Training Log Archive: fletch

Pretty token warm up. Didn't feel like I needed much as it was pretty warm. Very slow and token cooldown, left far too late after finishing, but possibly better than nothing, as i felt better at the end of it than at the start.

Good solid hit out this morning. Knew there were a couple of guys significantly quicker than me over 10km in the field and unsure how race ready I was, but thought I'd try to stick near the front early and see how comfortable it felt. That went out the window straight away when the leader took off and was out of sight within the first kilometre. Was much less surprised after the finish when I found out who it was.
After things settled down, I found myself sitting in 4th just behind Stephen Stockwell and feeling reasonably comfortable. I jumped from 4th to second at the 5km mark when the triathlete in 2nd didn't see a tape and I called to let him know where it was, but only made him stop and backtrack briefly, and SS slowed looking for the tape too.

Held 2nd through the out and back section, but was about 650m behind at the turn and only just in front of 3rd. The last 5km was a bit of a struggle. Started to feel even the smallest of uphills and needed the start of the downs to recover rather than stride out. 3rd place sat on me till about 2km to go, then surged past and I couldn't respond. He never got that far in front, but I reckon if I'd made it back onto his shoulder he probably could have gone again anyway.

3rd place overall, 1st 35-44. Knackered. Turns out SS is on the way back from a hamstring strain and felt a little twinge early, so backed off a little.

C • Winner 21

Event: MetrO Series Orienteering 7 - Forrestfield South
 

Actually managed to keep the intensity down for this and felt comfortable throughout. Felt like I had strung together a pretty good route, but spent a few minutes looking for one of the 'bush' controls which was a bit embarassing, and then managed to stuff up my counting at the end, despite double and triple checking on the map and my punchcard, so cut off one control that saved me all of about 200m and came back one short again.

Only realised when drawing my 'winner's route for tRicky, so screwed the map up and got Shane to draw his route instead.

Great area and well set course. Most fun metro that I can remember. Thanks tRicky.

20 minute warm up including hanging the tapes for sprint orienteering courses.
4 x roughly 1.5km courses with 3 mni recoveries between.
6:29, 5:45, 6:12, 5:21
12 minute cooldown.

Enjoyable, but could develop bad habits as I was probably running a bit out of control much of the time as I knew where all the tapes were.

Apprently getting off the hills and running an actual course brings a few more people out of the woodwork...

Craig, Rachel, Rob, Alice, Richard, Nicole, Heike, Cameron, Michelle, Oliver, Andrew, Kellie, tRicky, Tash, Shanel and me made for quite a bunch. Good times.

So, after a few runs struggling with my knee and then not wanting to get out of bed, this eveening was the chance to see whether a day off and a more consistent use of Nurofen gel made any difference. It was obvious early that although still not 100%, my knee was much imporved, so I decided on a longer loop.
Felt good at the start, apart from the midgie plague of doom that inhabits the north edge of Lake Gwelup after dark. From there it was all good until I was headed out to the coast, whn it became apparent that I wasn't going to make the coast and a public toilet before exploding, so I ducked into the very corner of Start Swamp bushland. I'd avoid that area for a while people.
Got going again fine, but lost rhythm when I hit the coast and turned into a strong and gusty wind. I would have preferred to loop down through star swamp, charles riley reserve and trigg bushland to stay on softer ground, but not in the dark. Wanted to be a bit surer of my footing.
Felt fine again once I turned for home, but it seems that i managed to steop in a little hole somewhere, as I have strained something in my left lower back/glute/top of hamstring area. It's a problem I often have, and isn't really a worry - it just makes running uncomfortable for a few days, especially when trying to go fast.

Moved the beach run this week back to Monday to give the knee a recovery day but still get a short run in. Felt good. Running in the rain was something a bit different for this time of year.