Training Log Archive: markg

Another easy run up at the reservoir. Foot and ankle feeling better again than yesterday. Left achilles has flared up a little and left glutes/hammy are still playing silly buggers. I'm feeling decrepit.

PTE 2.4

Single leg squat session. 2 x ( 1 x clock, 3 x 15 stair). Trying to go a little deeper with the squats.

A quick punt around the reservoir to test my ankle. There was still some soreness below the lateral malleolus, on top of the foot and a bit of an odd feeling around the big toe but it has improved a lot. A few more days and I'll be back on the trails. Left glutes decided to get all knotted up, so I'll have to schedule some more release work.

PTE 3.0

Left ankle is sore. No swelling or bruising and mostly fine walking but it reacts pretty badly to certain positions.

Simeon actually only finished 25s behind me, closer than I thought!

Long bush course from the OQ relays at Scribbly Gum Forest. A couple of sloppy legs and one speculative but ultimately bad route choice on the first leg led to some head to head racing with Mat and Simeon Burrill which was good fun. Simeon had a solid run and finished 2nd a minute or so behind me.

My 2nd leg was a scatter. I excluded a couple of controls on first glance, picked a fairly obvious first control from those remaining and then managed to string together a decent loop. Not super fast, rolling left ankle late in the previous course didn't help, but good enough. My team (Caroline Pigerre and Geraldine Chatsfield) came 3rd, I think, the Tay family team came in first followed by the Burrill family team.

3 x 2 laps of the reservoir, 1.6km each, with 2min walk/jog recovery. Had planned to do O-intervals at UQ tonight but Megan had a bad night's sleep and wanted to swap her morning swim for a morning run. Anyway, I thought this run was going to be terrible and nearly bailed after 20m but stuck it out and it turned out to be pretty good. Lap times were 5:32 (3:26), 5:36 (3:29), 5:37 (3:29). My legs were getting pretty lactic during these, perhaps more speedwork is required. Also noticed that the PTE is pretty low for an interval session, so I probably need to drop the recovery times and/or add more repeats.

Also, does anyone always get their max HR for a run in the first couple of minutes of a run? Mine hit 183 while I was jogging up my street and that's pretty common, while my max during the intervals was only 182. Could be HRM error so I'll have to verify the reading.

PTE 3.6

C • HR 1

Calves and Achilles.

Started working on my achilles and calves again.

A return to work-school commutes. It was pretty hot today; I'm not sure how long I'll be able do these for the 3pm pick-up with summer approaching. I carefully skirted around the Roma St Gardens so as not to earn a DSQ for next February's sprint NOL. My guts were playing up unfortunately so the early tempo pace dropped off a bit in the last couple of kms.

Took Ewan up to the reservoir for a few laps on his bike with me running alongside. I was still feeling terrible and it was a struggle to keep up even though he was going very slowly. The ride home was mostly a lesson on using the hand brake and I spent a lot of time walking and holding his bike upright.

TFL release again.

Easy morning loop up on Coot-tha. Lovely morning though the humidity was noticeable. Glutes feeling fatigued from the squats but somehow feeling stronger too.

Small glute activation and squats. Up to 3 x 20 single leg squats.

Sat morning long run from Anna's with the biggest group in a while: Mat, Wendy (who had escaped from OA work with Lance), Clare (returning from a long run hiatus caused by an ankle sprain), Helen, and Anna. Felt ordinary at the beginning and while it got better after warming up I suffered on the hills because my quads were trashed from running down Coot-tha hard on Thursday morning. I hope that's the reason they were bad anyway, as I should recover from that soon. The run was followed by delicious pancakes and fruit salad (thanks Anna and helpers!) for breaky but, horror of horrors, I had to skip coffee at the Bean to attend to family responsibilities. Which reminds me that I haven't caffeinated yet ...

PTE 3.0

Hit my TFL's, glutes and ITB's again followed with some stretching while watching Beverly Hills Cop, which was an awesome shot of the 80's.

Morning plod up Coot-tha and back. Nice out but definitely getting warm, will have to start these earlier soon. Hips felt bad early because of massage last night then settled down, and my left hamstring felt great.

PTE 3.2

Got stuck into my TFL's and small flutes. TFL's were very tight and took a good 10min each to ease up.

I decided that reinstating strength work would probably be beneficial to continued good glute and hamstring function so brought out the old squatting routine.

3 x Toowong Cemetery hill intervals, 1.5km and 50m ascent, with Anna, Mat and Helen, yet another of the Sheldon clan. Started easy, which is a much nicer way than racing James, and took the second even easier while I chatted to Mat, and then pushed hard on the last one. Times were 5:50, 5:56 and 5:41. Happy with that last one, feel I could have done another too.

PTE 3.3

Ploddish run from Anna's up the Slaughter Falls path and down via Frosties. My legs were feeling quite good after some hard racing and a week's rest. The top of Frosties, which is a pretty rough little bit of single track, seemed like a highway after two days on 'The Gib' last weekend and sailed down faster than usual. There was chatter about Aus champs, next season, and how with the hot weather upon us we should be grateful we're not fat.

