Training Log Archive: Craig

Went to bed early last night so I woke up pretty early too and decided to try going out for a bit of a jog. Set out through KP and I was enjoying it so much I decided to add a lap around the river. Picked up the pace a bit while weaving around in KP on the way home. I couldn't possibly manage the 1km walk to work so I'd better try to ride my bike. Was about to get on my usual way of putting my left foot on the pedal and swinging the right leg over as I push off when I realised that would probably end in tears. A bit sore to begin with but loosened up enough to forget that it would be unwise to attempt the usual rolling dismount. Had a nervous moment but survived. Used the lift to get up to my office. Rode home for lunch as well.

C • What??? 18

Second half of the rogaine. (Report from the start)

We ran the first couple of minutes towards Yarra Rd "to get clear" but by then I was already wondering if anyone else was going the same way. As soon as we started climbing I was in trouble and had to ask Steve to take it easy up the hills. I guess he backed off enough for me to stay in touch but not enough for me to stop suffering. This continued for the whole event, I was comfortable enough most of the time but any time we hit a steeper hill Steve would start pulling away and I would start to hurt, particularly in the hamstrings. Each time I would think about asking him to slow down again but couldn't bring myself to do it.

Went pretty well through the first afternoon running all the downhills and hitting most of the controls pretty well. Made a small mistake on 107 going up onto the spur a bit early. This seemed to be another common theme throughout the event. Any time we went through areas with a bit more detail that seemed like familiar orienteering terrain I would start trying to read the map as if it was at normal orienteering scale. Hit a few sections of parrot bush but nothing really slow so kept a good pace and were a bit ahead of schedule. Another small mistake on 65, staying on the track longer than we intended, and a bit slow into 91 as it was starting to get dark. About 38km covered in just over 6 hours.

Got the torches out after crossing the creek and hit 30 spot on. We were expecting it to get tougher from here and it certainly did. From 30 Steve suggested swinging left a bit to stay out of the steep stuff but I was too scared to leave the straight line having had a bit of trouble judging distance in daylight and not having navigated at night for years. The first part was nasty so we did swing a little left until it opened up a bit and then stayed pretty straight. Down the creek from 90 was ok but the climb to 80 was horrendous, maybe there was a better way but we couldn't see more than a couple of metres so just kept battling on. After taking different lines a couple of times I decided I should just follow Steve so that if we got stuck at least we would be stuck together. Up to and along the ridge to 100 was not too bad and the burnt section back down was nice but the climb to 60 seemed to go on for ever. I had no idea where we were going up here and just tried to keep Steve in sight. I wish we had thought of getting it before 30 the way Andre & Wil did.

It was a relief to get out to the track at 20 and have a bit of a run to the water at 54 but we pretty satisfied to have got through that section without any mistakes and still feel on track to complete the course.

In hindsight I think I had a bit of a low patch through the next section but wasn't really aware of it at the time. We lost a bit of time searching for 82 but I think we expected a few controls like that so weren't too bothered. We must have gone very close on the first pass then headed S on the E creek then W into the clearing and N until we found it very close to where we started.

Heading into 72 things really started to go wrong. I realised it was starting to go downhill to the S so we must have come through above the saddle. I tried to head due E but it was thick and I soon found myself heading downhill to the N. I thought we must have crossed back through the saddle but every time I looked at the compass it seemed to be pointing a different direction and by now I was totally disoriented. I'm not even sure what we did next but a little while later I realised the compass was steady and we were on a uniform slope facing S. Heading due E from here took us straight to the control which was a huge relief. From here I insisted on heading straight S to the track for a much needed physical and mental break.

