Training Log Archive: AC

Easy jog/walk around training for tomorrow's race. not pleasant at all - thick green and steep. plus it was raining. Oh well - on verra.

Scheduled rest day, but needed to rest knee anyway. Feeling okay, but nervous about running too soon. This should go away fairly quickly with ant-inflamms and some rest and stretching.

Another slightly nervous day off. knee feeling much better but still won't run on it. save it for tomorrow evening in the warmup jog.

Event: Semaine federale
 

Easy-ish run inc a few striding intervals (5 x 1 min hard, 1 min easy). Everything feels a bit sore and tight. Right achilles tender to start with but then warnmed up. Then, when stretching at teh end, I did a quad stretch and seem to have annoyed something at teh front of my left knee, which is now sore. Will get some anti-inflamms and see how that goes. Will take it very easy teh next few days - nothing to be gained by training much now.

Rest day after three good runs in a row. Into the run-up to teh French Champs now and focus is on rest, stretching and hydration, with training being limited to 30 mins of easy running with some short sharpening intervals.

Ambitions for French Champs are limited this year for several reasons. First, the annual influx of new competitors into H50 mean I am no longer the "young gun". Second, I have not really been orienteering that well this year with lots of silly little mistakes spoiling otherwise very good runs. I hope that this has been redressed a bit by the training down at Fonty the last month. Third, the terrain and course lengths for the race do not sound very promising for my style of racing - 4.4km / 230m climb, for a winning time of 50 minutes. This will be steep and thick and scrappy. I hear that it is very mixed terrain with tough forest mingled with goat fields. Not very enticing. Finally, while I am probably fitter than I was last year, I have not been doing as much orienteering. So there is a need to keep expectations in check. I was expecting a much better result last year and was sorely disappointed to have a heart episode in the middle of teh race and finishing well wide of a podium place. Dampen down expectations this year and see what happens - I will be competitive with a decent run. Just need to focus on a few key things:

- get good sleep in the leadup to teh race
- focus on first two controls
- look for the sensible route choices in steep terrain and don't be afraid to run up teh hills (I am fit enough these days)
- keep moving steadily during the race