Training Log Archive: Sanders

Cockies long run from hackett gates. Luckily for jase miss jones wasn't there or we would have been halfway up ainslie when he arrive :) Good fun today although I felt a bit funny after about an hour, but managed to run the whole way, even up the horrible fenceline to the top of hackett hill. Definitely good training for the upcoming bush capital and googong half runs. Hackett cafe was tops, we should go there every week. Had a lie-down after the run, just to "rest my eyes" but fell asleep for about half an hour.

jog in the pouring rain, got a bit cold by the end but otherwise felt pretty good.

girls run from cath's - big group of us, good to catch up on all the goss :)
nice run down through the uni to the lake then past al and robs and back home again. I don't like sneaking through the garden bed at the end, I am always worried the owner will come out and tell us off.

fast bilbys set with steve - lots of negative splitting, good fun, really enjoyed it cos I like pacing myself to come home strongly

picked up my new shoes and watch from wiggle at the post office this morning, hooray!

Night O set by Miss Jones on Majura West. I'm always apprehensive about night-O's so decided at the start to only tackle the easy controls and ditch the hard ones. This strategy paid off and it was really good fun,. especially in the open areas. Only had one problematic control where I took a while to find the right termy but otherwise it was fairly OK. Mind you, I was jogging slowly and walking lots, as GrantM will affirm since we were neck and neck for a few legs. I timed it all on my new watch :) Dinner at the asian noodle cafe was good, too.

C • Does that mean 2

Bilbys in the rain - did the medium set of spiral 800's with 400 recovery. I did 6 and felt like I'd done enough but then felt slack when I saw devil and jess keep going for about 10 more.

Short jog round little black mtn at lunch time. Devil earned a bravery medal today when he saved the labs from burning down in a fire by putting out the flames and rescuing us all.

C • Medal 3

After a top run at timbertops I was hoping to string together two good runs in a row, but no such luck. I decided to do Red 1 since I was helping collect controls and had lots of time to spare, but I think I should stick to Red 2, it was quite long today. I did really well in the first 5 controls, and had a good battle with devil, but then lost it on number 6 - devil sprinted away from 5 and went high, but I chose to go low so that I knew which gully was which. I got into the correct gully but couldn't see the rock control so hunted around a bit before going back nearly to number 5 to be sure of where I was, approached again from the high side... ended up in the same gully! I hunted around again and eventually found the control in some trees further down than where I was. Hit a low at that point and despite some good legs in the middle of the race, had lost confidence in my map-reading and when I couldn't read the shallow gullies at all towards the end, I walked a bit and so lost a lot of time on about three controls there. The last couple were fine, though, and I sprinted to the finish with GrantM. Initially when I finished I was a bit bummed that I was so far behind but then I found out that lots of people had made silly errors, it wasn't just me. Overall I had fun and enjoyed the run, and even had a few splits quicker than mace :) Good fun collecting controls after with devil, too.
I read in R4YL today that it's important to have a good warmup/warmdown routine and race plan - so I will try that next time!

My mum's birthday today so had to skip the Aus champs mtn run and drive home instead for her birthday. Did a boring flat run along lake rd, copland st, kooringal rd, and round the lake.

girls friday run from al's with catherine, shannon, al and me. lots of fun as usual. end of a very social week of training!

I was going to ride to/from bilbys but my boss jumped on me JUST as I was about to leave work to finish some things so I had to sprint home and take the car instead.

bilbys thursday ints - good turnout, did 10 x 500m with alternating 100 and 200 recoveries. It was a pretty hard set I thought, but got round. Ran in one of the outer lanes so I wouldn't lose concentration about where I was up to, 500's are tricky.

Lamp run with the cockies from shannon and grant's. We ran up along the ridge then along grant's favourite street in canberra, then back home again. The run seemed to go really quickly, maybe because I was busy chatting to ria. Yummy soup afterwards - great fun.

Bilbys, was going to do a mix between med and long to do 5.6km but felt good so did 6 x 1km. Caught up with the cocky girls about the races on the weekends and had yummo pizza afterwards with jess, emily, des, devil and sue.

just a jog round the suburbs today.
felt quite slack after reading the results of the blue mtns 100K, I was struggling to run 5K today.

Run from home up black mtn then alongside the botanic gardens and down a mtb track I'd never been on before. There was a lot of rubbish down at the bottom of the hill opposite the uni - lots of concrete pipes and bricks and things. You never notice it from the road. Nice morning for a run. My pace was all over the place, though.

Bilbys thursday ints. I did medium 4.2 km (2 x 200m, 2 x 600m, 1 x 1km, then down again). Ran fairly well but not as strongly round the track as on tuesday. Good weather for running. I finally found out who mace's track-mate is (she is v. quick). Had to sprint-ride there because I was super-late today and did my own warmup but missed the stretches. Cool down with devil and the girl who usually runs with daudi and the fast boys (forgot to find out her name).

