Training Log Archive: GraceE

And the sore back continues...

Australian Relay Champs on yesterday's map, "The Gib".
Running in a Tassie team with Sarah and Hanny. I set off on 1st leg and went left then over the hill on the long leg to c1. This was mostly good except I came at the control from above and had to scramble down through some steep and rocky terrain. While doing this scramble, I saw Lizzie below run through and punch the control. I should have contoured into the control at the end of the leg. Heading to c2 I thought I would go high and run bits of terrain I remembered from yesterday. This worked well early on but I didn't realise how much I needed to drop at the end, miss-counting the clumps of rock and stopping at a rock outcrop nearly 80m(!) too early. Lizzie ran past... she must have just dropped 45secs somewhere, but I just stood on my rock outcrop for another 45secs scratching my head before deciding to run on. Interestingly Lizzie and I took about the same time on that leg but both losing time at different places and never running together. With c3 I came at the feature from the wrong side and c4 I climbed into it an unnecessarily labourious way. I stayed high on the long leg back across the hill to c6, but dropping down the ridge at the end felt like a slow way into the control. The last part of the course was quite good, but again on c9 I wasted time getting to the flag from the wrong side of the feature. Handed over to Sarah three minutes behind Lizzie. Sarah ran a respectable time, especially for someone who didn't have a run on the map yesterday, and handed over to Hanny in 3rd place. Hanny ran a very quick time and narrowed the gap to the leading two teams, crossing the line in 3rd. It was the Tassie Senior Womens first relay placing since 2005! (I think). Tasmania did very well in the other relay categories which was great to see.
And... it was really fun to have some technical relay courses - they were well set and I enjoyed the challenge of the long first control.

A bit of warming up/down. Afterwards, I went out to collect some controls (65min) but a lot of that time was spent packing up drinks controls.

Event: Australian Middle Distance/Relay Championships
 

Australian Middle Distance Champs, Gibraltar Hill, just past Bungendore.
I was really pumped up for this race as well given that it is my favourite kind of terrain (detailed granite with fast running and good visibility in between), and the course was sure to be well-set and challenging.
I started well with good concentration and focused map-reading. I managed to keep this up all the way around the course, flowing smoothly through the controls and always seeming to come upon the flag from the right side of the feature. Nearing the end, I hesitated in to c16, thinking the control was right of me but it was actually left. However surprisingly I was just 10secs slower than the fastest split for this leg. On my way down the hill to c17 I nearly trod on a brown snake with its head right by my ankle and this caused me to dart down the hill without looking at the map, drifting wide to the left and having to climb a contour back to the control (18secs down on that leg). Then there were just a couple of paddock controls to finish with. Really pleased to do some good orienteering and retain one of the National titles I won last year :)

C • Huge congrats! 3

Loosener on Red Hill ridge. Nice evening.

OK, so the seven or so hours I spent behind the wheel two weekends ago (Tumut w/e) was apparently too much for my back to handle, and it tightened up last Sunday/Monday. I took it really carefully last week but it didn't get better, and now it's still the same. I guess the racing and standing around this weekend also didn't help.