Training Log Archive: Bruce

Along Merri Creek and up a few short hills.
Abs soreness has settled down a lot today, but my hips are still a bit sore where the leg joins when walking.

Very sore again today. Struggling to walk.
My pelvic floor is much better, but my hips and lower back are really sore. I have been massaging and stetching to try to settle them down.
No activity today - I couldn't even if I wanted to :-(

Tan Relay Time Keeper.
Jog down to the tan, then kept time for the relay runners. The MMM team ran the 3.827km tan lap in 10:03 (7 seconds slower than the record set last year by the NAB team).
I pulled up a little sore after yesterday's run with some pain in my rear pelvic floor and some abs soreness. The abs settled down a bit with some massage, but I'm still quite stiff through the hips.
All I could manage today was a slow jog. Probably need to rest for a day to settle my injuries down again.

Albert Park Lake run.
I struggled a bit for speed, but it was nice to run with only minimal pain for a change.

Australian Relay Championships
Victoria Nuggets team 3rd leg.
I pulled up ok after the Aust Long Champs and was fit enough to start in our #1 team.
I started out in 3rd position, just seconds ahead of NZ and NSW. ACT and SA were already out in front.
After the early splits had sorted themselves out, I was 50m behind Rob Preston and has lost NZ. I caught Rob at 7 and led for a couple of controls. He then slowly pulled away and had about 50m again at the spectator control. I started to tire here, and lost him through the green on the way to 16. I missed the termite mound amongst several unmapped ones and lost 2-3mins. From here on it was a struggle for me, but I was smooth enough to hold off other teams and finished safely in 4th.

Australian Championships - Long Distance - Maryborough
10th place M21E, 8th Australian.
I felt good during a light jog in the morning and a quick dip in the pool. Yesterday's adductor soreness had settled down, and I was in as good a shape as I have been for the last 6 weeks.
I took off at a conservative pace, knowing that I didn't have full fitness and that it was a hot day and a long race.
My navigation was pretty spot on for most of the race, losing nothing more than 30 seconds on any leg. I picked up a few slower runners early but ran away from them. I never got really tired, but just couldn't go at my usual race speed. This however was enough for a decent result. I think a few people either made mistakes, or went too fast early and died near the end.
The course was quite forgiving, and never really tested physical strength too much (luckily for me).
A satisfying result given my very interrupted preparation (being injured for 44 days).

Australian Sprint Distance Champs - Maryborough Showgrounds
I was not really fit to run, but I had a go anyway. My right adductor muscle was sore and it restricted my stride. All I could do was just run within myself and hit all of the controls. This was a bit frustrating as most of the course was very easy and required you to speed up.
Considering this I was satisfied with 12th place. I think that 5th was very achievable if I was able to run properly.

Following the race I was drug tested by ASADA.
I am always happy to do the testing. It is necessary for us to keep our sport drug free.
I was a bit frustrated with the quality of the testing equipment that was used on this occasion though. After filling my first sample bottle I noticed some foreign hairs in the lid of the sealed container, so I had to repeat the whole process. I then produced another sample and had to wait almost an hour for the ASADA official to be ready to process the forms. When I inspected the next container I found more foreign hairs in the lid of this separate container. I then had to select another container and finally this one was clean.

It was a little disappointing that there was only one official to process forms for 6 athletes. This prolonged the process, and made it quite difficult to recover and prepare well for the Australian Long Distance Championship which was less than 15 hours away.

I was however very happy with the organisers of the Australian Long Distance Championships. Although the doping process meant that I was unable to get my sports drink to the registration van on time (5pm Friday), they still made sure that they were able to get my sports drink bottle out to the drinks control for me.

All I could manage was a brisk walk around Noosa NP. I didn't want to risk making my adductor muscle worse.

Adductor muscle improving. If anything the pain moved down the leg slightly. Tried Voltaren gel to ease the inflamation.
No physical activity today.

Couldn't run NOL event. Right adductor strain. I could only limp when walking.

Pulled up very sore with a strained right adductor.
At one point I tired to run, but pulled up sore after one stride.

Bike ride along the Hervey Bay esplanade.

Queensland Championships Long Distance - Maryborough
I was in a bit of trouble on the warm up when I felt some soreness in my right groin/adductor. It got a little better after more warm up and massage.
I started conservatively so that I didn't strain anything. I navigated quite well for about an hour, but I think I was running ineffiiciently and I tired badly. The last 40 minutes was very slow, and all I could manage was a jojg/shuffle to the finish.
It felt like my early days in elite when I often was not fit enough to finish the long courses, and it was not fun at all.

Event: 2008 Australian Championships
 

Australian Championships Middle Distance - Maryborough QLD
My injuries had settled down enough for me to be able to jog. When I increased the pace I did feel very stiff in the hips area and was restricted in my speed.
On the way to #1 a stick wacked me near my right eye and scratched my cheek. After a few minutes my vision was a bit blurry, and I had real trouble keeping direction. I lost about 2 minutes on #3 and another 4 minutes on #5 so I pulled the pin and jogged back.

My new SI stick also failed.
The v6 stick has 741108 printed on the outside, but the memory contained an 8 digit number which was not recognised in the download tent.
I guess it was good that this happened on a day when I had already DNF'd.

Travel day to Hervey Bay.
No running. Injuries settling down a bit.