Training Log Archive: shanel

Slight change of plan this time changed the intervals to the first lap instead of the second and did 200m efforts instead of 100m still with 100m rest.

Outward 200's
1:09, 1:10, 1:11, 1:12, 1:11, 1:12
Return 200's
1:16, 1:18, 1:13, 1:12, 1:14, 1:17

2nd lap continuous effort 30:08

Wind was a bit fickle, looked like the seabreeze was going to come in a couple of times, but it was mostly the never ending NEly.

Belinda's finally decided my idea of getting up early and going to work to beat the traffic is a good idea, unfortunately this means I'm probably not going to fit in any morning runs before she leaves for work.

So I tried to fit in a short 30 minute run straight after paddling before going to get Ryan from Kindy and racing over to get Sophie from preprimary. By the time I started running I had about 20min. But didn't get far before needing to make use of the facilities (which turn to be of a much lower standard near the swimming beach than over on the island).

So didn't get far but at least got a bit of a loosener in.

By the superpowers of non-baggy shorts I finally held on for the whole ride, although I was a long way off the back at the north freo turn around.

Now I'll need to work out some suitable places to try to lead, that won't result in me going straight off the back again and won't leave everyone behind having a snooze.

C • Good value lead 1

After yesterday finalising teaming up with Jim Langford for the next Rogaine. Got the news this afternoon that his injured himself and I need to look for a new partner.

Anyone else up for taking on the likes of tRicky and Juffy or Andre and Owen?

Otherwise I may need to try the "if you can't beat them join them" option, I'm thinking a team of five, then everyone can win ;) who ever can sprint in fastest from the last control gets bragging rights.

Two laps of grass farm loop with jog recovery plus 4 mins rest in between.

9:28 and 9:58

First loop tried to hang on to Tooms and Karl, but they got away on the big hill. Greg came past on the sandy downhill, but he looked tired and I got past him again before he could open a gap and he lost ground the rest of the way back.

Second loop started out running with Greg until near the top of the big hill when he came back to life and took off down the sandy downhill. Good to see him recover and catch Tooms.

Over to the sand hill, two reps.

0:51 0:54

Had Luke close behind me on the first rep. which gave me some extra motivation. Second started with Tooms and Luke, Luke was off in front and I was trying to follow Tooms' footsteps pretty unsuccessfully as they were still caving in as I was trying to step in them.

Got there late, started even later by the time I got myself ready. Crossed paths with a few of Fletch and Craig and tRicky along the way early on.

Found it difficult to have any confidence that I'd got the the right spot without any controls or tape to tell me I'd got there. So spent lots of time trying to make sure I was there.

Nearly bailed going for 18 but inadvertently recognised I was on the spur just north of 11 so finished off the last few controls. Stopped my watch then realised I was on an on mapped track which ran west from the start triangle.

Surprised to see another car still around when I eventually finished around 11:00.

Now to analyse my track and try to work out how close I got to those controls.

Oh well, judging by Tooms's route I was nowhere near 8, 9, 10 and 11 and a bit off 20 and 21, and some of the others may be questionable as well.

C • Thanks Juffy 2

Event: NavDash 3 - UWA
 

For something a bit different I thought I'd head up Nettleton Rd.

By the time I got going I didn't have much time left so didn't end up getting too far. Extra assistance from the easterly on the way back

Out - 10km 0:28:48 20.9kph
Back - 10km 0:16:23 36.8kph

This is the start of a grand plan to one day do a one dam (Serpentine) ride.

After a couple of days of "sleep not run" finally eventually got out. Even managed reasonable cruising speed. But even though I ended up with only enough time for a short run, I couldn't quite push up to 4:00/k pace. I think having the dog on the lead makes it hard, maybe I should let him loose and see if I can chase him down.

GPS ripped me off on the distance, but who am I to argue.

C • Happy birthday! 4

Had planned on going for an early ride before Belinda went to work. But a little person kept waking me up during the night, so I slept instead, figured I really needed to avoid yesterdays sleepiness at work.

