Training Log Archive: heyU

Did absolutely nothing today (apart from sitting on my bum)

am: My last run before heading off to the Oceania champs. Took a map with me to get a little bit more practice at reading on the run (something that I'm not that good at these days). Very sluggish run :-(

am: Run through Shenton and around Kings Pk. Started off on my usual 10k circuit but got a bit leg-weary at about the 6k mark so I cut it bit short in the last part. Became a bit of a struggle towards the end. Hope I'm feeling a bit stronger on Mon !

am: Standard 13 in Kings Pk. Fastest time for more than a year - by 7 secs :-)

pm: Usual gym session

am: Loop through Shenton Pk and Kings Pk. Same as yesterday. Legs a bit tired this morning. Good morning for a run - cool and cloudy with a little bit of drizzle.

pm: The usual core stability stuff. Seems like ages since I last did one of these sessions although it was only last Fri.

am: Loop through Shenton Pk and around Kings Pk. Legs were a bit tired afterwards. Still tight in the left calf and achilles.

pm: Upper body, core and quads

am: Recovery run in Kings Pk. Knees were a bit dodgy and the left calf/achilles was tight at the start. Got going after about 1k and actually didn't feel too bad. Probably could have raced today - nothing too rough and thick though.

pm: Supposedly easy session with focus on calf muscle control. Was harder than it should have been. The fatigue from the weekend must have finally caught up with me.

am: WA championships. Mt Dale, Day 2.

Feel like I've been through the "Rumble in the Jungle" with Muhammad Ali. Physically I was fine until no. 5, but after that I started to struggle. It was the 15 contour climb up to the control through the unmapped green that really killed me. I haven't run through such a thick, steep, scratchy, scrubby, crappy area for a long time. South Ledge is nirvana compared to this!
The main problem is that a lot of the supposedly runnable forest should be shown with various shades of green. Cap that off with some cute control placements (where you got the impression that an effort was made to ensure that the control wasn't too visible to anyone more than a few metres away), incorrect descriptions for 2 controls, and one control on a feature that was in the wrong place compared to the obvious attack point then you have a recipe for a fun day out. Started swearing a lot after No. 7, which I found on about the 3rd pass. I went within metres of it each time but was looking for a control at the head of a shallow gully and wasn't expecting it to be tucked down in a watercourse fork below the gully head! Was just aiming to get to the finish after that.
Still ... was able to keep going to the end. First time I've raced on consecutive days for 2 years. Finished well behind Craig (~18mins) though. If only I was that unfit.

am: Short warm up before race. Repeated the dose after the race.

am: WA championships. Mt Dale. Day 1.
First orienteering 'race' for quite a long time. I couldn't have run much harder in this area. Scrubby and rough under foot with lots of fallen timber and broken laterite. Hard for anyone using granny glasses. Too much time just watching that I didn't fall and break a leg.
Was careful in the early stages and hit the first 4 controls OK. Wasn't careful enough at 5 though (3m boulder). Went past the boulder on the eastern side - just didn't see it in the scrub. I recovered quickly after I spotted a group of rocks beyond the control to the SE, and it would have only been a small miss if I'd sorted it out straight away. Unfortunately, I then went to the boulder on the SW side of the control and still didn't see the boulder the control was on even though I was only 10-15m away! (one of the least imposing 3m boulders I've come across). Stood there like a goose until Rhys appeared, having caught 2 mins on me. We played cat and mouse for the rest of the course, often taking different route choices but ending up together at many of the controls.
I went straight on 7 whereas he went out to the left via the yellow and bare rock and gained about 30 sec. On 8, he went up the track and cut across to the road. I stayed closer to the straight line and lost more time. He might have been nearly 1 min ahead by now, but I caught him coming out of 8 by virtue of an easier approach to the control across some bare rock and open ground and avoiding some of the awful garbage he went through after leaving the control. I got 9 just in front of him and kept up with him on the early part of the long leg to 10. Was thinking at this point I didn't really want to run quite this hard. I dropped behind a bit at 10 after going a little too far to the left of the line and getting caught in some shit. He was starting to get out of sight on the way to 11 so I put in a surge to make sure I could see him take the control. Then got a glimpse of orange and white from about 100m away and went for it. Did 12 fairly smoothly and I was right behind him again. He bashed his knee at 12 so was a bit slow coming out of the control. We went different ways to 13 and I got a break on him by going to the right of the line and making maximum use of the bare rock and clearings approaching the control. 14 and 15 were just basically a case of running as hard as I could and trying not to stuff up. Managed to stay in front to the finish (not by much though!).
Was very pleased that I could run as hard as this in a physically demanding area. The real test though, will be how I pull up after Day 2

