Training Log Archive: Bruce

Drive back from Adelaide to Melbourne.
Happy 65th Birthday to my dad, Clive (also the new M65 SA Sprint Champion).

NOL 2 Long Distance Mass Start
Belair

5th place in M21E.

Map 1


Map 2


Map 3


I had a poor start on the first control. I saw the correct control, but it appeared to be on a dead tree. I thought that was the green circle on the map, so I ran further east to looking into the low sun and ran to the other control (which was on a feature underneath the number on my map!) I was a little confused and found myself towards the back of the pack by the time I realised that I was actually correct the first time.

I took a deep breath and realised that one minute lost on a long distance is not a big deal. I slowly caught and passed people and found myself in the top 10 towards the end of the second map.

From there it was a 4 way battle for turned out to 5-8th place. I started to take control of the group towards the far end of the course. The others cahnged their minds when they saw me head right on the long 12-13 leg. I pushed hard down the hill and opened up a 30 second gap. Unfortunately I lost this in the green both before and after control 14. Leaving 15 I surged on the road and opened another small gap. Andy Hill chased hard, but I held him off under intense pressure, running the last km in about 4m15s, including 3 controls.

This was my best long distance result for a few years, and probably my best ever mass start race result.

Course 1 BBA - Splits

Event: Adelaide NOL
 

NOL 1 Sprint Qualification
Flinders University

2nd place in Heat C
A clean race with no problems. Qualified safely.



Mason also debuted in the Junior National League (at 10 years and 6 months). He successfully completed the course for Heat C also. He even ran a faster time than one of the M17-20 guys.

NOL 1 Sprint Final
Waite Campus

4th place in M21E.
Started safely, then increasing my speed throughout the race, finishing strongly.

1C - Splits

Course 1 - Splits

Recovery session in the Bay at Port Melbourne, with a slow jog from work through Albert Park, returning via the 109 Port Melbourne tram route.

The inaugural Melbourne Park & Street Championships
Warralong, Montmorency



The hard part was qualifying for this event - you had to run 8 races and then place in one of the semi-finals - tonight was the easy part.
A traffic accident on the road to the event delayed my arrival, so my warm up was shorter than I would have liked. At least I got there on time though.
The course was a good combination of parklands and streets, with careful route choice and map reading required.
I kept an eye on Andrew Hester at the start and stayed close to him for the first 3km. I surged on the long hill and got a nice gap. The only threat would be if someone like Bryan Ackerly chose a better route. Bryan chose a different route, but it turned out to be over 2kms and 12 minutes longer!
Results

I felt really fresh after a rest day from running yesterday