Training Log Archive: fletch

First ride on the MTB since July last year. It passed. My bike nav did not.

Was never going to be pushing particularly hard after so long without a MTB ride, let alojne one with a map and was supe rhesitant and struggled to get into the scale for the first few conjtrols.

Gradually got the hang of it again and was starting to feel like my map memory and flow was starting to re-awakaen, before I did a right then left set of turns one junction too soon and ended up lost, confused and nowhere near where I wanted to be after leaving #8. Quickly followed this up by misreading the feature at 9 and following strider (who came through in my error) straight past the control.

About the 2hr mark i started to feel really hungry and weak, but had intelligently left my food for the ride in a box in my car, so it was a struggle through the last 5 or 6 controls.

Navigated cautiously, but slowly through the tricky stuff, but spent too much time looking at the tracks all over the map and ignoring all the other useful details like contours. This resulted in a wrong turn on the way to 14, and ending up near 17 before I had been to 16 after totally failing to see a junction that looked a lot like a T junction on the map, but much less so on the ground.

So, it was a long day out, I dumped plenty of time (probably about 15 minutes) and didn't ride very fast, but it was great fun and my bike fitness felt OK other than running out of fuel. Even Powerade rather than Shotz tabs in the drink might have been enough to get me through, but I went for the Shotz coz I had some left over after the rogaine.

Seemed like a really well set course. Lots of options, a mix of some hard riding with some really tricky bits, and it's a much better area than some of the other places that I've either set or raced. Thanks Peter and Jenny. I might even be back for another one before 2015.

Long - Splits

T'was a paddle. Didn't suck as much as I expected. Both legs were a little numb by the end, but my back didn't seize up totally (which given how stiff it has been for the last couple of weeks is a minor miracle) and not glute/hammy pain (also quite remarkable).

Had a short break at the turnaround to adjust the zip on my wetsuit so it didn't dig into my spine and was pretty comfortable even on the way back. Only had one motorboat wash to negotiate and didn't even feel a little bit like falling in ;)

Felt really comfortable pace wise. Hip flexors a little tight for the first km, hamstrings a little sore towards the end. Feet pretty numb for the first 5-10 minutes. Better than expected.

Espresso in 8 weeks.

I've paddled once this year.
I've only had 4 training runs, 2 rogaines and maybe 2 orienteering events over 1 hour in the last 12 months
I haven't done a road ride since April and I haven't ridden my MTB since July last year.

Sounds like the perfect preparation...

Pretty cruisy session to try and loosen up a little without killing myself. Threw in a 10 minute effort in the middle just to see what HR I would sit at and whether it was stable. Ceratinly can't get anywhere near my running HR for anything that feels sustainable.

Fun and games. Paddle tomorrow just for laughs.

Standard WU, run thrus, CD. Legs felt a little sore from yesterday, but not as tight as I'd feared. Side and ribs a bit sore from throwing the javelin too much yesterday. AH the preils of PE teaching.

After printing off the handicaps, I left them at work, but it was no big deal, since it was just tRicky, Shanel, Andre and myself. Andre went for a 22:30, shane off his 21:20 from last time, tRicky set a target of 18 minutes and I went for 17:30 as I thought that was the optimistic end of what i might be capable of.

Felt like I started quite strongly, but didn't feel strong up the hill. Was hard to tell whether the firmness of the sand or the darkness had more of an effect on the run.

Gradually closed on tRicky throughout until his bowels gave up just after I passed him 2/3 of the way up Durston. I worked hard back down the Boulevard, but felt like my legs weren't ticking over too well by then. Got Shane about half way down, having sighted him up Durston. Never saw Andre at all.

Andre: 21:44
Shane: 21:32
tRicky: 18:16 (plus pit stop)
me: 17:32

Pretty happy. Definitely take that at this stage of things. S'pose that means the endurance is lacking more than the leg speed.

C • Noice run! 2

Tooms' Golf Course 5k TT - Splits

It was a run. Felt alright. Hip flexors tightened up a bit around 10km, so tried to relax the stride a bit.

Slight heel niggle, particularly left, but didn't develop into anything.

Almost long enough to be called a long run :)

Still not a 'real' ride, but at least I spent a bit of time on the bike.

Spent a while cranking the legs up to full speed, then did a 10 minute effort, followed by 4 x (5:2)

Felt OK at the time. Will see how I feel jogging this arvo.

Gentle little jog. Got one heavy rain shower for our troubles. Hip flexors felt a little tight after the bike time this morning.