Training Log Archive: fletch

Event: WA Long Distance Championships
 

First control I was unnecessarily cautious, as it was in the middle of a whopping great clear area, but maybe not a bad thing, as it wasn't all as obvious as it might have been. As it was, I burst into the clear area and had a minor heart attack when I couldn't see the rock, but after taking 2 steps forwards, I was only about 30 metres off it. Got near 2, but got a bit vague coming up the hill, so it was good to see Ben coming out of the control, but I didn't really know where I was, and took about a minute scratching around to get it. Was clean to 3 and stoked to see Ben coming in just behind me. Was a little scared over the hilltop to 4, but hit it spot on. A little off line to 5, through the wrong saddle to hit the creek higher up than intended, but didn't pay enough attention coming down the creek, missed one bit of rock and ended up low, then follwed the wrong rock detail way too far in before seeing Ben bolting away and correcting.
Compounded my problems at the next. Over the knoll in total control, could see the big rock surface past hte control. Tried to use it to steer myself into the control, but still missed. Maybe distracted by a bunch of oldies heading to a nearby one. A bit rough through 7 as well and a good 5 minutes went down the toilet.
From there clean for a while, with a strange directional wobble on hte way to 10, but no real probs till 13, when I misidentified a thicket and ran below the control and dropped another 20 sec. Had actually caught back up to Ben on time at this point, but lost it again at 13 and he ran away from me. 30 seconds more lost standing still near 15 when I was exactly where I thought, but thought I was way too close to the track below and couldn't figure out where else I could be. Ran it out to the end, but the damage had been down and Ben came home full of running to stretch the gap to over a minute. Craig about 9:40 in front of me. Bugger.

Course 1 - Splits

Event: WA Middle Distance Championships, Malmalling
 

1 - aimed a little left and skirted the edge of the 2 clearings on the way. Could see the control feature from hundreds of metres away, complete with my 2 minute man just standing there
2 - ran staright past 2 minute man leaving control, but got off line in the thicker stuff and hit the track on the wrong side of the knoll. Corrected along the track and straight into the control
All pretty clean, can't really be bothered with the description, except for a minor wobble into 4 and a silly little error coming down to 10 when I hedged my bets with an old bloke looking for the same control and got it a bit wrong. Probably dropped about 30 seconds. Clean through 11 and 12, but lost it all at the last. Left the control a bit off line to the left, thought I had corrected and hit the control feature or missed right. Turns out I was left, so searched the wrong pile of rocks, snuck out the back of the rock detail, couldn't see anything, so turned left and went to the next knoll. Nothing there either,, so back to where I started, then on to the correct feature. Dropped about 2:45 there, to turn a good run into a pretty average one, but just held on for second, about 4 minutes down on Craig.

MH1 - Splits

Well, my ideal last few days prep has gone out the window. Walking from my office to the car after runnig yesterday I got a sharp stabbing pain at the base of my achilles / heel. Has kept bothering me since, even when just walking. Have iced and nurofened, but no real improvement.

Then I decided to do something really silly. Joined in a game of rugby league last 2 lessons today. The bad news is that my heel is not 100%. The good news is that it doesn't bother me when I'm warmed up. So will scratch the jog this arvo off the plans and just have a really good stretch etc tonight and make sure I warm up properly tomorrow.

C • Brilliant 2

Loosener before the weekend. Much needed after paddling.
10 min WU, run thrus, 5 x 400m leaving on 3 min (nominally at 5km pace)
10 min CD
First one felt really hard and legs felt tight, but got better after that, and couldn't slow down to the right pace. Long recovery helped.
80, 77, 77, 77, 78

Will repeat the dose with an even shorter session tomorrow, and then enjoy the weekend :)

Paddle with Tooms from East Perth. Pretty straight to the Narrows, into the seabreeze. Bit choppy, worked fairly hard for most of it. Had a drink and a stertch then came back South Perth side. Got into a couple of really shallow bits. Much nicer coming back, but arms died towards the end. Haven't paddled at that intensity for a while...

At the end of the session, I returned to the car to find my keys were no longer in the key pocket of my shorts. A slow walk around the warm-up loop ensued, accompanied by Wil and Tooms with their torches. About 2/3 of the way round I had a little scratch, and lo and behold, the key had fallen out of the key pocket into the built in jocks themselves. How it had been there for nearly an hour without me noticing... can't explain that one. Sorry if you were late for dinner Wil!

After an extended weekend break feeling not too flash, I looked forward to getting out on Monday, forgetting that I had school relay practice in the afternoon, so didn't get to do anything except a few 100m sprints with no warm-up subbing in for kids who were no-shows.
This was followed up by my final (phew) knee-busting turn as a softball catcher, the combination of which felt me feeling quite stiff in the quads despite having done no training for nearly a week (although i did a good stretching session on Sunday night).

Fortunately loosened up fairly quickly on the first rep and enjoyed the session.
3 x grass farms @15km pace, recover through to start and go straight away. 8:31, 8:34, 8:27. Felt pretty good.