Training Log Archive: TheInvisibleLog

No running today. Now my right knee is painful. Too sore to run, but not bad enough to stop me being lined up for house jobs most of the day...

Hard day at the office. 6.2 k course on the north east slopes of Mt Alexander. I made two significant errors. The worst can be partially excused by the existence of an unmapped clearing which I used twice as a relocation feature. Soon after that 22 minute leg (probably 10 minutes of error) Colin caught me. From then I concentrated and finished the second uphill half of the course with no errors. Colin must have become excited as he soon after abandoned the course in self-disgust.

C • Relocation 2

Overtime atthe office. Picked up the five distant controls for Warwick. Got to check out the scene of my embarrassment and make sense of the reasons behind the error. Got to climb 159 metres as well.

Ankle recovery is slowed. Saturday ?

C • Saturday 3

The ankle is recovering faster than the past two experiences of this particular problem. I can walk without limping today and completed my eccentric contraction exercises. Both seemed a distant dream yesterday. Maybe Mt Alexander is likely after all.

No running possible with the ankle in its current condition. Further evidence I should have stopped before control 1.

It's useful to go back through my rather plump injury log and discover this is my third ankle strain in four years. The lessons from the previous two events are clear... keep trying to run and it will take 2 weeks to recover. Rest and it will take 1 week. Conclusion... no running for much of this week, if not all.

C • Ankle braces? 3

The day just proved I should listen to the advice of others. Chris Norwood said I should run through the model controls to get used to the scale. I didn't. Ian Dodd said I should be very careful on the first downhill to avoid ankle sprains. I didn't. The following account should now be just as you have anticipated.

S-1. Badly twisted my ankle sprinting down the hill. Seriously considered withdrawing from race. Mistake.
1-4 Hopped and hobbled between controls. This was slow but at least the navigation was accurate.
4-6. Pain receded to just pins and needles and areas of numbness. Decided I could now speed up to make up time. Stupid. Lost 8 minutes on these controls. On a sprint race that's appalling. I seemed to be over-running, still thinking 1:10,000.
6-7 Easy
7-8. Overran the control again. Considering this was the up hill leg, that is quite a feat of stupidity.
8-F Brain not working at all by now. If it was, I would have purposefully avoided punching 10 just to avoid my time ending up in the results.

The pantheon of aspirants well and truly beat me today. Well done Don, John Erwin etc.
7-8