Training Log Archive: AC

Easy run to prepare for Scotland on weekend.

Good run in teh Bois. Still feeling quite stiff and sore, but stopped several times to stretch, esp the hamstrings. Achilles still a little stiff, buit put heel inserts in the shoes and that seemed to make a difference.

Steady run around the Bois. Took a while to get going - feeling very stiff and sore in the legs still. Left achilles still feeling a bit dodgy and spent some time icing and stretching after the run. Hope it holds up for the Scottish event next weekend.

First swim in ages. Felt surprisingly good and enjoyed the experience. Have certainly not missed the French approach to pools and pool etiquette (or lack thereof).

Will take it easy for a couple of days to give my legs a chance to recover, esp the left achilles.

Interval training in the Bois. Not as hot as Tuesday, but still humid. not a bad session, but feeling quite a few niggles on my left side - toe, arch, groin, knee, and now a sore achilles. I need a left side overhaul. Session had shor intervals with good rest between efforts. First was 5 x "hill" sprints (around 52-55 secs up a slope rather than a real hill) with a jog down after each., followed by 4 x 2 min H/1 min E. The achilles is a bit of a worry.

Took it easy. Everything a it sore after yesterday.

Very hot day for a lunchtime run - around 30 deg. Struggled not so much from the heat, but more from feeling sore and stiff in the legs from the weekend's exercise. Really need a new bike asap so i can get some cross-training in. Dranki a lot of water afterwards to try and re-hydrate. Difficult to do at work - need to go pee all the time!

taking it easy after weekend's running.

Out to Parc de St Cloud. Hilly once I got to the parc. Felt okay for first 50 minutes and then really struggled over the last few km. Left knee and foot feeling quite tender afterwards.

Interval session in the Bois. Not feeling great, but managed to put in a good run. After a 15 min warmup, did 6 x 2min hard / 30secs easy. Feeling quite tired despite going to bed at 10pm last night - almost a record for me!

Good solid run in very warm and muggy weather. Moving quite strongly, although got a little tired towards the end. Timed myself at 4.12 for a measured km close to teh end, and this was roughly the pace I ran for most of the run. Good training pace and very encouraging.

Another rest day.

Bastille Day and a rest after the weekend.

3rd day of the Fontainebleau 3 Days. Another good race and 1st place again. Pulled back another minute and a bit on Jacky, but nowhere near enough to get to first place. I did, however, manage to sneak into second place, only 2 seconds ahead of third place after pulling back 4 1/2 minutes!

Gave it a good shot and really ran hard for the first part of the course trying to make up time on Jacky. He started 4 minutes in front of me and I was trying to run him down. Almost succeeded and had caught 3 1/2 mins on him by control 7. However, I made a few small errors at the next 3 controls (nothing too bad, just 20 secs at each) and so lost track of him again. Shame as it would have been a good race to go head to head over the last few controls (I had to catch Jacky and beat him by +2 1/2 minutes to win overall, which was unrealistic over a 4.8km course). I had another great leg into 11 but then was a bit sloppy at 12 and 13 before totally stuffing up 14 and losing a couple of minutes through bad map reading and not staying cool while running at pace. Flew over the last few controls (they were mostly downhill) and really ran fast to gain some more time back. Finished 1.14 up on Jacky on the day and around 5 minutes down overall.

Lessons from the weekend:

1. I am in relatively good physical shape and can run fast through the forest.
2. I need to be more consistent in my navigation. On the middle day, I had a good consistent run and had only 1/13 of the fastest splits, although I was within a few seconds of teh fastest split on most of the other legs. The last day, I had 7/18 fastest splits, but was very inconsistent and so dropped quite a bit of time. Key is to moderate the speed to match the navigation. The first day I had 5/16 fastest splits, but also some shockers.
3. So need is to build consistency over the whole race. The Scottish event will be an interesting one to see how I go on new terrain and maps.

Day 2 of Fontainebleau 3 Days. 1st place in 28.02, about a minute ahead of teh others. Very good race. Spiked teh controls and really felt like I was running hard and reading the map well. Ran out of steam for the last few controls and couoldn't get much pace going, so dropped a bit of time there. Only real problem was number 12 where I wasn't quite sure where I was coming into the control and was lucky to be guided in by Nick. So, pulled back a minute from Jacky, but still a long way behind. Really put myself into a hole on that first day.

First day of three day race and got off to a very bad start. Lost 5 minutes at the first control because I didn't take the safe route. Had a few very good legs with the fastest splits, but then had another couple of disaster controls in flat vague country where I just couldn't find the control or make sense of the map. Lost another 5 and 3 minutes at these controls. I was running well from a physical perspective and felt that I had everything under control on the mapreading front, but obviously not. There was some problem with the map on the latter 2 of these errors, but most others seemed to find the controls with less problem than me, so who knows. Disappointing as I ended up only 7 minutes behind the winner, Jacky baroux. He also made a few errors, but obviously less than me :-)

Busy at work. Not a bad idea to rest up for the weekend anyway.

Interval session in the bois. Felt pretty crap but tried to have a good session anyway - very heavy and slow. Session was a pyramid (1-2-3-2-1 min efforts with 1 minute rest) followed by a series of 5 x 1 min H / 1 min E.

Right knee hurt dancing with F in teh evening. Ouch.

steady run with Dave in teh bois. felt really good and strong and flowed nicely.

Good run in Bois Rond. Focused on terrain running with a fair bit of mapreading - all to get back in teh swing of things before the netx weekend's three day race in Fonty. Had horrendous trouble with the O - couldn't run in a straight line to save myself and was all over the place. Better this weekend tahn next I guess. Had some good uphill runs though and felt reaswonably strong in the terrain. Augurs well for next weekend although teh competition will be very tough.

Drove back from Provence.

fantastic ride from Drag - Lorgues - Tourtour - Chateaudouble - Drag. beautiful scenery and good rhythm on most of the hills. Flatted on way back, 10km from home, but no drama.

More drama on drive back to Paris when bike fell off roof rack and was mangled by the traffic on teh autoroute. Ouch!

C • Ouch is right... 2