Thursday Aug 31 |
 | Run 1:51:00 [3]24 km (4:38 / km) | |
| |
| Not the most comfortable long run I've ever done - hip was the sorest it's been for a while (although improved a bit in the last 30 minutes), and also had occasional calf twinges - higher up than in the past so possibly something new? Neither problem is disabling, just annoying. It was a pity because it was a gorgeous morning, still and around 5 degrees, perfect for being out there for a couple of hours. A rest day tomorrow will do me good, I suspect. |
Wednesday Aug 30 |
| Run 1:09:00 [3]15 km (4:36 / km) | |
| |
| A steady if unspectacular run along the Middle Park waterfront, at its best in the later stages coming back through Albert Park. A bit longer than planned. |
| Run 29:00 [3]6 km (4:50 / km) | |
| |
| Warm-up/warm-down getting to/from the Tan. Left sooner than usual because I had a radio interview to do (was tempted to do it on a mobile from the side of the Tan but carrying a phone on the run wasn't that appealing). |
| Run race 13:16 [5]3.83 km (3:28 / km) vdot: 57.7 | |
| |
| Tan - 13.16. Km splits - 3.27, 3.35 (uphill), 3.29, 3.27 (3rd and '4th' partly overlap).
Not quite the sub-13 I'd hoped for but still my best time this year. Had hoped that I might be able to get there at halfway, 6 seconds outside 13-minute pace and coming off an excellent second kilometre, but couldn't quite finish it off. Battling with Bruce for much of the way but he pulled away (predictably) in last 300.
Perfect conditions for running today (19 degrees, sunny, no wind), which made it imperfect conditions for racing - the rest of Melbourne was on the Tan too, and while I don't think the 'traffic' cost us much time it was a bit annoying. |
Tuesday Aug 29 |
| Run tempo ((fartlek)) 37:00 [4]9 km (4:07 / km) | |
| |
| An unpromising start and a stellar finish. Thought this was going to be a pretty ordinary session when I felt a bit weak on the first two-contour hill on the warm-up and then had hints of a stitch on the first sprint, but started attacking the sprint sectors increasingly well, particularly the uphill ones, and on the last loop ended up with my best time for this circuit for five years (8.55) - a sub-9 is pretty rare for me. Will have a go at the Tan tomorrow and will be very interested to see what happens - maybe a challenge on the elusive sub-13? (which is also territory I haven't been into since 2001) |
Monday Aug 28 |
| Run 56:00 [3]*** 7.0 mi (7:59 / mi) | |
| spiked:17/19c |
| Something a bit different - night-O in the Yarra parklands, the first time I've done it for several years at least. Managed to navigate OK, but terrain running confidence was virtually non-existent (it doesn't help that the area has its share of obstacles lurking in long grass and that my light wasn't much use for anything except map-reading, although the ambient light was reasonable, it being a big city on a cloudy night). Now I know why I ran leg 6 at Jukola... |
Sunday Aug 27 |
| Run race ((orienteering)) 1:30:35 [4]**** 10.7 km (8:28 / km) +420m 7:05 / km | |
| spiked:21/26c |
| Got into more of the green and the heavier stuff today. Fine navigation again pretty good with no losses greater than 30 seconds, but didn't seem to get the micro route choices right in the green - something Bruce is very good at here judging by his last couple of runs in this area. Lost concentration a bit at the end and drifted on two of the vaguer legs at 24 and 25, although without major time losses. |
Saturday Aug 26 |
| Run race ((orienteering)) 1:20:21 [4]**** 10.3 km (7:48 / km) +480m 6:20 / km | |
| spiked:19/21c |
| Felt as if I should have been going faster than I actually was in the more open sections, but a very good technical run for Kooyoora (admittedly, mostly in some of the kinder bits of the map), with my only significant time losses being through over-conservative route choices in the green. |
Thursday Aug 24 |
| Run 2:00:00 [3]26 km (4:37 / km) | |
| |
| Something of a novelty in Melbourne these days - it rained from first step to last (although with no wind and reasonably mild temperatures it made for quite pleasant running). Actually had to dodge a reasonable number of puddles - it's a while since I've seen a 17mm day here - and Darebin Creek was running pretty strongly. It scared the dog-walkers off the Yarra paths but the runners were still there.