Rest day from running in the vain hope that I might actually feel good tomorrow :-) (rather than just simply tightening up like I seem to do after just about every other rest day)

C • rest 1

pm: Usual core and postural

am: Easy stroll in Kings Pk. All the aches and pains are starting to surface now. Probably because I'm anticipating problems after the weekend !

pm: Usual gym minus the bike. One bike was kaput and the other was being hogged and I couldn't be bothered waiting.

am: Loop through Shenton Pk and around Kings Pk. Threw in a bonus 500m effort on Hale.
Still sore in the right butt :-(

pm: All the usual stuff.

Bonus work out with tennis ball and foam roller afterwards...followed by some stretching. Tightness in right glutes/ITB still a bit of a worry considering there's 2 days of racing this weekend.

am: Easy run in Kings Pk. Need to start freshening up. Spotted a couple of familiar dudes on bikes taking it pretty easy.

C • Very Easy 3

pm: Upper body, core and quads. Same as Sat.

am: 'easy' run in Kings Pk. General soreness in the right butt, but it warmed up after a few k so that's OK

pm: Usual core and postural stuff.

am: Long run. Two laps of Kings Pk. First a circuitous 14k that goes all over the place, followed by an 11k loop through Shenton Pk and anticlockwise around the park again. Stuffed at the end as usual.

First 40min seemed to take an eternity. Thought a few times about calling it quits after one lap, but managed to convince myself to keep going. Still waiting for the day when I can finish one of these feeling like I could do a few more ks.

C • At least you can finish them 2

am: Easy run in Kings Pk. With map to practice map reading on run.

am: Upper body, core and quads. All the usual stuff, incl. some pissy bench presses. Started to up the weights on the pec dec, seated row, and lat pulldown.

VMO activation exercises
single-leg squats: 3 x 10 each side (on the wedge)
gym ball work
pec dec: 2 x 15@30kg, 1 x 15@35kg
lat pulldown: 2 x 15@35kg, 1 x 15@40kg
seated row: 2 x 15@35kg, 1 x 15@40kg
bench press: 3 x 15@30kg
leg press: 3 x 15@45kg
lat pulldown/pushdown: 3 x 15@20kg
biceps: 2 x 12@6kg each side
balancing glutes: 2 x 15@20kg back, 2 x 15@12.5kg to side
leg extension (both legs up, single leg down): 1 x 10@35kg each side
clamshells: 3 x 20@2kg each side
bike 7 min

There's a fat guy who's often in the gym with me. Looks like he could hardly run 100m but he's bench pressing 90kg. Struggles to leg press a feather though :-)

am: Shenton-Kings Pk circuit.
Right hip aching this morning. Was fine during the run but started aching again afterwards. Probably fallout from the John Forrest run. I've noticed that a tough run in terrain on a Sun is invariably followed by right hip niggles on the Wed-Fri. Had the same problem after I ran 80min on South Ledge a few weeks ago. Probably still adapting to the extra demands of running in terrain

am: Standard '10k' in Kings Pk. Pretty much a standard time too. Used to be able run this under 40 not too long ago :-(
Still a bit sore in various places. Not sure how much of it is due to the run at John Forrest.

Massage at lunchtime. Tight in the glutes and right ITB

pm: The usual. Upper body, core and quads

am: Loop around Kings Pk to warm up for some intervals on Hale

am: 4x1k on Hale with 500 recoveries
3:46 3:44 3:44 3:48
Recoveries ~2:35-2:45
Well ... this session ended up being harder than I would have liked. Felt pretty good on the first one and after that it was all downhill. Chest was burning a bit, so I may still be feeling the effects of the cold I had last week. Quads and glutes were a bit sore. Not enough to affect my running though. I think there's a big stretching session coming up.

am: Slow crawl home after ints

am: usual core and postural

am: Steady run. Usual loop through Shenton Pk and around Kings Pk. Was supposed to be 40min+ but somehow ended up being faster than that. Quads seem a little bit sore after their workout last night

pm: Usual gym. Had to hustle tonight to finish it all in the available time. In the end forgot to do 3rd set of squats

am: Recovery run in Kings Pk. Mild case of 'terrain foot' syndrome in both feet but otherwise no real problems.