Next few were fine reaching 61k by our original measurement at midnight just before control 64 leaving 50k to cover in the second half which still seemed doable until number 71 which was very reminiscent of 72. We came into what we thought was the right gully and turned to follow it up to the control but it seemed to peter out so we thought we must have come in too high. I tried to turn around and follow it back down but couldn't even make out what we had followed up so tried to use the compass instead but that was pointing about 90 degrees off where I thought it should be. I didn't really trust the compass after 72 but I couldn't see anything else to go on. Very much like 72, after a bit of disoriented wandering I decided we were on a uniform S facing slope which was probably due W of the control. Back along the slope, over the spur and down to the control which looked very familiar. I suspect we went within about 20m of it on the first pass.

The next couple of hours through to the water at 53 went pretty smoothly with Steve leading a lot of it but then we hit some really nasty vegetation heading up to 83 and back across the valley to 94. We were still on target to finish the course when dawn broke as we got into the more open country heading across from 55 to 77 but we were worried that it might get thick again when we got back into the steeper country so we started pushing the pace a bit more. I had a better section here feeling good running the downhills and determined uphill through to the end of the steeper section at 42.

From 42 it was pretty clear that we should make it barring navigational disaster but I think the consequent drop in intensity allowed me to feel all the aches and pains a bit more in the last couple of hours. We did make one last mistake at 86 with me reverting to orienteering scale yet again but we probably only lost a couple of minutes as a relocation bearing off the top of the hill was confirmed by another team coming up from the control. The final leg through parrot bush seemed to drag on forever but eventually the welcome site of the hash house came into view and we finished feeling very satisfied with our effort.

C • scary 6

Event: WARA 24hr Spring Rogaine (State Champs)
 

WA Champs 24hr Rogaine with Steve.

I was only in the last week leading up to this event that I started to realise just how unprepared I was. About a week before the event I had tried to get a bit of food that I might want to take on the rogaine but I didn't really know what I needed. I tried to research it a bit but didn't really come to any conclusions or go shopping again so was left with my box of muesli bars, the half a pack of fun-size snickers that I hadn't already eaten and a couple of left over gels that Rachel had. I had a couple of small packs of chips as well but wasn't sure if I should take them. When I saw Steve had some chips, I decided I could fit mine in too and also crammed in a couple more gels, muesli bars and mars bars that Steve had spare. For drinks I nearly filled my 1.5L bladder with water and had a 600ml bottle of powerade in one of my front pockets.

I wasn't sure what to wear either but eventually settled on a running t-shirt, long Aussie team O-pants, compression socks and Puma trail shoes with a long sleeve running top, waterproof running vest, tights, raincoat, beanie and gloves as warm gear for the pack. Still wasn't sure this was enough but when I added my main headlamp and smaller spare headlamp and torch to my pack it was starting to feel a bit overloaded so that settled it.

My only experience of planning a competitive 24hr was 11 years ago with Andy where I think we did a bit more than 100km with an hour and a bit to spare. That rogaine was almost all farmland so I tried to research what might be required in the bush and was disturbed to find Wil and Mark had done 116km straight line last year. I hoped that had a bit of farmland in it but didn't try to check just in case it didn't. Based on this I made up a string to measure 120km and made sure I measured it fully stretched to make sure I wasn't over ambitious.

When we got the maps the obvious starting point was to measure the full course and then work out where to go from there. I was really hoping it was going to be realistic to at least attempt to get them all because it would take away the whole problem of trying to assess what we were capable of. We tried to plan a route leaving as many low point controls near the hash house as possible to the end to be able to put off any decisions about dropping controls as long as possible.

Our first measure came out at about 113km and we got that down to 111km with a couple of little tweaks. This still seemed a little optimistic given reports of significant thicker sections but we hadn't pulled the string tight and others were saying you could do it in 103km so I remeasured a 10k segment and came up with 9.5km so maybe our route was nearer 105km straight line. Still seemed ambitious but close enough that we felt we had to attempt it at least until it was obvious we couldn't do it. Remeasuring our route after the event I came up with 103km straight line so I think our route choice was ok.

Short loop in KP after work. Ivan still injured so went home first. Thought about doing some intervals but my legs felt a bit tired so I just did a couple of short surges when I felt like it.