Training Log Archive: fletch

Same old... bit chilly, fingers were pretty sore. Fluid windproof gloves aren't. REckon you'd feel a fart through them from a distance.

Legs feeling last night a little, but not as much as often the case on a Wednesday morning.

C • .....And? 7

Fairly relaxed pootle home. Should probably pump up my tyres before I ride again.

C • C'mon tyres 2

The classic Reabold Hill set
Slow, THreshold, Hard x 2, recovering down
3:17, 3:05, 2:41 (hard but not killing myself)
3:19, 3:06, 2:34 (maybe a bit conservative on the bottom haolf, but really worked the top hard)

Pretty happy with the session. Felt pretty strong after the first one and felt like I was recovering from each effort quickly.

WU
4 x 10:3
CD
Pretty tough, but felt pretty fresh after a week off and reckon I pushed through it pretty well.

REALLY should have trained today, but Penny was out for brekkie and I lost all motivation by dinner time.
Week off successfully accomplished (but not really needed). Back into it tomorrow - no - really - I mean it.

Had a sleep in, then avoided all physical activity for the rest of the day, using 11th wedding anniversary as an excuse. Nice dinner. Is chewing training? Dessert degustation plates are awesome.

School camp - Tunneling at Manjedal, a flying fox, some silly little instruction following exercise, indoor games, spotlight, bed

Day 2: A 'huge' Bib track hike. 14km. Pretty chilly. Did the second half in my raincoat as I hadn't warmed up by lunchtime. Pretty much everyone was nearlt dead by the end. Wish I could have done it as a fartlek session. Free time in Dwellingup, thriving metropolis that it isn't midweek, more indoor games, movie

Day 3: -3 last night. Camp office birdbath froze solid. What else to do but go for a paddle. About 10 minutes in, we hit the first rapid, and the first pair of kids fell out. Poor huys. They were even chillier than the rest of us for the rest of the paddle. Mist off the water was quite spectacular and the sunny bits felt great. Back at school by about 4pm, home just before 6.

Staff vs Student football game. They got the first 2 goals, and we kept them in it till half time by missing lots of shots on goal, but our size was telling. Bottled it up with a zone across the middle that they just couldn't get past coming out of defence. 28-27 to the teachers at half time, 96-36 by full time.
That put a stop to all the cheeky comments for a little while. Almost went to training after, but had a 3 day school camp to prepare for.

Almost trained, but like lots of recent Mondays, didn't quite get around to it. AM was the only feasible option, and I had to fit it in before a 7:30am staff meeting, followed by a 9am meeting to discuss job opportunities for next year, so thought as much sleep as possible and a clear head was the best option.

Event: Killamunda Challenge 2010
 

I was much better organised this year. Went with the one pair of shoes and toe clips to try to make trajnsitions smooth and stress free. Had a pencil and punchcards and Carboshotz sorted in the waist of the pack. The only thing in the pack was the compulsory gear, so that was easy to get out for gear checks, and a separate little bag for the orienteering legs. Compass and whistle round my neck. No little glitches like last year :)
The First little exercise was alarmingly similar to last year, with the key being knowing Australia's first round opponents in the World Cup. 5 controls and 200 points later I charged downhill to transition to get out on the bike. (Not one short this time :) )
Despite not really needing to do anything other than put on a helmet, somehow Andre got out ahead of me, and seemed to be riding the same pace as me. Not surprisingly, some athletic bloke came stonking past early, but stopped a few times to check where he was, then on the way to the second control he missed the critical turn and I never saw him again.
Andre, Tricky (who had caught up on the bike as well) and I were together through MTB control 2, but Andre disappeared somewhere just before control 3, where I caught back up to tRicky coz he can't read. Also caught ameko and partner here. It was a bit strange knowing I was out near the front, but having just been riding through a bunch of pairs, who were set off 15 minutes earlier. Pretty smooth through the first 3 controls and into transition. Got a good laught out of the 3 or 4 pairs who overshot the fist control, dumped their bikes at hte bottom of the hill and were runnig back up as we came zooming past the other way.
Next run leg was a geographical challenge - find the 6 of 8 checkpoints that have country names for the countries that the equator passes thorugh. I headed off downhill, decided not to do the short in and out to Indonesia as I was confident that was one I would be dropping. Turned the other way and strung together 4 correct in a row. Took a wrong path at one point and had to bush bash back to the right place, which cost a few minutes, but nothing drastic. At least I was awake enough to pick my mistake. Then into Peru, full of confidence, only to find out that the equator didn't pass through there. Bugger. Took a look at what was left. Uganda, Sri Lanka, Indonesia. Double bugger. Pretty sure Sri Lanka was too far south. Went and got it anyway, more out of hope, but only confirmed that I had to go all the way back down to Indonesia to get it after all. So I got all 8 controls, and in a really roundabout way. Not good and tRicky got the lead back here, but only by a couple of minutes.

