Training Log Archive: Garry

Not well motivated after yesterday. Decided to hold back a bit and see how the legs felt - definitely struggling up the hill towards #18. Pretty much spot on through #4, but then had a horrible #5, made worse by seeing Nic arrive on the scene. Tried to sneak away after finding it, but Nicholas de Klerk saw me & Nic soon followed. Took the left route at the path split to #6, which proved to ruin my race. Got badly thrown by the appearance of large unmapped paths/ vehicle tracks in the vicinity of #6. Caused a major relocation - hugely frustrating as I only confirmed that I was exactly where I thought I was! Motivation was helped on leaving #8 when Ake caught me. Had a great duel with him for the rest of the course. He pulled away a bit on the bottom path to #18, but I cut the corner sooner than him and jumped ahead. He passed me up the hill and we both made a monumental error going to #18. My mistake was losing map contact, as I aimed to stay enough in contact with Ake to let him lead me into the control!!!! A few lessons to learn here!

1 - Splits

Event: Gauteng Orienteering Championships
 

Event: SA Sprint Champs
 

The Horror, the horror!!! I had a good start, taking the left route to 1. Not far of the top split. Legs were pretty broken after that. I then had a painful #2 - I must have been within 2m of the bloody thing, but didn't see it. After a grid search I found it - very frustrating. Contrived to make a 90deg error to #3 - still not too sure how that happened. Possibly I was trying too hard after the frustration of #2. By then my race was over! My motivation plummeted as the event was just a slog with needless climb reducing it from a technical to a physical challenge. Not fun & quite demotivating.

Quite stressful being the organiser, worrying about the timing and preparing for a good run. At the end I was happy with my run, but felt a bit slow. The course was a good mixture of longer, hard-running legs and shorter, slower, high-concentration through the buildings legs. The controls I got wrong were #3 - ending up below the uncrossable wall, then having to go around, #9 - not reading the map well enough, so I was hesitant and #16 - leaving #15 I got myself a little trapped by the vegetation forcing me to take a longer way round.

3 - Splits

1 - Splits

10min on the rowing machine, a bit easier than before. then some weights and stretches to ensure all Ok before the weekend's O events. Left calf has not been too happy after the training camp. So decided to rest for the week.