Training Log Archive: Mounty

Wicked omelet for breakie. Don't remember the name of the joint. Really should go for a leg loosener.

Canberra. Bored. Not sure what to do here without a bike.

Legs pretty good today, but still feel the calf a bit. Quads suprisingly good. Main damage from weekend's run is a toenail. I kicked a rock which separated the back edge of the nail from where it goes in to the toe. This means the loose, sharp edge has cut in to the toe. F'ing hurts.

McDonalds for breakfast, and Rocky Road ice cream for lunch.

Oxfam Trailwalker. 12:09:30. 90 seconds quicker last year, but course was 1km longer this time. Sounds straightforward when you put it like that, but a few 'challenges' to work with this time round. Good team effort to keep it together.

Arrived at Brooklyn at 6am to a hive of excited activity, and a beautiful Spring day. Well, lovely day for support crewing but already clear that it was going to be warm and humid for those running. In the end, temperature spent much of the day in the 20's with humidity in the mid 80%'s - tough for the big blokes in the team. Fortunately Im a short-arse that doesn't sweat much.

Donned the superb team-hats that Katrin had put together, and headed out of the carpark at 7am on to the b*stard hill out of Brooklyn. Settled in to a nice rhythm up the top, joined only by Toby's team who stayed with us for the first 45min, until we snuck away when the singletrack started.

All good until about an hour when I started to develop a sore spot in my left calf, which I think was a throw-back to ankle roll in the Jabulani run. Not ideal with 90k to go, and not a great feeling with 3 keen team-mates relying on you. Not much to do but keep running and cross the fingers. Took a little while to stop compensating, evidenced by other knee getting sore but eventually sorted my head out and after another hour I started to gain confidence that it was going to be annoying, but not deteriorate.

Pace was good thru' to Berowra Waters, but a bit disjointed rhythm wise. Was the first time we'd run with Jon W, and it took a little while to calibrate. Highlight of this section was coming around a blind corner to find someone had set up a tent in the middle(!) of the track. Took a dive over the invisible guy rope, and pointed out to the occupants that there might be a 'couple' of other people coming past shortly. Funny.

Just before the first checkpoint at Berowra Jono rolled his ankle. Badly. When I stopped to take a look and saw the swelling was bad enough to create a muffin top over the top of his shoe, figured we were done for the day. Impressively, he kept going without pause up the hill to waiting support crew. Katrin's gym background came in handy here with an expert ankle taping job, and we headed out on the next section still 4 minutes up on last year. To complete the ankle story, he just ran on it until the end and said no more of it. Here's a photo of ankle at the finish after the swelling went down. ankle

Started to fund our rhythm now, and rolled thru' Mt Kuringgai, and down to Bobbin Head nicely. Quick water refill at Bobbo, and then quick up the hill to the Sphinx and halfway. Went thru' in 5:48 compared to 6:00 last year. The course opens out a bit thru' to St Ives showground, giving a growing feeling of running rather than rock-hopping. Getting pretty warm now, with Jono and Bull starting to feel the heat a bit. Boring out and back on a tarmac bike path, across Mona Vale Rd at 7.5hrs, and in to the home straight towards Belrose. Feeling great thru' here, but Jono starting to flag a bit. Found a comfortable tempo and rolled thru' to the gratuitous climb up the hill and back to Belrose. Checkpoint moved from last year, adding an extra 1km (thanks). Took a slight pause here to recharge, with Jono having a bit of a downer and feeling a bit queezy. Suggested he should try throwing up as its worked for me in the past. Sure enough after a puke he perked up, and was good for the rest of the day.

Back down to the Cascades, and it was Bull's turn for a flat spot. A few cramps and tired he dropped in to grind mode and chugged along quietly in the hurt box. He was hesitant to hand over his pack until I pointed out that I've given my pack to a chick in the past (thanks Kim!). Arrived at Roseville bridge 5min down on last year's split, to be met by the kids with Thomas giving an impromptu trombone performance after music lessons. Golden.

