Training Log Archive: GM

Day 5 of Ultimax Stingers 5 Days. Reverse order (best last) start at Macquarie Woods. I started third last in Mens C with only Ted van Geldermalsen and Hugh Moore starting after me. Ran reasonably well for the first half, with no navigation mistakes. But the relatively simple spur gully terrain meant it was a good day for the faster lads with no hard navigation to slow them down. Ted passed me at control 5 and Hugh at 8. I seemed to have been very consistent - all of my legs were between 5th fastest and 9th fastest ie. nothing spectacular, but nothing that was crap. I ended up 7th on the day and kept 3rd place overall.

Robert had his best run of the 5 Days finishing 3rd today behind Ted and Hugh in Mens C. He thought he was in for a prize (because Ted and Hugh had already picked up a prize in the first four days), but they only handed out prizes to the overall winners today, so he dipped out. But he did draw closer for a final tally of Grant 3 : Robert 2. This will probably be the last time I can beat him, but you never know.

The cold, pelting rain that came through as I jogged to the start was such a nice change from the hot dry weather. It really made you feel good to be alive. Luckily there wasn't any large bare rocks to negotiate today or I would have been slipping and sliding everywhere.

The course was good - a nice mix between open land, the open pines, and a small section of dense young pines that required good contact right into the control. They even found a bit of granite to run us through.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 5 Days - Nick, Hillary and all the Stingers did a fantastic job! Thanks.

The only down side of the whole 5 days was having our esky pinched one night at the high school campsite by the bogans in Orange. At least all they got from us was a crappy 30 year old plastic esky with some milk, yoghurt, cheese and lettuce.

Warm up, in the cold rain.

Day 4 of Ultimax Stingers 5 Days. A slightly longer course at Gumble Creek, with some longer legs through the less complex terrain. Finished 3rd in Mens C, about 3 minutes behind Nick Wilmott, and 1.5 minutes behind Hugh Moore in 2nd. Robert had a disaster on one leg near the end, lost about 20 minutes, which means the score is Grant 3 : Robert 1.

I had a very clean run for the first 9 controls but saw Russell Blatchford coming into 9 from a funny direction as I was leaving the control, and I started thinking 'Oh, there's Russell, why is he coming that way', and 'Hey, I'm having a good run', etc. rather than keeping on concentrating. Which meant I stuffed up the next two controls and lost about 2 minutes. The only good thing was that I didn't lose any places because of it.

I was also pleased with my navigation into 9. This was the same control (number 12) I stuffed up yesterday, but today I actually followed my plan from yesterday (the one I didn't follow), and it worked. You don't get many chances to have another go.

Day 3 of Ultimax Stingers 5 Days. A middle distance race at Gumble Creek. What a fantastic area. A couple of silly mistakes on 2 and 12 through not concentrating because I was noticing the orienteers around me! Lost about 4.5 minutes on these two controls. Best leg was 4 to 5 where I had a good plan and pictured the control site in my mind well. Also pleased with route choice to 11 keeping to the left through the flatter areas and then an easy run along the spur that the control was on. Just need to be a bit fitter and stronger.

6th place was OK, but 10 minutes behind Hugh Moore wasn't. Hugh said he just took it easy and didn't make any mistakes - which goes to show how much time you can waste through sloppy navigation. A poor run for Rob means the score is now Grant 2 : Robert 1.

Day 2 of Ultimax Stingers 5 Days. Back to Kahli's Rocks for a mass start race. Again started well, and was leading at the 2nd control (mainly because Ben Radstaak tried to put his SI stick in the hole, missed it completely, and bounced off the unit, which gave me a chance to sneak in with a 1 second lead. Decided to stop running so fast, because I knew I couldn't keep it up. Went through the 4th control behind a small group and they seemed to head off down to the fence for the slightly longer but simpler route choice. I thought I could go a bit straighter, but didn't drop enough. Thought I was going OK reading the big features, but suddenly came out onto some huge, steep rock faces about 300m south of the control. By the time I worked out where I was, then missed the control on the way through, bounced off the fence and came back up, I had lost about 8 or 9 minutes. Also lost a lot of enthusiasm at this point. A bit of time lost on the short leg to 7 by not being more definite with my direction (I am always telling the kids you can only loose time on short legs, and here I was proving it).

As I left my control 11 the guys on the Mens A course were racing towards it on mass - it was their first control on a 1km leg after the mass start. Not quite Jukola, but quite an impressive site for an Australian event.

I struggled through the rest of the course to come in in 21st place, 15 minutes behind the winner Ted van G. Robert had a really good run for 4th place, and only 3 minutes behind. So the score is now Grant 1 : Robert 1.

Ultimax Stingers 5 Days - day 1 at Kahli's Rocks. Robert and I had both entered Men C, so it was going to be interesting to see how we compared over the 5 days.

Started well and was first after the controls 1 and 2, then things started to go downhill - both literally and figuratively. I stuffed the third control, loosing about 3 minutes. I wasn't reading the size fo the boulder clusters well, and also didn't have a good attack pint on 3. Tried to use the big rock before the control but wasn't accurate enough approaching the control circle. I was a bit sloppy on 6, 9 and 10 but the rest were good. The middle part of the course went through the steeper, thicker, rockier slopes which suits me. It seems to slow the faster runners down.

I ended up in 3rd place about 4 minutes behind Hugh Moore, and 2.5 minutes down on Ted van Geldermalsen. Robert came in 6th about 5 minutes behind me - so the score is Grant 1 : Robert 0.

Spent most of the day getting camping gear and food ready to go away tomorrow.

Start of a new year, so definitely wanted to go for a run. Heather and I left Mary and Robert at home doing a jigsaw puzzle, and went over to The Pinnacle at Hawker. We both felt tired in the legs, but picked the pace up towards the end, especially since it is only two days till the Ultimax 5 Days.