Training Log Archive: Anvil

Although the results list may say otherwise, I was orienteering the best of the week today. Generally was reading the map well in the fine detail, picking good routes and spiking the controls. Unfortunately the 80/20 rule also applied today, in that 20% of the legs account for 80% of my overall time. Average of 10 mins lost on 2, 8, 20 and 27 simply by losing concentration in the circle - on all of them I was within 20m of the control and just doing something stupid. Also got stuck and disoriented in the green amongst some pretty massive cliffs - wasn't checking my compass enough on the longer legs and dodging the obvious slow areas.
Not really a fan of the 1:5000 scale maps. Each individual shrub was mapped as a thicket, any slightly out of place tree as a green circle and not a boulder group in sight - don't think it was necessary for courses of this length, it was tough to see the big picture on the longer legs.

1:5000 scale + 10km course = 2m of red line to follow!
A race of thirds. Apart from bollocksing up the first control was OK in the first third - really ejoyed this part, lots of parallell high cliffs to run between in the darkness.
The next third I just totally lost concentration, after catching a pack at 11 and dropping them at 13 I think I lost 2-3 mins on every control until 18. Just stopped reading the map properly and had no plan. Admittedly was struggling with the really low scale and negative contour features - was searching 20m away from a boulder on a spur at 14 whn it was simply in the gully below.
Was caught by another pack at 18 and decided to stay with them as long as I could stay in contact with the map. These guys were moving - although I was able to read the map and pick features off there was no way I could plan and navigate correctly in such complex terrain at that speed at the moment. Very educational though.

C • Map 3

Rest Day. Kayaking down the gorge just outside of Millau. Much splashing to be had and I found a good rock to jump off right at the end. It was brought up why we are spending all out days running in the plateau in the heat when there are opprotunities like these at our doorstep.

Wow again. Mass start race. At first I was a little suspect of this - felt like a bit of a waste of this terrain to have a mass start race which was just going to be a cross country race - no gaffling or butterflies .
But I loved it. Men and women elites started with a km run to the start through the assembly area with Iron Maiden blaring on the speakers (which was actually awesome) and a lot of puching and shoving through the vegetation until we got to the top of the hill and the start).
We had a long first leg, about 3km. No stranger to this with all those years of Sledge, but when Tierry G. is leading the pack I was even gonna bother looking at the map (and very few other were by the look of it). I loved this first leg, we eventually formed a long line through the terrain and the downhill sections looked really good from the middle with the line snaking through the rocks and vegetation and the sun rising behind us (start was at 7:15am). Didn't really have any chance to change your position here so I just sat back and enjoyed the ride!
Was enjoying the first leg so much I was surprised when I saw the control! The next 5 were more of the same, I was picking a few people off through here until 7, where apparantly the front runner made a mistake (and I'm told everyone just waited for him to relocate!), so the entire line followed suit. The line finally broke here and I was in a pack of about 6 that formed here until 9 where we went slightly south of the line. Luckily I was reading the map at this point and relocated and found myself alone for the first time, though through a few shortish legs I'd caught up to 2 lads in yellow and black and one other.
Broke away from them at #17, only to fudge #18 and have them catch up and Ed C. appeared out of nowhere as well. The pack of 5 of us headed through the spectator leg and headed up to the final loop. Somehow our pack doubled in size along here somewhere and I'm not sure if they caught us or vice versa. I was feeling pretty good and pushed up the hill out of and three of us broke away and we collected the pack in front at #25. We overran #27 on a downhill and as I was one of the front runners I was at the back of the pack on the 2nd last leg. I caught back 2 of the runners on the 2nd last control by taking a sneaky short cut but was unable to reel anyone in on the run in.
Was pretty happy with the time given the previous days form, but it raises more questions - this race felt so easy, I wasn't even tired at the end compared to the other days where I've struggled on the walk to the car. Am I that poor with my routes that I run a lot further than I should? Also kind of annoyed I was so conservative at the start - if I'd positioned myself better I could have ended up in a faster pack and possibly qualified for the Ultrasprint (I was only 3 mins off). Still, at least a better experience than the previous day!

My first Ultrasprint. Interesting, kind of felt like a training run than an actual event. I like the idea in theory and plan on organising one when I get back to Oz, but I think the ones in parkland would be more enjoyable. Had 4 penalites, one more and I would have been DQ!

Wow. Will start with the negatives. Was having a similar run to the day before which was OK considering the complexity of the terrain and the fact I had to run straight through the pre start to pick up my map as the clock chimed go (spiked the first control as well!). Then with less than 1k to go I had the biggest brain fade I've ever experienced. Got #25, spiked #26 then instead of going over the hill to #27 I decided I was at #25 and made a route along the contour like I was going to #26. Made it fit for a while, and when I eventually realised where I was I thought I must have missed #25 and gone from from #24 to #26 so made my way to #25. As I run into the circle at #25 it all seems too familiar and realisation fits as I punch and see the code, 99 - kind of an easy one to remember. Decide to go back to #26 to make sure I don't screw up the punching order (I've got no idea what's going on by this point) and slowly finish off the course.
The question I ask is, why am I suddenly making these huge mistakes this week. Can't say it's unfamiliar terrain, been doing that for a year now. Can't blame the heat as I started before 9am. Maybe it is the competition, but I'm under no preconceptions as to my ability compared to some of the blokes I'm running against. I dunno, it's a little frustrating to say the least.
Having said all that, the terrain today was epic - one of the best I've ever run on. Very similar to the pagodos, the first 2/3rd of the course was like a rock village with a massive jumble of rock mazed and a lot of negative features due to the limestone. They were flying a helicopter over the terrain as I was running through early in the course - hopefully they were filming it cause a video of all the orienteers running amongst the rock will be awesome.

Much better day, managed to avoid any of the big mistakes that plagued be the day before but still had seven 2-3min plus mistakes which adds up.
Enjoyed the terrain a lot more today, a lot less green and gentler contours. Did start an hour later than the day before and although I consciously didn't notice it, I think the heat got to me as I was exhausted at the end - I shouldn't be feeling that tired at the end of a 10k race considering the hours I've put in recently.

Oh dear, this is gonna be a tough week. For the Aussies, imagine Broken Hill, Ngaralta Country or even a good old Launnie Paddock map covered in the Pagados!
Had 2 massive mistakes 18 mins on 12 and 10 mins on 20. Surprised I wasn't well at the bottom of the results. If I don't have massive mistakes like that for the rest of the week I imagine I should pull myself up the results table.
Made quite a few smaler mistakes on a lot of the controls, but that doesn't worry me as much. Very sloppy on the final control picking loop, although I didn't consciously notice the heat I think I was fairly dehydrated by this point. Have decided to not take any risks and have picked up a camelback for the rest of the week.