The grind continued around Killarney, past home and up to Ararat oval just on 6pm. Lights on, and headed out at 10:58. Bull started to come good, and the pace slowly lifted thru to Spit Bridge. With 7k to go the boys worked out they were in with a shot of matching last years time and took off. Literally. Hammered up the hill from the bridge, and thru to Balmoral at a silly pace which held thru to the finish. Glad we knew where to go as the course markers weren't out yet. I was hanging on the back wondering where the hell that came from, until we arrived just after 7pm to be greeted by organisers bearing champagne bottles. Phew.

C • Nice 8

Cruisy river loop with a Currie Rd extension. Left the watch at home, and headed out for efficiency practice - relax as much as possible at cruising pace. A very enjoyable way to run. Couple of run thru's at the end.

'Wtf' award of the day goes to Thomas who won the NSW State Gymnastics grand-prix (u/8) out at Homebush. Blimey.

C • And when did he start doing gymnastics? 2

Saturday afternoon paddle on the ergo due to i) lack of time, and ii) dodgy weather. Cruise to start, then 10 * 500m with varying recovery. Longest Ive paddled in one go on the machine. Doing intervals is good to break up the time. Only downside was the occasional distraction of passing family members.

Balls Head trot to wake up the legs. Did 2 * 1km run thru's around the Balls Head loop. 3:40-odd and 3:30-odd.

Just enoying rolling along in the morning sunshine. I noticed the Malga Ave magpie loosening up with a practice run. Wont be long.

Gentle ride in to get teh legs going again. After saturday's effort, decided to have a couple of days off to stretch things out and get symmetrical. Should have done so last week.

Take things as it comes ride. Legs felt good, so went with it. Quickest commute for a while, although traffic light gods had a bit to do with that.

Roseville bridge to Balmoral. Running poorly. Left ankle a bit stiff from giving it a bit of a roll last weekend, and right hip flexors tight. Running like that makes for subtle compensations, so when left calf started to get a tight spot I pulled the plug on planned run and went home for a stretch.

After a hard run I always seem to need to get a crap run out of the way. Hopefully have sorted that now.

A couple of hours work at home while it was nice and sunny, then rode to North Sydney just as the rain and southerly hit. Bewdiful.

Nondescript ride until I got to West St, when I dropped in behind a big body builder type on a mountain bike. As we came to a pinch, he stomped on a big gear and snapped his crank clean in half. Wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it. I collected his crank and (flat) pedal off the road, and handed it over saying I was very impressed.

Cold wet ride home.

Bought a boat. This one's got sails. Unfortunately it's kid-sized.

C • Cool! 2

Bonk. Slow jog around Balls Head & Gore Creek to see how things have pulled up. Answer was 'tired' and 'flat', and in need of a stretch. Hammies in good shape, but quads short and in need of a good roller-bashing. Late night for school concert at the Town Hall probably didn't help.

Running late, rode solidly. Legs in good shape for 48hrs after solid hit-out. Knees feel like they've done some work, else OK. Could feel the fatigue last night though.

Recovery ride home. Legs in much better shape than expected. Glad I was riding rather than running though.


Interesting conversation of the weekend. Headed to Chris' for some pizza and 'run to melbourne' stories (they were somewhat repetitive :-)), to find his mate 'Jonesy' there. He's one of the guys that kayaked to New Zealand a couple of years ago. They're heading off shortly on their next trip - unsupported on foot to the South Pole and back. 2200k, 160kg sleds each. Training program consists of dragging truck tyres on Maroubra beach for muscle, and eating lots to put on fat. Crazy.

Discovered that there was a fund-raising trail race on this weekend called the Jabulani Challenge. Nicely before Oxfam (I guess that is by design), it seemed like a good opportunity to give the legs a hit out, so I signed up for an enter on the day. I didn't know much about the event other than the course looked interesting. Start at Lindfield oval, down the NOSH track to Roseville bridge, then all the way up the creek to Mona Vale Rd. Thru' to Bobbin Head via the Sphinx stairs, and then back up the Gibberagong track to finish at Wahroonga.

