Training Log Archive: Lizzie

Caught the bus up to Frascati (where i ran from 3 weeks ago), and headed up over the hills, down to the valley, up up and up to the volcanic dome and around the ridge, via my sweet single track, to Rocca di Papa (where i ran from last week). Pretty much merged my previous two long runs.
Pretty slow pace due to my gammy ankle from yday, and the ~3L of fluid in by backpack! (300ml by the end!). Luckily about 3/4 of the run was under tree cover, and i had my buff to keep the sun off my head (and look like a gimp).

Awesome run though, really enjoyed it. Went through an amazing grove of cherry trees, but unfortunately I'd forgotten to carry my foldable step ladder, so couldnt reach the multitudes of cherries just crying out to be eaten :(

Followed by a nice 11hr sleep, despite my lumpy bed :)

too tired even to do the full set. bad i know!

made it all of 90s before i managed to cane myself on the first minor blip in otherwise flat concrete. Munched my right ankle :(
walked it off, then limped it off, then managed to run ok with just some discomfort.
down appia antica to cafarrella. Then once i got my mind off my ankle i really got into reading my french map. had the whole verbalisation going on in my head and everything :)
So if it weren't for screwing my decent ankle, i'd be pretty happy with this run!

Happy with myself that I even got out for this session after an extremely super frustrating, rage inducing afternoon at work. Then i had to wait half an hour for my laptop to shutdown (gave up in the end and left it), then i had to wait 40 mins in the still sweltering heat for the bus...

anywho. i got out. good stuff.

7x2min ints around cafarella. walking rests, which is different for me. I usually jog, but decided to walk the rests and see how much harder i could do the ints. I'll have to check the actual results against last time i did them, but they felt more intense!
Almost died on the 2nd int, but pushed through and the rest actually weren't that bad (well, not too bad, still death)
amazing diff in the temp when the sun disappeared!

so. tired.

also, there's a lizard somewhere in the kitchen, spied it the other day. wonder what lizard tastes like?

zig zagging around to my hill and warming down after. There seems to be a group of runners that do sessions in cafarelli on tues/thurs 8.30ish. I guess i could tag along and see what sort of stuff they do? More tempting to stick to my own stuff though.

Also, realised that the building i assumed was a school next to my bus stop, is actually a freaking sweet looking gym! Googled their website but unfortunately it doesnt have prices on it, so might go in and check it out one evening.

hill sprints. Garmin has the distance ranging from 94 to 104m,probably mainly uncertainty, but it would be interesting to see what effect the micro route picking choices on the track has on the times!
24s 96m
26s 104m
25s 99m
24s 98m
25s 97m
26s 98m
25s 94m
26s 99m
25s 101m
26s 97m
25s 94m
25s 95m

game face was out in full force today after i watched the knock out sprints in goteborg. Those girls are looking pretty damn fast!

no stretching or exercises tonight. too tired

race report from yday's race put through google translate. complete with quote from me (in my perfect italian haha). Apologies to Penny, I don't know where they got the idea that I was NZ middle distance champion!

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t...

C • Funny 2

recovery down appia antica. they've cut the grass on the sides which gives a bit more variation to run on. didn't see my friend or his sheep tonight, but did get honked at by a couple of guys in cars. which keeps happening actually, weird lol. (i think they're not used to women running?...)

Out past comune di cervara, which is the town famous for gourgieu's follow me youtube video. Hopefully i can get back and run on the sprint map!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e5zs7tHi_w

unfortunately today's map wasn't nearly as nice as last weeks. I'd heard it hyped up as a brand new map and highly technical terrain. Both of which it was. The map consisted of open parts, some very rocky underfoot, others cleaner. and then lots and lots of small patches of bush, varying from white to medium green. And the green was mostly large prickly bushes. Reminded me of a less harsh version of craigieburn (had nothing on matagouri though!).
So very tough both physically and technically. I was ok the first half of the course but then it fell apart. Couldn't find the cliff at 5 cos it didnt look like a cliff at all from my approach - 1min gone. 7 i stopped too early in a patch of light yellow - the control was in a bright yellow clearing, but on the ground it was very hard to distinguish between the two. and on the map the light yellow was hard to distinguish from the white.
Then lost 4 mins on 8. It was on a small patch of green in a clearing, amongst lots of small patches of green. incredibly hard to interpret the map, but i didnt cope very well with it none the less. Similar problem at 9 although apparently it was visible if you looked up half way through the leg. so another 2mins gone.
But everyone else had similar problems and I won the womens A grade despite my run of crappy middle distances continuing. I think 32mins would have been a clean run on this.
Unfortunately cos I'm not italian I wasn't eligible to win the HUGE trophy that would otherwise have been mine (honestly, i could fit my head in it, probably multiple times!). But i still won a pack of pasta, how stereotypical!

Went and did the Mens A course afterwards, as this is the last race while I'm in Italy (hopefully will get out to some good maps training though). Thought maybe I'd be a bit better having got used to the map a bit. But no. 8 minutes on number one! Should have been 4-5mins i think. Ran straight past number two which was a bit silly, but just the nature of the map, some of the controls were just a bit bingo.
Showed a group of people where 3 was (i went out on this course after all the official starts, so these people must have been there a long time!). 4 was an epically long leg, made longer by getting constantly caught in the spikey bushes.
Then 5-finish my navigation was much better, helped by 4 of the controls being the same as on the womens :) Still managed to lose time on 10 and 11, which were 8 and 9 earlier...the bushes still didnt make sense!

Time would have had me 3rd in MA. But i dont think that means much really.