Training Log Archive: Bruce

King's Park recovery run

I spoke to Warren Key this morning from Yackandandah. He is setting the Oceania Middle Champs for October.
He thinks it could be the most technical area he has seen. Upon trying to find his first control yesterday he had to relocate off the start 3 times!
Warren is considering re-setting his courses on tracks and handrails so that people will actually make it around!

This is an event that you will not want to miss!

C • oh crap 3

Easter Day 3 - Relay distance
5th overall and 6th today.
The first 2 were in green and I took them really carefully. The fallen trees were really hard to negotiate and I didn't get a great line through them. I then stretched out in the open, hoping to catch 2 minutes on Evan. Apparently I went through him at 3 but I didn't see him. 7-10 were in a tricky forest area with lots of fallen timber again and vague slopes. I had forgotten my compass, so this was very dangerous, but I got through ok. Grant (4mins) and Evan (-2mins) caught me at 10. We headed to the paddock for the long leg. Grant and Evan ran the forest for the last km and I chose the open paddock to the left. I still think that this was the best for me, but the others got away by 30-40 seconds. Unfortunately this turned into 2.5 minutes over the last 3km. I tried as hard as possible - I was fast in the open, but I wasn't strong enough in the forest.

Route Gadget

5th place equals my best ever M21E easter (along with 2008 in Dubbo), and I was quite pleased to be only 3mins down on Simon today.

Included 2 trips to the start, and the M10 Novice course.

The boys were a little confused at 2 as they had to follow a dry watercourse that was just a line of mallee trees in a paddock. After that Mason did very well and ran off ahead to complete the last 9 controls 100-200m ahead of me.
Torren ran fast at the start, but got a stitch from 3-4. We agreed that it was probably all of the Barbecue Shapes that he had been eating during the morning. He recovered after a few controls and ran as fast as his 6 year old legs could travel.

Mason and Torren were very pleased with their Novice badges and really enjoyed the event.

Thanks also to the Blue Sparks group for the kids orienteering activities over the weekend.

C1 Day 4 - Splits

Easter Day 2 - Long Distance
Race cancelled due to incorrectly placed #3 - a real disappointment after putting in all of the training for long distance race and then running quite well.

I had a good start, spiking 1, and running agressively to 2 straight over the hill. Approaching 3 from the SE, I saw a couple of flags, but they were not on my feature so I continued on. Upon reaching the site I saw no flag and was a little confused. I tried to find a large feature to relocate and found Graham Braid who explained that it was mis-placed and was the flag on the cliff that I saw on the approach. After the confusion I wasn't confident enough of my location to really do anything other than punch and continue. I didn't think it was my role to pick up the flag and attempt to relocate it.

My time loss was probably 60-90 seconds - not enough to destroy my run, so I continued at full speed and tried to put it out of my mind.
I took pretty straight route choices for most legs in the farmland, except for going right from 6-7 and left from 11-12 to avoid the rockfaces.
I lost 45 seconds at 12 by mis-interpreting the rocks on the northern edge of the circle to be the control site.

My mistake on the second map was not going straight to 23. I contoured out and ran the side of the hill towards the dam to save height. This didn't really pay off. I should have gone straight and could have saved at least a minute.

I was quite strong from 23 onwards and pulled a gap on Craig, who was probably on level terms with me as I crossed paths with him coming out of 23. My route from 26-27 running 200m up the fence was probably a good choice.

Unofficial Results

Route Gadget

Shadowing Mason and Torren on M10N.
I didn't particularly enjoy another 1500m to the start again on top of my 16+km race.
Anyway, it was fun to shadow the boys and watch them enjoy it so much. The first 5 were quite difficult. The handrail was a creek, but it was rough and difficult to follow. If you were in the creek running was slow, but if you were out of the creek, the kids risked missing the controls.
4 was the most tricky. The creek disappeared into a rockface and you had to work out that you should go up and around it.
Mason was relieved to hit a track at 6. From there on he ran off and did very well completely on his own.
Torren was tired after climbing the big hill and did well, but at a slightly slower pace on the track.
Check out Torren's Route Gadget on C19

C1 Day 3 - Splits

Easter 3-Day, Day 1
Fazzle Rock
A good place, but not a great run, and I was too far behind the winner for my liking.
5th place, 6 minutes behind Grant Bluett
There is not much to analyse today, being an IOF WRE no GPS watches were allowed, and maps were also retained until tomorrow afternoon.
I do know that I made a meal of #1. I crossed 3 watercourses correctly, but I dropped too low and turned right when the control was just 20m to the left. I ran approx 100m before turning around and heading back to the control.
After that I ran pretty well, catching 2 minutes to Lachlan Hallett by #6. I couldn't shake him for the rest of the race, and he just beat me in when I lost 15 seconds approaching the 4th last control.

Route Gadget

Shadowing Mason (8) on M10N - his first national competition.
My aim was to let him do as much as possible on his own, unless he was heading off in the complete wrong direction.
After taking a little while to fold his map, Mason was away down the fence for the first 4 controls. Torren (6) was with me as enter on the day, and he ran off down the hill ahead of Mason. Mason was being a bit careful, reading the map and watching his feet on the stony ground.
Torren was going great until the fence junction at the paddock at #5. He turned right instead of left and headed off the wrong way. I didn't have a map but it looked odd so I checked it out and suggested that he look at his map again.
By this stage Mason had caught up and they were back together. Back up the hill, Torren was getting a little tired and Mason had paced himself better. Now on tracks he was able to jog and run ahead to get the last 5 controls on his own and finish off well.
A great effort by both of the boys. I wonder how many years are left until they are beating me?

C • Watch out 2

C1 Day 2 - Splits

Event: Frazzle Rock Easter 2011
 

Easter Prologue
4th place in M21E
Open granite forest on a 1:5000 sprint map.
I started carefully, but gained confidence by nailing the first 2. There were 21 controls in 2.5km, so my main aim was to get around without any time loss. I probably could have pushed a little harder in the first half, but I was clean and put myself into contention for a good result.
I had a fair bit in reserve in the last 500m and ran hard recording splits within a second or two of the fastest over each of the last 5 legs.
Hopefully I can repeat this tomorrow over a longer course.

Route Gadget

Day 1 (Prologue) Long - Splits

King's Park run from Shenton Park