Training Log Archive: fletch

Generally recovered well from the weekend exertions, but calf is clearly not up to running.

I can stretch it with a straight leg, can do calf raises just fine. Can even do some eccentric stuff.

But as soon as I bend my knee far enough and shift my weight onto the ball of my foot, I can feel that one spot that is nowhere near right.

So no running - at least for another week, I'm guessing.

At the time I stuck a 'come have a run with me' message on the USWA facebook page, my training had jjust started to head in the right direction again. Unfortunately, my calves then seized up completely in a Harriers race and I haven't run since.

But, having made it through 20 minutes of basketball mid-week, I was clearly right to head out with Dolf and Felix for 6 hours, right? Well - not really. No big surprise there. At least I was only trying to do 6 hours (just to see by how much I could beat the school kids that I drove to the event). I thought I'd be able to match it with Dolf, neglecting to take into account the fact that he has been running lots and I haven't, and having never met Felix, but seen his results from a recent 50km race, I hoped he would lack navigation confidence enough not to run off into the distance (he does have a reputation for going the wrong way in trail races...)

I planned the route before the others arrived, but they didn't seem too fussed. I only planned 27-28km straight line, as I expected much of the bush to be thick and one part of our loop was brutally steep.

Just for something different i decided I could get through this with my old purple waist pack that holds 2 x 700ml drink bottles, rather than my backpack. Mostly worked ok, although it didn't agree with hte string in the waistband of my skins, so lost some skin there, then I destroyed the zip after the race finished, so that pack has gone in the bin.

So. midday rolled around, the early morning chill was gone and the weather was fantastic. He started ridiculously fast, blasting straight onto our first control in about 6 minutes. Made a complete hash of the second one, overrunning the feature before I realised how far we had come. Lost 10-15 minutes and wondered whether the guys would trust my nav for the rest of the event! I hoped we would settle into a more comfortable pace, but when we hit a significant hill and Felix just kept running, I knew it was going to be a long day!

Everything else we did was nearly spot on, and we were well ahead of schedule most of the day, adding in one control with a water drop, which turned out to be pretty important, as I ran out of water walking up the hill to that one. The flatter sections of our route were less thick than I expected, and the steeper bits, whilst really thick for a couple of legs, were really beautiful, with lots of flowing water around. The climb up from the railway line was pretty brutal, coming quite late in our loop (and shortly after a climb part way up to a water drop before going back down again).

So - unfortunately, my lack of fitness was shown up really badly. felix in particular was running away from me all day, with Dolf joining in until about 3/4 of the way through. My calves were great for the first hour, but then my left calf tightened up really badly. I stopped for a stretch, but it didn't do much, and I was not able to push off my toes well. Shortly after that, a couple of steps led to a sharp, localised pain in my calf that I can only assume was me tearing something. Fortunately, I could still shuffle along in 'discomfort' ratehr than pain, as long as I didn't toe off, so i hobbled along trying not to lose sight of my buddies.

Still a great day out. Lost 30 points (but only 1 place) from Felix forgetting to punch one control, but being out for less than 6hrs in a 24hr race, that was pretty inconsequential. Came in at 20th, almost exactly half the score of winning team.

Decided to risk testing my calves out by playing in a lunchtime Staff vs Student basketball game. Fortunately, it was only against Year 8's, who were small enough that you could put them off just by running at them. Shot terribly, but blocked a lot of shots, generally had some fun, and nothing hurt (although my back stiffened up a bit afterwards).

Given that a week between runs wasn't enough last time, and based on how my legs have felt during the week, it didn't seem wise to try running at all this week.

Unfortunately I have lacks either the time or the motivation to do anything else either.

Warm up for afternoon Harriers race. Disappointingly, despite having an entire week off since my last run, my calves were stiffening up during this and didn't make me feel like they were going to ease off with a stretch or as I progressed into the race itself.

Pushed pretty hard for the first lap, but pace was pretty disappointing, given how hard I was working. By the end of the first lap, my calves were starting to get a bit worse, so the plan for the second lap was 'comfortably hard.'

My calves had other plans, and by the time I was heading down the far side of the golf course for the second time, I had to stop and have a significant stretch break. Didn't help much, so I hobbled home slowly, feeling pretty disillusioned.

Too sore to contemplate a cool down, but hopeful that I've avoided actually tearing anything.