Training Log Archive: slowphil

Feeling stiff right calf and hamstring, so focused on arms (esp. elbow position).

250m warm up (5:18)

8 x 50m with 45 sec rests (50, 51, 51, 49, 50, 50, 51, 51, 48 secs)

150m warm down.

Kept the run back fro the pool even more gentle than usual, given right leg stiffness (and didn't run at all between dropping off Zoe and the pool).

Right calf still quite sore, esp. at night

Event: Midlands Champs, National Event
 

Pretty good run, but to be honest the lack of technical intensity gave it almost a cross-country running race feel. Biggest mistake was finding the wrong last control (the description for ours was lower part of reentrant, yet flag seemed to be half way up the hill) and then (even worse) following the wrong set of tapes from the right last control back towards the wrong one!!! Lost 30 secs each time. Was ahead of Richard Barrett until then - not something I ever recall noting before.

Kept watching Ronny Falk WAOC, who started a minute behind me, overtake me coming out of a control, and each time we'd seem to take different routes to the next one, and the next time I would see him he was coming up from behind me again. He eventually dropped me by a couple of minutes on run back to the finish area, half of this was probably my fun and games around the final control.

Felt the right hamstring tighten a little over the last couple of km, but wasn't too bad on this occasion.

Good hard run with good weather and some nice views in the finish field, but a long way to travel for such a straightforward course. Still, I probably would have watched the footie rather than listening to it on the car radio on the way home, so shouldn't grumble...

Feeling a bit rough today, and lots of work-y things to do. No swim this morning, and may take it easy for the next day or two...

250m gentle warm up (6:00)

8 x 50m with 45 sec between each again (48, 50, 51, 50, 50, 51, 50, 48 sec)

100m gentle warm down.

Ankles and elbows were fine, if stiff from the efforts of yesterday. Kick timing was v hard. Will need to look at that stuff again...

some stiffness in right hamstrings today after a hard day yesterday - took it easy on the jog back from the pool

Focused on short bursts and technique, as planned.

100m warm up, including a couple of lengths thinking about bent elbows, and a couple of lengths with the kick float, thinking about ankles, straight before the speed work.

8 x 50m, with 45 secs between each (one min for the last two).
splits: 46, 48, 48, 50, 50, 50, 51, 52 sec. probably not great that I couldn't keep the pace going, but the bent elbows make it feel like different (unused) muscles are required, so no wonder I got tired!

100m warm down. Pool v busy after that (either the good weather at last or lots of kids training before the galas, compressing the adults into fewer lanes, I think) so glad to call it a day, with 2 or 3 more sessions still ahead of me today...

OK run, but missed four controls which is too many considering the technical difficulty (and the fact that I always miss one of the sites I missed this time!!!). Hit all the others. At #5, after a 2 min run on a road, I was somehow too low looking for a pit, and burned 2 mins. Tried to use the green stains on the map, but they're not always as accurate as in Leith Hill, for example! Came out of 7 too fast, trying to drop a runner behind me, and then misread a spur as a valley. 3 mins gone there. Pretty poor, considering I'd used the spur as a navigational feature on the way to the previous control! Small miss at 13, as I somehow veered 45 degrees when coming into a short section of mid-green (so much for the terrain bearings exercise at the weekend!). 1 min I guess. And then missing the pit on the knoll in the western end for the fourth time in four courses that have used the site (thank goodness it couldn't be used in the MTBO a few years ago, the one time I didn't have to visit the site, or I never would have got around Aldershot!). Missed it north and west, as I think I always do, but especially annoying since I passed very close by a few minutes earlier, and made a mental note to get it right this time!!! 2 more mins I suspect. 8 mins total given away.

Right achilles feeling quite stiff towards the end, so didn't push it all the way to the finish (especially since I've planned one more run tonight, which may be a run too far...)

Having seen the results, I ended up 20 mins down on a clearly fit-again Dave Rollins, who was four mins clear. My guesstimates of time loss were all pretty much right, but I also lost the best part of an extra minute when taking a straight rather than round route choice midway. Funny thing was that the clincher for the terrain run choice was an extra chance to recce the area in which I always go wrong!!! :)

Good session today - felt strong, and concentrating on technique to go quicker in the shorter intervals seems to be paying off straight away.

250m warm up (5:02)

5x100m, one minute rest between each: 1:46, 1:46, 1:47, 1:47, 1:47 (the last two sharing a lane).

150m warm down

Lots more still to work on (shorter intervals, shorter rests, working on kick, raising legs, pointing toes, timing leg kick, bending elbow in the water) but already a ten percent improvement in 100m times, so halfway to finding the extra minute I would have needed to give Ross a serious challenge in the CLS Aquathlon... :)

Quite a strenuous walk to Zoe's friend's party - Zoe spent the entire journey on my shoulders!