I often seem to have good long runs in the wet and this was no exception, with a particularly good last 20 minutes. As always on the early-morning long runs the pace picked up somewhat once I could see where I was going (although it felt faster than it actually was). I hadn't planned to go quite as long as 2 hours but not too upset that it happened. Probably the longest that I'll do in this training cycle. |
Wednesday Aug 23 |
| Run 1:09:00 [3]15 km (4:36 / km) | |
| |
| Often threatened to become a really spectacular run, feeling smooth without quite hitting full rhythm, but didn't really hit my straps until the last 5 minutes. Still a nice effort. Various niggles seem to be settling down well. |
| |
| C • 2 |
| Run 39:00 [3]9 km (4:20 / km) | |
| |
| Not as good as the morning but still a pretty solid effort. An unusual lunchtime run, done from hoem while I was waiting for the carpet installers. |
Tuesday Aug 22 |
| Run tempo ((fartlek)) 37:00 [4]9 km (4:07 / km) | |
| |
| Felt sharper than in recent weeks, although times were decent but unspectacular (fastest loop 9.18). A little slippery underfoot after early rain. |
| |
| C • email 2 |
Monday Aug 21 |
| Run 44:00 [2]8 km (5:30 / km) | |
| |
| A fairly easy, slow run, although picked up a bit in second half. Felt pretty reasonable with various minor niggles of the last two weeks not really making their presence felt too much. |
Sunday Aug 20 |
| Run race ((orienteering)) 1:28:11 [4]*** 15 km (5:53 / km) +400m 5:11 / km | |
| spiked:23/27c |
| Again wasn't really flowing and at various stages struggled a bit physically, but a classic is a long race and by plugging away managed to get a decent result as others fell by the wayside. Toes OK while running. One 30-seconder at 7 but otherwise nothing major, just a few wobbles in circles. Area felt like it should be faster than 5.8 minutes a km, but Shep only did 5.3 so maybe it was slower than we felt (or maybe the course measurement was dodgy).
Edit: checked the course measurement and it was OK, so we can't blame that. |
| |
| C • tired 1 |
Saturday Aug 19 |
| |
| Event: AUS NOL Races
|
| Run race ((orienteering)) 37:04 [4]*** 6.7 km (5:32 / km) +185m 4:52 / km | |
| spiked:12/15c |
| A rather disappointing result, at the back end of a tight bunch. Didn't really have the speed today and found it hard to pinpoint controls in vague country. Should have been a lot faster on an area like this. Various niggles weren't a problem, but did some damage to two toes on running into a log - initially thought they might have been broken but they've come up OK today, so probably just badly bruised. |
| |
| C • Training streak 4 |
Thursday Aug 17 |
| Run 1:49:00 [3]24 km (4:32 / km) | |
| |
| A pretty solid effort on the whole, and the longest run for a while, although got the worst chafing I've had for years - the shower afterwards was not an especially pleasant experience. Also a bit of Achilles soreness later on, at a stage when it's normally warmed up well. |
Wednesday Aug 16 |
| Run 1:01:00 [3]13 km (4:42 / km) | |
| |
| Very pleansant once I warmed up - although it would have been difficult not to have a pleasant run on such a nice morning. Flowing well in the second half, despite continuing hip niggles, and picked up the pace nicely in the last 10 minutes once I realised that I was going to struggle to make my train (I did). |
| Run race 54:00 [4]13 km (4:09 / km) vdot: 50.6 | |
| |
| A return to Melbourne street-on. Hadn't planned to go especially hard, but felt good in the early stages and decided to go for it. Not absolutely flat out but a reasonably solid effort, and managed to pick up the pace over the last couple of controls.
Potential race-fixing scandal - it was the last night of the series and Adam Scammell and Andrew Baker were trying to contrive a dead-heat in the pointscore. I did my bit for the conspiracy by winning, but Adam couldn't manage the second place he needed. Just as well betsafe.com don't run a book on Melbourne street events... |
| |
| C • Street-O has always been sus 2 |
Tuesday Aug 15 |
| Run intervals ((fartlek)) 38:00 [4]9 km (4:13 / km) | |
| |
| First time back on my fartlek loop after returning. Not too bad although a little on the slow side (9.21 for final loop). Definitely at its best in the later part. Starting to warm up a bit faster than I often was in Europe. |
Monday Aug 14 |
| Run 47:00 [2]9 km (5:13 / km) | |
| |
| Back to the MFR Monday night runs with a lot of maps to show off. As casual as always, although leaving only 12 minutes after the scheduled starting time must be just about a club record. |
| |
| C • 7:12 3 |
Sunday Aug 13 |
| Run race ((orienteering)) 1:29:02 [4]*** 12.6 km (7:04 / km) +710m 5:31 / km | |
| spiked:19/20c |
| ACT Badge Event at Picaree. Steep, particularly in the first half. I was running up the hills reasonably strongly but wasn't running with a lot of freedom across or down the steeper slopes. Improved in second half, pushed along once Ben Rattray (who started 4 minutes behind) got close to me about halfway. As it turned out he never quite caught me, although he got very close, and I ended up dropping him on a route choice to the last control (which reduced the margin of defeat to 3.40). Technically clean with only one 10-seconder in the circle, but in this sort of country I'd want to be. |
Saturday Aug 12 |
| Run race 28:27 [4]7.8 km (3:39 / km) vdot: 57.0 | |
| |
| Up in Canberra for the weekend and gave the local XC race a go - was hoping to catch up with various old acquaintances from my Canberra running days but they're obviously all up at the City to Surf.
Made a pretty promising start, with my various niggles not causing too much trouble, and was just starting to settle into a nice duel for 4th with Trevor Jacobs when I got a stitch at the end of the first lap, for no obvious reason. This is something that used to plague me in my early running days but hasn't happened for years. Managed to hang in there reasonably well in the circumstances (lap splits 13.58 and 14.29), and it ended up turning a probable narrow loss in a battle for 4th and 5th into a comfortable loss in said battle.