pm: Pilates. Focus on VMO (again), glute med and max. As usual the legs were a bit rubbery at the end. Seems to be paying dividends though.

am: State series event at John Forrest National Park. Not to be taken seriously! The intention was to run this one reasonably hard, but it was difficult to stay motivated given that the coarse was uninspiring and that there seemed to be only a vague correspondence between map and terrain in many areas. Its a shame it's so poorly mapped because it is a very technically and physically challenging area. Lost time on many controls because of the stacks of unmapped thick vegetation which made route choice a complete lottery. Topped off by the misplaced control at No. 13, which I found on the third attempt by looking where everyone involved in the pattern search hadn't tried yet. Ran hard up to no. 11 and was pleased that I was able to keep going through the rough stuff.

am: Steady run through Shenton Pk and Kings Pk. Similar to yesterday but did a bit more distance around the top end of the park. Felt OK again today.

am: Usual gym minus the gym ball stuff and the bike. For some unknown all the gym balls had just disappeared from the gym. Couldn't be bothered with the bike.

am: Steady run thru Shenton and around Kings Pk. Actually felt like I had a bit of drive for a change. Probably won't last!

One good thing after all the VMO activation drudgery is that I can actually switch them on whilst running (and keep them on). Now I just need to be really patient while they gain strength and endurance. 6 months might do it if I'm lucky.
I'd already noticed when doing single leg squats in the gym that I only experienced knee pain when the VMO was not really coming on, and (a big plus) I could switch on when required, prevent the pain and gain better control. May finally have a long term solution to the knee problems I've had over the years:-)

pm: Usual core stability and postural. Was disciplined enough to ignore the football :-)

No run this morning. Thought I would give myself a chance to get over the cold (besides, fell asleep again after I turned off the alarm :-) )
Hopefully should be feeling better by Sunday. Was planning to race (real racing not just mucking about) just to see what I can do at current levels of fitness. Probably won't go much faster than I would if I was running steadily and will probably feel terrible, but you never know !

pm: Upper body, core and quads.

VMO activation exercises
single-leg squats: 3 x 10 each side (on the wedge)
gym ball work
pec dec: 3 x 15@30kg
lat pulldown: 3 x 15@35kg
seated row: 3 x 15@35kg
bench press: 3 x 15@30kg
leg press: 3 x 15@45kg
lat pulldown/pushdown: 3 x 15@20kg
biceps: 2 x 10@6kg each side
balancing glutes: 2 x 15@20kg back, 2 x 15@12.5kg to side
leg extension (both legs up, single leg down): 1 x 12@30kg each side
clamshells: 3 x 20@2kg each side
bike 8 min

am: Short run through Kings Pk to war memorial and return. Definitely got a cold. Running seemed OK but I could have happily gone back to bed afterwards. Went to work to spread it around (probably where I got it from in the first place)

pm: Usual core stability stuff. Some extra stretching afterwards.

am: Pretty lethargic this morning. Started out on the 8k shenton-kings pk circuit and cut off a bit at the end. Lost motivation once I knew I'd gone far enough to do 30+ min - figured that 1/2 hr was plenty.

Feels like I'm coming down with a cold. crap

pm: Full session in the gym.

am: Long run out to Bold Pk and return. Went out through Kings Pk, Rosalie, Shenton bushland, Lemnos St and Challenge stadium. Ran a single circuit of Bold Pk and returned home the same way. Not an inspiring run, there's still too much street running, but at least this time I only ran about 1/2 of Lemnos St. Really top day, a definite touch of spring in the air, but cool and dry for running early on.

pm: Didn't really feel like doing this initially, but it was good that I did because I felt pretty sharp once I got going and ended doing the full round (of exercises)

am: Just a short run in Kings Pk. Was going to do something longer, but slept in and couldn't be bothered

am: Easy run to check out an alternate route across to Bold Pk. Ran from home to Kings Pk, Rosalie Pk, around Shenton lake, subway at Shenton Pk train station and into Shenton bushland. Will probably run this way on my next long run. It makes max use of all the open space between home and Bold pk.

am: Cut down gym session. Not enough time for the bike, gym ball and squats :-(