Training Log Archive: markg

Another 4x4min H&H at UoC using the same route as last week. Felt really good actually and was running strongly, doing the first in about 4:33/km. Slowed down a little for the 2nd (I find this one hardest) and a bit faster again for the 3rd. After 1.5min on the 4th I suddenly developed a stitch (left-side below ribs) and had to stop. Walked and jogged home.

A beautiful day and an increasingly rare warm one (15℃) so had to get out for a run. Ran with a few other guys from work and the pace was nice and slow except for a couple of strides I threw in at the end. I felt good and it was nice to shake the legs out before the all-important FWOC sprint champs this evening.

Run from work to Prince's Island.

FWOC sprint distance champs at Prince's Island. 2nd, 24s behind Alaric. Felt strong but technique let me down again. I made 2 errors of about 10s and one whopping 50s error overshooting a control - bye bye race. It was a nice sprint actually, a few 'running' legs (which I managed to screw up) but some nice technical stuff in the bits of forest with lots of little tracks. That's the best you can do on this map, I think.

Left achilles pretty sore afterwards. It's been playing up a bit in the last couple of weeks. Looks like I've been neglecting my calves; not a good idea with the extra high intensity I was starting.

Legs are a bit weary after last 3 days. Was planning to go to the gym after work but work left me broken.

Another H&H 4 x 4min interval session. Happy with myself for making it 3 days tough training in a row. Mind you, these were sort of slow - my HR didn't even make 180! Ran with Jon from work and he held up pretty well given it was only his 2nd run this year.

FWOC long distance champs. 2nd, 2:14 behind Odd. It was at McKenzie Crossing in badlands terrain. I started off on a bad foot taking a stupid route choice and dropping 1.5min. Already I didn't feel strong on the hills and badlands is always up and down steep banks. I was slow. Didn't make many mistakes, maybe another 2-2.5min just couldn't move fast enough. Maybe feeling the effects of the intervals yesterday but maybe I just suck on hills.

After reviewing the course with the splits I'd say I lost about 6 min overall and about half of that was through poor route choice. Bad orienteering.

Warm up and down and floats

4 x 4min intervals, the H&H session! Finally got it together and did a whole session though I may have taken it a little easy in order to make I sure I could! Pace was about 3:45/km but I should be going a little quicker I think.

Rode from home to orienteering. Discovered rear wheel has a massive buckle in it and is rubbing on the brake pad. Don't know when that happened ... tire was a little low so I maybe I only just did it tonight?

FWOC Middle Distance Champs. 1st place, 1:30 ahead of Odd. Aimed to run steadily with strong plans for each. Relaxed a couple of times but kept concentration pretty well. Still, I lost a bit of time: about 30s on 1 after missing a little track junction that didn't exist any more, about 30s on 7 which was on the only bush mapped on hill covered in little bushes, and a few seconds dithering on 8 and 10.

There was some controversy surrounding 3. Only half the field actually found it, the other half found the tape which was somewhere else. I nailed it and thought it was in the right spot, a feeling I confirmed when I went out to pick controls up and checked out the area more thoroughly. The area has subtle features and low visibility, and it isn't mapped very well but the control was as correct as is possible. The tape was 20-30m east of the control.

The results show times with legs 3 & 4 voided which is stupid. The control was correct and the map is drawn a little wonky but otherwise correct ... oh well, doesn't make a difference to anything.

Warm up and down, plus the lengthy float.

2 x 4min with a gigantic 8:43 float. Felt good during the first one but my guts started playing up as soon as I'd finished it. Recovered enough with some jogging and walking to do another but my guts were worse after so I just jogged the rest of the way.

Usual at the gym and then jogging home. Starting to feel more comfy with my starting weights/reps; might need to up the weight soon.

From home to the start of the race and back.

Calgary Corporate Challenge 10km race. Heard about this from Jonathan Winn yesterday and thought I might give it a bang. Wasn't super interested in killing myself but I needed to get a more respectable time on record given my previous PB was 48min. Jon wanted someone to pace him for about 40min so it served both our purposes.

Pacing was made a little difficult by the lack of km markers, a working Polar footpod or HRM, and Jonathan leaving his Garmin at home, but it looks like we kept pretty close to 4:00/km. This felt pretty easy for me until we hit about 7km where I started to feel a little tired but we'd also jacked up the pace a notch here. I kicked at 1km to go and knocked over 3 guys just in front of me and left Jon to come in 20s behind.

A nice run/race and satisfied with my time.

Event: 70's Disco
 

Planned to do some of those 4x4min H&H intervals that everyone's interested in at the moment but as soon as I got out I was hit by a lack of energy. Don't know if it was physical or just CBFness ... everything felt difficult and seemed to be breathing hard even when plodding along at 75%MHR. Jogged and walked a shorter loop by the zoo. It was a great day to be outside, otherwise depressing.