Matilda Bay - Kings Park

Can't remember now, but I think I was sore and tired from the weekend, so really slow, and slightly shorter than normal recovery run.

Spent the day really snoozy at work.

Event: Boundless AR - KillaMetro
 

Decided a week or two ahead of time that I'd probably go for all the bonus controls, so stuck with that plan. In the end whilst I think the time to get each bonus control was less than the bonus (except XB30 which was a stuff up). I may well have had a better result if I'd not used up what little energy I had after Sat. on getting those controls. But I figure what's the point of doing a race if you don't do it ALL.

Paddle controls were pretty straight forward left some on the way out to avoid waiting to punch, didn't see the stone table at X7 till I was past it, so got that on the way back as well. Looks like I was the last one off the water.

Into the run, faffed about at 12 until someone found the new interpretation of head high. Didn't see X18 on the way through, figured I'd get it on the way back. Wasted time looking near the fence for X19, then say X18 from a mile away on the way back. Legs very weary heading back, but at least the rest of the controls were straight forward.

Onto the bike had to faff about with map/mapboard a few times so that I could seethe descriptions and where I was going. Pretty sloppy down to 20, not too bad the next few, actually passed a few others, so I was no longer running last. Wasted heaps of time looking for XB30, got what looked like the end of the track, turned back, looked around, down again, eventually found it, but had put my bike down about 20m from the control then went out a different way and couldn't find my bike, back to the control and out the right way. Back into last place again. Not too bad from there, but out of water because I'd forgotten to put water bottles onto my bike, so just had what was left after the run and paddle.

Final orienteering leg was really hard, could barely run, stopped for a couple of drinks along the way and eventually finished, having faffed 6 badly.

Completely destroyed at the finish.

Hmm..
Run - 26mins to get 24 mins worth of bonuses, that was probably the killer

Event: WARA 6hr Rogaine
 

Well, I haven't done that before, so I think I'd like to rename this the "Breakthrough" rogaine, more in line with my naming of last years 6 hr.


Anyway Mark "The Machine" and I had worked out that a 42km route should go pretty close to winning, so that's what we planned on the basis we'd give it a go and see how we did and if we got behind schedule we could drop some controls towards the end.

We spent quite a bit of time trying to plan a course that could clean up all the controls just in case we were ahead of schedule, but we couldn't quite link everything in and have the options of cleaning up the low pointers near the HH at the end. But we finally decided clearing the western side, the option of getting 50 if we were ahead of time halfway through, option of 53 if were ahead with an hour to go and that would only leave 41 and 22 to try to link into our final approach from the south and 23 awkwardly out to the north of the HH. So final 42km plan was all but those 5 controls worth 180 points.

So off we went, pretty happy not to have the likes of tRicky and/or Wil going our way early on. Although having to dig the pencil out of the controls was a bit of a pain, until we started crossing paths with other teams around 82.

Probably within the first hour I started getting stomach pain most of the time we were running, but it was OK walking up the hills. Around 42 or 103 (I'm pretty sure we were heading east) I'd eaten half a muesli bar which further upset the bowels, which I then had to stop and clear. Made the same mistake with half a hot cross bun on the way from 101 to 60 whilst we were following the fence line across the southern edge of the bushland.

At this point Mark suggested dropping a control and without paying much attention to what he said (I was a bit preoccupied sorting myself out) I said OK. I then got a bit confused as we didn't head NE when got to Wandering Brook. I then clarified the situation , we were actually dropping 60 which we'd been going for at the time.

So we got to 40 running very tight timewise and Mark suggested if we're going to drop something this was the time. I said lets go for it and we continue onto 80.

Had fun crossing Wandering Brook again, looked like I'd just run across a grassy patch and hopefully not get my feet too wet. At least I didn't quite end up waist deep as I plunged/tripped/stumbled through.