Quite a respectable turnout at Lindfield oval, and then a very entertaining start. Everyone was randomly gathered around the grandstand listening to the briefing, when the organiser finished what he had to say then suddenly said 'go'. Funny.

Stupid pace to start as usual, with a group of about 10 forming when we hit the fire-trail. Had a look around to see who was onboard at this point, spotting a few familiar faces and also Alex Mathew (who won 6 foot track last year in 3:20). Alex headed off the front shortly after, and I did the usual NOSH thing of easing forward ready for the singletrack.

On to the first rough bit - the new detour, and then the rocky downhill - and I caught back up to Alex who looked happier on the smoother stuff, and we settled in with a group of 4 now. Well 3 really, as Alex nicked off the front again as the track smoothed out. Struck up a conversation with the remaining lads, mainly to stop getting carried away with pace using the 'I can still talk test', and picked up an anecdote that NSW Stinger will enjoy. One of the lads introduced himself as Jasper, and explained that he was training to break the Oxfam record in a couple of weeks. Impressed by the confidence I asked who he was running with, to be told their lynch pin is Toby Cogley.

Anyhoo, got down to Roseville Bridge to find that the running legs have improved a bit lately. AP tells me I ran the first ~5km of the NOSH in early June in 21min, which was about the same pace I did in the race back in '05 when I last ran it (for 65min). Rather suprised to do the same section this time in 21:30 with 40k to go. Up on to the bridge, and Alex was about 30sec ahead. A gap which rapidly grew as we hit the bitumen in the park - I felt slow watching. Continued as such for about 2k, until he missed the turn up the hill in to the bush and we caught up again.

I'd planned at this stage to take a breather for a little bit (I'd done 44 for the first 10k nosh track included), but when the track got rough the others disappeared backwards. Figuring that this was the only chance I'd ever get to run in front of someone of Alex's calibre for a bit, and that staying out of sight would deprive them of a set of orienteering feet to follow, I kept up the pace through to the Cascades. Ran really well thru' here - getting better at rockhopping again.

Out of the woods at about 15k ready for the first climb of the day up the Quarry track. Jon Worswick was a minute or so back, else no one to be seen. Once up the hill on to the fire trail, and Alex unsuprisinlgy cruised past again at about 19k. Over Mona Vale Rd to the first drink stop at 21k, and he was 30sec odd ahead. I took a moment to put some water in my pack and never saw him again. Reason being that he took a wrong turn shortly after, and I got past without knowing. Very disappointing.

Ran the rest by myself, although caught up to the 24k runners thru Bobbin head. Sphinx stairs stung the legs a little bit, OK but not great pace down to Bobbin Head and a bit tired at the next drinks near the water. Became claer at this point that the course was gonna be 2-3k longer than advertised. Hmm.

Hard work up the Giberagong trail - it's quite rough and slowly uphill. Steep climb to the last drinks at 37k, then 8k to finish on undulating varied trail with some narsty pinches. A bit lazy through here, finding excuses not to really push. Got to the finish bang on 4 hours, with Jon Worswick coming in a few minutes later, and Alex finally another 5min back.

Nice run. Pretty happy with that effort for Sydney trails.

C • Impressive 4

Lunch jog (well at 4pm) to Balls Head. Tired and slow.

Lunchtime run up the Nosh track from home. Absurdly nice day, just great to be outdoors. Cruisy run, with a couple of stretch stops. Left adductor a bit stiff from kicking things.

Bit of luck on the way home. Did a massive ankle roll, one of the one's where you go with it and end up with the topside of your shoe in contact with the ground, but came away unscathed.

Then home for the evening primary school concert. Thanks for the hall Julia.

Evening ergo loosen up.

Name drop of the day - chatted to Grant Hackett.

So much fun, in a comfort zone expanding kind of way.

Gav session. Flexors not too bad.