Training Log Archive: AC

Had a good overnight flight from Paris (one movie, six hours sleep) and a very efficient transfer from the plane tho the hotel - landed at 5.45 and was in my running shoes and heading out the door at 7.15. Thank heavens for carry-on and a dedicated driver :-). Went to the end of Copacabana beach and back. Felt surprisingly okay after the long flight and stretched out a little on the way back. Pretty cool place to be running - very iconic.

Very hot day - 34 degrees - and very sunny and still. Decided to do a short hit-out on a 5km loop in the Bois that is very pleasant and shady and that I occasionally use as a bit of a test circuit to see how things are going on the running front. Felt great once I was out the door and really enjoyed it from the first step, starting out at a decent clip and maintaing it, or even being a bit faster for some sections. Had a couple of stops for traffic and for water, but pushed the pace all the way round. Good run but took a long time to stop sweating afterwards.

Flying to Rio tonight. Looking forward to a few runs on Copacabana ...

C • good one 2

Woke up to a raging storm replete with thunder, lightning and heavy rain, which put paid to the planned 7.30 ride with Jared. Storm passed after an hour and waited for the roads to partially dry before venturing out (on my own as Jared had other commitments). Good ride in humid conditions.

Storms had been ripping through all morning with heavy rain, thunder and lightning. However, it all settled down just when I wanted to head out for a run so managed to avoid getting a soaking or being struck by lightning. Still, the rain made for a very wet track and very humid atmosphere, so sweated buckets. Continued the comeback with a return to the weekly tempo runs. To kick things off, I did a 3km stint aiming for 4.25-4.30/km. didn't go too badly for the first couple of km, covering these in 4.28 and 4.26, but then died a little on the last km with 4.39, at least partly because it was up a gradual incline that just sucked any remaining energy form my legs. Still, a good solid session, continuing the build-up to the London race.

I also entered for the Australian Orienteering Championships on 30 Sep. Looking forward to running again in gold-mining terrain - I think the last time I ran in such terrain would be at least 20 years ago, if not longer!

Nice warm day and relatively quiet at work so took advantage and headed out for a ride around Longchamp. Pretty quiet down there and didn't manage to link up with any peletons, so just cruised around on my own. Dropped Lisa's phone off to her towards the end as she had left it at home in the morning. Personal courier service! Nice ride.

Nice and sunny day but quite warm (27 deg). Headed out for my first interval session in a while and duly suffered. Did 6 x 2min H / 1 min E, followed by 3 x 1min H / 1min E. . I found these pretty tough going, but the first interval session after a break is always hard. Pace wasn't great but was mostly okay-ish (4.18, 13, 8, 15, 31 (uphill), 19), and not so great for the 1 min intervals (4.04, 25, 11).

Good to focus on how the session will help in the London City Race in a few weeks time - even ran with an old race map from a couple of years ago. The logistics around the London race got a bit more complicated today with the news that I have to be in Beijing on the Monday after the race (which is on Saturday). So have asked for an early start in the race so I can go straight from the race to Heathrow to get on a flight to Beijing at 3pm. Will be a bit of a scramble but it should be okay if all the transport connections are working as expected...

A Sunday in the middle of August is the quietest tahtparis streets will ever be and so i make it an annual event to head out for a "Tour de Paris", cycling down many streets that I wouldn't normally contemplate riding on for enjoyment. I normally head out around 7am to get the full benefit of empty streets, but left it a little late this year and so it wasn't quite so tranquil and there were sufficient numbers of cars and tourists around that I really needed to keep alert. So not quite as peaceful as I had hoped but still a nice ride around parts of the city - Champs Elysees, blvd St Germain, Places de la Bastille and Republique, Notre Dame, rue du Rivoli, place de la Concorde, Tour Eiffel. Knee felt okay but my thumb was very sore and I felt every bump in the road (especially over the cobbles). This operation will take some time to recover from. A good first ride on the bike since teh St Moritz debacle.

In the interests of keeping the hill runing going after the great weekend in Malvern, I headed out to Suresnes and up Mont Valerian. Good run overall, although coming back down the hill is hard on the knees and started to get a bit tired teh last couple of km. Am out of shape for these "longer" runs.

Lazy morning on holiday at home. Finally roused myself for a run around the Bois. Did 2 x 1km hard (4.32 and 4.22) and then 3 x 1 min hard/1 min easy. Felt okay once I had warmed up. Very humid morning after a period of rain.

