Training Log Archive: markg

Aus Long Champs at Hill End, 16th and perhaps 10th Aussie (not sure who's a resident and who's just visiting). A reasonable run which I think reflects my fitness and the volume of technical orienteering I've done this year. I was quite rusty in the really detailed stuff (first gold mining in 2 years?). I made a bunch of 20-30s hesitations/errors and topped it off with about 2min on #15. So I dropped about 5min overall in the nav.

Physically it was about as expected: I wasn't fast or strong up the hills but I was untroubled by the distance. This is a surprising new pattern for me but I guess number of 2h+ runs I've done lately exceeds previous training periods. Also I was disturbed to find that even when everyone is reduced to walking uphill I'm still slower! My achilles started hurting at about 2/3 distance which made me tentative through the rougher terrain but not sure that it really slowed me down much. The big screw up was falling leaving #20 and cutting my knee open. It required 6 stitches that evening in Bathurst which ruled me out of the relay on Sunday. 4 races in the carnival entered but only 1 started - how frustrating!

Enjoyable and challenging terrain and overall I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the run through the 2nd half with Peter Hobbs. I was however a little disappointed with the lack of route choices in the longer legs. Out of the 6 longest legs only 2 had more than one route choice.

In to work via Braddon. Lovely morning for it. I'm looking forward to a few more of these.

Homeward.

Walk/jog to and from the gym
4 x 30s isometric calves, bent + straight @ 5kg(?)
Strong ankle dorsiflexion stretching
Foam rolling and some other stretching

I'm doing Mulligans mobilisation 2-3 times per day plus unweighted single leg isometric calves 2-3 times but not bother to log it.

Achilles feeling better than late last week but not where I would like it.

Quick ride up Mt Stromlo and back on the road.

Went out for an AM jog to see where the achilles was at and then decided to pull the pin on this weekend of the Aus champs and save it for next weekend. A real shame, I was looking forward to the middle distance a lot.

AM 4 x 30s static calves, bent + straight @ 5kg(?)
Lunch 4 x 30s static calves, bent + straight @ 5kg(?)

Protocol says I should be doing these 4 times/day.

Continued on a well-worn achilles rehab path by signing up for the ANU gym so I can start building up the achilles' load bearing capacity. Did a set of static calf exercises. A couple of hours later I discovered that this was premature, with the achilles much sorer.

4 x 30s static calves, bent + straight @ 10kg(?)

Easy check-out-the-achilles run but my legs were feeling great and got a bit carried away running faster. Fortunately my achilles held up well. Looking good for the weekend (or so I thought).

Achilles recovering well. Feeling positive about Aus champs but won't race the sprint. Now just need to sort out accommodation and a driving buddy.

ACT Long Champs at Glendale Crossing. With the achilles recovering quite well, I thought I'd come out, warm-up, and see how it went, thinking that getting around half-way would be an achievement. As it turned out, the achilles felt okay for a long time, only starting to get sore late in the race where there was little alternative but to finish. As runs go it was a bit mixed. I lost a couple of minutes at #2 with the invisible track, then had a reasonable series until the first green control which I mucked up in the circle for another 2 minutes. Had another good series of controls through till #18 then I just got a bit shabby, no big individual mistakes but lost a few minutes over about 6 controls. Then when we got out into the open again, I wasn't pushing like it was a race.

I enjoyed the green stuff for a while but eventually got sick of being scratched up and running into things. Got a stick in my eye and despite washing it out had a ~7mm length of stick pop out from under my eyelid on Monday morning!

Mostly walking around the blue course with Ewan. Achilles a bit stiff and sore.

Spent the week doing all the right things with my achilles: static calf work, working all the tight bits out of my calf, ankle mobility work, even green tea! It was settling down pretty well so decided to test the waters with some 1min alternating walk-jog. Mild but increasing soreness as time went on but the good bit was it didn't get really sore afterwards. Gives some hope for running at Aus champs.

Following on from the successful plod yesterday, I thought another plod would be good. Started okay but soon was feeling some soreness in the achilles. Didn't get any worse but after an hour of sitting at my desk was getting some full on pain in the achilles. Wasn't expecting any issues, achilles has been doing fine. It's probably scuttled running at the Aus champs :(

C • bugger bugger bugger 2

Easy jog to give the calf a test. Held up okay.

Lunch run out and back on the ALJ Memorial and then a loop in the gardens. Was feeling good but then tweaked my left calf at the 4km mark and had to walk / slow jog back. Bugger!