Then heading up to 80 we let ourselves be influenced by what appeared to be teams heading up the spur looking for the control, so we figured that meant we were low so we headed up. Eventually decided we were too high so jogged down to find it.

Next we pretty much walked below the gully at 71 and had a 50-100m double back and up to get it.

By this time the schedule was starting to blow out so it was time to get a wiggle on, downhill run to 63, along the track to 100. Jogging down the hills was OK, but jogging up them was getting very hard. At this stage Mark was doing the control punching and intention sheets and I was catching up to him getting a bearing and off we'd run again with Mark pulling away again. When we got to 32 I suggested we could probably walk up the hill to 70, then we had 5 mins per leg for 20, 21 and HH.

The final push up that little hill to the HH was definitely at my limits, pretty glad to get back with less than 2 minutes to spare.

Took about 20 mins to stop puffing enough to have a drink, have some food, have some drugs.

We only stopped at the water drop at 54, which took a while to fill up since I had one bladder with water and another half filled with gatorade, both of which I wanted to refill. Turned out the water still had heaps and I didn't run dry at all, though I think Mark was running low towards the end.



Disclaimer: comments made in this log may not be well thought out, well composed or well considered and as such should not be reproduced with out prior consultation.

Light and easy, just to keep things loose, did pick up the pace a little bit on the way back in.

Haven't done many Kings Park runs for a while since they don't fit into my schedule any more. But would be nice to do a hard 12-14km some time and compare it to old runs.

Home - tip loop

Getting bored of my normal short loop, especially now I'm doing it at recovery speed a lot. So decided to go for the olfactory delights of the tip instead, thought it was going to be a bit short, but ended up about right.

Tested out new hydration pack, which seems OK.

I thought the HR data may be a bit dodgy, but the altitude is even more interesting, apparently my driveway started out at -5m and got to 31m by the time I went home. And I didn't really notice the dip down to -25m on our flat road.

C • I've been meaning to ask 2

Realised I'd left my drink bottles in the car just as we headed off through the roundabout.
Held in till around the cop shop when Andre went off the front and as everyone else caught him, I went off the back. Tried hard to close back in but wasn't gaining so took the Leighton shortcut which gave me time to find a tap for a drink at the top of McCabe St.

Held on all the rest of the way including back to Floreat since I need my drink bottles for running this afternoon and don't really like drinking hot water. Even made some random efforts out the front, but was dropped off the back for the Hackett Dve sprint.

Got 2 loops of the grass farm circuit done before racing home in time for Belinda to head out for a meeting.

Jog recovery plus 3 mins rest between loops.

Tooms came past early in the first loop so I tried to keep up for a while, then Karl came past, so I tried to keep up, managed to hold a moderate gap to Karl who wasn't too far behind Tooms through to the end.

Got distracted by Wil and ended up with about 3:30 rest, which made it very hard to pace off Tooms and Karl, but did have glimpses of Karl early and may possibly have been closing in on him towards the end.

9:41 10:09

Slow and easy around the short bridle trail loop, a bit sore from yesterdays run so very slow today.

One lap at slightly faster than normal cruising speed in 28:26.

Then a short lap of 100m intervals (100 hard 100 easy).

Then raced of to pick Sophie up from school in time.

Another foray up to Wungong Dam from SW Hwy with Mark Imbert.

Took a different route south near the dam and took random tracks around the place and going bush when a couple of tracks disappeared. End up a bit short of the planned 20km.

Say Bernadette and friends come past whilst we were standing around after finishing.

Event: NavDash 2 - Brigadoon
 

Thought I'd be good and quickly put some washing on before going running. Got it started and a few seconds later the power went off .... but not the lights, so tried to rest the RCD, wouldn't reset, got Belinda to try turning off things around the house, eventually tried the water pump, RCD reset, water pump seems to be leaking lots of water between the motor and the pump. Will take it to the pump shop later, most likely to be formally declared dead. But no water in the house for the time being.