FWOC Grand Prix which is a handicap mass start race where some people get to miss controls. Quite a fun race as everyone comes into the finish close together. I came 4th, 4min behind Nicki who got a good deal with a 1.1km shorter course. Not really happy with my orienteering tonight. Did well for the first 4 controls, then made a little mistake into 5 by not reading enough detail. Jonathan was right behind me at this stage and this is where I started forgetting to read the map properly. The rest was a bit scrappy - I actually mispunched number 10 but it was allowed by virtue of the two controls being too close together! Really need to fire up my skills ... 5.6km total running distance and about 3 min of mistakes.

Lunchtime run with a couple of guys, Jon and Pedro, from upstairs at work. Was nice out and a pretty easy pace but started to feel a bit tired near the end. Obviously not recovered from Moose Mountain yet.

More sore, but the massage I just had is helping a lot (though not with getting any work done!).

C • Whimp 2

I'm sore, everywhere.

Event: Moose Mountain Trail Races
 

29km Moose Mountain trail run organised by Jen Silverthorn. 7th place overall and 2nd in M20-29. Course goes from West Bragg Ck parking area up to the top of Moose Mountain (2,437m), funnily enough, and back. It was a gorgeous day, a little nippy early on but just warm enough later, blue skies, great trails ... perfect! For more details, see Meridian's trog.

This sounded like a really fun race so when Meridian entered I decided to have a shot too. This was beyond anything of I've done before, my previous longest run was 21km and the previous greatest amount of climb in a single run was about 500m. I figured I would just take it easy and see how I coped with it.

I started in the middle of the pack which was moving a little slow, so I made my way through and started picking people off. I was moving okay here, doing sub 5:00/km on the flat according to my polar, but I felt rotten and I think it was nerves about such a big run. After a couple of km I forgot about it and settled in to overhauling the runners in front.

The first real climbing began after about 4km and I followed my plan and started walking. I was determined not to let it become a stroll though and accelerated whenever it flattened out slightly and when we crested the ridge at about 9km, I had overtaken 3 people. I then slowly overtook the 2nd place women along the ridge and before the final climb had come up behind the eventual 6th place finisher. My climbing legs were nearly done so I settled in to alternating run and walk but was losing ground, notably to one super-steady guy who didn't walk once but kept up this interminably slow jog and left me and a bunch of others in his dust. I didn't care too much about losing time, figured my time would come on the way down.

The turn around was in a little saddle, it was followed by a couple of short uphills and then several kms of steep, rocky downhill. I launched myself down and by the time I reached the bottom of this descent just below the tree-line, I'd overtaken 4 people and was only 20m behind the steady guy. I paid for the descent though, discovering my quads were now ruined and they'd lost most of their coordination - I nearly fell on my face!

Managed to keep it together, my coordination came back but my pace was nothing special and had to walk on anything resembling a hill. The steep switchbacks down the hill were a real challenge, kept thinking my quads would fail but I got through only losing 50m to Steady Guy.

On the fire trail again, I started to reel Steady Guy in and got him on one of the last real downhill stretches. I was really suffering by this stage, my quads, hip flexors and glutes all stiff and fatigued. About a km from the finish, I heard a huffing and puffing and 6th place came charging through looking really strong. I couldn't match him and walked a couple of short stretches even while overtaking someone else doing the same!

Finally, when the finish line came into sight I got some resolve back and finished strongly (got to look good in your finish photo ;).

So in the end, a good result, a tough race but a really fun one too and I'm glad I did it. Kicks the arse of any road race.

C • MM29 3

Short session: short warm up on the rowing machine, some core, lunges, balance, and leg press.

Running home.

Quickly built up to a tempo speed (just under 4:00/km) and it felt good. A totally different run to yesterday.

Did a few slow hills and a couple of downhill strides, concentrating on posture and spring off the ground.

Warm down

Lunchtime run to Elbow Rv and along. Felt good to be out in the sun initially but I soon felt tired and hungry. A fair bit of walking, stretching, bludging ensued. Must eat more ...

Barebones long distance at Barrier Lake. Despite a plan to run steady with lots of planning, more of a training run than a race, I screwed up the first control by 2:30. Got annoyed at myself then and into a bad frame of mind. Didn't orienteer well, didn't follow my plan, kept falling on my arse, and generally having a bad run. Then I rolled my ankle running into 13 and decided I was better off pulling out and walking home.

After the 3-legged sprint and the super sprint (400-500m sprint, cracking fun!) I went with Nicki on a long run as part of her marathon training, from Camp Chief Hector along Hwy 1x to Hwy 1a and then to the Yamnuska parking lot and back. I started to die about 15km, was getting really hungry and hip flexors (iliopsoas?) were getting sore from lack of glute stretching lately. We stopped for a drink at 17km and I got all light-headed so let Nicki finish by herself and I walked and jogged the remainder. Need to pay more attention to proper fuelling before a long run ...

C • long run 3

Barebones night-o at Camp Chief Hector. Fun and challenging course amongst the camp and some of the simpler forest around it. Wasn't running too fast because hips were still sore and I had a stomach full of the food I inhaled after the long run earlier. Made one error of about 40s on number 3 but good after that. Some of the nav was made easier when Odd and Magnus passed me and lit up the forest ahead. Magnus in particular had a massive driving-light strapped to his head - I swear I saw a squirrel drop dead out of a tree with smoking eyes ...