Training Log Archive: Craig

Easter Day 3 Foxlow Flats.

Heel was very sore overnight. Got a calf and foot massage from Rachel and rubbed some voltaren gel on it before going to bed but it was sore enough to be keeping me awake any time I brushed it gently during the night. Still very sore on waking so I tried taking a couple of ibuprofen tablets with breakfast.

Walked most of the way to the start hoping that would warm it up enough to be able to jog a bit once I started. Once I did start running I pretty quickly realised that I was actually feeling a lot better than the day before.

Hit one pretty well, helped a little by being able to see Matt Doyle ahead. Dithered a little about route choice to 2 then decided to go left because I could see it was open to begin with, it looked pretty flat and I didn't want to risk the green going straight. Happy with the route until I left the fence corner, then drifted left of where I intended until I could see the open paddocks and corrected. Feeling reasonably good here, even running with a little bit of urgency which I maintained through to 3. Aimed a bit left, past the ruin to 4 and was confident on approach but still had trouble spotting it at the end. Fine through 5 and 6 but lost it a bit on 7. Couldn't quite make sense of the map and lost contact mid leg so took a bit of time to convince myself I needed to follow the main creek further South. 8 was fine but lost confidence again on 9 when the vegetation seemed almost completely opposite to how it was mapped. Found it fine when I just got into the creek and followed it South again but really felt I lost momentum through this section.

I saw Steve Todkill behind as I was leaving 5. He passed me at 7 and got a bit clear by 9. I caught him again at 10 and started to get some confidence back once we were out of the erosion detail. I tried to push on for home but I was feeling much more tired this stage and any hill was a real struggle. Took the track to the left on 14 but skirted the hill past 1 which seemed to work well. Had nothing in the legs for the gentle climb to 15, it was all I could do to keep running, but managed to muster a final little burst to get home from 16.

21st on the day but did just enough to hold off those close to me and end up 15th overall. Pretty happy with that given my preparation and particularly considering how bad my heel felt after the long day.

Heel was feeling good enough at the end of my race that I felt happy enough to go straight out to shadow Amy around her course. I was scared that it would stiffen up if I stopped moving but it wasn't a problem and in fact it still felt pretty good even after the flight home.

Amy didn't seem to be in any hurry for the first half but got a bit more urgency when she could see another boy ahead in the second half. Course seemed way harder than I was expecting and quite confusing. Twice Amy was going to do the controls out of order because of the way the numbers were positioned.

Warm up run to the start. Would have like to walk some of it because my heel was hurting but I had left it a bit late and wanted to make sure I got there on time.

Easter Day 2 at The Murdering Shed.

I wasn't that confident of making it around today given how sore the left heel was on the warm up. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the course was pretty much out and back so no easy option to cut it short.

Wanted to go left to stay clear of the green on the way to 1 but couldn't make myself do it so had to push through a bit of thick stuff but got it safely. Next one on the creek was easy, then heading up the spur to 4 I couldn't make sense of the vegetation and when I couldn't see any gully to my left I had a closer look at the map and realised I had skipped 3. Turned around and got back to 3 just before Oscar who started 2 min behind me.

Kept Oscar in sight most of the way to 5 and had Brodie (4min) come through just before 5. I was going to go right to 6 but thought the marked crossing might make a good safe approach to 6 so when I saw Oscar running left on the road I decided to follow. Never did find the crossing point and wasted a bit of time looking for it. Found the control fine and could see Oscar leaving but we lost over 2 minutes to Brodie. Henry came into 6 just behind me (6min) but got caught in the green leaving and didn't pass me again until the crossing point half way to 7. Simon (8min) came past here as well and took Henry and Oscar with him.

I could see the others plus Ricky leaving 7 but I couldn't face following them through the creek so contoured back upstream a bit and then decided I might as well go right back to the clearing and run along the track to the left. Rocky line at 8 wasn't as clear as I expected so was hesitant until I noticed the pine tree on the edge of the circle. I saw Ricky leaving 9 as I approached and caught him at 10. Helped him out at 11, led him astray going way low on 12 then dropped off a little on the climb to 13.

