Training Log Archive: Pwatts

Had a race today as part of the Tassie Trail Run series. The race went 5km up Mt Wellington on some narrow trails. For this part of the run I stuck behind Ryan Smyth but almost at the top i had to walk 50metres and he got away from me. My HR was 193 the whole way up the mountain.
Finally hit some flat followed by downhill. There was alot of boulder hopping as the tracks were small and occaionally came out onto large boulder fields. In a downhill section i rolled my ankle really badly, with 5 km to go about 6 people over took me after this- i just couldnt keep up a good pace.
In the last km i tried to speed up to catch the guy infront, straight away went over on my ankle. another guy over took me and i fended off someone else.
REALLY sore ankle, having trouble walking on it at the moment

Had a day off today, i have a run tomorrow that i'll run pretty hard. Looking at this week in hours by intensity i think it'd be wiser to have a rest day today rather than risking an injury

Corporate Challenge run today at the waterworks. It was a choose your own adventure course. there were 15 controls on the map but you only had to visit 13 so the choice of which ones to leave was up to you. After talking with a few other people i think the controls i left off were the correct ones, as it ment i had less hill climbing. Still a tonne of hills as it was the waterworks.
At the start my knee felt like it was going to blow out just under the knee cap, but it didnt. i'll keep an eye on it

Ran from home to an orienteering event at the Domain. Alot of decent size hills on this run, its just undulating the whole way with a long one at the end.

Short race (4km) around the Domain. After last weeks terrible run on this map i was more careful and paid far greater attention to what i was doing than i had last week. Good course set by Stuart. The first 5 controls used areas that arnt often used and the last 4 were not technically hard but were physically hard as they were all uphill.

Ran home from the Domain after orienteering. Again it was hilly but i surged up each hill well and felt great at the end of the run

Middle Distance event (7.2km). Bit of a scrappy race. about 3 mistakes during the race and all were caused by a lack of confidence and logic. I was going perfectly to the control in each case then started to think i might not be in the right place. Each time i was a few hundred meters short of the control. Next time i feel this way i will make sure i stop then i'll check exactly where i am and hold my nerve to keep going.

Again i went out first because i wanted to be alone in the forest again. However this time there were alot of people from other courses around. Callum caught me up because of an error i made and from then on i couldnt shake him. He just stuck behind me and no matter how fast i ran through the middle of the course i couldnt ditch him.

For the last 4 controls the navigation was really easy and physically i was feeling great so i cranked the speed up to a full on sprint and managed to get about a minute on callum.

Long course today (9.2km). The start times were pre allocated and race conditions were meant to simulate easter ( 2min between runners etc). I was first starter which is something i have never done before. At control 3 i got caught up by Stuart Lawrie because of an error i made. By control 7 i had caught him then by control 8 i'd left him and didnt see him again. I ran the rest of this race alone, rarley even seeing people on other courses.

My time for this run is middle of the field but i am quite happy with it because i ran all but 1k of this race on my own with not many people on the map. The other people on my course finished in groups and had run alot of their races in packs, which are faster and require less nav.

Physically i felt great. There were several large hills in the run which i had to cross and i could comfortably run them all the way without feeling tired. Towards the end of the race i had enough in the tank to run fast when i was confident of my route