Training Log Archive: Lizzie

Ko qual

Super duper confused at the start triangle. Dropped 30s before I finally figured things out. Then prob ran bit too hard to make up for it. Ended up with comfortably the fastest qual time

Ko qf.
Good fun butterfly course around the school. Took a couple of controls to get into it, then led into the butterflies. Had a nice gap at the final.pivot so could cruise down to the finish

Ko sf. In against tash again thanks to the new iof formatting. Guess it's done that way so people aren't purposefully running to be 3rd in their qf and thus get more rest/easier sf.
Anyways, mapchoice was pretty clear for me. 5/6 of us chose the same. I put a gap on the others on the hills and rough stuff and could cruise through the last 2 controls

Ko final. Well, shit. Forgot to clear and check and there was no check in the start procedure either, so didntfind out until control #2. Stopped in horror when I realised my mistake, before realizing 50-60s later that i could continue with traditional clipping. Faaar out that takes so long!!! Was actually catching up tara and tash running, but kept dropping back with every control. Oh well.
One to learn from

O-gang weekly from Magnus'. Loop along the skyline above wiltons, then down and back through the bush. Lots of stop-starts as Magnus defined the route, but was a bit behind Stu and I, so we had to stop at each junction. We second guessed him once, and of course he took a different route. Managed to run some laps and find them using excellent tracking skills (listen for the chat).
Put my ankle down a hole while up on the farm land. I blame the gazillion rabbits up there. Pain for a couple of minutes but fingers crossed nothing more. Will see if I can be patient and rest the next two days before the weekend...

C • Worse than rabbit holes? 2

Jog with tessa, over the reservoir and down to the bottom of ngaio gorge then back up through trelisick park. Added bonus hill at the top of the gorge which my legs weren't super stooed about.

Sprint exercises at Rathkeale.
1st was a windows and corridor exercise. Each leg on its own segment of map, with corridors route choices to choose between. Was a good starter, requiring head up to match the snippet of map to what was on the ground.

Then 3x head to head butterfly races against Laura (and John). Was good to have Laura to match against, and good practice on cooked legs after yesterday!

8:25 (1.75), 4:58 (1.14), 5:03 (1.15), 8:18 (1.79) for the four courses.

jogs between

Pre and post run hobbles

Short sprint around Hadlow Prep school in Masterton. Some construction going on which didn't affect routechoices but made you question access. Tired legs, but smooth enough. Lost time early on due to a new fence, and then playing safe routes around construction fences. And a bad route choice later on. Still, the rust is slowly coming off my technique.

Decided to do a long run along the skyline, going as far as I felt before turning toward home. Mum helpfully decided to go running from Wilton bush, meaning I had to manage my energy enough to end there to retrieve the car.

Started off with the climb straight up Kaukau. Brutal start. When I was close to the top I was surprised to see that I was close to being on Immy's Strava CR time...always dangerous. So I upped the pace for the last climb (known as Hillary's step). Turns out I missed the CR by 6s, and paid for it with stomach cramps for the next 15mins. Serves me right.

Continued on in the clag, over Crowes Nest and Otari, where the newly shorn sheep stuck out nice and white against the grey cloud. Started to feel good about halfway down Otari, and had a good speed going through to Makara saddle. Overtook a guy struggling on his bike up to Makara peak, where I took a bit of a break while judging my energy levels and possible future route.

Decided to run down on the expert mtb tracks, as I figured the chances of meeting a bike was minimal on these tracks. Unfortunately it was also an expert running track, given the slick as clay and my poor choice of normal running shoes... Made it to the bottom in one piece though, well clear of the two girls who were biking down the intermediate track in parallel to me.
Had another mini break at the bottom while I figured out my next steps. Decided that while I was tired, i didn't want to run through karori on the boring roads...so I better run up Wrights Hill on the mtb tracks instead ;)

Was having second thoughts about my decision half way up Salvation track though. Especially when a bee decided to fly into my half clenched fist, and without giving me a chance to release it, stung me on my middle finger. My right hand, feeling it was missing out, then got bitten by an over-friendly dog on the next corner.
Slogged it out to the summit, for more non existant views in the clag. Then, disoriented by all the cloud, took the wrong track down, adding a bonus 500m to my run.
From there on it was thankfully 90% downhill, down to zealandia and along the valley to wilton bush and the car.

Probably a bit longer than I should have done with sprint training tomorrow and races next weekend...oops

C • the cheek of you 2