Ricky headed left on the track to 14 but my heel had been quite sore running the track from 7-8 so I didn't fancy a long track run. I planned to go a bit right of straight to avoid any green but couldn't quite convince myself to go far enough right at the start so hit the thickest part of the green gully about half way through and dithered a bit before going left to find a better crossing point. Ended up finding the light green near the straight line was really clear so should have just gone as straight as I could. Got onto the final climb and saw Ricky about a minute ahead of me up the hill.

Made sure I punched first at 15 then had a gel and put the wrapper in the rubbish bag. Slight pang of guilt as I left thinking I should have put my cup in the rubbish bag too. Went a bit left on 16, across the clearing which I found really tough going through the tussocky grass, and saw Ricky heading in just ahead of me from the other side of the green.

Legs wouldn't climb the hill as much as I wanted to coming out of 16 so found myself skirting the green on the edge of the flat area and feeling a little bit lost. Feeling more confident by the end of the leg but still quite relieved to see the control. Peter Hobbs seemed to catch us here and I assumed he had started after me but actually he started 22min before and lost a lot of time on 14 and 15. I got away a little on 18 and 19 but Ricky had nearly caught up by 20 and pulled away from me on the climb towards 21.

A slightly straighter line towards 22 allowed me to catch up to Ricky and then he stayed on the track a little longer so I got into 22 just ahead. In survival mode now on the was cross to 23 then Rob Walter came storming past (fastest split) into 24. I couldn't work out where the dam wall was near 25 so just tried to follow Rob's line until I saw it and then trudged into the finish, no chance of a sprint.

Felt like a disappointing effort. Could easily have been 5 minutes faster just on mistakes and if I had been able to build on the fitness I had late last year instead of losing it all there were many more minutes to be saved. Still some satisfaction to find that we had done enough to get 2nd behind ACT again thanks to the efforts of Henry and Oscar.

Left heel very sore walking around afterwards and started to get much more sore on the drive home even though it was just resting on the foot rest. Could barely walk when I got out of the car.

Easter Day 1 at Isaacs Ridge.

Left heel was pretty sore on the way to the start so I was a bit worried about how it would cope with the hilly terrain. By the time I got to the start the pain had eased to minor nuisance level and it didn't get too much worse during the race.

I knew I didn't have the strength to push hard on a course like this so tried to just keep it steady and feeling unhurried. Achieved that pretty well I think. Felt a bit slow on 2, not quite dropping below the green the way I intended to but did at least go fairly directly onto it. The rest all went pretty smoothly I think. A bit slow on 13, losing concentration from fatigue I think but again didn't really miss it, just not very efficient. A little hesitation on 14 where I was directly on line but couldn't see the 3 boulders until after I had spotted the control. Walked most of the hills but kept moving along pretty steadily. Heel pain holding me back a little on the long downhill run into the finish.

Ended up 15th of 37 finishers, just over 10 minutes behind, with the team 2nd behind ACT so very happy with the result.

Event: #NIN3DAYS
 

Easter prologue at University of Canberra.

I knew I was unlikely to contribute to the team result today so my main priority was minimising the strain on my achilles to increase my chances of being able to contribute on the other 3 days. Minimal warm up in the quarantine area and then tried to keep the pace to a tempo effort rather than really racing.

Poor route choice on 1 cost a bit of time but it was partly motivated by wanting to protect my achilles by avoiding the steeper climb I could see on the other side of the oval. Saw my minute man Riley de Jong close behind leaving 1 but he didn't pass me until 6. He pulled away a little until 9 then disappeared, I assumed in front but actually he dropped behind and never caught me again. Lost touch with the map briefly from 13-14 and had to stop for a few seconds to relocate. Lost a few more seconds on the route choice from 21-22 but overall fairly happy that I did what I set out to do.

Slightly disappointed to find I was 4 seconds behind Jim and I think we were only about 4 seconds behind NSW on the team results. I may have been able to reverse that if I had race hard but that could easily have cost us more points in the long run anyway.

C • Points 1

Easy run with Rachel. Both achilles a bit sore but improving slowly throughout the run.