Training Log Archive: fletch

Event: OAWA Middle Champs
 

Early afternoon start = hot hot hot.

Minimal warm-up. Suffered badly towards the end of the course as I cooked again. Never felt in a good rhythm, and found it really phyiscally tough trying to get through lots of the fallen timber.

No big misses. Little bobble on #2 - about 30 seconds. Dropped off the rock surface and into the rubbish early on #13 but hit the control OK.

Got stuck in the thick crap just short of the last control and dropped 30 sec on Henry on that leg, but nobody else went quicker on that leg, so either I was running better than others or they all got stuck too.

C • #10 3

H1 - Splits

Beep test with the kiddies mainly to see if my legs work yet. THey were better than i was expecting, but got sore again basically as soon as I finished.

Can now walk with only mild discomfort. Bring on the weekend

C • Photos 3

WU, drills, 3 x 360m, CD with Anne and tRicky.

Calves finally eased off a bit while running after being sore when I started. Glad I got out for the session even just as a loosener.

My everything hurts. A lot. Especially if I have to go down a step. More than one is out of the question.

Reassessment of plans for next year:
1. Perth marathon, not C2S
because C2S is too close to
2. running MM when fit and carving it up (and staying on the right course)

Event: Main Peak Multisport
 

Event: Marginata
 

Flet like I got into a good rhythm early and wasn't working too hard, but once we got on the sigle track, a couple of the guys in the lead group of 8 (with me at the rear) were a bit crap, so I got yo-yoed off the back. The other guys seemed strong enough to close it straight back up, but I thought it would hurt too much. Just before half way was the big climb of the leg, and again I got into a good enough rhythm. Passed a couple, but the rest of the leaders got away. OK through the downs, but a couple of pinch climbs that I hadn't banked on, and even walked one.

Will try to get a climb measurement for this run at some point.

Into transition in 5th spot, about a minute down on the leaders. If I'd realised how fast we were moving, I wouldn't have felt so bad letting the leaders go (and most of them were solos!)

C • elevation 4

This hurt. A lot. Despite hesitations, I decided to run with just one water bottle as it was the only pack I have recent experience with. By 5km in, I was in a good rhythm and moving well, but at the same time knew I was going to be in big trouble, after unintentionally draining nearly half my water with my first swig.

Some of the pinch climbs were savage and the quads copped a pounding fropping down to the river. To top it off, I missed seeing one vital pink flagging tape and took a wrong turn, before walking/jogging in circles for a while trying to figure out where the course had gone.

EDIT: 7 minutes!!! that's how long I was off the course for. Bugger. Time would have looked much more respectable without that. Given that Todd Ingraham beat me by less than 10 minutes it doesn't seem too shabby (although he may have also gone for a wander)

This was enough to let a few teams through and the reeds and rocks along the river were just enough to prevent me getting back into a rhythm. I hit the bit where we went past transition and up a 2.5km climb with about 2 mouthfuls of water left and beginning to get very hot. I got a better rhythm than many up the hill as it was at least more gradual than many others and I managed to run most of it, passing 2 teams in the process. At the top of the hill I caught a third, but couldn't shake him, and despite outrunning him on the downs, especially as they got steeper, I couldn't hold him of the flats, and we leapfrogged each other as I desperately looked for shade and breeze. Meltdown was complete when I had to stop and walk on the last hill, that barely would have even been noticed.

I was so out of it afterwards that even after a cooling dip in the river, I thought I would need to help carry Wally's ski up to the car (yes, the one he was paddling) and I also tried to get into the wrong car to head to the next transition. I forgot what other ridiculous comments I made. tRicky can probably fill me in.

The day, however, did end well, as our planning on a tow rope just in case of a sprint finish was worth it. Wally came off the water after a super paddle wedged in the middle of 3 teams within about 10 seconds, and tRicky towed Wally past the team in front (my legs were too shattered to contemplate a towing effort) and we got into second team.

Run to finish. Fast. Hard. Beat projected winning time. Oh yeah.