Last run on the Malvern Hills and headed out for a longer hill run. Lovely sunny day with a nice tail wind on the way back up the hills. Not a fast pace but good to feel strong up the hills. Paris will seem awfully flat after these few days in Malvern!

Woke to a very wet and rainy morning so decided to give the hills a miss and head westwards from the accommodation and explore the countryside using roads and public footpaths and bridleways. Lots of fun exploring the area and trying to figure out where the public paths went - they were poorly signposted and I had to engage in a bit of guesswork and do a few cross-country links and short forest runs to get to somewhere that looked like it might take me back to where I started. Rain had passed on towards the end and so I headed up on to the hills for a short circuit to finish up with.

In Malvern (Worcestershire) visiting Lisa's family and headed out for a superb run on the Malvern Hills. A relatively flat and slow start along West Malvern Rd, then turned up onto the hills. Ran along the ridge over Worcester Beacon and then back down to the West Malvern house. An absolutely lovely run, if very slow and very steep. Views are great and the run gives one a real sense of accomplishment.

A perhaps foolish attempt at a longer run, so soon after starting running again after the O'Ringen event. But got up the hill in Sevres quite well, but then struggled home. Decided to stop short of the office and walk the rest of the way (about 1km) because everything was hurting too much.

C • October events 1

Been a while since my last entry and quite a lot has happened over the past 5-6 weeks.

First I did the Engadin Bike Giro at the end of June - three days of mtb stage racing in St Moritz, Switzerland - and did not do well. First stage was okay but very tough (12km of very tough uphill followed by 5km of tough downhill). Second day was going okay - slow but steady - then had a minor crash on a steep single track downhill switchback and stuffed up my right thumb (the one I broke 18 months ago and that has 5 screws in it). Couldn't really operate the gears very well after that and it started to hurt. So pulled out at 45km, right before the major climb of 1000m :-), and slowly pedaled the 20km back to the finish the shorter and flatter way. Started the third day but pulled out after 35km and rode home, once again before the big scary climb :-). X-rays back in Paris showed no fracture but I needed an operation to reattach the main ligament controlling the thumb. that went fine, but needed to wear a lightweight splint to keep the thumb immobile for a month while the ligament grows into the bone anchors.

Second, I went to Wimbledon to watch the men's semi-finals. Managed a few runs in Hyde Park, 2 of which were great and the third was awful.

Third, I headed over to Sweden to do the O'Ringen for the first time, accompanied by my 10 year old daughter, Freya, who was doing the U2 course (great name for an O course!). Was really looking forward to this first experience at t he mecca of orienteering and had been spending time doing terrain training down at Fontainebleau, which is the closest thing to Swedish forest around here. The first day did not go well. Stuffed up the third control by not looking behind a tree (was within 20m of teh control but didn't spot it) and then wasting 7 minutes wandering around. Then had a spill two-thirds of the way round the course and banged my left knee really hard on a rock. It swelled up to three times its normal size and was very painful to run on. Hobbled the rest of the course and then had the pleasure of experiencing the efficient Swedish medical system. No fracture but massive internal bleeding and bruising.

Took a couple of days off and then walked around part of the day 3 course and walked around with Freya on her course. Jogged/walked the Day 4 course very slowly and then walked with Freya again on her course, although she was very keen to run ahead and so I had to hobble after her! Ran a bit better on Day 5 and, once again, did Freya's course with her, and she was very keen to run harder and did so with ease (not so good for me, but had to keep up!).

So a disappointing first trip to O'Ringen, but am planning to return next year and not fall over. The event is superb, with great maps and terrain, and a wonderful atmosphere in the arena and in the forests.

Followed Sweden with a week in Bergen and managed to fit in a run with prosseri around the permanent course in Floyen, at the end of the funicular above Bergen. Seriously tough terrain - they say if you can orienteer in western Norway, you can orienteer anywhere, and I can now see why. We did around 4km at 15min/km pace. Good fun though to experience the famed Norwegian marshes!

C • thanks 3

First run back in Paris after the two week holiday in Sweden and Norway, and first run on the injured knee. Went okay - it is still swollen and a bit stiff, but no pain to run so figure it is okay. Bruising still working its way out. Cool and raining so great conditions for running.

Next event is the London City Race on 9 September and really looking forward to it. I have only missed one of these races since they started and I always really enjoy the race and atmosphere. About as different from Sweden and Norway orienteering as one could possibly get.