Training Log Archive: markg

In an effort to be kind to my achilles, I did an easy morning walk-jog to get my legs moving. This was a nice lap around the Barmera golf course, where we were staying, with dad and some kangaroos and bunnies.

Aus Relay Champs in ACT 2 with Hamish Prosser and Ryan Stocks, finishing in 5th place on a day when there were only a couple of really strong teams and one of those MP'ed. I finished mid-field on the 1st leg, 10min behind Henry. It didn't feel like a good run, that's hard when you're dropped in a relay, but it was fairly similar to yesterday's. Things went pear-shaped from the beginning with Rob Bennett, Anatoly and I having the right-hand split. Rob was leading and made a mistake on the edge of the circle. Unfortunately I didn't have the confidence or the composure to go my own way, even though I'd had good map contact till there and I never saw the leaders again. Anatoly punched first and disappeared, and Rob started pulling away from me. Unfortunately saw Marty running back the wrong way near #3; thankfully he recovered to take the win with Craney and Barney. Had some juniors for company for a few legs, then Marty as he overhauled me again, and Teemu briefly until about #12, and then ran the rest by myself. Was struggling physically from about 1/3 distance and that last loop was a killer with its numerous erosion gully crossing. I also didn't adapt to the more complex terrain here and lost time on #17 and #18, probably 1:30, but I suspect my plodding pace had just as much impact. I really needed to be more careful about where I entered the erosion and how many crossings I made, since they were so slow and physically draining.

I had an SI issue at #12 - I couldn't my stick to register - so I pin-punched on the map. This apparently was acceptable at the finish test but Eventor currently says I mispunched. I'm trying to get this sorted now, hopefully it was just an oversight - I think it could make a difference to the NOL team standings.

Event: AOC2018
 

Aus Middle Champs at Crooked Straight on the Murray River, 14th, 7:34 down on Craney, who smashed it, so only 4:33 down on Tommy Hayes in 2nd. Started really well, stayed calm and got into the map, and by #8 was in 5th! The decline started there with a little wobble on #9 and then an error on #10, think I left the control off-line and couldn't make sense of the terrain. Luckily the fence was there and was able to relocate off it fairly quickly. Lost another 20s on #13, deviating down the hill to cross the erosion gully I hadn't noticed on the map. At the spectator I had dropped to 8th but it started to unravel a bit more. Was too fast and careless on the control after the spectator and got sucked into a parallel error by our 2nd last control, lost 50s. Then my legs started to fade, spiked the next one but was 30s off the pace, and that trend continued. Made another 30s error on #26, came to it from the left and started looking in the watercourses below. I was pretty happy with this run regardless, seems a good reflection of current fitness and happy with effort I put in (avg HR of 179! and hit a max I haven't seen for a few years). I regret the really stupid mistake after the spectator though.

Routegadget: http://www.users.on.net/~dsg/gadget//rg2/#50&route...

Flew to Adelaide via Melbourn in the arvo. Unfortunately my bag didn't keep up in Melbourne and I needed to return to the airport on Sat morning before driving to Renmark to retrieve it.

Jog around the ANBG then calf (groundhog) day at the gym. Achilles was nervy. Dropped the weight on the straight legs to focus on getting a little more plantarflexion; I think I normally cheat.

Straight leg 4 x 5 @ 60kg
Seated 4 x 5 @ 15kg

Jogged to the gym for rehab and a massage. Did a voltaren/hirudoid wrap on the achilles last night. No obvious benefit yet. Was uncomfortable jogging.

Isometrics 4 x 40s @ 70kg

With Phil at Pivotal Therapies.

+ hill bounding 3 x 20 dbl strides

Mona Fartlek around central basin. Beautiful day out, not even windy around the lake. Planned an easy-fast session with the aim of feeling good. Quite pleased I managed 3:35-3:45 for the ons and 4:05-4:25 for the floats pretty comfortably.

Achilles was pretty shit but I've realised the symptoms are very much like the bout of paratenonitis I had a few months ago so hopefully I can just hit it with some voltaren and it will settle down.

In Sydney with the family over the weekend. Did some walking about but no running. Got achilles niggles again - pretty sure the worst bit is nerve related although there's was some real tendon pain after the hill sprints that took a couple of days to fade. Been a bit loose with how I've been doing my rehab lately, eg, doing hill sprints on what should have been a moderate load day. Will just stick closely to rehab protocol this week and jogging, maybe an easy workout. Massage on Wed should help too.

In a way good to know that the hill sprints were too much because it tells me I need to work at increasing the loading of my rehab exercises to deal with such efforts.

Also first full week of sit-stand desk. Hopefully this will be the keystone of back and nerve issue resolution.