Noticed the MTB controls also on the Geography map, so used that for the next 3 and got through them cleanly. Also saved a climb up Mt Gungin and gave me a good long blast along Lockwood Rd. Would have been nigh on impossible using the 1:25000 map we got at the start. Saw a few bikes lying on the ground a few hundred metres from No.5. Never saw the people that owned them, despite going in and out hte same way. Bikes still there.
Made a little error at 7 as I had misjudged where we joined the South Ledge orienteering map, but worked it out in a couple of minutes and headed into 7 and 8 OK.
The Crumpler challenge was a bit of a brain stress that late in the race, but after finding the first little picture on the tree (and being thankful to have packed the 'optionaal' writing implement) I picked it up pretty quickly. Soon realised the first word was Crumpler, and from there it was pretty quick, helped along by my vague recollections from looking at their website a year or two ago. Bags developed to carry a slab of beer on a bike. Priceless.
Blasted out of there just as tRicky was arriving, so knew I had a bit of time up my sleeve. Probably a good thing. Control 9 was 20m W of log, and when I stopped at hte first log across the track and didn't find the control I briefy considererd a ride back to transition to tell them the control was missing. Then I contemplated what a goose I'd look like if I was in the wrong spot, so rode on, and sure enough, not much further along was a second log....
Clean through 10, although somewhere along here one of my toe clips separated from the pedal. Will teach me to attach them only finger tightening the nuts :) That scraped on the bitumen every pedal stroke. Went the long way around to the final transition as I remembered something about the entry, and I didn't want to cop a time penalty for coming in on a "no Entry' signed road. Figured as long as I got to transition first, the race was still in my control. Unfortunately, also got my first cramp coming up Mundaring Weir road, so was a little apprehensive about the orienteering to finish.
Had managed to keep all my maps in the map board for the duration of the race, so no issues there, had a good drink and a massive does of Carboshotz and off I went. Felt a little like cramping early, but eased a little, so focused on just running steadily and making sure there were no large errors.
The first control was a little surprise. Ran straight to where I thought it was, there was a control - wrong code. Read the rest of the description - path bend. I was on a knoll next to the path. Checked the path. Nope. Hadn't missed the control there. Had a quick hunt around to make sure there wasn't anything else hiding within 50m. Thee wasn't. BAck to the original control. Code was definitely wrong. Then checked the SI box. Code on that was right, so I punched and off I went. The rest of the course was fairly slow, but also pretty clean and I knew nobody had come steaming past, so barring any penalties for things I hadn't noticed, I had the win.

Top day out. Good fun. Good course. Much better maps and control placements that just about any other AR I've been involved with. Big thanks to Paddy Pallin for the sponsorship (and giving me a shiny new race pack) and Caitlin and Sal for taking lots of photos and making it feel like we were in a real race. Can't wait for the next one. I'd better enter!
Thanks Tooms and Boltboi for your masterly race direction.

