the speccy Cavendish-induced carnage at the end of the TdF first stage.

Went for a morning stroll in the other pair of new shoes I got last holidays. Little bit softer than the current pair, but didn't notice much of a difference.
Legs didn't feel too bad.

Mega frustrated at a pointless meeting yesterday that dragged so long that I couldn't fit it a run. Still feeling flat and lethargic and my legs were sore from some pathetically insignificant number of squats and lunges that I did in a circuit with a PE Studies class yesterday.

Figured the session could go one of two ways - I could warm up into it and really get going OK or, more likely I could feel rubbish, quit part way through and curl up in a ball of misery.

Very surprised that after a warm up and still feeling pretty awful, and first two reps that felt hard and not very fast, that I did actually get going and get through a reasonable session. Will probably be my only hard run of the week, rather than the planned Tuesday Thursday double, but I can't help but have a few easier days to freshen up properly for the weekend. P has decided to run City to Surf instead, so I am back on for the 5km. $150 for the win. Too good to pass up.

2km warm up
10 x 400:400
Token Cooldown

80.1, 80.3, 79.1, 78.8, 79.0, 79.4, 78.9, 79.5, 79.7, 78.6
Recoveries started at 1:54 and blew out to 2:04 by the end