Training Log Archive: markg

OY at Collins Ck. Pretty interesting course but it didn't try to avoid the lantana. #2 was a nice long one that we don't see too often in courses up here. I took a zig-zag route to avoid the lantana which worked okay even though I was a bit wayward in the last 500m. On the whole, I didn't manage to find much focus or motivation for this race and it became a bit of a plod around, losing time in a few places: 5, 6, 7, 8 and 13. #8 was an ugly control in lots of green and took a route to avoid the green that turned out to be too risky, I should have just gone hard and straight. Lost 4 min at #13 too. I thought I'd been pushed off the line by the lantana and hit the track to the SE, but, looking at my GPS track, I'd executed my aiming off perfectly and must have been fooled by something that was not a track. This explains why I then overshot the control and had to run past the smelly dead dog nailed to the tree twice. Yuck!

PTE 4.9

More morning yoga. Got into it better today. Finished with my one and only visit to the beach for the week. It was lovely to be down there but the water was a bit chill though slightly better than the sand (air temp was 7 deg). I just went for a wade and then ran up and down the beach a little bit.

Token effort up the beach toward Kingscliff, didn't doing anything of quality because my legs felt terrible. Things improved eventually and increased the tempo over the last km hitting 3:09/km at the end. Saw a yellow-tailed black cockatoo at close range which was cool (quite big) and a small eagle thing with a white head hunting over the river. Popped into one of the resort pools afterwards. This was only possible because that pool was heated - it was quite a cool morning. Abs sore from yoga.

I'm at Kingscliff for a leadership course all this week and despite a big night at the welcome dinner I managed to get out for a run. I headed down to the beach and, wary of destroying my calves on the beach as in some past runs, I ran on the footpath behind it. Started slow but built up to a good tempo and touching 3:35/km by the end. Take that hangover! It was a bit of bizarre route actually. I did 4km out and back and the view didn't change the whole way: beach and beach vegetation on the left, path ahead, somewhat varied but mostly similar beach houses on the right. It was a bit like some early car racing video games, I felt like I wasn't going anywhere.

I made it back from my run for the morning yoga class. Did okay though my balance was negatively affected by the hangover.