C • MB#1 7

Scheduled day off this time.

A 7:30 race start sounded so reasonable. How did that end up equating to me getting out of bed at 5am? At least there won't be much traffic out :)

Didn't want to risk staying tired and sick, so opted out of the early wake up and commute. Instead convinced myself of my reasonable health with a 45 minute kivk of the footy after school.
Evening rolled around, and i wasn't feeling particularly inspired, but I know how much I need it at the moment, so headed out later again for a paddle. Pretty cruisy effort. Probably need to start trying a bit harder now that I know I can last the 90 minutes again. Or better still, head somewhere where U might have to work on stability.
Same old, stop at the paddle club to have a drink. There were a couple of blokes just packing up from a paddle there. Only people I saw all trip. Couldn't see what they were paddling, but wondered if they were serious athlete types or muppets. Wondering became unnecessary when I heard the words "I'm thinking about trying that lemon detox diet" come out of one of their mouths. Muppet.

Bugger. Got home yesterday from parent teacher interviews. Shortly after, stared feeling pretty crook in the guts. Assumed I had eaten something dodgy and it would soon clear up, but had a poor nights sleep and main aim for the day at work was to survive without puking. Mission accomplished. Started to feel marginally better about 2:30pm. Still not great by dinner time, but I'm eating and things seem headed in the right direction. Will probably skip the commute tomorrow, and hope to feel good enough to paddle in the evening.

Most of a session. Little bit time poor this morning. Really would have preferred to commute today, but work got in the way again

10 min WU
3 x (10:3)
CD

Pretty knackered by the end of the third one anyway. Maybe last night was a little harder than I gave it credit for.

Amazingly, this is about the only Tooms regular session that I have NEVER done before, always managed to miss it in the past, so was a bit weird trying to get the pacing right.

Reps of about 750m up the bike path from corner of Oceanic and WC Hwy, heading east.

First 2 reps build up (using the slope variations as indicators to change pace), jog back +30 sec
2 reps at threshold, jog back + 30 sec
1 rep hard
Then a long break regrouping before 1 rep from the same start, past the finishing tree, 250m further along to the bottom of Reabold West Drive and up to the top.

2:59, 2:56
2:54, 2:48
2:34
4:56 (1.37km)

Recoveries were long. Over 3 minutes jog back, plus the extra 30 sec. Probably started the build ones a little hard, and rep 4 was probably above threshold.
Last rep legs just felt a bit weird. A bit too long standing around before starting it. Didn't feel like I got hte pacing right. A bit too conservative to the bottom of the driveway, as I had plenty in the tank to smash it all the way up from there to the top.
Good fun. Don't feel as shattered as I have after a couple of other recent Tuesday sessions.
Should look for my HR strap so I can't bludge my way through sessions that I don't know the pacings for...

Sunday morning run turned into a sleep-in. Sunday lunchime run turned into lunch and the afternoon was a 5th birthday party. Left me with an evening run, which I decided to shift to the sand again instead of pounding pavement in the dark. Didn't really feel like runnig so long, but stuck to the program.
Anticipated it being cold, so wore tights and regretted it almost immediately. Light breeze and surprisingly warm, so I was getting hot from quite early.
Generally felt pretty reasonable, but struggled a bit in the last 20 minutes. I'd like to blame it on the wind picking up, but I doubt that had much to do with it.
Glad to get it done and keep the completed sessions ticking along.
Oh yeah - Trigg Island to the big concrete block and return, plus about 50m in the carpark at the end to make it to 1:50.

Yay. Bike path past Hepburn Ave is back in working order, and much smoother than it used to be (although not quite as smooth as you might expect for a brand new bit of bitumen. Beautiful morning for a ride in. Legs a little wery at first, but not too bad by the end.

Felt like taking it easy on the way home, which was kind of the point of the commuting anyway. Felt pretty good, didn't push at all. Legs still felt a little weary a fwe times, but really enjoyable pootle. Surprised by how fast it was. I think there was not much wind. Perhaps there was a howling tailwind and I just didn't realise it.

