Training Log Archive: Lizzie

Morning jog with Kate and Gene. Haven't been very imaginative with jogging routes from Dafto. I'm sure there's some mint trails around here - but probably not for 15-20min jogs...

WOC Relay, 3rd leg.

Up for having some fun and a bit of a fight today. Unfortunately the rub of the green didn't go our way on the first two legs, so there wasn't so much to fight for - but still fun to be had :)
Got sent out 30s ahead of emily, and quickly realised that even if I had been keen for a race, my legs had no fight left in them after thursday. Mind you, I don't think I could given her a race in any case! And I now see she was only 30s down on the best leg time, which is utterly amazing when she was running alone out the back of the race!

Anyhow, I struggled through the first part and started to feel a bit better around #6. This was probably initiated by the spurt of adrenaline resulting from kicking a stump with my mangled toe-nail. I should have foreseen this, and kicked a stump pre race I think.
I entered the run through to the cheers of my team mates (yay!), who had the flag out for me - so I grabbed it and ran through the arena flying it. Because, why the hell not? Running WOC is something to celebrate, not just for those at the front of the field!
I spotted the flying canadian again on the last loop - she was about 4 controls ahead by that stage.
The course had one final twist left for me, when the fallen-log bridge across the river decided to give way on me and send me for a swim. I hope the gps unit was water proof...and the emits? Nothing left in me for the finish chute really, but happy to get through the course unscathed and un breathing attacked.

C • Damn straight you should ce... 5

Not moving. Wrist sore. Toe more sore. Don't want to test the legs to find out how sore they are!

Pre-long jogs. The last time for some days that I will have relatively fresh legs.

WOC Long distance. 31st.

Not sure what to say about this one. Could have gone any way, and in the end, went the wrong way, but not as bad as it could have. I guess.
I made a hash of the long leg - my plan was OK and the first 3rd went fine. But my plan went to mush at the big marsh (which I didn't intend to cross, but to skirt around...) Why did I get sucked into it? I don't know. But I do know that I didn't recover well - my route was salvageable at that point, but I didn't take the time to stop and re-evaluate. Instead I compounded my route mistake, and by the time I got to #2 I felt beaten down and a bit depressed. I also took a heavy fall mid leg, which left me fearing I'd broken something in my left wrist (although it eased off as I went), and a big toenail that was almost clean broken in two (found that one out later, explained the explosion of toe pain though!).

Bumbled through 3 and 4, then Sabine H caught me up. This perked me up a bit, as to be honest I assumed most of those that started behind me must have passed me on the long leg! Her and I played cat and mouse or a few legs - taking different routes but coming together at the flags. Then she headed right on 9 while I opted left - I may well have followed her but that Mari caught us at this point, and opted left with me. I paced Mari fine until we reached another marsh (passable this time), which she floated over like a classic Norge, while I went swimming, like a classic Kiwi. So she was gone, and I hit the physical wall.
From there to 13, things were fine, just a bit slower. Then I hit a brain wall and lost 1-2mins on the run through control. The last loop was done on very little brain juice - not helped by listening to the commentary of Tove winning (where did she pass me? not that it matters, I wasn't going to hold on!)

So 31st. Disappointed on the one hand, but on the other, given the ride I've been on this year - pretty happy to put in a decent show at WOC. A couple of months ago this seemed very unlikely.

Jogging with Sabine R. Decided to go on trails in the little forest. Promptly came off trail into the little forest.

pre-looooong quarantine for middle jog.

24th.

Reasonably happy with this. I pushed hard and raced hard. I made one notable mistake on #1 - very nervous start and my direction was off. I also (amusingly, but also very annoyingly), managed to trip over a tv cable 150m out from the start - I managed to trip close to a connection between two cables, and disconnected it too. Distraction, yes. To blame for my mistake, no, that was just me, I should have reacted better and calmed down.

Anyway, after that I'm happy with my recovery. There were some direction errors on short controls (9, 12, 15), I unnecessarily got stuck on a cliff (10), and went through some green when I should have gone around (16, 19). But, I fought hard and felt strong. I can see where I can be and how to be there. Another year.

C • Great work 1

Middle model. One last chance to make mistakes in this terrain before the proper thing! Grabbed the chance with both hands ;) But also, fine for the most part. Nothing new.

jog with Kate + Immy. wanted to explore track, but didn't want the run to blow out too long. So a no to exploring today.