A tough weekend

Off to Stockton for the weekend for SW's squad camp.

Bailed from work at about 4:30pm on Friday, and packed up the car at home, waiting for Jim and Mohammed. They fronted at about 5:40, and we got going, arriving at Stockton just after 8pm to unload and grab dinner at the glamourous Stockton RSL. I went the Hokkien Noodles, which were actually pretty decent.

The accomodation was pretty decent (backpacker's hostel in the heart of Stockton, opposite the IGA) if somewhat bizarre. The place looked like what was originally a cinema that had then been squash courts, then converted into accomodation. Highlights included the cabin within a room that was once the central squash court, and the confusing layout of stairs - it was like living in an MS Escher drawing.

Saturday

7:30am - first session, sand hill repeats. Through a mix-up, the main squad left without a group of about five of us. We couldn't work out where they'd parked, but had a rough idea of where they'd gone. After some fruitless searching, we parked near the beach at the north end of Stockton and run along the beach for 3.1km in 18:37. It wasn't exactly ideal for running, with the tide up and only soft sand to run up. We found a huge area of sand dunes and were setting up to do the session on our own, when we spotted what looked to be the main group about 1-2km to the north. A lone figure made its way from the group, and it was fairly apparent it was SW (he does cut a distinctive figure). We headed up and joined the main group for 45 minutes of sand hill repeats. It was pretty hard, but I've had worse sessions at Wanda Hills. Either that or I'm fitter. Nah, that can't be it. To finish the session, we ran 2.2km in around 13 minutes over very sandy trail back to the cars, and got a lift back to my car.

At around 11:30am, we set up at the back of the Stockton pool for the weekend's strength session. After a little jog (2 minutes) this included a lot of abdominal and core work with medicine balls, various bridging poses, crunches, sit-ups and the dreaded gutbusters. As always, that session burned. We finished with another shorter jog.

The evening session was an 'easy out/hard back' session on the beach, from Stockton heading north. Being one of the long distance runners, I had 8k out, 8k back. Funny how perspective changes - I didn't bat an eyelid at this, I imagine it would have been a bit different a few years ago! We got out at about 5pm. The squad was split into 16k, 8k and 4k groups. The 16k group was five guys, and I was comfortably the slowest. The beach was good for running for the first 3km, and then was variable at best, and we had to dodge a few fishermen's lines. The warm up, 8k on sand in a little under 43 minutes, felt pretty hard to me, and I knew it was going to hard going getting back. We set off and I found it very difficult to get a rhythm going, periodically finding a good 10m to run on, only to have the water wash up and ruin up, or worse, wash on to me and drench my flats and socks. I ground out the distance to the 5km mark where the running improved markedly, and then tried to bash out the last 3k, and looking at the Garmin data I was hovering at or under 4 min/km pace here. Finished last for 36:58 - friggin' hard effort though.

After some stretching it was off to the salubrious Stockton Bowling Club for your stock standard sports club style Chinese meal. I went the chicken & cashew - it seemed the least offensive, although it did contain a lot of onion...

Sunday

The long run (well, only 2 hours today) took us along the waterline from the Stockton Pool, around the mouth of the river and up the river to the hospital, and then cut into the trail which lead up to the back of the new housing estate at the back of Newcastle Golf Club. The run to the trail was fine, but the trail itself was very sandy in a lot of places, and pitched and rolled, again making a good rhythm unacheivable. We were all grateful to turn around, but once I got through the hospital I was really struggling, and just ground the run out for about 23.5k in just under 2 hours. Jim and I took a quick dip, but I realised that the easterly had brought bluebottles which were sharing the water with us, so opted for a quick exit, despite the water being great on tired legs.

After watching Kerryn McCanns gutsy win in the Commonwealth Games' women's marathon (all the better with SW knowing Kerryn quite well) we wandered down to Stockton Pool for a 'recovery' session. This involved a 100 metre swim, 15 minutes of deep water swimming in the deep end, and alternating holding on the side of the pool and either kicking our legs or lifting our knees with underwater, 'no breath' swims across the width of the pool. We finished with a 100 metre race. I would have finished last, but finishers always beat DNFs.

Some of the squad went home after that, but seven remained for the final session of the camp, which was a nice easy 6k recovery jog in just under 31 minutes along the waterfront park at Stockton, before a quick shower and the run back to Sydney. Expecting the usual catastrophic traffic at the Gosford exit the F3 was instead quiet, quick and well behaved, with not a policeman in sight. We got home less than two hours after we left.

Things to take away:
- I had a pretty decent Saturday, but it took a bit away from Sunday and I really felt I battled at the end of the long run
- I need to do my strength work. Simple as that
- I'm a dud swimmer. I'll get there in the end, just don't be in a hurry if you're waiting for me
- the Skins do really help with recovery
- I like having a nap after a hard morning session with my iPod. I seriously doubt work will allow me to do this, but I do plan to explore this further when on holiday