Pretty pedestrian paddle from Banks to Garrett Rd Bridge. Went just past it, beached over at the kayak club to grab a drink and try to adjust the footplate in my ski to try to stop my left glute going numb. Seems that over the last year or so, the quick release mechanism on the footplate has jammed on one side, so after quite a bit of fluffing around, I gave up and paddled back.
Only real aim for the session was to get a slightly longer paddle in. Was never meant to have any intensity, so mission accomplished, I guess.

Day off tommorrow.

C • It worked for me 2

3 on 2 off x 8, plus warm-up and cooldown.

T'was a little chilly this morning and a little dark, and I was a little tired. Started off very lacklustre. Got going a bit after a few reps, once I was nice and warm, the sun had started to come up and I could see where my feet were landing. Nice way to start the day. Pity the rest of the day was so busy. Tired now. Not sure about both riding and paddling tomorrow...

Truncated pyramid. 2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2, 1 min recoveries. Never really got going. Didn't feel too bad by the end, but I doubt the heart rate ever really got up. Cadence was a little down on the usual. No surprises.

Tooms picked a great session to be stuck at work...
Ampitheatre is never my favourite. It still isn't, but maybe I hate it just a little less (which probably just means I didn't push hard enough)
4 long reps, recover down
3 min break
4 long reps, recover down +30 sec.

Second set was a little faster. Not intentionally. I seem to find the long reps easier than the short ones, which I think just indicates that I back off a little on the flats and use the first half of the carpark to recover rather than pushing hard the whole way. Still, times a little better than last week.
2:18, 2:19, 2:19, 2:20
2:14, 2:15, 2:16, 2:14

Contemplated an early morning ride, but dodgy front light seemed like a good excuse and settled for an evening eindtrainer session...
Then we went for a picnic at John Forrest, and I didn't get started on my exam marking till about 3:30pm. By the time I finished (11pm) it didn't seem worthwhile setting up the bike, so I went to bed.
No real damage done, but will make the rest of the week a bit harder physically.

Event: Gunapin Ridge Badge Event
 

A slightly too short warm-up. About 2km strolling around in the bush after the event to check control 24. Was definitely wrong. GPS traces will tell the tale.

Not too bad a day out. Nice area. Course probably didn't make the most use of the technical areas on the map. Generally got around OK, but it was the sort of course/area that wasn't good for establishing good habits, but rewarded running straight and hard out of controls and figuring out where you were going later. A couple of times, this led to me being lazy and not bothering to go right to my attack point, and of course I missed time as a result.

13.2km straight line, 175 climb? First 2 were just a matter of staying straight, and using the obvious attack points. 3 I got lazy after passing the top of the watercourse and bounced around a little before relocating properly. 4 was OK - used the massive clearing next to the control. 5-9 was a lot of running and not much navigation. Controls all on or right next to massive features.
9-10 I got a bit off line and had to zig zag a bit. Used the massive rock surface just short of the control to attack it from. Careless with direction leaving 10 and missed the short 11th to the left and had to backtrack up the slope. Annoying. Then zig zagged down to the map change and made my biggest mistake of the day - not taking the control descriptions for the second half of the course. Lost a lot of rhythm having to keep unfolding the map etc to try to check descriptions and worse was to come...

