Training Log Archive: Bomb

hot yoga. heaters were blasting tonight so super sweaty. a nice change after the weekend. plenty of different stuff with lots of good stretching. tough, but a good recovery session.

Big day out, and felt pretty rubbish from the start. Calf was sore from yesterday, but not enough to not run, so I just hoped it would warm up. Eventually it stopped hurting... but only when enough other things hurt to drown it out.
The start was ok. Slotted into my ploddy spot in the pack and just kept going. Eventually ended up running near Krystal and Tash - they were both running a bit quicker but I managed to stay in touch by taking slightly better route choices. Came through the map change in 5th, then worked out why I'd been so far at the back of the W21 field early on - the alternate split was much shorter - skipped the whole early part of the course. We ended up with Aislinn and then Liis through the common part of the course. The bunch sped up and I got dropped. I then got sucked in by a combination of being super tired and assuming that the last part of the course was common and got dragged off line going to 9 (102). Took a while to relocated and we were much too far down the hill. This was my only real mistake of the course, but it was a big one, and Liis was with me.
From there to the finish was a battle. Liis was just behind me and both calves were starting to cramp badly. but I made sure I hit the last controls well and just held her off on the line.
I'd been looking forward to this race for ages so it was disappointing to feel so rubbish physically. Very flat in general, and then the dodgy calf on top. It didn't get any worse, but running hard wasn't an option. I guess I haven't really recovered from the cold a couple of weeks ago... but I've been feeling pretty rubbish for the last few weeks so its hardly a surprise.

Not sure about the way the course was split - the start was good, I'm not sure what the point of the common section through the middle was, but the ssplit last section I don't think was very fair.

C • Are you sure there was a common section? 3

Scrappy race. Struggled to get map contact at the start, and was a bit wayward with direction. Lost a lot of time on 9 where I couldn't see that a passage way joined up with the stairs and ran all the way around, and ended up in a bunch with Aislinn and Tash. Then I made a mistake on 11 running to the wrong control. The three of us then stuffed around for the rest of the course with stupid little errors. I backed off a bit on the last climb back up the hill as I was feeling pretty rubbish and calves were tight - I figured I was in the A final by then and there was a lot more running left for the weekend.

Much more complex map for the afternoon race, and flat, which I hoped would suit me better.
I think it was even colder for the afternoon race than it had been in the morning, and my 'warm up' consisted of running around getting steadily colder and having my right calf cramp really badly. oh well.

The race was pretty good. biggest time loss was a few seconds on 1 - not reading the map properly to see that the path near 3 didn't go through and hitting the dead end. Mainly just slow trying to not wreck my legs. Faded a bit at the end as calf tightened more.

hot yoga. good stretch, which I needed.

mtb ride at Daisy with Dan, Steve, Kathy and Luke. nice morning and heaps of new/upgraded trails since last time I was there. I rode the single speed this morning and it was super fun. it seems I've even (mostly) remembered how to ride. spent a fair bit of time riding behind Dan which was good for making me ride faster, although following his lines meant I ended up taking some A lines that I really wouldn't have committed to given the option... but I survived, so all good.

Sprint o intervals at UQ, set by Su Yan. with the junior squad. good little courses and some tricky route choices. good session before next weekend.

run with Clare and James (with James for the first 5 mins), from my place. goals for today were to have an easy run and find the trail that goes north from frosties and joins the ring road. took the trail that goes left from slaughter falls up to the ring road (brians), but then wasn't sure whether the other trail went from the first or second crossing. guessed the second and was wrong. ran up to the summit and down frosties and turned left onto the track. figured out then where it pops out, but clare managed to randomly take the fire road which turns right down towards the gardens instead of following me up to the ring road. and then completely ignored me when I yelled at her that she was going the wrong way. I waited a bit for her to turn around, but she clearly wasn't coming back... so I figured I'd see her at home. I then ran down the fire road and through the gardens home.
The new section of trail is really awesome and will make for some very nice new loops.
porridge for breakfast at my place before coffee at bean.

didn't feel awesome running, but not as bad as it could have been. body didn't seem to want to let me go past E2, so just cruised along. hopefully I haven't done too much - I need to improve a lot before next weekend.

not feeling properly better yet, but needed to do something. went for a plod around anzac park, with a stop at the chin up bar. felt ok, but pace was very slow. pretty tight in the hip flexors and itbs.

back at work, but still struggling, and still no bag.

C • bag 3

still sick, but improving. luggage has been found but I don't think I'll get it for a few days yet.

C • Bugger! 2

still sick and feeling totally miserable. bag still missing.

back at work and struggling with jet lag, and have a nasty sore throat. getting sick sucks, but much better this week than last week.

nearly home from woc, just the Sydney - Brisbane sector to go. bag has decided that 3 weeks wasn't enough and is still on holidays somewhere in Europe, or maybe somewhere else... I wasn't planning on needing running shoes for a few days anyway.

run around the long model. steep heather and marshes and very tough going. still nice to have a run around. plenty of midges.

morning run with some strides. feeling ok, but not great. back has eased out a bit.

WOC relay. third leg. headed out in 16th after a really good 2nd leg by Hanny. there was a bit of a string of runners in front and a few close behind. the first control was pretty easy and I had the long split on that one, and could see other runners on the other splits. the next section of the course was into the big splitting with 6 options, of which we did 2 on the course. had a bit of a brain fade, but stopped until I sorted it out. good through the next section and map change but made a mistake in a really vague area at 10. I'd picked the hill I thought it was on from a way back but it turned out to be wrong. bailed to the track and came back in at the right place. got the next round of splitting ok, and good through to the finish. didn't see anyone at all from the map change to the finish.
pretty happy with the run overall, and running much better than yesterday.
the forest was mostly really nice - exactly what we had been looking forward to at Darnaway.

warm up and warm down.

morning run with strides. still half asleep.

WOC middle. legs never showed up.

easy run with some strides. legs feeling a bit heavy still.

Middle and relay model at Darnaway. great area and the arena is awesome in front of the castle.