Training Log Archive: fletch

Event: Marginata (Australian Middle Distance Champs)
 

Not quite enough.

Bigger problem was not cooling down after yesterday's run though. Got distracted watching the race unfold, then family duties. REally struggled to get going again today, though achilles were a little better than expected.

Brain wasn't switched on today, and body wasn't either. Really struggled up the hill to 1. Hit it dead on and was really pleased with the way I kept my head up and had a good look at things on the way there, but it felt a long way away. Up and over the hill to 2, but I stopped way short coming down the spur, and then when I figured that out, was still scrappy. Despite my significant misadventure, caught tRicky here and got ahead of him through 3-4-5 which I hit fine. Had a plan to go high for 6, then decided I didn't have the legs to climb straight out of the control so decided to go straighter without any real plan. For the first time in 6 races. No plan at all. Result - halfway to the control, no clue where I was. Ended up deciding a tiny little ridge that I struggled up was the major spur on the whole map, and looked foir 6 on the wrong side of the ridgeline. Wandered around clueless for a while, then figured out the ridge and headed over the top. Still didn't know where I was, stumbled into #14 and gave up. Wandered over to #15 and decided it wasn't worth running through the last few controls when I had skipped out 8 or 9 in the middle. Jogged home for an afternoon of family time...

or not.

Got nabbed at the finish by my friend for the arvo from ASADA and spent the next few hours waiting and waiting, peeing into a bottle. Doing it wrong (see comments), waiting some more while the family went home, peeing again (still wrong) and getting a lift home with my Dad after everyone else had packed up and left.

Strangely though, despite today's disaster and the afternoon debacle, I actually feel motivated to improve at bush orienteering again, as opposed to after the last day of Easter, when I felt ready to chuck it all in.

I guess I've reinforced from yesterday that I can still improve lots (and get pretty competitive) without having to train (physically) more. Just have to continue refining the nav technique, which is starting to head in the right direction.

Whether I can ever get the family to another event... that remains to be seen.

Event: NavDash 5 - Mandurah (Australian Sprint Championships)
 

Good warm-up. Got nice and loose, felt better than expecteds after not initially feeling flash after last nights little trundle. Had a little chat to an old bloke to tell him what was happening, then my plannede casual saunter and mental prep went out the window a bit as I realise how close to my start it had gotten. Got to the pre-start with about 90 seconds to spare.

I'm sure Simmo said something about the length of the descriptions. After destroying my long description holder with about 3 controls to go at Easter, I too kmy old short one for this race. It wasn't long enough, and I lost the descriptions for the last 4 or 5 controls. Didn;t end up costing me too much though...

No cool down. Pretty stupid in terms of tomorrow's race, but didn't really care.

Probably the only person in the field who didn't have someone to chase, with Andy on commentary rather than running. Started hard and aimed left of the control. Surprised to hit it dead on, even more surprised when I read the code and realised that mine was the control 30m further along the bank. Lost a touch more time at #2 when I assumed we weren't allowed in the garden and ran to the end of the wall to find a surprising lack of control. Probably a good thing that I didn't know how far off the pace I already was. Apparently was a bit slow on the short direction change to 3 as well, but smooth through 4,5,6. Surprised to see the long leg to 7, but saw a route that looked alright straight up and just decided to hammer it. NW, across the bridge and the middle island etc. 8 and 9 OK also.
Intended to angle across the big vacant block to 10, but it looked sandy and there was a fence on the far side and I couldn't handle disrupting my running rhythm, so went around.
Went NE out of 10 and around to 11. 12 and 13 straight forward. Was a little hesitant checking the placement of 14 and getting down to it, then picked a poor route to 15. Went up, then straight over the bridge and then SE. Thought I had picked a shortcut up a staircasse and through the hotel, but couldn't see it as I approached, so bailed rather than risking it and went around the foreshore. 16-19 were clean. A bit hesitant to 20. Didn't see the gap in the veg and went zig zag, then left. 21, 22 OK. Very hesitant through 23 and 24, but ended up in the right place without any major errors. Left 24 in the wrong direction for a few steps before correcting. 25-26 probably not a great route. Smooth into the last one, but I wasn't convinced it was mine, and my description holder was too short to display all the descriptions, so unfolded my map to double check before bolting up the shoot.

Splits would suggest that if absolutely perfect I could have run in the low 18's. Best legs are the long ones, where reading detail in the circle is less important, so I guess there's still room for improvement, but I'm pretty happy with that effort.