Left he map change in totally the wrong direction, then spent a while wondering where control 12 was. It didn't exist. I assume it was the map change, but there was nothing there to punch. 13 could have been a good leg, but wasn't, because the control was right on the edge of a big bit of detail again. I was a bit slow, as I got sucked up the hill a bit and into some rock that I shouldn't have run through. 14 and 15 were just long running legs having to stay straight. 16 and 17 were short little direction changes and I spent so long trying to get to by descriptions for 17 that I lost track of where I was and got it a bit wrong. Also ripped off the numbers for controls 20 onwards somewhere around here. Oops.
18 took us straight back past 13 and up the hill. Hit it cleanly, but starting to feel a bit fatigued here. The main point of 19 seemed to be to get us over the fence. 20 I again attacked from the big rock surface just before it, but was careless with direction leaving it and ran down the wrong gully, then turned the wrong way, before having a proper look at the map and heading over to the control. Used the same bit of clearing for the third time to get to 21, 22 and 23 again used massive clearings to attack the flags. Did likewise staying high on 24, but was again sloppy keeping track of where I left the big clearing to attack. Dropped down the hill to a rock just above the clearing one across from where I thought I was, saw a flag, didn't have the numbers to check, so punched and carried on. Was the wrong control, but the right one was almost as far away from where it was supposed to be as I was (but in the other direction), so not all that upset to have missed out on a bit of a pot-luck hunt.
25 again was a case of attacking from the giant clearing, and pretty straight forward down the hill through 26 to the finish.
Will be good to see the splits. I finished about 5 minutes down on Blair, with some pretty significant errors in there. Unfortunately Craig's heart played up again, so no standard comparison point available. Hope the op goes well this week.
Glad I got around feeling reasonable, but think I would have struggled pretty bad with any significant hills or thick bush. Time to get the long runs happening :)

Course 1 - Splits

Yes, a rest day. A planned one at that.

Stock standard 5:2 x 7 to get back into the swing of windtrainer sessions regularly. Legs felt pretty shattered, so probably not my best effort. Never mind. Toughed it out. Glad to be doing pretty much nothing tomorrow.

Had thought about trying to squeeze a quick ocean paddle in after school, but the sun disappeared before then and the wind picked up a little, and in the end I didn't even get as far as driving to the beach to check conditions. Regretted it for most of the early part of the evening, as a windy paddle in the dark didn't really seem like a much better option. This is where having the training plan written down for the first time in ages helped. Knew I had to paddle either tonight or tomorrow morning, and knew it was gonna be easier to just get it done. Also had the benefit of only aiming for 70 minutes, whereas I probably would have been stupid enough to do the standard Garrett Rd bridge loop if I was just paddling aimlessly.

First half was pretty slow and tough, with a headwind for the majority. THankfully it was much easier on the way back. Have quite a lot of paddling fitness to regain by October... Out in about 3730, back in about 32.

12 x (2 min hard, 90 sec easy) plus WU and CD.

Probably went a bit easy in the first half, but was feeling it by the end, so maybe not.
Felt like a bit of an AR pansy running in tights and armwarmers, but the temp was about right for a chilly morning. Also ran in the O shoes to prevent my feet going totally numb on the cold sand. Strangely, developed a blister under the big toe of my right foot. Will need to be careful of it on the weekend.

Uneventful ride in, ecept for trying to go the wrong way where the Hepburn Ave detour has been extended. Legs felt pretty empty for the first half in particular. Started to feel better later, but feeling the effects of last night on anything resembling an uphill.

Now 2 days into my training program and haven't missed a session yet :)

Hmmm. The concept of using a day with 60km of cycling in it as a recovery day isn't going to work unless I actually take it easy on the bike. Worked pretty hard coming home, coz I was a fair bit later leaving work than intended and E has been sick again. Turns out it's tonsilitis this time. Frustrating, but not as messy as gastro. Legs feel totally shattered now. Fartlek tomorrow am will be a challenge, but I don't want to start skipping sessions on day 3...

Will get the totals right later.

Ampitheatre hills. Yuck.
4 long, recover down.
3 min extra break
4 short, recover down + 30 sec
2:14, 2:20, 2:21, 2:20 (recoveries about 1:15)
55, 55, 55, 57 (recoveries just over 2 min)

Serious case of the cee-bees before. Tried to go out conservatively, but still totally knackered by the end. Felt a bit wobbly at the start of the cooldown.