So still slightly lergyfied but figured a short run shouldn't spur it on too much (hopefully).

Normal short bridle trail loop from home with the dog.

Comfortably maintaining cruising speed (5:00/km) approaching halfway, so cranked it up a bit, but Mickey started lagging, so didn't get much over cruising speed.

C • Purchases 1

Good to get more practice on a bush map. First long leg from 2 to 3 could see the end of the fence near the track as a reference point. Overshot 6 and was looking near the end of the culvert when someone else gave it away, then found I'd overshot 7 by a mile when I was getting close to the dam. Long leg from 8 to 9 I hit the track near the end of the fence and zoomed down seeing it easily from the track. Nice run from 13 to 14 along the creek, but hit the main creek close to 10 so a bit off target. More zoom down to 15 and 16 finishing with the last half a dozen close together controls.

Still can't read the map faster enough, only two overshoots, probably could have jumped on the track to the north of 2 to zoom out to 3 and have a close attackpoint from the end of the fence.

Long - Splits

Didn't quite feel right for riding today and wanted to avoid letting the cold really dig it's heels in by doing too much.

Probably should have ridden anyway since I ended up leaving 15-20 mins later than ideal, so it took nearly as long to drive as it would have to ride and I really can't be bothered with traffic. And now I'll have to drive home in Friday arvo traffic, which is the worst.

Not feeling too well so didn't bother even trying to get up early to squeeze in my planned long run before Belinda went to work, slept in instead.

Also didn't bother trying to swim whilst I was at the "highly regarded" Armadale swimming pool to watch Sophies swimming lesson, which worked out well since there was a school swimming carnival using the main pool.

Light and easy round the short bridle trail loop from home.

The local dogs put in a pitiful effort this morning, not one managed any descent running up and down the fence barking, all slackers I say.

After watching the Renegades go through as I was unloading and not at first recognising Andre on the front, I drifted up to the narrows and back. Thought I'd stay close to the shore for a bit of extra lumpiness and hence stability practice, unfortunately this meant a complete lack of drive and barely getting up to cruising speed every now and again

Having rested the legs this morning (Paddling instead of Floreat Renegades) I was hoping to beat my PB.

Started 22 sec. behind Andre with Wil supposedly 5 sec. behind me. Kept watching for Wil's shadow heading to the first corner, but it never came. Andre held his gap till round the far side. Caught the group of Saz Luke and Hoffy heading up Durston as Sam came past and Luke went with him. Got past Luke around the golf course entrance, and thought someone like Wil was coming at me so floored it through till the end.

Ended up 11 sec. over PB. With AHR 187, I don't know where I can go any faster. But legs did feel a bit heavy starting out, so maybe I just need to work out what I need to do for my legs to feel fresh.

First exercise very badly executed, I really have trouble around Goat Farm, too many tracks to keep track of that go all over the place (seemed to be tracks that had disappeared and new tracks that weren't mapped) and it's steep and rocky, which I'm hopeless on and without actual controls to confirm I've got to the right place I really wasn't sure. Looking at my GPS track, I never got to my 5th control and didn't see the tracks that led into it, I think they were very indistinct.

Second loop. More faster sections, without being really fast. Spent less time trying to work out the maze of tracks having already been through a lot of it once, but still took some pretty random routes.

Thanks Dalto.

Met up early with Mark Imbert for a run up the Wungong, along the easy track to the dam, hard up to and south from the dam, bit through the bush heading north back to the river. Pretty comfortable pace, good to get a longer run in for once, will hopefully be able to build it up from here.

Event: NavDash 1 - Curtin University (South)
 

Took a while to work out where I was on the map at the start, went to the obviously wrong corner of the building. Not too bad the next couple. Was looking on a possibly unmapped track for 4 wasting about a minute. Lost ground rapidly to GB going from 10 to 11.