Would have been equal 9th in juniors, but they don't count, so nabbed a 7th place. Best result in an individual Oz Champs race ever, even as a junior...

C • Well done 2

Course 1 - Splits

Wanted to do a gentle loosener of a jog today, but given how much it has hurt (left achilles) trying to walk all day, I gave it a miss. Kind of like the first couple of steps in the morning, but didn't improve all day :(

After 6 nurofen a day since Tuesday last week, finally went without them today. Back is still sore, but not affecting running (or sleeping too much) and I'm not convinced that the nurofen are making much difference anyway.

Both achilles are sore. Left worse than right for the first time in ages. Stiff and a little sore when I wake up, take 5-10 minutes of warm-up to loosen up. Are then OK while I race, but sore again within 10-15 minutes of finishing. So... what can I do to get them to slowly improve rather than slowly worsen without taking an extended break from running?

C • eccentric loading. 3

Post-Easter thoughts...

I have done enough navigation and map reading work recently to start to feel in control on courses for the first time in ages. There were large portions of every day where I was running confidently and expecting controls to be exactly where I was headed rather than just running and hoping.
The downside is that I seem to need to slow down too much relative to other people to maintain this level of control.
Prologue I started TOO conservatively, but was happy to make it through without destroying my entire weekend.
Day 1 Felt really good except for #14. Looking at the map since I must hav eeither lost focus because I saw how close to the finish I was, or because I was starting to fatigue, because it was a really silly error.
Day 2 I was generally happy with. Annoyed with my vagueness at the critical time on the way to 13 and not quite as clean as Day 1. Disappointed that my improved running training this year doesn't seem to have translated as well as I hoped to terrain fitness. Struggled much more than I was expecting to in the second half of the course. Could well have been my longest O race in 8 years, which may have had something to do with it. That's gonna be a hard one to fix without investing a lot more time into terrain or at least steep hill training. Not sure I have the extra time available to do this. If I decide I don't, then I suspect my elite comeback will end next Sunday. Prior to this year I have run less than 40 hours of orienteering (including a chunk of metrO in 4 years. And probably less in the 3 years preceding that). Funny how that's not enough :(
Day 3 - Didn't read the warning signs into 7. Had been pushing hard and had an uphill paddock run into the fallen rubbish. Wasn't careful enough / didn't adjust technique enough. Silly.
Probably marginally better than my Easter effort in 1998 (the terrain there was much more to my liking - navigating in rock detail is not my forte) and a vast improvement on 2003. Also much better than any of my attempts as a junior, so overall a positive weekend.
Very soon it will be decision time as to whether I wasnt to put the time and effort in to get up with the rest of the elit 'pack' or whether I decide that was enough nad pull the pin...

Had grave doubts about my ability to handle this course when the warm-up felt awfully hard slowly jogging up a slight incline. Felt a bit better after run-thrus and had nothing to lose being about 3 minutes behind a pack, so decided to be a little more aggressive today anyway and see what happened.
The first 2 controls were really rough, with fallen timber everywhere. I picked a nice line wide left on the second, but missed the control and had to run back up the hill to it. Pretty clean through to 6 and tried to push the pace a little in the paddock legs today. Picked up Graham as we left 6 (4 minutes), but as we crossed into the fallen crappy bush heading in to 7, Grant came flying past with Bruce and Evan in tow. Not surprisingly, he was well over 2 minutes ahead of me... and was about to go much further so.
I struggled to hold a line in all the fallen timber, and drifted left. Mis-identified a small knoll as the more significant one further south, and ran vaguely from the wrong spot to a wrong spot further away where I hit a group of massive rocks, checked a couple, then figured I had better work out where I was as Wil helpfully told me I was between 8 and 9. Crap. Still not clean getting back to the control from there. Lost a couple more minutes getting pushed way left on the way to 8 and correcting poorly. By the time I had crawled my way through the fallen timber to 9 and 10 just a little sketchily and made it out to the fenceline for a long paddock run, I was pretty much over it.
Amazingly caught sight of Graham again in the second half of the fence run, but lost 30 seconds or so at 11 when I didn't check my direction properly on top of the knoll. Felt like I did most of the course fairly well from there, but the damage was done.
I suspect that the splits will confirm that I wouldn't have gotten very far even with a clean run today. Legs just didn't have it.

C1 Day 4 - Splits