Up until last night I was beginning to wonder if I would have more opportunities this year to sing the Australian national anthem at orienteering events than I would to sing the Essendon club song at the football, but at least the tally is 1-1 now. |
| |
| C • Classic 2 |
Friday Aug 11 |
| Run 40:00 [3]9 km (4:27 / km) | |
| |
| Fairly casual, warmed up quite quickly and a smooth run after that on a nice morning. Hip probably a bit better than yesterday. |
Thursday Aug 10 |
| Run 1:45:00 [3]23 km (4:34 / km) | |
| |
| Grinding out the kilometres for the most part without too much difficulty, but started to fade away a bit in the last 20 minutes, also hints of hip soreness returning. Longest for a couple of months. |
Wednesday Aug 9 |
| Run 1:01:00 [3]13 km (4:42 / km) | |
| |
| Not as good as yesterday despite having had a decent sleep at more or less the right time - go figure.... |
| Run 43:00 [3]9 km (4:47 / km) | |
| |
| I never expect a lot going out straight after work because I invariably feel pretty ordinary before going out, but these runs have a habit of turning into nice ones, particularly on winter evenings (and particularly once I stopped going into the wind). Building back into a 'normal' schedule. A bit of soreness in the left hip both this morning and this evening, but it disappeared after the first 5 minutes, always a good sign for an injury. |
Tuesday Aug 8 |
| Run 1:06:00 [3]14 km (4:43 / km) | |
| |
| In the days when I was trying to maintain a streak of consecutive days of training that ended up lasting 6.5 years, I would have been very keen to get out early today - the 'rules of the game' were that it counted as not being a missed day as long as runs were completed on consecutive days in either the timezone of origin or the timezone of destination, which on trips back to Australia from Central Europe meant starting a run by 8.
These days I do well to string 6 days together, never mind 6 years, but there isn't a lot else to do in Melbourne at 5.40 on a Tuesday morning - having just landed and not wanting to go home because it's much quicker to go straight to work - apart from go for a run. It actually wasn't a bad run - although my often-suspect Achilles definitely suffered from 24 horus in a plane - and had some downright good patches in the second half, which may or may not have had something to do with the temperature being at least 15 degrees lower than it has been for most of the runs I've done in the last two months.
Wonder how the Bureau of Statistics will cope when I answer 'Arhus, Denmark' to the question on the Census (which is today) which asks where your journey to work today commenced? |
| |
| C • Classic entry 3 |
Sunday Aug 6 |
| Run 1:01:00 [3]13 km (4:42 / km) | |
| |
| Wasn't exactly at my best when I first started, but ended up a pretty relaxed and pleasant effort, exploring the back lanes north of Arhus. The last run of this European trip - on the plane from Copenhagen tonight.
Also took the opportunity to enjoy (probably) my last banana until going to Canada in November (that's a work trip, but as the meeting in question is at Niagara I'm going to try to get a run in on one of the North American Champs maps if I have time). |
| |
| C • Banana 1 |
Saturday Aug 5 |
| Run race ((orienteering)) 1:07:20 [4]*** 8 km (8:25 / km) +420m 6:40 / km | |
| spiked:17/19c |
| Suffering a bit of a motivation deficit at the start after missing out on the A final by 1 place (and by a bit more than 1 point, thanks to someone having a fast run late yesterday). The motivation deficit wasn't helped by some unpleasant green stuff early on and one very dodgy route choice, but got into it after a while and a decent second half. Again nothing lost on fine navigation, just on route choices (including one excursion into a chest-deep waterhole). |
Friday Aug 4 |
| Run race ((orienteering)) 44:22 [4]*** 6.1 km (7:16 / km) +240m 6:05 / km | |
| spiked:15/17c |
| My best run of the week so far, hesitated a little on the way into 3 and a slightly dicey exit from 13 but otherwise a clean run. Still a bit on the slow side but I'm used to that by now. Although I haven't seen it yet, I suspect the WOC course (which was 200 metres longer) must have been a bit tougher than ours - on km rates our winner would have been top 15 in the WOC final and I don't think he's quite that good.
We'll have to wait until later tonight (or maybe tomorrow) to find out whether I've made the cut for the WOC tour final, but on preliminary results (and assuming one of the favoured late starters doesn't have a blowout), I think I'll miss out by 1 point (out of 2427). |
Wednesday Aug 2 |
| Run 39:00 [3]9 km (4:20 / km) | |
| |
| A fairly easy run along the Ega seafront. In the light of yesterday's events I might have expected to have felt inspired, but this was actually a little flat for no obvious reason. |
Tuesday Aug 1 |
| Run race ((orienteering)) 1:00:00 [4]*** 8.8 km (6:49 / km) +235m 6:01 / km | |
| spiked:20/26c |
| A bit unsettled and scrappy in the first third without any really significant errors, but got it together reasonably well after that, particularly when in a bunch in mid-course. Easier terrain today and it showed in the results - I felt my run today was better than Sunday's, but I was 2/3 of the way down instead of 1/3. |