Pity the only really familiar part of the course was the start area, which the cricket club used as their clubrooms when I first started playing over 20 years ago. Rest of the course was unfamiliar as a) I never lived on campus, and friends who did lived at guild house. b) never went to Canning College. c) CSIRO place never existed. d) arts don't count.

Long - Splits

Darling Downs to Claremont

Before I'd even got the the end of my road another cyclist had pulled out from the western section of Rowley Rd up ahead of me. Pace seem pretty close approaching the corner and caught up whilst he waited at the Tonkin Hwy lights. This put me in the highly unusual position of having someone to work with through to the freeway, took a couple of turns on the front each. with being in behind making me a bit nervous because the road is pretty rough and there were heaps of cars flying past.

He went elsewhere at the freeway, so I pushed on, 37 mins to cockburn, which usually takes 40 mins no matter what the effort and conditions are like, so went all out to totally annihilate my record the rest of the way to work. Very little help from there but. Gained a couple of followers after Canning Bridge, went past Saz (which seems to be becoming a bad habit after Tues terrain loops), followers repassed me when someone faster went past, but when they couldn't hold him I couldn't get through the traffic, luckily he turned off before the narrows, so I didn't miss much.

Continued annihilation mode through to work, to knock another 98 seconds off the record.

Claremont to Darling Downs

Pretty steaming outside leaving work. Saddle bag decided that not strapping it on properly would result in it dragging in my back wheel just as I was passing the old brewery.

Not much help around, but gained an extra shadow approaching Canning bridge. Let him stay there for a while, then sat up so he'd take the lead, then had a drink so he'd take the lead, and he finally did, then had to work really hard to hang on, kind of relieved when he turned off at the north end of Mt Henry.

Worked pretty hard all the rest of the way home.

Round the bridle trails from home.

Was dark when I was going to start, so I put the head strap back on my headlamp, got outside again and decided there was a smidge of light so left the headlamp at home.

Pace was a bit low but HR was in a good place so had to resist the temptation to up the pace several times.

Would have liked to fit in another couple of k's, but had to get back before Belinda left for work.

Another 2 laps, first in 30:08, 2nd in 29:55.

Very little wind, except a few gust from the NE.

When I finished a pair of very serious looking paddlers with a very flash looking double Nelo thingo, and a guy who looked like a coach (with a WAIS shirt), and another guy, had turned up. Warm up for one paddler with Aus. shirt and pants included skipping, swinging around what looked like a medicine ball on the end of a rope, and swinging legs really high. Glad I had to get going, cause these guys looked like they were planning on going supersonic.

Headed off, legs feeling very early on that they could probably do with a bit more rest as the weekends sessions.

Life got interesting when Jake and his bike decided to make like a speed bump heading round one of the early roundabouts. Nearly managed to stop before hitting him, so a very light impact.

Already struggling to keep up approaching WC Hwy, lucky the group stopped for traffic. Off the back well and truly up Challenger, too the shortcut at Leighton and managed to stay with the group a bit longer than previously. Maintained glimpsing dist. and eventually regrouped after CCGS. Got on the front for some stupid reason (maybe because I'm not use to being in the group at that point) and then dropped off the back again soon after. But maintained glimpsing dist through to Hackett Dve.

Got to work and discovered the screen on my phone had taken the impact of the fall and now all I get is black :( Strangely I was only wearing a backpack so I could take shoes to work, since the ones I normally leave there had a complete blow out on Fri, with the sole being held on by a couple of rubber bands, otherwise my phone would have probably been safe in my saddle bag.

Claremont to Floreat

Tried really hard to avoid putting in any effort, pretty much succeed.

One lap easy then 3 laps flat out, 5 mins rest between each, with last rest longer to allow reverse start order.

10:28
9:19
9:37
9:34

Legs pretty dead to start with, thought the first fast one would finish off my legs, but held in to avoid a big blow out for the last two.

Legs don't seem to burn so much lately, maybe I'm lacking cardio wise lately, maybe it's just the heat.