Tired of not having a watch so I stayed up way past my bedtime to muck around on wiggle and ordered one that seemed to have good reviews from the triathletes who somehow have time to write dozens of reviews on wiggle. Actually I chose it because it was the cheapest.

friday girls run moved to thursday instead. cath and shan and I jogged round the anu-lake loop. miss jones was very sick, though :(
got the good goss as usual, this time about cath's exciting job prospects.
good fun.

Bilbys whistle set. Different to previous whistle sets, I did medium/long which was 4 x 3 mins, 4 x 1 min, then I did 3 x 3 mins instead of 4. Good fun - mace, devil, fel and jose were there too. Felt like I was running well for most of it.

Red 2 at Timbertops. I love this map! Last year I had a good run in the Jim Sawkins memorial, and this year I had an even better run. Not that the nav was very difficult.... but anyway, I was fairly steady through the first few, managing to wobble at bit at number 1, then strong through the middle bit, and even better towards the end because devil caught me up and I could follow a bit. That didn't help me at number 15, though - devil nicked off very quickly to his extra long Red 1 loop, I chose a different route choice, ran too far past mine, but caught myself quickly and found it again just as he caught me back up. Ran hard to the end - very happy to have a good, fun, run on a nice day. Fun warmdown with shep pat devil and gray. I tried to pike about a quarter of the way through but the boys didn't let me slack off then. Mia looked rather fetching in her cute little dinosaur suit. Definitely better than my fashionable O gear anyway.

C • good run 3

Realised I haven't run up any mountains in about two months so had a crack at blackie today. Nice day for a run - although I think I was going slower than walking pace towards the end of my slog up the mountain. Jogged v. slowly downhill through the suburbs home.

Morning run with the girls (Cath, Shan and Lucy) through ANU, down to the lake and through the city. Cath insisted on at least 40mins so we had to add an extra loop at the end.... we'd been talking too much and forgot to do the museum bit. Learnt a lot about nutrition this morning e.g. I didn't know milo was high in iron.

C • Milo 3

Bilbys, big turnout for a Thursday. Did a mixture between med and long, with 5 x 800m then 4 x 400m. Felt quite good and was keen to run since I had a pretty busy day followed by a speedy ride there.

This week I planned to run on Tues, Wed, and Thurs, so despite a bit of reluctance I decided to stick with my "program" and have a run this evening. Legs weary from the half on the weekend and bilbies last night, but had lots of energy from the massive chocolate cake my colleague brought to work today. Lucky I wore a thermal, it was cold!

6 big laps of the oval. And it wasn't raining, hooray.

Canberra Running Festival Half Marathon

Ran the half today - first time round this course having never done the canberra marathon. I thought it was a fairly good, flat course, but it was all on bitumen, which always makes my legs hurt the next day. I was happy with this run - went into the race unsure how I would go seeing as I've done no training for 3 weeks, followed by a good dose of jetlag, then masses of pide at the O party the night before.... despite this atypical preparation I felt quite good at the start and hoped to go under 95 mins.
Started out fairly well and noticed I was doing around 4:30 kms, which was good. Set my aim of maintaining this steady pace all the way. Stuck with a guy in a yellow shirt for a few kms, then he had to tie up his shoelace so I lost him. Then saw Sarah Buckerfield and her long plaits ahead of me and tried to catch up a bit to her. I caught her right on the 10 km mark, and had a bit of a chat (she also complained about the bitumen road!) but then I pulled away from her and kept going fairly strongly. I liked being able to see the course ahead as we went round the lake, and counted down the kms. At the hairpin I saw my nemesis Cathy Crompton just ahead and decided not to try to catch her, she was looking better than I felt. Phil Walker cheered me on as he was just behind me on the hairpin, and I also got a cheer from Brucie, Vanessa and Katie out on their Sunday run. Then it was just a matter of putting my head down and racing towards the end. I saw that I was still doing around 4:30, and having done 47mins at halfway, I knew I would get under 95 but it would be close. Ran as hard as I could to the end, and just got caught by the guy in the yellow shirt on the oval. Not too far behind Cathy C either. Overall, very happy with this race given it was not my goal and I paid about 30 dollars more than everybody else for the privilege (late entries suck). Impressed with Jase (massive PB) and Devil (also a decent PB and v. quick). I also got a PB compared to the 2008 Half (by less than a minute). Not sure about Susie, will have to ask her.

Post-race stiffness was helped by sitting for A-G-E-S at Deli Marco with the cockies waiting for coffee and food. It was worth waiting for, very yummy, but I fear D.M. is now blacklisted, and rightly so.