C • Indeed, 'tis the season of ... 1

Almost all better now ...

Aus Relay Champs at the Gib like yesterday's middle. I was running first leg and had been looking forward to the head to head racing but I was so weak in the terrain yesterday that I didn't have great hopes of keeping up with anybody. At the start line Toph, who had been sick as well, and I were comparing our pre-race heart rates of 100+ - doesn't leave quite so much in reserve for racing!

I took the right hand route to #1, settling into the fourth spot in a small train heading around the hill, behind Parto, Gareth and another. Once we hit the hill into the control the head of the train split and I went to mine solo, watching the leaders, who had gone straight, punch it as I was slogging upwards. Did #2 ok, a bit slow as I was struggling for contact in the last 100m before catching myself on the little watercourse. Saw Gareth running in from above as I exited. I was confident running into #3, picked up the big rockface above the control but the control wasn't where I expected (I missed a second cliff line in the circle) and eventually circled back into it just as Gareth, the Hoggster and Greg Barbour were leaving. Set off tiredly in pursuit and I was getting close as we went through #5.

I decided to run high to #6 but didn't climb enough early and quickly got stuck in a crappy area of deadfall and lost sight of everyone. Feeling dispirited, I switched to a wide route hoping for better runnability and plodded on, sure that I'd thrown the whole thing away. I got a boost coming in to the spectator control seeing Hoggster punching. Set off solidly to #7 but without much of a plan beyond contour and spike it. So of course I misread some rock and saw Hoggster down lower which confirmed I needed to drop into it. Alas I was wrong and had a slow climb back up. Chased Hoggster pretty hard round to #8, punched right behind him when he didn't see it straight off, and shortly after we were trudging up the hill to #9. I spotted Toph coming up behind us, which was unexpected but I was happy to know I wasn't last! I took a more direct line into the control than Hoggster and got a small break and tried to push hard to #10, which I hit ok but I wasn't focused so had to slow into it. I stopped for drink at a random control en route to #11 and then started to feel sick so walked up the hill and then Toph was right on my tail so I picked it up again. I managed to have a smooth and steady run from there to the finish and I managed to hold Toph off by 30s and eventually got 2min on the Hoggster. I was actually relatively happy with a 6th place on the leg, I thought it would be a lot worse, but unhappy about the time gap to Simon.

I handed over to Lorenzo, who had a reasonable run given his lack of practice and Mat ran really well to hold our 6th place till the end. Well done Qld boys!

RELAY M21E - Splits

Event: Australian Middle Distance/Relay Championships
 

Aus Middle Champs at the Gib near Bungendore, 15th overall, 10th Aussie and 6:42 down on Matt Crane. I tried to put the cold out of my mind, focus on my goal and go hard. I started nervously and carefully on the first control, but spiked it, albeit slowly and had a good run through to #6, picking up the pace where I felt able. I was actually in 6th place at this point and a minute down, most of which (40s) came from the the first control. A bad attack on #7 cost 15s and started my slide through the places. Was pretty clean from here through to #14 (lost a little time being slow and uncertain on #10, a fairly straight forward contouring leg), and passed Greg Barbour. I lost focus a bit here and didn't read #15 well enough. I spiked it but left myself a big climb into the control and really struggled to keep moving up. Took a bit of a safe and lazy option on #17, coming in the back of the control circle, which I think cost me 30s and then slogged slowly up the hill to #18 - I had no strength left for the hills and rocks. At this point I was in 10th, 3min down. I wasted some time making up my mind which route to take to #19, eventually deciding on going around to the left, figuring I was best off sticking to open running. Attacking the control from this direction turned out to be difficult and I lost contact in the last 150m. I got it fairly directly but it was slow and I dropped 2:17 on Matt on this leg, probably a minute lost. I then mucked up the tiny next leg after misreading the map and dropped another minute. Was fine then to the finish.

I was happy with this run given the virus but still disappointed that those errors crept in and I lost my good early placing.

Oz Middle Course 1 - Splits

Short plod around the back of Stromlo, Arachnicopia, with dad. The wind had stopped and the sum was out so it was a beautiful morning if chilly. Unfortunately, I've got a mild cold and I'm not feeling too flash.

Public race following Aus Schools Relays. A bit tired today but nevertheless ran too fast with too little focus resulting in a spectacular 2:30 failure on #4 and a few other wobbles including 1:00 lost running across an open field to #19 ... a good reminder of how not to orienteer!

Public race at Wild Deer Sands following the Aus School Champs. Had a pretty good run today and pulled out the second fastest time on this course 3:25 behind Tim Robertson running the official race (I'm impressed he's still at school!). I managed to push hard the whole way and only made one significant error, about 30s on #10, and a couple of directional wobbles. It's not every day I do 5:30/km in a bush race!

Wild Deer Hard1-Men - Splits