Training Log Archive: Anvil

Event: Oceania Orienteering Championships
 

Went for a run with Pookie to break in the new shoes and check out Hagaby Park. Nice and easy - we tried to stay as consistent as possible which is quite tough with Ryan continually changing his mind and making me turn around a lot. Rude.
Felt better than I have in ages - maybe I'm just not synced to Australia any more!

Had a couple of hours to spare so decided to see how I would go doing fiddlers. I was hoping I'd be able to go under the elusive 20 now, but I did even beat by PB I set in June 07 which annoys me. Probably not the best preparation though. Will give it another go when I come back from NZ - warming up might help!

2008 AP NY resolution: log 365 hours of quality training (ie no playstation mashed sessions). Shouldn't be too hard based on the past 2 years trend:

2007: 164 hours
2008: 267 hours

Just wrote a top 10 of 2008 for my 'other' blog, so I think one is required for attackpoint. (This has nothing to do with procrastination over packing for NZ)
In kind of chronological order:

JK: Best sprint area ever. Worst weather ever: Day 1: Showers, Day 2: Hail, Day 3: Snow, Day 4: Blizzard.
BOC: Sand Dunes & Scotland, a winning combination
Jukola: Everything. Watching the mass starts, and hanging out in the big field watching the Venla ladies do their thing via GPS and cameras in the field. 3AM start and doing the course as it gets light. Running round the edge of a tiny lake with mist on it as the birds start to sing. And that neck high mud drain we had to cross - twice. Take me back now.
JOK Chasing Sprint: The most enjoyable, head to head racing I did in the UK. Having about 5 guys starting within 20 secs behind me and the associated pre-race banter. This needs to happen more in Aus, actually it needs to happen more everywhere.
Tough Guy: My report says it all - I think it was in June.
French 6: Sun, limestone, ultrasprint, 1:5000 maps, mass starts and the biggest train ever, Iron Maiden in the start chute, kayaking the Gorge Du Tarn(?).
Dublin City Chase: The only way to tour a city.
London City Race: One word: Barbican. The area all other urban areas will be compared to.
Venice Street Race: I didn't think the London Race would be topped. A must do.
Merthyr Mawr 10K: Ultimate multi-terrain race.

Sprint training around Howrah Primary and Wentworth Park with Ryany. Set each other 2 loops of the park, I had meant it to be short line courses but I forgot to tell Ryan, so I got one regular course and one line course.
Following the line in the parkland was pretty easy, but following it exactly through the school was bloody hard - though the age of the map didn't help.
Legs pretty heavy towards the end, the last couple have defo caught up with me - rest day tomorrow I thinks.

An impressively long warm up by my standards, and a more normal cool down. (19 mins vs 7)

Showed Pookie the delights of loops of yore. I think I need to give this one a better name - I'm thinking Paddys Revenge, cause it's got that brutal climb for the first 35 mins, then the ankle numbing downhill of the S27 followed more more evil uphill to Huon Rd.
Topics of conversation included:
Quality vs Quantity training methods
Likely chronology of Elson sibling nuptials
Tour De Hobart start up dates

Average conditions, warm and blustery but never in your favour which balanced out the net downhill race.
Didn't warm up cause I kept running into people I hadn't seen in ages and it showed - I've noticed whenever I don't warm up properly the second km split always suffers.
Nothing too exciting, a few people passed me early, but I got them on either the short sharp uphill at Soldiers Walk or the flat last km at the end - my kick seems to have improved, probably from all those track sessions.
Definitely a stronger field than I'm used too, I imagine since there are so few races of this sort in Tassie and this one had prize money, all the good runners turn up.
Splits: 3:33, 3:51 (bad Patrick), 3:38, 3:46, 3:36, 3:35, 0:25 (150m).
2006 time: 25:36